bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
How Achievement Error Patterns of Students With Mild Intellectual Disability Differ From Low IQ and Low Achievement Students Without Diagnoses
Authors: Root Melissa M. , Marchis Lavinia , White Erica , Courville Troy , Choi Dowon , Bray Melissa A. , Pan Xingyu , Wayte Jessica
Published: September 2016

This study investigated the differences in error factor scores on the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement–Third Edition between individuals with mild intellectual disabilities (Mild IDs), those with low achievement scores but average intelligence, and those with low intelligence but without a Mild ID diagnosis. The two control groups were matched with the Mild ID clinical cases on demographic variables including age, gender, and parental education. Results showed significant differences between the groups on several error factors, particularly between the Mild ID group and the two control groups, and no significant differences between all three groups on six error factors. In addition, the two control groups differed significantly on four error factors. Implications for intervention selection, diagnostic considerations, and future directions for achievement test creation are discussed.
Introduction to Special Issue and to KTEA-3 Error Analysis
Authors: Breaux Kristina C. , Bray Melissa A. , Root Melissa M. , Kaufman Alan S.
Published: September 2016

This special issue focuses on an array of studies conducted using the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement–Third Edition (KTEA-3) error analysis system. These studies, based on KTEA-3 standardization and validation data with normal and clinical samples, were conducted to provide greater understanding of the kinds of errors students make in reading, writing, math, and oral language. This introduction provides a brief history of the error analysis system and outlines the organization of the special issue, which features commentaries on the articles by experts in the field. The themes throughout the special issue are patterns of errors made by students and the educational implications of these patterns.
Predictors of Perceived Need for and Actual Action Taking Among Women in Violent Relationships
Authors: Katerndahl David A. , Burge Sandra K. , Ferrer Robert L. , Becho Johanna , Wood Robert
Published: September 2016

Decision-making of women in violent relationships is poorly understood. The study seeks to identify predictors of need-for-action and actions taken by women in violent relationships. The participants were 143 women who experienced violence in previous month from 6 primary care clinics. The methods involved multiple times series using daily assessments of household environment, marital relationship, concerns, violence, and need-for-action collected via telephone interactive voice response for 8 weeks. Outcomes include daily need-for-action and reports of actions taken. Same-day correlates and prior-day associations using vector autoregressions were sought, combined across subjects using meta-analytic techniques. Need for help depended on stalking, concern for child safety, forgiveness, and low perceived control; actually seeking help depended on sense of control with same-day stress and need for help. Need for legal action depended on concern for child safety and finances with desire to keep family together; actually taking legal action, correlated only with prior-day stalking and concerns about child safety but less about effects of violence on child. Need to leave depended on his violence, with concern about its effect on child, her forgiveness, and a low desire to keep family together, while actually leaving was primed by a day of his drinking, and triggered by same-day stress and need to leave, but lower levels of her drinking or his seeking forgiveness. Once gone, prior-day stalking and his alcohol use correlated with returning to the relationship. Taking action depends upon few prior- and same-day factors unique to each action.
Universities, SMEs and social capital
Authors: Gordon Ian
Published: September 2016

This article explores a university knowledge exchange programme for small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owner-managers. Specifically, it considers why a programme designed to achieve growth in a group of SMEs through the creation of a network high in social capital may have become a constraint on the programme’s effectiveness over a period of 5 years. The article presents findings from ethnographic observation and interviews with eight participants. The main findings suggest that university facilitators should guard against becoming part of a strong tie network of delegates, which in this case may have resulted in a reduction in their ability to bridge to other groups and networks. In addition, without the periodical introduction of new activities, there is the danger that the group will become stale.
Retuning the actuator proportional–integral–derivative controller of spinning missiles
Authors: Zhou Wei , Yang Shuxing , Zhao Liangyu
Published: September 2016

The hinge moment acting on the actuator will cause an out-of-plane moment, which is a destabilizing factor to the angular motion of spinning missiles. A new tuning criterion for the actuator controller is proposed to decrease the out-of-plane moment. It is noted that the integral element does not decrease the out-of-plane moment. A carefully designed proportional–derivative controller with some compromises can ensure the stability of the missile and provide good performance for the actuator.
Biomechanical effects of angular stable locking in intramedullary nails for the fixation of distal tibia fractures
Authors: Augat Peter , Hoegel Florian , Stephan Daniel , Hoffmann Stephanie , Buehren Volker
Published: September 2016

Treatment of distal tibia shaft fractures using intramedullary nailing requires stable fixation of the distal fragment to prevent malunion. Angular stable locking for intramedullary nails pledge to provide increased mechanical stability. This study tested the hypothesis that intramedullary nails with angular stable interlocking screws would have increased construct stiffness, reduced fracture gap movement and enhanced fatigue failure compared to nails with conventional locking having the same diameter. Biomechanical experiments were performed on 24 human cadaveric tibiae which obtained a distal fracture and were fixed by three different techniques: conventional locking with 8- and 10-mm-diameter nails and angular stable locking with 8-mm nails. Stiffness of the implant–bone construct and movement of the fragments were tested under axial loading and torsion. The constructs were tested to failure under cyclic fatigue loading. Analysis of variance and Kaplan–Meier survival analysis were used for statistical assessment. Axial stiffness of the 10-mm nail was about 50% larger compared to both 8-mm nail constructs independent of the type of locking mode (p < 0.01). No differences were found in axial performance between angular stable and conventional locking neither under static nor under cyclic testing conditions (p > 0.5). Angular stability significantly decreased the clearance under torsional load by more than 50% compared to both conventionally locked constructs (p = 0.03). However, due to the larger nail diameter, the total interfragmentary motion was still smallest for the 10-mm nail construct (p < 0.01). Although the 10-mm nail constructs survived slightly longer, differences between groups were minor and not statistically significant (p = 0.4). Our hypothesis that angular stable interlocking of intramedullary nails would improve mechanical performance of distal tibia fracture fixation was not confirmed in a physiologically realistic loading scenario. Whether minor mechanical advantages provided by angular stability of the locking screws would improve biological tissue response cannot be concluded from this biomechanical study.
From Caregivers to Peers
Authors: Picci Giorgia , Scherf K. Suzanne
Published: September 2016

Puberty prepares mammals to sexually reproduce during adolescence. It is also hypothesized to invoke a social metamorphosis that prepares adolescents to take on adult social roles. We provide the first evidence to support this hypothesis in humans and show that pubertal development retunes the face-processing system from a caregiver bias to a peer bias. Prior to puberty, children exhibit enhanced recognition for adult female faces. With puberty, superior recognition emerges for peer faces that match one’s pubertal status. As puberty progresses, so does the peer recognition bias. Adolescents become better at recognizing faces with a pubertal status similar to their own. These findings reconceptualize the adolescent “dip” in face recognition by showing that it is a recalibration of the face-processing system away from caregivers toward peers. Thus, in addition to preparing the physical body for sexual reproduction, puberty shapes the perceptual system for processing the social world in new ways.
A Tale of Two Types of Perspective Taking
Authors: Tarampi Margaret R. , Heydari Nahal , Hegarty Mary
Published: September 2016

Sex differences in favor of males have been documented in measures of spatial perspective taking. In this research, we examined whether social factors (i.e., stereotype threat and the inclusion of human figures in tasks) account for these differences. In Experiment 1, we evaluated performance when perspective-taking tests were framed as measuring either spatial or social (empathetic) perspective-taking abilities. In the spatial condition, tasks were framed as measures of spatial ability on which males have an advantage. In the social condition, modified tasks contained human figures and were framed as measures of empathy on which females have an advantage. Results showed a sex difference in favor of males in the spatial condition but not the social condition. Experiments 2 and 3 indicated that both stereotype threat and including human figures contributed to these effects. Results suggest that females may underperform on spatial tests in part because of negative performance expectations and the character of the spatial tests rather than because of actual lack of abilities.
Feasibility of reusing time-matched controls in an overlapping cohort
Authors: Delcoigne Bénédicte , Hagenbuch Niels , Schelin Maria EC , Salim Agus , Lindström Linda S , Bergh Jonas , Czene Kamila , Reilly Marie
Published: September 2016

The methods developed for secondary analysis of nested case-control data have been illustrated only in simplified settings in a common cohort and have not found their way into biostatistical practice. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of reusing prior nested case-control data in a realistic setting where a new outcome is available in an overlapping cohort where no new controls were gathered and where all data have been anonymised. Using basic information about the background cohort and sampling criteria, the new cases and prior data are “aligned” to identify the common underlying study base. With this study base, a Kaplan–Meier table of the prior outcome extracts the risk sets required to calculate the weights to assign to the controls to remove the sampling bias. A weighted Cox regression, implemented in standard statistical software, provides unbiased hazard ratios. Using the method to compare cases of contralateral breast cancer to available controls from a prior study of metastases, we identified a multifocal tumor as a risk factor that has not been reported previously. We examine the sensitivity of the method to an imperfect weighting scheme and discuss its merits and pitfalls to provide guidance for its use in medical research studies.
What Touched Your Heart? Collaborative Story Analysis Emerging From an Apsáalooke Cultural Context
Authors: Hallett John , Held Suzanne , McCormick Alma Knows His Gun , Simonds Vanessa , Real Bird Sloane , Martin Christine , Simpson Colleen , Schure Mark , Turnsplenty Nicole , Trottier Coleen
Published: September 2016

Community-based participatory research and decolonizing research share some recommendations for best practices for conducting research. One commonality is partnering on all stages of research; co-developing methods of data analysis is one stage with a deficit of partnering examples. We present a novel community-based and developed method for analyzing qualitative data within an Indigenous health study and explain incompatibilities of existing methods for our purposes and community needs. We describe how we explored available literature, received counsel from community Elders and experts in the field, and collaboratively developed a data analysis method consonant with community values. The method of analysis, in which interview/story remained intact, team members received story, made meaning through discussion, and generated a conceptual framework to inform intervention development, is detailed. We offer the development process and method as an example for researchers working with communities who want to keep stories intact during qualitative data analysis.
The Neural Code for Pain: From Single-Cell Electrophysiology to the Dynamic Pain Connectome
Authors: Kucyi Aaron , Davis Karen D.
Published: September 2016

Pain occurs in time. In naturalistic settings, pain perception is sometimes stable but often varies in intensity and quality over the course of seconds, minutes, and days. A principal aim in classic electrophysiology studies of pain was to uncover a neural code based on the temporal patterns of single neuron firing. In contrast, modern neuroimaging studies have placed emphasis on uncovering the spatial pattern of brain activity (or “map”) that may reflect the pain experience. However, in the emerging field of connectomics, communication within and among brain networks is characterized as intrinsically dynamic on multiple time scales. In this review, we revisit the single-cell electrophysiological evidence for a nociceptive neural code and consider how those findings relate to recent advances in understanding systems-level dynamic processes that suggest the existence of a “dynamic pain connectome” as a spatiotemporal physiological signature of pain. We explore how spontaneous activity fluctuations in this dynamic system shape, and are shaped by, acute and chronic pain experiences and individual differences in those experiences. Highlighting the temporal dimension of pain, we aim to move pain theory beyond the concept of a static neurosignature and toward an ethologically relevant account of naturalistic dynamics.
Psychometric Evaluation of the Comprehensive Trauma Interview PTSD Symptoms Scale Following Exposure to Child Maltreatment
Authors: Shenk Chad E. , Noll Jennie G. , Griffin Amanda M. , Allen Elizabeth K. , Lee Shelby E. , Lewkovich Kristen L. , Allen Brian
Published: September 2016

The current study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Comprehensive Trauma Interview Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Symptoms Scale (CTI-PSS), a novel method of assessing PTSD symptoms following exposure to a range of child adversities in the child maltreatment population. A sample of female adolescents ( n = 343) exposed to substantiated child sexual abuse and a nonmaltreated comparison condition completed the CTI-PSS and other established measures to assess internal consistency, factor structure, test discriminability as well as convergent, discriminant, and incremental validities. Results demonstrated that the CTI-PSS is a reliable and valid measure of PTSD symptoms with good discriminability and a factor structure that fits existing conceptualizations of the PTSD construct. It also demonstrated strong convergence with an established measure of PTSD symptoms and explained unique variance in the prediction of child sexual abuse status. Overall, the CTI-PSS appears to be a useful instrument for assessing PTSD symptoms in the child maltreatment population.
Fluid Reasoning Mediates the Association of Birth Weight With ADHD Symptoms in Youth From Multiplex Families With ADHD
Authors: Morgan Julia E. , Lee Steve S. , Loo Sandra K.
Published: September 2016

Objective: We tested mediation of birth weight and ADHD symptoms by multiple biologically plausible neurocognitive functions and evaluated familiality of observed indirect effects. Method: 647 youth from 284 multiplex families with ADHD completed the Arithmetic, Digit Span, Vocabulary, and Block Design subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC). Multiple mediation tested WISC subtests as mediators of birth weight and multi-informant ADHD symptoms. Familiality of indirect effects was estimated via moderated mediation comparing conditional indirect effects across siblings concordant and discordant for ADHD. Results: Controlling for IQ and demographic factors, Arithmetic uniquely mediated birth weight and ADHD symptoms. Conditional indirect effects through Arithmetic did not differ across ADHD concordant and discordant siblings. Conclusion: These cross-sectional findings support previous prospective longitudinal research implicating Arithmetic (i.e., fluid reasoning) as a preliminary causal mediator of birth weight and ADHD symptoms, and suggest that this pathway is independent of genetic influences on ADHD.
Responsive Evaluation in the Interference Zone Between System and Lifeworld
Authors: Abma Tineke A. , Leyerzapf Hannah , Landeweer Elleke
Published: September 2016

Responsive evaluation honors democratic and participatory values and intends to foster dialogues among stakeholders to include their voices and enhance mutual understandings. The question explored in this article is whether and how responsive evaluation can offer a platform for moral learning ( Bildung) in the interference zone between system and lifeworld. A case example from Dutch psychiatry is presented. Policy makers aimed to develop a “monitoring instrument” for closed psychiatric wards to protect patient rights and prevent incidents. Tensions arose between strategic action and system values (accountability, efficiency, control, safety) and the search for meaning and morality. Several dynamics were set in motion. Through the creation of communicative spaces in which there was room for expression of emotions and stories, the “colonization” by system values was countered. Another dynamic called “culturalization” started simultaneously, that is, adoption of lifeworld values in the system world, which resulted in constructive dialogues on the meaning of good care and moral learning.
Architecture of Sensation
Authors: Paterson Mark
Published: September 2016

Recent social theory that stresses the ‘nonrepresentational’, the ‘more-than visual’, and the relationship between affect and sensation have tended to assume some kind of break or rupture from historical antecedents. Especially since the contributions of Crary and Jay in the 1990s, when it comes to perceiving the built environment the complexities of sensation have been partially obscured by the dominance of a static model of vision as the principal organizing modality. This article returns to some prior historical articulations of the significance of motility in perception, retracing pathways across art history, architectural theory and the history of neuroscience to argue for an alternative model based on the movement of the eye. Along with subsystems that deal with balance and orientation, I offer parallels between spatial motifs of the interior spaces of the body – labyrinths, vestibules, chambers – and those in artefacts and the built environment that contribute to the heightened physicality of the oculomotor subject.
Digital/commercial (in)visibility
Authors: Leander Anna
Published: September 2016

This article explores one aspect of digital politics, the politics of videos and more specifically of DAESH recruitment videos. It proposes a practice theoretical approach to the politics of DAESH recruitment videos focused on the re-production of regimes of (in)visibility. The article develops an argument demonstrating specifically how digital and commercial logics characterize the aesthetic, circulatory, and infrastructuring practices re-producing the regime of (in)visibility. It shows that digital/commercial logics are at the heart of the combinatorial marketing of multiple, contradictory images of the DAESH polity in the videos; that they are core to the participatory, entrepreneurial, individualized and affective processes of contagion determining whom the videos reach and involve; and that they shape the sorting, linking, flagging and censoring of the videos that define their accessibility on the internet. The theoretical and political cost of overlooking these digital and commercial characteristics of DAESH visibility practices are high. It perpetuates misconceptions of how the videos work and what their politics are and it reinforces the digital Orientalism/Occidentalism in which these misconceptions are anchored.
Time-use in different rooms of selected New Zealand houses and the influence of plan layout
Authors: Khajehzadeh Iman , Vale Brenda , Isaacs Nigel
Published: September 2016

House interiors are affected by outdoor and indoor pollutants although levels of exposure differ with room type. The times people spend in rooms also differ, and hence their potential level of exposure, which is the focus of this article. Additionally, time spent in a kitchen during cooking, which is the main source of indoor particulates for non-smoking households, could affect indoor air quality in other rooms, especially where the kitchen is part of an open plan arrangement. This study investigated the time people spend in all rooms including kitchens and open plan kitchen/dining/living in New Zealand houses. On average, New Zealanders spend 54% of time at home indoors in usual bedrooms and 29%–36% in a living room, dining room, and kitchen (or combination of these). People in open plan houses spend less time in living areas than those in cellular plan houses, but effectively more time in the ‘kitchen’. Given time spent in a combined living room/dining/kitchen, combined living room/kitchen or combined dining room/kitchen is effectively time spent in a kitchen, people spend respectively 3.23, 1.36 and 0.53 h/day more in the kitchen compared to those having a separate kitchen, which could increase their chance of exposure to kitchen pollutants.
Ability of artificial and live houseplants to capture indoor particulate matter
Authors: Panyametheekul Sirima , Rattanapun Thanakorn , Ongwandee Maneerat
Published: September 2016

Two artificial and three live houseplants were assessed for their abilities to capture particulate matter smaller than 2.5 µm (PM2.5) generated by burning an incense stick. The test plants included polyester Boston fern, polyethylene Dieffenbachia, Golden Pothos ( Epipremnum aureum), Painted nettle ( Plectranthus scutellarioides) and Rainbow tree ( Dracaena cincta Bak. ‘Tricolor’). Each plant was tested one at a time in a closed 8-m3 chamber, and the PM2.5 concentrations were continuously measured for 24 h. A loss rate constant for PM2.5 due to deposition onto leaf surface was determined by fitting measured concentrations to a mass balance model using nonlinear regression. The PM2.5 loss rates for the artificial Boston fern correlated well with its total leaf surface areas at the significant level of 0.5. All studied plants had PM2.5 loss rates ranging from 0.05 to 0.08 h−1 under the testing condition of similar total leaf surface areas, while a PM2.5 loss rate due to deposition onto the chamber surfaces was 0.03 h−1. Stereo microscope leaf images revealed the particle accumulation mostly on the midribs and veins rather than the flat blades, while the woven polyester fabric of the artificial plant acts as a filter for collecting the coarse particles.
Effect of implementing large-scale charge motion, reducing hydraulic flow of the injector and increasing injection pressure on particle emissions of a GDI engine at WOT and boosted operation
Authors: Bertsch Markus , Weidenlener Alex , Dörnhöfer Johannes , Koch Thomas , Velji Amin
Published: September 2016

Gasoline direct injection (GDI) shows advantages compared with port fuel injection (PFI) regarding efficiency and specific power. Due to stricter regulations for fuel consumption (via the regulation of carbon dioxide), GDI engines are becoming increasingly favourable compared with PFI engines. Therefore the share of GDI engines, especially in combination with turbocharging, is increasing in most of the markets with CO2 regulations. Challenging for GDI engines is the mixture formation process due to the short time between fuel injection and the start of combustion. Thus, the injector needs to provide a fine fuel atomization in a considerably short time. The generated spray pattern thereby interacts with the in-cylinder charge motion to generate an appropriate air–fuel mixture. Because of this challenging mixture formation process, the formation of soot in local fuel-rich areas is possible. Thus GDI engines emit more particles compared with PFI engines and need special attention on the mixture formation process. To understand the reasons for the increased particle number (PN) emissions, a project concerning the cause of particle emissions was started at Institute of Internal Combustion Engines (IFKM) in Karlsruhe in 2011. During the project, different causes for PN emissions were identified. This article discusses the possible reasons for particle emissions under high engine load and low engine speed and shows some possible solutions to reduce the emission of particles. Discussed possible solutions to enhance the mixture formation process are the generation of a large-scale charge motion (tumble and swirl), the reduction of the hydraulic flow of the multi-hole, solenoid-activated injector and an increase of the rail pressure up to 50 MPa. The reduction of the hydraulic flow and the increase of the injection pressure lead to smaller average droplets and thus to a faster evaporation. An implementation of a large-scale charge motion enhances the mixture formation process and leads to a reduction of the emitted PN concentration at high engine load. This is shown for wide open throttle (WOT) as well as for boosted operation. The reduction of the hydraulic flow of the injector by reducing the bore hole diameter at constant number of holes and spray targeting of the injector leads to smaller droplets. By increasing the injection pressure, the injection duration as well as the average droplet size can be reduced and leads to a better homogenization and a further reduced PN concentration.
Joint markets
Authors: Kjellberg Hans , Olson David
Published: September 2016

Combining previous work on market formation and regulation with a case study of the emerging legal cannabis markets in the United States, we develop the argument that interrelations to other markets contribute significantly to constitute the social systems of regulated markets. Specifically, market interrelations enacted during legitimation and regulation influence who becomes involved in the market formation process and direct attention to specific issues in that process. After successfully (re)regulating a market, new interrelations are enacted via practices borrowed from historic, parallel and auxiliary markets, and via material influences based on complementarity and substitutability. While these multiple interrelations to other markets complicate market delineation, they are also a historical precondition for it.
Puncturing Plaques
Authors: Roy Trisha , Liu Garry , Shaikh Noor , Dueck Andrew D. , Wright Graham A.
Published: September 2016

Purpose: To test and validate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequences for peripheral artery lesion characterization and relate the MRI characteristics to the amount of force required for a guidewire to puncture peripheral chronic total occlusions (CTOs) as a surrogate for immediate failure of endovascular therapy. Methods: Diseased superficial femoral, popliteal, and tibial artery segments containing 55 atherosclerotic lesions were excised from the amputated limbs of 7 patients with critical limb ischemia. The lesions were imaged at high resolution (75 μm3 voxels) with T2-weighted (T2W) and ultrashort echo time (UTE) sequences on a 7-T MR scanner. The MR images (n=15) were validated with micro–computed tomography and histology. CTOs (n=40) were classified by their MR signal characteristics as “soft” (signals indicating fat, thrombus, microchannels, or loose fibrous tissue), “hard” (collagen and/or speckled calcium signals), or “calcified” (calcified nodule signals). A 2-kg load cell advanced the back end of a 0.035-inch stiff guidewire at a fixed displacement rate (0.05 mm/s) through the CTOs, and the forces required to cross each lesion were measured. Results: T2W images showed fat as hyperintense and hardened tissue as hypointense. Calcium and thrombus appeared as a signal void in conventional MRI sequences but were easily identified in UTE images (thrombus was hyperintense and calcium hypointense). MRI accurately differentiated “hard,” “soft,” and “calcified” CTOs based on associated guidewire puncture force. The guidewire could not enter “calcified” CTOs (n=6) at all. “Hard” CTOs (n=9) required a significantly higher (p<0.001) puncture force of 1.71±0.51 N vs 0.43±0.36 N for “soft” CTOs (n=25). Conclusion: MRI characteristics of PAD lesions correlate with guidewire puncture forces, an important aspect of crossability. Future work will determine if clinical MR scanners can be used to predict success in peripheral vascular interventions.
Tissue transglutaminase-1 promotes stemness and chemoresistance in gastric cancer cells by regulating Wnt/β-catenin signaling
Authors: Huang Haitao , Chen Zhiqi , Ni Xiuqin
Published: September 2016

Gastric cancer is a common malignancy, and is one of the most frequent causes of cancer deaths worldwide. Recently, members of the transglutaminases (TGM) family, especially TGM2, have been implicated in the progression and drug resistance of cancers, but the function of TGM1 in cancer development has been largely overlooked. In this study, we demonstrate the roles of TGM1 in development of gastric cancer. We found that expression levels of TGM1 were upregulated in both gastric cancer tissues and cultured gastric cancer cells, and that TGM1 expression levels were correlated with patient survival. In cultured gastric cancer cells, loss of TGM1 expression inhibited cell proliferation and promoted apoptosis, as well increased gastric cancer cell sensitivity to chemotherapeutic drugs and reducing stemness. These results strongly supported the participation of TGM1 in the regulation of gastric cancer development. In addition, we found evidence that the mechanism of action of TGM1 in regulating gastric cancer cell might involve the Wnt signaling pathway, as loss of TGM1 expression in gastric cancer cells led to a significant suppression of Wnt signaling activities.
President Emeritus Miguel A. Nevárez: An Agent for Social Justice in Higher Education
Authors: Avila Rolando , Pankake Anita
Published: September 2016

This study chronicles important contributions made by Miguel A. Nevárez, an Hispanic model for social justice in higher education. An analysis of archival records and interviews shows how Nevárez brought about greater opportunities for South Texas students by institutionalizing campus initiatives and by playing a role in the birth of the South Texas Border Initiative and the expansion of the University of Texas System. By chronicling Nevárez’s actions, this study fills a gap in the historical record.
Forecasting traffic congestion status in terminal areas based on support vector machine
Authors: Zhang Hong-hai , Jiang Cheng-peng , Yang Lei
Published: September 2016

This article researches on a traffic congestion status forecasting method to improve the real-time monitoring and controlling of air traffic in terminal areas. First, a traffic congestion status evaluation method was introduced based on a fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm, as well as several traffic congestion status evaluation metrics. And then, a traffic congestion status forecasting model was proposed based on support vector machine. Finally, a real case study from a terminal area in China was provided to test and verify the proposed evaluation method and forecasting model. The evaluation results show that traffic congestion status of the terminal area can be classified into five levels: free, smooth, slightly congested, moderately congested, and severely congested. The forecasting results show that the mean absolute error and the cluster accuracy are 0.041% and 92.2%, respectively, which indicate that the forecasting model is very effective and accurate. In addition, it is also found that the parameters of forecasting period and size of training set have some influence on forecasting results, and the optimal results can be found when the two parameters values are 15 and 3, respectively.
Experimental investigation of flow behavior for scalloped and lobed mixers
Authors: Merati Parviz , Cooper Nathan J
Published: September 2016

Particle image velocimetry and planar laser-induced fluorescence techniques are used to measure the flow of scalloped, lobed, and splitter mixers. Special attention is given to the understanding of the details of the flow for the scalloped mixers and the role of the notches in enhancing the mixing process. The comparisons between the three mixers are explained by providing detailed measurements on several axial and cross-streamwise planes. Scalloped–lobed mixers enhance the mixing of the two streams by generating an additional pair of small-scale streamwise vortices not observed in the lobed mixer shear layer. Under the same test condition, the impingement of the inner flow on the mixing duct occurs further downstream than the lobed mixer. For the scalloped mixer, the decay of the cross-streamwise velocity starts at its exit plane, while for the lobed mixer, there is an initial magnitude rise before the streamwise decay.
Vonoprazan-based therapy for Helicobacter pylori eradication: experience and clinical evidence
Authors: Akazawa Yuko , Fukuda Daisuke , Fukuda Yutaka
Published: September 2016

Stable suppression of gastric acid secretion is a crucial factor in Helicobacter pylori eradication. Vonoprazan is a potassium-competitive acid blocker recently approved for use in Japan. As vonoprazan has a long duration of action and causes rapid and strong inhibition of gastric acid secretion, it has gained clinical attention for treating erosive oesophagitis, peptic ulcers, and H. pylori infection. In this review, we discuss the recent knowledge regarding the safety and efficacy of vonoprazan, focusing on its use in H. pylori eradication. The latest literature and our clinical experience have shown that vonoprazan-based therapies have satisfactory eradication rates. Additionally, vonoprazan-based therapies are associated with similar rates of adverse events as standard triple therapies with conventional proton-pump inhibitors.
Glycemic Control Indices and Their Aggregation in the Prediction of Nocturnal Hypoglycemia From Intermittent Blood Glucose Measurements
Authors: Sampath Sivananthan , Tkachenko Pavlo , Renard Eric , Pereverzev Sergei V.
Published: September 2016

Background:

Despite the risk associated with nocturnal hypoglycemia (NH) there are only a few methods aiming at the prediction of such events based on intermittent blood glucose monitoring data. One of the first methods that potentially can be used for NH prediction is based on the low blood glucose index (LBGI) and suggested, for example, in Accu-Chek® Connect as a hypoglycemia risk indicator. On the other hand, nowadays there are other glucose control indices (GCI), which could be used for NH prediction in the same spirit as LBGI. In the present study we propose a general approach of combining NH predictors constructed from different GCI.

Methods:

The approach is based on a recently developed strategy for aggregating ranking algorithms in machine learning. NH predictors have been calibrated and tested on data extracted from clinical trials, performed in EU FP7-funded project DIAdvisor. Then, to show a portability of the method we have tested it on another dataset that was received from EU Horizon 2020-funded project AMMODIT.

Results:

We exemplify the proposed approach by aggregating NH predictors that have been constructed based on 4 GCI associated with hypoglycemia. Even though these predictors have been preliminary optimized to exhibit better performance on the considered dataset, our aggregation approach allows a further performance improvement. On the dataset, where a portability of the proposed approach has been demonstrated, the aggregating predictor has exhibited the following performance: sensitivity 77%, specificity 83.4%, positive predictive value 80.2%, negative predictive value 80.6%, which is higher than conventionally considered as acceptable.

Conclusion:

The proposed approach shows potential to be used in telemedicine systems for NH prediction.
‘A mechanistic interpretation, if possible’: How does predictive modelling causality affect the regulation of chemicals?
Authors: Thoreau François
Published: September 2016

The regulation of chemicals is undergoing drastic changes with the use of computational models to predict environmental toxicity. This particular issue has not attracted much attention, despite its major impacts on the regulation of chemicals. This raises the problem of causality at the crossroads between data and regulatory sciences, particularly in the case models known as quantitative structure–activity relationship models. This paper shows that models establish correlations and not scientific facts, and it engages anew the way regulators deal with uncertainties. It does so by exploring the tension and problems raised by the possibility of causal explanation afforded by quantitative structure–activity relationship models. It argues that the specificity of predictive modelling promotes rethinking of the regulation of chemicals.
Collaborating to Plan and Implement a Sex Education Curriculum for Individuals With Disabilities
Authors: Sinclair James , Kahn Laurie G. , Rowe Dawn A. , Mazzotti Valerie L. , Hirano Kara A. , Knowles Christen
Published: September 2016

Sex education is not only a necessary component of public school curriculum, but it is also an important opportunity for students with and without disabilities to learn about their own development as emerging adults. Although comprehensive sex education is not federally mandated, many states and districts choose to offer some form of sex education to students. This article describes a five step collaborative process for planning to implement a sex education program to support the needs of students with disabilities.
Modeling the Effects of Sensorineural Hearing Loss on Sound Localization in the Median Plane
Authors: Baumgartner Robert , Majdak Piotr , Laback Bernhard
Published: September 2016

Listeners use monaural spectral cues to localize sound sources in sagittal planes (along the up-down and front-back directions). How sensorineural hearing loss affects the salience of monaural spectral cues is unclear. To simulate the effects of outer-hair-cell (OHC) dysfunction and the contribution of different auditory-nerve fiber types on localization performance, we incorporated a nonlinear model of the auditory periphery into a model of sagittal-plane sound localization for normal-hearing listeners. The localization model was first evaluated in its ability to predict the effects of spectral cue modifications for normal-hearing listeners. Then, we used it to simulate various degrees of OHC dysfunction applied to different types of auditory-nerve fibers. Predicted localization performance was hardly affected by mild OHC dysfunction but was strongly degraded in conditions involving severe and complete OHC dysfunction. These predictions resemble the usually observed degradation in localization performance induced by sensorineural hearing loss. Predicted localization performance was best when preserving fibers with medium spontaneous rates, which is particularly important in view of noise-induced hearing loss associated with degeneration of this fiber type. On average across listeners, predicted localization performance was strongly related to level discrimination sensitivity of auditory-nerve fibers, indicating an essential role of this coding property for localization accuracy in sagittal planes.
rapidGSEA: Speeding up gene set enrichment analysis on multi-core CPUs and CUDA-enabled GPUs
Authors: Hundt Christian , Hildebrandt Andreas , Schmidt Bertil
Published: September 2016

Background

Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) is a popular method to reveal significant dependencies between predefined sets of gene symbols and observed phenotypes by evaluating the deviation of gene expression values between cases and controls. An established measure of inter-class deviation, the enrichment score, is usually computed using a weighted running sum statistic over the whole set of gene symbols. Due to the lack of analytic expressions the significance of enrichment scores is determined using a non-parametric estimation of their null distribution by permuting the phenotype labels of the probed patients. Accordingly, GSEA is a time-consuming task due to the large number of required permutations to accurately estimate the nominal p-value – a circumstance that is even more pronounced during multiple hypothesis testing since its estimate is lower-bounded by the inverse number of samples in permutation space.

Results

We present rapidGSEA – a software suite consisting of two tools for facilitating permutation-based GSEA: cudaGSEA and ompGSEA. cudaGSEA is a CUDA-accelerated tool using fine-grained parallelization schemes on massively parallel architectures while ompGSEA is a coarse-grained multi-threaded tool for multi-core CPUs. Nominal p-value estimation of 4,725 gene sets on a data set consisting of 20,639 unique gene symbols and 200 patients (183 cases + 17 controls) each probing one million permutations takes 19 hours on a Xeon CPU and less than one hour on a GeForce Titan X GPU while the established GSEA tool from the Broad Institute (broadGSEA) takes roughly 13 days.

Conclusion

cudaGSEA outperforms broadGSEA by around two orders-of-magnitude on a single Tesla K40c or GeForce Titan X GPU. ompGSEA provides around one order-of-magnitude speedup to broadGSEA on a standard Xeon CPU. The rapidGSEA suite is open-source software and can be downloaded at https://github.com/gravitino/cudaGSEAas standalone application or package for the R framework.
Combinatorial identification of DNA methylation patterns over age in the human brain
Authors: Torabi Moghadam Behrooz , Dabrowski Michal , Kaminska Bozena , Grabherr Manfred G. , Komorowski Jan
Published: September 2016

Background

DNA methylation plays a key role in developmental processes, which is reflected in changing methylation patterns at specific CpG sites over the lifetime of an individual. The underlying mechanisms are complex and possibly affect multiple genes or entire pathways.

Results

We applied a multivariate approach to identify combinations of CpG sites that undergo modifications when transitioning between developmental stages. Monte Carlo feature selection produced a list of ranked and statistically significant CpG sites, while rule-based models allowed for identifying particular methylation changes in these sites.

Our rule-based classifier reports combinations of CpG sites, together with changes in their methylation status in the form of easy-to-read IF-THEN rules, which allows for identification of the genes associated with the underlying sites.

Conclusion

We utilized machine learning and statistical methods to discretize decision class (age) values to get a general pattern of methylation changes over the lifespan. The CpG sites present in the significant rules were annotated to genes involved in brain formation, general development, as well as genes linked to cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
Noninvasive in-vivo tracing and imaging of transplanted stem cells for liver regeneration
Authors: Cen Panpan , Chen Jiajia , Hu Chenxia , Fan Linxiao , Wang Jie , Li Lanjuan
Published: September 2016

Terminal liver disease is a major cause of death globally. The only ultimate therapeutic approach is orthotopic liver transplant. Because of the innate defects of organ transplantation, stem cell-based therapy has emerged as an effective alternative, based on the capacity of stem cells for multilineage differentiation and their homing to injured sites. However, the disease etiology, cell type, timing of cellular graft, therapeutic dose, delivery route, and choice of endpoints have varied between studies, leading to different, even divergent, results. In-vivo cell imaging could therefore help us better understand the fate and behaviors of stem cells to optimize cell-based therapy for liver regeneration. The primary imaging techniques in preclinical or clinical studies have consisted of optical imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, radionuclide imaging, reporter gene imaging, and Y chromosome-based fluorescence in-situ hybridization imaging. More attention has been focused on developing new or modified imaging methods for longitudinal and high-efficiency tracing. Herein, we provide a descriptive overview of imaging modalities and discuss recent advances in the field of molecular imaging of intrahepatic stem cell grafts.
Sobel filter for edge detection of hexagonally sampled 3D seismic data
Authors: Ashraf Haroon , Mousa Wail A. , Al Dossary Saleh
Published: September 2016

In today’s industry, automatic detection of geologic features such as faults and channels is a challenging problem when the quality of data is not good. Edge detection filters are generally applied for the purpose of locating such features. Until now, edge detection has been carried out on rectangularly sampled 3D seismic data. The computational cost of edge detection can be reduced by exploring other sampling approaches instead of the regular rectangular sampling commonly used. Hexagonal sampling is an alternative to rectangular sampling that requires 13.4% less samples for the same level of accuracy. The hexagonal approach is an efficient method of sampling with greater symmetry compared with the rectangular approach. Spiral architecture can be used to handle the hexagonally sampled seismic data. Spiral architecture is an attractive scheme for handling 2D images that enables processing 2D data as 1D data in addition to the inherent hexagonal sampling advantages. Thus, the savings in number of samples, greater symmetry, and efficient data handling capability makes hexagonal sampling an ideal choice for computationally exhaustive operations. For the first time to our knowledge, we have made an attempt to detect edges in hexagonally sampled seismic data using spiral architecture. We compared edge detection on rectangular and hexagonally sampled seismic data using 2D and 3D filters in rectangular and hexagonal domains. We determined that hexagonal processing results in exceptional computational savings, when compared with its rectangular processing counterpart.