bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Including the Nordic hamstring exercise in injury prevention programmes halves the rate of hamstring injuries: a systematic review and meta-analysis of 8459 athletes
Authors: van Dyk Nicol , Behan Fearghal P , Whiteley Rod
Published: February 2019

Research question

Does the Nordic hamstring exercise (NHE) prevent hamstring injuries when included as part of an injury prevention intervention?

Design

Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Eligibility criteria for selecting studies

We considered the population to be any athletes participating in any sporting activity, the intervention to be the NHE, the comparison to be usual training or other prevention programmes, which did not include the NHE, and the outcome to be the incidence or rate of hamstring injuries.

Analysis

The effect of including the NHE in injury prevention programmes compared with controls on hamstring injuries was assessed in 15 studies that reported the incidence across different sports and age groups in both women and men.

Data sources

MEDLINE via PubMed, CINAHL via Ebsco, and OpenGrey.

Results

There is a reduction in the overall injury risk ratio of 0.49 (95% CI 0.32 to 0.74, p=0.0008) in favour of programmes including the NHE. Secondary analyses when pooling the eight randomised control studies demonstrated a small increase in the overall injury risk ratio 0.52 (95% CI 0.32 to 0.85, p=0.0008), still in favour of the NHE. Additionally, when studies with a high risk of bias were removed (n=8), there is an increase of 0.06 in the risk ratio to 0.55 (95% CI 0.34 to 0.89, p=0.006).

Conclusions

Programmes that include the NHE reduce hamstring injuries by up to 51%. The NHE essentially halves the rate of hamstring injuries across multiple sports in different athletes.

Trial registration number

PROSPERO CRD42018106150.
Combined education and patient-led goal setting intervention reduced chronic low back pain disability and intensity at 12 months: a randomised controlled trial
Authors: Gardner Tania , Refshauge Kathryn , McAuley James , Hübscher Markus , Goodall Stephen , Smith Lorraine
Published: February 2019

Background

One model of care that has not been tested for chronic low back pain (LBP) is patient-led goal setting. We aimed to compare the clinical effectiveness and healthcare use of a patient-led goal setting approach (intervention) with simple advice to exercise (control) over 12 months.

Methods

An assessor-blinded randomised controlled trial. Intervention was education combined with patient-led goal setting compared with a control group receiving a standardised exercise programme. The primary outcomes were back pain disability and pain intensity. Secondary outcomes were quality of life, kinesiophobia, self-efficacy, depression, anxiety and stress. Outcomes and healthcare use were assessed immediately post-treatment (2 months) and after 4 and 12 months. Analysis was by intention to treat.

Results

Seventy-five patients were randomly assigned to either the intervention (n=37) or the control (n=38) group. Using linear mixed model analyses, adjusted mean changes in primary outcomes of disability and pain intensity were greater in the intervention group than in the control group (disability post-treatment: p<0.05). These differences were clinically meaningful. Mean differences in all secondary measures were greater in the intervention group than in the control group (p<0.05). There was no difference in healthcare use between groups over 12 months.

Conclusion

A patient-led goal setting intervention was significantly more effective than advice to exercise for improving outcomes in disability, pain intensity, quality of life, self-efficacy and kinesiophobia in chronic LBP. These improvements were maintained at 12 months. Smaller effects were seen in measures of depression, anxiety and stress.

Trial registration number

ACTRN12614000830695.
Resilience in inpatient palliative care nursing: a qualitative systematic review
Authors: Powell Martin J , Froggatt Katherine , Giga Sabir
Published: February 2019

Background

Nurses in inpatient palliative care are frequently exposed to death and dying in addition to common stressors found in other nursing practice. Resilience may mitigate against stress but remains ill-defined and under-researched in the specialist palliative care setting.

Objective

The aim of this systematic review was to understand resilience from the perspectives of inpatient palliative care nurses.

Design

A thematic synthesis of qualitative studies was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines.

Data sources

Academic Search Ultimate, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Medline Complete, PsycINFO and Scopus.

Review methods

The review stages were searching for relevant literature, selecting relevant papers, data extraction, critical appraisal and thematic synthesis.

Results

Eight studies revealed 10 subthemes, 3 descriptive themes and 1 analytical theme: resilience occurs when nurses incorporate stressful aspects of their personal or professional lives into a coherent narrative that enhances their ability to cope with the demands of their role.

Conclusion

Palliative care nursing is more stressful if patients or situations remind nurses of personal experiences. Nurses cope better with adequate support; however, coping does not necessarily imply increased resilience. Resilience occurs when nurses cognitively process their experiences, articulate their thoughts and feelings into a coherent narrative, and construct a sense of meaning or purpose. Future research could explore how nurses understand resilience and how it could be enhanced in the palliative care inpatient setting. With resilience, nurses may remain in the profession longer and improve the quality of care when they do.
Long work hours, weekend working and depressive symptoms in men and women: findings from a UK population-based study
Authors: Weston Gillian , Zilanawala Afshin , Webb Elizabeth , Carvalho Livia A , McMunn Anne
Published: February 2019

Background

Globalised and 24/7 business operations have fuelled demands for people to work long hours and weekends. Research on the mental health effects of these intensive temporal work patterns is sparse, contradictory or has not considered gender differences. Our objective was to examine the relationship between these work patterns and depressive symptoms in a large nationally representative sample of working men and women in the UK.

Method

The current study analysed data from Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study, of 11 215 men and 12 188 women in employment or self-employment at the time of the study. Ordinary least squares regression models, adjusted for potential confounders and psychosocial work factors, were used to estimate depressive symptoms across categories of work hours and weekend work patterns.

Results

Relative to a standard 35–40 hours/week, working 55 hours/week or more related to more depressive symptoms among women (ß=0.75, 95% CI 0.12 to 1.39), but not for men (ß=0.24, 95% CI −0.10 to 0.58). Compared with not working weekends, working most or all weekends related to more depressive symptoms for both men (ß=0.34, 95% CI 0.08 to 0.61) and women (ß=0.50, 95% CI 0.20 to 0.79); however, working some weekends only related to more depressive symptoms for men (ß=0.33, 95% CI 0.11 to 0.55), not women (ß=0.17, 95% CI −0.09 to 0.42).

Conclusion

Increased depressive symptoms were independently linked to working extra-long hours for women, whereas increased depressive symptoms were associated with working weekends for both genders, suggesting these work patterns may contribute to worse mental health.
Novel regulatory roles of carboxylesterase 3 in lipid metabolism and browning in 3T3-L1 white adipocytes
Authors: Mukherjee Sulagna , Choi Minji , Yun Jong Won
Published: February 2019

The role of carboxylesterase 3 (Ces3) in the lipolysis of adipocytes has been overlooked, as 2 major lipolytic enzymes, hormone-sensitive lipase and adipose triglyceride lipase, play more powerful roles in lipolysis. In this study, we explored the effects of Ces3 in lipid metabolism by activating and inhibiting, as well as silencing, Ces3-encoding gene in 3T3-L1 cell model. Our results demonstrated that activation of Ces3 increased adipogenesis, and attenuated lipogenesis, whereas it promoted lipolysis and fatty acid oxidation. In addition, activated Ces3 led to enhanced expression of core fat browning marker genes and proteins, suggesting that Ces3 may play a pivotal role in fat browning and thermogenesis. In contrast, deficiency of Ces3 nullified the browning effect in white adipocytes, along with decreased adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Interestingly, the expression pattern of adipose triglyceride lipase was in line with Ces3, whereas hormone-sensitive lipase was independently regulated irrespective of Ces3 expression levels, suggesting that Ces3 may play an important and compensatory role in the breakdown of triglycerides in white adipocytes. In conclusion, we provide the first evidence that activation of Ces3 contributes in the browning of white adipocytes, and maintains a balance in lipid metabolism, which could be a potential strategy in fighting against obesity.
Effect of a quality-improving cod end on size selectivity and catch patterns of cod in bottom trawl fishery
Authors: Brinkhof Jesse , Herrmann Bent , Larsen Roger B. , Veiga-Malta Tiago
Published: February 2019

A new cod-end concept developed and tested exhibited significantly improved quality of caught cod (Gadus morhua) compared with that of the conventional cod end used in the Barents Sea bottom trawl fishery. However, the design of the new quality-improving cod end raised concerns about its size selectivity and the possibility that higher retention probability could negatively impact the catch pattern by increasing the proportion of undersized cod. Therefore, the goal of this study was to quantify and compare the size selectivity and catch pattern for cod when deploying, respectively, the conventional and new quality-improving cod end in the Barents Sea bottom trawl fishery. The new quality-improving cod end had significantly lower relative size selectivity than the conventional cod end, but no significant difference in the catch patterns was detected in the trawl. Further, estimation of the total size selectivity in the trawl revealed that the increased retention of small cod when using the quality-improving cod end was minor. Hence, despite the reduced selectivity, the quality-improving cod end can be used with low risk of retaining small cod.
Genome-wide identification and analysis of the aldehyde dehydrogenase gene superfamily in Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa subsp. pekinensis)
Authors: Jiang Xin , Ren Jie , Ye Xueling , Liu Mingfeng , Li Qingqing , Wang Lin , Liu Zhiyong
Published: February 2019

Aldehyde dehydrogenases (ALDHs) encode a class of enzymes that dehydrooxidize aldehydes into corresponding carboxylic acids, which are involved in the growth and development of plants and in the response to various biological and abiotic stresses. In this study, we identified 27 ALDH genes in the Chinese cabbage genome and grouped them into 10 different families. Chromosomal mapping revealed that, except for one gene distributed on Scaffold, the remaining 26 genes were unevenly distributed on 10 chromosomes of Chinese cabbage. Based on a comparison of the homologous relationship between BrALDHs and ALDH genes in Arabidopsis thaliana, duplicated patterns of the ALDH gene family in Chinese cabbage were analyzed. The exon–intron structures, conserved protein motifs, and phylogenetic relationship with ALDH in six other species were also predicted and analyzed. Finally, we used available RNA-Seq data and real-time quantitative PCR to analyze the expression of ALDH genes in different tissues of Chinese cabbage including the roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and siliques. The results showed the tissue specificity and differential expression in different tissues of BrALDHs. The analysis of ALDH gene transcriptome data of Chinese cabbage under different stress conditions (cold, heat, drought, and salinity) showed that the response levels of different genes varied under different stresses, suggesting the function of some genes in these processes. Details of the ALDH gene family in Chinese cabbage has enriched studies on the ALDH gene family in plants and animals and is crucial for understanding ALDH function during plant growth and development.
Molecular analysis of anthocyanin biosynthesis-related genes reveal BoTT8 associated with purple hypocotyl of broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica L.)
Authors: Rahim Md Abdur , Afrin Khandker Shazia , Jung Hee-Jeong , Kim Hoy-Taek , Park Jong-In , Hur Yoonkang , Nou Ill-Sup
Published: February 2019

Broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica L.) is a highly nutritious vegetable that typically forms pure green or purple florets. However, green broccoli florets sometimes accumulate slight purplish pigmentation in response environmental factors, decreasing their market value. In the present study, we aimed to develop molecular markers to distinguish broccoli genotypes as pure green or purplish floret color at the early seedling stage. Anthocyanins are known to be involved in the purple pigmentation in plants. The purplish broccoli lines were shown to accumulate purple pigmentation in the hypocotyls of very young seedlings; therefore, the expression profiles of the structural and regulatory genes of anthocyanin biosynthesis were analyzed in the hypocotyls using qRT-PCR. BoPAL, BoDFR, BoMYB114, BoTT8, BoMYC1.1, BoMYC1.2, and BoTTG1 were identified as putative candidate genes responsible for the purple hypocotyl color. BoTT8 was much more highly expressed in the purple than green hypocotyls; therefore, it was cloned and sequenced from various broccoli lines, revealing SNP and InDel variations between these genotypes. We tested four SNPs (G > A; A > T; G > C; T > G) in the first three exons and a 14-bp InDel (ATATTTATATATAT) in the BoTT8 promoter in 51 broccoli genotypes, and we found these genetic variations could distinguish the green lines, purple lines, and F1 hybrids. These novel molecular markers could be useful in broccoli breeding programs to develop a true green or purple broccoli cultivar.
Nonreciprocal and enhancement effect of one-dimensional magnetic photonic crystal with a gain defect
Authors: Wu Yi-Heng , Fang Yun-Tuan
Published: February 2019

The transmission properties of one-dimensional photonic crystal composed of the Gyromagnetic and gain medium are investigated. The energy loss due to the Gyromagnetic medium is compensated by adding one gain defect layer. From the analysis, it is found that both the nonreciprocal and enhancement effect are affected considerably by the incident angle, layer thickness, external magnetic field and gain coefficient. Specifically, it is demonstrated that the gain defect layer plays an important role in achieving nonreciprocal and enhancement transmission.
Human behavior and lognormal distribution. A kinetic description
Authors: Gualandi Stefano , Toscani Giuseppe
Published: February 2019

In recent years, it has been increasing evidence that lognormal distributions are widespread in physical and biological sciences, as well as in various phenomena of economics and social sciences. In social sciences, the appearance of lognormal distribution has been noticed, among others, when looking at body weight, and at women’s age at first marriage. Likewise, in economics, lognormal distribution appears when looking at consumption in a western society, at call-center service times, and others. The common feature of these situations, which describe the distribution of a certain people’s hallmark, is the presence of a desired target to be reached by repeated choices. In this paper, we discuss a possible explanation of lognormal distribution forming in human activities by resorting to classical methods of statistical mechanics of multi-agent systems. The microscopic variation of the hallmark around its target value, leading to a linear Fokker–Planck-type equation with lognormal equilibrium density, is built up introducing as main criterion for decision a suitable value function in the spirit of the prospect theory of Kahneman and Twersky.
Dynamics and control for multi-agent networked systems: A finite-difference approach
Authors: Biccari Umberto , Ko Dongnam , Zuazua Enrique
Published: February 2019

We analyze the dynamics of multi-agent collective behavior models and its control theoretical properties. We first derive a large population limit to parabolic diffusive equations. We also show that the nonlocal transport equations commonly derived as the mean-field limit, are subordinated to the first one. In other words, the solution of the nonlocal transport model can be obtained by a suitable averaging of the diffusive one. We then address the control problem in the linear setting, linking the multi-agent model with the spatial semi-discretization of parabolic equations. This allows us to use the existing techniques for parabolic control problems in the present setting and derive explicit estimates on the cost of controlling these systems as the number of agents tends to infinity. We obtain precise estimates on the time of control and the size of the controls needed to drive the system to consensus, depending on the size of the population considered. Our approach, inspired on the existing results for parabolic equations, possibly of fractional type, and in several space dimensions, shows that the formation of consensus may be understood in terms of the underlying diffusion process described by the heat semi-group. In this way, we are able to give precise estimates on the cost of controllability for these systems as the number of agents increases, both in what concerns the needed control time horizon and the size of the controls.
Residually finite rationally p groups
Authors: Koberda Thomas , Suciu Alexander I.
Published: February 2019

In this paper, we develop the theory of residually finite rationally [Formula: see text] (RFR[Formula: see text]) groups, where [Formula: see text] is a prime. We first prove a series of results about the structure of finitely generated RFR[Formula: see text] groups (either for a single prime [Formula: see text], or for infinitely many primes), including torsion-freeness, a Tits alternative, and a restriction on the BNS invariant. Furthermore, we show that many groups which occur naturally in group theory, algebraic geometry, and in 3-manifold topology enjoy this residual property. We then prove a combination theorem for RFR[Formula: see text] groups, which we use to study the boundary manifolds of algebraic curves [Formula: see text] and in [Formula: see text]. We show that boundary manifolds of a large class of curves in [Formula: see text] (which includes all line arrangements) have RFR[Formula: see text] fundamental groups, whereas boundary manifolds of curves in [Formula: see text] may fail to do so.
Crack Surface Frictional Contact Modeling in Fractured Fiber-Reinforced Composites
Authors: Rodríguez-Tembleque Luis , García-Sánchez Felipe , Sáez Andrés
Published: February 2019

A robust boundary element numerical scheme is presented to study crack-face frictional contact in cracked fiber reinforced composite materials. The dual boundary element method is considered for modeling fracture mechanics on these materials. The formulation is based on contact operators over the augmented Lagrangian to enforce contact constraints on the crack surface. Moreover, it considers a Halpin–Tsai macro model for fiber reinforced composite materials which makes it possible to take into account the influence of micromechanical aspects such as: the fibers’ orientation, the fiber’s aspect ratio or the fiber’s volume fraction, estimating the mechanical properties of these composite materials from the known values of the fiber and the matrix. After solving a crack face frictional contact benchmark problem, the capabilities of this methodology are illustrated by studying the influence of not only these micromechanical aspects but also crack face frictional contact conditions on a fractured carbon fiber-reinforced polymer under compression.
Multi-frame speckle reduction in OCT using supercontinuum pumped by noise-like pulses
Authors: Wang Chengming , You Yi-Jing , Ai Shengnan , Zhang Wenxin , Liao Wenchao , Zhang Xiao , Hsieh Juicheng , Zhang Ning , Tang Bihua , Pan Ci-Ling , Xue Ping
Published: February 2019

In most coherent imaging modality, speckle noise is a major cause that blurs the boundary of tissues and degrades the image contrast. By utilizing the unique properties of supercontinuum (SC) generated by noise-like pulses (NLPs) and a simple multi-frame averaging technique, we achieved significant speckle reduction in spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). We quantitatively compared the speckle of our proposed method with those of conventional swept source OCT (SS-OCT) and SD-OCT based on commercial light sources. The experimental results show that SC pumped by NLPs combined with noncoherent averaging method achieves better denoising performance in terms of contrast to noise ratio (CNR).
Robust Astronomical Imaging in the Presence of Radio Frequency Interference
Authors: Zhang Shuimei , Gu Yujie , Zhang Yimin D.
Published: February 2019

Radio astronomical observations are increasingly contaminated by radio frequency interference (RFI), rendering the development of effective RFI suppression techniques a pressing task. In practice, the existence of model mismatch makes the observing environment more challenging. In this paper, we develop a robust astronomical imaging method in the presence of RFI and model mismatch. The key contribution of the proposed method is the accurate estimation of the actual signal steering vector by maximizing the beamformer output power subject to a constraint that prevents the estimated steering vector from converging to the interference steering vectors. The proposed method is formulated as a quadratically constrained quadratic programming problem that can be solved using efficient numerical approaches. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Understanding and Analyzing Java Reflection
Authors: Li Yue , Tan Tian , Xue Jingling
Published: February 2019

Java reflection has been widely used in a variety of applications and frameworks. It allows a software system to inspect and change the behaviour of its classes, interfaces, methods, and fields at runtime, enabling the software to adapt to dynamically changing runtime environments. However, this dynamic language feature imposes significant challenges to static analysis, because the behaviour of reflection-rich software is logically complex and statically hard to predict. As a result, existing static analysis tools either ignore reflection or handle it partially, resulting in missed, important behaviours, i.e., unsound results. Therefore, improving or even achieving soundness in static reflection analysis—an analysis that infers statically the behaviour of reflective code—will provide significant benefits to many analysis clients, such as bug detectors, security analyzers, and program verifiers.

In this article, we provide a comprehensive understanding of Java reflection through examining its underlying concept, API, and real-world usage, and, building on this, we introduce a new static approach to resolving Java reflection effectively in practice. We have implemented our reflection analysis in an open-source tool, called S
OLAR
, and evaluated its effectiveness extensively with large Java programs and libraries. Our experimental results demonstrate that S
OLAR
is able to (1) resolve reflection more soundly than the state-of-the-art reflection analyses; (2) automatically and accurately identify the parts of the program where reflection is resolved unsoundly or imprecisely; and (3) guide users to iteratively refine the analysis results by using lightweight annotations until their specific requirements are satisfied.
In the absence of UCP1-mediated diet-induced thermogenesis, obesity is augmented even in the obesity-resistant 129S mouse strain
Authors: Luijten Ineke H. N. , Feldmann Helena M. , von Essen Gabriella , Cannon Barbara , Nedergaard Jan
Published: February 2019

The attractive tenet that recruitment and activation of brown adipose tissue (BAT) and uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) could counteract the development of obesity and its comorbidities in humans has been experimentally corroborated mainly by experiments demonstrating that UCP1-ablated mice on a C57Bl/6 background (exempt from thermal stress) become more obese when fed a high-fat diet. However, concerns may be raised that this outcome of UCP1 ablation is restricted to this very special inbred and particularly obesity-prone mouse strain. Therefore, we have examined to which degree UCP1 ablation has similar metabolic effects in a mouse strain known to be obesity resistant: the 129S strain. For this, male 129S2/sv or 129SV/Pas mice and corresponding UCP1-knockout mice were fed chow or a high-fat or a cafeteria diet for 4 wk. The absence of UCP1 augmented obesity (weight gain, body fat mass, %body fat, fat depot size) in high-fat diet- and cafeteria-fed mice, with a similar or lower food intake, indicating that, when present, UCP1 indeed decreases metabolic efficiency. The increased obesity was due to a decrease in energy expenditure. The consumption of a high-fat or cafeteria diet increased total BAT UCP1 protein levels in wild-type mice, and correspondingly, high-fat diet and cafeteria diet-fed mice demonstrated increased norepinephrine-induced oxygen consumption. There was a positive correlation between body fat and total BAT UCP1 protein content. No evidence for diet-induced adrenergic thermogenesis was found in UCP1-ablated mice. Thus, the obesity-reducing effect of UCP1 is not restricted to a particular, and perhaps not representative, mouse strain.
Stagnation in Decreasing Gastric Cancer Incidence and Mortality in Quito: Time Trend Analysis, 1985–2013
Authors: Tarupi Wilmer , de Vries Esther , Cueva Patricia , Yépez José
Published: February 2019

Background. Despite the significant global decline in mortality and incidence, gastric cancer (GC) remains a very common cause of illness and death in the Latin American region. This article seeks to describe, in depth, the time trend of incidence and mortality of GC in the city of Quito, from 1985 to 2013. Methods. Using data from the Quito Cancer Registry, annual sex-specific age-standardized incidence and mortality rates were calculated. The analysis included all types of GC together, as well as by histological subtype. Joinpoint regression analysis was performed to estimate the annual percentage change (EAPC). To evaluate cohort and period effects, Age-Period-Cohort (APC) modeling was performed. Results. Over time, incidence rate decreased from 30.4 to 18.8 cases in men and from 20.1 to 12.9 cases in women. The mortality rate decreased from 17.5 to 14.4 deaths in men and from 14.2 to 10.9 deaths in women. The incidence trend was composed of a first period (1986-1999) of strong decline (EAPC Men= -2.6, 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: -4.2, -0.9; EAPC Women= -3.2, 95% CI: -4.6, -1.9), followed by a less important decrease in men (EAPC= -0.8, 95% CI:-2.5, 0.9) and a slight increase in women (EAPC= 0.7, 95% CI: -1.4; 2.8). Mortality rates were constantly decreasing in both men (EAPC= -0.5, 95% CI: -0.9, -0.1) and women (EAPC= -0.9, 95% CI: -1.7, -0.1) throughout the period of analysis. Conclusions. The declines in incidence and mortality rates are stagnating. It is important to take measures to further reduce the high burden of GC.
Tumefactive Fat Necrosis with Multinucleate Giant Cell Reaction Mimicking Recurrent Renal Cell Carcinoma following Percutaneous Renal Cryoablation
Authors: Kahn Amanda E. , Wu Kevin J. , Thiel David D.
Published: February 2019

Multinucleate Giant Cell (GC) reaction is a biological response that occurs secondary to infection, an implanted foreign body, tissue injury, or inflammation. In rare instances GC reactions have been reported following tissue ablation. Multinucleate GC reactions and tumefactive fat necrosis both have the ability to mimic cancer recurrence or metastasis and can appear as enhancing masses. We discuss a case of a surgically resected retroperitoneal perinephric mass thought to be recurrent renal cell carcinoma (RCC) that was pathologically confirmed as tumefactive fat necrosis with multinucleate GC reaction 2 years following percutaneous cryoablation of a small renal mass.
Consensus of Multiagent Systems Described by Various Noninteger Derivatives
Authors: Nava-Antonio G. , Fernández-Anaya G. , Hernández-Martínez E. G. , Flores-Godoy J. J. , Ferreira-Vázquez E. D.
Published: February 2019

In this paper, we unify and extend recent developments in Lyapunov stability theory to present techniques to determine the asymptotic stability of six types of fractional dynamical systems. These differ by being modeled with one of the following fractional derivatives: the Caputo derivative, the Caputo distributed order derivative, the variable order derivative, the conformable derivative, the local fractional derivative, or the distributed order conformable derivative (the latter defined in this work). Additionally, we apply these results to study the consensus of a fractional multiagent system, considering all of the aforementioned fractional operators. Our analysis covers multiagent systems with linear and nonlinear dynamics, affected by bounded external disturbances and described by fixed directed graphs. Lastly, examples, which are solved analytically and numerically, are presented to validate our contributions.
Morphology Effect of Surface Structures on Microchannel Flow Using Lattice Boltzmann Method
Authors: Zhang Ge , Liu Bo , Xu Aiguo , Shan Yiming , Li Yingjun
Published: February 2019

Microchannel flow shows a fascinating background on a lot of engineering problems. In order to shed a light on the effect of the surface morphology of microchannels on fluid flow, differently shaped and arranged artificial elements constitute channels with different morphology and numerical simulation based on lattice Boltzmann method is conducted. The impact of micro effect is also stressed by comparing the results considering and not considering it in the same channel model. Analysis of flow details shows the difference of the morphology effect on fluid flow, which differs by the shape and density of the elements’ array. The permeability of channels shows a specific relationship with the density of artificial elements, and differences are found between varied shapes and the existence of micro effects. Further research is carried based on more complex channels with arrays of fractal-character artificial elements. As elements in the channel can be divided into main summits and subsummits, their different roles of the effect on the fluid flow is investigated. The result shows that the permeability will not change if main summits are kept in channels while all subsummits are removed to make a distinct simplification of the morphology. This discovery is furtherly ensured numerically by a test on a channel created with the profile of a rough rock surface. The finding for morphology effect on fluid flow can supply a reference for the prediction of the permeability of complex channels or fractures.
Bispectrum Texture Feature Manifold for Feature Extraction in Rolling Bear Fault Diagnosis
Authors: Wang Fei , Fang Liqing
Published: February 2019

Effectively classify the fault types and the degradation degree of a rolling bearing is an important basis for accurate malfunction detection. A novel feature extract method ‐ bispectrum image texture features manifold (BTM) of the rolling bearing vibration signal is proposed in this paper. The BTM method is realized by three main steps: bispectrum image analysis, texture feature construction and manifold feature dimensionality reduction. In this method, bispectrum analysis is employed to convert the mass vibration signals into bispectrum contour map, the typical texture features were extracted from the contour map by gray level co‐occurrence matrix (GLCM), then the manifold dimensionality reduction method liner local tangent space alignment (LLTSA) is used to remove redundant information and reduce the dimension from the extracted texture features and obtain more meaningful low‐dimensional information. Furthermore, the low‐dimensional texture features were identified by support vector machine (SVM) which was optimized by genetic optimization algorithm (GA). The validity of BTM is confirmed by rolling bear experiments, the result show that the proposed feature extraction method can accurately distinguish different fault types and have a good performance to classify the degradation degree of inner race fault, outer race fault and rolling ball fault.
Basis Set Effects in the Description of the Cl-O Bond in ClO and XClO/ClOX Isomers (X = H, O, and Cl) Using DFT and CCSD(T) Methods
Authors: Irving Kenneth , Kieninger Martina , Ventura Oscar N.
Published: February 2019

The performance of a group of density functional methods of progressive complexity for the description of the ClO bond in a series of chlorine oxides was investigated. The simplest ClO radical species and the two isomeric structures XClO/ClOX for each X = H, Cl, and O were studied using the PW91, TPSS, B3LYP, PBE0, M06, M06-2X, BMK, and B2PLYP functionals. Geometry optimizations and reaction enthalpies and enthalpies of formation for each species were calculated using Pople basis sets and the (aug)-cc-pVnZ Dunning sets, with n = D, T, Q, 5, and 6. For the calculation of enthalpies of formation, atomization and isodesmic reactions were employed. Both the precision of the methods with respect to the increase of the basis sets, as well as their accuracy, were gauged by comparing the results with the more accurate CCSD(T) calculations, performed using the same basis sets as for the DFT methods. The results obtained employing composite chemical methods (G4, CBS-QB3, and W1BD) were also used for the comparisons, as well as the experimental results when they are available. The results obtained show that error compensation is the key for successful description of molecular properties (geometries and energies) by carefully selecting the method and basis sets. In general, expansion of the one-electron basis set to the limit of completeness does not improve results at the DFT level, but just the opposite. The enthalpies of formation calculated at the CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pV6Z for the species considered are generally in agreement with experimental determinations and the most accurate theoretical values. Different sources of error in the calculations are discussed in detail.
A Selective Mirrored Task Based Fault Tolerance Mechanism for Big Data Application Using Cloud
Authors: Wu Hao , Jin Qinggeng , Zhang Chenghua , Guo He
Published: February 2019

With the wide deployment of cloud computing in big data processing and the growing scale of big data application, managing reliability of resources becomes a critical issue. Unfortunately, due to the highly intricate directed-acyclic-graph (DAG) based application and the flexible usage of processors (virtual machines) in cloud platform, the existing fault tolerant approaches are inefficient to strike a balance between the parallelism and the topology of the DAG-based application while using the processors, which causes a longer makespan for an application and consumes more processor time (computation cost). To address these issues, this paper presents a novel fault tolerant framework named Fault Tolerance Algorithm using Selective Mirrored Tasks Method (FAUSIT) for the fault tolerance of running a big data application on cloud. First, we provide comprehensive theoretical analyses on how to improve the performance of fault tolerance for running a single task on a processor. Second, considering the balance between the parallelism and the topology of an application, we present a selective mirrored task method. Finally, by employing the selective mirrored task method, the FAUSIT is designed to improve the fault tolerance for DAG based application and incorporates two important objects: minimizing the makespan and the computation cost. Our solution approach is evaluated through rigorous performance evaluation study using real-word workflows, and the results show that the proposed FAUSIT approach outperforms existing algorithms in terms of makespan and computation cost.
Detection of L-Proline-Catalyzed Michael Addition Reaction in Model Biomembrane
Authors: Hirose Masanori , Sugisaki Shigenori , Suga Keishi , Umakoshi Hiroshi
Published: February 2019

A method to detect the L-proline- (L-Pro-) catalyzed Michael addition reaction in model biomembranes has been established, using N-[p(2-benzimidazolyl)phenyl]maleimide and acetone as reactants. The effect of liposome membranes on this reaction was kinetically analyzed using fluorescence spectroscopy. The kinetics of the reaction were different from those of the constituent lipids of the liposomes. Zwitterionic 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine liposome, which is in the solid-ordered phase, had a better value of reaction rate, suggesting that the reaction rate constants of this reaction in liposome membrane systems could be regulated by the characteristics of the liposome membrane (i.e., the phase state and surface charge). Based on the results obtained, a plausible model of the L-Pro-catalyzed Michael addition reaction was discussed. The obtained results provide us with an easily detectable method to assess the reactivity of L-Pro in biological systems.
Interactions between the Aryldiazonium Cations and Graphene Oxide: A DFT Study
Authors: Berisha Avni
Published: February 2019

Understanding the grafting behavior of the aryldiazonium cations is of fundamental and also of practical importance for the vast number of applications that involve the use of modified graphene oxide (from simple adsorption process to electronic and photovoltaic applications). In this work, the mechanism of the adsorption and grafting of diazonium cations on the graphene oxide surface was investigated by the use of density functional theory. Two types of aryldiazonium cations, one bearing only phenyl ring and the other nitrophenyl, were selected as adsorbates/grafted moiety. By evaluating the adsorption energies at 7 different positions onto the graphene oxide both in the gaseous and solvent phase (using COSMO approach), the most probable adsorption sites were found. Moreover, the most stable adsorption sites were used to calculate and plot NCI (noncovalent interactions). The obtained results are important as they not only give molecular insights regarding the nature of the interaction and its dependence on the adsorption site of the graphene oxide surface but also on the activation energy for such a grafting reaction to take place, providing a mechanistic aspect to understand these grafting reactions.
Effect of Chitosan Nanoparticle-Loaded Thymus serpyllum on Hydrogen Peroxide-Induced Bone Marrow Stromal Cell Damage
Authors: Baig Salma , Azizan Ainnul Hamidah Syahadah , Raghavendran Hanumantha Rao Balaji , Natarajan Elango , Naveen Sangeetha , Murali Malliga Raman , Nam Hui Yin , Kamarul Tunku
Published: February 2019

We have determined the protective effects of Thymus serpyllum (TS) extract and nanoparticle-loaded TS on hydrogen peroxide-induced cell death of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) in vitro. Gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy confirmed the spectrum of active components in the extract. Out of the three different extracts, the hexane extract showed significant free radical scavenging activity. Treatment of MSCs with H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) significantly increased intracellular cell death; however, pretreatment with TS extract and nanoparticle-loaded TS (200 μg/ml) suppressed H2O2-induced elevation of Cyt-c and MMP13 and increased the survival rates of MSCs. H2O2-induced (0.1 mM) changes in cytokines were attenuated in the extract and nanoparticles by pretreatment and cotreatment at two time points (p<0.05). H2O2 increased cell apoptosis. In contrast, treatment with nanoparticle-loaded TS suppressed the percentage of apoptosis considerably (p<0.05). Therefore, TS may be considered as a potential candidate for enhancing the effectiveness of MSC transplantation in cell therapy.
NOTCH Signaling Is Activated through Mechanical Strain in Human Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells
Authors: Ziouti Fani , Ebert Regina , Rummler Maximilian , Krug Melanie , Müller-Deubert Sigrid , Lüdemann Martin , Jakob Franz , Willie Bettina M. , Jundt Franziska
Published: February 2019

Skeletal development and remodeling of adult bone are critically controlled by activated NOTCH signaling in genetically modified mice. It is yet unclear whether NOTCH signaling is activated by mechanical strain sensed by bone cells. We found that expression of specific NOTCH target genes is induced after in vivo tibial mechanical loading in wild-type mice. We further applied mechanical strain through cyclic stretching in human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (BMSCs) in vitro by using a bioreactor system and detected upregulation of NOTCH target gene expression. Inhibition of the NOTCH pathway in primary BMSCs as well as telomerase-immortalized human BMSCs (hMSC-TERT) through the gamma-secretase inhibitor GSI XII blocked mechanotransduction and modulated actin cytoskeleton organization. Short-hairpin RNA gene silencing identified NOTCH2 as the key receptor mediating NOTCH effects on hMSC-TERT cells. Our data indicate a functional link between NOTCH activation and mechanotransduction in human BMSCs. We suggest that NOTCH signaling is an important contributor to molecular mechanisms that mediate the bone formation response to mechanical strain.
Evaluation of Automatic Blood Analyzer as Screening Method in Fetomaternal Hemorrhage
Authors: Cardoso Marcella R. , Souza-Araújo Caroline N. de , Talarico Maria Cecília R. , Heinrich-Mouçouçah Juliana , Guimarães Fernando , Barini Ricardo
Published: February 2019

Screening of fetomaternal hemorrhage (FMH) is essential in management of fetomaternal antigen incompatibilities of blood. The objective in this study was to evaluate the ability of automatic blood analyzer (ABA) to screen FMH, also comparing this method with flow cytometry (FCM). The contents of fetal red blood cells and fetal hemoglobin were evaluated by FCM and ABA, respectively, using both blood samples of male adults laced with umbilical cord blood diluted at 1/10, 1/100, 1/1,000, and 1/10,000, or blood from puerperal women collected within 48 hours following delivery. FCM had better performance (area under curve, AUC = 0.8723) than ABA (AUC = 0.6569) in detecting fetal blood laced with blood from male adults. At a critical level of 0.5%, ABA indicated that 27.5% of puerperal women would have FMH while FCM did not detect FMH. Our results showed that ABA overestimates FMH and disagrees with FCM on indicating puerperal women with FMH. ABA is inadequate for being used to screen for or to measure FMH.
Inhibitory Effect ofLactobacillus plantarumFL75 andLeuconostoc mesenteroidesFL14againstFoodborne Pathogens in Artificially Contaminated Fermented Tomato Juices
Authors: Bah Aïssé , Albano Helena , Barbosa Joana Bastos , Fhoula Imene , Gharbi Yosra , Najjari Afef , Boudabous Abdellatif , Teixeira Paula , Ouzari Hadda-Imene
Published: February 2019

Tomatoes and tomato based-foods contain beneficial microorganisms and various organic acids that have important nutritional values for human. The objective of this study was to access the physiochemical properties of fermented tomatoes juices and to evaluate the competitiveness of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) againstListeria monocytogenes,Listeria innocua, andSalmonellaspp., in artificially contaminated tomato juice. Microbial counting (LAB, fungiSalmonellaspp., andListeriaspp.) was performed after fermentation and weekly during storage. Different organic acids (Lactic, succinic, and acetic) and ethanol were also monitored using HPLC method. Color parameters were also determined. The results showed an increase of lactic and acetic acid content, during fermentation and storage of juices inoculated withLactobacillus plantarumandLeuconostoc mesenteroidesat 25°C. Besides, citric acid and ethanol revealed higher content at the end of storage compared to that registered at 4°C. The pH from tomatoes juices decreased from an initial value of 4.5 to below 3.2. Alongside, foodborne pathogen population was significantly suppressed in tomatoes juices when the samples were coinoculated with LAB strains. Moreover, the inhibition ofSalmonellaspecies was faster compared to that ofListeria. After four weeks of storage at 4°C,Lb. plantarumandLc. mesenteroidesshowed high survival rate, while pathogenic bacteria, yeasts, and molds cell numbers decreased drastically in all the contaminated vials. This work highlights the efficiency ofLb. plantarumandLc. mesenteroidesas potential starters for developing nutritious and safe fermented tomato juice products.
Modeling Residence Time Distribution (RTD) Behavior in a Packed-Bed Electrochemical Reactor (PBER)
Authors: Menon Sananth H. , Madhu G. , Mathew Jojo
Published: February 2019

This paper focuses on understanding the electrolyte flow characteristics in a typical packed-bed electrochemical reactor using Residence Time Distribution (RTD) studies. RTD behavior was critically analyzed using tracer studies at various flow rates, initially under nonelectrolyzing conditions. Validation of these results using available theoretical models was carried out. Significant disparity in RTD curves under electrolyzing conditions was examined and details are recorded. Finally, a suitable mathematical model (Modified Dispersed Plug Flow Model (MDPFM)) was developed for validating these results under electrolyzing conditions.
Role of Noncoding RNA in Development of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
Authors: Huang Ruixian , Duan Xiaoyan , Fan Jangao , Li Guangming , Wang Baocan
Published: February 2019

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is increasing in prevalence globally, but little is known about its specific molecular mechanisms. During the past decade, noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) have been linked to NAFLD initiation and progression. They are a class of RNAs that play an important role in regulating gene expression despite not encoding proteins. This review summarizes recent research on the relationship between ncRNAs and NAFLD. We discussed the potential applicability of ncRNAs as a biomarker for early NAFLD diagnosis and assessment of disease severity. With further study, ncRNAs should prove to be valuable new targets for NAFLD treatment and benefit the development of noninvasive diagnostic methods.
Heat Capacity and Thermodynamic Property of Cesium Tetraborate Pentahydrate
Authors: Sun Kangrui , Zhao Kaiyu , Li Long , Guo Yafei , Deng Tianlong
Published: February 2019

In order to recover cesium tetraborate pentahydrate (Cs2O·2B2O3·5H2O) from the high concentration cesium-containing salt lake brines and geothermal water resources, the molar heat capacity of Cs2O·2B2O3·5H2O has been measured with a precision calorimeter at the temperature from 303 to 349 K. It was found that there is no phase transition and thermal anomalies. The molar heat capacity of cesium tetraborate pentahydrate is fitted as Cp,m (J·mol−1·K−1) = 593.85705 + 48.0694[T − (Tmax + Tmin)/2]/(Tmax − Tmin)/2] + 24.86395[(T − (Tmax + Tmin)/2)/(Tmax − Tmin)/2]2 + 0.53077[(T − (Tmax + Tmin)/2)/(Tmax − Tmin)/2]3, and the relevant thermodynamic functions of enthalpy, entropy, and Gibbs free energy of cesium tetraborate pentahydrate are also obtained at intervals of 2 K from 303 to 349 K.