bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Sevoflurane for central catheter placement in neonatal intensive care: a randomized trial
Authors: MICHEL FABRICE , VIALET RENAUD , HASSID SOPHIE , NICAISE CLAIRE , GARBI AURÉLIE , THOMACHOT LAURENT , DI MARCO JEAN N. , LAGIER PIERRE , MARTIN CLAUDE
Published: June 2010

Objective:  To compare the efficacy and safety of sevoflurane deep sedation with glucose and nonnutritive sucking (GNNS) in reducing the duration of the procedure and in preventing pain‐related effects during peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) placement.

Background:  PICC placement in neonatal intensive care is a delicate and stressful procedure that requires pain prevention. GNNS has been recommended in this situation but remain often inefficient.

Methods:  We designed a randomized controlled study in a sixteen‐bed pediatric and neonatal unit in a tertiary hospital. Fifty‐nine neonates at >28 weeks of gestation with continuous positive airway pressure or invasive mechanical ventilation and requiring PICC placement were included. Patients were randomized to receive inhaled sevoflurane (IS) or glucose and non‐nutritive sucking (GNNS). Procedural duration and conditions, hemodynamic and respiratory parameters, occurrence of movements and complications were compared (http://clinicaltrials.gov trial register no. NCT00420693).

Results:  The two groups had similar demographics. There were no between‐group differences in procedural duration (P = 0.84) despite greater immobility in IS group (P = 0.017). IS was also associated with fewer episodes of hypertension (P = 0.003), tachycardia (P < 0.001), and bradycardia (P = 0.02). Occurrences of hypotension were not different between the groups (P = 0.06). The GNNS group showed more desaturation during the 4 h after the procedure (P = 0.03). Complications during intensive care stay did not differ between groups.

Conclusion:  Inhaled sevoflurane does not make easier catheters placement but prevent pain‐related symptoms. Because sevoflurane is responsible for hypotension, it requires careful monitoring and treatment adaptation.
Spatial analysis of gypsy moth populations in Sardinia using geostatistical and climate models
Authors: Cocco Arturo , Cossu Antonio Q. , Erre Patrizia , Nieddu Giovanni , Luciano Pietro
Published: June 2010

Spatial fluctuations of the Sardinian population of the gypsy moth Lymantria dispar (L.) (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae) were characterized using geostatistical and climate models. Data on gypsy moth egg mass abundance recorded at 282 permanent monitoring sites from 1980 to 2004 were incorporated in a geographic information system with the vegetational, geomorphological and pedological features of the sites.

Statistical analyses revealed that the relative outbreak frequency was related to the predominant host tree, slope and elevation of the monitoring sites, whereas there was no correlation between outbreak frequency and exposure and soil type.

By using bioclimatic modelling, probability maps of gypsy moth outbreaks were generated. The model identified a probability surface with climatic conditions favourable to gypsy moth outbreaks and thus potentially subject to defoliation. The maps included 92 sites where outbreaks never occurred, suggesting that the Sardinian climate may not be a determinant factor for gypsy moth outbreaks.

The geostatistical method cokriging with outbreak frequency as a covariate was found to be the most suitable technique to estimate gypsy moth egg mass abundance. Semivariograms showed spatial correlation of egg mass abundance within the range 18.5–53 km. The results obtained were used to create regional gypsy moth distribution maps by cokriging, which demonstrated the outbreak foci and different infestation levels at each monitoring area. These results can help to delimit the treatment areas and develop rational gypsy moth management programmes.
Gamma‐ and epsilonproteobacterial ectosymbionts of a shallow‐water marine worm are related to deep‐sea hydrothermal vent ectosymbionts
Authors: Ruehland Caroline , Dubilier Nicole
Published: June 2010

The marine oligochaete worm Tubificoides benedii is often found in high numbers in eutrophic coastal sediments with low oxygen and high sulfide concentrations. A dense biofilm of filamentous bacteria on the worm's tail end were morphologically described over 20 years ago, but no further studies of these epibiotic associations were done. In this study, we used fluorescence in situ hybridization and comparative sequence analysis of 16S rRNA and protein‐coding genes to characterize the microbial community of the worm's tail ends. The presence of genes involved in chemoautotrophy (cbbL and cbbM) and sulfur metabolism (aprA) indicated the potential of the T. benedii microbial community for chemosynthesis. Two filamentous ectosymbionts were specific to the worm's tail ends: one belonged to the Leucothrix mucor clade within the Gammaproteobacteria and the other to the Thiovulgaceae within the Epsilonproteobacteria. Both T. benedii ectosymbionts belonged to clades that consisted almost exclusively of bacteria associated with invertebrates from deep‐sea hydrothermal vents. Such close relationships between symbionts from shallow‐water and deep‐sea hosts that are not closely related to each other are unusual, and indicate that biogeography and host affiliation did not play a role in these associations. Instead, similarities between the dynamic environments of vents and organic‐rich mudflats with their strong fluctuations in reductants and oxidants may have been the driving force behind the establishment and evolution of these symbioses.
RNAi‐mediated knockdown of a Spodoptera frugiperda trypsin‐like serine‐protease gene reduces susceptibility to a Bacillus thuringiensis Cry1Ca1 protoxin
Authors: Rodríguez–Cabrera Lianet , Trujillo–Bacallao Damian , Borrás–Hidalgo Orlando , Wright Denis J. , Ayra–Pardo Camilo
Published: June 2010

SfT6 has been identified in a subtracted cDNA library of Spodoptera frugiperda larval midgut transcripts as a serine‐protease gene downregulated within 24 h of intoxication with Bacillus thuringiensis Cry1Ca1 protein. In the present study, the specific role of SfT6 during Cry1Ca1 intoxication was investigated by RT‐PCR and in vivo RNA interference. Quantitative real‐time RT‐PCR analysis showed SfT6 mRNA levels in the midgut tissue were significantly reduced after injecting or feeding 4th‐instar larvae with specific long‐size dsRNA. Gut juice‐mediated in vitro protoxin activation and susceptibility for Cry1Ca1 were investigated in Sft6‐knockdown larvae and compared with control treated with nonspecific dsRNA. Our results demonstrate SfT6 plays a determinant role in Cry1Ca1 toxicity against S. frugiperda since a decreased expression caused a reduced protoxin activation by larval gut juice and reduced susceptibility of insects to toxin in bioassays. We propose SfT6 downregulation occurring at the early stages of Cry1Ca1 intoxication is part of a complex and multifaceted defensive mechanism triggered in the insect gut to withstand B. thuringiensis pathogenesis.
Cerebellin1 is a novel orexigenic peptide
Authors: Gardiner J. V. , Beale K. E. , Roy D. , Boughton C. K. , Bataveljic A. , Campbell D. C. , Bewick G. A. , Patel N. A. , Patterson M. , Leavy E. M. , Ghatei M. A. , Bloom S. R. , Dhillo W. S.
Published: June 2010

Aim: Cerebellin1 (Cbln1) is highly expressed in the hypothalamus, a region of the brain involved in appetite regulation. However, the effects of Cbn1 on food intake are not known. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of Cbln1 on appetite regulation in rats.

Methods: We determined the effect of (i) intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection of Cbln1 on food intake, behaviour and plasma pituitary hormone levels in male Wistar rats; (ii) Cbln1 on the release of hypothalamic neuropeptides known to modulate food intake from hypothalamic explants and (iii) fasting on hypothalamic Cbln1 mRNA expression.

Results: (i) ICV administration of Cbln1 significantly increased food intake in rats and caused no adverse behaviours. ICV administration of Cbln1 significantly reduced plasma thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) levels 10 min postinjection in rats. (ii) Cbln1 significantly increased the release of neuropeptide Y (NPY) from hypothalamic explants. (iii) Cbln1 mRNA expression levels were increased in the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus in fasted rats.

Conclusions: These data suggest that Cbln1 is a novel orexigenic peptide, which may mediate its effects via hypothalamic NPY.
A review of treatment response in type 2 diabetes: assessing the role of patient heterogeneity
Authors: Cantrell R. A. , Alatorre C. I. , Davis E. J. , Zarotsky V. , Le Nestour E. , Carter G. Cuyún , Goetz I. , Paczkowski R. , Sierra‐Johnson J.
Published: June 2010

The response to treatment for type 2 diabetes typically varies among individuals within a study population. This variation is known as heterogeneity of treatment response. We conducted a comprehensive literature review to identify factors that account for heterogeneity of treatment response in patients treated for type 2 diabetes. Three databases (PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane Library) were searched for articles published in the last 10 years describing investigations of factors associated with treatment response and outcomes among people with type 2 diabetes receiving pharmacological treatment. Of the 43 articles extracted and summarized, 35 (81%) discussed clinical factors, 31 (72%) described sociodemographic factors and 17 (40%) reported on comorbidity or behavioural factors. Clinical factors identified included baseline glycated hemoglobin A1c or fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels, insulin response or sensitivity, C‐peptide, body composition, adipose tissue proteins, lipid profile, plasma albumin levels and duration of disease or insulin treatment. Other factors identified included age, sex, race, socioeconomic status and comorbidities. This review identified the following research gaps: use of multiple definitions for response, few patient‐reported measures and lack of evidence regarding whether factors were associated with treatment response for only specific medications or across pharmacological therapies. Furthermore, identification of factors associated with type 2 diabetes treatment response was generally a secondary objective in the research reviewed. Understanding which patient subgroups are more likely to respond to treatment and identifying factors associated with response may result in targeted treatment decisions and alter the interpretation of efficacy or effectiveness of results. In conclusion, accounting for these factors in clinical trials and when making clinical treatment decisions may improve therapy selection and individual patient outcomes.
The effects of total energy expenditure from all levels of physical activity vs. physical activity energy expenditure from moderate‐to‐vigorous activity on visceral fat and insulin sensitivity in obese Type 2 diabetic women
Authors: Koo B. K. , Han K. A. , Ahn H. J. , Jung J. Y. , Kim H. C. , Min K. W.
Published: June 2010

Diabet. Med. 27, 1088–1092 (2010)

Aims  We examined the effects of physical activity with or without dietary restriction for 3 months on regional fat and insulin sensitivity and compared the effect of total energy expenditure from all levels of physical activity with that of physical activity energy expenditure from moderate‐to‐vigorous exercise in obese women with Type 2 diabetes.

Methods  In this randomized, controlled trial, we assessed change of body weight, abdominal visceral fat area, subcutaneous fat area and insulin sensitivity, expressed as KITT, and monitored total energy expenditure and physical activity energy expenditure using an accelerometer during a 12‐week intervention in four groups: control, diet, exercise and diet plus exercise.

Results  The mean body mass index was 28.0 ± 2.7 kg/m2 and the mean duration of diabetes was 8 ± 6 years. Both the diet and diet plus exercise groups showed significant body weight loss compared with the control group (P < 0.05). However, the visceral fat area was reduced only in the diet and exercise group (P = 0.017) and the subcutaneous fat area was reduced only in the diet group (P = 0.009). Mean energy intake was an independent determinant of the change in subcutaneous fat area (P = 0.020) and mean total anergy expenditure was an independent determinant of visceral fat area (P = 0.002). Insulin sensitivity KITT was associated with physical activity energy expenditure (P = 0.006), energy intake (P = 0.047) and the change in fructosamine level (P = 0.016) but not with changes in body weight, subcutaneous fat area, visceral fat area or adipokine level.

Conclusions  Exercise had an additive effect to dietary restriction on visceral fat reduction. Visceral fat area was associated with total energy expenditure, but insulin sensitivity was associated with physical activity energy expenditure.
‘Whales eat fish’? Demystifying the myth in the Caribbean marine ecosystem
Authors: Morissette Lyne , Kaschner Kristin , Gerber Leah R
Published: June 2010

There has been much recent discussion about the idea that large whales are potential competitors with fisheries for available marine resources. Based on this idea, often referred to as the ‘whales eat fish’ conflict, culling whales has been proposed as a way to increase resources available for human consumption and thereby ensuring global food security. However, the scientific basis for such arguments remains unclear, especially in the Caribbean waters where baleen whales generally do not feed. In this article, we (i) develop an ecosystem model describing the trophic interactions between whales, fish and fisheries in the Caribbean waters, (ii) calculate the level of overlap between cetaceans and fisheries for food resources, and (iii) simulate the removal of cetaceans from the Caribbean waters in order to quantify the potential increase in available biomass of commercially important fish. Ten groups of cetaceans are considered in the model, including baleen whales, toothed whales and small cetaceans. Our results suggest that baleen whales are not a threat to fisheries in Caribbean waters, while toothed cetaceans seem to be more impacted by fisheries than they actually impacting them. Whales target different types of food resources and consume significantly less than what is taken by fisheries. Moreover, simulated reductions in large whale abundance do not produce any appreciable increase in biomass of the commercially important fish species. In some cases, the presence of some whales actually improves fishery yield as a result of indirect predation effects.
Stakeholder Actions and Their Impact on the Organizational Cultures of Two Tobacco Companies
Authors: ARMENAKIS ACHILLES , WIGAND JEFFREY
Published: June 2010

We link the behaviors of executives and lawyers in two tobacco companies, in defending their tobacco products to the actions of stakeholders (e.g., the U.S. Government and Congress, medical researchers, consumers, public‐health organizations, tobacco‐control advocates, and insiders who have spoken out). Included in our analysis, which is based on publicly available documents spanning over a period of almost six decades, are critical incidents in which moral disengagement tactics were applied in the decision‐making process. We infer that the disengagement tactics applied by tobacco decision makers are indicative of what Schein and other organizational scientists describe as organizational culture. We equate the critical incidents to the espoused beliefs and values and underlying assumptions which comprise organizational culture and explain that the cultures of these two tobacco companies are not consistent with the stakeholder theory of management. We conclude that the critical incidents we analyze were immoral and the representatives were indeed accountable for these behaviors. From an organizational change perspective, we discuss how analyzing these critical incidents can serve to assess the extent to which an organizational culture is ethical. Furthermore, these critical incidents can be fed back to organizational decision makers and can then be used to initiate organizational changes.
Taking (and Sharing Power): How Boards of Directors Can Bring About Greater Fairness for Dependent Stakeholders
Authors: VAN BUREN III HARRY J.
Published: June 2010

One of the ways in which scholars have sought to broaden the discussion of the social responsibilities of corporations and their managers is through the development of the stakeholder concept. The primacy of shareholder interests in corporate‐governance processes and managerial action is, however, a myth that justifies all sorts of managerial self‐interest seeking and exploitation of particular stakeholder groups. What makes this myth particularly problematic—from the standpoint of fairness and corporate governance—is that not all nonshareholder stakeholders are equally situated with regard to their ability to secure fair treatment. In this article, I explore the ethical dimensions of board responsibilities to dependent stakeholder groups by first describing the differences between shareholders and nonshareholder stakeholders with regard to risk, examining why dependent stakeholders (stakeholders with legitimate and urgent claims, but no power) are particularly important from the standpoint of stakeholder risk, and discussing how stakeholder consultation might provide a partial fix to such problems. I will conclude with proposals for how boards can more faithfully discharge their ethical responsibilities to dependent stakeholder groups, and in so doing facilitate stakeholder involvement in corporate governance in ways that promote fairness in organization–stakeholder relationships.
Fitted BVH for Fast Raytracing of Metaballs
Authors: Gourmel Olivier , Pajot Anthony , Paulin Mathias , Barthe Loïc , Poulin Pierre
Published: June 2010

Raytracing metaballs is a problem that has numerous applications in the rendering of dynamic soft objects such as fluids. However, current techniques are either limited in the visual effects that they can render or their performance drops as the number of metaballs and their density increase. We present a new acceleration structure based on BVH and kd‐tree for efficient raytracing of a large number of metaballs. This structure is built from an adapted SAH using a fast greedy algorithm and allows the visualization of several hundreds of thousands metaballs at interactive‐to‐real‐time framerates. Our method can handle arbitrary rays to simulate any complex secondary effects such as reflections or soft shadows, and is robust with respect to the density of metaballs. We achieve this performance thanks to a balanced CPU‐GPU (using CUDA) implementation of the animation, structure creation, and rendering.
HCCMeshes: Hierarchical‐Culling oriented Compact Meshes
Authors: Kim Tae‐Joon , Byun Yongyoung , Kim Yongjin , Moon Bochang , Lee Seungyong , Yoon Sung‐Eui
Published: June 2010

Hierarchical culling is a key acceleration technique used to efficiently handle massive models for ray tracing, collision detection, etc. To support such hierarchical culling, bounding volume hierarchies (BVHs) combined with meshes are widely used. However, BVHs may require a very large amount of memory space, which can negate the benefits of using BVHs. To address this problem, we present a novel hierarchical‐culling oriented compact mesh representation, HCCMesh, which tightly integrates a mesh and a BVH together. As an in‐core representation of the HCCMesh, we propose an i‐HCCMesh representation that provides an efficient random hierarchical traversal and high culling efficiency with a small runtime decompression overhead. To further reduce the storage requirement, the in‐core representation is compressed to our out‐of‐core representation, o‐HCCMesh, by using a simple dictionary‐based compression method. At runtime, o‐HCCMeshes are fetched from an external drive and decompressed to the i‐HCCMeshes stored in main memory. The i‐HCCMesh and o‐HCCMesh show 3.6:1 and 10.4:1 compression ratios on average, compared to a naively compressed (e.g., quantized) mesh and BVH representation. We test the HCCMesh representations with ray tracing, collision detection, photon mapping, and non‐photorealistic rendering. Because of the reduced data access time, a smaller working set size, and a low runtime decompression overhead, we can handle models ten times larger in commodity hardware without the expensive disk I/O thrashing. When we avoid the disk I/O thrashing using our representation, we can improve the runtime performances by up to two orders of magnitude over using a naively compressed representation.
SoundRiver: Semantically‐Rich Sound Illustration
Authors: Jänicke H. , Borgo R. , Mason J. S. D. , Chen M.
Published: June 2010

Sound is an integral part of most movies and videos. In many situations, viewers of a video are unable to hear the sound track, for example, when watching it in a fast forward mode, viewing it by hearing‐impaired viewers or when the plot is given as a storyboard. In this paper, we present an automated visualization solution to such problems. The system first detects the common components (such as music, speech, rain, explosions, and so on) from a sound track, then maps them to a collection of programmable visual metaphors, and generates a composite visualization. This form of sound visualization, which is referred to as SoundRiver, can be also used to augment various forms of video abstraction and annotated key frames and to enhance graphical user interfaces for video handling software. The SoundRiver conveys more semantic information to the viewer than traditional graphical representations of sound illustration, such as phonoautographs, spectrograms or artistic audiovisual animations.
Implicit Blending Revisited
Authors: Bernhardt Adrien , Barthe Loic , Cani Marie‐Paule , Wyvill Brian
Published: June 2010

Blending is both the strength and the weakness of functionally based implicit surfaces (such as F‐reps or soft‐objects). While it gives them the unique ability to smoothly merge into a single, arbitrary shape, it makes implicit modelling hard to control since implicit surfaces blend at a distance, in a way that heavily depends on the slope of the field functions that define them. This paper presents a novel, generic solution to blending of functionally‐based implicit surfaces: the insight is that to be intuitive and easy to control, blends should be located where two objects overlap, while enabling other parts of the objects to come as close to each other as desired without being deformed. Our solution relies on automatically defined blending regions around the intersection curves between two objects. Outside of these volumes, a clean union of the objects is computed thanks to a new operator that guarantees the smoothness of the resulting field function; meanwhile, a smooth blend is generated inside the blending regions. Parameters can automatically be tuned in order to prevent small objects from blurring out when blended into larger ones, and to generate a progressive blend when two animated objects come in contact.
Exact and Robust (Self‐)Intersections for Polygonal Meshes
Authors: Campen Marcel , Kobbelt Leif
Published: June 2010

We present a new technique to implement operators that modify the topology of polygonal meshes at intersections and self‐intersections. Depending on the modification strategy, this effectively results in operators for Boolean combinations or for the construction of outer hulls that are suited for mesh repair tasks and accurate mesh‐based front tracking of deformable materials that split and merge. By combining an adaptive octree with nested binary space partitions (BSP), we can guarantee exactness (= correctness) and robustness (= completeness) of the algorithm while still achieving higher performance and less memory consumption than previous approaches. The efficiency and scalability in terms of runtime and memory is obtained by an operation localization scheme. We restrict the essential computations to those cells in the adaptive octree where intersections actually occur. Within those critical cells, we convert the input geometry into a plane‐based BSP‐representation which allows us to perform all computations exactly even with fixed precision arithmetics. We carefully analyze the precision requirements of the involved geometric data and predicates in order to guarantee correctness and show how minimal input mesh quantization can be used to safely rely on computations with standard floating point numbers. We properly evaluate our method with respect to precision, robustness, and efficiency.
Practical quad mesh simplification
Authors: Tarini Marco , Pietroni Nico , Cignoni Paolo , Panozzo Daniele , Puppo Enrico
Published: June 2010

In this paper we present an innovative approach to incremental quad mesh simplification, i.e. the task of producing a low complexity quad mesh starting from a high complexity one. The process is based on a novel set of strictly local operations which preserve quad structure. We show how good tessellation quality (e.g. in terms of vertex valencies) can be achieved by pursuing uniform length and canonical proportions of edges and diagonals. The decimation process is interleaved with smoothing in tangent space. The latter strongly contributes to identify a suitable sequence of local modification operations. The method is naturally extended to manage preservation of feature lines (e.g. creases) and varying (e.g. adaptive) tessellation densities. We also present an original Triangle‐to‐Quad conversion algorithm that behaves well in terms of geometrical complexity and tessellation quality, which we use to obtain the initial quad mesh from a given triangle mesh.
Real‐time Realistic Ocean Lighting using Seamless Transitions from Geometry to BRDF
Authors: Bruneton Eric , Neyret Fabrice , Holzschuch Nicolas
Published: June 2010

Realistic animation and rendering of the ocean is an important aspect for simulators, movies and video games. By nature, the ocean is a difficult problem for Computer Graphics: it is a dynamic system, it combines wave trains at all scales, ranging from kilometric to millimetric. Worse, the ocean is usually viewed at several distances, from very close to the viewpoint to the horizon, increasing the multi‐scale issue, and resulting in aliasing problems. The illumination comes from natural light sources (the Sun and the sky dome), is also dynamic, and often underlines the aliasing issues. In this paper, we present a new algorithm for modelling, animation, illumination and rendering of the ocean, in real‐time, at all scales and for all viewing distances. Our algorithm is based on a hierarchical representation, combining geometry, normals and BRDF. For each viewing distance, we compute a simplified version of the geometry, and encode the missing details into the normal and the BRDF, depending on the level of detail required. We then use this hierarchical representation for illumination and rendering. Our algorithm runs in real‐time, and produces highly realistic pictures and animations.
Rendering Wave Effects with Augmented Light Field
Authors: Oh Se Baek , Kashyap Sriram , Garg Rohit , Chandran Sharat , Raskar Ramesh
Published: June 2010

Ray–based representations can model complex light transport but are limited in modeling diffraction effects that require the simulation of wavefront propagation. This paper provides a new paradigm that has the simplicity of light path tracing and yet provides an accurate characterization of both Fresnel and Fraunhofer diffraction. We introduce the concept of a light field transformer at the interface of transmissive occluders. This generates mathematically sound, virtual, and possibly negative‐valued light sources after the occluder. From a rendering perspective the only simple change is that radiance can be temporarily negative. We demonstrate the correctness of our approach both analytically, as well by comparing values with standard experiments in physics such as the Young's double slit. Our implementation is a shader program in OpenGL that can generate wave effects on arbitrary surfaces.
Mesh Snapping: Robust Interactive Mesh Cutting Using Fast Geodesic Curvature Flow
Authors: Zhang Juyong , Wu Chunlin , Cai Jianfei , Zheng Jianmin , Tai Xue‐cheng
Published: June 2010

This paper considers the problem of interactively finding the cutting contour to extract components from a given mesh. Some existing methods support cuts of arbitrary shape but require careful and tedious input from the user. Others need little user input however they are sensitive to user input and need a postprocessing step to smooth the generated jaggy cutting contours. The popular geometric snake can be used to optimize the cutting contour, but it cannot deal with the topology change. In this paper, we propose a geodesic curvature flow based framework to overcome all these problems. Since in many cases the meaningful cutting contour on a 3D mesh is locally shortest in the sense of some weighted curve length, the geodesic curvature flow is an ideal tool for our problem. It evolves the cutting contour to the nearby local minimum. We should mention that the previous numerical scheme, discretized geodesic curvature flow (dGCF) is too slow and has not been applied to mesh segmentation. With a careful observation to dGCF, we devise here a fast computation scheme called fast geodesic curvature flow (FGCF), which only needs to solve a smaller and easier problem. The initial cutting contour is generated by a variant of random walks algorithm, which is very fast and gives reasonable cutting result with little user input. Experiment results on the benchmark mesh segmentation data set show that our proposed framework is robust to user input and capable of producing good results reflecting geometric features and human shape perception.
Human Motion Synthesis with Optimization‐based Graphs
Authors: Ren Cheng , Zhao Liming , Safonova Alla
Published: June 2010

Continuous constrained optimization is a powerful tool for synthesizing novel human motion segments that are short. Graph‐based motion synthesis methods such as motion graphs and move trees are popular ways to synthesize long motions by playing back a sequence of existing motion segments. However, motion graphs only support transitions between similar frames, and move trees only support transitions between the end of one motion segment and the start of another. In this paper, we introduce an optimization‐based graph that combines continuous constrained optimization with graph‐based motion synthesis. The constrained optimization is used to create a vast number of complex realistic‐looking transitions in the graph. The graph can then be used to synthesize long motions with non‐trivial transitions that for example allow the character to switch its behavior abruptly while retaining motion naturalness. We also propose to build this graph semi‐autonomously by requiring a user to classify generated transitions as acceptable or not and explicitly minimizing the amount of required classifications. This process guarantees the quality consistency of the optimization‐based graph at the cost of limited user involvement.
Synthesis of Responsive Motion Using a Dynamic Model
Authors: Ye Yuting , Liu C. Karen
Published: June 2010

Synthesizing the movements of a responsive virtual character in the event of unexpected perturbations has proven a difficult challenge. To solve this problem, we devise a fully automatic method that learns a nonlinear probabilistic model of dynamic responses from very few perturbed walking sequences. This model is able to synthesize responses and recovery motions under new perturbations different from those in the training examples. When perturbations occur, we propose a physics‐based method that initiates motion transitions to the most probable response example based on the dynamic states of the character. Our algorithm can be applied to any motion sequences without the need for preprocessing such as segmentation or alignment. The results show that three perturbed motion clips can sufficiently generate a variety of realistic responses, and 14 clips can create a responsive virtual character that reacts realistically to external forces in different directions applied on different body parts at different moments in time.
BetweenIT: An Interactive Tool for Tight Inbetweening
Authors: Whited Brian , Noris Gioacchino , Simmons Maryann , Sumner Robert W. , Gross Markus , Rossignac Jarek
Published: June 2010

The generation of inbetween frames that interpolate a given set of key frames is a major component in the production of a 2D feature animation. Our objective is to considerably reduce the cost of the inbetweening phase by offering an intuitive and effective interactive environment that automates inbetweening when possible while allowing the artist to guide, complement, or override the results.Tightinbetweens, which interpolate similar key frames, are particularly time‐consuming and tedious to draw. Therefore, we focus on automating these high‐precision and expensive portions of the process. We have designed a set of user‐guided semi‐automatic techniques that fit well with current practice and minimize the number of required artist‐gestures. We present a novel technique for stroke interpolation from only two keys which combines a stroke motion constructed from logarithmic spiral vertex trajectories with a stroke deformation based on curvature averaging and twisting warps. We discuss our system in the context of a feature animation production environment and evaluate our approach with real production data.
Sketching Clothoid Splines Using Shortest Paths
Authors: Baran Ilya , Lehtinen Jaakko , Popović Jovan
Published: June 2010

Clothoid splines are gaining popularity as a curve representation due to their intrinsically pleasing curvature, which varies piecewise linearly over arc length. However, constructing them from hand‐drawn strokes remains difficult. Building on recent results, we describe a novel algorithm for approximating a sketched stroke with a fair (i.e., visually pleasing) clothoid spline. Fairness depends on proper segmentation of the stroke into curve primitives — lines, arcs, and clothoids. Our main idea is to cast the segmentation as a shortest path problem on a carefully constructed weighted graph. The nodes in our graph correspond to a vastly overcomplete set of curve primitives that are fit to every subsegment of the sketch, and edges correspond to transitions of a specified degree of continuity between curve primitives. The shortest path in the graph corresponds to a desirable segmentation of the input curve. Once the segmentation is found, the primitives are fit to the curve using non‐linear constrained optimization. We demonstrate that the curves produced by our method have good curvature profiles, while staying close to the user sketch.
Hybrid Simulation of Miscible Mixing with Viscous Fingering
Authors: Shin Seung‐Ho , Kam Hyeong Ryeol , Kim Chang‐Hun
Published: June 2010

By modeling mass transfer phenomena, we simulate solids and liquids dissolving or changing to other substances. We also deal with the very small‐scale phenomena that occur when a fluid spreads out at the interface of another fluid. We model the pressure at the interfaces between fluids with Darcy's Law and represent the viscous fingering phenomenon in which a fluid interface spreads out with a fractal‐like shape. We use hybrid grid‐based simulation and smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) to simulate intermolecular diffusion and attraction using particles at a computable scale. We have produced animations showing fluids mixing and objects dissolving.
Tetrahedral Embedded Boundary Methods for Accurate and Flexible Adaptive Fluids
Authors: Batty Christopher , Xenos Stefan , Houston Ben
Published: June 2010

When simulating fluids, tetrahedral methods provide flexibility and ease of adaptivity that Cartesian grids find difficult to match. However, this approach has so far been limited by two conflicting requirements. First, accurate simulation requires quality Delaunay meshes and the use of circumcentric pressures. Second, meshes must align with potentially complex moving surfaces and boundaries, necessitating continuous remeshing. Unfortunately, sacrificing mesh quality in favour of speed yields inaccurate velocities and simulation artifacts. We describe how to eliminate the boundary‐matching constraint by adapting recent embedded boundary techniques to tetrahedra, so that neither air nor solid boundaries need to align with mesh geometry. This enables the use of high quality, arbitrarily graded, non‐conforming Delaunay meshes, which are simpler and faster to generate. Temporal coherence can also be exploited by reusing meshes over adjacent timesteps to further reduce meshing costs. Lastly, our free surface boundary condition eliminates the spurious currents that previous methods exhibited for slow or static scenarios. We provide several examples demonstrating that our efficient tetrahedral embedded boundary method can substantially increase the flexibility and accuracy of adaptive Eulerian fluid simulation.
Improved Variational Guiding of Smoke Animations
Authors: Nielsen Michael B. , Christensen Brian B.
Published: June 2010

Smoke animations are hard to art‐direct because simple changes in parameters such as simulation resolution often lead to unpredictable changes in the final result. Previous work has addressed this problem with a guiding approach which couples low‐resolution simulations – that exhibit the desired flow and behaviour – to the final, high‐resolution simulation. This is done in such a way that the desired low frequency features are to some extent preserved in the high‐resolution simulation. However, the steady (i.e. constant) guiding used often leads to a lack of sufficiently high detail, and employing time‐dependent guiding is expensive because the matrix of the resulting set of equations needs to be recomputed at every iteration. We propose an improved mathematical model for Eulerian‐based simulations which is better suited for dynamic, time‐dependent guiding of smoke animations through a novel variational coupling of the low‐ and high‐resolution simulations. Our model results in a matrix that does not require re‐computation when the guiding changes over time, and hence we can employ time‐dependent guiding more efficiently both in terms of storage and computational requirements. We demonstrate that time‐dependent guiding allows for more high frequency detail to develop without losing correspondence to the low resolution simulation. Furthermore, we explore various artistic effects made possible by time‐dependent guiding.
Motion Blur for EWA Surface Splatting
Authors: Heinzle Simon , Wolf Johanna , Kanamori Yoshihiro , Weyrich Tim , Nishita Tomoyuki , Gross Markus
Published: June 2010

This paper presents a novel framework for elliptical weighted average (EWA) surface splatting with time‐varying scenes. We extend the theoretical basis of the original framework by replacing the 2D surface reconstruction filters by 3D kernels which unify the spatial and temporal component of moving objects. Based on the newly derived mathematical framework we introduce a rendering algorithm that supports the generation of high‐quality motion blur for point‐based objects using a piecewise linear approximation of the motion. The rendering algorithm applies ellipsoids as rendering primitives which are constructed by extending planar EWA surface splats into the temporal dimension along the instantaneous motion vector. Finally, we present an implementation of the proposed rendering algorithm with approximated occlusion handling using advanced features of modern GPUs and show its capability of producing motion‐blurred result images at interactive frame rates.
External Financing Needs, Corporate Governance, and Firm Value
Authors: Chen Wei‐Peng , Chung Huimin , Hsu Tsui‐Ling , Wu Soushan
Published: June 2010

Manuscript Type: Empirical

Research Question/Issue: We set out in this study to explore the overall impact of external financing needs on corporate governance and firm value, arguing that external financing needs have extremely important impacts on corporate governance, essentially because external financing can prove to be very costly, largely as a result of asymmetric information. Thus, we suggest that improvements in corporate governance of firms with external financing needs could help to reduce costs of outside equity financing.

Research Findings/Insights: Our results reveal that it is in fact firm valuation that has an effect on governance practices, as opposed to the reverse, and that external financing needs appear to strengthen the influence of the quality of corporate governance practices on firm value.

Theoretical/Academic Implications: The external forces considered in this study are product market competition, investment opportunities, and external financing needs, with particular emphasis being placed upon the impact of external financing needs, since this relates directly to outside shareholders. Given that poor corporate governance practices signal higher asymmetric information costs, and thus, lead to an increase in the costs of raising external capital, it is important to gain a comprehensive understanding of the impact of external financing needs on firm value and corporate governance.

Practitioner/Policy Implications: Our results demonstrate the important implications that corporate governance practices have for those firms with a particularly strong need for external equity, and the fact that external financing needs provide incentives for firms to seek out ways of making improvements to the overall quality of their corporate governance practices.
FAITH IN THE NEOLIBERALISATION OF POST‐KATRINA NEW ORLEANS
Authors: HACKWORTH JASON , AKERS JOSHUA
Published: June 2010

Though it has been over four years since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the physical and social geography of the gulf coast in the United States, a great deal of literature still continues to emanate from this event. Much of this literature focuses on how the event embodied a neoliberalised state reaction to the crisis – heavily reliant on charities while actively promoting claims about the government's weakness in the face of such events. Though this literature is useful, it has generally not covered the role of religious charities and their role in the putative neoliberalisation of New Orleans. This paper attempts to explore the role of religious NGOs in the reconstruction of New Orleans. The intent is twofold: first to improve our understanding of this important event; and second to improve our understanding of the complicated role that Faith‐based organisations have played within neoliberal politics and praxis in the United States.
THE SPATIAL‐CULTURAL CONFIGURATION OF SEX WORK IN GOA INDIA
Authors: BAILEY AJAY , HUTTER INGE , HUIGEN PAULUS P.P.
Published: June 2010

Geographers have largely ignored the socio‐spatial aspect of sex work in the non‐Western context. Theorisation on place, sex and gender will aid in spatially situating sex work in the domain of geography. We present an empirical study to describe the spatial‐cultural configuration of sex work as constituted by the places where sex is negotiated and transacted and the role of facilitators. The cultural part involves the understanding of combined meanings generated from the place‐making process by sex workers, clients and facilitators. We base this paper on triangulated information from key informants, observations, interviews with clients and media reports. Urban places in Goa where sex work is negotiated and conducted are contested, gendered and veiled. Sex work is not merely about sex workers and their clients; it is much broader and intermeshed with different people playing the role of facilitators. The local place‐specific meanings generated are important to understand spatiality of sex work.
THE LANDSCAPE REPUTATION: TOURISM AND IDENTITY IN THE CARIBBEAN
Authors: NELSON VELVET
Published: June 2010

Since the time of the European explorers who traversed the Caribbean Sea in the fifteenth century, visitors' written descriptions and illustrations of the islands were extraordinarily influential in forming the region's reputation. The principal component of these descriptions and illustrations, and the core of this reputation, was the tropical island landscape and the first impressions formed from onboard a ship as islands were approached from the sea. Because of the highly competitive nature of the tourism industry, this longstanding reputation was maintained. While this strategy has been effective, there has been increasing interest in diversifying the Caribbean tourism product and creating a sense of distinction between destinations. The islands' identities have the potential to form the basis of this distinction, but this has largely been prevented by the ongoing reliance on the externally‐oriented reputation. This paper examines the legacy of the Caribbean's longstanding reputation based on landscape as characterised in modern tourism promotions.
DISASTROUS ANTI‐ECONOMICS AND THE ECONOMICS OF DISASTERS
Authors: Carden Art
Published: June 2010

This article surveys and synthesises some of the research on the political economy of natural disasters. While people tend to support government intervention to reduce prices or otherwise aid disaster recovery, research shows that government organisations are often corrupt and ineffective. Further, since people tend to mis‐identify the causes of (for example) gasoline price increases after natural disasters, government intervention after a disaster is likely to do more harm than good.
TRAFFIC LIGHTS: WEAPONS OF MASS DISTRACTION, DANGER AND DELAY
Authors: Cassini Martin
Published: June 2010

Since my 2006 article in Economic Affairs proposing traffic system reform, there has been a growing interest in the subject. Trials in deregulation have produced the results that students of the subject predicted – congestion‐free roads and sociable interaction between road‐users.
ZERO CONSISTENCY: A CRITIQUE OF CARITAS EUROPA'S ‘ZERO POVERTY’ CAMPAIGN
Authors: Niemietz Kristian
Published: June 2010

It is difficult to see what the Caritas ‘Zero Poverty’ campaign stands for and what its purpose is. It mixes poverty definitions and policy areas which have nothing to do with one another, displays ‘moral outrage’ with much ostentation, and calls for bigger government all the time. Caritas should have drawn on their vast practical expertise instead of attempting to appear fashionable.
INNOVATION AND COMPETITION IN GENERATION AND RETAIL POWER MARKETS
Authors: Hooper Elizabeth , Price Catherine Waddams
Published: June 2010

There has been considerable merger activity in EU energy markets in recent years. It could be argued that competition authorities should be required to take into account potential innovation effects of mergers. In the UK, regulators are now trying to achieve multiple objectives within the current framework. There is a danger that if markets are expected to deliver mutually incompatible objectives they will be unable to achieve any of them.
A NUCLEAR FUTURE? UK GOVERNMENT POLICY AND THE ROLE OF THE MARKET
Authors: Newbery David
Published: June 2010

Nuclear power should be a feasible non‐carbon option in a liberalised market for electricity generation. However, if it is to be so, there needs to be a stable carbon price and a tax system which does not treat nuclear generation in a similar way to carbon‐based electricity generation. Further major reform of the electricity generating market will also be necessary.
NETWORKS, INNOVATION AND REGULATION
Authors: Smith Stephen
Published: June 2010

The design and operation of Britain's energy networks have not changed significantly in 50 years. Energy networks will have a central role to play in decarbonising the economy. Unprecedented levels of technical and commercial innovation are likely to be necessary. The existing incentive‐based approach to regulating the monopoly networks has been a success in lowering prices whilst delivering investment and improved reliability. But it will need to change to encourage and reward these levels of innovation. This paper sets out some of the regulators' thinking on the changes required.