bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Institutional Logics and Low Skills: The Case of the Private Security Sector in Singapore
Authors: Gog Soon Joo , Sung Johnny , Ashton David N
Published: September 2017

This article introduces the concept of institutional logics to provide a more adequate understanding of the interaction between firms and the institutions within an economy that impact on skills and pay. We argue that the most prominent institutionalist approaches suffer from a number of major weaknesses that have contributed towards the failure of policy initiatives derived from them. We then demonstrate how developments in relational sociology offer the promise of remedying these deficiencies. The case of the private security services sector in Singapore, which has suffered from low skills and low pay, is then used to illustrate how this new approach, highlighting the institutional logics of the sector, can provide a more productive approach to policy in this area.
Radiation Therapy and Esophageal Cancer
Authors: Shridhar Ravi , Almhanna Khaldoun , Meredith Kenneth L. , Biagioli Matthew C. , Chuong Michael D. , Cruz Alex , Hoffe Sarah E.
Published: September 2017

Background

Squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma account for more than 90% of all esophageal cancer cases. Although the incidence of squamous cell carcinoma has declined, the incidence of adenocarcinoma has risen due to increases in obesity and gastroesophageal reflux disease.

Methods

The authors examine the role of radiation therapy alone (external beam and brachytherapy) for the management of esophageal cancer or combined with other modalities. The impact on staging and appropriate stratification of patients referred for curative vs palliative intent with modalities is reviewed. The authors also explore the role of emerging radiation technologies.

Results

Current data show that neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by surgical resection is the accepted standard of care, with 3-year overall survival rates ranging from 30% to 60%. The benefit of adjuvant radiation therapy is limited to patients with node-positive cancer. The survival benefit of surgical resection after chemoradiotherapy remains controversial. External beam radiation therapy alone results in few long-term survivors and is considered palliative at best. Radiation dose-escalation has failed to improve local control or survival. Brachytherapy can provide better long-term palliation of dysphagia than metal stent placement. Although three-dimensional conformal treatment planning is the accepted standard, the roles of IMRT and proton therapy are evolving and potentially reduce adverse events due to better sparing of normal tissue.

Conclusions

Future directions will evaluate the benefit of induction chemotherapy followed by chemoradiotherapy, the role of surgery in locally advanced disease, and the identification of responders prior to treatment based on microarray analysis.
Liver-Directed Therapies for Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma
Authors: Kis Bela , El-Haddad Ghassan , Sheth Rahul A. , Parikh Nainesh S. , Ganguli Suvranu , Shyn Paul B. , Choi Junsung , Brown Karen T.
Published: September 2017

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (IHC) are primary liver cancers where all or most of the tumor burden is usually confined to the liver. Therefore, locoregional liver-directed therapies can provide an opportunity to control intrahepatic disease with minimal systemic side effects. The English medical literature and clinical trials were reviewed to provide a synopsis on the available liver-directed percutaneous therapies for HCC and IHC. Locoregional liver-directed therapies provide survival benefit for patients with HCC and IHC compared to best medical treatment and have lower comorbid risks compared to surgical resection. These treatment options should be considered, especially in patients with unresectable disease.
Insecure Adult Attachment and Child Maltreatment: A Meta-Analysis
Authors: Lo Camilla K. M. , Chan Ko Ling , Ip Patrick
Published: September 2017

Extant evidence has shown that insecure adult attachment is related to dysfunctional parenting styles that heighten parents’ risk of child maltreatment. However, there is a lack of studies appraising the evidence for the association between insecure adult attachment and child maltreatment. This meta-analytic study examined the relationship between parents’ adult attachment and child maltreatment perpetration/child abuse potential. Studies examining the relationship between parents’ adult attachment and child maltreatment/child abuse potential published before February 2017 were identified through a systematic search of online databases. In total, 16 studies ( N = 1,830) were selected. Meta-analysis based on random-effects models shows a significant positive association between insecure attachment and child maltreatment (pooled effect size: odds ratio [ OR] = 2.93, p = .000). Subgroup analyses show insecure attachment was more strongly associated with failure to thrive ( OR = 8.04, p = .000) and filicide ( OR = 5.00, p < .05). Medium effect sizes were found for subgroup analyses on insecure romantic attachment ( OR = 3.76, p = .000), general attachment ( OR = 3.38, p = .000), attachment to own child ( OR = 3.13, p = .001), and to own parents ( OR = 2.63, p = .000) in relation to child maltreatment.
Developing a Strategy for Interventional Molecular Imaging of Oxidized Low-Density Lipoprotein in Atherosclerosis
Authors: Pandey Samata S. , Haskard Dorian O. , Khamis Ramzi Y.
Published: September 2017

The identification of vulnerable coronary artery atherosclerotic plaques offers the prospect of either localized or systematic therapeutic targeting in order to prevent myocardial infarction. Molecular imaging of atherosclerosis adds to morphological imaging by focusing on the immunobiology hidden in and behind the endothelium and therefore may be able to improve the identification of prospective culprit lesions. Our focus has been on identifying arterial accumulation of oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) by exploiting advances in knowledge of vascular pathobiology. Here, we reflect on our work developing near-infrared fluorescence imaging of oxLDL using LO1, a monoclonal autoantibody generated in our laboratory. We detail progress to date and discuss our vision on taking the work through the early translational pipeline toward a multitargeted approach in imaging rupture-prone atherosclerotic plaques. Ultimately, molecular imaging of coronary arteries should be able to assess the regional risk that is specific to a lesion, which can then be used in concert with global risk factors to personalize the therapeutic strategy for patients in a way that goes beyond generalized population-based therapies.
Rare association between spinal dural arteriovenous fistulas and dysraphisms: Report of two cases and review of the literature with a focus on pitfalls in diagnosis and treatment
Authors: Talenti Giacomo , Vitale Giovanni , Cester Giacomo , Della Puppa Alessandro , Faggin Roberto , Causin Francesco
Published: September 2017

Spinal vascular malformations are uncommon yet important spinal pathologies commonly classified in congenital and acquired lesions. Spinal lipomas consist of three subtypes: intramedullary lipomas, lipomyelo(meningo)celes and lipomas of the filum. Although the association of spinal arteriovenous malformations (AVM) with other congenital anomalies is well known, the coexistence of dural arteriovenous fistulas (AVF) and tethered spinal cord is exceptionally rare and only eight cases have been reported. We present two cases from our institution and speculate on the possible origin of such a rare but insidious association. We review the current literature with a focus on possible pitfalls in diagnosis and treatment.
Book Review: Sam Moyo, Dzodzi Tsikata and Yakham Diop (Eds) (2015), Land in the Struggles for Citizenship in Africa
Authors: Prasad Archana
Published: September 2017

Sam Moyo, Dzodzi Tsikata and Yakham Diop (Eds) (2015), Land in the Struggles for Citizenship in Africa. Dakar: CODESRIA. Paperback, ISBN 9782869786363, pp. 384, £30.
Symptomatic Neonatal Arterial Ischemic Stroke With Prenatal and Postnatal Neuroimaging
Authors: Pulver Mati , Juhkami Kristiina , Loorits Dagmar , Ilves Pilvi , Kuld Jaanika , Õiglane-Šlik Eve , Metsvaht Tuuli , Laugesaar Rael
Published: September 2017

The authors report a girl born at term via planned cesarean delivery. Three days earlier, an antenatal magnetic resonance imaging study, showing no cerebral lesions in the fetus, was performed. Ten minutes after delivery, signs of progressive respiratory failure developed and the infant was transferred to the intensive care unit. On the next day, a computed tomography (CT) scan showed acute ischemic lesions in the areas of the left middle and posterior cerebral arteries. The exact mechanism of stroke remained unidentified. It is possible that emboli occluded the left middle cerebral artery and left posterior cerebral artery. At the age of 1 year and 4 months, the patient demonstrated a slight right-sided hemiparesis more pronounced in the hand. To our knowledge, there are no prior published case studies reporting a healthy fetal brain, which then undergoes an acute neonatal arterial infarction near or during birth following an elective cesarean delivery.
Exertional dyspnoea in pulmonary arterial hypertension
Authors: Dumitrescu Daniel , Sitbon Olivier , Weatherald Jason , Howard Luke S.
Published: September 2017

Dyspnoea is a principal presenting symptom in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), and often the most distressing. The pathophysiology of PAH is relatively well understood, with the primary abnormality of pulmonary vascular disease resulting in a combination of impaired cardiac output on exercise and abnormal gas exchange, both contributing to increased ventilatory drive. However, increased ventilatory drive is not the sole explanation for the complex neurophysiological and neuropsychological symptom of dyspnoea, with other significant contributions from skeletal muscle reflexes, respiratory muscle function, and psychological and emotional status. In this review, we explore the physiological aspects of dyspnoea in PAH, both in terms of the central cardiopulmonary abnormalities of PAH and the wider, systemic impact of PAH, and how these interact with common comorbidities. Finally, we discuss its relationship with disease severity.
How I manage pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis
Authors: Lorillon Gwenaël , Tazi Abdellatif
Published: September 2017

Pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis (PLCH) is a rare sporadic cystic lung disease of unknown aetiology that is characterised by the infiltration and destruction of the wall of distal bronchioles by CD1a+Langerhans-like cells. In adults, PLCH is frequently isolated and affects young smokers of both sexes. Recent multicentre studies have led to the more standardised management of patients in clinical practice. Smoking cessation is essential and is occasionally the only suitable intervention. Serial lung function testing is important because a significant proportion of patients may experience an early decline in forced expiratory volume in 1 s and develop airflow obstruction. Cladribine was reported to dramatically improve progressive PLCH in some patients. Its efficacy and tolerance are currently being evaluated. Patients who complain of unexplained dyspnoea with decreased diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide should be screened for pulmonary hypertension by Doppler echocardiography, which must be confirmed by right heart catheterisation. Lung transplantation is a therapeutic option for patients with advanced PLCH.

The identification of theBRAFV600Emutation in approximately half of Langerhans cell histiocytosis lesions, including PLCH, and other mutations of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway in a subset of lesions has led to targeted treatments (BRAF and MEK (MAPK kinase) inhibitors). These treatments need to be rigorously evaluated because of their potentially severe side-effects.
Postoperative Complications Affecting Survival After Cardiac Arrest in General Surgery Patients
Authors: Kim Minjae , Li Guohua
Published: September 2017

BACKGROUND:

Postoperative cardiac arrest is uncommon but associated with a high mortality risk in general surgery patients and is often preceded by postoperative complications. The relationships between previous complications and mortality after cardiac arrest in general surgery patients have not been completely evaluated.

METHODS:

A retrospective, observational cohort of general surgery in patients with cardiac arrest occurring after postoperative day (POD) #0 (and up to POD #30) was obtained from the 2012–2013 American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program. Previous complication was defined as at least one of the following occurring before the POD of cardiac arrest: (1) acute kidney injury; (2) acute respiratory failure; (3) deep vein thrombosis/pulmonary embolus; (4) myocardial infarction; (5) sepsis/septic shock; (6) stroke; and/or (7) transfusion. The associations between previous complications and mortality after cardiac arrest were assessed using Cox proportional hazards models that adjusted for preoperative risk factors.

RESULTS:

Of 1352 patients with postoperative cardiac arrest, 746 patients (55%) developed at least 1 complication before cardiac arrest. Overall 30-day mortality was 71% (958/1352) and was similar among patients with and without a previous complication (71% [533/746] vs 70% [425/606]; P = .60). Patients with previous complications did not have an increased risk of mortality, compared to patients without previous complications, in adjusted Cox models (hazard ratio, 1.03; 95% confidence interval, 0.90–1.18; P = .70). In addition, no previous complication was associated with increased mortality risk in individual analyses.

CONCLUSIONS:

Among general surgery patients with cardiac arrest after POD #0, complications occurring before cardiac arrest are common but are not associated with increased mortality risk.
Object Series
Authors: Singh Julietta
Published: September 2017

This poetic series in nine parts attunes to the subject’s complex and abiding attachment to the object. The unfixed voices of these poems subtly shift across the series, from subject to object to yet a third “social” position. The poems move through a queer temporality in which the object appears suddenly yet has always already been present and in which the disappearance of the object is marked by a turn toward a future that is never in reach.
Human pluripotent stem cell models of cardiac disease: from mechanisms to therapies
Authors: Brandão Karina O. , Tabel Viola A. , Atsma Douwe E. , Mummery Christine L. , Davis Richard P.
Published: September 2017

It is now a decade since human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) were first described. The reprogramming of adult somatic cells to a pluripotent state has become a robust technology that has revolutionised our ability to study human diseases. Crucially, these cells capture all the genetic aspects of the patient from which they were derived. Combined with advances in generating the different cell types present in the human heart, this has opened up new avenues to study cardiac disease in humans and investigate novel therapeutic approaches to treat these pathologies. Here, we provide an overview of the current state of the field regarding the generation of cardiomyocytes from human pluripotent stem cells and methods to assess them functionally, an essential requirement when investigating disease and therapeutic outcomes. We critically evaluate whether treatments suggested by these in vitro models could be translated to clinical practice. Finally, we consider current shortcomings of these models and propose methods by which they could be further improved.
The Political Economy of Dynamic Elections: Accountability, Commitment, and Responsiveness
Authors: Duggan John , Martinelli César
Published: September 2017

We survey the literature on dynamic elections in the traditional settings of spatial preferences and rent seeking under perfect and imperfect monitoring of politicians. We define stationary electoral equilibrium, which encompasses notions used by Barro (1973), Ferejohn (1986), Banks and Sundaram (1998), and others. We show that repeated elections mitigate the commitment problems of politicians and voters, and that a responsive democracy result holds under general conditions. Term limits, however, attenuate the responsiveness finding. We also touch on related applied work, and we point to areas for fruitful future research, including the connection between dynamic models of politics and economics. ( JEL D72, D82, D83)
General anaesthesia for patients with a history of a contrast medium-induced anaphylaxis: a useful prophylaxis?
Authors: Boehm Ingrid , Nairz Knud , Morelli John , Silva Hasembank Keller Patricia , Heverhagen Johannes Thomas
Published: September 2017

Contrast-enhanced radiological examinations are important diagnostic tools in modern medicine. Currently, all approved and available iodinated and gadolinium-based contrast agents are safe and well-tolerated by most patients. However, approximately 2% of patients receiving iodinated contrast media exhibit hypersensitivity reactions. Patients with a history of such a reaction are at increased risk upon reexposure. Therefore, they are subjected to a prophylaxis such as injection of antiallergy drugs or general anaesthesia. The latter procedure is expensive, can burden the patients organism, and besides lacks objective verification. Therefore, the purpose of our review paper is to present and discuss the background and the previous practice, as well as to provide a proposal for a safe individual patient management.
Bioeffect of Negative Ionized Air Impact on the Course of Reparative Processes in the Organism after Gamma-irradiation
Authors: Татаркин С. , Tatarkin S. , Шафиркин А. , Shafirkin A. , Баранцева М. , Baranceva M. , Иванова С. , Ivanova S. , Ворожцова С. , Vorozhcova S. , Татаркина Л. , Tatarkina L. , Хуршут А. , Hurshut A. , Безгрешнов В. , Bezgreshnov V.
Published: September 2017

Purpose: The integrated research of the reaction of the hematopoietic system, including hematopoietic, metabolic changes in the cells and modify their antioxidant capacity during the recovery period after radiation exposure at doses and concentrations that are typical for interplanetary flight: 1) in isolation, i.e. without any external influence; 2) under the influence of negatively ionized air.

Material and methods: The study was conducted on sexually mature mice of line F1(CBA×C57BL6) subject to the rules and regulations of biomedical ethics on the basis of SSC RF IBMP RAS. The pilot study included 2 stages: 1) fractionated γ-irradiation (350 cGy) with the duration of 63 days; 2) the recovery period, lasting 28 days, during which the animals were exposed to negatively ionized air (daily for 70 min). Studied cytological, morphological, biochemical parameters of hematopoiesis: the total number of nucleated cells (bone marrow); the amount of production of erythrocytes, reticulocytes, hemoglobin (in peripheral blood); the content of ATP, lactate, glutathione, activity of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) (in erythrocyte); the ratio and amount of lipid fractions (in the membrane of erythrocytes).

Results: The biological effect of the impact of negatively ionized air on the course of reparative processes in the body after gamma irradiation consists in the accelerated recovery of the number of peripheral blood cells and in a more pronounced degree of myeloid growth, due to:

• increase in the rate of recovery of energy production processes (increase in LDH activity, improvement of lactate and ATP, and more pronounced normalization of oxidation-reduction processes), which facilitates recapitalization of cells with lipid membrane saturation with membrane cholesterol.

• membrane-protective effect of negatively ionized air, based on the restoration of the membrane potential of cells expressing negative effects of blood cells;

• increased life span of cells in peripheral blood and smaller values of the half-life of granulocytes from the bloodstream in the tissue.
The prevalence and incidence of diabetic foot ulcers among five countries in the Arab world: a systematic review
Authors: Mairghani M. , Elmusharaf K. , Patton D. , Burns J. , Eltahir O. , Jassim G. , Moore Z.
Published: September 2017

Objective:

There is a rising incidence of diabetes worldwide; however there seems to be a higher incidence and prevalence rates in the Arab world when compared with the global average. 1 Out of the top 10 countries with the highest prevalence rates, six are Arab countries and almost 20.5 million people in that part of the world live with diabetes. Despite this, published scientific research from the 22 Arab countries is limited and seems to be of lower quality when compared with the rest of the developed world. 2 Therefore, our aim was to explore the contribution of the different Arab countries in the world literature, to identify the diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) prevalence and incidence rates and to quality appraise these studies.

Method:

A systematic review, following PRISMA guidelines, was undertaken to identify the incidence and prevalence of DFUs in the Arab world. The following databases were searched: PubMed, Embase CINAHL, Web of Science (Scopus), Global Health and EBSCO

Results:

A total of nine papers were identified. The mean prevalence of DFU in Saudi Arabia was 11.85% (4.7–19%), in Egypt was 4.2% (1–7.4%), in Jordan was 4.65% (4–5.3%), in Bahrain was 5.9% and in Iraq was 2.7%. A single study identified DFU incidence in Saudi Arabia as 1.8% between 2009–2010.

Conclusion:

The mean prevalence rates of DFU were highest in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and lowest in Iraq. Saudi Arabia had the only reported incidence study, thus findings could not be compared to other countries of the Arab world. There were no studies identified during our search reporting prevalence rates of DFU in 17 of the 22 Arab countries. It is clear that further research is required to determine the incidence and prevalance of DFUs in the Arab world and that progress is needed in order to improve the quality of research conducted in those countries.
Evaluation of osteopontin expression in chronic wounds: a potential prognostic and therapeutic biomarker
Authors: Chimento S. , Billero V. , Cavallin L. , Romanelli M. , Nadji M. , Romanelli P.
Published: September 2017

Objective:

Osteopontin (OPN) is abundantly expressed during tissue repair, acting as a powerful chemokine that recruits inflammatory cells such as neutrophils, macrophages, and Langerhans cells. The role of OPN in chronic wounds has not been explored. In this study, we assess the expression levels of OPN in chronic wounds to assess its potential contribution to the exacerbated inflammation seen in chronic ulcers, which is thought to contribute to poor healing.

Methods:

This retrospective study included archived biopsies of chronic wounds from several aetiologies. Immunohistochemical staining and blind analysis of OPN expression were carried out.

Results:

We assessed biopsies from venous leg ulcers (n=5), diabetic foot ulcers (n=5), pyoderma gangrenosum (n=5), squamous cell carcinoma ulcers (n=4), and calciphylaxis ulcers (n=3). The data revealed that all these sets of chronic ulcers expressed high levels of OPN.

Conclusion:

This study provides strong histopathologic evidence that OPN expression is significantly increased in chronic wounds, suggesting that its upregulation could contribute to the exacerbated inflammation. Furthermore, further characterisation of the role of OPN in wound healing could aid the development of specific and efficient anti-OPN therapies for the treatment of chronic wounds.
Very Deep Convolutional Neural Networks for Morphologic Classification of Erythrocytes
Authors: Durant Thomas J S , Olson Eben M , Schulz Wade L , Torres Richard
Published: September 2017

BACKGROUND

Morphologic profiling of the erythrocyte population is a widely used and clinically valuable diagnostic modality, but one that relies on a slow manual process associated with significant labor cost and limited reproducibility. Automated profiling of erythrocytes from digital images by capable machine learning approaches would augment the throughput and value of morphologic analysis. To this end, we sought to evaluate the performance of leading implementation strategies for convolutional neural networks (CNNs) when applied to classification of erythrocytes based on morphology.

METHODS

Erythrocytes were manually classified into 1 of 10 classes using a custom-developed Web application. Using recent literature to guide architectural considerations for neural network design, we implemented a “very deep” CNN, consisting of >150 layers, with dense shortcut connections.

RESULTS

The final database comprised 3737 labeled cells. Ensemble model predictions on unseen data demonstrated a harmonic mean of recall and precision metrics of 92.70% and 89.39%, respectively. Of the 748 cells in the test set, 23 misclassification errors were made, with a correct classification frequency of 90.60%, represented as a harmonic mean across the 10 morphologic classes.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings indicate that erythrocyte morphology profiles could be measured with a high degree of accuracy with “very deep” CNNs. Further, these data support future efforts to expand classes and optimize practical performance in a clinical environment as a prelude to full implementation as a clinical tool.
DPSIR MODEL AS A TOOL TO ASSES LAND CONVERSION TARIFF POLICY IN YOGYAKARTA
Authors: Novira Nina , Dalimunthe Syarifah Aini , Wicaksono Aditya Pandu , Dewi Nur Indah Sari , Rahayu Triana Sefti
Published: September 2017

Land use change from agricultural land to non-agricultural purposes in Yogyakarta Special Province (DIY) is the main factor leading to the decrease of agricultural land. The increasing population growth has led to a higher demand for land, which is contributing to the rapid land use changes. Land scarcity has led to a change in land utilization within the city and in the surrounding area. The DPSIR Model is used as the basis for the impact assessment analysis on the tariff policy implementation regarding to the controlling of the land use change. Driving force in this model is migration and the pressure is land use change. The state is divided into three categories, state of economic dimension, environmental dimension, and social dimension. These have caused impacts on land degradation, threats to food security, and pollution. As the response to this, the government introduced the policy PERDA No. 53 Year 2007 about authorizing land use in DIY. This paper is intended to explain how the DPSIR model is used to assess the policy implementation.Keywords: DPSIR, Assessment, Land Use Change, Land Use Policy.
KARAKTERISTIK KEWIRAUSAHAAN PENGUSAHA KECIL PAKAIAN JADI DI DEPOK, DAN PROSPEK USAHA DI MASA DEPAN
Authors: Rajagukguk Zantermans
Published: September 2017

To increase the numbers of entrepreneurs in Indonesia, the existence of small-scale apparel businesses in the township Bulak Timur, Depok becomes fascinating, as they naturally emerge and evolve, as well as face various problems with their abilities. However, lately, there are some concerns about whether they would be able to survive. Therefore, this article aims to identify the characteristics of small-scale apparel entrepreneurs in Bulak Timur, Depok City to understand their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges that they experience. The results would then be formulated as strategies and conveyed to both business players and government. Respondents were selected using a simple random sampling by the number of 32 entrepreneurs (25% of the population). Primary data were collected using a survey method through face-to-face interview techniques, with the help of questionnaires and in-depth interview based on interview guidelines. Data collected was processed and analyzed by using descriptive statistics. The results of this study concluded that apparel entrepreneurs in Depok still have many weaknesses rather than strengths, which led to a lower value of their entrepreneurial characteristics. In addition, there are still many barriers faced in the development of entrepreneurship in Depok, including government policies and program that were not optimal. Further efforts must be made to grow small-scale businesses with high-value entrepreneurial characteristics in Depok. First, small-scale entrepreneurs should strive to build and enhance their entrepreneurial characteristics. They must also understand and implement survival management. Second, Depok City Government should provide support among other things by increasing business incubator and training on business management, including survival management; draw up a blueprint of small-scale businesses to prevent unfair competition, which can also be used as material to develop technopreneurship.
Attribute-driven community search
Authors: Huang Xin , Lakshmanan Laks V. S.
Published: September 2017

Recently, community search over graphs has gained significant interest. In applications such as analysis of protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks, citation graphs, and collaboration networks, nodes tend to have attributes. Unfortunately, most previous community search algorithms ignore attributes and result in communities with poor cohesion w.r.t. their node attributes. In this paper, we study the problem of attribute-driven community search, that is, given an undirected graph
G
where nodes are associated with attributes, and an input query
Q
consisting of nodes

V
q

and attributes

W
q

, find the communities containing

V
q

, in which most community members are densely inter-connected and have similar attributes.

We formulate this problem as finding attributed truss communities (ATC), i.e., finding connected and close k-truss subgraphs containing

V
q

, with the largest attribute relevance score. We design a framework of desirable properties that good score function should satisfy. We show that the problem is NP-hard. However, we develop an efficient greedy algorithmic framework to iteratively remove nodes with the least popular attributes, and shrink the graph into an ATC. In addition, we also build an elegant index to maintain
k
-truss structure and attribute information, and propose efficient query processing algorithms. Extensive experiments on large real-world networks with ground-truth communities show that our algorithms significantly outperform the state of the art and demonstrates their efficiency and effectiveness.
Heterogeneous recommendations
Authors: Guerraoui Rachid , Kermarrec Anne-Marie , Lin Tao , Patra Rhicheek
Published: September 2017

Recommenders, as widely implemented nowadays by major e-commerce players like Netflix or Amazon, use collaborative filtering to suggest the most relevant items to their users. Clearly, the effectiveness of recommenders depends on the data they can exploit, i.e., the feedback of users conveying their preferences, typically based on their past ratings.

As of today, most recommenders are
homogeneous
in the sense that they utilize one specific application at a time. In short, Alice will only get recommended a movie if she has been rating movies. But what if she has been only rating books and would like to get recommendations for a movie? Clearly, the multiplicity of web applications is calling for
heterogeneous
recommenders that could utilize ratings in one application to provide recommendations in another one.

This paper presents X-M
ap
, a heterogeneous recommender. X-M
ap
leverages
meta-paths
between heterogeneous items over several application domains, based on users who rated across these domains. These
meta-paths
are then used in X-M
ap
to generate, for every user, a profile (
AlterEgo
) in a domain where the user might not have rated any item yet. Not surprisingly, leveraging
meta-paths
poses non-trivial issues of (a)
meta-path-based inter-item similarity
, in order to enable accurate predictions, (b)
scalability
, given the amount of computation required, as well as (c)
privacy
, given the need to aggregate information across multiple applications.

We show in this paper how X-M
ap
addresses the above-mentioned issues to achieve accuracy, scalability and differential privacy. In short, X-M
ap
weights the meta-paths based on several factors to compute inter-item similarities, and ensures scalability through a layer-based pruning technique. X-M
ap
guarantees differential privacy using an exponential scheme that leverages the meta-path-based similarities while determining the probability of item selection to construct the
AlterEgos.
We present an exhaustive experimental evaluation of X-M
ap
using real traces from Amazon. We show that, in terms of accuracy, X-M
ap
outperforms alternative heterogeneous recommenders and, in terms of throughput, X-M
ap
achieves a linear speedup with an increasing number of machines.
HoloClean
Authors: Rekatsinas Theodoros , Chu Xu , Ilyas Ihab F. , Ré Christopher
Published: September 2017

We introduce HoloClean, a framework for holistic data repairing driven by probabilistic inference. HoloClean unifies qualitative data repairing, which relies on integrity constraints or external data sources, with quantitative data repairing methods, which leverage statistical properties of the input data. Given an inconsistent dataset as input, HoloClean automatically generates a probabilistic program that performs data repairing. Inspired by recent theoretical advances in probabilistic inference, we introduce a series of optimizations which ensure that inference over HoloClean's probabilistic model scales to instances with millions of tuples. We show that HoloClean finds data repairs with an average precision of ∼ 90% and an average recall of above ∼ 76% across a diverse array of datasets exhibiting different types of errors. This yields an average F1 improvement of more than 2× against state-of-the-art methods.
Query optimization for dynamic imputation
Authors: Cambronero José , Feser John K. , Smith Micah J. , Madden Samuel
Published: September 2017

Missing values are common in data analysis and present a usability challenge. Users are forced to pick between removing tuples with missing values or creating a cleaned version of their data by applying a relatively expensive imputation strategy. Our system, ImputeDB, incorporates imputation into a cost-based query optimizer, performing necessary imputations on-the-fly for each query. This allows users to immediately explore their data, while the system picks the optimal placement of imputation operations. We evaluate this approach on three real-world survey-based datasets. Our experiments show that our query plans execute between 10 and 140 times faster than first imputing the base tables. Furthermore, we show that the query results from on-the-fly imputation differ from the traditional base-table imputation approach by 0--8%. Finally, we show that while dropping tuples with missing values that fail query constraints discards 6--78% of the data, on-the-fly imputation loses only 0--21%.
Probabilistic demand forecasting at scale
Authors: Böse Joos-Hendrik , Flunkert Valentin , Gasthaus Jan , Januschowski Tim , Lange Dustin , Salinas David , Schelter Sebastian , Seeger Matthias , Wang Yuyang
Published: September 2017

We present a platform built on large-scale, data-centric machine learning (ML) approaches, whose particular focus is
demand forecasting in retail.
At its core, this platform enables the training and application of probabilistic demand forecasting models, and provides convenient abstractions and support functionality for forecasting problems. The platform comprises of a complex end-to-end machine learning system built on Apache Spark, which includes data preprocessing, feature engineering, distributed learning, as well as evaluation, experimentation and ensembling. Furthermore, it meets the demands of a production system and scales to large catalogues containing millions of items.

We describe the challenges of building such a platform and discuss our design decisions. We detail aspects on several levels of the system, such as a set of general distributed learning schemes, our machinery for ensembling predictions, and a high-level dataflow abstraction for modeling complex ML pipelines. To the best of our knowledge, we are not aware of prior work on real-world demand forecasting systems which rivals our approach in terms of scalability.
Interactive navigation of open data linkages
Authors: Zhu Erkang , Pu Ken Q. , Nargesian Fatemeh , Miller Renée J.
Published: September 2017

We developed T
oronto
O
pen
D
ata
S
earch
to support the
ad hoc
, interactive discovery of connections or
linkages
between datasets. It can be used to efficiently navigate through the open data cloud. Our system consists of three parts: a user-interface provided by a Web application; a scalable backend infrastructure that supports navigational queries; and a dynamic repository of open data tables. Our system uses LSH Ensemble, an efficient index structure, to compute linkages (attributes in two datasets with high containment score) in real time at Internet scale. Our application allows users to navigate along these linkages by joining datasets.

LSH Ensemble is scalable, providing millisecond response times for linkage discovery queries even over millions of datasets. Our system offers users a highly interactive experience making unrelated (and unlinked) dynamic collections of datasets appear as a richly connected cloud of data that can be navigated and combined easily in real time.
Regional trend analysis of surface ozone observations from monitoring networks in eastern North America, Europe and East Asia
Authors: Chang Kai-Lan , Petropavlovskikh Irina , Cooper Owen R. , Schultz Martin G. , Wang Tao
Published: September 2017

Surface ozone is a greenhouse gas and pollutant detrimental to human health and crop and ecosystem productivity. The Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report (TOAR) is designed to provide the research community with an up-to-date observation-based overview of tropospheric ozone’s global distribution and trends. The TOAR Surface Ozone Database contains ozone metrics at thousands of monitoring sites around the world, densely clustered across mid-latitude North America, western Europe and East Asia. Calculating regional ozone trends across these locations is challenging due to the uneven spacing of the monitoring sites across urban and rural areas. To meet this challenge we conducted a spatial and temporal trend analysis of several TOAR ozone metrics across these three regions for summertime (April–September) 2000–2014, using the generalized additive mixed model (GAMM). Our analysis indicates that East Asia has the greatest human and plant exposure to ozone pollution among investigating regions, with increasing ozone levels through 2014. The results also show that ozone mixing ratios continue to decline significantly over eastern North America and Europe, however, there is less evidence for decreases of daytime average ozone at urban sites. The present-day spatial coverage of ozone monitors in East Asia (South Korea and Japan) and eastern North America is adequate for estimating regional trends by simply taking the average of the individual trends at each site. However the European network is more sparsely populated across its northern and eastern regions and therefore a simple average of the individual trends at each site does not yield an accurate regional trend. This analysis demonstrates that the GAMM technique can be used to assess the regional representativeness of existing monitoring networks, indicating those networks for which a regional trend can be obtained by simply averaging the trends of all individual sites and those networks that require a more sophisticated statistical approach.
The Adoption of Zayd and the Finality of the Islamic Prophecy
Authors: Cilardo Agostino
Published: September 2017

A recent book of David S. Powers, entitled Zayd: The Little Known Story of Mu?ammad’s Adopted Son, casts doubts about the traditional historiography concerning the events regarding Zayd, Zaynab, the military expedition of Mu?tah, and Zayd’s son Us?ma. Powers does not believe that the narratives on the foundation of Islam describe the true history of Islam. The author wants to demonstrate a close dependence of the narratives about the origins of Islam from similar Biblical events. The methodological approach of Powers leads him to give a new interpretation of Q. 33:37 such as to justify the doctrine of the finality of prophecy of Mu?ammad. He believes that this verse was not revealed on the purpose to allow Mu?ammad to marry the previous wife of Zayd, Zaynab, thus abolishing adoption, as it is usually understood, but rather to establish the dogma of the finality of prophecy.
Film induced tourism: a systematic literature review
Authors:   Universidade Lusófona do Porto, Cardoso Lucília , Estevão Cristina ,   Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco, Fernandes Cristina ,   Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco, Alves Helena ,   UBI
Published: September 2017

The “film induced tourism” concept serves for the study of tourism visits made to a destination or attraction resulting from its featuring in cinema films, television series or promotional videos. This phenomenon falls within the field of “film induced versus destination branding image” research, a fairly recently established field, and with this article correspondingly seeking to carry out analysis of the contents and systematisation of this area based on the contents of the Web of Science database. Thus, this article consists of the application of a systematic survey involving the summary and evaluation based upon the interpretation of the results returned. The sample contains only those articles published in English language journals and explicitly excluding conference proceedings or commentaries.

We thus sought to grasp the perspectives adopted by both empirical and theoretical studies, the themes studied and the main conclusions of those studies analysed here. The results convey the diversity of both the quantitative and qualitative studies and the various future lines of research defined in accordance with the gaps detected in the results returned.
简析地下室工程建设中的喷锚基坑支护技术应用
Authors: 陶 新颖
Published: September 2017

地下室工程建设通常都会采用基坑施工技术，因此做好相应的基坑支护工作，是保证施工质量和施工安全的重要手段。作为当前基坑支护的常见技术，喷锚支护的适用性强、成本低廉，而且具有良好的可靠性和稳固性，基于此，本文简述了深基坑支护施工的必要性以及喷锚基坑支护技术的施工原理，对地下室工程建设中喷锚基坑支护技术的应用进行了探讨分析。
简析空调系统新风方式及其节能
Authors: 王 久才
Published: September 2017

本文就空调系统的各种新风供给方式及特点进行简要阐述,指出各种新风方式所适应的空调系统形式,并讲解了新风系统的一些节能方式。
前提干绿色建筑设计理念的应用与发展
Authors: 司 冈毅 , 刘 勇
Published: September 2017

随着我国经济问题告诉发展，能源和环境问题备受关注和重视，建筑行业推行节能减排、绿色生态的概念已然在现代建筑设计中悄然实行，可持续绿色环保发展理念已经成为建筑设计的重点研究课题，本文就是简要分析现阶段绿色建筑设计理念的应用于发展，虚妄对绿色建筑的实践应用提供帮助。
Consensus of Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Systems with Intermittent Communication
Authors: Xu Lü , Meng Shuanghe , Chen Liang
Published: September 2017

This paper studies consensus of a class of heterogeneous multi-agent systems composed of first-order and second-order agents with intermittent communication. For leaderless multi-agent systems, we propose a distributed consensus algorithm based on the intermittent information of neighboring agents. Some sufficient conditions are obtained to guarantee the consensus of heterogeneous multi-agent systems in terms of bilinear matrix inequalities (BMIs). Meanwhile, the relationship between communication duration and each control period is sought out. Moreover, the designed algorithm is extended to leader-following multi-agent systems without velocity measurements. Finally, the effectiveness of the main results is illustrated by numerical simulations.
Screening and Selection of Twenty Iranian Wheatgrass Genotypes for Tolerance to Salinity Stress during Seed Germination and Seedling Growth Stage
Authors: Sheikh-Mohamadi Mohamad-Hossein , Etemadi Nematollah , Nikbakht Ali , Farajpour Mostafa , Arab Mostafa , Majidi Mohammad Mahdi
Published: September 2017

Desert wheatgrass (Agropyron desertorum L.), tall wheatgrass (Agropyron elongatum L.), and crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum L.) are native cool-season grass species that exhibit potential as a low-input turfgrass. An increased understanding of the biochemical and physiological responses of wheatgrass species and genotypes to salt stress conditions is important for developing genotypes with enhanced tolerance to salinity. The objective of this study was to characterize the physiological and antioxidative properties in 20 Iranian wheatgrass genotypes and to observe their responses to salinity stress during seed germination and seedling growth stage. A completely randomized factorial design was used with two types of factors, four levels of salinity (0, 50, 100, and 150 mm of NaCl), wheatgrass genotypes, and three replicates. In this experiment, the results demonstrated that salinity limits the germination of Iranian wheatgrass genotype seeds. The result of this study showed that among the wheatgrass genotypes, ‘AD1’, ‘AD3,’ ‘AC6’, and ‘FA’ took the shortest average time to germinate. Higher levels of final germination percentage (FGP) were observed in ‘AD2’, ‘AD3’, and ‘AE5’ under salinity stress than other genotypes throughout the experiment. During a prolonged period of study, ‘AD1’ had greater rate of germination (GR) than other genotypes. Out of the 21 genotypes, five genotypes (‘AD1’, ‘AD2’, ‘AD3’, ‘AE5’, and ‘FA’ genotypes) were in the range of “salinity tolerant genotypes” cluster. The ‘AD1’, ‘AD2’, ‘AD3’, ‘AE5’, and ‘FA’ genotypes generally performed better than other genotypes under salinity conditions, mainly through maintaining higher enzymatic activities such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) (EC 1.15.1.1), catalase (CAT) (EC 1.11.1.6), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) (EC 1.11.1.11) and peroxidase (POD) (EC 1.111.1.7), and nonenzymatic antioxidant activities by glutathione (GSH). The ‘AD1’, ‘AD2’, ‘AD3’, ‘AE5’, and ‘FA’ genotypes also had higher proline levels and more of total nonstructural carbohydrates (TNC) content, lower malondialdehyde (MDA) content, and lower hydrogen peroxide content (H2O2).