bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Highly Effective Activated Carbons from Turkish–Kozlu Bituminous Coal by Physical and KOH Activation and Sorption Studies with Organic Vapors
Authors: Oguz Erdogan Fatma , Kopac Turkan
Published: July 2018

Activated carbons were produced from coal by activations applying physical and chemical (with KOH) treatments for adsorption of selected organic vapors. Physical activations were carried out at 400–900°C under N2/CO2 flow. The effects of different variables such as carbonization temperature and flow rate on the final porous texture were investigated. Chemical activation gave more effective results in terms of both porosity development and adsorption capacity. Pore characterization of carbon samples was evaluated with the observation of N2 adsorption-desorption isotherms at 77 K. The adsorption of isopropyl alcohol, acetone and ethyl alcohol on the coal derived activated carbons were determined by a volumetric technique at room temperature. The highest surface area was obtained as 1904 m2/g by KOH treatment at 800°C. The adsorption isotherm data of the selected organic vapors on carbon samples were compared with the BET, Langmuir, Freundlich, Dubinin-Radushkevich, Dubinin-Astakhov, Harkins-Jura, Henderson, Halsey and Smith adsorption models. Adsorption capacities of organic vapors for carbon samples were related with the development of surface area. Among the four chemically activated carbons produced K1_K_600, K1_K_700 and K1_K_800 showed better isopropyl alcohol and acetone adsorption than the commercial activated carbon. K1_K_700 and K1_K_800 samples showed better ethyl alcohol adsorption. Isopropyl alcohol, acetone and ethyl alcohol adsorption capacities of the obtained sample that had the maximum surface area were determined as 39.7, 44 and 43.5 %, respectively. Results indicate that activated carbons prepared with KOH at 600–800°C could be effectively used for the adsorption of organic vapors.
Existence and Multiple Solutions for Higher Order Difference Dirichlet Boundary Value Problems
Authors: Yang Lianwu
Published: July 2018

In this paper, a higher order nonlinear difference equation is considered. By using the critical point theory, we obtain the existence and multiplicity for solutions of difference Dirichlet boundary value problems and give some new results. The proof is based on the variational methods and linking theorem.
Interactions between type of form-focused instruction, type of morphosyntactic form, and type of language knowledge
Authors: Ghorbani Majid
Published: July 2018

Although claims about the nature of EFL/ESL learners’ knowledge (i. e., implicit and/or explicit) are essential to many debates in foreign/second language development, few studies have sought to evaluate the effects of linguistic and/or contextual variables on the two knowledge types. This study, accordingly, undertook to examine the effects of different explicit and implicit types of form-focused instruction (FFI) on the acquisition of four easy and difficult forms as assessed by different implicit and explicit outcome measures. The instruments utilized to assess students’ learning were: oral elicited imitation, untimed and timed grammaticality judgment, and metalinguistic knowledge tests. A pretest and two posttests were administered to 150 novice learners immediately after FFI and again after a 4-week delay. Immediate and durable effects of FFI were found for the easy and difficult target forms on both implicit and explicit knowledge measures. Specifically, the study indicated that explicit and implicit types of FFI were significantly more beneficial for explicitly-easy and implicitly-easy language forms respectively. The findings of this study may contribute a different set of insights to our understanding of the efficacy of varying types of FFI on learners’ controlled and/or spontaneous use of easy and difficult structures at early stages of L2 development.
Collaborative dialogue: opportunities and challenges in vocabulary acquisition and retention of threshold EFL learners
Authors: Ahmadian Moussa , Tajabadi Azar
Published: July 2018

Belonging to the interactionist perspective, the collaborative dialogue is a technique which engages learners in joint problem-solving and knowledge building. With the aim of investigating the link between this technique and vocabulary acquisition and retention, this study was conducted with 18 threshold English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners who were randomly chosen and put in 6 groups. They were given 6 lexical-focused tasks to be completed collaboratively and their interaction was audio-recorded. The instances of lexical-based language-related episodes (LREs) were identified in the transcribed dialogues and their outcomes were coded as “correctly resolved”, “incorrectly resolved”, and “unresolved”. The frequency of the LREs was computed; it was found that the learners were able to solve the lexical problems they encountered to a very large extent. Furthermore, the analysis of LREs and the comparison of posttest and delayed posttest scores provided convincing evidence of a link between the outcomes of LREs and the learners’ vocabulary acquisition and retention, suggesting that “correctly resolved” LREs resulted in learning and retaining the target words, while “unresolved” LREs led to non-significant learning and “incorrectly resolved” LREs led to learning the wrong meaning of the vocabulary items. The findings along with the opportunities and challenges of collaborative dialogue are discussed and possible implications for language teaching are explained.
Digital twin technology – An approach for Industrie 4.0 vertical and horizontal lifecycle integration
Authors: Anderl Reiner , Haag Sebastian , Schützer Klaus , Zancul Eduardo
Published: July 2018

Digital Twin technology is increasingly gaining importance for digitizing industry. Even if digital twin technology still needs fundamental research, its significance for industry has become very visible, as digital twin technology is a key success factor to professionalize Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) applications. Industrie 4.0 as an initiative to increase industrial added value is based on establishing connectivity between CPS and to enable communication between CPS. The industrial application scenarios for Industrie 4.0 aim at vertical and horizontal lifecycle integration concepts where digital twin technology plays an important role. This contribution explains major concepts of Industrie 4.0 and derives the role of digital twin technology. Furthermore, digital twin approaches are presented and as well as the proposal to use the STEP-technology (Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data, ISO 10303) as a fundamental basis for a comprehensive digital twin technology.
A One-Pass Approach for Slope and Slant Estimation of Tri-Script Handwritten Words
Authors: Bera Suman Kumar , Kar Radib , Saha Souvik , Chakrabarty Akash , Lahiri Sagnik , Malakar Samir , Sarkar Ram
Published: July 2018

Handwritten words can never complement printed words because the former are mostly written in either skewed or slanted form or in both. This very nature of handwriting adds a huge overhead when converting word images into machine-editable format through an optical character recognition system. Therefore, slope and slant corrections are considered as the fundamental pre-processing tasks in handwritten word recognition. For solving this, researchers have followed a two-pass approach where the slope of the word is corrected first and then slant correction is carried out subsequently, thus making the system computationally expensive. To address this issue, we propose a novel one-pass method, based on fitting an oblique ellipse over the word images, to estimate both the slope and slant angles of the same. Furthermore, we have developed three databases considering word images of three popular scripts used in India, namely Bangla, Devanagari, and Roman, along with ground truth information. The experimental results revealed the effectiveness of the proposed method over some state-of-the-art methods used for the aforementioned problem.
Estimation of Signal-to-Cross Talk Ratio of Stimulated-Raman-Scattering-Induced Cross Talk in Wavelength-Division-Multiplexing-Based Radio-over-Fiber Links
Authors: Singh Kuldeep , Arya Sandeep K.
Published: July 2018

This paper evaluates the signal-to-cross talk ratio (SXR) of cross talk induced by stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) in radio-over-fiber (RoF) systems based on wavelength-division multiplexing. The reported study has modeled the relations of SXR to modulation frequency, optical power, transmission length, and effective area of fiber for various values of the walk-off parameter. The summary of experimental results reveals that SXR decreases with increases in channel input power and transmission distance and increased with increases in fiber effective area and modulation frequency. Results showed that increasing the walk-off parameter from 13.6 to 81.6 ps/km increased the SXR by almost 6 dBm. Furthermore, various fibers, including standard single-mode fiber (SMF), Corning LEAF, and Alcatel TeraLight were tested for their capacity to mitigate SRS-induced cross talk. These tests demonstrated that standard SMF suppressed SRS cross talk effectively and offered values of SXR 3 dBm and 6 dBm higher than the values exhibited by Alcatel TeraLight and Corning LEAF, respectively.
Detection of distant metastasis at the time of ablation in children with differentiated thyroid cancer: the value of pre-ablation stimulated thyroglobulin
Authors: Liu Lina , Huang Fang , Liu Bin , Huang Rui
Published: July 2018

Background

The present study was designed to determine the value of pre-ablation stimulated thyroglobulin (s-Tg) in predicting distant metastasis (DM) at the time of ablation in children with differentiated thyroid cancer.

Methods

From August 2009 to December 2016, consecutive children with differentiated thyroid cancer undergoing remnant ablation were retrospectively analyzed. Serum s-Tg was measured with the high-sensitive electrochemiluminescence immunoassay during hypothyroidism at ablation just before the ablative radioactive iodine (131I) administration. Post-ablation, whole body planar scintigraphy was obtained 5 days after administration of ablation activity of 131I. Single photon emission computed tomography/low-dose computed tomography (SPECT/CT) was added for children whose planar findings were inconclusive. Receiver-operating characteristics (ROC) curve analysis was employed to find a cut-off level of pre-ablation s-Tg as a predictor of DM at the time of ablation.

Results

Fifty-seven children were included for the analysis. Metastases were noticed on post-ablation scintigraphy in 20 (35%) children: five post-operative residual neck lymph node metastases, four post-operative residual neck lymph node and lung metastases, three mediastinal lymph node and lung metastases and eight lung metastases. A significant difference in pre-ablation s-Tg levels was found in children with DM compared with those without DM, 603.5 vs. 5.7 ng/mL, respectively. A pre-ablation s-Tg level of 156 ng/mL was established as the optimal cut-off point to predict DM.

Conclusions

This study demonstrated that pre-ablation s-Tg could potentially act as a predictor of DM at the time of ablation in children with differentiated thyroid cancer. We also propose a specific pre-ablation s-Tg cut-off value of 156 ng/mL as an optimal threshold for practical use.
Self-assessment of pubertal development in a puberty cohort
Authors: Ernst Andreas , Lauridsen Lea Lykke B. , Brix Nis , Kjersgaard Camilla , Olsen Jørn , Parner Erik T. , Clausen Niels , Olsen Lars Henning , Ramlau-Hansen Cecilia H.
Published: July 2018

Background

We evaluated the inter-rater agreement between self-assessed Tanner staging and clinical examination and the intra-individual agreement of self-assessed information on various puberty markers in late adolescents from the longitudinal nationwide Puberty Cohort, a sub-cohort of the Danish National Birth Cohort (DNBC).

Methods

We invited 715 children from the ongoing Puberty Cohort between June 2016 and January 2017. In total, 366 children (51%) returned an add-on questionnaire identical to the questionnaire used to collect information on puberty markers, including Tanner staging, in the Puberty Cohort. Of these, 197 (54%) also participated in a clinical examination with Tanner staging. We used percentage agreement and weighted kappa statistics to evaluate the inter-rater and intra-individual agreement.

Results

Due to late entry, more than 75% of children were Tanner stage 4 or above at clinical examination. In girls, the inter-rater agreement for pubic hair and breast staging was 54% and 52%, respectively, yielding weighted kappas of fair strength. In boys, pubic hair and genital staging agreed in 55% and 33%, respectively, corresponding to weighted kappas of fair to moderate strength. Boys tended to underestimate genitalia staging consistently. The intra-individual agreement on Tanner staging was 75–77% in girls and 69% in boys, whereas the intra-individual agreement on axillary hair and acne was above 92%.

Conclusions

Self-assessment of late stages of pubertal development may be misclassified, leading to random errors in studies of puberty timing. However, self-assessment continues to serve as an important time- and cost-saving tool in large prospective puberty cohorts.
Thromboprophylaxis in pregnant women with thrombophilia and a history of thrombosis
Authors: Akinshina Svetlana , Makatsariya Alexander , Bitsadze Victoria , Khizroeva Jamilya , Khamani Nadine
Published: July 2018

Background

Despite intensive research, thromboembolism still accounts for significant maternal morbidity and mortality. We examined thrombophilia in patients with thromboembolism during pregnancy and evaluated the efficiency of antithrombotic prophylaxis in patients with thrombophilia for the prevention of recurrent thromboembolism.

Materials and methods

Sixty-eight women with a history of thromboembolism were managed during pregnancy, in light of their thrombotic history and the result of thrombophilia assessment. Group I (n=50) received prophylaxis with low molecular weight heparin (LMWH)±aspirin (50–100 mg/day) in preconception period or from the 1st trimester, during pregnancy and at least 6 weeks postpartum. Group II (n=18) received LMWH±aspirin from the II to III trimester.

Results

Thromboses were associated with pregnancy in 27 patients (39.7%), with systemic diseases – in nine (13.2%), oral contraceptives use – 22 (32.3%), immobilization due to surgery and/or trauma, long flight – six (8.9%), septic complications – two (2.9%). Nevertheless, 24.5% of patients had no apparent provoking factor for the development of thrombotic complications. Thirty-seven (54%) patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE) had familial history of VTE, and 25 (36.7%) had personal history of pregnancy complications (fetal loss syndrome, preeclampsia and placental abruption) (P<0.05 vs. control). Thrombophilia was detected in 58 (85.3%). Usual thrombogenic polymorphisms [factor V (FV) Leiden and prothrombin G20210A, heterozygous forms] were revealed in 16 (23.5%) and eight (11.7%) patients, respectively. Antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) circulation was found in 34 (50%) patients. Non-usual thrombogenic polymorphisms were identified in 44 (64.7%) of the women and hyperhomocysteinemia – in 30 (44.2%). In group I no one had severe obstetric complications. All the patients were delivered at term and all the babies were alive. In group II moderate-to-severe obstetric complications were noted: preeclampsia – in 11 (16.2%), severe preeclampsia – seven (10.3%), preterm delivery – in 18 (26.4%) patients from subgroup II (P<0.05).

Conclusions

Women with a personal or a family history of thromboembolism and obstetric complications should be screened for thrombophilia. Beginning anticoagulant therapy early in such patients is effective not only for preventing recurring thrombosis but also preventing obstetric complications. Late prophylaxis after the completion of the trophoblast invasion therapy is much less effective.
New localities, an update on the conservation status and ethnographic notes for the dingiso tree kangaroo, Dendrolagus mbaiso Flannery, Boeadi et Szalay (Diprotodontia: Macropodidae)
Authors: Wild Michael , Balke Michael
Published: July 2018

Dendrolagus mbaiso is a very rare tree kangaroo (Macropodidae) that was previously only known from the high mountain moss forests of the southern and western slopes of the Sudirman Range of the Snow Mountains in Papua. Here, a northern range extension of D. mbaiso is reported from within the traditional area of the Wano people. It was found on elevations from 1500 m to 3600 m. We also provide ethnographic notes from the Wano people, notes on the sympatric occurrence of D. mbaiso with Dendrolagus dorianus and observations on the variation of the fur color.
Metal silicates: efficient catalysts for the three-component preparation of 2-amino-5-oxo-4-aryl-4,5-dihydroindeno[1,2-b]pyran-3-carbonitrile derivatives
Authors: Fazlinia Abbas , Sheikh Setareh
Published: July 2018

A highly efficient catalytic preparation of 2-amino-5-oxo-4-aryl-4,5-dihydroindeno[1,2-b]pyran-3-carbonitrile derivatives using different metal silicates was developed through a three-component reaction of malononitrile, aromatic aldehydes, and 1,3-indandione in high yields.
Crystal structure of ethyl 4-(3-cyanophenyl)-2,7,7-trimethyl-5-oxo-1,4,5,6,7,8-hexahydroquinoline-3-carboxylate, C22H24N2O3
Authors: Song Ji-Dong , Wang Li-Li
Published: July 2018

C22H24N2O3, orthorhombic, Pbca (no. 61), a = 15.333(11) Å, b = 14.146(11) Å, c = 17.640(13) Å, V = 3826(5) Å3, Z = 8, R
gt(F) = 0.0533, wR
ref(F
2) = 0.1431, T = 296 K.
Crystal structure of 1,4-bis(benzo[d][1,3]dioxol-5-ylmethyl)dihydro-1H,3H-furo[3,4-c]furan-3a(4H)-yl acetate, C22H20O8
Authors: Deng Rui , Zhao Chen-Liang , Ye Jiang-Hai , Liu Ya-Hua , Zou Juan , Pan Lu-Tai
Published: July 2018

C22H20O8, monoclinic, P21 (no. 4), a = 7.5482(10) Å, b = 7.0055(9) Å, c = 18.245(3) Å, β = 101.709(4)°, V = 944.7(2) Å3, Z = 2, R
gt(F) = 0.0444, wR
ref(F
2) = 0.1199, T = 293(2) K.
Risk assessment
Authors: Kušić H. , Lončarić Božić A.
Published: July 2018

The chapter introduces risk assessment and examines the basic concepts of risk and hazard, their causes, consequences and probabilities. The methodology of environmental risk assessment including effect assessment, exposure assessment and risk estimation/characterisation is overviewed. Application of risk assessment for chemicals is described with regard to human health and the environment. Some of the commonly used techniques in risk assessments are introduced and illustrated by examples. Environmental risk assessment should provide input to the risk management so well-informed decisions can be made, to protect human health and the environment.
Polyoxometalate catalysts for biomass dissolution: understanding and design
Authors: Kelley Steven P. , Berton Paula , Metlen Andreas† , Rogers Robin D.
Published: July 2018

The use of polyoxometalate catalysts for selective delignification of biomass presents a possible route toward using ionic liquids (ILs) to efficiently obtain high-molecular weight biopolymers from biomass. Rapid progress in this area will depend on recognizing and using the link with already well-developed inorganic chemistry in ILs pursued outside the field of biomass processing. Here, we use crystal structures determined from single crystal X-ray diffraction to better understand the behavior of [PV2Mo10O40]5-, a polyoxometalate catalyst known for its ability to promote selective delignification of biomass in the IL 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([C2mim][OAc]). The crystal structure of [C2mim]5[PV2Mo10O40]·THF shows the formation of cationic shells around the anions which are likely representative of the interactions of this catalyst with [C2mim][OAc] itself. The reaction of NH4VO3 with [C2mim][OAc] is explored to better understand the chemistry of vanadium(V), which is critical to redox catalysis of [PV2Mo10O40]5-. This reaction gives crystals of [C2mim]4[V4O12], showing that this IL forms discrete metavanadates which are obtained from aqueous solutions in a specific pH range and indicating that the basicity of [OAc]- dominates the speciation of vanadium (V) in this IL.
Radioactivity levels and health risks due to radionuclides in the soil and sediment of mid-Black Sea: Kızılırmak Deltas-Turkey
Authors: Arıman Sema , Gümüş Hasan
Published: July 2018

Artificial and natural radionuclide pollutants of the marine environment have been recognized as a serious environmental concern. In this study, the activity concentrations of terrestrial and anthropogenic radionuclides in the soil and sediment samples collected from Bafra Kızılırmak Delta were measured by using gamma spectrometry with an NaI (Tl) detector. The average specific of activity concentrations for 238U, 232Th and 40K were found to be 28.59, 17.48 and 150.59 Bq kg−1, respectively. On the other hand, 137Cs was also measured in some samples. 137Cs (t1/2=30.17 years) is a man-made radionuclide released from nuclear fission and activation processes. It has a mean value of 5.32 Bq kg−1. From the activity concentrations, the radium equivalent activity (Raeq), the absorbed gamma dose rates (DR), the annual gonadal dose equivalent, annual effective dose equivalent, internal (Hin), external hazard index (Hex) and excess lifetime cancer risk were estimated. This study can be used as a base line for future investigations and the data obtained in this study may be useful for natural radioactivity mapping and also be used as a reference data for monitoring possible radioactivity pollutions in future.
Highly sensitive fluid sensing due to slow light in pillar-based photonic crystal ring resonators
Authors: Jannesari Reyhaneh , Grille Thomas , Jakoby Bernhard
Published: July 2018

A design for a high quality factor photonic crystal ring resonator (PCRR) is presented. The PCRR is based on pillar type photonic crystals, which consist of a hexagonal array of silicon rods. The cavity is created by removing elements from the regular photonic crystal (PhC) grid. Achieving strong confinement of light intensity in the low index region is the advantage of this PCRR. In that manner, the interaction of light and analyte, which can be a liquid or a gas, will be enhanced. The high quality factor of the cavity (

Q
=
1.0229
×

10

5

Q=1.0229\times {10}^{5}

), along with strong overlap between the field of the resonant mode and the analyte as well as the low group velocity of PCRR modes yield enhanced light-matter interaction. An enhancement factor of

γ
=
2.127
×

10

4

\gamma =2.127\times {10}^{4}

compared to the bulk light absorption in a homogenous material provides the potential for highly sensitive gas detection with a photonic crystal ring resonator.
Lignin and Lignin Based Materials for the Removal of Heavy Metals from Waste Water-An Overview
Authors: Naseer Ayesha , Jamshaid Anum , Hamid Almas , Muhammad Nawshad , Ghauri Moinuddin , Iqbal Jibran , Rafiq Sikander , khuram Shahzad , Shah Noor Samad
Published: July 2018

Water Pollution through heavy metals is the concerned issue as many industries like tanning, steel production and electroplating are the major contributors. Various toxic Heavy metals are a matter of concern as they have severe environmental and health effects. Most commonly, conventional methods are using to remove these heavy metals like precipitation, ion exchange, which are not economical and have disposal issues. Adsorption of heavy metals by different low-cost adsorbents seems to be the best option in wastewater treatment. Many agricultural by-products proved to be suitable as low-cost adsorbents for removing heavy metals efficiently in a minimum time. Lignin residues that involves both agricultural and wood residues and sometimes separated out from black liquor through precipitation have adsorption capacity and affinity comparable to other natural adsorbents. However, lignin as bio adsorbents have the advantage of less cost and gives efficient adsorption results. This study is a review of the recent literature on the use of natural lignin residues for heavy metals adsorption under different experimental scenarios.
The Expansion of Child Pornography Law
Authors: Hessick Carissa Byrne
Published: July 2018

This Symposium essay identifies two dramatic expansions of child pornography law: prosecutions for possessing images of children who are clothed and not engaged in any sexual activity, and prosecutions for possessing smaller portions of artistic and non-pornographic images. These prosecutions have expanded the definition of the term “child pornography” well beyond its initial meaning. What is more, they signal that child pornography laws are being used to punish people not necessarily because of the nature of the picture they possess, but rather because of the conclusion that those individuals are sexually attracted to children. If law enforcement concludes that a person finds an image of a child to be sexually arousing, then these laws can subject that individual to punishment, even though the image would have been perfectly innocuous had it been possessed by someone else.
Beyond Strict Scrutiny
Authors: Janus Eric S.
Published: July 2018

Sex offender civil commitment (SOCC) is a massive deprivation of liberty as severe as penal incarceration. Because it eschews most of the “great safeguards” constraining the criminal power, SOCC demands careful constitutional scrutiny. Although the Supreme Court has clearly applied heightened scrutiny in judging civil commitment schemes, it has never actually specified where on the scrutiny spectrum its analysis falls. This article argues that standard three-tier scrutiny analysis is not the most coherent way to understand the Supreme Court’s civil commitment jurisprudence. Rather than a harm-balancing judgment typical of three-tier scrutiny, the Court’s civil commitment cases are best understood as forbidden purpose cases, a construct that is familiar in many areas of the Court’s constitutional analysis. But the Court’s civil commitment cases tie the search for punitive purpose to another genre of constitutional analysis, the application of the substantive boundaries on governmental power most commonly associated with the specific grants of federal power. In contrast to the normal conception of state power as plenary, limited only by the specific constraints of the bill of rights and the amorphous limits of “substantive due process,” the Court has posited a narrowly limited “civil commitment” power. The search for the forbidden purpose maps directly onto the inquiry into the limits of this discrete and special state power. Finally, the article argues that the forbidden purpose/discrete power analysis provides clarity on another vexing issue, the facial/as-applied distinction.
CORL Expression and Function in Insulin Producing Neurons Reversibly Influences Adult Longevity in Drosophila
Authors: Tran Nancy L , Goldsmith Samuel L , Dimitriadou Agapi , Takaesu Norma T , Consoulas Christos , Newfeld Stuart J
Published: July 2018

CORL proteins (known as SKOR in mice, Fussel in humans and fussel in Flybase) are a family of CNS specific proteins related to Sno/Ski oncogenes. Their developmental and adult roles are largely unknown. A Drosophila CORL (dCORL) reporter gene is expressed in all Drosophila insulin-like peptide 2 (dILP2) neurons of the pars intercerebralis (PI) of the larval and adult brain. The transcription factor Drifter is also expressed in the PI in a subset of dCORL and dILP2 expressing neurons and in several non-dILP2 neurons. dCORL mutant virgin adult brains are missing all dILP2 neurons that do not also express Drifter. This phenotype is also seen when expressing dCORL-RNAi in neurosecretory cells of the PI. dCORL mutant virgin adults of both sexes have a significantly shorter lifespan than their parental strain. This longevity defect is completely reversed by mating (lifespan increases over 50% for males and females). Analyses of dCORL mutant mated adult brains revealed a complete rescue of dILP2 neurons without Drifter. Taken together, the data suggest that dCORL participates in a neural network connecting the insulin signaling pathway, longevity and mating. The conserved sequence and CNS specificity of all CORL proteins imply that this network may be operating in mammals.
Patterns and prevalence of canine anomalies in orthodontic patients
Authors: Jain Sandhya , Debbarma Sharmila
Published: July 2018

Objective. The aim of the present study was to present detailed information regarding the impacted maxillary and mandibular canines and their patterns of presentation into the oral cavity and to evaluate the prevalence of different canine anomalies, such as ectopic canine, transmigration, transposition and agenesis of permanent canines among central Indian population.

Method. A total of 1593 patients OPG’s were thoroughly evaluated and the prevalence of different canine anomalies like impacted maxillary and mandibular canine, transmigration, transposition, agenesis and ectopic canine eruptions were evaluated. The canine angulation, vertical position in relation to occlusal surface of adjacent tooth’s and the overlapping of adjacent teeth’s crown by impacted canine was evaluated by tracings. 

Result. Out of 1593 subjects, 22 patients had impacted canines. The prevalence of canine impaction was1.38%, with maxillary canine impaction of 0.93%, mandibular canine impaction of 0.37%, canine agenesis 0.06%, transmigration 0.12%, canine transposition 0.18% and the ectopic canine was 5.5%.

Conclusion. There is no gender difference in canine impaction. The prevalence of canine impaction is 1.38%.
Evaluation of the effect of calcium hydroxide and endodontic irrigants on the push-out bond strength of fiber post - an in vitro study
Authors: Chaudhary Anjum , Kumar Mohit , Taneja Sonali
Published: July 2018

Background. In recent years, fibre-reinforced composite posts have been proposed for the restoration of root filled teeth as an alternative to pre-fabricated posts or metal dowels.Aims and objectives. The aim of the study was to analyze the effect of endodontic irrigants used for removal of calcium hydroxide on the push-out bond strength of fiber posts to root canal dentin.Methods. Forty human permanent single-rooted mandibular premolars with relatively straight roots were taken and access cavities were prepared and biomechanical preparation done using Rotar Y protaper file till size F2. The samples were divided into Experimental group and Control group. In Experimental groups Intracanal dressing of calcium hydroxide was removed by 2.5% NaOCl and 17% EDTA (Group1), MTAD (Group II) and Qmix (Group III). Control group did not receive Intracanal calcium hydroxide dressing. Canals were obturated using size F2 protaper gutta-percha points and AH plus sealer. After storage for 24 hours, post space was prepared. Forty Tenax fiber post (Coltene) were cemented with Rely X U200 resin. The roots were then transversally sectioned into 3 slices of 1mm thickness corresponding to cervical, middle and apical third. The slices obtained were subjected to micro-push-out bond strength test using a universal testing machine. The data obtained was subjected to statistical analysis using One-Way ANOVA test. P value of .05 was considered as statistically significant level.Results. The mean push-out bond strength values for controls, NaOCl/EDTA, MTAD and QMIX group at cervical third were 10.17, 15.84, 20.39 and 20.98 whereas at apical third 4.78, 8.85, 11.66 and 12.10.Conclusion. Qmix showed higher push-out bond strength values followed by MTAD and NaOCl/EDTA. All the groups showed lowest push-out bond strength values in the apical third followed by middle and the maximum in the cervical region.
Universidade brasileira, trabalho do professor e os desafios do presente - Entrevista com Valdemar Sguissardi
Authors: Martins Tânia Barbosa
Published: July 2018

Em entrevista especial à Revista Impulso, Valdemar Sguissardi, professor titular (aposentado) da Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar) e Universidade Metodista de Piracicaba (UNIMEP), tece considerações sobre o novo perfil da universidade brasileira destas primeiras décadas do Século XXI e os impactos no trabalho do professor. O professor é, sob vários aspectos, um dos autores mais admirados e reconhecidos no campo da Educação Superior no Brasil. Essa constatação é evidente quando se observa a sua produção intelectual. Publicou uma dezena de livros e cerca de uma centena de artigos e capítulos de livros sobre políticas de educação superior. Entre estes: Universidade, fundação e autoritarismo: o caso da UFSCar (Edufscar e Estação Liberdade, 1993); Novas faces da educação superior (com João dos Reis Silva Júnior, 2ª ed., Cortez e USF, 2001); Dilemas da pós-graduação: gestão e avaliação (coorganizado com Lucídio Bianchetti, Autores Associados, 2009); Universidade brasileira no Século XXI: desafios do presente (Cortez, 2009); Trabalho Intensificado nas Federais: Pós-graduação e produtivismo acadêmico (com João dos Reis Silva Júnior, Xamã, 2009); Da Universidade à Commoditycidade: ou de como e quando, se a educação/formação é sacrificada no altar do mercado, o futuro da universidade se situaria em algum lugar do passado (com Lucídio Bianchetti, Mercado das Letras, 2017). Além do consistente trabalho científico, a trajetória profissional do professor Valdemar Sguissardi destaca-se pela sua atuação como ex-coordenador do Grupo de Trabalho “Políticas de Educação Superior”, da Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação em Pesquisa (ANPEd) e ex-coordenador dos PPGEs da UFSCar e UNIMEP. A entrevista a seguir trata da fase atual das políticas de ensino superior no Brasil, das mudanças na identidade do professor e do contexto de incerteza e de precariedade em que vivem e sobrevivem os docentes da educação superior, hoje. De modo geral, a entrevista com o professor Valdemar Sguissardi inscreve-se na perspectiva de que a educação é um bem público e função básica do Estado democrático. Disso decorre que o desenvolvimento do país pressupõe o compromisso com a valorização da profissão docente e com a qualidade da educação em todos os seus níveis.
As formas de provimento na gestão democrática da educação pública e seus impactos na valorização docente
Authors: Neves Maria Letícia , Schneckenberg Marisa , Fernandes Lima Michelle
Published: July 2018

O artigo apresenta estudo acerca da configuração da gestão democrática da escola pública de um município localizado na Mesorregião Sudeste do estado do Paraná. Analisamos as influências das atuais formas de provimento ao cargo de diretor escolar, ponderando se elas proporcionam a valorização da carreira docente. Conforme as considerações dos expoentes da área da gestão democrática da escola e da valorização docente, bem como mediante fontes empíricas e dados públicos sobre o processo de eleição para gestores do município, identificamos algumas disparidades no que tange às formas de provimento, principalmente para os cargos de direção e/ou coordenação nos espaços da Educação Infantil, desencadeando assim formas mistas de escolhas. As formas de provimento representam o viés democrático da escola pública, mas a possível adesão a princípios tecnocráticos na gestão acaba influenciando na valorização da carreira docente.
O trabalho docente na educação superior brasileira: perpetuações de contrarreforma em um contexto de crise
Authors: Bastos Rodrigo Barbosa , Barleta Ilma De Andrade
Published: July 2018

O presente artigo consiste de revisão da literatura e objetiva discutir o trabalho docente no contexto de contrarreforma do Estado brasileiro, a partir dos ordenamentos estabelecidos pelos organismos internacionais no âmbito das políticas de educação superior no Brasil, situando-as no contexto neoliberal e de atuações do capitalismo. A questão problema que norteou a investigação foi: em um contexto de crises, quais os impactos da contrarreforma do Estado para o trabalho docente na educação superior brasileira? O método de investigação foi o materialismo histórico dialético, em que possibilitou a aproximação da totalidade e das contradições do fenômeno analisado. Os procedimentos metodológicos utilizados foram: levantamento e estudo teórico-bibliográfico sobre a temática, resultando em uma abordagem qualitativa. Os resultados indicaram que há um crescente processo de contrarreforma do Estado brasileiro, ocasionado a partir do processo de reestruturação produtiva e sob a égide dos organismos internacionais no contexto neoliberal e no âmbito do capitalismo, bem como é consistente o processo de intensificação, flexibilização e precarização do trabalho docente na educação superior.
Cooperative Search with Concurrent Interactions
Authors: Manisterski E. , Sarne D. , Kraus S.
Published: July 2018

In this paper we show how taking advantage of autonomous agents' capability to maintain parallel interactions with others, and incorporating it into the cooperative economic search model results in a new search strategy which outperforms current strategies in use. As a framework for our analysis we use the electronic marketplace, where buyer agents have the incentive to search cooperatively. The new search technique is quite intuitive, however its analysis and the process of extracting the optimal search strategy are associated with several significant complexities. These difficulties are derived mainly from the unbounded search space and simultaneous dual affects of decisions taken along the search. We provide a comprehensive analysis of the model, highlighting, demonstrating and proving important characteristics of the optimal search strategy. Consequently, we manage to come up with an efficient modular algorithm for extracting the optimal cooperative search strategy for any given environment. A computational based comparative illustration of the system performance using the new search technique versus the traditional methods is given, emphasizing the main differences in the optimal strategy's structure and the advantage of using the proposed model.
Conjunctive Query Answering for the Description Logic SHIQ
Authors: Glimm B. , Lutz C. , Horrocks I. , Sattler U.
Published: July 2018

Conjunctive queries play an important role as an expressive query language for Description Logics (DLs). Although modern DLs usually provide for transitive roles, conjunctive query answering over DL knowledge bases is only poorly understood if transitive roles are admitted in the query. In this paper, we consider unions of conjunctive queries over knowledge bases formulated in the prominent DL SHIQ and allow transitive roles in both the query and the knowledge base. We show decidability of query answering in this setting and establish two tight complexity bounds: regarding combined complexity, we prove that there is a deterministic algorithm for query answering that needs time single exponential in the size of the KB and double exponential in the size of the query, which is optimal. Regarding data complexity, we prove containment in co-NP.
Qualitative System Identification from Imperfect Data
Authors: Coghill G. M. , Srinivasan A. , King R. D.
Published: July 2018

Experience in the physical sciences suggests that the only realistic means of understanding complex systems is through the use of mathematical models. Typically, this has come to mean the identification of quantitative models expressed as differential equations. Quantitative modelling works best when the structure of the model (i.e., the form of the equations) is known; and the primary concern is one of estimating the values of the parameters in the model. For complex biological systems, the model-structure is rarely known and the modeler has to deal with both model-identification and parameter-estimation. In this paper we are concerned with providing automated assistance to the first of these problems. Specifically, we examine the identification by machine of the structural relationships between experimentally observed variables. These relationship will be expressed in the form of qualitative abstractions of a quantitative model. Such qualitative models may not only provide clues to the precise quantitative model, but also assist in understanding the essence of that model. Our position in this paper is that background knowledge incorporating system modelling principles can be used to constrain effectively the set of good qualitative models. Utilising the model-identification framework provided by Inductive Logic Programming (ILP) we present empirical support for this position using a series of increasingly complex artificial datasets. The results are obtained with qualitative and quantitative data subject to varying amounts of noise and different degrees of sparsity. The results also point to the presence of a set of qualitative states, which we term kernel subsets, that may be necessary for a qualitative model-learner to learn correct models. We demonstrate scalability of the method to biological system modelling by identification of the glycolysis metabolic pathway from data.
On the Expressiveness of Levesque's Normal Form
Authors: Liu Y. , Lakemeyer G.
Published: July 2018

Levesque proposed a generalization of a database called a proper knowledge base (KB), which is equivalent to a possibly infinite consistent set of ground literals. In contrast to databases, proper KBs do not make the closed-world assumption and hence the entailment problem becomes undecidable. Levesque then proposed a limited but efficient inference method V for proper KBs, which is sound and, when the query is in a certain normal form, also logically complete. He conjectured that for every first-order query there is an equivalent one in normal form. In this note, we show that this conjecture is false. In fact, we show that any class of formulas for which V is complete must be strictly less expressive than full first-order logic. Moreover, in the propositional case it is very unlikely that a formula always has a polynomial-size normal form.
A Constraint Programming Approach for Solving a Queueing Control Problem
Authors: Terekhov D. , Beck J. C.
Published: July 2018

In a facility with front room and back room operations, it is useful to switch workers between the rooms in order to cope with changing customer demand. Assuming stochastic customer arrival and service times, we seek a policy for switching workers such that the expected customer waiting time is minimized while the expected back room staffing is sufficient to perform all work. Three novel constraint programming models and several shaving procedures for these models are presented. Experimental results show that a model based on closed-form expressions together with a combination of shaving procedures is the most efficient. This model is able to find and prove optimal solutions for many problem instances within a reasonable run-time. Previously, the only available approach was a heuristic algorithm. Furthermore, a hybrid method combining the heuristic and the best constraint programming method is shown to perform as well as the heuristic in terms of solution quality over time, while achieving the same performance in terms of proving optimality as the pure constraint programming model. This is the first work of which we are aware that solves such queueing-based problems with constraint programming.
Communication-Based Decomposition Mechanisms for Decentralized MDPs
Authors: Goldman C. V. , Zilberstein S.
Published: July 2018

Multi-agent planning in stochastic environments can be framed formally as a decentralized Markov decision problem. Many real-life distributed problems that arise in manufacturing, multi-robot coordination and information gathering scenarios can be formalized using this framework. However, finding the optimal solution in the general case is hard, limiting the applicability of recently developed algorithms. This paper provides a practical approach for solving decentralized control problems when communication among the decision makers is possible, but costly. We develop the notion of communication-based mechanism that allows us to decompose a decentralized MDP into multiple single-agent problems. In this framework, referred to as decentralized semi-Markov decision process with direct communication (Dec-SMDP-Com), agents operate separately between communications. We show that finding an optimal mechanism is equivalent to solving optimally a Dec-SMDP-Com. We also provide a heuristic search algorithm that converges on the optimal decomposition. Restricting the decomposition to some specific types of local behaviors reduces significantly the complexity of planning. In particular, we present a polynomial-time algorithm for the case in which individual agents perform goal-oriented behaviors between communications. The paper concludes with an additional tractable algorithm that enables the introduction of human knowledge, thereby reducing the overall problem to finding the best time to communicate. Empirical results show that these approaches provide good approximate solutions.
SATzilla: Portfolio-based Algorithm Selection for SAT
Authors: Xu L. , Hutter F. , Hoos H. H. , Leyton-Brown K.
Published: July 2018

It has been widely observed that there is no single "dominant" SAT solver; instead, different solvers perform best on different instances. Rather than following the traditional approach of choosing the best solver for a given class of instances, we advocate making this decision online on a per-instance basis. Building on previous work, we describe SATzilla, an automated approach for constructing per-instance algorithm portfolios for SAT that use so-called empirical hardness models to choose among their constituent solvers. This approach takes as input a distribution of problem instances and a set of component solvers, and constructs a portfolio optimizing a given objective function (such as mean runtime, percent of instances solved, or score in a competition). The excellent performance of SATzilla was independently verified in the 2007 SAT Competition, where our SATzilla07 solvers won three gold, one silver and one bronze medal. In this article, we go well beyond SATzilla07 by making the portfolio construction scalable and completely automated, and improving it by integrating local search solvers as candidate solvers, by predicting performance score instead of runtime, and by using hierarchical hardness models that take into account different types of SAT instances. We demonstrate the effectiveness of these new techniques in extensive experimental results on data sets including instances from the most recent SAT competition.
Networks of Influence Diagrams: A Formalism for Representing Agents' Beliefs and Decision-Making Processes
Authors: Gal Y. , Pfeffer A.
Published: July 2018

This paper presents Networks of Influence Diagrams (NID), a compact, natural and highly expressive language for reasoning about agents' beliefs and decision-making processes. NIDs are graphical structures in which agents' mental models are represented as nodes in a network; a mental model for an agent may itself use descriptions of the mental models of other agents. NIDs are demonstrated by examples, showing how they can be used to describe conflicting and cyclic belief structures, and certain forms of bounded rationality. In an opponent modeling domain, NIDs were able to outperform other computational agents whose strategies were not known in advance. NIDs are equivalent in representation to Bayesian games but they are more compact and structured than this formalism. In particular, the equilibrium definition for NIDs makes an explicit distinction between agents' optimal strategies, and how they actually behave in reality.
Latent Tree Models and Approximate Inference in Bayesian Networks
Authors: Wang Y. , Zhang N. L. , Chen T.
Published: July 2018

We propose a novel method for approximate inference in Bayesian networks (BNs). The idea is to sample data from a BN, learn a latent tree model (LTM) from the data offline, and when online, make inference with the LTM instead of the original BN. Because LTMs are tree-structured, inference takes linear time. In the meantime, they can represent complex relationship among leaf nodes and hence the approximation accuracy is often good. Empirical evidence shows that our method can achieve good approximation accuracy at low online computational cost.