bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Less Conservative Optimal Robust Control of a 3-DOF Helicopter
Authors: Buzachero L. F. S. , Assunção E. , Teixeira M. C. M. , Silva E. R. P. da
Published: February 2015

This work proposes an improved technique for design and optimization of robust controllers norm for uncertain linear systems, with state feedback, including the possibility of time-varying the uncertainty. The synthesis techniques used are based on LMIs (linear matrix inequalities) formulated on the basis of Lyapunov’s stability theory, using Finsler’s lemma. The design has used the addition of the decay rate restriction, including a parameterγin the LMIs, responsible for decreasing the settling time of the feedback system. Qualitative and quantitative comparisons were made between methods of synthesis and optimization of the robust controllers norm, seeking alternatives with lower cost and better performance that meet the design restrictions. A practical application illustrates the efficiency of the proposed method with a failure purposely inserted in the system.
Biocheese: A Food Probiotic Carrier
Authors: Castro J. M. , Tornadijo M. E. , Fresno J. M. , Sandoval H.
Published: February 2015

This review describes some aspects related to the technological barriers encountered in the development and stability of probiotic cheeses. Aspects concerning the viability of probiotic cultures in this matrix are discussed and the potential of cheese as a biofunctional food carrier is analyzed, outlying some points related to health and safety. In general, the manufacture of probiotic cheese should have little change when compared with the elaboration of cheese in the traditional way. The physicochemical and technological parameters influencing the quality of these products have also to be measured so as to obtain a process optimization.
Acute Pancreatitis and Splenic Vein Thrombosis due to Hypertriglyceridemia
Authors: Gündüz Ercan , Dursun Recep , İçer Mustafa , Zengin Yılmaz , Güloğlu Cahfer
Published: February 2015

Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a condition characterised by the activation of the normally inactive digestive enzymes due to an etiological factor and digestion of the pancreatic tissues, resulting in extensive inflammation and leading to local, regional, and systemic complications in the organism. It may vary from the mild edematous to the hemorrhagic and severely necrotising form. The most common causes are biliary stones and alcohol abuse. In this case study, we would like to present a patient with AP due to hypertriglyceridemia (HPTG), which is a rare cause of pancreatitis, and splenic vein thrombosis, which is a rare complication of pancreatitis.
Lifetime Optimization of an Indoor Surveillance Sensor Network Using Adaptive Energy-Efficient Transmission
Authors: Qiao Guifang , Song Guangming , Zhang Ying , Zhang Jun , Peng Jin
Published: February 2015

An indoor surveillance system is proposed and carried out in this paper. The surveillance system consists of a home server, omnirobots, and static monitoring nodes. The omnirobots and static monitoring nodes form a surveillance sensor network which comprises several star-like wireless sensor networks. The static monitoring nodes sleep periodically and can be woken up by the pyroelectric infrared sensor. If an abnormal event happens, the static monitoring node will capture images and produce alert messages. An adaptive energy-efficient transmission method is proposed to prolong and balance the lifetime of each static monitoring node. The static monitoring nodes can adjust their transmission power according to the distance to the omnirobots. Meanwhile, the omnirobots can also adjust their positions to extend the lifetime of the surveillance sensor network. Experimental results demonstrate that the transmission power of the static monitoring nodes is minimized sufficiently. A 160 × 120 image can be transmitted within 2.1 s in the surveillance sensor network. The energy consumption of transmitting images without transmission security mechanism reduces by 21%. And it saves 11.7% of energy that an image is transmitted with the lowest transmission power. The surveillance sensor network can be conscious of the node loss and self-recovers timely.
Litsea japonicaExtract Inhibits Aldose Reductase Activity and Hyperglycemia-Induced Lenticular Sorbitol Accumulation in db/db Mice
Authors: Kim Junghyun , Kim Chan-Sik , Sohn Eunjin , Lee Yun Mi , Jo Kyuhyung , Kim Jin Sook
Published: February 2015

Aldose reductase (AR) is the first and rate-limiting enzyme of the polyol pathway. AR-dependent synthesis of excess polyols leads to lens opacification in diabetic cataract. The purpose of this study is to investigate the protective effect ofLitsea japonicaextract (LJE) on diabetes-induced lens opacification and its protective mechanism in db/db mice. Seven-week-old male db/db mice were treated with LJE (100 and 250 mg/kg body weight) once a day orally for 12 weeks. LJE dose dependently inhibited rat lens aldose reductase activityin vitro(IC50= 13.53 ± 0.74 µg/mL). In db/db mice, lens was slightly opacified, and lens fiber cells were swollen and ruptured. In addition, lenticular sorbitol accumulation was increased in db/db mice. However, the administration of LJE inhibited these lenticular sorbitol accumulation and lens architectural changes in db/db mice. Our results suggest that LJE might be beneficial for the treatment of diabetes-induced lens opacification. The ability of LJE to suppress lenticular sorbitol accumulation may be mediated by the inhibition of AR activity.
Unprotected Left-Main Coronary Angioplasty in the Elderly in a High Volume Catheterization Centre without On-Site Surgery Facilities: Immediate and Medium Term Outcome—The Old-Placet Registry
Authors: Gagnor A. , Tomassini F. , Cerrato E. , Rolfo C. , Gambino A. , Giolitto S. , Favro E. , Bollati M. , Tizzani E. , Varbella F.
Published: February 2015

We aim to assess clinical feasibility and efficacy of unprotected left main (ULM) percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients older than 75 years over a 6-year period and with 2-year follow-up demonstrating that PCI is a feasible revascularization strategy even in absence of on-site cardiothoracic support. Nevertheless, the outcome of these high-risk patients is still hampered by a sensible in-hospital mortality rate. Older patients have a higher mortality at follow-up (10.0 versus 0.8%, P = 0.014), while younger patients have a low mortality after the acute phase (15.7 versus 8.4%, P = 0.15).
Microtron Irradiation Induced Tuning of Dielectric Properties of LDPE-ZnO Nanocomposites
Authors: Thomas Deepu , Augustine Simon , Prakash Jithin
Published: February 2015

Low-density polyethylene (LDPE)/ZnO composites were prepared using melt mixing process. ZnO powder with size of 44 nm was used as reinforcing particle. The electron beam irradiation effects on the dielectric behaviour of a polymer nanocomposite dielectric made of low density polyethylene filled with nanoparticles of ZnO were studied. The dielectric constant and dielectric loss values were determined by dielectric spectroscopy over a frequency range of 100 KHz–5 MHz on plane samples of the tested nanodielectrics. The influence of filler concentration, between 2 and 8 wt.%, and the irradiation effects on the dielectric properties are also discussed in the paper.
Evolutionary Game-Based Trust Strategy Adjustment among Nodes in Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Li Yuanjie , Xu Hongyun , Cao Qiying , Li Zichuan , Shen Shigen
Published: February 2015

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) provide network services through the cooperation of sensor nodes, while the basis of cooperation depends on the trust relationships among the nodes. In this paper, we construct an evolutionary game-based trust strategy model among the nodes in WSNs, and we subsequently introduce a strategy adjustment mechanism into the process of game evolution to make up for the deficiency that the replicator dynamic model cannot reflect the requirement of individual strategy adjustments. Afterward, we derive theorems and inferences in terms of the evolutionary stable state through dynamic analyses, providing a theoretical basis for WSN trust management. Furthermore, we verify the theorems and inferences with different parameter values, especially the trust incentive and the upper limit of data retransmission after packets are lost, and both of them are closely related to the evolutionary stable state. The experiments demonstrated that, under certain conditions, the involved nodes can finally reach a stable state of the system by constantly adjusting their trust strategy. At the same time, the speed of evolution of our strategy adjustment mechanism in achieving the stable state is much faster than that of the usual replicator dynamic evolution method.
Calcium Alginate-Neusilin US2 Nanocomposite Microbeads for Oral Sustained Drug Delivery of Poor Water Soluble Drug Aceclofenac Sodium
Authors: Mallappa Manjanna Kolammanahalli , Kesarla Rajesh , Banakar Shivakumar
Published: February 2015

The aim of the present study was to formulate and investigate the calcium alginate- (CA-) Neusilin US2 nanocomposite microbeads containing preconcentrate of aceclofenac sodium (ACF-Na) liquid microemulsion (L-ME) for enhancement of oral bioavailability. The preconcentrate L-ME is prepared by using Labrafac PG, Labrasol, and Span 80 as oil, surfactant, and cosurfactant, respectively. The solid CA nanocomposite microbeads of L-ME prepared by microemulsification internal gelation technique using sodium alginate (SA) gelling agent, Neusilin US2 as adsorbent, and calcium chloride as crosslinking agent. L-ME has good thermodynamic stability; globule size was found to be 32.4 nm with polydispersity index 0.219 and −6.32 mV zeta potential. No significant interactions of excipients, drug in the formulations observed by FT-IR, DSC and XPRD. The concentration of SA and Neusilin US2 influences the flow properties, mean particle size, mechanical strength, drug entrapment efficiency, and percentage of drug release. All the formulations show minimum drug release in simulated gastric fluid (SGF) pH 1.2 for initial 2 h, maximum drug release in pH 6.8 phosphate buffer solution (PBS) at 6 h, followed by sustaining in simulated intestinal fluid (SIF) of pH 7.4 up to 12 h. The interaction of SA with Neusilin US2 creates a thick thixotropic gel network structure which acts as barrier to control the release of drug in the alkaline pH environment. Neusilin US2 is a novel filler used to convert L-ME into solid nanocomposite microbeads to enhance dissolution rate of poor water soluble drugs sustaining the drug release for prolonged period of time.
Women, Drug Dependency and Consequences: A Study from a Developing Country
Authors: Khajedaluee Mohammad , Dadgarmoghaddam Maliheh , Erfanian Majidreza , Alipourtabrizi Arash , Khadem-Rezaiyan Majid
Published: February 2015

Introduction. Addiction in women can expose them to malnutrition, high blood pressure, cancer, and some other dangerous diseases like hepatitis, AIDS, or other sexual transmitted diseases. The aim of this study was to assess illegal sexual relations in three groups of women.Methods. This is a cross-sectional study that was done on 236 girls and young women aged 16–25 years in 2012 in three groups: vulnerable women who have substance dependency (crimes that had made women incarcerated were considered as vulnerability in this study), invulnerable women who have substance dependency (substance dependent women without a history of incarceration), and a control group (women with no history of substance dependency or being in prison).Results. 43.8% of vulnerable women who have substance dependency had extramarital sexual relations; this percentage was 55.8% in invulnerable women who have substance dependency and 1.4% in the control group. Crystal and methamphetamine abuse was higher in addicts who had extramarital sexual relations and alcohol abuse was correlated with unsafe sexual intercourse (r=;0.36,P=0.001). There was a statistically significant difference in extramarital sexual relation based on marital status (P<0.001).Conclusions. Poverty, drug dependency, divorce, and alcohol consumption make women prone to other high risk behaviors that need more attention.
Biomarkers for Detection and Monitoring of B16 Melanoma in Mouse Urine and Feces
Authors: Sever Aviv , Abd elkadir Amir , Matana Yosef , Gopas Jacob , Zeiri Yehuda
Published: February 2015

Melanoma is the most malignant type of skin cancer. Early detection of melanoma is thus critical for patient prognosis and survival. At present, examination by a skilled dermatologist followed by biopsy of suspicious lesions is the diagnostic gold standard. The aim of the present study was to examine an alternative and noninvasive method for the diagnosis of melanoma at an early stage. We identified and compared the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in mouse urine and feces, before and after a subcutaneous injection of B16 melanoma cells. We identified a total of 16 VOCs in urine and 13 VOCs in feces that could serve as potential biomarkers. Statistical analysis significantly discriminated between the cancer and control groups. These results should be validated in a larger-scale animal study, after which a study could be designed in patients to develop a melanoma biomarker.
Acute Myocardial Infarction: A Comparison of the Risk between Physicians and the General Population
Authors: Chen Yen-ting , Huang Chien-Cheng , Weng Shih-Feng , Hsu Chien-Chin , Wang Jhi-Joung , Lin Hung-Jung , Su Shih-Bin , Guo How-Ran , Juan Chi-Wen
Published: February 2015

Physicians in Taiwan have a heavy workload and a stressful workplace, both of which may contribute to cardiovascular disease. However, the risk of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in physicians is not clear. This population-based cohort study used Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database. We identified 28,062 physicians as the case group and randomly selected 84,186 nonmedical staff patients as the control group. We used a conditional logistic regression to compare the AMI risk between physicians and controls. Subgroup analyses of physician specialty, age, gender, comorbidities, area, and hospital level were also done. Physicians have a higher prevalence of HTN (23.59% versus 19.06%, P<0.0001) and hyperlipidemia (21.36% versus 12.93%, P<0.0001) but a lower risk of AMI than did the controls (adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 0.57; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.46–0.72) after adjusting for DM, HTN, hyperlipidemia, and area. Between medical specialty, age, and area subgroups, differences in the risk for having an AMI were nonsignificant. Medical center physicians had a lower risk (AOR: 0.42; 95% CI: 0.20–0.85) than did local clinic physicians. Taiwan’s physicians had higher prevalences of HTN and hyperlipidemia, but a lower risk of AMI than did the general population. Medical center physicians had a lower risk than did local clinic physicians. Physicians are not necessary healthier than the general public, but physicians, especially in medical centers, have a greater awareness of disease and greater access to medical care, which permits timely treatment and may prevent critical conditions such as AMI induced by delayed treatment.
Two Bi-Accelerator Improved with Memory Schemes for Solving Nonlinear Equations
Authors: Jaiswal J. P.
Published: February 2015

The present paper is devoted to the improvement of theR-order convergence of with memory derivative free methods presented by Lotfi et al. (2014) without doing any new evaluation. To achieve this aim one more self-accelerating parameter is inserted, which is calculated with the help of Newton’s interpolatory polynomial. First theoretically it is proved that theR-order of convergence of the proposed schemes is increased from 6 to 7 and 12 to 14, respectively, without adding any extra evaluation. Smooth as well as nonsmooth examples are discussed to confirm theoretical result and superiority of the proposed schemes.
Digital Radiography for Determination of Primary Tooth Length: In Vivo and Ex Vivo Studies
Authors: Basso Maria D. , Jeremias Fabiano , Cordeiro Rita C. L. , Santos-Pinto Lourdes
Published: February 2015

Background. Methods for determining the root canal length of the primary tooth should yield accurate and reproducible results. In vitro studies show some limitations, which do not allow their findings to be directly transferred to a clinical situation. Aim. To compare the accuracy of radiographic tooth length obtained from in vivo digital radiograph with that obtained from ex vivo digital radiograph. Method. Direct digital radiographs of 20 upper primary incisors were performed in teeth (2/3 radicular resorption) that were radiographed by an intraoral sensor, according to the long‐cone technique. Teeth were extracted, measured, and mounted in a resin block, and then radiographic template was used to standardise the sensor‐target distance (30 cm). The apparent tooth length (APTL) was obtained from the computer screen by means of an electronic ruler accompanying the digital radiography software (CDR 2.0), whereas the actual tooth length (ACTL) was obtained by means of a digital calliper following extraction. Data were compared to the ACTL by variance analysis and Pearson’s correlation test. Results. The values for APTL obtained from in vivo radiography were slightly underestimated, whereas those values obtained from ex vivo were slightly overestimated. No significance was observed (P ≤ 0.48) between APTL and ACTL. Conclusion. The length of primary teeth estimated by in vivo and ex vivo comparisons using digital radiography was found to be similar to the actual tooth length.
Inequalities Characterizing Linear-Multiplicative Functionals
Authors: Fechner Włodzimierz
Published: February 2015

We prove, in an elementary way, that if a nonconstant real-valued mapping defined on a real algebra with a unit satisfies certain inequalities, then it is a linear and multiplicative functional. Moreover, we determine all Jensen concave and supermultiplicative operatorsT:CX→CY, whereXandYare compact Hausdorff spaces.
Effects of Trace Metal Profiles Characteristic for Autism on Synapses in Cultured Neurons
Authors: Hagmeyer Simone , Mangus Katharina , Boeckers Tobias M. , Grabrucker Andreas M.
Published: February 2015

Various recent studies revealed that biometal dyshomeostasis plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis of neurological disorders such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Substantial evidence indicates that disrupted neuronal homeostasis of different metal ions such as Fe, Cu, Pb, Hg, Se, and Zn may mediate synaptic dysfunction and impair synapse formation and maturation. Here, we performedin vitrostudies investigating the consequences of an imbalance of transition metals on glutamatergic synapses of hippocampal neurons. We analyzed whether an imbalance of any one metal ion alters cell health and synapse numbers. Moreover, we evaluated whether a biometal profile characteristic for ASD patients influences synapse formation, maturation, and composition regarding NMDA receptor subunits and Shank proteins. Our results show that an ASD like biometal profile leads to a reduction of NMDAR (NR/Grin/GluN) subunit 1 and 2a, as well as Shank gene expression along with a reduction of synapse density. Additionally, synaptic protein levels of GluN2a and Shanks are reduced. Although Zn supplementation is able to rescue the aforementioned alterations, Zn deficiency is not solely responsible as causative factor. Thus, we conclude that balancing Zn levels in ASD might be a prime target to normalize synaptic alterations caused by biometal dyshomeostasis.
A Mixed Feature Selection Method Considering Interaction
Authors: Zeng Zilin , Zhang Hongjun , Zhang Rui , Zhang Youliang
Published: February 2015

Feature interaction has gained considerable attention recently. However, many feature selection methods considering interaction are only designed for categorical features. This paper proposes a mixed feature selection algorithm based on neighborhood rough sets that can be used to search for interacting features. In this paper, feature relevance, feature redundancy, and feature interaction are defined in the framework of neighborhood rough sets, the neighborhood interaction weight factor reflecting whether a feature is redundant or interactive is proposed, and a neighborhood interaction weight based feature selection algorithm (NIWFS) is brought forward. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, we compare NIWFS with other three feature selection algorithms, including INTERACT, NRS, and NMI, in terms of the classification accuracies and the number of selected features with C4.5 and IB1. The results from ten real world datasets indicate that NIWFS not only deals with mixed datasets directly, but also reduces the dimensionality of feature space with the highest average accuracies.
Towards Topic-to-Question Generation
Authors: Chali Yllias , Hasan Sadid A.
Published: February 2015

This paper is concerned with automatic generation of all possible questions from a topic of interest. Specifically, we consider that each topic is associated with a body of texts containing useful information about the topic. Then, questions are generated by exploiting the named entity information and the predicate argument structures of the sentences present in the body of texts. The importance of the generated questions is measured using Latent Dirichlet Allocation by identifying the subtopics (which are closely related to the original topic) in the given body of texts and applying the Extended String Subsequence Kernel to calculate their similarity with the questions. We also propose the use of syntactic tree kernels for the automatic judgment of the syntactic correctness of the questions. The questions are ranked by considering both their importance (in the context of the given body of texts) and syntactic correctness. To the best of our knowledge, no previous study has accomplished this task in our setting. A series of experiments demonstrate that the proposed topic-to-question generation approach can significantly outperform the state-of-the-art results.
Concrete Models and Empirical Evaluations for the Categorical Compositional Distributional Model of Meaning
Authors: Grefenstette Edward , Sadrzadeh Mehrnoosh
Published: February 2015

Modeling compositional meaning for sentences using empirical distributional methods has been a challenge for computational linguists. The categorical model of Clark, Coecke, and Sadrzadeh (2008) and Coecke, Sadrzadeh, and Clark (2010) provides a solution by unifying a categorial grammar and a distributional model of meaning. It takes into account syntactic relations during semantic vector composition operations. But the setting is abstract: It has not been evaluated on empirical data and applied to any language tasks. We generate concrete models for this setting by developing algorithms to construct tensors and linear maps and instantiate the abstract parameters using empirical data. We then evaluate our concrete models against several experiments, both existing and new, based on measuring how well models align with human judgments in a paraphrase detection task. Our results show the implementation of this general abstract framework to perform on par with or outperform other leading models in these experiments.1
Automatic Adaptation of Annotations
Authors: Jiang Wenbin , Lü Yajuan , Huang Liang , Liu Qun
Published: February 2015

Manually annotated corpora are indispensable resources, yet for many annotation tasks, such as the creation of treebanks, there exist multiple corpora with different and incompatible annotation guidelines. This leads to an inefficient use of human expertise, but it could be remedied by integrating knowledge across corpora with different annotation guidelines. In this article we describe the problem of annotation adaptation and the intrinsic principles of the solutions, and present a series of successively enhanced models that can automatically adapt the divergence between different annotation formats.

We evaluate our algorithms on the tasks of Chinese word segmentation and dependency parsing. For word segmentation, where there are no universal segmentation guidelines because of the lack of morphology in Chinese, we perform annotation adaptation from the much larger People's Daily corpus to the smaller but more popular Penn Chinese Treebank. For dependency parsing, we perform annotation adaptation from the Penn Chinese Treebank to a semantics-oriented Dependency Treebank, which is annotated using significantly different annotation guidelines. In both experiments, automatic annotation adaptation brings significant improvement, achieving state-of-the-art performance despite the use of purely local features in training.
Transferred Flesh: Reflections on Senga Nengudi’s R.S.V.P.
Authors: Bradley Rizvana
Published: February 2015

The performance of Senga Nengudi’s sculptural work R.S.V.P., as part of the exhibition Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art, explores the limits of sculptural form, while also submitting idealized representations of the black body in contemporary performance to abstract interrogation.
Who Has Seen the Most?
Authors: Roach Joseph
Published: February 2015

In all of theatrical history, one theatre-goer has seen more plays than any other. Who knows who that person is? TDR does.
The Governance of Islam in Finland and Ireland
Authors: Sakaranaho Tuula , Martikainen Tuomas
Published: February 2015

The questions of how western European states have related, and should relate, to their Muslim populations have in recent decades generated a rapidly growing body of research, aimed at answering the above questions from different theoretical perspectives. It has been argued that the main problem with the existing theories is their failure to take into account historically evolved church–state relations that have a bearing on the way that Muslim religious practices are accommodated in a given country. In order to test this argument, we will examine the representational structures of Muslims in Finland and the Republic of Ireland as well as questions pertaining to Islam and education. Even if under different legal arrangements of church–state relations, both Finland and Ireland have opted for a policy where they aim at securing the status quo of a dominant national church while also extending some of the legal privileges enjoyed by the mainstream church to religious minorities. What we will demonstrate in our article is that while this kind of “policy of extended privileges” can work for, it can also function against securing the rights of religious minorities such as Muslims.
Negotiating Republican Islam
Authors: Konttori Johanna
Published: February 2015

The article analyzes the discursive construction of republican Islam by French parliamentarians and the representatives of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (cfcm or Conseil français du culte musulman) during the debates on headscarves and full veils. It is argued that even though both parties agreed generally on the need to promote moderate Islam that is loyal to French laws, values and principles, there were also several issues that divided these parties. The article employs the framework of analytics of government and highlights the element of negotiation and the active role of the different parties involved in the regulation of Islam.
Ambassadors of Faith
Authors: Pauha Teemu Juhani
Published: February 2015

In this article, I study how young Finnish Muslims negotiate for agency amidst a multitude of governing discourses—that is, discourses that seek to regulate what is ‘proper’ Finnishness, ‘proper’ Muslimness etc. The study is based on a discourse analysis of theme interviews conducted with 14 young Muslims active in civil society organisations. The analysis demonstrates that the young Muslims are skillful in negotiating their way in the discursive field that surrounds them; by adopting certain subject positions offered to them while at the same time distancing themselves from other positions, my young interviewees create space for increased agency both for themselves and their peers.
Integrating Islamic Positions into European Public Discourse
Authors: Zemmin Florian
Published: February 2015

As the continuing relevance of religion to secular European societies garners increasing recognition, the question remains of which religious positions may assume a public role, with Islam at the center of many debates. This article complements the ongoing theoretical debate with a detailed case study analyzing the major works of Islamic scholar and public intellectual Tariq Ramadan. I show that in the last two decades Ramadan significantly modified his views on Islam and European societies. I argue that these adjustments were interdependent, and as such paradigmatically illustrate that the integration of Islamic positions into public discourse depends on shifts in the understanding of both concepts.
The Phonetic Cause of Sound Change from Voiceless Stops to Implosives
Authors: Cun Xi
Published: February 2015

Currently, no relevant study provides a proper phonetic explanation regarding the origin of implosives in Chinese dialects. The present study proposes that the active lowering of the larynx is used as a strategy to initiate voicing when pronouncing the fortis voiceless stop1, which possibly results in the sound change from fortis voiceless stops to implosives. This phenomenon is observed in the Chaozhou dialect, in which a phonetic variant of the voiceless stop occurs with pre-voicing, and the transient drop of the intra-oral pressure (Po) occurs before oral release. It was found that the use of the ingressive glottalic airstream occurs more often when the voiceless stops are pronounced with either extremely long oral closure or with very high intra-oral pressure.
The Phonetic Nature of the Entering Tones in Chaozhou Dialect
Authors: Zhu Xiaonong , Hong Ying
Published: February 2015

One of the most important features of the entering tones (rusheng) of the Min dialect of Chaozhou is that yinru has a lower pitch than yangru. This project demonstrates the acoustic properties of 200 Chaozhou rusheng syllables by examining their spectrogram patterns, spectral tilt and HNR. Our findings show that the tonal flip-flop in Chaozhou dialect has resulted from changes in phonation type of the rusheng syllables. The yinru syllables drop their final glottal stop and have changed their phonation into creaky voice, which induced low pitch. Yangru syllables are more complicated. There are two variants of yangru, one having a final glottal stop, the other having a compound phonation called creaky-falsetto
On the Dermestidae (Insecta: Coleoptera) from Rey´s collection. Part 2. Designation of neotype of Anthrenus pimpinellae var. incertus Mulsant et Rey, 1868 and recognition of a new synonymy within Palaearctic Anthrenus Geoffroy, 1762
Authors: HÁVA JIŘÍ , KADEJ MARCIN
Published: February 2015

A neotype of Anthrenus pimpinellae var. incertus Mulsant et Rey, 1868 is designated, and a new synonym in Palearctic Anthrenus Geoffroy, 1762 is recognized.
A new species of Amerotyphlops from Northeastern Brazil, with comments on distribution of related species
Authors: GRABOSKI ROBERTA , FILHO GENTIL ALVES PEREIRA , DA SILVA ARIANE AUXILIADORA ARAÚJO , PRUDENTE ANA LÚCIA DA COSTA , ZAHER HUSSAM
Published: February 2015

We describe a new species of Amerotyphlops from an upland forest enclave in the state of Paraíba, Northeastern Brazil. The new species is distinguished from the other seven South American species of Amerotyphlops by the combination of the following characters: nasal suture incomplete; rostral scale oval and yellowish cream with some dark brown spots; four supralabial scales; three infralabial scales; rows of scales around the body 18/18/18; middorsal scales from 204 to 225; dorsum with twelve to thirteen rows of scales dark brown and belly with four to five rows of scales immaculate yellowish cream; caudal spine dark brown; subcaudal scales 8–10 in female and 11–13 in males; maximum total length 233 mm. The new species is morphologically similar to A. amoipira and A. paucisquamus, sharing 18/18/18 rows of scales around the body and a small overlap of counts of middorsal scales.
Nematocharax costai Bragança, Barbosa & Mattos a junior synonym of Nematocharax venustus Weitzman, Menezes & Britski (Teleostei: Characiformes: Characidae)
Authors: MENEZES NAÉRCIO A. , ZANATA ANGELA M. , CAMELIER PRISCILA
Published: February 2015

Analysis of morphometric and meristic data from specimens obtained from various river basins along the distribution of Nematocharax venustus revealed intraspecific variation among geographically isolated populations. A comparative analysis of these data with data from the original description of N. costai, in addition to data obtained from the holotype and topotypes of the species, showed broad overlap and absence of morphological features supporting the recognition of two species within Nematocharax. Characters previously used to distinguish N. costai from N. venustus, such as presence of hooks or spinules on dorsal and pelvic fins, number of hooks on anal-fin rays, occurrence of a pink horizontal mark on the caudal peduncle, number of supraneurals, and coloration of the pelvic-fin filament, are not useful to distinguish the two putative species. Thus, N. costai is considered herein as a junior synonym of N. venustus. Presence of a complete lateral line and length of fin-filaments of N. venustus are briefly discussed and a current overview of the distribution of the species is given. In view of the proposed synonymy of a so recently described species and aiming to avoid problems of similar nature in the future, we also take the opportunity to reinforce herein the importance of the examination of large population samples and of intraspecific variation of secondary sexual features.
The first troglomorphic species of the genus Phrynus Lamarck, 1801 (Amblypygi: Phrynidae) from Mexico
Authors: GUZMÁN ALI ABADALLAN , JOYA DANIEL CHIRIVI
Published: February 2015

A new troglomorphic species, Phrynus perrii sp. nov., is described from two adult females from Cueva del Naranjo, Municipio Cintalapa, Chiapas, Mexico. This is the first continental record of a troglomorphic Phrynus species, and the second troglomorphic species of the genus. With the description of this species, in Mexico there are ten extant species, plus one fossil of the genus Phrynus, and it is the seventh species of troglobitic whip spiders from Mexico, making it the country with the highest richness of amblypygids species worldwide.
Two new species and five new records of Nola Leach, [1815] (Lepidoptera, Nolidae, Nolinae) from China
Authors: HU YANQING , WANG MIN , HAN HUILIN
Published: February 2015

Materials examined. Holotype. Male, Yulong, Lijiang, Yunnan, 5–9.VII.2009, Huilin Han & Mujie Qi (NEFU). Paratypes. 1 female, Dali, Yunnan, 4.VII.2009, Huilin Han & Mujie Qi (NEFU); 1 male, Baoshan, Yunnan, 3–4.IX.2008, Huilin Han & E Liu (NEFU); 1 female, Yuhu, Lijiang, Yunnan, 30.VIII.2008, Huilin Han & Ying Wang (NEFU). China, Prov. Nord-Yuennan: 2 males, Li-kiang, 9.VI.1934 and 25.VII.1935, leg. H. Höne, slide No.: LGN 2078 (SMNK); 2 males, from the same locality, but collected at 1.VII.1934 and 14.VIII.1934, leg. H. Höne, slide Nos: LGN 1977, 1978 (ZFMK); 1 male, Wumeng Shan, 2200 m, 20 km N Baoshan vill., 26°28’N, 104°27’E, 20.IV.-05.V.2004, leg. Siniaev & his team, slide No.: LGN 1422 (MWM). Institutional and private collections acronyms are as follows: NEFU = Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China; MWM = Museum Witt, Munich; SMNK =State Museum of Natural History, Karlsruhe; ZFMK = Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn; LGN = number of genital slide made by Gyula M. László.
Prognostic value of procalcitonin in respiratory tract infections across clinical settings
Authors: Kutz Alexander , Briel Matthias , Christ-Crain Mirjam , Stolz Daiana , Bouadma Lila , Wolff Michel , Kristoffersen Kristina B , Wei Long , Burkhardt Olaf , Welte Tobias , Schroeder Stefan , Nobre Vandack , Tamm Michael , Bhatnagar Neera , Bucher Heiner C , Luyt Charles-Edouard , Chastre Jean , Tubach Florence , Mueller Beat , Schuetz Philipp
Published: February 2015

Introduction

Whether the inflammatory biomarker procalcitonin provides prognostic information across clinical settings and different acute respiratory tract infections (ARIs) is poorly understood. In the present study, we investigated the prognostic value of admission procalcitonin levels to predict adverse clinical outcome in a large ARI population.

Methods

We analysed data from 14 trials and 4,211 ARI patients to study associations of admission procalcitonin levels and setting specific treatment failure and mortality alone at 30 days. We used multivariable hierarchical logistic regression and conducted sensitivity analyses stratified by clinical settings and ARI diagnoses to assess the results’ consistency.

Results

Overall, 864 patients (20.5%) experienced treatment failure and 252 (6.0%) died. The ability of procalcitonin to differentiate patients with from those without treatment failure was highest in the emergency department setting (treatment failure area under the curve (AUC): 0.64 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.61, 0.67), adjusted odds ratio (OR): 1.85 (95% CI: 1.61, 2.12), P <0.001; and mortality AUC: 0.67 (95% CI: 0.63, 0.71), adjusted OR: 1.82 (95% CI: 1.45, 2.29), P <0.001). In lower respiratory tract infections, procalcitonin was a good predictor of identifying patients at risk for mortality (AUC: 0.71 (95% CI: 0.68, 0.74), adjusted OR: 2.13 (95% CI: 1.82, 2.49), P <0.001). In primary care and intensive care unit patients, no significant association of initial procalcitonin levels and outcome was found.

Conclusions

Admission procalcitonin levels are associated with setting specific treatment failure and provide the most prognostic information regarding ARI in the emergency department setting.
Early brain injury after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage: a multimodal neuromonitoring study
Authors: Helbok Raimund , Schiefecker Alois Josef , Beer Ronny , Dietmann Anelia , Antunes Ana Patrícia , Sohm Florian , Fischer Marlene , Hackl Werner Oskar , Rhomberg Paul , Lackner Peter , Pfausler Bettina , Thomé Claudius , Humpel Christian , Schmutzhard Erich
Published: February 2015

Introduction

There is a substantial amount of evidence from animal models that early brain injury (EBI) may play an important role for secondary brain injury after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH). Cerebral microdialysis (CMD) allows online measurement of brain metabolites, including the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), which is indicative for disruption of the blood-brain barrier.

Methods

Twenty-six consecutive poor-grade aSAH patients with multimodal neuromonitoring were analyzed for brain hemodynamic and metabolic changes, including CMD-IL-6 and CMD-MMP-9 levels. Statistical analysis was performed by using a generalized estimating equation with an autoregressive function.

Results

The baseline cerebral metabolic profile revealed brain metabolic distress and an excitatory response which improved over the following 5 days (P <0.001). Brain tissue hypoxia (brain tissue oxygen tension of less than 20 mm Hg) was common (more than 60% of patients) in the first 24 hours of neuromonitoring and improved thereafter (P <0.05). Baseline CMD-IL-6 and CMD-MMP-9 levels were elevated in all patients (median = 4,059 pg/mL, interquartile range (IQR) = 1,316 to 12,456 pg/mL and median = 851 pg/mL, IQR = 98 to 25,860 pg/mL) and significantly decreased over days (P <0.05). A higher pro-inflammatory response was associated with the development of delayed cerebral ischemia (P = 0.04), whereas admission disease severity and early brain tissue hypoxia were associated with higher CMD-MMP-9 levels (P <0.03). Brain metabolic distress and increased IL-6 levels were associated with poor functional outcome (modified Rankin Scale of more than 3, P ≤0.01). All models were adjusted for probe location, aneurysm securing procedure, and disease severity as appropriate.

Conclusions

Multimodal neuromonitoring techniques allow insight into pathophysiologic changes in the early phase after aSAH. The results may be used as endpoints for future interventions targeting EBI in poor-grade aSAH patients.
Cathelicidin antimicrobial protein, vitamin D, and risk of death in critically ill patients
Authors: Leaf David E , Croy Heather E , Abrahams Sara J , Raed Anas , Waikar Sushrut S
Published: February 2015

Introduction

Decreased production of cathelicidin antimicrobial protein-18 (hCAP18) has been proposed to be a key mechanism linking decreased 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25D) levels with adverse outcomes among critically ill patients. However, few studies in humans have directly assessed plasma hCAP18 levels, and no study has evaluated the association between hCAP18 levels and adverse outcomes among critically ill patients.

Methods

We performed a single-center, prospective cohort study among 121 critically ill patients admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) between 2008 and 2012. We measured plasma hCAP18, 25D, D-binding protein, and parathyroid hormone levels on ICU day 1. The primary endpoint was 90-day mortality. Secondary endpoints included hospital mortality, sepsis, acute kidney injury, duration of mechanical ventilation, and hospital length of stay.

Results

ICU day 1 hCAP18 levels were directly correlated with 25D levels (Spearman’s rho (rs) = 0.30, P = 0.001). In multivariate analyses adjusted for age and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score, patients with hCAP18 levels in the lowest compared to highest tertile on ICU day 1 had a 4.49 (1.08 to 18.67) greater odds of 90-day mortality, and also had greater odds of sepsis. ICU day 1 levels of other analytes were not associated with 90-day mortality.

Conclusions

Lower 25D levels on ICU day 1 are associated with lower hCAP18 levels, which are in turn associated with a greater risk of 90-day mortality. These findings provide a potential mechanistic basis for the frequently observed association between low 25D levels and poor outcomes in critically ill patients.
β1-adrenoceptor stimulation promotes LPS-induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis through activating PKA and enhancing CaMKII and IκBα phosphorylation
Authors: Wang Yiyang , Wang Yuan , Yang Duomeng , Yu Xiaohui , Li Hongmei , Lv Xiuxiu , Lu Daxiang , Wang Huadong
Published: February 2015

Introduction

Caspase activation and cardiomyocyte apoptosis have been implicated in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced cardiac contractile dysfunction. We have recently demonstrated that β1-adrenoceptor (AR) activation by endogenous norepinephrine contributes to cardiomyocyte apoptosis in endotoxemic mice. Here, we further investigated the molecular mechanisms for the enhancing effect of β1-AR activation on LPS-induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis.

Methods

The adult mouse ventricular myocytes were exposed to LPS, dobutamine, protein kinase A (PKA) inhibitor or/and nifedipine, an L-type Ca2+ channel blocker. Male BALB/c mice were treated with LPS or/ and β1-AR antagonist, atenolol. Cardiomyocyte apoptosis was determined by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end-labeling (TUNEL) assay and apoptosis-associated molecules were detected.

Results

LPS induced apoptosis in adult mouse ventricular myocytes, dobutamine (DOB), a β1-AR agonist, promoted apoptosis, caspase-8, 9 and 3 activation and increased cytosolic Ca2+ concentration in LPS-challenged cardiomyocytes. DOB also up-regulated TNF-α expression, decreased Bcl-2 levels, promoted Bax translocation to mitochondria, mitochondrial membrane potential loss and cytochrome c release as well as IκBα, p38 MAPK, JNK and Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) phosphorylation in LPS-treated cardiomyocytes. PKA inhibitor abolished the effects of DOB on caspase-9 activation, Bcl-2 levels as well as JNK and p38 MAPK phosphorylation, but not on IκBα phosphorylation, TNF-α expression and caspase-8 activation in LPS-stimulated cardiomyocytes. Pretreatment with nifedipine not only significantly blocked the enhancing effects of DOB on LPS-induced elevation in cytosolic Ca2+ concentration and CaMKII phosphorylation in cardiomyocytes, but also partly reversed the effects of DOB on caspase-9 and caspase-3/7 activities in LPS-treated cardiomyocytes. Furthermore, atenolol suppressed TNF-α expression, JNK, p38 MAPK and CaMKII phosphorylation, increased Bcl-2 expression, and inhibited cytochrome c release and cardiomyocyte apoptosis in the myocardium of endotoxemic mice.

Conclusions

β1-AR activation promotes LPS-induced apoptosis through activating PKA, increasing CaMKII phosphorylation as well as enhancing IκBα phosphorylation and TNF-α expression in cardiomyocytes.
Existence of solutions for generalized vector quasi-equilibrium problems in abstract convex spaces with applications
Authors: Zhang Wei-bing , Shan Shu-qiang , Huang Nan-jing
Published: February 2015

In this paper, several kinds of generalized vector quasi-equilibrium problems are introduced and studied in abstract convex spaces. Using the properties of Γ-convex and $\mathfrak{KC}$
KC
-maps, some sufficient conditions are given to guarantee the existence of solutions in connection with these generalized vector quasi-equilibrium problems. As applications, some existence theorems of solutions for the generalized semi-infinite programs with vector quasi-equilibrium constraints are also given.
Analysis of land use and land cover spatial pattern based on Markov chains modelling
Authors: Mirkatouli Jafar , Hosseini Ali , Neshat Abdolhamid
Published: February 2015

Background

Population growth and the expansion of cities together with an increase in environmental pollution from human activity create non-principled changes in vegetative cover and land use in forestland built-up areas and agricultural land and increase the exertion of non-principled land productivity methods.

Methods

In this study, the proximity to and the amount of agricultural and forestland were used in the analysis and modeling of the land use changes. The probability of the conversion of agricultural and forestland to built-up areas use was modeled using the Markov chain.

Results

The results indicate that the southern part of Gorgan ranked first in likelihood of the land use/land cover (LULC) change. It is necessary to implement procedures to control the change of high-grade agricultural land and Naharkhoran forestland to built-up areas.

Conclusions

It is clear that without attention to planning for protective procedures, the trend toward changing agricultural and forestland to built-up areas will continue and have adverse effects on the regional environment.