bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Carbohydrate intake, obesity, metabolic syndrome and cancer risk? A two-part systematic review and meta-analysis protocol to estimate attributability
Authors: Sartorius B , Sartorius K , Aldous C , Madiba T E , Stefan C , Noakes T
Published: January 2016

Introduction

Linkages between carbohydrates, obesity and cancer continue to demonstrate conflicting results. Evidence suggests inconclusive direct linkages between carbohydrates and specific cancers. Conversely, obesity has been strongly linked to a wide range of cancers. The purpose of the study is to explore linkages between carbohydrate intake and cancer types using a two-step approach. First the study will evaluate the linkages between carbohydrate intake and obesity, potentially stratified by metabolic syndrome status. Second, the estimated attributable fraction of obesity ascribed to carbohydrate intake will be multiplied against obesity attributable fractions for cancer types to give estimated overall attributable fraction for carbohydrate versus cancer type.

Methods and analysis

We will perform a comprehensive search to identify all possible published and unpublished studies that have assessed risk factors for obesity including dietary carbohydrate intake. Scientific databases, namely PubMed MEDLINE, EMBASE, EBSCOhost and ISI Web of Science will be searched. Following study selection, paper/data acquisition, and data extraction and synthesis, we will appraise the quality of studies and risk of bias, as well as assess heterogeneity. Meta-weighted attributable fractions of obesity due to carbohydrate intake will be estimated after adjusting for other potential confounding factors (eg, physical inactivity, other dietary intake). Furthermore, previously published systematic reviews assessing the cancer-specific risk associated with obesity will also be drawn. These estimates will be linked with the attributability of carbohydrate intake in part 1 to estimate the cancer-specific burden that can be attributed to dietary carbohydrates. This systematic review protocol has been developed according to the ‘Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015’.

Ethics and dissemination

The current study will be based on published literature and data, and, as such, ethics approval is not required. The final results of this two part systematic review (plus multiplicative calculations) will be published in a relevant international peer-reviewed journal.

Trial registration number

PROSPERO CRD42015023257.
Factors associated with presenting late or with advanced HIV disease in the Netherlands, 1996–2014: results from a national observational cohort
Authors: Op de Coul Eline L M , van Sighem Ard , Brinkman Kees , Benthem Birgit H van , Ende Marchina E van der , Geerlings Suzanne , Reiss Peter
Published: January 2016

Objectives

Early testing for HIV and entry into care are crucial to optimise treatment outcomes of HIV-infected patients and to prevent spread of HIV. We examined risk factors for presentation with late or advanced disease in HIV-infected patients in the Netherlands.

Methods

HIV-infected patients registered in care between January 1996 and June 2014 were selected from the ATHENA national observational HIV cohort. Risk factors for late presentation and advanced disease were analysed by multivariable logistic regression. Furthermore, geographical differences and time trends were examined.

Results

Of 20 965 patients, 53% presented with late-stage HIV infection, and 35% had advanced disease. Late presentation decreased from 62% (1996) to 42% (2013), while advanced disease decreased from 46% to 26%. Late presentation only declined significantly among men having sex with men (MSM; p <0.001), but not among heterosexual males (p=0.08) and females (p=0.73). Factors associated with late presentation were: heterosexual male (adjusted OR (aOR), 1.59; 95% CI 1.44 to 1.75 vs MSM), injecting drug use (2.00; CI 1.69 to 2.38), age ≥50 years (1.46; CI 1.33 to 1.60 vs 30–49 years), region of origin (South-East Asia 2.14; 1.80 to 2.54, sub-Saharan Africa 2.11; 1.88 to 2.36, Surinam 1.59; 1.37 to 1.84, Caribbean 1.31; 1.13 to 1.53, Latin America 1.23; 1.04 to 1.46 vs the Netherlands), and location of HIV diagnosis (hospital 3.27; 2.94 to 3.63, general practitioner 1.66; 1.50 to 1.83, antenatal screening 1.76; 1.38 to 2.34 vs sexually transmitted infection clinic). No association was found for socioeconomic status or level of urbanisation. Compared with Amsterdam, 2 regions had higher adjusted odds and 2 regions had lower odds of late presentation. Results were highly similar for advanced disease.

Conclusions

Although the overall rate of late presentation is declining in the Netherlands, targeted programmes to reduce late HIV diagnoses remain needed for all risk groups, but should be prioritised for heterosexual males, migrant populations, people aged ≥50 years and certain regions in the Netherlands.
Comparison of self-reported and biomedical data on hypertension and diabetes: findings from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS)
Authors: Ning Meng , Zhang Qiang , Yang Min
Published: January 2016

Objectives

We examined the level of agreement between biomedical and self-reported measurements of hypertension and diabetes in a Chinese national community sample, and explored associations of the agreement and possible contextual effects among provinces and geographic regions in China.

Design

Secondary analysis of a cohort sample.

Setting and participants

Community samples were drawn from the national baseline survey of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS, 2011–2012) through multistage probability sampling, which included households with members 45 years of age or above with a total sample size of 17 708 individuals.

Outcome measures

Sensitivity, specificity and κ were used as measurements of agreements or validity; variance of validity measures among provinces and communities was estimated using random-effects models.

Results

Self-reports for hypertension and diabetes showed high specificity (96.3% and 98.3%, respectively) but low sensitivity (56.3% and 61.5%, respectively). Agreement between self-reported data and biomedical measurements was moderate for both hypertension (κ 0.57) and diabetes (κ 0.65), with respondents who were older, of higher socioeconomic status, better educated and who had hospital admissions in the past 12 months showing stronger agreements than their counterparts. Large and significant variations in the sensitivity among provinces for hypertension, and among communities for both hypertension and diabetes, could neither be attributed to the effects of respondents’ characteristics nor to the contextual effects of city–village differences.

Conclusions

As a considerable number of people in the overall sample were unaware of their conditions, self-reports will lead to an underestimation of the prevalence of hypertension and diabetes. However, in more developed communities or provinces, self-reported data can be a reliable estimate of the prevalence of the two conditions. Further investigations of contextual effects at provincial and community levels could highlight public health strategies to improve awareness of the two conditions.
Child academic achievement in association with pre-pregnancy obesity and gestational weight gain
Authors: Pugh Sarah J , Hutcheon Jennifer A , Richardson Gale A , Brooks Maria M , Himes Katherine P , Day Nancy L , Bodnar Lisa M
Published: January 2016

Background

Recent data suggest that children of mothers who are obese before pregnancy, or who gain too much weight during pregnancy, may be at an increased risk of cognitive impairments.

Methods

Mother–infant dyads enrolled in a birth cohort study in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1983–1986), were followed from early pregnancy to 14 years postpartum (n=574). Math, reading and spelling achievements were assessed at ages 6 and 10 years using the Wide Range Achievement Test-Revised, and at age 14 years using the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test Screener. Self-reported total GWG was converted to gestational age-standardised z-scores. Generalised estimating equations were used to estimate the effects of GWG and pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) on academic achievement at 6, 10 and 14 years, while adjusting for maternal race, child sex, parity, employment, family income, maternal intelligence, maternal depression, pre-pregnancy BMI (in GWG models only) and the home environment.

Results

The mean (SD) BMI was 23.4 (5.7) kg/m2and the mean (SD) GWG reported at delivery was 14.4 (5.9) kg. There was a significant non-linear association between pre-pregnancy BMI and an offspring's academic achievement. At 6, 10 and 14 years, an offspring's academic scores were inversely associated with pre-pregnancy BMI beyond 22 kg/m2. High GWG (>1 SD) was associated with approximately 4-point lower reading (adjusted β (adjβ) −3.75, 95% CI −7.1 to −0.4) and spelling scores (adjβ −3.90, 95% CI −7.8 to −0.2), compared with GWG −1 to +1 SD.

Conclusions

Future studies in larger and socioeconomically diverse populations are needed to confirm maternal weight and weight gain as causal determinants of a child's academic skills, and whether this effect persists into adulthood.
Evaluating quantitative fatty acid signature analysis (QFASA) in fish using controlled feeding experiments
Authors: Happel Austin , Stratton Logan , Kolb Colleen , Hays Chris , Rinchard Jacques , Czesny Sergiusz
Published: January 2016

Accurate diet estimation has long been a challenging issue for researchers investigating predators because of constraints associated with stomach content analyses. Fatty acid signature analysis offers an alternative avenue to study long-term diet trends in consumers. Despite the wealth of experiments involving fatty acids of fish and their diets, few have evaluated quantitative fatty acid signature analysis (QFASA) with fish consumers. To this end, we fed juvenile lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush), round goby (Neogobius melanostomus), and yellow perch (Perca flavescens) various invertebrate species and back-classified each predator to its respective prey using only fatty acids. Estimates were highly accurate when metabolism of diets was natively accounted for by using fatty acid profiles of predators fed known diets as the “prey library”. While highly accurate results were obtained, accounting for each predator–prey relationship limits the use of QFASA to predators that consume a limited number of species. We call for specific knowledge as to how fatty acid profiles reflect each predator–prey interaction before attempting to use fatty acids to quantify a consumer’s diet. Only after incorporating such data will QFASA provide an accurate view of individual’s diets when stomach content data are not available or are invalid.
Does information help forest owners form (better) timber price forecasts?
Authors: Linden Mikael , Uusivuori Jussi
Published: January 2016

Impacts of forestry related information on forest owners’ ability to forecast timber price changes are studied. Large survey data on nonindustrial private forest owners are explored with methodology on discrete and limited dependent variable econometrics. We find that forest owners who regard information sources to be important for themselves and who are active users of information sources are better prepared to provide a timber price forecast compared with forest owners without these attributes. Contacts with forestry professionals did not have the same effect. However, the availability and use of information did not seem to improve the forest owners’ forecasting accuracy. Within market conditions in which timber prices fell quite sharply, information led forest owners to predict no change in timber prices.
Gravitational behavior of an effective topological field theory in a gravitational instanton background
Authors: Palumbo Giandomenico
Published: January 2016

Effective topological field theories describe the properties of Dirac fermions in the low-energy regime. In this work, we introduce a new emergent gravity model by considering Dirac fermions invariant under local de Sitter transformations in four-dimensional open manifolds. In the context of Cartan geometry, fermions couple to spacetime through a Spin(5) Cartan connection that can be decomposed in spin connection and tetrads. In presence of a gravitational instanton background, we show that the corresponding effective topological field theory becomes a dynamical gravitational theory with a positive cosmological constant and Barbero–Immirzi parameter. At the classical level and in the absence of matter, this theory is compatible with general relativity (GR).
Influence of polydispersity on the isotropic-nematic boundary in melt of semiflexible diblock copolymer
Authors: Aliev M. A.
Published: January 2016

The analytical expressions have been obtained to describe the dependence of spinodal curve at which isotropic state of polydisperse melt of semiflexible diblock copolymer becomes unstable with respect to formation of nematic state on the polydispersity indices of the blocks, parameters of anisotropic interactions, and flexibility of blocks. The flexibility of blocks is taken into account within discrete worm-like chain model, lengths of blocks are assumed to be distributed by the Schulz–Zimm distribution. It is shown that increase of degree of polydispersity of blocks yields the increase of nematic spinodal temperature.
Bifurcation Structures in a Family of 1D Discontinuous Linear-Hyperbolic Invertible Maps
Authors: Makrooni Roya , Gardini Laura , Sushko Iryna
Published: January 2016

We consider a family of one-dimensional discontinuous invertible maps from an application in engineering. It is defined by a linear function and by a hyperbolic function with real exponent. The presence of vertical and horizontal asymptotes of the hyperbolic branch leads to particular codimension-two border collision bifurcation (BCB) such that if the parameter point approaches the bifurcation value from one side then the related cycle undergoes a regular BCB, while if the same bifurcation value is approached from the other side then a nonregular BCB occurs, involving periodic points at infinity, related to the asymptotes of the map. We investigate the bifurcation structure in the parameter space. Depending on the exponent of the hyperbolic branch, different period incrementing structures can be observed, where the boundaries of a periodicity region are related either to subcritical, or supercritical, or degenerate flip bifurcations of the related cycle, as well as to a regular or nonregular BCB. In particular, if the exponent is positive and smaller than one, then the period incrementing structure with bistability regions is observed and the corresponding flip bifurcations are subcritical, while if the exponent is larger than one, then the related flip bifurcations are supercritical and, thus, also the regions associated with cycles of double period are involved into the incrementing structure.
Deciphering an Image Cipher Based on Mixed Transformed Logistic Maps
Authors: Liu Yuansheng , Fan Hua , Xie Eric Yong , Cheng Ge , Li Chengqing
Published: January 2016

Since John von Neumann suggested utilizing Logistic map as a random number generator in 1947, a great number of encryption schemes based on Logistic map and/or its variants have been proposed. This paper re-evaluates the security of an image cipher based on transformed logistic maps and proves that the image cipher can be deciphered efficiently under two different conditions: (1) two pairs of known plain-images and the corresponding cipher-images with computational complexity of [Formula: see text]; (2) two pairs of chosen plain-images and the corresponding cipher-images with computational complexity of [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] is the number of pixels in the plain-image. In contrast, the required condition in the previous deciphering method is 87 pairs of chosen plain-images and the corresponding cipher-images with computational complexity of [Formula: see text]. In addition, three other security flaws existing in most Logistic-map-based ciphers are also reported.
DjiNN and Tonic
Authors: Hauswald Johann , Kang Yiping , Laurenzano Michael A. , Chen Quan , Li Cheng , Mudge Trevor , Dreslinski Ronald G. , Mars Jason , Tang Lingjia
Published: January 2016

As applications such as Apple Siri, Google Now, Microsoft Cortana, and Amazon Echo continue to gain traction, web-service companies are adopting large deep neural networks (DNN) for machine learning challenges such as image processing, speech recognition, natural language processing, among others. A number of open questions arise as to the design of a server platform specialized for DNN and how modern warehouse scale computers (WSCs) should be outfitted to provide DNN as a service for these applications.

In this paper, we present
DjiNN
, an open infrastructure for DNN as a service in WSCs, and
Tonic Suite
, a suite of 7 end-to-end applications that span image, speech, and language processing. We use DjiNN to design a high throughput DNN system based on massive GPU server designs and provide insights as to the varying characteristics across applications. After studying the throughput, bandwidth, and power properties of DjiNN and Tonic Suite, we investigate several design points for future WSC architectures. We investigate the total cost of ownership implications of having a WSC with a disaggregated GPU pool versus a WSC composed of homogeneous integrated GPU servers. We improve DNN throughput by over 120x for all but one application (40x for Facial Recognition) on an NVIDIA K40 GPU. On a GPU server composed of 8 NVIDIA K40s, we achieve near-linear scaling (around 1000x throughput improvement) for 3 of the 7 applications. Through our analysis, we also find that GPU-enabled WSCs improve total cost of ownership over CPU-only designs by 4-20x, depending on the composition of the workload
SHRINK: Reducing the ISA complexity via instruction recycling
Authors: Lopes Bruno Cardoso , Auler Rafael , Ramos Luiz , Borin Edson , Azevedo Rodolfo
Published: January 2016

Microprocessor manufacturers typically keep old instruction sets in modern processors to ensure backward compatibility with legacy software. The introduction of newer extensions to the ISA increases the design complexity of microprocessor front-ends, exacerbates the consumption of precious on-chip resources (e.g., silicon area and energy), and demands more efforts for hardware verification and debugging. We analyzed several x86 applications and operating systems deployed between 1995 and 2012 and observed that many instructions stop being used over time, and more than 500 instructions were never used in these applications. We also investigate the impact of including these unused instructions in the design of the x86 decoders and propose SHRINK, a mechanism to remove old instructions without breaking backward compatibility with legacy code. SHRINK allows us to remove 40% of the instructions from the x86 ISA and improve the critical path, area, and power consumption of the instruction decoder, respectively, by 23%, 48%, and 49%, on average.
Harmonia
Authors: Paul Indrani , Huang Wei , Arora Manish , Yalamanchili Sudhakar
Published: January 2016

In this paper, we address the problem of efficiently managing the relative power demands of a high-performance GPU and its memory subsystem. We develop a management approach that dynamically tunes the hardware operating configurations to maintain balance between the power dissipated in compute versus memory access across GPGPU application phases. Our goal is to reduce power with minimal performance degradation.

Accordingly, we construct predictors that assess the online sensitivity of applications to three hardware tunables---compute frequency, number of active compute units, and memory bandwidth. Using these sensitivity predictors, we propose a two-level coordinated power management scheme, Harmonia, which coordinates the hardware power states of the GPU and the memory system. Through hardware measurements on a commodity GPU, we evaluate Harmonia against a state-of-the-practice commodity GPU power management scheme, as well as an oracle scheme. Results show that Harmonia improves measured energy-delay squared (ED

2

) by up to 36% (12% on average) with negligible performance loss across representative GPGPU workloads, and on an average is within 3% of the oracle scheme.
The load slice core microarchitecture
Authors: Carlson Trevor E. , Heirman Wim , Allam Osman , Kaxiras Stefanos , Eeckhout Lieven
Published: January 2016

Driven by the motivation to expose instruction-level parallelism (ILP), microprocessor cores have evolved from simple, in-order pipelines into complex, superscalar out-of-order designs. By extracting ILP, these processors also enable parallel cache and memory operations as a useful side-effect. Today, however, the growing off-chip memory wall and complex cache hierarchies of many-core processors make cache and memory accesses ever more costly. This increases the importance of extracting memory hierarchy parallelism (MHP), while reducing the net impact of more general, yet complex and power-hungry ILP-extraction techniques. In addition, for multi-core processors operating in power- and energy-constrained environments, energy-efficiency has largely replaced single-thread performance as the primary concern.

Based on this observation, we propose a core microarchitecture that is aimed squarely at generating parallel accesses to the memory hierarchy while maximizing energy efficiency. The Load Slice Core extends the efficient in-order, stall-on-use core with a second in-order pipeline that enables memory accesses and address-generating instructions to bypass stalled instructions in the main pipeline. Backward program slices containing address-generating instructions leading up to loads and stores are extracted automatically by the hardware, using a novel iterative algorithm that requires no software support or recompilation. On average, the Load Slice Core improves performance over a baseline in-order processor by 53% with overheads of only 15% in area and 22% in power, leading to an increase in energy efficiency (MIPS/Watt) over in-order and out-of-order designs by 43% and over 4.7×, respectively. In addition, for a power- and area-constrained many-core design, the Load Slice Core outperforms both in-order and out-of-order designs, achieving a 53% and 95% higher performance, respectively, thus providing an alternative direction for future many-core processors.
CAWA
Authors: Lee Shin-Ying , Arunkumar Akhil , Wu Carole-Jean
Published: January 2016

The ubiquity of graphics processing unit (GPU) architectures has made them efficient alternatives to chip-multiprocessors for parallel workloads. GPUs achieve superior performance by making use of massive multi-threading and fast context-switching to hide pipeline stalls and memory access latency. However, recent characterization results have shown that general purpose GPU (GPGPU) applications commonly encounter long stall latencies that cannot be easily hidden with the large number of concurrent threads/warps. This results in varying execution time disparity between different parallel warps, hurting the overall performance of GPUs -- the warp criticality problem.

To tackle the warp criticality problem, we propose a coordinated solution, criticality-aware warp acceleration (CAWA), that efficiently manages compute and memory resources to accelerate the critical warp execution. Specifically, we design (1) an instruction-based and stall-based criticality predictor to identify the critical warp in a thread-block, (2) a criticality-aware warp scheduler that preferentially allocates more time resources to the critical warp, and (3) a criticality-aware cache reuse predictor that assists critical warp acceleration by retaining latency-critical and useful cache blocks in the L1 data cache. CAWA targets to remove the significant execution time disparity in order to improve resource utilization for GPGPU workloads. Our evaluation results show that, under the proposed coordinated scheduler and cache prioritization management scheme, the performance of the GPGPU workloads can be improved by 23% while other state-of-the-art schedulers, GTO and 2-level schedulers, improve performance by 16% and -2% respectively.
Probable cause
Authors: Rahmati Amir , Hicks Matthew , Holcomb Daniel E. , Fu Kevin
Published: January 2016

Approximate computing research seeks to trade-off the accuracy of computation for increases in performance or reductions in power consumption. The observation driving approximate computing is that many applications tolerate small amounts of error which allows for an opportunistic relaxation of guard bands (e.g., clock rate and voltage). Besides affecting performance and power, reducing guard bands exposes analog properties of traditionally digital components. For DRAM, one analog property exposed by approximation is the variability of memory cell decay times.

In this paper, we show how the differing cell decay times of approximate DRAM creates an error pattern that serves as a system identifying fingerprint. To validate this observation, we build an approximate memory platform and perform experiments that show that the fingerprint due to approximation is device dependent and resilient to changes in environment and level of approximation. To identify a DRAM chip given an approximate output, we develop a distance metric that yields a two-orders-of-magnitude difference in the distance between approximate results produced by the same DRAM chip and those produced by other DRAM chips. We use these results to create a mathematical model of approximate DRAM that we leverage to explore the end-to-end deanonymizing effects of approximate memory using a commodity system running an image manipulation program. The results from our experiment show that given less than 100 approximate outputs, the fingerprint for an approximate DRAM begins to converge to a single, machine identifying fingerprint.
Systematical follow-up in social work practices
Authors: Zimic Sheila , Dalin Rolf
Published: January 2016

In this paper, we explore the meaning of a specific follow-up system in different social work practices. We want to gain understanding about if the system can be an empowering tool for the practitioners to learn in their professional work. We interviewed four practitioners in different teams in order to find out how they describe the follow-up system as a tool, how they describe the knowledge they produce with help of it and what this means to them.

We have found that the practitioners describe the tool as an easy way to present results which are often described as 'facts'. The teams mainly use their specific follow-ups to present their work to others and in relation to that the tool serves a purpose for the team to gain credibility and be considered as professional. Their use can be understood in light of Evidence Based Practice and performance measurement as a discourse which sets limits and have effects on professional learning.
Impact Assessment of Uncertainty Propagation of Ensemble NWP Rainfall to Flood Forecasting with Catchment Scale
Authors: Yu Wansik , Nakakita Eiichi , Kim Sunmin , Yamaguchi Kosei
Published: January 2016

The common approach to quantifying the precipitation forecast uncertainty is ensemble simulations where a numerical weather prediction (NWP) model is run for a number of cases with slightly different initial conditions. In practice, the spread of ensemble members in terms of flood discharge is used as a measure of forecast uncertainty due to uncertain precipitation forecasts. This study presents the uncertainty propagation of rainfall forecast into hydrological response with catchment scale through distributed rainfall-runoff modeling based on the forecasted ensemble rainfall of NWP model. At first, forecast rainfall error based on the BIAS is compared with flood forecast error to assess the error propagation. Second, the variability of flood forecast uncertainty according to catchment scale is discussed using ensemble spread. Then we also assess the flood forecast uncertainty with catchment scale using an estimation regression equation between ensemble rainfall BIAS and discharge BIAS. Finally, the flood forecast uncertainty with RMSE using specific discharge in catchment scale is discussed. Our study is carried out and verified using the largest flood event by typhoon “Talas” of 2011 over the 33 subcatchments of Shingu river basin (2,360 km2), which is located in the Kii Peninsula, Japan.
Lipids and Oxidative Stress Associated with Ethanol‐Induced Neurological Damage
Authors: Hernández José A. , López-Sánchez Rosa C. , Rendón-Ramírez Adela
Published: January 2016

The excessive intake of alcohol is a serious public health problem, especially given the severe damage provoked by chronic or prenatal exposure to alcohol that affects many physiological processes, such as memory, motor function, and cognitive abilities. This damage is related to the ethanol oxidation in the brain. The metabolism of ethanol to acetaldehyde and then to acetate is associated with the production of reactive oxygen species that accentuate the oxidative state of cells. This metabolism of ethanol can induce the oxidation of the fatty acids in phospholipids, and the bioactive aldehydes produced are known to be associated with neurotoxicity and neurodegeneration. As such, here we will review the role of lipids in the neuronal damage induced by ethanol‐related oxidative stress and the role that lipids play in the related compensatory or defense mechanisms.
Cell Therapy in Ischemic Heart Disease: Interventions That Modulate Cardiac Regeneration
Authors: Schaun Maximiliano I. , Eibel Bruna , Kristocheck Melissa , Sausen Grasiele , Machado Luana , Koche Andreia , Markoski Melissa M.
Published: January 2016

The incidence of severe ischemic heart disease caused by coronary obstruction has progressively increased. Alternative forms of treatment have been studied in an attempt to regenerate myocardial tissue, induce angiogenesis, and improve clinical conditions. In this context, cell therapy has emerged as a promising alternative using cells with regenerative potential, focusing on the release of paracrine and autocrine factors that contribute to cell survival, angiogenesis, and tissue remodeling. Evidence of the safety, feasibility, and potential effectiveness of cell therapy has emerged from several clinical trials using different lineages of adult stem cells. The clinical benefit, however, is not yet well established. In this review, we discuss the therapeutic potential of cell therapy in terms of regenerative and angiogenic capacity after myocardial ischemia. In addition, we addressed nonpharmacological interventions that may influence this therapeutic practice, such as diet and physical training. This review brings together current data on pharmacological and nonpharmacological approaches to improve cell homing and cardiac repair.
Vector Radix 2 × 2 Sliding Fast Fourier Transform
Authors: Byun Keun-Yung , Park Chun-Su , Sun Jee-Young , Ko Sung-Jea
Published: January 2016

The two-dimensional (2D) discrete Fourier transform (DFT) in the sliding window scenario has been successfully used for numerous applications requiring consecutive spectrum analysis of input signals. However, the results of conventional sliding DFT algorithms are potentially unstable because of the accumulated numerical errors caused by recursive strategy. In this letter, a stable 2D sliding fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithm based on the vector radix (VR) 2 × 2 FFT is presented. In the VR-2 × 2 FFT algorithm, each 2D DFT bin is hierarchically decomposed into four sub-DFT bins until the size of the sub-DFT bins is reduced to 2 × 2; the output DFT bins are calculated using the linear combination of the sub-DFT bins. Because the sub-DFT bins for the overlapped input signals between the previous and current window are the same, the proposed algorithm reduces the computational complexity of the VR-2 × 2 FFT algorithm by reusing previously calculated sub-DFT bins in the sliding window scenario. Moreover, because the resultant DFT bins are identical to those of the VR-2 × 2 FFT algorithm, numerical errors do not arise; therefore, unconditional stability is guaranteed. Theoretical analysis shows that the proposed algorithm has the lowest computational requirements among the existing stable sliding DFT algorithms.
The Interaction between Adult Cardiac Fibroblasts and Embryonic Stem Cell‐Derived Cardiomyocytes Leads to Proarrhythmic Changes in In Vitro Cocultures
Authors: Trieschmann Jan , Bettin Daniel , Haustein Moritz , Köster Annette , Molcanyi Marek , Halbach Marcel , Hanna Mira , Fouad Mariam , Brockmeier Konrad , Hescheler Jürgen , Pfannkuche Kurt , Hannes Tobias
Published: January 2016

Transplantation of stem cell‐derived cardiomyocytes is one of the most promising therapeutic approaches after myocardial infarction, as loss of cardiomyocytes is virtually irreversible by endogenous repair mechanisms. In myocardial scars, transplanted cardiomyocytes will be in immediate contact with cardiac fibroblasts. While it is well documented how the electrophysiology of neonatal cardiomyocytes is modulated by cardiac fibroblasts of the same developmental stage, it is unknown how adult cardiac fibroblasts (aCFs) affect the function of embryonic stem cell‐derived cardiomyocytes (ESC‐CMs). To investigate the effects of aCFs on ESC‐CM electrophysiology, we performed extra‐ and intracellular recordings of murine aCF‐ESC‐CM cocultures. We observed that spontaneous beating behaviour was highly irregular in aCF‐ESC‐CM cocultures compared to cocultures with mesenchymal stem cells (coefficient of variation of the interspike interval: 40.5 ± 15.2% versus 9.3 ± 2.0%, p = 0.008) and that action potential amplitude and maximal upstroke velocity (Vmax) were reduced (amplitude: 52.3 ± 1.7 mV versus 65.1 ± 1.5 mV, Vmax: 7.0 ± 1.0 V/s versus 36.5 ± 5.3 V/s), while action potential duration (APD) was prolonged (APD50: 25.6 ± 1.0 ms versus 16.8 ± 1.9 ms, p < 0.001; APD90: 52.2 ± 1.5 ms versus 43.3 ± 3.3 ms, p < 0.01) compared to controls. Similar changes could be induced by aCF‐conditioned medium. We conclude that the presence of aCFs changes automaticity and induces potentially proarrhythmic changes of ESC‐CM electrophysiology.
Prevalence and Predictors of Self-Medication with Antibiotics in Al Wazarat Health Center, Riyadh City, KSA
Authors: Al Rasheed Abdulrahman , Yagoub Umar , Alkhashan Hesham , Abdelhay Osama , Alawwad Ahmad , Al Aboud Aboud , Al Battal Saad
Published: January 2016

Background.Antibiotics are responsible for most dramatic improvement in medical therapy in history. These medications contributed significantly to the decreasing mortality and morbidity when prescribed based on evidence of microbial infection.Objective.The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and predictors of self-prescription with antibiotics in Al Wazarat Health Center, Riyadh City, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.Material and Methods.Cross-sectional study was conducted in Al Wazarat Health Center between February 2014 and November 2014. Respondents were randomly selected using a multistage clustered random sampling technique. Data was entered into SPSS version 21 and analyzed. Descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression models were applied.Results.A total of 681 patients have participated in this study with a response rate of 92%. The prevalence of self-prescription with antibiotics in Al Wazarat Health Center was 78.7%. Amoxicillin was the most used self-prescribed antibiotic with prevalence of (22.3%). Friend advice on self-prescription of antibiotics use (p=0.000) and pharmacy near to the participants (p=0.002) were the most common predictors for self-prescription with antibiotics.Conclusion.The level of self-prescribing antibiotics is relatively high among participants. Health education on the appropriate use of antibiotics is highly recommended. The proper use of treatment guidelines for antibiotic therapy will significantly reduce self-prescription with antibiotics.
Driveline Torsional Analysis and Clutch Damper Optimization for Reducing Gear Rattle
Authors: Wu Huwei , Wu Guangqiang
Published: January 2016

This paper describes a research work on driveline modeling, torsional vibration analysis, and clutch damper parameters optimization for reducing transmission gear rattle on the vehicle creeping condition. Firstly, major driveline components, including quasi-transient engine, multistage stiffness clutch damper, detailed manual transmission and differential mechanism, and LuGre tire, are modeled, respectively. Secondly, powertrain system modeling adopting a two-stage stiffness clutch damper is constructed and analyzed. Transient responses predicted by the model show that the driveline undergoes severe torsional vibration and transmission gear rattle phenomenon. By analysis, it is concluded that the clutch damper works jumping between the first- and second-stage stiffness, which results in this problem for the creeping condition. Then, a three-stage stiffness clutch damper is proposed innovatively to solve this problem. It is shown that severe driveline vibration and gear rattle phenomenon are inhibited effectively. Finally, it draws a conclusion that clutch damper parameters could have a great effect on driveline vibration and gear rattle phenomenon and a three-stage stiffness clutch damper could be utilized to solve gear rattle phenomenon efficiently on the vehicle creeping condition.
On the Solution of Local Fractional Differential Equations Using Local Fractional Laplace Variational Iteration Method
Authors: Goswami Pranay , Alqahtani Rubayyi T.
Published: January 2016

We present iteration formulae of a fractional space-time telegraph equation using the combination of fractional variational iteration method and local fractional Laplace transform.
MicroRNA-320a Regulates the Osteogenic Differentiation of Human Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells by Targeting HOXA10
Authors: Huang Jianhou , Meng Yake , Liu Yan , Chen Yu , Yang Haisong , Chen Deyu , Shi Jiangang , Guo Yongfei
Published: January 2016

Background/Aims: Human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) are a promising cell source for bone engineering owing to their high potential to differentiate into osteoblasts. The bone morphogenetic protein-inducible gene homeobox a10 (HOXA10) is a critical regulator of osteogenesis. The objective of the present study was to identify microR-NAs (miRNAs) targeting HOXA10 and examine the effects on the osteogenic differentiation of hMSCs. Methods: Based on in silico analysis, HOXA10-targeting miRNAs were selected and their regulatory roles in osteoblast differentiation were investigated. Results: Six HOXA10-targeting miRNAs were identifIed by computational analysis, of which miR-320a was selected for further analysis because it was downregulated during osteogenic induction. Overexpression of miR-320a downregulated HOXA10 and significantly inhibited osteogenesis in hMSCs, as determined by the downregulation of the osteogenic markers Runx2, ALP, and OC and the inhibition of ALP activity and matrix mineralization, whereas miR-320a inhibition had the opposite effects. Furthermore, ectopic expression of HOXA10 (not including 3′-UTR) rescued the effects of miR-320a on osteogenic differentiation. Conclusion: These results suggest that miR-320a acts as a critical regulator of osteogenic differentiation of hMSCs by repressing its target HOXA10.
The Microsound Synthesis Framework in the LC Computer Music Programming Language
Authors: Nishino Hiroki , Osaka Naotoshi , Nakatsu Ryohei
Published: January 2016

This article describes the design of a framework for sound synthesis in LC, a new computer music language we prototyped, together with concrete code examples. Unlike existing unit-generator languages, LC provides objects as well as library functions and methods that can directly represent microsounds and related manipulations that are involved in microsound synthesis. Furthermore, LC is equipped with traditional unit generators, and these two different abstractions can collaborate seamlessly. Although the framework for microsound synthesis itself is not particularly bound to the entire language design of LC, such seamless unification between the traditional concept of unit generators and LC’s microsound synthesis framework contribute to making LC’s programming model for microsound synthesis simpler and terser in comparison with existing unit-generator languages. These features of LC’s entire sound-synthesis framework can help computer musicians to creatively explore the domain of microsound synthesis and would also be beneficial for further research in computer music language as a design exemplar.
Four new species of the genus Mongoliana Distant (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Issidae) from southern China
Authors: MENG RUI , WANG YINGLUN , QIN DAOZHENG
Published: January 2016

Four new species in the planthopper genus Mongoliana Distant from southern China (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Issidae) are reported. Three of them, M. bistriata sp. nov., M. latistriata sp. nov. and M. albimaculata sp. nov., are described and illustrated; the fourth new one, M. arcuata sp. nov., is briefly described for M. triangularis Chen, Zhang & Chang which was a misidentification of M. triangularis Che, Wang & Chou. M. recurrens (Butler, 1875) is re-described and remarks for its current status is given. A key to all known species of Mongoliana is provided. The distribution and morphological peculiarities of the genus are briefly discussed.
Akcentuacja zapożyczonych leksemów czasownikowych w gwarze staroobrzędowców mieszkających w regionie suwalsko-augustowskim
Authors: Paśko-Koneczniak Dorota Angelika
Published: January 2016

Stress patterns in loan verb lexemes in the dialect used by the Old Believers living in the Suwałki-Augustów region

The aim of the article is to present the stress pattern phenomenon in loan verb lexemes which function in the Russian dialect of the Old Believers from the Suwałki-Augustów Region. In the last decades, the insular dialect, separated from the general Russian language, has been influenced by the Polish language. Such influence is visible, in particular, in the vocabulary, in the form of loan translations and idiomatic expressions. Stress patterns, along with the root vocabulary and the morphological system, still remains one of the indicators of the Russian essence of the dialect. The native vocabulary of the Old Believers’ dialect maintains Russian accentuation patterns. A similar situation is observed in the case of stress patterns in lexemes borrowed from Polish, which undergo a stress accentuation adaptation; that is, they feature a shift in the place of the stress in relation to the source language. In loan verb morphemes, one can notice the pattern of stress which is not fixed and depends upon the morphological form or, sometimes, the paroxitonic stress, which results from the influence of the Polish language.

 

Akcentuacja zapożyczonych leksemów czasownikowych w gwarze staroobrzędowców mieszkających w regionie suwalsko-augustowskim

Celem artykułu jest zaprezentowanie zjawiska akcentuacji w zapożyczonych leksemach czasownikowych, funkcjonujących w rosyjskiej gwarze staroobrzędowców z regionu suwalsko-augustowskiego. W ciągu ostatnich kilkudziesięciu lat badana gwara wyspowa, odseparowana od rosyjskiego języka ogólnego, podlega znacznemu wpływowi języka polskiego. Wpływ polszczyzny widoczny jest szczególnie w zasobie leksykalnym w postaci zapożyczeń, kalk i w idiomatyce. Akcentuacja obok rdzennego zasobu leksykalnego i systemu morfologicznego nadal pozostaje jednym z wyznaczników rosyjskości gwary. Rodzimy zasób leksykalny badanej gwary staroobrzędowców zachowuje rosyjski system akcentuacyjny. Podobnie rzecz się ma z systemem akcentuacyjnym w leksemach zapożyczonych z języka polskiego, które podlegają adaptacji akcentuacyjnej, czyli następuje w nich przesunięcie miejsca akcentu w stosunku do języka dawcy. W zapożyczonych leksemach czasownikowych mamy do czynienia ze zmiennością akcentu uzależnioną od formy morfologicznej, niekiedy również z akcentem paroksytonicznym, wynikającym z wpływu języka polskiego.
Toward a Configurational Perspective on the CEO
Authors: Busenbark John R. , Krause Ryan , Boivie Steven , Graffin Scott D.
Published: January 2016

Management literature offers substantial insight about many aspects of CEO-related phenomena. Whether it involves aspects of the position of CEO, personal characteristics of the CEO, or the environment in which the CEO operates, research about the CEO has yielded a number of important findings. Despite the proliferation of research regarding the CEO, we find that the literature as a whole is fragmented. By this, we mean that the CEO is often used as a context to test discrete theories. In this article, we contend that the fragmentation in the literature is a result of scholarship existing within theoretical fault lines and rarely venturing to incorporate theories beyond a given domain. This fragmentation results in inconsistent and inconclusive findings in the CEO-related literature. We propose an integrative framework, which we call the configurational perspective on the CEO, to help resolve this fragmentation problem. The configurational perspective on the CEO highlights three separate CEO-related research domains: the position, the person, and the environment. In taking stock of research in each of these domains, we address how they can be integrated in different configurations to help reduce the fragmented nature of the literature.
Process-Based Development of Competence Models to Computer Science Education
Authors: Zendler Andreas , Seitz Cornelia , Klaudt Dieter
Published: January 2016

A process model ( cpm.4.CSE) is introduced that allows the development of competence models in computer science education related to curricular requirements. It includes eight subprocesses: (a) determine competence concept, (b) determine competence areas, (c) identify computer science concepts, (d) assign competence dimensions to computer science, (e) code competences, (f) formulate competences, (g) formulate learning tasks, and (h) formulate test tasks. The competence definition by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development gives the direction to cpm.4.CSE. This definition highlights four main dimensions of competence: knowledge, cognitive skills, practical skills, and attitudes. For the preparation of subprocesses and the exemplification of concepts, references have been used from the academic literature of computer science education. The processes, activities, and transformations of cpm.4.CSE are documented in Integration Definition for Function Modeling, a process modeling language that is standardized, widely used and easy to understand.