bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A material point method for snow simulation
Authors: Stomakhin Alexey , Schroeder Craig , Chai Lawrence , Teran Joseph , Selle Andrew
Published: July 2013

Snow is a challenging natural phenomenon to visually simulate. While the graphics community has previously considered accumulation and rendering of snow, animation of snow dynamics has not been fully addressed. Additionally, existing techniques for solids and fluids have difficulty producing convincing snow results. Specifically,wetordensesnow that has both solid- and fluid-like properties is difficult to handle. Consequently, this paper presents a novel snow simulation method utilizing a user-controllable elasto-plastic constitutive model integrated with a hybrid Eulerian/Lagrangian Material Point Method. The method is continuum based and its hybrid nature allows us to use a regular Cartesian grid to automate treatment of self-collision and fracture. It also naturally allows us to derive a grid-based semi-implicit integration scheme that has conditioning independent of the number of Lagrangian particles. We demonstrate the power of our method with a variety of snow phenomena including complex character interactions.
Sketch-based generation and editing of quad meshes
Authors: Takayama Kenshi , Panozzo Daniele , Sorkine-Hornung Alexander , Sorkine-Hornung Olga
Published: July 2013

Coarse quad meshes are the preferred representation for animating characters in movies and video games. In these scenarios, artists want explicit control over the edge flows and the singularities of the quad mesh. Despite the significant advances in recent years, existing automatic quad remeshing algorithms are not yet able to achieve the quality of manually created remeshings. We present an interactive system for manual quad remeshing that provides the user with a high degree of control while avoiding the tediousness involved in existing manual tools. With our sketch-based interface the user constructs a quad mesh by defining patches consisting of individual quads. The desired edge flow is intuitively specified by the sketched patch boundaries, and the mesh topology can be adjusted by varying the number of edge subdivisions at patch boundaries. Our system automatically inserts singularities inside patches if necessary, while providing the user with direct control of their topological and geometrical locations. We developed a set of novel user interfaces that assist the user in constructing a curve network representing such patch boundaries. The effectiveness of our system is demonstrated through a user evaluation with professional artists. Our system is also useful for editing automatically generated quad meshes.
Make it stand
Authors: Prévost Romain , Whiting Emily , Lefebvre Sylvain , Sorkine-Hornung Olga
Published: July 2013

Imbalance suggests a feeling of dynamism and movement in static objects. It is therefore not surprising that many 3D models stand in impossibly balanced configurations. As long as the models remain in a computer this is of no consequence: the laws of physics do not apply. However, fabrication through 3D printing breaks the illusion: printed models topple instead of standing as initially intended. We propose to assist users in producing novel, properly balanced designs by interactively deforming an existing model. We formulate balance optimization as an energy minimization, improving stability by modifying the
volume
of the object, while preserving its surface details. This takes place during interactive editing: the user cooperates with our optimizer towards the end result. We demonstrate our method on a variety of models. With our technique, users can produce fabricated objects that stand in one or more surprising poses without requiring glue or heavy pedestals.
Designing unreinforced masonry models
Authors: Panozzo Daniele , Block Philippe , Sorkine-Hornung Olga
Published: July 2013

We present a complete design pipeline that allows non-expert users to design and analyze masonry structures without any structural knowledge. We optimize the force layouts both geometrically and topologically, finding a self-supported structure that is as close as possible to a given target surface. The generated structures are tessellated into hexagonal blocks with a pattern that prevents sliding failure. The models can be used in physically plausible virtual environments or 3D printed and assembled without reinforcements.
Controlled-distortion constrained global parametrization
Authors: Myles Ashish , Zorin Denis
Published: July 2013

The quality of a global parametrization is determined by a number of factors, including amount of distortion, number of singularities (cones), and alignment with features and boundaries. Placement of cones plays a decisive role in determining the overall distortion of the parametrization; at the same time, feature and boundary alignment also affect the cone placement. A number of methods were proposed for automatic choice of cone positions, either based on singularities of cross-fields and emphasizing alignment, or based on distortion optimization.

In this paper we describe a method for placing cones for seamless global parametrizations with alignment constraints. We use a close relation between variation-minimizing cross-fields and related 1-forms and conformal maps, and demonstrate how it leads to a constrained optimization problem formulation. We show for boundary-aligned parametrizations metric distortion may be reduced by
cone chains
, sometimes to an arbitrarily small value, and the trade-off between the distortion and the number of cones can be controlled by a regularization term. Constrained parametrizations computed using our method have significantly lower distortion compared to the state-of-the art field-based method, yet maintain feature and boundary alignment. In the most extreme cases, parametrization collapse due to alignment constraints is eliminated.
Depicting stylized materials with vector shade trees
Authors: Lopez-Moreno Jorge , Popov Stefan , Bousseau Adrien , Agrawala Maneesh , Drettakis George
Published: July 2013

Vector graphics represent images with compact, editable and scalable primitives. Skillful vector artists employ these primitives to produce vivid depictions of material appearance and lighting. However, such stylized imagery often requires building complex multi-layered combinations of colored fills and gradient meshes. We facilitate this task by introducing
vector shade trees
that bring to vector graphics the flexibility of modular shading representations as known in the 3D rendering community. In contrast to traditional shade trees that combine pixel and vertex shaders, our shade nodes encapsulate the creation and blending of vector primitives that vector artists routinely use. We propose a set of basic shade nodes that we design to respect the traditional guidelines on material depiction described in drawing books and tutorials. We integrate our representation as an Adobe Illustrator plug-in that allows even inexperienced users to take a line drawing, apply a few clicks and obtain a fully colored illustration. More experienced artists can easily refine the illustration, adding more details and visual features, while using all the vector drawing tools they are already familiar with. We demonstrate the power of our representation by quickly generating illustrations of complex objects and materials.
Fabricating translucent materials using continuous pigment mixtures
Authors: Papas Marios , Regg Christian , Jarosz Wojciech , Bickel Bernd , Jackson Philip , Matusik Wojciech , Marschner Steve , Gross Markus
Published: July 2013

We present a method for practical physical reproduction and design of homogeneous materials with desired subsurface scattering. Our process uses a collection of different pigments that can be suspended in a clear base material. Our goal is to determine pigment concentrations that best reproduce the appearance and subsurface scattering of a given target material. In order to achieve this task we first fabricate a collection of material samples composed of known mixtures of the available pigments with the base material. We then acquire their reflectance profiles using a custom-built measurement device. We use the same device to measure the reflectance profile of a target material. Based on the database of mappings from pigment concentrations to reflectance profiles, we use an optimization process to compute the concentration of pigments to best replicate the target material appearance. We demonstrate the practicality of our method by reproducing a variety of different translucent materials. We also present a tool that allows the user to explore the range of achievable appearances for a given set of pigments.
Practical SVBRDF capture in the frequency domain
Authors: Aittala Miika , Weyrich Tim , Lehtinen Jaakko
Published: July 2013

Spatially-varying reflectance and small geometric variations play a vital role in the appearance of real-world surfaces. Consequently, robust, automatic capture of such models is highly desirable; however, current systems require either specialized hardware, long capture times, user intervention, or rely heavily on heuristics. We describe an acquisition setup that utilizes only portable commodity hardware (an LCD display, an SLR camera) and contains no moving parts. In particular, a laptop screen can be used for illumination. Our setup, aided by a carefully constructed image formation model, automatically produces realistic spatially-varying reflectance parameters over a wide range of materials from diffuse to almost mirror-like specular surfaces, while requiring relatively few photographs. We believe our system is the first to offer such generality, while requiring only standard office equipment and no user intervention or parameter tuning. Our results exhibit a good qualitative match to photographs taken under novel viewing and lighting conditions for a range of materials.
Planar shape interpolation with bounded distortion
Authors: Chen Renjie , Weber Ofir , Keren Daniel , Ben-Chen Mirela
Published: July 2013

Planar shape interpolation is widely used in computer graphics applications. Despite a wealth of interpolation methods, there is currently no approach that produces shapes with a bounded amount of distortion with respect to the input. As a result, existing interpolation methods may produce shapes that are significantly different than the input and can suffer from fold-overs and other visual artifacts, making them less useful in many practical scenarios. We introduce a novel shape interpolation scheme designed specifically to produce results with a bounded amount of conformal (angular) distortion. Our method is based on an elegant continuous mathematical formulation and provides several appealing properties such as existence and uniqueness of the solution as well as smoothness in space and time domains. We further present a discretization and an efficient practical algorithm to compute the interpolant and demonstrate its usability and good convergence behavior on a wide variety of input shapes. The method is simple to implement and understand. We compare our method to state-of-the-art interpolation methods and demonstrate its superiority in various cases.
Liquid surface tracking with error compensation
Authors: Bojsen-Hansen Morten , Wojtan Chris
Published: July 2013

Our work concerns the combination of an Eulerian liquid simulation with a high-resolution surface tracker (e.g. the level set method or a Lagrangian triangle mesh). The naive application of a high-resolution surface tracker to a low-resolution velocity field can produce many visually disturbing physical and topological artifacts that limit their use in practice. We address these problems by defining an error function which compares the current state of the surface tracker to the set of physically valid surface states. By reducing this error with a gradient descent technique, we introduce a novel physics-based surface fairing method. Similarly, by treating this error function as a potential energy, we derive a new surface correction force that mimics the vortex sheet equations. We demonstrate our results with both level set and mesh-based surface trackers.
OpenFab
Authors: Vidimče Kiril , Wang Szu-Po , Ragan-Kelley Jonathan , Matusik Wojciech
Published: July 2013

3D printing hardware is rapidly scaling up to output continuous mixtures of multiple materials at increasing resolution over ever larger print volumes. This poses an enormous computational challenge: large high-resolution prints comprise trillions of voxels and petabytes of data and simply modeling and describing the input with spatially varying material mixtures at this scale is challenging. Existing 3D printing software is insufficient; in particular, most software is designed to support only a few million primitives, with discrete material choices per object. We present OpenFab, a programmable pipeline for synthesis of multi-material 3D printed objects that is inspired by RenderMan and modern GPU pipelines. The pipeline supports procedural evaluation of geometric detail and material composition, using shader-like
fablets
, allowing models to be specified easily and efficiently. We describe a streaming architecture for OpenFab; only a small fraction of the final volume is stored in memory and output is fed to the printer with little startup delay. We demonstrate it on a variety of multi-material objects.
Terrain generation using procedural models based on hydrology
Authors: Génevaux Jean-David , Galin Éric , Guérin Eric , Peytavie Adrien , Benes Bedrich
Published: July 2013

We present a framework that allows quick and intuitive modeling of terrains using concepts inspired by hydrology. The terrain is generated from a simple initial sketch, and its generation is controlled by a few parameters. Our terrain representation is both analytic and continuous and can be rendered by using varying levels of detail. The terrain data are stored in a novel data structure: a construction tree whose internal nodes define a combination of operations, and whose leaves represent terrain features. The framework uses rivers as modeling elements, and it first creates a hierarchical drainage network that is represented as a geometric graph over a given input domain. The network is then analyzed to construct watersheds and to characterize the different types and trajectories of rivers. The terrain is finally generated by combining procedural terrain and river patches with blending and carving operators.
Video-based hand manipulation capture through composite motion control
Authors: Wang Yangang , Min Jianyuan , Zhang Jianjie , Liu Yebin , Xu Feng , Dai Qionghai , Chai Jinxiang
Published: July 2013

This paper describes a new method for acquiring physically realistic hand manipulation data from multiple video streams. The key idea of our approach is to introduce a composite motion control to simultaneously model hand articulation, object movement, and subtle interaction between the hand and object. We formulate video-based hand manipulation capture in an optimization framework by maximizing the consistency between the simulated motion and the observed image data. We search an optimal motion control that drives the simulation to best match the observed image data. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by capturing a wide range of high-fidelity dexterous manipulation data. We show the power of our recovered motion controllers by adapting the captured motion data to new objects with different properties. The system achieves superior performance against alternative methods such as marker-based motion capture and kinematic hand motion tracking.
An efficient computation of handle and tunnel loops via Reeb graphs
Authors: Dey Tamal K. , Fan Fengtao , Wang Yusu
Published: July 2013

A special family of non-trivial loops on a surface called handle and tunnel loops associates closely to geometric features of "handles" and "tunnels" respectively in a 3D model. The identification of these handle and tunnel loops can benefit a broad range of applications from topology simplification/repair, and surface parameterization, to feature and shape recognition. Many of the existing efficient algorithms for computing non-trivial loops cannot be used to compute these special type of loops. The two algorithms known for computing handle and tunnel loops provably have a serious drawback that they both require a tessellation of the interior and exterior spaces bounded by the surface. Computing such a tessellation of three dimensional space around the surface is a non-trivial task and can be quite expensive. Furthermore, such a tessellation may need to refine the surface mesh, thus causing the undesirable side-effect of outputting the loops on an altered surface mesh.

In this paper, we present an efficient algorithm to compute a basis for handle and tunnel loops without requiring any 3D tessellation. This saves time considerably for large meshes making the algorithm scalable while computing the loops on the original input mesh and not on some refined version of it. We use the concept of the Reeb graph which together with several key theoretical insights on linking number provide an initial set of loops that provably constitute a handle and a tunnel basis. We further develop a novel strategy to tighten these handle and tunnel basis loops to make them geometrically relevant. We demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of our algorithm as well as show its robustness against noise, and other anomalies in the input.
A hardware unit for fast SAH-optimised BVH construction
Authors: Doyle Michael J. , Fowler Colin , Manzke Michael
Published: July 2013

Ray-tracing algorithms are known for producing highly realistic images, but at a significant computational cost. For this reason, a large body of research exists on various techniques for accelerating these costly algorithms. One approach to achieving superior performance which has received comparatively little attention is the design of specialised ray-tracing hardware. The research that does exist on this topic has consistently demonstrated that significant performance and efficiency gains can be achieved with dedicated microarchitectures. However, previous work on hardware ray-tracing has focused almost entirely on the traversal and intersection aspects of the pipeline. As a result, the critical aspect of the management and construction of acceleration data-structures remains largely absent from the hardware literature.

We propose that a specialised microarchitecture for this purpose could achieve considerable performance and efficiency improvements over programmable platforms. To this end, we have developed the first dedicated microarchitecture for the construction of binned SAH BVHs. Cycle-accurate simulations show that our design achieves significant improvements in raw performance and in the bandwidth required for construction, as well as large efficiency gains in terms of performance per clock and die area compared to manycore implementations. We conclude that such a design would be useful in the context of a heterogeneous graphics processor, and may help future graphics processor designs to reduce predicted technology-imposed utilisation limits.
Structure-aware hair capture
Authors: Luo Linjie , Li Hao , Rusinkiewicz Szymon
Published: July 2013

Existing hair capture systems fail to produce strands that reflect the structures of real-world hairstyles. We introduce a system that reconstructs coherent and plausible wisps aware of the underlying hair structures from a set of still images without any special lighting. Our system first discovers locally coherent wisp structures in the reconstructed point cloud and the 3D orientation field, and then uses a novel graph data structure to reason about both the connectivity and directions of the local wisp structures in a global optimization. The wisps are then completed and used to synthesize hair strands which are robust against occlusion and missing data and plausible for animation and simulation. We show reconstruction results for a variety of complex hairstyles including curly, wispy, and messy hair.
Wild at Home
Authors: Carroll John M. , Rosson Mary Beth
Published: July 2013

HCI can “turn to the wild” but still stay home. Local community life presents a rich context for understanding challenges and possibilities of information technology. We summarize and reflect upon a program of participatory design research in which we facilitated activities and experiences of our neighbors through developing a series of community-oriented programs and information systems through the past two decades. We organize these reflections around five overlapping themes: visibility of community actors, creation of community information infrastructures, the role of place-based identity and activity in community, the effectiveness of participatory relationships, and the research designs and methods appropriate. We frame these reflections around a conceptual model of community, and the suggestion that the local community can be a living laboratory for HCI in the wild.
Cellular automata based test data generation
Authors: Bhasin Harsh , Singla Neha , Sharma Shruti
Published: July 2013

Manual Test Data Generation is an expensive, error prone and tedious task. Therefore, there is an immediate need to make the automation of this process as efficient and effective as possible. The work presented intends to automate the process of Test Data Generation with a goal of attaining maximum coverage. A Cellular Automata system is discrete in space and time. Cellular Automata have been applied to things like designing water distribution systems and studying the patterns of migration. This fascinating technique has been amalgamated with standard test data generation techniques to give rise to a technique which generates better test cases than the existing techniques. The approach has been verified on programs selected in accordance with their Lines of Code and utility. The results obtained have been verified. The proposed work is a part of a larger system being developed, which takes into account both black box and white box testing.
Search based software test data generation for structural testing
Authors: Varshney Sapna , Mehrotra Monica
Published: July 2013

Software testing is an important and expensive phase of the software development life cycle. Over the past few decades, there has been an ongoing research to automate the process of software testing but the attempts have been constrained by the size and the complexity of software especially due to the use of dynamic memory allocation which makes the software behavior highly unpredictable. The use of metaheuristic global search techniques for software test data generation has been the focus of researchers in recent years. Many new techniques and hybrid methods have been proposed to tackle the problem more effectively. This study provides an overview of the various techniques that have been applied for structural test data generation. It also presents the open areas, challenges and future directions in the field of search based software testing with an emphasis on test data generation for structural testing.
PLDI 2002
Authors: Flanagan Cormac , Leino K. Rustan M. , Lillibridge Mark , Nelson Greg , Saxe James B. , Stata Raymie
Published: July 2013

Software development and maintenance are costly endeavors. The cost can be reduced if more software defects are detected earlier in the development cycle. This paper introduces the Extended Static Checker for Java (ESC/Java), an experimental compile-time program checker that finds common programming errors. The checker is powered by verification-condition generation and automatic theoremproving techniques. It provides programmers with a simple annotation language with which programmer design decisions can be expressed formally. ESC/Java examines the annotated software and warns of inconsistencies between the design decisions recorded in the annotations and the actual code, and also warns of potential runtime errors in the code. This paper gives an overview of the checker architecture and annotation language and describes our experience applying the checker to tens of thousands of lines of Java programs.
ICFP 2002
Authors: Findler Robert Bruce , Felleisen Matthias
Published: July 2013

Assertions play an important role in the construction of robust software. Their use in programming languages dates back to the 1970s. Eiffel, an object-oriented programming language, wholeheartedly adopted assertions and developed the "Design by Contract" philosophy. Indeed, the entire object-oriented community recognizes the value of assertion-based contracts on methods.

In contrast, languages with higher-order functions do not support assertion-based contracts. Because predicates on functions are, in general, undecidable, specifying such predicates appears to be meaningless. Instead, the functional languages community developed type systems that statically approximate interesting predicates.

In this paper, we show how to support higher-order function contracts in a theoretically well-founded and practically viable manner. Specifically, we introduce ?
CON
, a typed lambda calculus with assertions for higher-order functions. The calculus models the assertion monitoring system that we employ in Dr Scheme. We establish basic properties of the model (type soundness, etc.) and illustrate the usefulness of contract checking with examples from Dr Scheme's code base.

We believe that the development of an assertion system for higherorder functions serves two purposes. On one hand, the system has strong practical potential because existing type systems simply cannot express many assertions that programmers would like to state. nOn the other hand, an inspection of a large base of invariants may provide inspiration for the direction of practical future type system research.
Enhancing mobile data offloading with mobility prediction and prefetching
Authors: Siris Vasilios A. , Kalyvas Dimitrios
Published: July 2013

We present procedures that exploit mobility prediction and prefetching to enhance offoading of trafic from mobile networks to WiFi hotspots, for both delay tolerant and delay sensitive trafic. We evaluate the procedures in terms of the percentage of offoaded trafic, the data transfer delay, and the cache size used for prefetching. The evaluation considers empirical measurements and shows how various parameters infuence the performance of the procedures, and their robustness to time and throughput estimation errors.
Two-Level Iteration Penalty Methods for the Navier-Stokes Equations with Friction Boundary Conditions
Authors: Li Yuan , An Rong
Published: July 2013

This paper presents two-level iteration penalty finite element methods to approximate the solution of the Navier-Stokes equations with friction boundary conditions. The basic idea is to solve the Navier-Stokes type variational inequality problem on a coarse mesh with mesh sizeHin combining with solving a Stokes, Oseen, or linearized Navier-Stokes type variational inequality problem for Stokes, Oseen, or Newton iteration on a fine mesh with mesh sizeh. The error estimate obtained in this paper shows that ifH,h, andεcan be chosen appropriately, then these two-level iteration penalty methods are of the same convergence orders as the usual one-level iteration penalty method.
The Capacity Expansion Path Problem in Networks
Authors: Li Jianping , Zhu Juanping
Published: July 2013

This paper considers the general capacity expansion path problem (GCEP) for the telecommunication operators. We investigate the polynomial equivalence between the GCEP problem and the constrained shortest path problem (CSP) and present a pseudopolynomial algorithm for the GCEP problem, no matter the graph is acyclic or not. Furthermore, we investigate two special versions of the GCEP problem. For the minimum number arc capacity expansion path problem (MN-CEP), we give a strongly polynomial algorithm based on the dynamic programming. For the minimum-cost capacity expansion shortest path problem (MCESP), we give a strongly polynomial algorithm by constructing a shortest paths network.
The Hopf Bifurcation for a Predator-Prey System with -Logistic Growth and Prey Refuge
Authors: Wang Shaoli , Ge Zhihao
Published: July 2013

The Hopf bifurcation for a predator-prey system with -logistic growth and prey refuge is studied. It is shown that the ODEs undergo a Hopf bifurcation at the positive equilibrium when the prey refuge rate or the index- passed through some critical values. Time delay could be considered as a bifurcation parameter for DDEs, and using the normal form theory and the center manifold reduction, explicit formulae are derived to determine the direction of bifurcations and the stability and other properties of bifurcating periodic solutions. Numerical simulations are carried out to illustrate the main results.
Do Not Hallow until You Are out of the Wood! Ultrasonographic Detection of CPP Crystal Deposits in Menisci: Facts and Pitfalls
Authors: Filippou Georgios , Adinolfi Antonella , Bozios Panagiotis , Lorenzini Sauro , Picerno Valentina , Di Sabatino Valentina , Bertoldi Ilaria , Gambera Dario , Galeazzi Mauro , Frediani Bruno
Published: July 2013

Purpose. Ultrasonography (US) has been demonstrated to be an important tool in the diagnosis of calcium pyrophosphate (CPP) crystal deposition disease. The aim of our study was to individuate and describe possible pitfalls in US detection of such deposits in menisci.
Patients and Methods. We enrolled all patients waiting to undergo knee replacement surgery due to osteoarthritis, for one‐month period. Each patient underwent US examination of the knee, focusing on the menisci. After surgery, the menisci were examined by US, macroscopically and microscopically, using the microscopic analysis as the gold standard for CPP deposition.
Results. 11 menisci of 6 patients have been studied. Ex vivo examination of menisci performed better in CPP identification than in vivo examination. The possible reasons of misinterpretation or misdiagnosis of the in vivo exam were identified and are extensively described in the paper. Also a new sign of CPP crystal deposits was found.
Conclusions. This study permitted to highlight some difficulties in CPP crystal detection by US in menisci. Further studies are needed to define completely US CPP crystal aspect and to improve the sensibility and specificity of US in CPP deposition diagnosis.
Application of Digital Image Correlation to Measurement of Packaging Material Mechanical Properties
Authors: Zhou Jian-Wei , Liu Dong-Hong , Shao Lan-Yuan , Wang Zhen-Lin
Published: July 2013

Among various packaging materials, papers and polymer plastics are the most common due to their light weights, low costs, and other advantages. However, their mechanical properties are difficult to measure precisely because of their softness. To overcome the difficulty, a new measure instrument prototype is proposed based on an optical method known as the digital image correlation (DIC). Experiments are designed to apply the DIC to measure mechanical properties of flexible packaging materials, including the stress-strain relationship, the Poisson ratio, the coefficient of heat expansion, the creep deformation, and the top-pressure deformation of corrugated box. In addition, the low frequency vibration of package is simulated, and the vibration frequencies are measured by DIC. Results obtained in the experiments illustrate the advantages of the DIC over traditional methods: noncontact, no reinforced effect, high precision over entire area, wide measurement range, and good measurement stability.
The Association of Sleep Disorder, Obesity Status, and Diabetes Mellitus among US Adults—The NHANES 2009-2010 Survey Results
Authors: Liu Jian , Hay John , Faught Brent E.
Published: July 2013

To examine the association between sleep disorders, obesity status, and the risk of diabetes in adults, a total of 3668 individuals aged 40+ years from the NHANES 2009-2010 without missing information on sleep-related questions, measurements related to diabetes, and BMI were included in this analysis. Subjects were categorized into three sleep groups based on two sleep questions: (a) no sleep problems; (b) sleep disturbance; and (c) sleep disorder. Diabetes was defined as having one of a diagnosis from a physician; an overnight fasting glucose > 125 mg/dL; Glycohemoglobin > 6.4%; or an oral glucose tolerance test > 199 mg/dL. Overall, 19% of subjects were diabetics, 37% were obese, and 32% had either sleep disturbance or sleep disorder. Using multiple logistic regression models adjusting for covariates without including BMI, the odds ratios (OR, (95% CI)) of diabetes were 1.40 (1.06, 1.84) and 2.04 (1.40, 2.95) for those with sleep disturbance and with sleep disorder, respectively. When further adjusting for BMI, the ORs were similar for those with sleep disturbance 1.36 (1.06, 1.73) but greatly attenuated for those with sleep disorders (1.38 [0.95, 2.00]). In conclusion, the impact of sleep disorders on diabetes may be explained through the individuals’ obesity status.
Hydroxycinnamic Acid Antioxidants: An Electrochemical Overview
Authors: Teixeira José , Gaspar Alexandra , Garrido E. Manuela , Garrido Jorge , Borges Fernanda
Published: July 2013

Hydroxycinnamic acids (such as ferulic, caffeic, sinapic, andp-coumaric acids) are a group of compounds highly abundant in food that may account for about one-third of the phenolic compounds in our diet. Hydroxycinnamic acids have gained an increasing interest in health because they are known to be potent antioxidants. These compounds have been described as chain-breaking antioxidants acting through radical scavenging activity, that is related to their hydrogen or electron donating capacity and to the ability to delocalize/stabilize the resulting phenoxyl radical within their structure. The free radical scavenger ability of antioxidants can be predicted from standard one-electron potentials. Thus, voltammetric methods have often been applied to characterize a diversity of natural and synthetic antioxidants essentially to get an insight into their mechanism and also as an important tool for the rational design of new and potent antioxidants. The structure-property-activity relationships (SPARs) correlations already established for this type of compounds suggest that redox potentials could be considered a good measure of antioxidant activity and an accurate guideline on the drug discovery and development process. Due to its magnitude in the antioxidant field, the electrochemistry of hydroxycinnamic acid-based antioxidants is reviewed highlighting the structure-property-activity relationships (SPARs) obtained so far.
New Therapeutic Targets for Intraocular Pressure Lowering
Authors: Rocha-Sousa A. , Rodrigues-Araújo J. , Gouveia Petra , Barbosa-Breda João , Azevedo-Pinto S. , Pereira-Silva P. , Leite-Moreira A.
Published: July 2013

Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) is a leading cause of irreversible and preventable blindness and ocular hypertension is the strongest known risk factor. With current classes of drugs, management of the disease focuses on lowering intraocular pressure (IOP). Despite of their use to modify the course of the disease, none of the current medications for POAG is able to reduce the IOP by more than 25%–30%. Also, some glaucoma patients show disease progression despite of the therapeutics. This paper examines the new described physiological targets for reducing the IOP. The main cause of elevated IOP in POAG is thought to be an increased outflow resistance via the pressure-dependent trabecular outflow system, so there is a crescent interest in increasing trabecular meshwork outflow by extracellular matrix remodeling and/or by modulation of contractility/TM cytoskeleton disruption. Modulation of new agents that act mainly on trabecular meshwork outflow may be the future hypotensive treatment for glaucoma patients. There are also other agents in which modulation may decrease aqueous humour production or increase uveoscleral outflow by different mechanisms from those drugs available for glaucoma treatment. Recently, a role for the ghrelin-GHSR system in the pathophysiology modulation of the anterior segment, particularly regarding glaucoma, has been proposed.
Least Trimmed Squares Approach to Lucas-Kanade Algorithm in Object Tracking Problems
Authors: Lin Yih-Lon
Published: July 2013

The object tracking problem is an important research topic in computer vision. For real applications such as vehicle tracking and face tracking, there are many efficient and real-time algorithms. In this study, we will focus on the Lucas-Kanade (LK) algorithm for object tracking. Although this method is time consuming, it is effective in tracking accuracy and environment adaptation. In the standard LK method, the sum of squared errors is used as the cost function, while least trimmed squares is adopted as the cost function in this study. The resulting estimator is robust against outliers caused by noises and occlusions in the tracking process. Simulations are provided to show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the standard LK method in the sense that it is robust against the outliers in the object tracking problems.
Study of Structure and Electro-Optical Characteristics of Indium Tin Oxide Thin Films
Authors: Khusayfan N. M. , El-Nahass M. M.
Published: July 2013

ITO thin films were prepared by electron beam evaporation of ceramic ITO target. The films were subsequently annealed in air atmosphere at the temperatures 300°C and 600°C in order to improve their optical and electrical properties. The crystal structure and morphology of the films are investigated by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope techniques, respectively. The films exhibited cubic structure with predominant orientation of growth along (222) direction, and the crystallite size increases by rising annealing temperature. Transparency of the films, over the visible light region, is increased by annealing temperature. The resulting increase in the carrier concentration and in the carrier mobility decreases the resistivity of the films due to annealing. The absorption coefficient of the films is calculated and analyzed. The direct allowed optical band gap for as-deposited films is determined as 3.81 eV; this value is increased to 3.88 and 4.0 eV as a result of annealing at 300°C and 600°C, respectively. The electrical sheet resistance is significantly decreased by increasing annealing temperature, whereas figure of merit is increased.
Investigation of Luminescence Characteristics of Osmium(II) Complexes in the Presence of Heparin Polyanions
Authors: Xie Yixi , Lei Yu , Shah Shalini , Wu Hao , Wu Jian , Megehee Elise , Wang Enju
Published: July 2013

The luminescence characteristics of six osmium carbonyl complexes with phenanthroline (phen) or bipyridine (bpy) and pyridine (py), 4-phenylpyridine (4-phpy), or triphenylphosphine (PPh3) complexes in the presence of polyanion heparin were studied in both ethanol and aqueous solutions. The influence of heparin on the luminescence of the complexes is heavily dependent on the type of ligands in the complexes and the solvent used. In the ethanol solutions, the heparin solution enhanced the luminescence of the five osmium complexes, with the strongest enhancement to the 4-phenylpyridine complexes; linear curves were obtained in the luminescence enhancement ratio (F/F0) versus the heparin concentration range of 1–40 μg/mL. In aqueous solutions, heparin quenching of the complexes was more significant; a linear quenching curve was obtained with [Os(phen)2CO(PPh3)](PF6)2in the lower concentration range of 1–12 μg/mL. The interaction of these complexes with heparin in the solutions is discussed. The complexes are shown to be successful in the fast and sensitive detection of heparin in commercial injectable samples.
The Clinical Correlations ofHelicobacter pyloriVirulence Factors and Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria
Authors: Chiu Yi-Chun , Tai Wei-Chen , Chuah Seng-Kee , Hsu Ping-I , Wu Deng-Chyang , Wu Keng-Liang , Huang Chao-Cheng , Ho Ji-Chen , Ring Johannes , Chen Wen-Chieh
Published: July 2013

Background and Study Aims. The association betweenHelicobacter pylori(H. pylori) and chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) remains controversial. This study explored the role ofH. pyloriin CSU among different virulent genotypes patients.Patients and Methods. Patients infected byH. pyloriwere sorted into two groups as group A (with CSU) and group B (without CSU). The tissue materials were taken via endoscopy for polymerase chain reaction study to determine virulence factors.AfterH. pylorieradication therapy, the eradication rate and response of urticaria were evaluated by using C13-UBT and a three-point scale (complete remission, partial remission, or no improvement).Results. The results were comparable between patients of groups A and B in terms ofH. pyloriinfection rates and eradication rate. Longitudinal follow-up of 23.5 months showed complete remission of urticaria in 63.6% but no improvement in 36.4% of the patients afterH. pylorieradication.H. pyloriinfected patients with different virulence factors such as cytotoxin-associated gene A, vacuolating cytotoxin gene A signal region and middle region have similar remission rates for CSU.Conclusions. Current study suggests thatH. pylorimay play a role in the development and disease course of CSU but may be irrelevant to different virulent genotypes.
Optimization of the Energy Output of Osmotic Power Plants
Authors: Dinger Florian , Tröndle Tobias , Platt Ulrich
Published: July 2013

On the way to a completely renewable energy supply, additional alternatives to hydroelectric, wind, and solar power have to be investigated. Osmotic power is such an alternative with a theoretical global annual potential of up to 14400 TWh (70% of the global electricity consumption of 2008) per year. It utilizes the phenomenon that upon the mixing of fresh water and oceanic salt water (e.g., at a river mouth), around 2.88 MJ of energy per 1 m3of fresh water is released. Here, we describe a new approach to derive operational parameter settings for osmotic power plants using a pressure exchanger for optimal performance, either with respect to maximum generated power or maximum extracted energy. Up to now, only power optimization is discussed in the literature, but when considering the fresh water supply as a limiting factor, the energy optimization appears as the challenging task.
On Satnoianu‐Wu’s Inequality
Authors: Xi Bo-Yan
Published: July 2013

By applying techniques in the theory of convex functions and Schur‐geometrically convex functions, the author investigates a conjecture of Satnoianu on an algebraic inequality and generalizes some known results in recent years.
A Rotation of Admixable Operators on Abstract Wiener Space with Applications
Authors: Choi Jae Gil , Chang Seung Jun
Published: July 2013

We investigate certain rotation properties of the abstract Wiener measure. To determine our rotation property for the Wiener measure, we introduce the concept of an admixable operator via an algebraic structure on abstract Wiener space. As for applications, we define the analytic Fourier-Feynman transform and the convolution product associated with the admixable operators and proceed to establish the relationships between this transform and the corresponding convolution product.
Autophagy and Human Parturition: Evaluation of LC3 Expression in Placenta from Spontaneous or Medically Induced Onset of Labor
Authors: Avagliano Laura , Virgili Eleonora , Garò Chiara , Quadrelli Federica , Doi Patrizia , Samaja Michele , Bulfamante Gaetano Pietro , Marconi Anna Maria
Published: July 2013

Induction of labor is one of the most used procedures in obstetrics, performed to achieve vaginal delivery through cervical ripening and stimulation of uterine contractions. We investigated the impact of induction of labor upon placental autophagy, a catabolic pathway activated in response to alteration of the physiological intracellular conditions. We collected 28 singleton placentas at the time of uncomplicated term vaginal delivery (7 spontaneous onset of labor, 21 induced labor). Autophagy was evaluated by immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, and immunoblotting. No significant difference in the autophagy expression was found between spontaneous or induced onset of labor. We found an inverse relationship between autophagy expression and the maternal prepregnancy body mass index, irrespective of the mode of labor onset. This result could be related to the nutritional maternal habits before and throughout pregnancy rather than rapid metabolic changes during labor.
Developing a Culture to Facilitate Research Capacity Building for Clinical Nurse Consultants in Generalist Paediatric Practice
Authors: Wilkes Lesley , Cummings Joanne , McKay Nicola
Published: July 2013

This paper reports a research capacity building exercise with a group of CNCs practicing in the speciality of paediatrics in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. It explores the first step in building a research culture, through identifying the research priorities of members of the NSW Child Health Networks Paediatric Clinical Nurse Consultant group, and this forms the major focus of this paper. A nominal group technique (NGT) was utilised with sixteen members to identify research topics for investigation which were considered a priority for improving children's health care. The group reviewed and prioritised 43 research topics in children's health which were identified in the literature. As a result of conducting this research prioritisation exercise, the group chose two research topics to investigate: reasons for children representing to the Emergency Department and a comparison of the use of high-flow and low-flow nasal prongs in children with bronchiolitis. The research team will continue to mentor the nurses throughout their research projects which resulted from the NGT. One bridge to leadership development in enhancing patient care is translating knowledge to practice and policy development. This study leads the way for a group of CNCs in paediatric nursing to combine their research capacity and influence clinical knowledge.
Death Receptors in the Selective Degeneration of Motoneurons in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Authors: Aebischer Julianne , Bernard-Marissal Nathalie , Pettmann Brigitte , Raoul Cédric
Published: July 2013

While studies on death receptors have long been restricted to immune cells, the last decade has provided a strong body of evidence for their implication in neuronal death and hence neurodegenerative disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). ALS is a fatal paralytic disorder that primarily affects motoneurons in the brain and spinal cord. A neuroinflammatory process, associated with astrocyte and microglial activation as well as infiltration of immune cells, accompanies motoneuron degeneration and supports the contribution of non-cell-autonomous mechanisms in the disease. Hallmarks of Fas, TNFR, LT-βR, and p75NTR signaling have been observed in both animal models and ALS patients. This review summarizes to date knowledge of the role of death receptors in ALS and the link existing between the selective loss of motoneurons and neuroinflammation. It further suggests how this recent evidence could be included in an ultimate multiapproach to treat patients.