bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Linking skeletal muscle blood flow and metabolism to the limits of human performance
Authors: Boushel Robert
Published: September 2016

Over the last 50 years, Bengt Saltin’s contributions to our understanding of physiology of the circulation, the matching of the circulation to muscle metabolism, and the underlying mechanisms that set the limits for exercise performance were enormous. His research addressed the key questions in the field using sophisticated experimental methods including field expeditions. From the Dallas Bedrest Study to the 1-leg knee model to the physiology of lifelong training, his prodigious body of work was foundational in the field of exercise physiology and his leadership propelled integrative human physiology into the mainstream of biological sciences.
Limited effects of non-native trout on microcrustacean zooplankton in boreal foothills lakes: comparisons of stocked, unstocked, and fishless lakes
Authors: Holmes Teslin G. , Tonn William M. , Paszkowski Cynthia A. , Scrimgeour Garry J.
Published: September 2016

Stocking lakes with trout can have strong effects on native communities; however, the nature of impacts is not universal across receiving ecosystems. To assess effects of non-native trout, relative to native small-bodied fish, on microcrustacean zooplankton, we compared stocked, unstocked (but fish-bearing), and fishless lakes in the boreal foothills of Alberta, Canada. Relative to unstocked lakes, stocked lakes had greater richness, but otherwise showed few additional effects on microcrustacean communities. In contrast, fishless lakes supported lower abundances of Cladocera, Calanoida, and Cyclopoida, but were dominated by larger cladoceran and calanoid taxa, compared with fish-bearing lakes (stocked and unstocked). Vertical distributions also differed significantly among lake types; microcrustaceans had far higher relative abundances at 1 m than at 2 m in fishless lakes compared with fish-bearing lakes (distributions in stocked and unstocked lakes were similar). Microcrustacean communities in fishless lakes were likely shaped by the invertebrate planktivore Chaoborus, which was abundant in these systems, whereas native fishes likely structured microcrustacean communities prior to trout introductions, with planktivory by trout causing few additional effects.
Predicting white spruce cone crops in the boreal forests of southern and central Yukon
Authors: Krebs C.J. , O’Donoghue M. , Taylor Shawn , Kenney A.J. , Hofer E.J. , Boutin S.
Published: September 2016

White spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) cone crops were measured at five regional centers in southern and central Yukon for 30 years at one site from 1986 to 2015 and at four other sites during 9 to 11 years to select the best climatic model that uses cues from growing season temperature and rainfall to predict the size of cone crops. We evaluated six climatic models that use summer temperature and rainfall of years t – 1 and t – 2 to predict cone crops in year t. July temperatures provided the best predictors of white spruce cone crops, and no rainfall variable was related to the size of cone crops. We explored three variants of July temperatures: mean temperature, degree-days > 5 °C, and maximum temperatures. For each of these, we used the ΔT model that uses the difference in the July temperature measures of years t – 1 and t – 2. We compared the resulting six models with corrected Akaike’s information criterion (AICc) to determine their relative predictive performance. The best model combined ΔT measures of degree-days > 5 °C and the four highest daily maximum July temperatures with R2= 0.65. By comparison, the ΔT model involving only mean July temperatures was less successful (R2= 0.49). There was good regional synchrony (rp= 0.7 to 0.8) in high cone crops over southern and central Yukon during 1986 to 2015.
On Generating High-Quality Random Numbers
Authors: Saqib Nazar Abbas , Zia Muhammad , Mahmood Hasan , Khan Muazzam A.
Published: September 2016

Random numbers are highly used in applications like computer simulation, gambling, statistical sampling and cryptography. Only a high-entropy random source can produce a better quality of random data. In this paper, we work on the generation of high-quality random numbers based on cellular automata (CA). We propose three-dimensional (3D) CA to generate a random sequence. We also propose various enhancements to CA-based pseudorandom number generator (CA-PRNG) and discuss its five variants by using two-dimensional (2D) and 3D CA. We analyze the switching between 2D and 3D CA for the same sequence to achieve high-quality randomness. We provide the architectures, CA rules and the algorithms for all the proposed variants with respect to 2D and 3D cell structures. We have done a software implementation of all the proposed variants and tested their produced sequences by using the internationally accepted standard for random numbers known as DIEHARD. The analysis of our results is made as per the recommendations of ANSI standards. A very similar criteria are applied to compare all the methods. Based on our results we are able to find the best CA-PRNG for producing high-quality random sequence.
Simulations of a logistic-type model with delays for Chagas disease with insecticide spraying
Authors: Al-Asuoad Nofe , Pleasant Tyler , Shillor Meir , Munugala Hrishikesh , Coffield Daniel J. , Spagnuolo Anna Maria
Published: September 2016

This work studies and numerically simulates a logistic-type model for the dynamics of Chagas disease, which is caused by the parasite T. cruzi and affects millions of humans and domestic mammals throughout rural areas in Central and South America. A basic model for the disease dynamics that includes insecticide spraying was developed in Spagnuolo et al. (2010) [27] and consists of a delay-differential equation for the vectors and three nonlinear ordinary differential equations for the populations of the infected vectors, infected humans and infected domestic mammals. In this work, the vector equation is modified by using a logistic term with zero, one or two delays or time lags. The aim of this study is three-fold: to numerically study the effects of using different numbers of delays on the model behavior; to find if twice yearly insecticide spraying schedules improve vector control; and to study the sensitivity of the system to the delays in the case of two delays, by introducing randomness in the delays. It is found that the vector equation with different number of delays has very different solutions. The “best” day of spraying is the middle of Spring and twice annual sprayings cause only minor improvements in disease control. Finally, the model is found to be insensitive to the values of the delays, when the delays are randomly distributed within rather narrow intervals or ranges centered on the parameter values used in Coffield et al. (2014) [8].
Diagnosis of blood cancer using Markov chain Monte Carlo trace model
Authors: Vaikundamoorthy K.
Published: September 2016

Maximum probability of existence of cancer in human bodies is normally diagnosed very late, so that it is highly cumbersome for physicians to cure. Reliability in predicting cancer at initial stage is always needed, so that curing and medical recovery is possible. In this paper, an investigation was made to diagnose the presence of blood cancer using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) trace model, which is most efficient on a wide range of complex Bayesian statistical models. The analysis was carried out using version 18 of SPSS AMOS software. Totally, 19 components were considered from the blood samples of 750 patients. Various factors such as class, age, lymphatics, block of affarc, block of lymph c, block of lymph s, bypass, extravasate, regeneration of, early uptake in, lym nodes dimin, lym nodes enlar, change in lym, defect in node, changes in node, changes in strue special forms, dislocation, exclusion of node, number of nodes in blood cancer are analyzed. The maximum likelihood estimators of the parameters were derived and assessed their performance through a Monte Carlo simulation study. The convergence in prior distribution and posterior distribution takes irregular position in the diagrams and thus blood cancer is diagnosed through this model.
Monte Carlo and phantom study in the brain edema models
Authors: Liu Yubing , Wang Hongke , Liu Yangyang , Li Weitao , Qian Zhiyu
Published: September 2016

Because the brain edema has a crucial impact on morbidity and mortality, it is important to develop a noninvasive method to monitor the process of the brain edema effectively. When the brain edema occurs, the optical properties of the brain will change. The goal of this study is to access the feasibility and reliability of using noninvasive near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) monitoring method to measure the brain edema. Specifically, three models, including the water content changes in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), gray matter and white matter, were explored. Moreover, these models were numerically simulated by the Monte Carlo studies. Then, the phantom experiments were performed to investigate the light intensity which was measured at different detecting radius on the tissue surface. The results indicated that the light intensity correlated well with the conditions of the brain edema and the detecting radius. Briefly, at the detecting radius of 3.0[Formula: see text]cm and 4.0[Formula: see text]cm, the light intensity has a high response to the change of tissue parameters and optical properties. Thus, it is possible to monitor the brain edema noninvasively by NIRS method and the light intensity is a reliable and simple parameter to assess the brain edema.
An early discharge approach for managing hospital capacity
Authors: Mohamed Israa , El-Henawy Ibrahim , El-Din Ramadan Zean
Published: September 2016

The Kidney and Oncology Departments at Zagazig University Hospital are suffering from increased demand and limited capacity. Arrival patients who find all beds occupied are simply turned away, i.e., no waiting is allowed. This paper investigates the impact of an early discharge approach that can be applied to patients that have been scheduled to discharge within 5 h. A discrete event simulation (DES) model is built using empirical distributions based on real data. The model has been validated against real data and the results have shown that the proposed early discharge approach can reduce the number of turned away patients by 10% in the Kidney Department, equivalent to 182 patients annually and by 11% in the Oncology Department, equivalent to 150 patients annually.
G20 Institutionalization: From Crisis-Management to Long-Term Global Governance
Authors: Lei Wang , Rui Wang
Published: September 2016

Since its establishment, the Group of Twenty (G20) has undergone three phases of institutional transition: from an informal forum among finance ministers and governors of central banks at the beginning, to a crisis-management mechanism mainly to cope with the global financial crisis, and increasingly to a long-term platform for global governance in recent years. With increasing representation and mandates, the G20 has been playing a key role in forging high-level consensuses and coordinating policies and actions among major economies so as to keep the world economy and development on track. Faced by the many challenges within itself and from the changing dynamics of the world economy and development, the G20 has to improve its cooperative spirit, representativeness and effectiveness before it can become a full-fledged institution for global governance.
Contention-Aware Workload Placement for In-Memory Databases in Cloud Environments
Authors: Molka Karsten , Casale Giuliano
Published: September 2016

Big data processing is driven by new types of in-memory database systems. In this article, we apply performance modeling to efficiently optimize workload placement for such systems. In particular, we propose novel response time approximations for in-memory databases based on fork-join queuing models and contention probabilities to model variable threading levels and per-class memory occupation under analytical workloads. We combine these approximations with a nonlinear optimization methodology that seeks optimal load dispatching probabilities in order to minimize memory swapping and resource utilization. We compare our approach with state-of-the-art response time approximations using real data from an SAP HANA in-memory system and show that our models markedly improve accuracy over existing approaches, at similar computational costs.
2-Server PIR with Subpolynomial Communication
Authors: Dvir Zeev , Gopi Sivakanth
Published: September 2016

A 2-server Private Information Retrieval (PIR) scheme allows a user to retrieve the
i
th bit of an
n
-bit database replicated among two noncommunicating servers, while not revealing any information about
i
to either server. In this work, we construct a 2-server PIR scheme with total communication cost

n
O

(√log / log
n
log
n
). This improves over current 2-server protocols, which all require Ω(
n
1/3
) communication. Our construction circumvents the
n
1/3
barrier of Razborov and Yekhanin [2007], which holds for the restricted model of bilinear group-based schemes (covering all previous 2-server schemes). The improvement comes from reducing the number of servers in existing protocols, based on Matching Vector Codes, from 3 or 4 servers to 2. This is achieved by viewing these protocols in an algebraic way (using polynomial interpolation) and extending them using partial derivatives.
Smoothed Analysis of the 2-Opt Algorithm for the General TSP
Authors: Englert Matthias , Röglin Heiko , Vöcking Berthold
Published: September 2016

2-Opt is a simple local search heuristic for the traveling salesperson problem that performs very well in experiments with respect to both running time and solution quality. In contrast to this, there are instances on which 2-Opt may need an exponential number of steps to reach a local optimum. To understand why 2-Opt usually finds local optima quickly in experiments, we study its expected running time in the model of smoothed analysis, which can be considered as a less-pessimistic variant of worst-case analysis in which the adversarial input is subject to a small amount of random noise.

In our probabilistic input model, an adversary chooses an arbitrary graph
G
and a probability density function for each edge according to which its length is chosen. We prove that in this model the expected number of local improvements is
O
(mnϕ ċ 16

√ln
m

)=
m

1+
o
(1)

nϕ
, where
n
and
m
denote the number of vertices and edges of
G
, respectively, and ϕ denotes an upper bound on the density functions.
Serelaxin improves the pathophysiology of placental ischemia in the reduced uterine perfusion pressure rat model of preeclampsia
Authors: Santiago-Font Jose A. , Amaral Lorena M. , Faulkner Jessica , Ibrahim Tarek , Vaka Venkata Ramana , Cunningham Mark W. , LaMarca Babbette
Published: September 2016

Preeclampsia is a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy that has limited therapeutic options. In healthy pregnancy, relaxin plays an important vasodilatory role to maintain vascular compliance; however, currently, there is no preclinical evidence to support the use of relaxin during preeclampsia. Therefore, the goal of this study was to test the hypothesis that recombinant human relaxin-2 (Serelaxin, Novartis; RLX) could reduce mean arterial pressure (MAP) and improve uterine artery resistance index (UARI) and nitric oxide bioavailability, and/or decrease prepro-endothelin-1 (PPET-1), soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt-1), and TNF-α) in the reduced uterine perfusion pressure (RUPP) model of preeclampsia. On day 14 of gestation (GD14), pregnant rats were assigned to normal pregnant (NP), RUPP, RUPP+RLX, or NP+RLX groups. Treated rats received RLX at 0.4 μg/h or RLX2 4 μg/h RLX via minipump implanted on GD14. On GD18, carotid arterial catheters were inserted, and on GD19, MAP and tissues were collected. MAP was increased in RUPP rats compared with NP but was lowered with either dose of RLX. UARI and sFlt-1 were significantly improved in both treated RUPP groups. Total circulating nitrate-nitrite improved and placental PPET-1 and TNF-α were significantly decreased with the higher dose of RLX. Renal cortex PPET-1 was reduced with both doses of RLX. In conclusion, Serelaxin improved blood pressure, sFlt-1, TNF-α, UARI, and nitric oxide bioavailability and PPET-1 in a rat model of preeclampsia, thereby suggesting a potential therapeutic role for RLX in maintaining maternal health and prolonging pregnancy in the face of placental ischemia.
Diet-Related Knowledge and Physical Activity in a Large Cohort of Insulin-Treated Type 2 Diabetes Patients: PROGENS ARENA Study
Authors: Klupa Tomasz , Możdżan Michał , Kokoszka-Paszkot Janina , Kubik Magdalena , Masierek Małgorzata , Czerwińska Margerita , Małecki Maciej T.
Published: September 2016

There is no doubt that behavioral intervention is crucial for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) prevention and management. We aimed to estimate dietary habits and diet-oriented knowledge as well as the level of physical activity in 2500 insulin-treated Polish type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients (55.4% women). The mean age of the study participants was 64.9 ± 9.3 years, mean BMI was 31.4 kg/m2± 4.5, mean diabetes duration was 12.4 ± 6.9 years, and mean baseline HbA1c was 8.5%  ± 1.2. At the study onset, all the patients completed a questionnaire concerning health-oriented behavior. Results showed a significant lack of diet-related knowledge. For example, only 37.5% recognized that buckwheat contains carbohydrates; the percentage of correct answers in questions about fruit drinks and pasta was 56.4% and 61.2%, respectively. As for the physical activity, only 57.4% of examined T2DM patients declared any form of deliberate physical activity. To conclude, the cohort of poorly controlled insulin-treated T2DM patients studied by us is characterized by insufficient diet-related knowledge and by a very low level of physical activity. Further studies on other populations of insulin-treated T2DM patients are required to confirm these findings.
PCR-Based Identification of Oral Streptococcal Species
Authors: Banas Jeffrey A. , Zhu Min , Dawson Deborah V. , Cao Huojun , Levy Steven M.
Published: September 2016

The microbial etiology of dental caries is still debated. Among the hypothesized contributors are the “low pH streptococci,” a designation given to unusually acid proficient strains among the primary plaque colonizersS. oralis,S. mitis,S. gordonii, andS. anginosus. However, accurate assignment of species is difficult among the oral streptococci. Our objective was to develop a streamlined method for identifying strains ofS. oralisandS. mitisfrom plaque samples so that they could be analyzed in a separate study devoted to low pH streptococci and caries. Two independent PCR amplifications of a locus highly conserved among streptococci were used for presumptive species identification. Multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA) was used to measure accuracy. Sensitivity was 100% for selectingS. oralisandS. mitisamong the clones sampled. Specificity was good except for the most closely related species that could not be reliably distinguished even by MLSA. The results withS. oralisandS. mitiswere used to identify new primer sets that expanded the utility of the approach to other oral streptococcal species. These novel primer sets offer a convenient means of presumptive identification that will have utility in many studies where large scale, in-depth genomic analyses are not practical.
Hippocampography Guides Consistent Mesial Resections in Neocortical Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
Authors: Ng Marcus C. , Kilbride Ronan , Simon Mirela , Eskandar Emad , Cole Andrew J.
Published: September 2016

Background. The optimal surgery in lesional neocortical temporal lobe epilepsy is unknown. Hippocampal electrocorticography maximizes seizure freedom by identifying normal-appearing epileptogenic tissue for resection and minimizes neuropsychological deficit by limiting resection to demonstrably epileptogenic tissue. We examined whether standardized hippocampal electrocorticography (hippocampography) guides resection for more consistent hippocampectomy than unguided resection in conventional electrocorticography focused on the lesion. Methods. Retrospective chart reviews any kind of electrocorticography (including hippocampography) as part of combined lesionectomy, anterolateral temporal lobectomy, and hippocampectomy over 8 years . Patients were divided into mesial (i.e., hippocampography) and lateral electrocorticography groups. Primary outcome was deviation from mean hippocampectomy length. Results. Of 26 patients, fourteen underwent hippocampography-guided mesial temporal resection. Hippocampography was associated with 2.6 times more consistent resection. The range of hippocampal resection was 0.7 cm in the mesial group and 1.8 cm in the lateral group (p=0.01). 86% of mesial group versus 42% of lateral group patients achieved seizure freedom (p=0.02). Conclusions. By rationally tailoring excision to demonstrably epileptogenic tissue, hippocampography significantly reduces resection variability for more consistent hippocampectomy than unguided resection in conventional electrocorticography. More consistent hippocampal resection may avoid overresection, which poses greater neuropsychological risk, and underresection, which jeopardizes postoperative seizure freedom.