bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Wisconsin microbiome study, a cross-sectional investigation of dietary fibre, microbiome composition and antibiotic-resistant organisms: rationale and methods
Authors: Eggers Shoshannah , Malecki Kristen MC , Peppard Paul , Mares Julie , Shirley Daniel , Shukla Sanjay K , Poulsen Keith , Gangnon Ronald , Duster Megan , Kates Ashley , Suen Garret , Sethi Ajay K , Safdar Nasia
Published: March 2018

Introduction

Prevention of multidrug-resistant organism (MDRO) infections, such as those caused by methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant enterococci, fluoroquinolone-resistant Gram-negative bacteria andClostridium difficileis crucial. Evidence suggests that dietary fibre increases gut microbial diversity, which may help prevent colonisation and subsequent infection by MDROs. The aim of the Winning the War on Antibiotic Resistance (WARRIOR) project is to examine associations of dietary fibre consumption with the composition of the gut microbiota and gut colonisation by MDROs. The secondary purpose of the study is to create a biorepository of multiple body site specimens for future microbiota research.

Methods and analysis

The WARRIOR project collects biological specimens, including nasal, oral and skin swabs and saliva and stool samples, along with extensive data on diet and MDRO risk factors, as an ancillary study of the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin (SHOW). The SHOW is a population-based health survey collecting data on several different health determinants and outcomes, as well as objective body measurements and biological specimens. WARRIOR participants include 600 randomly selected Wisconsin residents age 18 and over. Specimens are screened for MDRO colonisation and DNA is extracted for 16S ribosomal RNA-based microbiota sequencing. Data will be analysed to assess the relationship between dietary fibre, the gut microbiota composition and gut MDRO colonisation.

Ethics and dissemination

The WARRIOR project is approved by the University of Wisconsin Institutional Review Board. The main results of this study will be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
Impact of CAre-related Regret Upon Sleep (ICARUS) cohort study: protocol of a 3-year multicentre, international, prospective cohort study of novice healthcare professionals
Authors: Cheval Boris , Cullati Stéphane , Pihl-Thingvad Jesper , Mongin Denis , Von Arx Martina , Chopard Pierre , Courvoisier Delphine S
Published: March 2018

Introduction

Healthcare professionals are particularly at risk of developing numerous physical and psychological health problems. The experiences of emotional burden associated with providing healthcare, notably care-related regret, have been associated with these health problems, but only using cross-sectional data so far. Evidence of a causal impact of regret has not been assessed. The Impact of CAre-related Regret Upon Sleep (ICARUS) study is the first prospective and international cohort study established to examine how newly practising healthcare professionals adapt to their challenging job by assessing the impact of care-related regret on sleep and job quitting.

Method and analysis

The ICARUS cohort study will include newly practising healthcare professionals working in acute care hospitals and clinics recruited between May 2017 and November 2019. Data collection, which will begin as soon as the participant starts working with patients, will consist of a 1-year weekly assessment using a secure web survey. Follow-up data will be collected at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months after the end of the first year. We will collect detailed information on the experience of care-related regret (ie, highest regret intensity, accumulation of regrets and coping strategies related to regrets), sleep problems and job quitting. Moreover, quality of life, health status and burnout will be assessed during the follow-up. Several confounders factors, including sociodemographic characteristics, personality, night shifts and work environment characteristics, will be assessed.

Ethics and dissemination

The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Geneva Canton, Switzerland (CCER2016-02041), the Ethics Committee of London South Bank University (HSCSEP/17/06) and the University Research Ethics Committee of Bedfordshire (UREC106). Other study centres deemed local ethical approval unnecessary since the main ethics committee (Geneva) had already accepted the project. Results will be published in relevant scientific journals and be disseminated in international conferences. Fully anonymised data and questionnaires will be freely accessible to everyone (scientists and general public).
Social isolation and loneliness as risk factors for myocardial infarction, stroke and mortality: UK Biobank cohort study of 479 054 men and women
Authors: Hakulinen Christian , Pulkki-Råback Laura , Virtanen Marianna , Jokela Markus , Kivimäki Mika , Elovainio Marko
Published: March 2018

Objective

To examine whether social isolation and loneliness (1) predict acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and stroke among those with no history of AMI or stroke, (2) are related to mortality risk among those with a history of AMI or stroke, and (3) the extent to which these associations are explained by known risk factors or pre-existing chronic conditions.

Methods

Participants were 479 054 individuals from the UK Biobank. The exposures were self-reported social isolation and loneliness. AMI, stroke and mortality were the outcomes.

Results

Over 7.1 years, 5731 had first AMI, and 3471 had first stroke. In model adjusted for demographics, social isolation was associated with higher risk of AMI (HR 1.43, 95% CI 1.3 to –1.55) and stroke (HR 1.39, 95% CI 1.25 to 1.54). When adjusted for all the other risk factors, the HR for AMI was attenuated by 84% to 1.07 (95% CI 0.99 to 1.16) and the HR for stroke was attenuated by 83% to 1.06 (95% CI 0.96 to 1.19). Loneliness was associated with higher risk of AMI before (HR 1.49, 95% CI 1.36 to 1.64) but attenuated considerably with adjustments (HR 1.06, 95% CI 0.96 to 1.17). This was also the case for stroke (HR 1.36, 95% CI 1.20 to 1.55 before and HR 1.04, 95% CI 0.91 to 1.19 after adjustments). Social isolation, but not loneliness, was associated with increased mortality in participants with a history of AMI (HR 1.25, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.51) or stroke (HR 1.32, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.61) in the fully adjusted model.

Conclusions

Isolated and lonely persons are at increased risk of AMI and stroke, and, among those with a history of AMI or stroke, increased risk of death. Most of this risk was explained by conventional risk factors.
Risks of Irritable Bowel Syndrome in Children with Infantile Urinary Tract Infection: A 13-Year Nationwide Cohort Study
Authors: Tan Teck-King , Saps Miguel , Lin Cheng-Li , Wei Chang-Ching
Published: March 2018

Early life events play a crucial role in the development of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Some evidence suggests the phenomenon of cross-organ sensitization between bladder and colon. Whether urinary tract infection (UTI) during infancy is a risk factor of childhood IBS remains to be elucidated. In this retrospective cohort study, we selected 31 788 infants who had UTI between 2000 and 2011 as a UTI cohort and selected 127 152 infants without UTI as a comparison cohort, matched by age, sex and level of urbanization of living area. Incidence density and HRs with CIs of IBS between UTI and non-UTI cohorts were calculated by the end of 2012. The incidence density of IBS during the study period was 1.52-fold higher in the UTI cohort (95% CI 1.38 to 1.67) compared with the non-UTI cohort (2.05 vs 1.32 per 10 000 person-years). The HR of IBS was slightly higher for boys (1.53; 95% CI 1.34 to 1.73) than for girls (1.50; 95% CI 1.29 to 1.73). The HRs for IBS in children with UTI were greater for those with more UTI-related medical visits/per year (>5 visits, HR 61.3; 95% CI 51.8 to 72.6), with longer length of stay of hospitalization (>7 days, HR 1.75; 95% CI 1.36 to 2.24) and with vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) (HR 1.73; 95% CI 1.35 to 2.22) (p<0.0001, the trend test). Infants with UTI had higher risks of childhood IBS and the risks elevated further with recurrent UTI or UTI with concurrent VUR.
How should medical schools prepare medical students for leading the NHS?
Authors: Oke Simisola Elizabeth
Published: March 2018

Background

Good medical leadership is vital for the delivery of high-quality patient care; however, medical education in the UK has failed to adequately reflect this. While traditional training programmes focus predominantly on preparing students to be good clinicians, they fail to prepare students to be equally good leaders.

Aims

Prepared for, and subsequently winning, the FMLM Medical Student Essay Prize, this paper looks to offer practical recommendations for the design of an undergraduate curriculum that will help prepare students for leading the National Health Service (NHS).

Methods

Using the four core behaviours outlined in The Leadership and Management Standards for Medical Professionals and the Medical Leadership Competency Framework, this paper derives four themes and four practical methods that can be used to integrate leadership into the undergraduate medicine programme.

Results

There are four key themes of leadership that must be addressed within a medical leadership programme: self, team, system and responsibility. In line with these themes, four recommendations were designed: (1) self- introduce self-reflection portfolios supplemented by goal-setting exercises. (2) Team—supplement clinical placements with leadership placements which offer opportunities to shadow NHS leaders. Additionally, extend ‘Objective Structured Clinical Examinations’ to include leadership assessment stations for appraising student leadership progress. (3) Design an e-learning tool that addresses wider strategic and political issues affecting the health service. (4) Responsibility—offer service improvement projects and service auditing opportunities during placements.

Conclusion

These recommendations offer medical schools realistic ways to integrate medical leadership into the curriculum, thus helping them prepare students to lead the NHS.
Gender differences in the factors predicting initial engagement at cardiac rehabilitation
Authors: Galdas Paul Michael , Harrison Alexander Stephen , Doherty Patrick
Published: March 2018

Objective

To determine whether there are gender differences in the factors that predict attendance at the initial cardiac rehabilitation baseline assessment (CR engagement) after referral.

Methods

Using data from the National Audit of Cardiac Rehabilitation, we analysed data on 95 638 patients referred to CR following a cardiovascular diagnosis/treatment between 2013 and 2016. Eighteen factors that have been shown in previous research to be important predictors of CR participation were investigated and grouped into four categories: sociodemographic factors, cardiac risk factors, patient medical status and service-level factors. Logistic binary regression models were built for male patients and female patients, assessing the likelihood for CR engagement. Each included predictors such as age, number of comorbidities and social deprivation score.

Results

There were no important differences in the factors that predict the likelihood of CR engagement in men and women. Seven factors associated with a reduced probability of CR engagement, and eight factors associated with increased probability, were identified. Fourteen of the 15 factors identified as predicting the likelihood for engagement/non-engagement were the same for both men and women. Increasing age, being South Asian or non-white ethnicity (other than Black) and being single were all associated with a reduced likelihood of attending an initial CR baseline assessment in both men and women. Male patients with diabetes were 11% less likely to engage with CR; however, there was no significant association in women. Results showed that the overwhelmingly important determinant of CR engagement observed in both men and women was receiving an invitation to attend an assessment session (OR 4.223 men/4.033women; p<0.05).

Conclusions

Consideration of gender differences in predictors of CR uptake should probably be more nuanced and informed by the stage of the patient care pathway.
Autoimmune encephalitis (NMDAR antibody) in a patient receiving chronic post-transplant immunosuppression
Authors: Randall Anna , Huda Saif , Jacob Anu , Larner Andrew J
Published: March 2018

Autoimmune encephalitis associated with antibodies (Abs) directed against the synaptic ligand-gated ion channel NMDA receptor (NMDAR) was first described as a paraneoplastic disorder in association with ovarian teratoma. Other forms of neoplasia have subsequently been reported although many patients do not have a tumour. Tumour removal, where applicable, and immunotherapy form the mainstays of treatment. We present a patient who developed NMDAR-Ab encephalitis despite being chronically immunosuppressed following organ transplantation, and who was eventually found to have an occult malignancy in the form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Evaluating benefits of stocking on sockeye recovery projections in a nutrient-enhanced mixed life history population
Authors: van Poorten Brett T. , Harris Shannon , Hebert Allison
Published: March 2018

Dam construction often blocks migration of anadromous sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka), resulting in a residualized population that is often managed as landlocked kokanee. Anadromy resumes when a reconnection to the ocean is established; however, there may be selective pressure acting on threshold trait(s) affecting smolt timing and probability. While there may be interest in predicting persistence of anadromous and residual sockeye forms, this is difficult because the heritability of smolting in these populations is poorly known. We develop a fully density-dependent age-structured model to project abundances for both anadromous and resident sockeye. The model considers trophic interactions due to nutrient variation and the density-dependent consequences for smolting and adult returns. Moreover, it asks how each life history type will persist if a hatchery were used to promote anadromous sockeye through artificial selection. We show hatchery supplementation is unlikely to impact anadromous or resident sockeye significantly, although there is substantial prediction uncertainty suggested in projections. Our study suggests that providing passage for previous land-locked anadromous populations will lead to the return of anadromous fish in the short term, but long-term prospects are far from certain.
Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of the OSCA gene family in Pyrus bretschneideri
Authors: Gu Xiaoyu , Wang Peng , Liu Zhe , Wang Li , Huang Zhi , Zhang Shaoling , Wu Juyou
Published: March 2018

Responses to osmotic change are critical for plant survival, development, and reproduction. Hyperosmolality-induced cytosolic free calcium concentration [(Ca2+)i] increase (OSCAs) proteins have been described as osmosensors in plants and animals. To investigate functional roles of OSCA genes (PbrOSCAs) in pear (Pyrus bretschneideri Rehd.), bioinformatics, and expression analyses of the PbrOSCAs were performed. Sixteen PbrOSCA members were identified in the pear genome. PbrOSCA family members were classified into four clades by sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis. Moreover, protein structure analysis indicated that the 16 PbrOSCA members shared similar structures with their homologues in Arabidopsis and rice. Multi-transmembrane patterns and ion transport pore sites of PbrOSCAs were conserved, and expression profiles of PbrOSCA varied among tissues and with osmotic stress conditions. In particular, expression levels of six PbrOSCAs gradually increased with time during osmotic stress, suggesting that PbrOSCAs may play regulatory roles in plant osmotic stress responses.
Larval salamanders are as effective at short-term mosquito predation as mosquitofish
Authors: Watters Amanda M. , Rowland Freya E. , Semlitsch Raymond D.
Published: March 2018

Biological control of mosquitoes can have unintended ecological consequences. One example is the introduction of the genus Gambusia Poey, 1854 into ponds and wetlands. Gambusia spp. are invasive in many parts of the world and have the potential to alter ecosystems by changing trophic interactions and extirpating amphibians. We sought to determine whether larval amphibians are capable of consuming larval mosquitoes as effectively as Gambusia spp. We tested the predation ability of larval Spotted Salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum (Shaw, 1802); n = 13), Southern Leopard Frog (Rana sphenocephala Cope, 1886; n = 12) tadpoles, and western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis (Baird and Girard, 1853); n = 13) across a range of body sizes in laboratory experiments. Our results showed that over a 24 h period, salamander larvae (mean ± SE; 238 ± 14) and mosquitofish (195 ± 17) consumed a statistically equivalent number of mosquito larvae, whereas tadpoles consumed a large number (113 ± 14) but significantly less. All species had significant (or marginally significant) positive relationships between body size and rate of mosquito consumption. Further studies into the ability of native larval amphibians to consume mosquito larvae are needed to assess whether amphibians can be successful at mosquito control instead of introducing nonnative species to new areas.
Identifying resilient Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake (Sistrurus catenatus) peatland hummock hibernacula
Authors: Smolarz A.G. , Moore P.A. , Markle C.E. , Waddington J.M.
Published: March 2018

At the northern limit of the Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake’s (Sistrurus catenatus (Rafinesque, 1818)) range, individuals spend up to half the year overwintering. In hummock hibernacula found in peatlands, it is likely that subsurface temperature and water table position are contributing factors dictating habitat suitability. As a step towards assessing the vulnerability of hibernacula to anthropogenic changes, we combined subsurface temperature and water table dynamics to assess the likelihood that unflooded and unfrozen conditions were present in hummock hibernacula. Our results indicate that taller hummocks are more resilient to an advancing frost line and fluctuating water table by providing a larger area and duration of unfrozen and unflooded conditions, and a critical overwintering depth that is farther from the hummock surface. In two study sites along eastern Georgian Bay, an unflooded and unfrozen zone was present for over 90% of the overwintering period for hummocks taller than 25–27 cm. Our findings highlight the vulnerability of peatland hummocks to variability of winter weather where deep freezing and (or) water table rise may nonlinearly reduce resilience. This suggests that height is not the only component affecting the suitability of hummock hibernacula and that further research should examine the structure and spatial arrangement of hummocks within a peatland.
A BRST formulation for the conic constrained particle
Authors: Barbosa Gabriel D. , Thibes Ronaldo
Published: March 2018

We describe the gauge invariant BRST formulation of a particle constrained to move in a general conic. The model considered constitutes an explicit example of an originally second-class system which can be quantized within the BRST framework. We initially impose the conic constraint by means of a Lagrange multiplier leading to a consistent second-class system which generalizes previous models studied in the literature. After calculating the constraint structure and the corresponding Dirac brackets, we introduce a suitable first-order Lagrangian, the resulting modified system is then shown to be gauge invariant. We proceed to the extended phase space introducing fermionic ghost variables, exhibiting the BRST symmetry transformations and writing the Green’s function generating functional for the BRST quantized model.
Review: Static and Dynamic Analysis Methods for Multi-Branch Biasing Circuits
Authors: Wu Jin , Dai Pengfei , Peng Jie , Zheng Lixia , Sun Weifeng
Published: March 2018

The fundamental theories and primary structures for the multi-branch self-biasing circuits are reviewed in this paper. First, the [Formula: see text]/[Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]/[Formula: see text] structures illustrating the static current definition mechanism are presented, including the conditions of starting up and entering into a stable equilibrium point. Then, the AC method based on the loop gain evaluation is utilized to analyze different types of circuits. On this basis, the laws which can couple the branches of self-biasing circuits to construct a suitable close feedback loop are summarized. By adopting Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC)’s 0.18[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) process with 1.8[Formula: see text][Formula: see text] supply voltage, nearly all the circuits mentioned in the paper are simulated in the same branch current condition, which is close to the corresponding calculated results. Therefore, the methods summarized in this paper can be utilized for distinguishing, constructing, and optimizing critical parameters for various structures of the self-biasing circuits.
An Improved ANFIS with Aid of ALO Technique for THD Minimization of Multilevel Inverters
Authors: Francis Roy , Meganathan D.
Published: March 2018

In this study, an artificial intelligent (AI) technique is proposed for minimizing the total harmonic distortion (THD) of the multi-level inverter (MLI). An AI technique is a mixture of an ALO and ANFIS, which controls the parameters of the inverter. The innovation of the proposed technique is improving the performance of the MLI, which is reducing the THD based on the output voltage waveform. Normally, the output voltage of the inverter is based on the switching angle of MLI. Then the proposed technique is utilized to optimize the switching angle and THD of the inverter. Here, the ALO is used to analyze the switching angle of the MLI with the aid of the fitness function. ANFIS is familiar with optimizing the switching angle from the ALO algorithm output. By the implementation of the proposed technique, decrease the value of THD in the MLI for gathering the performance of the system. Asymmetrical MLI is used in the proposed model and it wishes to separate DC supply to activate. For skilled activation, the optimal outcomes and the objective functions are well-definite and recognize their restriction similarly. The proposed technique was realized in MATLAB/Simulink platform and compared with the prevailing techniques such as particle swarm optimization (PSO)-ANFIS, genetic algorithm (GA)-Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and ANN-ALO.
Modeling and Performance Analysis of MLGNR Interconnects
Authors: Chanu Waikhom Mona , Das Debaprasad
Published: March 2018

In this work, we have presented the temperature-dependent analytical time domain model for top-contact multilayer graphene nanoribbon (TC-MLGNR) and side-contact multilayer graphene nanoribbon (SC-MLGNR) interconnects for 16[Formula: see text]nm technology node. Using this analytical model, the effective mean free path (MFP) is calculated for different temperatures and then the resistance of GNR interconnect is calculated. The lower resistance of MLGNR is one of the important factors to reduce interconnect delay. The equivalent capacitance for TC-MLGNR is also calculated. It is observed that the performance of graphene interconnects seriously deteriorates due to the presence of the interlayer capacitance. The presence of this interlayer capacitance increases the equivalent capacitance which is the dominant factor that inhibits the performance of TC-MLGNR interconnects. Further, the delay ratio between copper and TC-MLGNR for different interconnect lengths and for three different temperatures (233[Formula: see text]K, 300[Formula: see text]K, 378[Formula: see text]K) is calculated. It is observed that for longer interconnect lengths, the improvement in delay in TC-MLGNR is less as compared to traditional copper-based interconnect at low temperature. Further, power delay product (PDP) of copper and TC-MLGNR for different interconnect lengths and for three different temperatures is also calculated. It is shown that TC-MLGNR interconnects have better PDP than copper interconnects. The crosstalk analysis is performed to estimate the noise and overshoot/undershoot in TC-MLGNR and SC-MLGNR interconnects. It is shown that SC-MLGNR interconnect has better performance as far as the crosstalk is concerned as compared to that of Cu and TC-MLGNR interconnects.
SPLASH: semi-empirical prediction of landslide-generated displacement wave run-up heights
Authors: Oppikofer Thierry , Hermanns Reginald L. , Roberts Nicholas J. , Böhme Martina
Published: March 2018

Displacement waves (or tsunamis) generated by sub-aerial landslides cause damage along shorelines over long distances, making run-up assessment a crucial component of landslide risk analysis. Although site-specific modelling provides important insight into the behaviour of potential waves, more general approaches using limited input parameters are necessary for preliminary assessments. We use a catalogue of landslide-generated displacement waves to develop semi-empirical relationships linking displacement wave run-up (
R
in metres) to distance from landslide impact (
x
in kilometres) and to landslide volume (
V
in millions of cubic metres). For individual events, run-up decreases with distance according to power laws. Consideration of ten events demonstrates that run-up increases with landslide volume, also according to a power law. Combining these relationships gives the SPLASH equation:
R
=
a

V
b

x
c

, with best-fitted parameters
a
= 18.093,
b
= 0.57110 and
c
= −0.74189. The 95% prediction interval between the calculated and measured run-up values is 2.58, meaning that 5% of the measured run-up heights exceed the predicted value by a factor of 2.58 or more. This relatively large error is explained by local amplifications of wave height and run-up. Comparisons with other displacement wave models show that the SPLASH equation is a valuable tool for the first-stage preliminary hazard and risk assessment for unstable rock slopes above water bodies.
Evidence for surface sediment remobilization by earthquakes in the Nankai forearc region from sedimentary records
Authors: Okutsu Natsumi , Ashi Juichiro , Yamaguchi Asuka , Irino Tomohisa , Ikehara Ken , Kanamatsu Toshiya , Suganuma Yusuke , Murayama Masafumi
Published: March 2018

Submarine landslides triggered by earthquakes can generate turbidity currents. Recently, several studies have reported that the remobilization of surface sediment triggered by earthquakes can also generate turbidity currents. Such sedimentary processes may be influenced by sediment characteristics, seafloor morphology and seismic motions. Here, we verify surface sediment remobilization using sedimentary records from the Nankai forearc region, SW Japan. We collected multi-core and piston core samples from a small confined basin, mainly composed of silty clay or very fine sand. Radiocaesium measurements of the multi-core show consistently high values in the upper 17 cm and low values below this depth. Rapid sediment deposition after 1950 is assumed, and the most likely cause is the 2004 off the Kii Peninsula earthquake. Based on calculations using bathymetric maps and palaeocurrent data, settlement of the upper 17 cm can be explained by redeposition of the surface (
c.
1 cm) slope sediment around the basin. Muddy turbidites are also identified in the piston core. The gap in radiocarbon age observed around 2.0 m bsf (metres below seafloor) implies similar sedimentary processes. Our study represents the first examination of surficial remobilization from sedimentary cores in the Nankai forearc region.
Assessment of the effect of mass-transport deposits on fault propagation in Penobscot area, offshore Nova Scotia
Authors: Omeru Tuviere , Bankole Samson I. , Jolly Byami A. , Seyi Obafemi S. , Omojola Joses B.
Published: March 2018

Three-dimensional (3D) seismic data and well logs from the Penobscot area, located within the Scotian Basin offshore Nova Scotia, are used to assess the role of mass-transport deposits (MTDs) on fault propagation. Four MTDs characterized by chaotic seismic facies were mapped, with the earliest hosted by the Late Cretaceous–Recent Dawson Canyon Formation and latest three hosted by the Banquereau Formation. Two types of faults were also mapped. R-faults are regional faults that cut across all the interpreted MTDs in the study area, while P-faults are polygonal faults that cut across MTDs 2 and 3 but tip out at the basal surfaces of MTDs 4 and 2. Representative seismic profiles and isochron maps of the MTDs and throw–depth (
T–z
) and throw–distance (
T–x
) plots allows us to distinguish the families and propagation history of the faults. Our results show that fault propagation is not affected by the presence or thickness variation of MTDs, and is also unaffected by lithological contrast in the Penobscot area of the Nova Scotian Shelf.
Bridgeware
Authors: Guri Mordechai , Elovici Yuval
Published: March 2018

The challenge of combatting malware designed to breach air-gap isolation in order to leak data.
Full 3D Reconstruction of Non-Rigidly Deforming Objects
Authors: Afzal Hassan , Aouada Djamila , Mirbach Bruno , Ottersten Björn
Published: March 2018

In this article, we discuss enhanced full 360° 3D reconstruction of dynamic scenes containing non-rigidly deforming objects using data acquired from commodity depth or 3D cameras. Several approaches for enhanced and full 3D reconstruction of non-rigid objects have been proposed in the literature. These approaches suffer from several limitations due to requirement of a template, inability to tackle large local deformations and topology changes, inability to tackle highly noisy and low-resolution data, and inability to produce online results. We target online and template-free enhancement of the quality of noisy and low-resolution full 3D reconstructions of dynamic non-rigid objects. For this purpose, we propose a view-independent recursive and dynamic multi-frame 3D super-resolution scheme for noise removal and resolution enhancement of 3D measurements. The proposed scheme tracks the position and motion of each 3D point at every timestep by making use of the current acquisition and the result of the previous iteration. The effects of system blur due to per-point tracking are subsequently tackled by introducing a novel and efficient multi-level 3D bilateral total variation regularization. These characteristics enable the proposed scheme to handle large deformations and topology changes accurately. A thorough evaluation of the proposed scheme on both real and simulated data is carried out. The results show that the proposed scheme improves upon the performance of the state-of-the-art methods and is able to accurately enhance the quality of low-resolution and highly noisy 3D reconstructions while being robust to large local deformations.
Lessons from building static analysis tools at Google
Authors: Sadowski Caitlin , Aftandilian Edward , Eagle Alex , Miller-Cushon Liam , Jaspan Ciera
Published: March 2018

For a static analysis project to succeed, developers must feel they benefit from and enjoy using it.
ComNSense
Authors: Abdelaal Mohamed , Reichelt Daniel , Dürr Frank , Rothermel Kurt , Runceanu Lavinia , Becker Susanne , Fritsch Dieter
Published: March 2018

Recently, point clouds have been efficiently utilized for medical imaging, modeling urban environments, and indoor modeling. In this realm, several mobile platforms, such as Google Tango and Apple ARKit, have been released leveraging 3D mapping, augmented reality, etc. In modeling applications, these modern mobile devices opened the door for crowd-sourcing point clouds to distribute the overhead of data collection. However, uploading these large points clouds from resources-constrained mobile devices to the back-end servers consumes excessive energy. Accordingly, participation rates in such crowd-sensing systems can be negatively influenced. To tackle this challenge, this paper introduces our ComNSense approach that dramatically reduces the energy consumption of processing and uploading point clouds. To this end, ComNSense reports only a set of extracted geometrical data to the servers. To optimize the geometry extraction, ComNSense leverages formal grammars which encode design-time knowledge, i.e. structural information. To demonstrate the effectiveness of ComNSense, we performed several experiments of collecting point clouds from two different buildings to extract the walls location, as a case study. We also assess the performance of ComNSense relative to a grammar-free method. The results showed a significant reduction of the energy consumption while achieving a comparable detection accuracy.
rConverse
Authors: Bari Rummana , Adams Roy J. , Rahman Md. Mahbubur , Parsons Megan Battles , Buder Eugene H. , Kumar Santosh
Published: March 2018

Monitoring of in-person conversations has largely been done using acoustic sensors. In this paper, we propose a new method to detect moment-by-moment conversation episodes by analyzing breathing patterns captured by a mobile respiration sensor. Since breathing is affected by physical and cognitive activities, we develop a comprehensive method for cleaning, screening, and analyzing noisy respiration data captured in the field environment at individual breath cycle level. Using training data collected from a speech dynamics lab study with 12 participants, we show that our algorithm can identify each respiration cycle with 96.34% accuracy even in presence of walking. We present a Conditional Random Field, Context-Free Grammar (CRF-CFG) based conversation model, called rConverse, to classify respiration cycles into speech or non-speech, and subsequently infer conversation episodes. Our model achieves 82.7% accuracy for speech/non-speech classification and it identifies conversation episodes with 95.9% accuracy on lab data using a leave-one-subject-out cross-validation. Finally, the system is validated against audio ground-truth in a field study with 32 participants. rConverse identifies conversation episodes with 71.7% accuracy on 254 hours of field data. For comparison, the accuracy from a high-quality audio-recorder on the same data is 71.9%.
Students' Experiences with Ecological Momentary Assessment Tools to Report on Emotional Well-being
Authors: Chan Larry , Swain Vedant Das , Kelley Christina , de Barbaro Kaya , Abowd Gregory D. , Wilcox Lauren
Published: March 2018

Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) methods have emerged as an approach that enhances the ecological validity of data collected for the study of human behavior and experience. In particular, EMA methods are used to capture individuals' experiences (e.g., symptoms, affect, and behaviors) in real-world contexts and in near-real time. However, work investigating participants' experiences in EMA studies and in particular, how these experiences may influence the collected data, is limited. We conducted in-depth focus groups with 32 participants following an EMA study on mental well-being in college students. In doing so, we probed how the elicitation of high-quality, reflective responses is related to the design of EMA interactions. Through our study, we distilled three primary considerations for designing EMA interactions, based on observations of 1) response strategies to repeated questions, 2) the perceived burden of EMA prompts, and 3) challenges to the validity and robustness of EMA data. We present these considerations in the context of two microinteraction-based EMA approaches that we tested: lock-screen EMA and image-based question prompts. We conclude by characterizing design tensions in the presentation and delivery of EMA prompts, and outline directions for future work to address these tensions.
Comparing a Single-Touch Whiteboard and a Multi-Touch Tabletop for Collaboration in School Museum Visits
Authors: Clayphan Andrew , Collins Anthony , Kay Judy , Slawitschka Nathan , Horder Jenny
Published: March 2018

This paper explores two important classes of large screen displays, single-touch whiteboards and multi-touch tabletops, for the context of collaborative learning by school groups at a museum. To do this, we designed MuseWork, as a worksheet activity, with two phases: first, students explore the museum, individually or in pairs, guided by our tablet worksheet app; then, in groups, they collaborate to create a poster at a large-screen display, using our device-customised MuseWork interfaces. Our goal was to gain insights about the implications for engagement and collaboration when groups use these devices; single-touch whiteboards are important as they are widely available in classrooms and multi-touch tabletops are an emerging technology. Our research questions asked: 1) whether MuseWork enabled groups to complete the collaborative task at both devices and 2) how the whiteboard and tabletop each affect key aspects of collaboration. We report a between-subjects study of 67 students, aged 10--14 years, from 2 schools, in 12 groups. Our results, based on qualitative and quantitative data, indicate the MuseWork interface for each device proved effective, with groups completing the activity and satisfied with the result and the experience (RQ1). Comparisons of groups using each device (RQ2) give new insights in terms of the products of the collaborative activity, and the strategies groups spontaneously developed for group co-ordination and device use. Our contributions are insights from the first in-the-field study of children collaborating at single-touch interactive whiteboards and multi-touch tabletops.
TagFree Activity Identification with RFIDs
Authors: Fan Xiaoyi , Gong Wei , Liu Jiangchuan
Published: March 2018

Human activity identification plays a critical role in many Internet-of-Things applications, which is typically achieved through attaching tracking devices, e.g., RFID tags, to human bodies. The attachment can be inconvenient and considered intrusive. A tag-free solution instead deploys stationary tags as references, and analyzes the backscattered signals that could be affected by human activities in close proximity. The information offered by today's RFID tags however are quite limited, and the typical raw data (RSSI and phase angles) are not necessarily good indicators of human activities (being either insensitive or unreliable as revealed by our realworld experiments). As such, existing tag-based activity identification solutions are far from being satisfactory, not to mention tag-free. It is also well known that the accuracy of the readings can be noticeably affected by multipath, which unfortunately is inevitable in an indoor environment and is complicated with multiple reference tags.

In this paper, we however argue that multipath indeed brings rich information that can be explored to identify fine-grained human activities. Our experiments suggest that both the backscattered signal power and angle are correlated with human activities, impacting multiple paths with different levels. We present TagFree, the first RFID-based device-free activity identification system by analyzing the multipath signals. Different from conventional solutions that directly rely on the unreliable raw data, TagFree gathers massive angle information as spectrum frames from multiple tags, and preprocesses them to extract key features. It then analyzes their patterns through a deep learning framework. Our TagFree is readily deployable using off-the-shelf RFID devices and a prototype has been implemented using a commercial Impinj reader. Our extensive experiments demonstrate the superiority of our TagFree on activity identification in multipath-rich environments.
Crowdsourcing the Installation and Maintenance of Indoor Localization Infrastructure to Support Blind Navigation
Authors: Gleason Cole , Ahmetovic Dragan , Savage Saiph , Toxtli Carlos , Posthuma Carl , Asakawa Chieko , Kitani Kris M. , Bigham Jeffrey P.
Published: March 2018

Indoor navigation systems can make unfamiliar buildings more accessible for people with vision impairments, but their adoption is hampered by the effort of installing infrastructure and maintaining it over time. Most solutions in this space require augmenting the environment with add-ons, such as Bluetooth beacons. Installing and calibrating such infrastructure requires time and expertise. Once installed, localization accuracy often degrades over time as batteries die, beacons go missing, or otherwise stop working. Even localization systems installed by experts can become unreliable weeks, months, or years after the installation. To address this problem, we created LuzDeploy: a physical crowdsourcing system that organizes non-experts for the installation and long-term maintenance of a Bluetooth-based navigation system. LuzDeploy simplifies the tasks required to install and maintain the localization infrastructure, thus making a crowdsourcing approach feasible for non-experts. We report on a field deployment where 127 participants installed and maintained a blind navigation system over several months in a 7-story building, completing 455 tasks in total. We compare the accuracy of the system installed by participants to an installation completed by experts with specialized equipment. LuzDeploy aims to improve the sustainability of indoor navigation systems to encourage widespread adoption outside of research settings.
SiFi
Authors: Gong Wei , Liu Jiangchuan
Published: March 2018

There has been a booming interest in developing WiFi localization using multi-antenna (MIMO) access points (APs). Recent advances have demonstrated promising results that break the meter-accuracy barrier using commodity APs. Yet these state-of-the-art solutions require either multiple APs that are not necessarily available in practice, or multiple-channel measurements that disrupt normal data communication. In this paper, we present SiFi, a single AP-based indoor localization system that for the first time achieves sub-meter accuracy with a single channel only. The SiFi design is based on a key observation: with MIMO, the multiple (typically three) antennas of an AP are frequency-locked; although the accurate Time-of-Arrival (ToA) estimation on commodity APs is fundamentally limited by the imperfect time and frequency synchronization between the transmitter and receiver, there should be only one value for the ToA distortion that can cause three direct-path ToAs of the antennas to intersect at a single point, i.e., the position of the target. We develop the theoretical foundations of SiFi and demonstrate its realworld implementation with off-the-shelf WiFi cards. Our implementation introduces no hardware modification and is fully compatible with concurrent data transmission. It achieves a median accuracy of 0.93 m, which significantly outperforms the best known single AP single channel solution.
BreathLive
Authors: Huang Chenyu , Chen Huangxun , Yang Lin , Zhang Qian
Published: March 2018

Nowadays, considerable number of devices have been proposed to monitor cardiovascular health. To protect medical data on these devices from unauthorized access, researchers have proposed ECG-based and heart sound-based authentication methods. However, their vulnerabilities to replay attacks have recently been revealed. In this paper, we leverage liveness detection to enhance heart sound-based authentication against replay attacks. We utilize the inherent correlation between sounds and chest motion caused by deep breathing to realize a reliable liveness detection system, BreathLive. To be specific, BreathLive captures breathing sounds and chest motion simultaneously, and then eliminates signal delay caused by any imperfections of device components. Next, it extracts a set of features to characterize the correlation between sounds and motion signals, and uses them to train the classifier. We implement and evaluated BreathLive under different attacking scenarios and contexts. The results show that BreathLive achieves an equal error rate of 4.0%, 6.4% and 8.3% for random impersonation attacks, advanced impersonation attacks and advanced replay attacks respectively, which indicates its effectiveness in defending against different attacks. Also the extensive experiments prove the system can be robust to different contexts with a small training set.
Obfuscation At-Source
Authors: Kandappu Thivya , Misra Archan , Cheng Shih-Fen , Tandriansyah Randy , Lau Hoong Chuin
Published: March 2018

By effectively reaching out to and engaging larger population of mobile users, mobile crowd-sourcing has become a strategy to perform large amount of urban tasks. The recent empirical studies have shown that compared to the pull-based approach, which expects the users to browse through the list of tasks to perform, the push-based approach that actively recommends tasks can greatly improve the overall system performance. As the efficiency of the push-based approach is achieved by incorporating worker's mobility traces, privacy is naturally a concern. In this paper, we propose a novel, 2-stage and user-controlled obfuscation technique that provides a trade off-amenable framework that caters to multi-attribute privacy measures (considering the per-user sensitivity and global uniqueness of locations). We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by testing it using the real-world data collected from the well-established TA$Ker platform. More specifically, we show that one can increase its location entropy by 23% with only modest changes to the real trajectories while imposing an additional 24% (< 1 min) of detour overhead on average. Finally, we present insights derived by carefully inspecting various parameters that control the whole obfuscation process.
W-Air
Authors: Maag Balz , Zhou Zimu , Thiele Lothar
Published: March 2018

Accurate, portable and personal air pollution sensing devices enable quantification of individual exposure to air pollution, personalized health advice and assistance applications. Wearables are promising (e.g., on wristbands, attached to belts or backpacks) to integrate commercial off-the-shelf gas sensors for personal air pollution sensing. Yet previous research lacks comprehensive investigations on the accuracies of air pollution sensing on wearables. In response, we proposed W-Air, an accurate personal multi-pollutant monitoring platform for wearables. We discovered that human emissions introduce non-linear interference when low-cost gas sensors are integrated into wearables, which is overlooked in existing studies. W-Air adopts a sensor-fusion calibration scheme to recover high-fidelity ambient pollutant concentrations from the human interference. It also leverages a neural network with shared hidden layers to boost calibration parameter training with fewer measurements and utilizes semi-supervised regression for calibration parameter updating with little user intervention. We prototyped W-Air on a wristband with low-cost gas sensors. Evaluations demonstrated that W-Air reports accurate measurements both with and without human interference and is able to automatically learn and adapt to new environments.