bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Elevated expression of ASCL2 is an independent prognostic indicator in lung squamous cell carcinoma
Authors: Hu Xu-gang , Chen Lu , Wang Qing-liang , Zhao Xi-long , Tan Juan , Cui You-hong , Liu Xin-dong , Zhang Xia , Bian Xiu-wu
Published: October 2015

Aims

ASCL2, a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor, is putatively involved in tumour progression. This study aimed to evaluate ASCL2 expression level in non-small-cell carcinoma (NSCLC) and assess its prognostic value for patients.

Methods

ASCL2 protein expression was detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC cohort) in 79 cases of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and 67 cases of adenocarcinoma (AC). Kaplan–Meier analysis and Cox regression analysis were performed to evaluate the prognostic significance of ASCL2. The same analyses were conducted in a cohort (n=790) from The Cancer Genome Atlas database (TCGA) to validate the expression pattern and prognostic value of ASCL2.

Results

ASCL2 expression levels were significantly increased in SCC compared with normal lung tissue (p<0.001) and AC (p=0.008). High ASCL2 expression was associated with advanced tumour-node-metastasis (TNM) stage (p=0.023) and worse differentiation status (p=0.001) in SCC, but a positive correlation between ASCL2 expression level and advanced TNM stage (p=0.016) was observed in AC. Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that ASCL2 was prognostic in SCC (p=0.004) but not in AC (p=0.183). Multivariable Cox regression analysis indicated that elevated expression of ASCL2 was an independent prognostic factor (HR 2.764; p=0.030) in SCC patients. The expression pattern and prognostic significance of ASCL2 in SCC and AC were validated using the TCGA cohort.

Conclusions

Elevated expression of ASCL2 may identify an aggressive subgroup in SCC and serve as an independent prognostic indicator in these patients.
Understanding poor health behaviours as predictors of different types of hospital admission in older people: findings from the Hertfordshire Cohort Study
Authors: Syddall Holly E , Westbury Leo D , Simmonds Shirley J , Robinson Sian , Cooper Cyrus , Sayer Avan Aihie
Published: October 2015

Background

Rates of hospital admission are increasing, particularly among older people. Poor health behaviours cluster but their combined impact on risk of hospital admission among older people in the UK is unknown.

Methods

2997 community-dwelling men and women (aged 59–73) participated in the Hertfordshire Cohort Study (HCS). We scored (from 0 to 4) number of poor health behaviours engaged in at baseline (1998–2004) out of: current smoking, high weekly alcohol, low customary physical activity and poor diet. We linked HCS with Hospital Episode Statistics and mortality data to 31/03/2010 and analysed associations between the score and risk of different types of hospital admission: any; elective; emergency; long stay (>7 days); 30-day readmission (any, or emergency).

Results

32%, 40%, 20% and 7% of men engaged in 0, 1, 2 and 3/4 poor health behaviours; corresponding percentages for women 51%, 38%, 9%, 2%. 75% of men (69% women) experienced at least one hospital admission. Among men and women, increased number of poor health behaviours was strongly associated (p<0.01) with greater risk of long stay and emergency admissions, and 30-day emergency readmissions. Hazard ratios (HRs) for emergency admission for 3/4 poor health behaviours in comparison with none were: men, 1.37 (95% CI 1.11 to 1.69); women, 1.84 (95% CI 1.22 to 2.77). Associations were unaltered by adjustment for age, body mass index and comorbidity.

Conclusions

Clustered poor health behaviours are associated with increased risk of hospital admission among older people in the UK. Lifecourse interventions to reduce number of poor health behaviours could have substantial beneficial impact on health and use of healthcare in later life.
Transcriptional analysis of different mulberry cultivars in response to Ralstonia solanacearum
Authors: Dai Fanwei , Wang Zhenjiang , Luo Guoqing , Tang Cuiming
Published: October 2015

Bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum is a major disease of the mulberry (Morus atropurpurea Roxb.), resulting in severe yield and quality losses. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms of resistance. Using the RNA sequencing technique, we identified early transcriptional changes in resistant (KQ10 and YS283) and susceptible (YSD10) mulberry cultivars in response to R. solanacearum infection. We observed that 798 genes were differentially and specifically regulated in both resistant cultivars but not in the susceptible cultivar after infection with R. solanacearum, including 502 upregulated and 296 downregulated genes. Among the differentially expressed genes, 31 encode transcription factors and 48 encode protein kinases. Interestingly, we found that a large number of genes (61) associated with cell-wall modification were differentially and specifically regulated in the resistant cultivars. These genes could be divided into 10 major groups. The largest group is the glucosyltransferase family, followed by the pectinesterase inhibitor, glucanase, and glycoprotein families, suggesting that cell-wall modifications may play an important role in resistance levels in mulberry. This transcriptional analysis paves the way for elucidating the molecular mechanisms of the resistance response to R. solanacearum in mulberry.
A Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Method Based on Heronian Mean Operators Under a Linguistic Hesitant Fuzzy Environment
Authors: Yu Su-Min , Zhou Huan , Chen Xiao-Hong , Wang Jian-Qiang
Published: October 2015

Linguistic hesitant fuzzy sets (LHFSs) are a very useful and appropriate means of expressing preferences of decision-makers; moreover their basic operations and comparison methods have been defined and applied to the solving of MCDM problems. However, there are a number of limitations in the related studies. In this paper, using information from existing studies, several new operations and a new order relationship are defined; moreover four linguistic hesitant fuzzy Heronian mean operators are proposed: the linguistic hesitant fuzzy arithmetic Heronian mean (LHFAHM) operator; the linguistic hesitant fuzzy weighted arithmetic Heronian mean (LHFWAHM) operator; the linguistic hesitant fuzzy geometric Heronian mean (LHFGHM) operator; and the linguistic hesitant fuzzy weighted geometric Heronian mean (LHFWGHM) operator. Furthermore, some useful and desirable properties of these operators are analyzed in some special cases, with respect to the different parameter values in these operators, are discussed. Additionally, an approach based on the LHFWAHM and LHFWGHM operators for solving MCDM problems is proposed. Finally, an illustrative example is provided to verify the validity and feasibility of the proposed approaches, and a comparison analysis is also presented to demonstrate the influences of different parameters on the results of decision-making.
Theory of quantum gravity beyond Einstein and space-time dynamics with quantum inflation
Authors: Wu Yue-Liang
Published: October 2015

In this talk, I present a theory of quantum gravity beyond Einstein. The theory is established based on spinnic and scaling gauge symmetries by treating the gravitational force on the same footing as the electroweak and strong forces. A bi-frame space-time is initiated to describe the laws of nature. One frame space-time is a globally flat coordinate Minkowski space-time that acts as an inertial reference frame for the motions of fields, the other is a locally flat non-coordinate Gravifield space-time that functions as an interaction representation frame for the degrees of freedom of fields. The Gravifield is sided on both the globally flat coordinate space-time and locally flat non-coordinate space-time and characterizes the gravitational force. Instead of the principle of general coordinate invariance in Einstein theory of general relativity, some underlying principles with the postulates of coordinate independence and gauge invariance are motivated to establish the theory of quantum gravity. When transmuting the Gravifield basis into the coordinate basis in Minkowski space-time, it enables us to obtain equations of motion for all quantum fields and derive basic conservation laws for all symmetries. The gravity equation is found to be governed by the total energy–momentum tensor defined in the flat Minkowski space-time. When the spinnic and scaling gauge symmetries are broken down to a background structure that possesses the global Lorentz and scaling symmetries, we arrive at a Lorentz invariant and conformally flat background Gravifield space-time that is characterized by a cosmic vector with a non-zero cosmological mass scale. We also obtain the massless graviton and massive spinnon. The resulting universe is in general not isotropic in terms of conformal proper time and turns out to be inflationary in light of cosmic proper time. The conformal size of the universe has a singular at the cosmological horizon to which the cosmic proper time must be infinitely large. We show a mechanism for quantum inflation caused by the quantum loop contributions. The Gravifield behaves as a Goldstone-like field that transmutes the local spinnic gauge symmetry into the global Lorentz symmetry, which makes the spinnic gauge field becomes a hidden gauge field. As a consequence, the bosonic gravitational interactions can be described by the Goldstone-like Gravimetric field and space-time gauge field. The Einstein theory of general relativity is expected to be an effective low energy theory. Two types of gravity equation are resulted, one is the extension to Einstein’s equation of general relativity, and the other is a new type of gravitational equation that characterizes the spinnon dynamics.
Probing dark energy and primordial non-Gaussianity with the 21cm line observations
Authors: Chen Xuelei
Published: October 2015

In this paper I review some recent progress in the studies on redshifted 21cm line observations. The 21cm line have long been an important radio spectral line in astronomical observations, but so far its observation is limited to low redshifts, due to the difficulty in detecting this line at high or mid redshifts. However, more sophisticated data processing method are being developed, and a number of experiments are being carried out. Once this breakthrough is made, the observation may provide an wealth of information which would be useful in probing the nature of dark energy, and searching for primordial non-Gaussianity (PNG). I will also describe the status of the Tianlai experiment as of the summer of 2015.
Building an Image Annotation and Tourism Recommender System
Authors: Pliakos Konstantinos , Kotropoulos Constantine
Published: October 2015

The interest in image annotation and recommendation has been increased due to the ever rising amount of data uploaded to the web. Despite the many efforts undertaken so far, accuracy or efficiency still remain open problems. Here, a complete image annotation and tourism recommender system is proposed. It is based on the probabilistic latent semantic analysis (PLSA) and hypergraph ranking, exploiting the visual attributes of the images and the semantic information found in image tags and geo-tags. In particular, semantic image annotation resorts to the PLSA, exploiting the textual information in image tags. It is further complemented by visual annotation based on visual image content classification. Tourist destinations, strongly related to a query image, are recommended using hypergraph ranking enhanced by enforcing group sparsity constraints. Experiments were conducted on a large image dataset of Greek sites collected from Flickr. The experimental results demonstrate the merits of the proposed model. Semantic image annotation by means of the PLSA has achieved an average precision of 92% at 10% recall. The accuracy of content-based image classification is 82, 6%. An average precision of 92% is measured at 1% recall for tourism recommendation.
Performance-Estimation Properties of Cross-Validation-Based Protocols with Simultaneous Hyper-Parameter Optimization
Authors: Tsamardinos Ioannis , Rakhshani Amin , Lagani Vincenzo
Published: October 2015

In a typical supervised data analysis task, one needs to perform the following two tasks: (a) select an optimal combination of learning methods (e.g., for variable selection and classifier) and tune their hyper-parameters (e.g., K in K-NN), also called model selection, and (b) provide an estimate of the performance of the final, reported model. Combining the two tasks is not trivial because when one selects the set of hyper-parameters that seem to provide the best estimated performance, this estimation is optimistic (biased/overfitted) due to performing multiple statistical comparisons. In this paper, we discuss the theoretical properties of performance estimation when model selection is present and we confirm that the simple Cross-Validation with model selection is indeed optimistic (overestimates performance) in small sample scenarios and should be avoided. We present in detail and investigate the theoretical properties of the Nested Cross Validation and a method by Tibshirani and Tibshirani for removing the estimation bias. In computational experiments with real datasets both protocols provide conservative estimation of performance and should be preferred. These statements hold true even if feature selection is performed as preprocessing.
Shuffle Index
Authors: Vimercati Sabrina De Capitani Di , Foresti Sara , Paraboschi Stefano , Pelosi Gerardo , Samarati Pierangela
Published: October 2015

Data outsourcing and cloud computing have been emerging at an ever-growing rate as successful approaches for allowing users and companies to rely on external services for storing and managing data. As data and access to them are not under the control of the data owner, there is a clear need to provide proper confidentiality protection. Such requirements concern the confidentiality not only of the stored data (content) but also of the specific accesses (or patterns of them) that users make on such data.

In this article, we address these issues and propose an approach for guaranteeing content, access, and pattern confidentiality in a data outsourcing scenario. The proposed solution is based on the definition of a
shuffle index
structure, which adapts traditional
B
+-trees and, by applying a combination of techniques (covers, caches, and shuffling), ensures confidentiality of the data and of queries over them, protecting each single access as well as sequences thereof. The proposed solution also supports update operations over the data, while making reads and writes not recognizable as such by the server. We show that the shuffle index exhibits a limited performance cost, thus resulting effectively usable in practice.
Improving Researcher Homepage Classification with Unlabeled Data
Authors: Gollapalli Sujatha Das , Caragea Cornelia , Mitra Prasenjit , Giles C. Lee
Published: October 2015

A classifier that determines if a webpage is relevant to a specified set of topics comprises a key component for focused crawling. Can a classifier that is tuned to perform well on training datasets continue to filter out irrelevant pages in the face of changing content on the Web? We investigate this question in the context of identifying researcher homepages. We show experimentally that classifiers trained on existing datasets of academic homepages underperform on “non-homepages” present on current-day academic websites. As an alternative to obtaining labeled datasets to retrain classifiers for the new content, in this article we ask the following question: “How can we effectively use the unlabeled data readily available from academic websites to improve researcher homepage classification?”

We design novel URL-based features and use them in conjunction with content-based features for representing homepages. Within the co-training framework, these sets of features can be treated as complementary views enabling us to effectively use unlabeled data and obtain remarkable improvements in homepage identification on the current-day academic websites. We also propose a novel technique for “learning a conforming pair of classifiers” that
mimics
co-training. Our algorithm seeks to minimize a loss (objective) function quantifying the difference in predictions from the two views afforded by co-training. We argue that this loss formulation provides insights for understanding co-training and can be used even in the absence of a validation dataset.

Our next set of findings pertains to the evaluation of other state-of-the-art techniques for classifying homepages. First, we apply feature selection (FS) and feature hashing (FH) techniques independently and in conjunction with co-training to academic homepages. FS is a well-known technique for removing redundant and unnecessary features from the data representation, whereas FH is a technique that uses hash functions for efficient encoding of features. We show that FS can be effectively combined with co-training to obtain further improvements in identifying homepages. However, using hashed feature representations, a performance degradation is observed possibly due to feature collisions.

Finally, we evaluate other semisupervised algorithms for homepage classification. We show that although several algorithms are effective in using information from the unlabeled instances, co-training that explicitly harnesses the feature split in the underlying instances outperforms approaches that combine content and URL features into a single view.
Fast
Authors: D'antoni Loris , Veanes Margus , Livshits Benjamin , Molnar David
Published: October 2015

Tree automata and transducers are used in a wide range of applications in software engineering. While these formalisms are of immense practical use, they can only model finite alphabets. To overcome this problem we augment tree automata and transducers with symbolic alphabets represented as parametric theories. Admitting infinite alphabets makes these models more general and succinct than their classic counterparts. Despite this, we show how the main operations, such as composition and language equivalence, remain computable given a decision procedure for the alphabet theory. We introduce a high-level language called F
ast
that acts as a front-end for the preceding formalisms.
Reuse Distance-Based Probabilistic Cache Replacement
Authors: Das Subhasis , Aamodt Tor M. , Dally William J.
Published: October 2015

This article proposes Probabilistic Replacement Policy (PRP), a novel replacement policy that evicts the line with
minimum estimated hit probability under optimal replacement
instead of the line with maximum expected reuse distance. The latter is optimal under the independent reference model of programs, which does not hold for last-level caches (LLC).

PRP requires 7% and 2% metadata overheads in the cache and DRAM respectively. Using a sampling scheme makes DRAM overhead negligible, with minimal performance impact. Including detailed overhead modeling and equal cache areas, PRP outperforms SHiP, a state-of-the-art LLC replacement algorithm, by 4% for memory-intensive SPEC-CPU2006 benchmarks.
Automatic Runtime Adaptation for Component-Based Simulation Algorithms
Authors: Helms Tobias , Ewald Roland , Rybacki Stefan , Uhrmacher Adelinde M.
Published: October 2015

The state and structure of a model may vary during a simulation and, thus, also its computational demands. Adapting simulation algorithms to these demands at runtime can therefore improve their performance. While this is a general and cross-cutting concern, only few simulation systems offer reusable support for this kind of runtime adaptation. We present a flexible and generic mechanism for the runtime adaptation of component-based simulation algorithms. It encapsulates simulation algorithms applicable to a given problem and employs reinforcement learning to explore the algorithms’ performance during a simulation run. We evaluate our approach on a modeling formalism from computational biology and on a benchmark model defined in PDEVS, thereby investigating a broad range of options for improving its learning capabilities.
A wait-free multi-producer multi-consumer ring buffer
Authors: Feldman Steven , Dechev Damian
Published: October 2015

The ring buffer is a staple data structure used in many algorithms and applications. It is highly desirable in high-demand use cases such as multimedia, network routing, and trading systems. This work presents a new ring buffer design that is, to the best of our knowledge, the only array-based first-in-first-out ring buffer to provide wait-freedom. Wait-freedom guarantees that each thread completes its operation within a finite number of steps. This property is desirable for real-time and mission critical systems.

This work is an extension and refinement of our earlier work. We have improved and expanded algorithm descriptions and pseudo-code, and we have performed all new performance evaluations.

In contrast to other concurrent ring buffer designs, our implementation includes new methodology to prevent thread starvation and livelock from occurring.
A Clinical Picture of the Visual Outcome in Adamantiades-Behçet’s Disease
Authors: Figus Michele , Posarelli Chiara , Albert Timothy G. , Talarico Rosaria , Nardi Marco
Published: October 2015

Adamantiades-Behçet’s disease is a multisystemic vasculitis with multiorgan involvement. Ocular disorders occur often in this syndrome typically in the form of a relapsing-remitting panuveitis and vasculitis and can lead to blindness as one of its most disabling complications if left untreated. There are known risk factors related with the worst visual prognosis, which require early and intensive treatment in order to obtain a rapid suppression of inflammation and to prevent future relapses. The management strategy to avoid vision loss and blindness currently involves the use of local and systemic drugs including steroids and immunosuppressive and biologic agents. This review aims to demonstrate how the introduction and the use of biologic agents improves the visual outcome of patients with Adamantiades-Behçet’s disease.
Alterations of Regional Spontaneous Brain Activity and Gray Matter Volume in the Blind
Authors: Jiang Aili , Tian Jing , Li Rui , Liu Yong , Jiang Tianzi , Qin Wen , Yu Chunshui
Published: October 2015

Visual deprivation can induce alterations of regional spontaneous brain activity (RSBA). However, the effects of onset age of blindness on the RSBA and the association between the alterations of RSBA and brain structure are still unclear in the blind. In this study, we performed resting-state functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging on 50 sighted controls and 91 blind subjects (20 congenitally blind, 27 early blind, and 44 late blind individuals). Compared with the sighted control, we identified increased RSBA in the blind in primary and high-level visual areas and decreased RSBA in brain regions which are ascribed to sensorimotor and salience networks. In contrast, blind subjects exhibited significantly decreased gray matter volume (GMV) in the visual areas, while they exhibited significantly increased GMV in the sensorimotor areas. Moreover, the onset age of blindness was negatively correlated with the GMV of visual areas in blind subjects, whereas it exerted complex influences on the RSBA. Finally, significant negative correlations were shown between RSBA and GMV values. Our results demonstrated system-dependent, inverse alterations in RSBA and GMV after visual deprivation. Furthermore, the onset age of blindness has different effects on the reorganizations in RSBA and GMV.
A Novel Distributed Online Anomaly Detection Method in Resource-Constrained Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Ding Zhiguo , Wang Haikuan , Fei Minrui , Du Dajun
Published: October 2015

In this paper, a novel distributed online anomaly detection method in resource-constrained WSNs was proposed. Firstly, the spatiotemporal correlation existing in the sensed data was exploited and a series of single anomaly detectors were built in each distributed deployment sensor node based on ensemble learning theory. Secondly, these trained detectors were broadcasted to the member sensor nodes in the cluster, combining with its trained detector, and the initial ensemble detector was built. Thirdly, considering resources-constrained WSNs, ensemble pruning based on biogeographical based optimization (BBO) was employed in the cluster head node to obtain an optimized subset of ensemble members. Further, the pruned ensemble detector coded by the state matrix was broadcasted to each member sensor nodes for the distributed online global anomaly detection. Finally, the experiments operated on a real WSN dataset demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Evaluation of the Association Metformin:Plantago ovataHusk in Diabetic Rabbits
Authors: Díez-Láiz Raquel , García-Vieitez Juan J. , Diez-Liébana M. José , Sierra-Vega Matilde , Sahagún-Prieto Ana M. , Calle-Pardo Ángela P. , Fernández-Martínez Nélida
Published: October 2015

In this experimental study we have investigated whether the inclusion of the dietary fiberPlantago ovatahusk could be recommended as coadjuvant in treatments with oral hypoglycemic drugs. We evaluated the use ofPlantago ovatahusk-metformin association in diabetic rabbits by determining its effects on glucose and insulin concentrations. Six groups of 6 rabbits were used. Groups 1 to 3 were fed with standard chow and groups 4 to 6 with chow supplemented withPlantago ovatahusk (3.5 mg/kg/day). Two groups (numbers 1 and 4) were used as controls (receiving standard or supplemented chow), two groups (numbers 2 and 5) received metformin orally, and the other two (numbers 3 and 6) were treated orally with metformin and psyllium. Plasma glucose concentrations were lower in groups fed with fiber-supplemented chow whereas insulin levels showed important interindividual variations. Glucose pharmacokinetics parameters showed significant differences inCmaxandtmaxin relation to fiber intake. Insulin pharmacokinetics parameters after treatment with oral metformin showed an important increase inCmax, AUC, andtmaxin animals fed with fiber. We conclude thatPlantago ovatahusk intake can contribute to the oral antihyperglycemic treatment of type 2 diabetes.
Prevalence of Asymptomatic Brucellosis in Children 7 to 12 Years Old
Authors: Aghaali Mohammad , Mohebi Siamak , Heydari Hosein
Published: October 2015

Background. Brucellosis is one of the most common diseases of humans and animals and its clinical manifestations differ from asymptomatic infection to chronic illness associated with recurrence of symptoms. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of brucellosis in asymptomatic children 7 to 12 years old in Kahak, Iran.Methods. In this study, 186 children 7 to 12 years old were evaluated. Demographic data and exposure to the brucellosis agent were recorded and blood samples for the Wright, Coombs, and 2ME tests were collected. All the study subjects were followed up for one year about the appearance of symptoms.Results. The mean age was 10 ± 1.72 years and 51% were boys. Family history was positive for brucellosis in 15% of children. A total of 8 children were brucellosis seropositive and, in subsequent follow-up, 6 of them showed the disease symptoms.Conclusion. This study showed that approximately 4.3% of children in endemic areas can have asymptomatic brucellosis and many of these children may be symptomatic in short term.
Analysis and Design of Cavity-Backed Probe-Fed Hybrid Microstrip Antennas on FR4 Substrate
Authors: Nascimento D. C. , Ribeiro Filho Prêntice C. , Tinoco-S Alexis F. , Lacava J. C. da S.
Published: October 2015

A novel cavity-backed probe-fed linearly polarized microstrip antenna based on the concept of hybrid radiators is proposed and implemented. The resulting flush-mounted antenna exhibits symmetrical bandwidth, low cross-polarization radiation in theH-plane, due to its hybrid patch, and low cost, since it can be built on a FR4 laminate. Substrate integrated waveguide technology is used in the fabrication of the metallic cavity. The effect of mutual coupling is analyzed for two classical arrangements: the side-by-side and the collinear configurations.
Modelling Alcoholism as a Contagious Disease: A Mathematical Model with Awareness Programs and Time Delay
Authors: Ma Shuang-Hong , Huo Hai-Feng , Meng Xin-You
Published: October 2015

A dynamic alcohol consumption model with awareness programs and time delay is formulated and analyzed. The aim of this model is to capture the effects of awareness programs and time delay in controlling the alcohol problems. We introduce awareness programs by media in the model as a separate class with growth rate of the cumulative density of them being proportional to the number of mortalities induced by heavy drinking. Susceptible population will isolate themselves and avoid contact with the heavy drinkers or become aware of risk of heavy drinking and decline to drink due to such programs. In particular, we incorporate time delay because the nonconsumer population will take a period of time to become an alcohol consumer. We find that the model has two equilibria: one without alcohol problems and one where alcohol problems are endemic in population. The model analysis shows that though awareness programs cannot eradicate alcohol problems, they are effective measures in controlling the alcohol problems. Further, we conclude that the time delay in alcohol consumption habit which develops in susceptible population may result in Hopf bifurcation by increasing the value of time delay. Some numerical simulation results are also given to support our theoretical predictions.
Communication Availability-Based Scheduling for Fair Data Collection with Path-Constrained Mobile Sink in Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Jo Youngtae
Published: October 2015

To effectively transfer sensing data to a sink node, system designers should consider the characteristic of wireless sensor networks in the way of data transmission. In particular, sensor nodes surrounding a fixed sink node have routinely suffered from concentrated network traffic so that their battery energy is rapidly exhausted. The lifetime of wireless sensor networks decreases due to the rapid power consumption of these sensor nodes. To address the problem, a mobile sink model has recently been chosen for traffic load distribution among sensor nodes. However, since a mobile sink continuously changes its location in sensor networks, it has a time limitation to communicate with each sensor node and unstable signal strength from each sensor node. Therefore, fair and stable data collection policy between a mobile sink and sensor nodes is necessary in this circumstance. In this paper, we propose a new scheduling policy to support fair and stable data collection for a mobile sink in wireless sensor networks. The proposed policy performs data collection scheduling based on the communication availability of data transmission between sensor nodes and a mobile sink.
Nephroprotective Effects of Polydatin against Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury: A Role for the PI3K/Akt Signal Pathway
Authors: Liu Hong-Bao , Meng Qiu-Hong , Huang Chen , Wang Jian-Bo , Liu Xiao-Wei
Published: October 2015

Oxidative stress and inflammation are involved in the pathogenesis in renal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. It has been demonstrated that polydatin processed the antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and nephroprotective properties. However, whether it has beneficial effects and the possible mechanisms on renal I/R injury remain unclear. In our present study I/R models were simulated bothin vitroandin vivo. Compared with vehicle control, the administration of polydatin significantly improved the renal function, accelerated the mitogenic response and reduced cell apoptosis in renal I/R injury models, strongly suppressed the I/R-induced upregulation of the expression of tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1β, cyclooxygenase-2, inducible nitric oxide synthase, prostaglandin E-2, and nitric oxide levels, and dramatically decreased contents of malondialdehyde, but it increased the activity of superoxide dismutase, glutathione transferase, glutathione peroxidase and catalase, and the level of glutathione. Further investigation showed that polydatin upregulated the phosphorylation of Akt in kidneys of I/R injury dose-dependently. However, all beneficial effects of polydatin mentioned above were counteracted when we inhibited PI3K/Akt pathway with its specific inhibitor, wortmannin. Taken together, the present findings provide the first evidence demonstrating that PD exhibited prominent nephroprotective effects against renal I/R injury by antioxidative stress and inflammation through PI3-K/Akt-dependent molecular mechanisms.
Endometrioid Paraovarian Borderline Cystic Tumor in an Infant with Proteus Syndrome
Authors: Vasquez Liliana , Tello Mariela , Maza Ivan , Oscanoa Monica , Dueñas Milagros , Castro Haydee , Latorre Alan
Published: October 2015

Ovarian and paraovarian neoplasms are uncommon in children, mainly originating from germ cell tumors and, least frequently, epithelial tumors. There is an association between genital tract tumors and Proteus syndrome, a rare, sporadic, and progressive entity, characterized by a postnatal overgrowth in several tissues caused by a mosaic mutation in the AKT1 gene. We describe a 20-month-old asymptomatic infant with Proteus syndrome who developed an endometrioid paraovarian borderline cystic tumor. This is the youngest patient so far reported in the literature with this rare syndrome and an adnexal tumor of borderline malignancy. A total of nine patients have been described with female tract tumors and associated Proteus syndrome, which includes bilateral ovarian cystadenomas and other benign masses. A paraovarian neoplasm is extremely rare in children and could be considered a criterion for Proteus syndrome. Standardized staging and treatment of these tumors are not well established; however, most authors conclude that these neoplasms must be treated as their ovarian counterparts.
Stability Analysis of R&D Cooperation in a Supply Chain
Authors: Xu Luyun , Liang Dong , Duan Zhenjie , Xiao Xu
Published: October 2015

R&D outsourcing becomes the often-adopted strategy for firms to innovate. However, R&D cooperation often ends up with failure because of its inherent quality of instability. One of the main reasons for cooperation failure is the opportunistic behavior. As the R&D contract between firms is inherently incomplete, opportunistic behavior always cannot be avoided in the collaborative process. R&D cooperation has been divided into horizontal and vertical types. This paper utilizes game theory to study opportunistic behavior in the vertical R&D cooperation and analyzes the equilibrium of the cooperation. Based on the equilibrium and numerical results, it is found that the vertical R&D cooperation is inherently unstable, and the downstream firm is more likely to break the agreement. The level of knowledge spillovers and the cost of R&D efforts have different effects on firms’ payoffs. When the level of knowledge spillover is low or the cost of R&D efforts is high, mechanisms such as punishment for opportunism may be more effective to guarantee the stability of cooperation.
The Entropy-Cost Function Evaluation Method for Unmanned Ground Vehicles
Authors: Zhao Ya-Nan , Meng Kai-Wen , Gao Li
Published: October 2015

To improve the technology of unmanned ground vehicles, it is necessary to conduct a proper evaluation on various technologies. Previous evaluation methods are mainly based on completion of the task; this may mislead most of teams of unmanned ground vehicles using a conservative strategy during the evaluation. In this paper, a new evaluation method is proposed. Based on typical working conditions including intersection, car-following, and obstacle-avoiding, the new evaluation indicator system is established, and the entropy-cost function method is applied to the comprehensive evaluation of unmanned ground vehicles. As reported in a numerical example, the proposed evaluation method can get a quantitative result that authentically reflects the intelligent behavior level of unmanned ground vehicles.
Scutellarin Reduces Endothelium Dysfunction through the PKG-I Pathway
Authors: Du Xiaohua , Chen Chen , Zhang Min , Cai Donghua , Sun Jiaqi , Yang Jian , Hu Na , Ma Congji , Zhang Liyan , Zhang Jun , Yang Weimin
Published: October 2015

Purpose. In this report, we investigated the protective mechanism of scutellarin (SCU)in vitroandin vivowhich could be involved in endothelial cGMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG), vasodilator stimulated phosphoprotein (VASP) pathway, and vascular endothelium dysfunction (EtD).Method. Human brain microvascular endothelial cells (HBMECs) with hypoxia reoxygenation (HR) treatment and rats with cerebral ischemia reperfusion (CIR) treatment were applied. Protein and mRNA expression of PKG, VASP, and p-VASP were evaluated by Western blot and RT-PCR methods. Vascular EtD was assessed by using wire myography to determine endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation in isolated rat basilar artery (BA).Result. In cultured HBMECs, SCU (0.1, 1, and 10 μM) increased cell viability, mRNA, protein level, and phosphorylative activity of PKG and VASP against HR injury. In HR model of BA, SCU increased protein level of P-VASP. In rat CIR model, wire myography demonstrated that SCU (45 and 90 mg/kg, i.v.) significantly reduced ischemic size by partially restoring the endothelium dependent vasodilation of BA; PKG inhibitor Rp-8-Br-cGMPS (50 μg/kg, i.v.) reversed this protection of SCU in CIR rats.Conclusion. SCU protects against cerebral vascular EtD through endothelial PKG pathway activation.
Experimental Study of Antiatherosclerosis Effects with Hederagenin in Rats
Authors: Lu Su-Hong , Guan Jian-Hua , Huang Yan-Li , Pan Yu-Wei , Yang Wei , Lan Hai , Huang Si , Hu Jing , Zhao Guo-Ping
Published: October 2015

The research tries to establish Wistar rat’s model of atherosclerosis for evaluating the antiatherosclerotic effect of hederagenin and exploring its antiatherosclerosis-related mechanisms. The statistical data have shown that hederagenin exhibits multiple pharmacological activities in the treatment of hyperlipidemia, antiplatelet aggregation, liver protection, and anti-inflammation, indicating that hederagenin may exert a protective effect on vascular walls by improving lipid metabolism disorders and lipid deposition. The results show that hederagenin can correct the imbalance of endothelial function by inhibiting the release of large amounts of iNOS and increasing eNOS contents and inhibits the IKKβ/NF-κB signaling pathway to reduce the release of IL-6, IFN-γ, TNF-α, and other inflammatory factors. The experimental results indicated that hederagenin can inhibit or ameliorate the pathological changes associated with AS, displaying an excellent preventive function against AS.
Biosynthesis of Extracellular Polymeric Substances by the Marine BacteriumSaccharophagus degradansunder Different Nutritional Conditions
Authors: González-García Yolanda , Heredia Alejandra , Meza-Contreras Juan Carlos , Escalante Froylán M. E. , Camacho-Ruiz Rosa María , Córdova Jesús
Published: October 2015

The effect of carbon source, carbon to nitrogen (C/N) ratio, and limitation in nutrients (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, and Fe) on extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) synthesis by the marine bacteriumSaccharophagus degradanswas studied. This strain was able to grow in mineral medium and produce EPS with different efficiency according to the C source used (g EPS/L): glucose or starch (1.5 ± 0.2); galactose, sucrose, or xylose (0.7 ± 0.2); and fructose (0.3 ± 0.1). The C/N ratio (glucose/ammonium) had a significant effect on EPS biosynthesis due to its production rise as the C/N ratio increased from 3 to 100 (0.7 to 2.1 g EPS/L). It was also observed that limitation in nutrients such as N, P, K, Ca, Mg, and Fe also favored EPS biosynthesis. When taking into account both factors (C/N ratio, 100; nutrients limitation, 50%) a positive synergistic effect was noted on EPS production since under these conditions the maximum concentration obtained was 4.12 ± 0.3 g/L after 72 h of culture. The polymer was found to be a polysaccharide of mainly glucose, mannose, and galactose. This is the first report on EPS production byS. degradanswhich is a new feature of this versatile marine bacterium.
Proteomic Analysis of Anticancer TCMs Targeted at Mitochondria
Authors: Wang Yang , Yu Ru-Yuan , He Qing-Yu
Published: October 2015

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a rich resource of anticancer drugs. Increasing bioactive natural compounds extracted from TCMs are known to exert significant antitumor effects, but the action mechanisms of TCMs are far from clear. Proteomics, a powerful platform to comprehensively profile drug-regulated proteins, has been widely applied to the mechanistic investigation of TCMs and the identification of drug targets. In this paper, we discuss several bioactive TCM products including terpenoids, flavonoids, and glycosides that were extensively investigated by proteomics to illustrate their antitumor mechanisms in various cancers. Interestingly, many of these natural compounds isolated from TCMs mostly exert their tumor-suppressing functions by specifically targeting mitochondria in cancer cells. These TCM components induce the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential, the release of cytochrome c, and the accumulation of ROS, initiating apoptosis cascade signaling. Proteomics provides systematic views that help to understand the molecular mechanisms of the TCM in tumor cells; it bears the inherent limitations in uncovering the drug-protein interactions, however. Subcellular fractionation may be coupled with proteomics to capture and identify target proteins in mitochondria-enriched lysates. Furthermore, translating mRNA analysis, a new technology profiling the drug-regulated genes in translatome level, may be integrated into the systematic investigation, revealing global information valuable for understanding the action mechanism of TCMs.
Image Fusion with Contrast Improving and Feature Preserving
Authors: Tseng Din-Chang , Liu Yu-Shuo , Chou Chang-Min
Published: October 2015

The goal of image fusion is to obtain a fused image that contains most significant information in all input images which were captured by different sensors from the same scene. In particular, the fusion process should improve the contrast and keep the integrity of significant features from input images. In this paper, we propose a region-based image fusion method to fuse spatially registered visible and infrared images while improving the contrast and preserving the significant features of input images. At first, the proposed method decomposes input images into base layers and detail layers using a bilateral filter. Then the base layers of the input images are segmented into regions. Third, a region-based decision map is proposed to represent the importance of every region. The decision map is obtained by calculating the weights of regions according to the gray-level difference between each region and its neighboring regions in the base layers. At last, the detail layers and the base layers are separately fused by different fusion rules based on the same decision map to generate a final fused image. Experimental results qualitatively and quantitatively demonstrate that the proposed method can improve the contrast of fused images and preserve more features of input images than several previous image fusion methods.
No Evidence for Retinal Damage Evolving from Reduced Retinal Blood Flow in Carotid Artery Disease
Authors: Heßler Henning , Zimmermann Hanna , Oberwahrenbrock Timm , Kadas Ella Maria , Mikolajczak Janine , Brandt Alexander U. , Kauert Andreas , Paul Friedemann , Schreiber Stephan J.
Published: October 2015

Introduction. Carotid artery disease (CAD) comprising high-grade internal carotid artery stenosis (CAS) or carotid artery occlusion (CAO) may lead to ipsilateral impaired cerebral blood flow and reduced retinal blood supply.Objective. To examine the influence of chronic CAD on retinal blood flow, retinal morphology, and visual function.Methods. Patients with unilateral CAS ≥ 50% (ECST criteria) or CAO were grouped according to the grade of the stenosis and to the flow direction of the ophthalmic artery (OA). Retinal perfusion was measured by transorbital duplex ultrasound, assessing central retinal artery (CRA) blood flow velocities. In addition, optic nerve and optic nerve sheath diameter were measured. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) was performed to study retinal morphology. Visual function was assessed using high- and low-contrast visual paradigms.Results. Twenty-seven patients were enrolled. Eyes with CAS ≥ 80%/CAO and retrograde OA blood flow showed a significant reduction in CRA peak systolic velocity (no-CAD side:0.130±0.035 m/s, CAS/CAO side:0.098±0.028;p=0.005;n=12). OCT, optic nerve thicknesses, and visual functional parameters did not show a significant difference.Conclusion. Despite assessable hemodynamic effects, chronic high-grade CAD does not lead to gaugeable morphological or functional changes of the retina.
New Insights about Treg and Th17 Cells in HIV Infection and Disease Progression
Authors: Valverde-Villegas Jacqueline María , Matte Maria Cristina Cotta , Medeiros Rúbia Marília de , Chies José Artur Bogo
Published: October 2015

Treg and Th17 cell subsets are characterized by the expression of specific transcriptional factors and chemokine receptor as well as by secretion of specific cytokine and chemokines. These subsets are important to the differentiation, expansion, homing capacity, and recruitment of several different immune cell populations to the site of infection. Whereas Treg cells maintain self-tolerance and control the activation and expansion of autoreactive CD4+T effector cells through an anti-inflammatory response, Th17 cells, in an exacerbated unregulated proinflammatory response, can promote autoimmunity. Despite such apparently opposite functions, Th17 and Treg cells share common characteristics, and their differentiation pathways are interconnected. Recent studies have revealed quite intricate relations between Treg and Th17 cells in HIV infection and progression to AIDS. Considering Treg cells, different subsets were already investigated in the context of HIV infection, indicating a fluctuation in the total number and frequency throughout the disease course. This review focuses on the recent findings regarding the role of regulatory T and Th17 cells in the context of HIV infection, highlighting the importance of the balance between these two subsets on disease progression.
Ensemble Merit Merge Feature Selection for Enhanced Multinomial Classification in Alzheimer’s Dementia
Authors: Sivapriya T. R. , Kamal A. R. Nadira Banu , Thangaiah P. Ranjit Jeba
Published: October 2015

The objective of this study is to develop an ensemble classifier with Merit Merge feature selection that will enhance efficiency of classification in a multivariate multiclass medical data for effective disease diagnostics. The large volumes of features extracted from brain Magnetic Resonance Images and neuropsychological tests for diagnosis lead to more complexity in classification procedures. A higher level of objectivity than what readers have is needed to produce reliable dementia diagnostic techniques. Ensemble approach which is trained with features selected from multiple biomarkers facilitated accurate classification when compared with conventional classification techniques. Ensemble approach for feature selection is experimented with classifiers like Naïve Bayes, Random forest, Support Vector Machine, and C4.5. Feature search is done with Particle Swarm Optimisation to retrieve the subset of features for further selection with the ensemble classifier. Features selected by the proposed C4.5 ensemble classifier with Particle Swarm Optimisation search, coupled with Merit Merge technique (CPEMM), outperformed bagging feature selection of SVM, NB, and Random forest classifiers. The proposed CPEMM feature selection found the best subset of features that efficiently discriminated normal individuals and patients affected with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Dementia with 98.7% accuracy.