bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Stochastic Two-Echelon Supply Chain Model for the Petrol Station Replenishment Problem
Authors: Mubiru Kizito Paul
Published: February 2016

In this paper, a new mathematical model is developed to optimize replenishment policies and inventory costs of a two-echelon supply chain system of kerosene product under demand uncertainty. The system consists of a fuel depot at the upper echelon and four petrol stations at the lower echelon. The petrol stations face stochastic stationary demand where inventory replenishment periods are uniformly fixed over the echelons. Adopting a Markov decision process approach, the states of a Markov chain represent possible states of demand for the inventory item. The replenishment cost, holding cost and shortage costs are combined with demand and inventory positions in order to generate the inventory cost matrix over the echelons. The matrix represents the long run measure of performance for the decision problem. The objective is to determine in each echelon of the planning horizon an optimal replenishment policy so that the long run inventory costs are minimized for a given state of demand. Using weekly equal intervals, the decisions of when to replenish additional units are made using dynamic programming over a finite period planning horizon. A numerical example demonstrates the existence of an optimal state-dependent replenishment policy and inventory costs over the echelons. DOI:10.12660/joscmv8n2p67-76URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.12660/joscmv8n2p67-76
Evaluation of immunologic response of salivary sIg-A in pediatric tuberculosis patients to antigen Ag38-rec of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Indonesian strain
Authors: Raras Tri Yudani Mardining , Pritta Santi Diah Erma , Kusuma HMS Chandra
Published: February 2016

Objective: We studied the immune response of salivary secretory immunoglobulin A (sIg-A) from a pediatric tuberculosis (TB) group (scoring > and =6) and non-TB group (scoring <6) against recombinant Ag38 (Ag38-rec) fromMycobacterium tuberculosis Indonesian strain.

Materials and Methods: Seventy-eight children were divided into three groups; those with TB (n=26), those with suspected TB (n=26), and healthy children (n=26), their saliva was collected, and salivary sIg-A was challenged with purified Ag38-rec using the dot blot method. A change of color from white to dark blue indicated a positive reaction.

Results: The immune response of sIg-A of children with TB and those with suspected TB to Ag38-rec was not significantly different. In the TB group, Ag38-rec showed a higher sensitivity than protein purified derivative (PPD) (70.8% vs. 62.5%), but a lower specificity (26.9% vs. 34.62%). However, within both groups (scoring > and =6) as well as non-TB group (scoring <6) Ag38-rec was able to identify children with a positive TST (tuberculin skin test) better than PPD.

Conclusion: The antigen Ag38-rec could not distinguish between children with TB (scores > and =6 and <6). However, it demonstrated the potential of Ag38-rec for use in screening for TB infection among children with suspect TB (scores <6).
Case Report: Frontalis sign for early bedside diagnosis of impending uncal herniation
Authors: Munakomi Sunil , Mohan Kumar Bijoy
Published: February 2016

It is prudent to have early diagnosis and timely management of uncal herniation for better management of neurosurgical patients. There are several clinical and radiological armamentarium that aid in early recognition of the condition. Through this case report, we try to highlight a simple bedside clinical sign that can help in early recognition of the impending uncal herniation. The improvement in the sign also confirms the resolution of the mass effect in the postoperative period. This is especially helpful for doctors working in the periphery or in resource restrained areas, for a timely referral of the patient to tertiary centre.
THE CALCULATION OF MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF SOILS AUTOMATION IN THE COMPRESSION TESTS
Authors: Осипова Оксана , Osipova Oksana , Аль Лами Мусааб , Al Lami Musaab
Published: February 2016

The article describes the results of calculation of the mechanical properties of the soil with the help of a software package, then the graphs of the dependence of the porosity from the pressure were constructed. This software package will speed up the calculation of the basic mechanical properties of soils
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF EXPERIMENTAL AND THEORETICAL RESEARCH IN NOVOCHERKASSK SCHOOL OF SOIL MECHANICS AND FOUNDATION ENGINEERING
Authors: Скибин Геннадий , Skibin Gennadiy , Дыба Владимир , Dyba Vladimir , Галашев Юрий , Galashev Yuriy
Published: February 2016

The article discusses the results of trough experimental

studies Novocherkassk scientific school of soil mechanics and

foundation engineering.
STADY OF CONTACT INTERACTION OF ELEMENT OF BREAST-WALL MADE OF UTILIZED TYRES WITH RETAINING GROUND
Authors: Габибов Фахраддин , Gabibov Fakhraddin , Халафов Намик , Khalafov Namik
Published: February 2016

They work out various kinds of breast-walls in which tyres

are threaded on the columns deepened into the ground. The space

between the internal surfaces of tyres and external surfaces of columns

is filled with compressed ground or cement-ground. Using

Vlasov–Leontyev combined model they consider the problem of

contact interaction of round elements of mentioned constructions

with elastic padding at the contact. Basing on the method of Furie

rows for solution of contact problems they get endless system of

linear algebraic equations of Furie coefficients. As a result of solution

of contact problem they find wanted values of deformation

and contact pressure
ASSESSMENT OF GEOMETRIC PARAMETERS OF CONICAL CFA PILES ON THEIR SETTLMENT IN CLAY SOILS
Authors: Ещенко Олег , Eshchenko Oleg , Чернявский Денис , Chernyavskiy Denis
Published: February 2016

The paper discusses the issues related to the influence of

length and angle of the conical side face of CFA piles on their settlement.

The results of calculation of displacements of single conical

CFA piles by finite element method under static compressive

loads are given. A comparative assessment of the influence of the

geometrical parameters of CFA conical piles on their settlements

in clay soils carried out. The example of the calculation single conical

piles CFA shows the effect of the angle of the side face and the

length of the piles on their settlements, and also provides a comparison

with precipitation cylindrical piles of similar material consumption
INTERACTION OF LONG PILE FINITE STIFFNESS WITH THE BROADENING HEEL AND THE SURROUNDING SOIL
Authors: Тер-Мартиросян Завен , Ter-Martirosyan Zaven , Тер-Мартиросян Армен , Ter-Martirosyan Armen
Published: February 2016

The article is formulating and solving problems of the interaction of the long pile with finite stiffness with the broadening heel and the surrounding soil, having nonlinear and rheological properties. It is shown that the distribution of longitudinal stresses, in the trunk of the pile and tangential stresses at the contact with the soil pile depth is not linear, and this nonlinearity depends essentially on the nonlinear properties of the soil, the ratio of length and diameter of the pile and its stiffness. Judgments obtained in closed form allow us to determine sediment pile at the pile tip and heel as well as the voltage at the heel of the pile. We also consider the problem of interaction of long compressible piles surrounding soil within a contact weakened layer. To do this, enter the stiffness coefficient of the contact layer having a dimension of [kN / m3, t / m3], and to account for the viscosity of the soil layer is introduced factor having the dimension [kN / m3 ∙ s].
The political economy of staying outside the Eurozone: Poland and Sweden compared
Authors: Czech Sławomir
Published: February 2016

This paper deals with the issue of political constraints put on economic policies that derive from the distribution of power in democratic societies. Poland and Sweden are both euro-outsiders that are obliged to adopt the euro, but recent developments within the Eurozone and related to the 2008+ crisis engendered widespread reluctance among the public to give up national currencies. Within a short time, the general support for the euro turned strongly negative, making it a grave challenge for politicians to pursue the adoption of the common currency. On this background, we reflect on the alleged correspondence between these two countries that would allow to follow similar policies toward euro introduction. We point to the idiosyncrasy of the Swedish case that makes it virtually impossible to emulate its policies by a country like Poland with very different long-term goals and starting conditions. By doing so, we highlight the context of policymaking that seems crucial to a successful art of political economy.
Management of post-acne scarring in the medical aesthetic clinic
Authors: Lavers Isabel
Published: February 2016

Acne scarring is a lifelong, debilitating and challenging problem to treat. Scarring and pigmentary changes are direct consequences of inflammatory acne vulgaris. Prevention of irreversible scarring is the main aim when treating patients with acne. In reality, acne scarring and post-inflammatory changes affect about 80% of patients, and can lead to significant psychological distress and low self-esteem. A range of treatments are available for these indications, each suitable for a particular type of scarring and pigmentary change, and combining treatment modalities is a common approach to achieve desired improvement. Aesthetic practitioners are well placed to support patients with acne scarring, using a skill set that enables them to assess and diagnose the type of scarring and pigmentary change present, make appropriate treatment choices to improve appearance, and understand any contraindications based on skin type and previous treatment. This requires an in-depth consultation with each patient and an understanding of the condition and its treatment to date, as well as managing the patient's expectations and being realistic about timeframes involved.
Skin cancer part 2: treatment of low-risk basal cell carcinoma and actinic keratosis
Authors: Van Onselen Julie
Published: February 2016

Aesthetic nurses should be vigilant in assessing the skin and aware that all skin lesions that raise suspicion should be referred. The most recent guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommends the use of a weighted 7-point checklist for suspicious lesions. Aesthetic nurses may be involved in caring for patients receiving treatment for low-risk basal cell carcinoma and actinic keratosis. This article only discusses interventions for these skin lesions, as they may be managed in aesthetic clinics with a variety of treatments, including surgery, cryosurgery and photodynamic therapy. Aesthetic nurses also have an important role in patient education and providing information on all of these treatments, particularly when helping patients to understand treatment expectations, lesion clearance and cosmetic results.
Medical tourism and the rise of ‘plastic surgery cults’ in Turkey
Authors: Mendes Aysha
Published: February 2016

With both surgical and non-surgical cosmetic procedures on the rise worldwide, aesthetic nursing is becoming an increasingly popular profession. In this series, Aysha Mendes examines aesthetic nursing practices and cultural perceptions of beauty across the globe by focusing on a different country every month. This issue, she looks at popular procedures in Turkey and the impact of cosmetic surgery tourism
Exploring the importance of anatomy in aesthetic nursing practice
Authors: Senior Amy
Published: February 2016

Although major complications following the placement of dermal fillers are rare, having a comprehensive knowledge of anatomical facial structures can ensure practitioners are safe and confident when injecting in various planes. To highlight the relevance of this scientific area in aesthetics, Amy Senior relays her interview with Anna Baker, a facial anatomy tutor and enthusiast
Becoming a centre of excellence: it takes teamwork to make the dream work
Authors: Schulz Marcelle
Published: February 2016

Competition is tough in the world of aesthetics. With so many new practices opening up nationwide, it is worth trying to separate yourself from the rest. To differentiate your clinic from others, why not think about establishing your practice as a centre of excellence? Marcelle Schulz, practice manager for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, gives aesthetic practitioners a few pointers to get them started on this journey
How can injectors prevent ‘speed bumps’ or ‘sausages’ under the eyes?
Authors: Shah-Desai Sabrina
Published: February 2016

The ‘10-minute eye lift’ is one of the most popular rejuvenating treatments available in aesthetic clinics today, but demands advanced skill and precision from the injector. Sabrina Shah-Desai discusses the fine nuances of dermal filler placement in the tear trough area to both avoid the presence of sausage-shaped lumps under the eye and achieve aesthetically pleasing results
Chin analysis and augmentation: anatomy, interventions and complications
Authors: Samizadeh Souphiyeh
Published: February 2016

The chin has a profound effect on facial attractiveness and much of the character of the lower face. Despite this, the chin is normally overlooked when it comes to aesthetic alterations of the face. It can be altered surgically through osseous manipulation or implant augmentation to harmonise and re-establish the balance between skeletal, soft tissues, and dental components of the lower face. Non-surgical alteration of the chin can be achieved by botulinum toxin injections and dermal fillers used as implants for enhancement.
Cellulolytic and hemicellulolytic bacteria from the gut of Oryctes rhinoceros larvae
Authors: SARI SITI LUSI ARUM , PANGASTUTI ARTINI , SUSILOWATI ARI , PURWOKO TJAHJADI , MAHAJOENO EDWI , HIDAYAT WAHYU , MARDHENA IKOW , KURNIAWATI DEWI , ANITASARI ROBIAH
Published: February 2016

Sari SLA, Pangastuti A, Susilowati A, Purwoko Tj, Mahajoeno E, Hidayat W, Mardhena I, Panuntun DF, Kurniawati D,Â Anitasari R. 2016. Cellulolytic and hemicellulolytic bacteria from the gut of Oryctes rhinoceros larvae. Biodiversitas 17: 78-83.Â Lignocellulose is very potential as raw material for biofuel production because it is cheap, abundant and renewable. The mainÂ carbohydrate constituents of lignocellulosic material are cellulose and hemicelluloses rdÂ instars were used in this research.Â The research succeeded to isolate 11 bacterial isolates from the gut of O. rhinoceros larvae. The screening result demonstrated thatÂ bacterial isolates had cellulolytic (72.7% of total isolates),Â and mannanolytic (100% of total isolates) activity. Based on the 16S rDNA sequence, 10 isolates were classified into Bacillus and only 1 isolate was classified into Citrobacter. The GOR2 which was closely related to Bacillus pumilus vit bac1 has the highest cellulolytic and xylanolytic activities. The isolate with the highest mannanolytic activity was the GOR7 which was closely related to Bacillus aryabhattai strain IHB B 6821.
Bridging volunteering and the labour market: a proposal of a soft skills matrix
Authors: Rego Raquel , Zózimo Joana , Correia Maria João , Ross Ana
Published: February 2016

In this paper, we argue that volunteering is an enabling environment for informal learning, and accordingly enhances employability. But, for volunteering to have an effective impact, there needs to be a bridge between volunteering and the labour market. In this sense, based on an empirical study, we present a soft skills matrix that enables the recognition of skills generated by volunteering.
Telling different stories about poverty, inequality, child abuse and neglect
Authors: Featherstone Brid
Published: February 2016

Mainstream discussions about child abuse and neglect remain disconnected from a wider appreciation of what harms children, and how such issues are related to wider social and economic forces. This article draws from ongoing work on ‘framing’, and the role of stories in rendering poverty and inequality either irrelevant or invisible, offering some thoughts on how an alternative story needs to be developed and fought for in order to improve children’s welfare and safety.
Novas estratégias e velhos erros: Uma Introdução ao Cálculo para Alunos de Engenharias
Authors: Brandão Jorge Carvalho , Magalhães Elisângela Bezerra , Costa Emília Da
Published: February 2016

Este trabalho relata a experiência de inverter tópicos do Cálculo Diferencial e Integral com uma variável visando responder um questionamento: por qual motivo seguir sequência didática de livros adotados? Método dos trapézios para cálculo de uma área acima do eixo dos x e entre parábolas côncavas para baixo foi um ponto de partida, bem como algumas aplicações das integrais, como trabalho e centro de massa, usando o referido método. Não obstante algumas inversões didáticas, a razão de certas expressões, como o limite fundamental da trigonometria, eram apresentadas a partir de uma contextualização. Embora o uso de novas estratégias focando uma aprendizagem mais significativa, constatou-se que os mesmos erros no tradicional ensino de limites, derivadas e integrais foram observados. 
A Importância da Educação Ambiental na Escola Moisés Bom de Oliveira, Distrito de Morais, Araripina – PE
Authors: Nascimento Maria Cristina Delmondes
Published: February 2016

O presente trabalho teve como objetivo refletir sobre, como é tratado os tema transversal meio ambiente numa escola em Araripina, Pernambuco. Tratou-se de uma pesquisa descritiva, quantitativa e qualitativa. Os dados foram obtidos através de questionários. Os resultados demonstraram uma maior necessidade do envolvimento da família e da comunidade, tanto em projetos, como em ações que promovam o desenvolvimento de atitudes mais direcionadas ao cuidado ambiental.
Os Sete Saberes Indispensáveis à Educação do Futuro
Authors: Sobral Maria do Socorro Cecílio , Carvalho Maria das Graças , Carvalho Ana Dandara Da Silveira
Published: February 2016

O presente trabalho é uma resenha  da obra “Os sete saberes indispensáveis à educação do Futuro”  de  Edgar Morin. Este, considerado como um dos maiores pensadores do século XX,  é sociólogo, antropólogo, historiador, geógrafo, filósofo, tem mais de 40 livros publicados e traduzidos em diversas línguas. É um  apaixonado pelas obras em geral e, durante a II Guerra Mundial, foi combatente voluntário da resistência francesa, lutando pelo nazismo e o stalismo. 
Estimativa de recarga subterrânea a partir da Separação de escoamento de base na bacia hidrográfica do Rio Ibicuí (América do Sul)
Authors: Mattiuzi Camila Dalla Porta , Kirchheim Roberto , Collischonn Walter , Fan Fernando Mainardi
Published: February 2016

Este estudo se propõe a estimar as taxas de recarga subterrânea na Bacia Hidrográfica do Rio Ibicuí, localizada no Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, a partir da utilização do método de separação do escoamento de base. O principal aquífero da Bacia é o Sistema Aquífero Guarani (SAG), nas suas áreas de confinamento (Oeste) e afloramento (Central). A separação do escoamento de base foi realizada por meio do filtro numérico de Eckhardt (2005) com dados de séries históricas de vazão disponibilizados pela Agência Nacional das Águas. As estimativas de recarga foram comparadas com as características geológicas, hidrogeológicas e pedológicas encontradas na área de estudo. As taxas de recarga variaram de 88 mm/ano a 378,7 mm/ano (13% a 47%, respectivamente da precipitação efetiva nas sub-bacias, e 6% a 21% da precipitação total). Os resultados mostraram que as maiores taxas de recarga ocorreram nas unidades geológicas com transmissividades mais elevadas e solos mais permeáveis, e também com precipitações médias mais elevadas. Por outro lado, as sub-bacias com baixas taxas de recarga apresentaram unidades geológicas permeáveis e unidades cristalinas impermeáveis, solos com altos teores de argila e precipitações médias reduzidas.
The Postracial Delusion
Authors: Nair Yasmin
Published: February 2016

David Theo Goldberg, Are We All Postracial Yet? (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2015), 200 pages, $12.95, paperback.

Linda Martín Alcoff, The Future of Whiteness (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2015), 224 pages, $19.95, paperback.

If we based our understanding of race relations in the United States on the events of the last year alone, it might seem like a racial Armageddon was upon us. Hardly a day seems to pass without a report of yet another black victim of a police shooting. Independent estimates confirm that the prevalence of such incidents has been rising over the past several years.… What we are witnessing…is a volatile combination of a rise in violence alongside the increasing visibility of that violence.… But despite so much evidence that black Americans and other people of color are under attack, nearly half of respondents to a recent Pew survey thought that race was "not a factor at all" in the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, and the same number agreed that the United States has already "made [the] necessary changes" to achieve racial equality.… And yet…everywhere there is more evidence than ever that race and its cousin, ethnicity, still define the simple matter of who gets to live or die. Whether in the global refugee crisis, the aftermath of the Paris bombings, or the quotidian ways in which people of color in the United States face the denigration of both casual and institutional racism, one thing is clear: race survives.

Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.
Spatial online sampling and aggregation
Authors: Wang Lu , Christensen Robert , Li Feifei , Yi Ke
Published: February 2016

The massive adoption of smart phones and other mobile devices has generated humongous amount of spatial and spatio-temporal data. The importance of spatial analytics and aggregation is ever-increasing. An important challenge is to support
interactive exploration
over such data. However, spatial analytics and aggregation using all data points that satisfy a query condition is expensive, especially over large data sets, and could not meet the needs of interactive exploration. To that end, we present novel indexing structures that support spatial online sampling and aggregation on large spatial and spatio-temporal data sets. In spatial online sampling, random samples from the set of spatial (or spatio-temporal) points that satisfy a query condition are generated incrementally in an online fashion. With more and more samples, various spatial analytics and aggregations can be performed in an online, interactive fashion, with estimators that have better accuracy over time. Our design works well for both memory-based and disk-resident data sets, and scales well towards different query and sample sizes. More importantly, our structures are dynamic, hence, they are able to deal with insertions and deletions efficiently. Extensive experiments on large real data sets demonstrate the improvements achieved by our indexing structures compared to other baseline methods.
The iBench integration metadata generator
Authors: Arocena Patricia C. , Glavic Boris , Ciucanu Radu , Miller Renée J.
Published: February 2016

Given the maturity of the data integration field it is surprising that rigorous empirical evaluations of research ideas are so scarce. We identify a major roadblock for empirical work - the lack of comprehensive metadata generators that can be used to create benchmarks for different integration tasks. This makes it difficult to compare integration solutions, understand their generality, and understand their performance. We present iBench, the first metadata generator that can be used to evaluate a wide-range of integration tasks (data exchange, mapping creation, mapping composition, schema evolution, among many others). iBench permits control over the size and characteristics of the metadata it generates (schemas, constraints, and mappings). Our evaluation demonstrates that iBench can efficiently generate very large, complex, yet realistic scenarios with different characteristics. We also present an evaluation of three mapping creation systems using iBench and show that the intricate control that iBench provides over metadata scenarios can reveal new and important empirical insights. iBench is an open-source, extensible tool that we are providing to the community. We believe it will raise the bar for empirical evaluation and comparison of data integration systems.
Processing and optimizing main memory spatial-keyword queries
Authors: Lee Taesung , Park Jin-woo , Lee Sanghoon , Hwang Seung-Won , Elnikety Sameh , He Yuxiong
Published: February 2016

Important cloud services rely on spatial-keyword queries, containing a spatial predicate and arbitrary boolean keyword queries. In particular, we study the processing of such queries in main memory to support short response times. In contrast, current state-of-the-art spatial-keyword indexes and relational engines are designed for different assumptions. Rather than building a new spatial-keyword index, we employ a cost-based optimizer to process these queries using a spatial index and a keyword index. We address several technical challenges to achieve this goal. We introduce three operators as the building blocks to construct plans for main memory query processing. We then develop a cost model for the operators and query plans. We introduce five optimization techniques that efficiently reduce the search space and produce a query plan with low cost. The optimization techniques are computationally efficient, and they identify a query plan with a formal approximation guarantee under the common independence assumption. Furthermore, we extend the framework to exploit interesting orders. We implement the query optimizer to empirically validate our proposed approach using real-life datasets. The evaluation shows that the optimizations provide significant reduction in the average and tail latency of query processing: 7- to 11-fold reduction over using a single index in terms of 99th percentile response time. In addition, this approach outperforms existing spatial-keyword indexes, and DBMS query optimizers for both average and high-percentile response times.
How good are query optimizers, really?
Authors: Leis Viktor , Gubichev Andrey , Mirchev Atanas , Boncz Peter , Kemper Alfons , Neumann Thomas
Published: February 2016

Finding a good join order is crucial for query performance. In this paper, we introduce the Join Order Benchmark (JOB) and experimentally revisit the main components in the classic query optimizer architecture using a complex, real-world data set and realistic multi-join queries. We investigate the quality of industrial-strength cardinality estimators and find that all estimators routinely produce large errors. We further show that while estimates are essential for finding a good join order, query performance is unsatisfactory if the query engine relies too heavily on these estimates. Using another set of experiments that measure the impact of the cost model, we find that it has much less influence on query performance than the cardinality estimates. Finally, we investigate plan enumeration techniques comparing exhaustive dynamic programming with heuristic algorithms and find that exhaustive enumeration improves performance despite the sub-optimal cardinality estimates.
High-speed query processing over high-speed networks
Authors: Rödiger Wolf , Mühlbauer Tobias , Kemper Alfons , Neumann Thomas
Published: February 2016

Modern database clusters entail two levels of networks: connecting CPUs and NUMA regions inside a single server in the small and multiple servers in the large. The huge performance gap between these two types of networks used to slow down distributed query processing to such an extent that a cluster of machines actually performed worse than a single many-core server. The increased main-memory capacity of the cluster remained the sole benefit of such a scale-out.

The economic viability of high-speed interconnects such as InfiniBand has narrowed this performance gap considerably. However, InfiniBand's higher network bandwidth alone does not improve query performance as expected when the distributed query engine is left unchanged. The scalability of distributed query processing is impaired by TCP overheads, switch contention due to uncoordinated communication, and load imbalances resulting from the inflexibility of the classic exchange operator model. This paper presents the blueprint for a distributed query engine that addresses these problems by considering both levels of networks holistically. It consists of two parts: First,
hybrid parallelism
that distinguishes local and distributed parallelism for better scalability in both the number of cores as well as servers. Second, a
novel communication multiplexer
tailored for analytical database workloads using remote direct memory access (RDMA) and low-latency network scheduling for high-speed communication with almost no CPU overhead. An extensive evaluation within the HyPer database system using the TPC-H benchmark shows that our holistic approach indeed enables
high-speed query processing over high-speed networks.
Approximate closest community search in networks
Authors: Huang Xin , Lakshmanan Laks V. S. , Yu Jeffrey Xu , Cheng Hong
Published: February 2016

Recently, there has been significant interest in the study of the community search problem in social and information networks: given one or more query nodes, find densely connected communities containing the query nodes. However, most existing studies do not address the "free rider" issue, that is, nodes far away from query nodes and irrelevant to them are included in the detected community. Some state-of-the-art models have attempted to address this issue, but not only are their formulated problems NP-hard, they do not admit any approximations without restrictive assumptions, which may not always hold in practice.

In this paper, given an undirected graph
G
and a set of query nodes
Q
, we study community search using the
k
-truss based community model. We formulate our problem of finding a
closest truss community
(CTC), as finding a connected
k
-truss subgraph with the largest
k
that contains
Q
, and has the minimum diameter among such subgraphs. We prove this problem is NP-hard. Furthermore, it is NP-hard to approximate the problem within a factor (2-ε), for any ε > 0. However, we develop a greedy algorithmic framework, which first finds a CTC containing
Q
, and then iteratively removes the furthest nodes from
Q
, from the graph. The method achieves 2-approximation to the optimal solution. To further improve the efficiency, we make use of a compact truss index and develop efficient algorithms for
k
-truss identification and maintenance as nodes get eliminated. In addition, using bulk deletion optimization and local exploration strategies, we propose two more efficient algorithms. One of them trades some approximation quality for efficiency while the other is a very efficient heuristic. Extensive experiments on 6 real-world networks show the effectiveness and efficiency of our community model and search algorithms.
Cache locality is not enough
Authors: André Fabien , Kermarrec Anne-Marie , Le Scouarnec Nicolas
Published: February 2016

Nearest Neighbor (NN) search in high dimension is an important feature in many applications (e.g., image retrieval, multimedia databases). Product Quantization (PQ) is a widely used solution which offers high performance, i.e., low response time while preserving a high accuracy. PQ represents high-dimensional vectors (e.g., image descriptors) by compact codes. Hence, very large databases can be stored in memory, allowing NN queries without resorting to slow I/O operations. PQ computes distances to neighbors using cache-resident lookup tables, thus its performance remains limited by (i) the many cache accesses that the algorithm requires, and (ii) its inability to leverage SIMD instructions available on modern CPUs.

In this paper, we advocate that cache locality is not sufficient for efficiency. To address these limitations, we design a novel algorithm, PQ Fast Scan, that transforms the cache-resident lookup tables into small tables, sized to fit SIMD registers. This transformation allows (i) in-register lookups in place of cache accesses and (ii) an efficient SIMD implementation. PQ Fast Scan has the exact same accuracy as PQ, while having 4 to 6 times lower response time (e.g., for 25 million vectors, scan time is reduced from 74ms to 13ms).
Combining quantitative and logical data cleaning
Authors: Prokoshyna Nataliya , Szlichta Jaroslaw , Chiang Fei , Miller Renée J. , Srivastava Divesh
Published: February 2016

Quantitative data cleaning relies on the use of statistical methods to identify and repair data quality problems while logical data cleaning tackles the same problems using various forms of logical reasoning over declarative dependencies. Each of these approaches has its strengths: the logical approach is able to capture subtle data quality problems using sophisticated dependencies, while the quantitative approach excels at ensuring that the repaired data has desired statistical properties. We propose a novel framework within which these two approaches can be used synergistically to combine their respective strengths.

We instantiate our framework using (i) metric functional dependencies, a type of dependency that generalizes functional dependencies (FDs) to identify inconsistencies in domains where only large differences in metric data are considered to be a data quality problem, and (ii) repairs that modify the inconsistent data so as to minimize statistical distortion, measured using the Earth Mover's Distance. We show that the problem of computing a statistical distortion minimal repair is NP-hard. Given this complexity, we present an efficient algorithm for finding a minimal repair that has a small statistical distortion using EMD computation over semantically related attributes. To identify semantically related attributes, we present a sound and complete axiomatization and an efficient algorithm for testing implication of metric FDs. While the complexity of inference for some other FD extensions is co-NP complete, we show that the inference problem for metric FDs remains linear, as in traditional FDs. We prove that every instance that can be generated by our repair algorithm is set-minimal (with no unnecessary changes). Our experimental evaluation demonstrates that our techniques obtain a considerably lower statistical distortion than existing repair techniques, while achieving similar levels of efficiency.
Explaining query answers with explanation-ready databases
Authors: Roy Sudeepa , Orr Laurel , Suciu Dan
Published: February 2016

With the increased generation and availability of big data in different domains, there is an imminent requirement for data analysis tools that are able to 'explain' the trends and anomalies obtained from this data to a range of users with different backgrounds. Wu-Madden (PVLDB 2013) and Roy-Suciu (SIGMOD 2014) recently proposed solutions that can explain interesting or unexpected answers to simple aggregate queries in terms of predicates on attributes. In this paper, we propose a generic framework that can support much richer, insightful explanations by preparing the database offline, so that top explanations can be found interactively at query time. The main idea in such
explanation-ready databases
is to pre-compute the effects of potential explanations (called
interventions
), and efficiently re-evaluate the original query taking into account these effects. We formalize this notion and define an
explanation-query
that can evaluate all possible explanations simultaneously without having to run an iterative process, develop algorithms and optimizations, and evaluate our approach with experiments on real data.
Online entity resolution using an Oracle
Authors: Firmani Donatella , Saha Barna , Srivastava Divesh
Published: February 2016

Entity resolution (ER) is the task of identifying all records in a database that refer to the same underlying entity. This is an expensive task, and can take a significant amount of money and time; the end-user may want to take decisions during the process, rather than waiting for the task to be completed. We formalize an
online
version of the entity resolution task, and use an oracle which correctly labels matching and non-matching pairs through queries. In this setting, we design algorithms that seek to maximize progressive recall, and develop a novel analysis framework for prior proposals on entity resolution with an oracle, beyond their worst case guarantees. Finally, we provide both theoretical and experimental analysis of the proposed algorithms.
Husky
Authors: Yang Fan , Li Jinfeng , Cheng James
Published: February 2016

Finding efficient, expressive and yet intuitive programming models for data-parallel computing system is an important and open problem. Systems like Hadoop and Spark have been widely adopted for massive data processing, as coarse-grained primitives like map and reduce are succinct and easy to master. However, sometimes over-simplified API hinders programmers from more fine-grained control and designing more efficient algorithms. Developers may have to resort to sophisticated domain-specific languages (DSLs), or even low-level layers like MPI, but this raises development cost---learning many mutually exclusive systems prolongs the development schedule, and the use of low-level tools may result in bugprone programming.

This motivated us to start the
Husky
open-source project, which is an attempt to strike a better balance between high performance and low development cost. Husky is developed mainly for in-memory large scale data mining, and also serves as a general research platform for designing efficient distributed algorithms. We show that many existing frameworks can be easily implemented and bridged together inside Husky, and Husky is able to achieve similar or even better performance compared with domain-specific systems.
Repairing data through regular expressions
Authors: Li Zeyu , Wang Hongzhi , Shao Wei , Li Jianzhong , Gao Hong
Published: February 2016

Since regular expressions are often used to detect errors in sequences such as strings or date, it is natural to use them for data repair. Motivated by this, we propose a data repair method based on regular expression to make the input sequence data obey the given regular expression with minimal revision cost. The proposed method contains two steps, sequence repair and token value repair.

For sequence repair, we propose the Regular-expression-based Structural Repair (RSR in short) algorithm. RSR algorithm is a dynamic programming algorithm that utilizes Nondeterministic Finite Automata (NFA) to calculate the edit distance between a prefix of the input string and a partial pattern regular expression with time complexity of
O
(
nm
2
) and space complexity of
O
(
mn
) where
m
is the edge number of NFA and
n
is the input string length. We also develop an optimization strategy to achieve higher performance for long strings. For token value repair, we combine the edit-distance-based method and associate rules by a unified argument for the selection of the proper method. Experimental results on both real and synthetic data show that the proposed method could repair the data effectively and efficiently.
Cytological And Molecular Identification Of Haemogregarina Stepanowi In Blood Samples Of The European Pond Turtle (Emys Orbicularis) From Quarantine At Belgrade Zoo
Authors: Özvegy Jòzsef , Marinković Darko , Vučićević Miloš , Gajić Bojan , Stevanović Jevrosima , Krnjaić Dejan , Aleksić-Kovačević Sanja
Published: February 2016

Blood smears stained with Diff Quick are the initial tool for cytological diagnosis of Haemogregarina spp. However, the development of sensitive and specific molecular methods enabled the detection and identification of parasites in the sample and to clarify the evolutionary relationships of adeleorinid parasites within the Apicomplexa.

The current study was attempted in order to perform cytological investigation and molecular identification of the hemoparasites in thirty European pond turtles (Emys orbicularis) from the quarantine section at Belgrade Zoo, which have been found in poor health condition with massive skin hemorrhages, based on intraerythrocytic parasitic forms on hematological smears and 18S rDNA sequence, respectively.

Different life cycle stages of the Haemogregarina sp. were noticed within the erythrocytes in the peripheral blood. Biochemical analysis indicated lower values of AST and iron in most of the infected turtles while hematological analysis showed a changed hematocrit value, a decrease in the number of red blood cells and low hemoglobin levels. Amplifications of the 18S rDNA sequence of Haemogregarina were detected in 30/30 (100%) turtles with clinical symptoms. The identity of PCR products was confirmed by direct DNA sequencing. Future research concerning H. stepanowi in Serbia should be applied to its definitive host-the leech.
PRLR-AluI Gene Polymorphism And Litter Size Traits In Highly Prolific Line Of Topigs 20 Sows
Authors: Menčik Sven , Vuković Vlado , Modrić Mario , Špehar Marija , Ostović Mario , Sušić Velimir , Štoković Igor , Samardžija Marko , Ekert Kabalin Anamaria
Published: February 2016

The objective of the present study was to identify the Prolactin Receptor (PRLR) gene polymorphism related to litter size traits. The study included 101 Topigs 20 line of sows with 426 litters. The traits studied were: Total Number of Born (TNB), Number of Born Alive (NBA), Number of Still Born (NSB), and Number of MUMmified (NMUM) piglets. Polymorphism was identified with the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method. Allelic and genotype frequencies and deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were verified with the chi-square test. Analysis of litter size traits was performed using the General Linear Model, which included the potential environmental effects. Additive and dominant allele variances were observed by the regression procedure. In the studied population of sows, the frequency of heterozygotes (0.5149) for PRLR gene exceeded the total number of AA (0.0198) and BB (0.4653) homozygotes, which resulted in a high proportion of B allele (0.7228). The results for PRLR showed statistically significant (P<0.05) differences in first parity sows between BB and AB genotypes for TNB and NBA. Significant differences (P<0.05) were recorded in third parity sows between BB and AB genotypes for NBA, and in AA genotype versus AB and BB genotypes for NMUM. The fourth and subsequent parity sows of AA genotype had a significantly higher (P<0.05) rate of NBA as compared with those of AB and BB genotypes. In all parities analysed, the difference between the BB and AB genotypes for NBA was statistically significant (P<0.05). Interpretation of the results at the levels of phenotypes and either additive or dominant variance was quite difficult due to the small number of AA homozygous sows. The calculation model yielded a significant effect (P<0.05) as well as tendency (P<0.1) for the mentioned effects except for age at first farrowing.
Statistical Evaluation Of The Larvicidal Effect Of Diflubenzuron On Culex Pipiens Larval Stages
Authors: Djordjević Milutin , Mirilović Milorad , Stajković Novica , Janković Ljiljana , Pešić Branislav , Bokonjić Dubravko , Djurić Spomenka
Published: February 2016

Diflubezuron is increasingly used in areas where mosquito larvae developed resistance to other insecticides. In our community diflubenzuron is not used to control mosquito larvae. Two formulations of 1% diflubenzuron (on corn-cob EF-1, and zeolite EF-2) were tested on Culex pipiens L (larvae) on one canal in the Belgrade suburb area. The effect was followed for seven weeks after application of the formulations. Formulation EF1 achieved a reduction in mosquito L1L2 larvae between 23.9% and 89.4%. The change was statistically significant the 21st and 28th day (p<0.001), 35th and 42nd day (p<0.01) and 49th day (p<0.05). The maximal reduction obtained by formulation EF2 was 69.1%. The accomplished reduction was significant on the 28th and 42nd day (p<0.001), 35th day (p<0.01) and 21st (p<0.05). Both formulations have maintained a good residual effect on the lower developmental larval stages. Maximum reduction achieved by EF1 on L3L4 larvae was 97.4%. Reduction of larvae was high between the 7th and 42nd day (66.4 - 97%). Statistically significant values were recorded on the 21st, 28th and 35th day. Formulation EF2 achieved a reduction of 99.5%. A statistically significant reduction in the value of mosquito larvae was obtained on the 14th, 21st, 28th, 35th and 42nd day.

Between the two used formulations there was no significant difference in the number reduction of lower larval stages, but for the higher larval stages EF1 proved to be more efficient.
Characterization Of Tetracycline Resistance Of Salmonella Enterica Subspecies Enterica Serovar Infantis Isolated From Poultry In The Northern Part Of Serbia
Authors: Todorović Dalibor , Velhner Maja , Milanov Dubravka , Vidanović Dejan , Suvajdžić Ljiljana , Stojanov Igor , Krnjaić Dejan
Published: February 2016

Resistance to tetracycline was studied in Salmonella Infantis isolated from 28 poultry farms in the Northern part of Serbia (The Autonomous Province of Vojvodina). A total of 18 isolates were resistant to nalidixic acid (NAL) and tetracycline (TET). The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) to TET, ranged from 1-256 mg/L. Namely, 13 isolates exhibited MIC to TET at 256 mg/L, in four of the isolates, the MIC was 128 mg/L and one isolate had MIC 64 mg/L. Ten isolates were exhibiting a MIC of 1mg/L. It was evident that Salmonella Infantis had also spread to breeders and layers. In this work, we detected the tetA gene and the corresponding tetR gene (encoding the repressor protein) as well as the truncated transposon Tn1721, which are responsible for the resistance to TET. The presence of the non conjugative transposons from the conjugative plasmid has facilitated the spread of resistance to TET in Salmonella. It was concluded that higher biosecurity practice in poultry farming presents the best option to eliminate infections caused by Salmonella spp. from poultry flocks in Serbia. A rational use of antimicrobials is necessary to prevent any further spread of Salmonella Infantis resistant clones.
Can Leech Therapy Be Used as an Alternative Treatment for Controlling Migraine Headache? A Pilot Study / Da li lečenje pijavicama može da se primenjuje kao alternativni način lečenja u kontroli migrenoznih glavobolja? Pilot studija
Authors: Bakhshi Mahmoud , Jalalian Babak , Valian Maryam , Shariati Saeide , Saeidi Tahere , Ranjbar Hossein
Published: February 2016

Leech therapy is likely to cause symptomatic relief in migraine headache sufferers, but there is little clinical data in this field. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of leech therapy in the management of migraine headaches.

This is a quasi-experimental pilot study with a three-month post-treatment follow-up. Twenty-six patients with migraine headaches were allocated into two groups to receive either routine drug therapy (Propranolol 80 mg/day and Amytriptyline 50 mg/day) as preventive therapy or leech therapy (1-3 leeches in a single session). The severity and duration of headache were measured before intervention, as well as at week 1, and at months 1, 2, and 3 after intervention. The visual analog scale (VAS) was used to assess the severity of headache.

The mean severity and duration of headaches were significantly decreased within both groups during the study period, whereas there was no significant difference between the groups after three months. The declining trend of severity and duration of headaches was seen to be highly significant in the first week of the treatment in both groups.

The results of this study showed that a single session of leech therapy offers benefits equal to drug therapy in reducing pain in women with migraine headache, and can provide great symptomatic relief, lasting for at least three months.