bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Clusters on the road to internationalization – evidence from a CEE economy
Authors: Jankowska Barbara , Główka Cezary
Published: July 2016

Purpose

This paper aims to respond to the call for empirical research on cluster internationalization to learn more about the mechanism of cluster internationalization and the intensity of this process in a Polish context, which is specific due to Poland.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors provide a conceptual model of cluster internationalization and show results of their own primary, empirical and quantitative research on cluster internationalization in Poland.

Findings

The study reveals that Polish clusters are at the beginning of the internationalization process, particularly of the outward internationalization. The most popular mode of internationalization is exports. The level of Polish cluster internationalization operations is relatively low.

Research limitations/implications

Data were provided by cluster managers, but none of the cluster organizations had a reliable monitoring system for the international involvement of cluster members. These results are merely a snapshot; therefore, a longitudinal study should also be carried out.

Social implications

The research demonstrates that cluster companies can take advantage of internationalization operations performed by cluster organizations. The attempts of Polish government should be directed to push the internationalization of micros and small and medium-sized enterprises via cluster initiatives on the one hand and on the other hand to develop some kind of incentives for large companies to participate in cluster organizations as in reality exports are dominated by large firms.

Originality/value

The main value added of this paper consists in developing the conceptual model of cluster internationalization and applying the model in empirical research on the internationalization of Polish clusters. The study bridges the theory of firm internationalization, especially the approaches to firm internationalization with the theory of clusters. It offers insight into internationalization of clusters in Poland.
Exploring the experiences of administrative interns
Authors: Jamison Kimberly , Clayton Jennifer
Published: July 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to identify how current administrative interns enrolled in a university administrator preparation program describe and make meaning of their internship experiences.

Design/methodology/approach

– For this qualitative study, the researchers interviewed administrative interns enrolled in one university preparation program throughout their internship regarding the experiences.

Findings

– The findings from this study contribute and add value to research in the area of administrator preparation by highlighting the experiences of administrative interns as well as the implications of how interns make meaning of those experiences using a developmental concerns framework. Key factors influencing those perceptions cited by interns as a result of their internship experiences include the interns’ readiness to take on leadership positions, their change in perception of administration, perceptions of journal reflections as an internship component, supporting teachers, receiving feedback from others, and the level of support provided by their internship supervisor.

Originality/value

– The findings from this study contribute to research in the area of administrator preparation at the university level, specifically pertaining to the structure of the internship, how university preparation programs can respond to interns’ concerns, and the design and emphasis of practicum experiences within those degree or certificate programs.
Leadership training for undergraduate medical students
Authors: Maddalena Victor
Published: July 2016

Purpose

Physicians play an important leadership role in the management and governance of the healthcare system. Yet, many physicians lack formal management and leadership training to prepare them for this challenging role. This Viewpoint article argues that leadership concepts need to be introduced to undergraduate medical students early and throughout their medical education.

Design/methodology/approach

Leadership is an integral part of medical practice. The recent inclusion of “Leader” competency in the CanMEDS 2015 represents a subtle but important shift from the previous “manager” competency. Providing medical students with the basics of leadership concepts early in their medical education allows them to integrate leadership principles into their professional practice.

Findings

The Faculty of Medicine at the Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) has developed an eight-module, fully online Physician Leadership Certificate for their undergraduate medical education program. This program is cited as an example of an undergraduate medical curriculum that offers leadership training throughout the 4 years of the MD program.

Originality/value

There are a number of continuing professional development opportunities for physicians in the area of management and leadership. This Viewpoint article challenges undergraduate medical education programs to develop and integrate leadership training in their curricula.
The role of the physician in transforming the culture of healthcare
Authors: Smits Stanley J. , Bowden Dawn E. , Wells James O.
Published: July 2016

Purpose

The healthcare system in the USA is undergoing unprecedented change and its share of unintended consequences. This paper explores the leadership role of the physician in transforming the present culture of healthcare to restore, refine and preserve its traditional care components.

Design/methodology/approach

The literature on change, organizational culture and leadership is leveraged to describe the structural interdependencies and dynamic complexity of the present healthcare system and to suggest how physicians can strengthen the care components of the healthcare culture.

Findings

When an organization’s culture does not support internal integration and external adaptation, it is the responsibility of leadership to transform it. Leaders can influence culture to strengthen the care components of the healthcare system. The centrality of professionalism in the delivery of patient services places a moral, societal and ethical responsibility on physicians to lead a revitalization of the care culture.

Practical implications

This paper focuses on cultural issues in healthcare and provides options and guidance for physicians as they attempt to lead and manage the context in which services are delivered.

Originality/value

The Competing Values Framework, the major interdependent domains and five principal mechanisms for leaders to embed and fine tune culture serve as the main tenets for describing the ongoing changes in healthcare and defining the role of the physician as leaders and advocates for the Patient Care Culture.
MRI rectal cancer in Australia and New Zealand: An audit from the PETACC‐6 trial
Authors: Gormly Kirsten L , Coscia Claudio , Wells Tim , Tebbutt Niall , Harvey Jennifer A , Wilson Kate , Schmoll Hans‐Joachim , Price Timothy
Published: July 2016

Introduction

An MRI audit substudy was conducted in patients who underwent an MRI prior to treatment in Australia and New Zealand as part of the PETACC‐6 trial in locally advanced rectal cancer.

Methods

A total of 82 patients from 15 centres had rectal MRI scans reviewed for technique, data included in reports and comparison of reports with blinded central reporting by two experienced radiologists.

Results

In total, 82% performed minimum T2 sagittal and T2 axial oblique sequences. The high‐resolution T2 sequence parameters varied significantly with only 33% obtaining a voxel size of <1.3 mm3. The rate of inclusion of relevant findings in the reports was T3 distance in mm 21%, N stage 84%, circumferential resection margin (CRM) status 72%, extramural venous invasion (EMVI) status 29% and distance from the puborectalis sling 17%. In total, 31% reports included all of T stage with T3 substage, N stage and CRM involvement. In total, 17% reports included these 3 findings and EMVI. Eleven reports used a template with 82% of these including the first 3 findings. The agreement with central reporters was T stage 76%, N stage 70%, CRM status 57% and EMVI 16%.

Conclusion

There is significant variation in scan quality and low rates of including all relevant findings in rectal MRI reports in the audit. The authors recommend adoption of routine sequences and template reports in both trial settings and routine practice to improve scan technique and adequacy of reports in rectal cancer MRI staging scans across Australia and New Zealand.
Discussion of “Communicated Values as Informal Controls: Promoting Quality While Undermining Productivity?”
Authors: Lynn Hannan R.
Published: July 2016

Kachelmeier, Thornock, and Williamson () investigate experimentally whether an employer's value statement can affect the way employees cognitively represent how they should approach a multi‐attribute task, and therefore performance. Counter‐intuitively, but consistent with their theory, they find that the value statement negatively affects performance for piece‐rate incentivized participants. In my discussion, I elaborate on my comments from the 2013 CAR Conference. Specifically, I discuss contexts where a firm's value statement may have positive effects on performance, and the importance of conducting research investigating how the decisions made by management accountants affect learning.
In Vitro Effects of the Neolignan 2,3‐Dihydrobenzofuran Against Leishmania Amazonensis
Authors: de Castro Oliveira Luciano Gomes , Brito Lucas Moreira , de Moraes Alves Michel Muálem , Amorim Layane Valéria , Sobrinho‐Júnior Enoque Pereira Costa , de Carvalho Camila Ernanda Sousa , da Franca Rodrigues Klinger Antonio , Arcanjo Daniel Dias Rufino , das Graças Lopes Citó Antônia Maria , de Amorim Carvalho Fernando Aécio
Published: July 2016

Leishmaniasis is an infectious disease complex caused by protozoa from the Leishmania genus, which presents a broad spectrum of clinical manifestations: cutaneous, mucocutaneous and visceral forms. The current treatments are unsatisfactory considering that few drugs are available and present some level of toxicity. Many lignans and neolignans have been used for the development of new antileishmania drugs. The capability in vitro of the neolignan 2,3‐dihydrobenzofuran (2,3‐DBF), a commonly found constituent of propolis and other plants, to inhibit the growth of promastigote and macrophage‐internalized amastigote forms of Leishmania amazonensis was investigated. The cytotoxicity of this compound was assessed by MTT (3‐[4,5‐dimethylthiazol‐2‐yl]‐2,5‐diphenyltetrazolium bromide) test in BALB/c murine macrophages and human erythrocyte lysis assay. The 2,3‐DBF was active against promastigote (IC50=1.042 μM) and amastigote (IC50=1.43 μM) forms, indicating a potent antileishmanial effect. There was no evidence of cytotoxicity to macrophages or erythrocytes at concentrations ranging from 13 to 0.5 μM, after 48 hr of exposure. The antileishmanial activity is probably mediated by the activation of macrophages, because treatment with 2,3‐DBF increases both phagocytic and lysosomal activities, as well as the nitrite (NO2−) levels. These results suggest that 2,3‐DBF may be a potential candidate for the development of a new promising antileishmanial drug. Further studies are needed to determine its potential in vivo effect as well as additional mechanisms underlying the antileishmanial and immunomodulatory activities.
Left ventricular pseudoaneurysm after mitral valve replacement
Authors: Neupane Saroj , Kommuri Naga VA , Kazanji Noora , Chowdhury Pertha
Published: July 2016

Development of left ventricular pseudoaneurysm is a rare complication of mitral valve surgery and requires urgent surgical intervention. We describe a case of pseudoaneurysm of membranous septum following repeat mitral valve replacement with the use of multimodality imaging.
Forest fragmentation alters winter microclimates and microrefugia in human‐modified landscapes
Authors: Latimer Christopher E. , Zuckerberg Benjamin
Published: July 2016

With over half of earth's terrestrial biota living beneath forest canopies, our ability to accurately capture organism–climate relationships in forested ecosystems is imperative for predicting species' vulnerability to future climate change. Assessing the vulnerability of forest dependent species, however, hinges on quantifying microclimates that exist below the forest canopy and might be influenced by varying levels of disturbance in human‐modified landscapes. The goal of our study was to examine the multi‐scaled predictors of subcanopy microclimate variability across a heterogeneous landscape in Midwestern USA during winter, and to further evaluate whether a widely available interpolated climate model accurately captures this variability. By deploying a network of temperature sensors along a fragmentation gradient, we found that forests in more fragmented landscapes with greater amounts of forest edge and increasing distances between forest patches, experienced colder minimum and average daily temperatures throughout the winter than forests in less fragmented landscapes. We found that greater tree densities and higher elevations led to warmer microclimates while increasing distances from urban centers led to colder microclimates. The negative effect of forest edge on minimum temperatures was lessened by the effect of increasing basal area, highlighting the importance of local‐ and landscape‐scale features on microclimate heterogeneity. Temperature discrepancies between subcanopy microclimates and climate interpolations were influenced by many of the same features, and could be of a similar magnitude as those predicted by future climate change scenarios. Using a biological threshold based on metabolic and demographic constraints for winter birds, we found that the variability in microclimates along our forest fragmentation gradient (50 km) was comparable to the magnitude captured by weather stations across a latitudinal gradient spanning more than 650 km. Our results suggest that biophysical properties of landscapes can alter spatial gradients of microclimates and should be considered when assessing species' vulnerabilities to future climate change.
Embryonic stem cells: a novel paradigm to study proteostasis?
Authors: Lee Hyun Ju , Gutierrez‐Garcia Ricardo , Vilchez David
Published: July 2016

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) exhibit a striking ability to replicate continuously in the absence of senescence. Despite the knowledge gained into ESC biology and cell reprogramming, the mechanisms that regulate their pluripotency, self‐renewal, and differentiation remain largely unknown. Recently, cumulative evidence has highlighted the importance of protein homeostasis, or proteostasis, in the maintenance of ESC function. These findings indicate that ESCs exhibit intrinsic differences in the regulation and activity of key nodes of the proteostasis network such as global protein synthesis, folding, and degradation rates. Here, we review new insights into proteostasis of ESCs and the questions raised by these findings. In addition, we discuss the potential of these discoveries to be applied into aging and cancer research.
Forage peanut (Arachis spp.) genetic evaluation and selection
Authors: Simeão R. M. , Assis G. M. L. , Montagner D. B. , Ferreira R. C. U.
Published: July 2016

Forage peanut improvement for use in grass–legume mixtures is expected to have a great impact on the sustainability of Brazilian livestock production. Eighteen cloned Arachis spp. ecotypes were evaluated under clipping in a Brazilian Cerrado region and results analysed using a mixed model methodology. The objective was to estimate genetic and phenotypic parameters and to select the best ecotypes based on selection index applied on their predicted genotypic value. The traits of total dry‐matter (DM) and leaf DM yield presented moderate (0·30 <  < 0·50) to high (>0·50) broad‐sense heritability, in contrast to the low genetic variability in nutritional quality‐associated traits. Ecotypes of Arachis spp. contained average crude protein concentrations of 224 g kg−1 DM in leaves and 138 g kg−1 DM in stems, supporting the potential role of these species to overcome the low protein content in Cerrado pastures. The correlations between yield traits and traits associated with low nutritional value in leaves were consistently significant and positive. Genetic correlations among all the yield traits evaluated during the rainy or dry seasons were significant and positive. The ecotypes were ranked based on selection index. The next step is to validate long‐term selection of grass–Arachis in combination with pastures under competition and adjusted grazing in the Cerrado region.
RCT of a 6‐month programmed sports therapy (PST) in patients with haemophilia – Improvement of physical fitness
Authors: Runkel B. , Czepa D. , Hilberg T.
Published: July 2016

Physical fitness is of major importance for patients with haemophilia (PwH) but is highly influenced by bleeding episodes. Although some cohort studies describe an improvement of physical fitness after training intervention, randomized controlled studies (RCT) in PwH are still rare.

Aim

The aim of this study was to prove the enhancement of physical work capacity in PwH by programmed sports therapy (PST).

Methods

This RCT includes a training period over six months. Sixty‐four PwH with moderate (n = 5) to severe (n = 59) haemophilia A (n = 57) and B (n = 7) were randomized into two groups – training intervention group (IG) and control group (CG) by block randomization. Complex strength measurements, joint score, coordination check and a 12‐min walking test were carried out before and after training intervention.

Results

Significant differences were tested in M. triceps brachii (Δ+0.62 N kg−1), biceps brachii (Δ+1.25 N kg−1), latissimus dorsi (Δ+0.59 N kg−1), rectus abdominis (Δ+0.51 N kg−1), biceps femoris (right: Δ+0.68 N kg−1; left: Δ+0.59 N kg−1) and the quadriceps femoris (right: Δ+0.71 N kg−1; left: Δ+0.55 N kg−1) after intervention between the two groups (all p ≤ 0.003). Furthermore, an increase in distance (Δ+171.5 m) covered in the 12‐min walking test (P = 0.011) was observed. Regarding one‐leg stand, a significant improvement (P = 0.037) in the IG (Δ+2.2 s right leg) after intervention could be determined.

Conclusion

For the first time, a study with a corresponding number of adult PwH in a RCT‐design showed that programmed sport therapy with specific instructions over 6 months has a positive effect on physical performance of PwH, independent of constitution and disease process.
Comparison of pregabalin with doxepin in the management of uremic pruritus: a randomized single blind clinical trial
Authors: Foroutan Nazanin , Etminan Abbas , Nikvarz Naemeh , Shojai Shahrokh Abadi Mohadese
Published: July 2016

Introduction: Pruritus is one of the frustrating skin manifestations of advanced renal failure. Many options have been used for the management of uremic pruritus (UP) such as pregabalin. There are some studies that reported beneficial effects of pregabalin in reducing UP; however, most of them did not have a comparator arm. Therefore, we designed this study to compare antipruritic effects of pregabalin with doxepin in the management of pruritus in hemodialysis patients. Methods: Seventy‐two patients suffering from UP were randomly assigned to receive pregabalin (50 mg every other day) or doxepin (10 mg per day) for 4 weeks. Severity of pruritus and its effect on quality of life were assessed by visual analog scale (VAS), 5‐D itch scale and dermatology life quality index (DLQI) at baseline and after 1 week, 2 weeks and 4 weeks of the treatment. Findings: Mean scores of the VAS decreased from 7.5± 1.4 and 7.1 ± 1.3 at baseline to 2.1 ± 2.6 and 4.2 ± 2.6 at the end of the study (P < 0.001) in the pregabalin and doxepin groups, respectively. Similarly, pregabalin significantly reduced mean scores of the 5‐D itch scale and the DLQI compared to doxepin. The most reported side effect in each group was somnolence which occurred in similar rates in the both groups. Discussion: Pregabalin was more effective than doxepin in reducing the severity of uremic pruritus and improving the quality of life of patients in this study, so we suggest that clinician can consider pregabalin prior to using antihistamine drugs in the management of severe itch in hemodialysis patients.
Hogfish Lachnolaimus maximus (Labridae) confirmed in the south‐western Atlantic Ocean
Authors: Sampaio C. L. S. , Santander‐neto J. , Costa T. L. A.
Published: July 2016

Based on material deposited in collections, photographic records and other reports from fishermen and divers, the occurrence of the hogfish Lachnolaimus maximus (Labridae) is confirmed in the south‐western Atlantic Ocean, near the Brazilian coast as far south as southern Brazil. The recognized range of this species should therefore be extended c. 3000 km further south.
Product spaces derived from projective mapping and CATA questions: Influence of replicated assessments and increased number of study participants
Authors: Vidal Leticia , Jaeger Sara R. , Antúnez Lucía , Giménez Ana , Ares Gastón
Published: July 2016

Methodological research is needed to support the continued popularity of sensory product characterization by consumers. The present research considers stability and reliability of such product spaces. Using data from 13 studies (n = 1332) involving check‐all‐that‐apply questions (CATA) and projective mapping tasks replicated assessments and increasing the sample size are evaluated for their impact on the product spaces derived from a base group of consumers. In each study, a group of consumers (41–95 participants) completed a sensory characterization task twice under identical conditions (“replication” condition), and additional consumers (49–93 participants) completed the task (“increased sample size” condition). The stability of product spaces was evaluated using a bootstrapping resampling approach. Both experimental conditions had a small but positive impact as evidenced by small increases in average RV coefficients across simulations. Additionally, in studies using projective mapping, the confidence ellipses around sample positions were smaller than those established in product spaces with the base group of consumers. This pointed to increased sample discrimination.

Practical applications

This research reveals that replication and increased sample size by inclusion of additional consumers can be used to increase stability of product spaces from sensory characterization based on projective mapping and CATA questions. Stability in product spaces underpins reliability of the research, and by extension internal validity.
Laser‐activated transforming growth factor‐β1 induces human β‐defensin 2: implications for laser therapies for periodontitis and peri‐implantitis
Authors: Tang E. , Khan I. , Andreana S. , Arany P. R.
Published: July 2016

Background

There is increasing popularity of high‐power lasers for surgical debridement and antimicrobial therapy in the management of peri‐implantitis and periodontal therapy. Removal of the noxious foci would naturally promote tissue healing directly. However, there are also anecdotal reports of better healing around routine high‐power laser procedures. The precise mechanisms mediating these effects remain to be fully elucidated. This work examines these low‐dose laser bystander effects on oral human epithelial and fibroblasts, particularly focusing on the role of human β‐defensin 2 (HBD‐2 or DEFB4A), a potent factor capable of antimicrobial effects and promoting wound healing.

Material and Methods

Laser treatments were performed using a near‐infrared laser (810 nm diode) at low doses. Normal human oral keratinocytes and fibroblast cells were used and HBD‐2 mRNA and protein expression was assessed with real time polymerase chain reaction, western blotting and immunostaining. Role of transforming growth factor (TGF)‐β1 signaling in this process was dissected using pathway‐specific small molecule inhibitors.

Results

We observed laser treatments robustly induced HBD‐2 expression in an oral fibroblast cell line compared to a keratinocyte cell line. Low‐dose laser treatments results in activation of the TGF‐β1 pathway that mediated HBD‐2 expression. The two arms of TGF‐β1 signaling, Smad and non‐Smad are involved in laser‐mediated HBD‐2 expression.

Conclusions

Laser‐activated TGF‐β1 signaling and induced expression of HBD‐2, both of which are individually capable of promoting healing in tissues adjacent to high‐power surgical laser applications. Moreover, the use of low‐dose laser therapy itself can provide additional therapeutic benefits for effective clinical management of periodontal or peri‐implant disease.
Comparison of 3 Handling Techniques for Endoscopically Obtained Gastric and Duodenal Biopsy Specimens: A Prospective Study in Dogs and Cats
Authors: Ruiz G.C. , Reyes‐Gomez E. , Hall E.J. , Freiche V.
Published: July 2016

Background

Limited evidence exists in the literature regarding whether a specific mount is preferable to use for processing endoscopically obtained gastrointestinal biopsy specimens.

Hypothesis/Objectives

To compare 3 methods of handling endoscopically obtained gastrointestinal biopsy specimens from collection to laboratory processing and to determine if any technique produced superior results.

Animals

Twenty‐three dogs and cats presented for gastrointestinal signs.

Methods

Prospective study of dogs and cats presented with gastrointestinal signs to a veterinary teaching referral hospital which underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Biopsy specimens were taken from the stomach and duodenum and submitted to the laboratory using 3 techniques: mounted on a cucumber slice, mounted on a moisturized synthetic foam sponge, and floating free in formalin. The techniques were compared with regard to the specimens' width, orientation, presence of artifacts, and pathologist's confidence in diagnosis.

Results

Twenty‐three patients were included, with a total of 528 biopsies collected. Specimens on cucumber slice and on sponge were significantly wider (P < .001 and P = .001, respectively) compared to those floating free in formalin (mean width of 3.81 versus 3.31 and 2.52 mm, respectively). However, specimens on synthetic sponge had significantly fewer artifacts compared to those on cucumber slice (P = .05) and those floating free in formalin (P = .02). Confidence in the diagnosis also was superior with the sponge technique over floating free specimens (P = .002).

Conclusions and Clinical Importance

The use of mounted gastrointestinal biopsy specimens was superior over the use of specimens floating free in formalin. This technique improved the quality of the specimens and the pathologist's confidence in their histopathologic interpretation.
Congenital Malalignment of the Great Toenails With Acute Paronychia
Authors: Lipner Shari R. , Scher Richard K.
Published: July 2016

Congenital malalignment of the great toenails (CMGT) has been well documented. In the present case, it was complicated by acute paronychia. It is important for physicians to recognize and treat CMGT to prevent sequelae such as onychocryptosis, onychogryphosis, and recurrent paronychia.
The intelligibility of varieties of English in Japan
Authors: ORIKASA MAMI
Published: July 2016

This small‐scale study investigated the extent to which 37 Japanese speakers of English found different varieties of English to be intelligible. The varieties of English that were investigated were spoken by eight undergraduate and graduate students from Inner Circle and Expanding Circle countries (the US, China, Korea, and Vietnam) at a state university in the US. This study employed a mixed methods approach, including an intelligibility test and a short questionnaire, to measure intelligibility and comprehensibility and to identify possible factors related to both intelligibility and unintelligibility.
Multizone Phenomenological Modeling of Combustion and Emissions for Multiple-Injection Common Rail Direct Injection Diesel Engines
Authors: Rajkumar S , Bakshi Shamit , Mehta Pramod S
Published: July 2016

Common rail direct injection (CRDI) system is a modern variant of direct injection diesel engine featuring higher fuel injection pressure and flexible injection scheduling which involves two or more pulses. Unlike a conventional diesel engine, the CRDI engine provides simultaneous reduction of oxides of nitrogen and smoke with an injection schedule that has optimized start of injection, fuel quantity in each injection pulse, and dwell periods between them. In this paper, the development of a multizone phenomenological model used for predicting combustion and emission characteristics of multiple injection in CRDI diesel engine is presented. The multizone spray configuration with their temperature and composition histories predicted on phenomenological spray growth and mixing considerations helps accurate prediction of engine combustion and emission (nitric oxide and soot) characteristics. The model predictions of combustion and emissions for multiple injection are validated with measured values over a wide range of speed and load conditions. The multizone and the two-zone model are compared and the reasons for better comparisons for the multizone model with experimental data are also explored.
Drag Reduction Due to Streamwise Grooves in Turbulent Channel Flow
Authors: DeGroot C. T. , Wang C. , Floryan J. M.
Published: July 2016

Drag reduction in turbulent channel flows has significant practical relevance for energy savings. Various methods have been proposed to reduce turbulent skin friction, including microscale surface modifications such as riblets or superhydrophobic surfaces. More recently, macroscale surface modifications in the form of longitudinal grooves have been shown to reduce drag in laminar channel flows. The purpose of this study is to show that these grooves also reduce drag in turbulent channel flows and to quantify the drag reduction as a function of the groove parameters. Results are obtained using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations with turbulence modeled by the k–ω shear-stress transport (SST) model, which is first validated with direct numerical simulations (DNS). Based on the CFD results, a reduced geometry model is proposed which shows that the approximate drag reduction can be quantified by evaluating the drag reduction of the geometry given by the first Fourier mode of an arbitrary groove geometry. Results are presented to show the drag reducing potential of grooves as a function of Reynolds number as well as groove wave number, amplitude, and shape. The mechanism of drag reduction is discussed, which is found to be due to a rearrangement of the bulk fluid motion into high-velocity streamtubes in the widest portion of the channel opening, resulting in a change in the wall shear stress profile.
Near-Infrared Spectroscopy: More Accurate Than Heart Rate for Monitoring Intensity in Running in Hilly Terrain
Authors: Born Dennis-Peter , Stöggl Thomas , Swarén Mikael , Björklund Glenn
Published: July 2016

Purpose:

To investigate the cardiorespiratory and metabolic response of trail running and evaluate whether heart rate (HR) adequately reflects the exercise intensity or if the tissue-saturation index (TSI) could provide a more accurate measure during running in hilly terrain.

Methods:

Seventeen competitive runners (4 women, V̇O2max, 55 ± 6 mL · kg–1 · min–1; 13 men, V̇O2max, 68 ± 6 mL · kg–1 · min–1) performed a time trial on an off-road trail course. The course was made up of 2 laps covering a total distance of 7 km and included 6 steep uphill and downhill sections with an elevation gain of 486 m. All runners were equipped with a portable breath-by-breath gas analyzer, HR belt, global positioning system receiver, and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) device to measure the TSI.

Results:

During the trail run, the exercise intensity in the uphill and downhill sections was 94% ± 2% and 91% ± 3% of maximal heart rate, respectively, and 84% ± 8% and 68% ± 7% of V̇O2max, respectively. The oxygen uptake (V̇O2) increased in the uphill sections and decreased in the downhill sections (P < .01). Although HR was unaffected by the altering slope conditions, the TSI was inversely correlated to the changes in V̇O2 (r = –.70, P < .05).

Conclusions:

HR was unaffected by the continuously changing exercise intensity; however, TSI reflected the alternations in V̇O2. Recently used exclusively for scientific purposes, this NIRS-based variable may offer a more accurate alternative than HR to monitor running intensity in the future, especially for training and competition in hilly terrain.
Kakao in Korea: Increasingly Shaking the Market
Authors: Park Jinsoo , Kim Taekyung
Published: July 2016

Kakao is a fast growing software company focused on providing innovative smartphone applications. The company is rooted in the Korean mobile communication market where customer demands for high speed connectivity have been growing sharply. Kakao maintains the top position in the category of mobile communication utility tool for the last three years and competes successfully with other new comers.

However, the company faces tremendous external threat from traditional smartphone carriers, SK Telecom, KT and LG U+. Those telecommunication conglomerates view the rapid growth of Kakao as a dangerous possibility that may deprive them of revenue streams from their traditional cash cows of texting and voice calling. Moreover, traditional software champions, Naver and Daum, steadily expand their market shares by differentiating themselves. Those competitors have strong brand assets, innovation capabilities and market sensitivity.

After three years in the mobile software market, Kakao faces constraints to its growth potential. Kakao tries to overcome the situation by positioning itself as a new mobile platform leader that connects potential customers and game publishers. In addition, the company wants to speed up innovation for sustaining its reputation through a financial transfusion from external investors. Instead of choosing an easier option of being merged or acquired, the company clearly sets its course to fight against external challenges. How can Kakao overcome the difficulty and sustain growth? What kind of strategic choices can be executable?
The Significance and General Approaches of Climatic Carrying Capacity Assessment
Authors: YU Li , LU Yanyu , HUANG Wei , XU Yuqing
Published: July 2016

The construction of ecological civilization needs to take both environmental protection and socio-economic development into consideration. Climate is one of the important environmental resources; it is also a foundation which human and society development depend on. Climate changes have exerted significant global impacts, which will continue in the future and affect population, livelihoods, economy, resources, ecosystems and many other aspects. In the future development planning, we need to coordinate the change of climate system and its impacts, fully follow and abide by climatic rules, take into consideration climatic carrying capacity, define the natural ecosystem and the intensity and scale of human socio-economic activities which the climatic resources can carry. This article introduces some related research background about the carrying capacities of environment and resources, and brings out the concept of climatic carrying capacity. In addition, the article summarizes general approaches of climatic carrying capacity assessment and introduces two case studies of climatic carrying capacity to clarify the urgency and importance of climatic carrying capacity assessment, as well as its practical significance to socio-economic development. The assessment of climatic carrying capacity has just got off the ground, and is faced with many challenges. We suggest that the priority lies in constructing and improving the theoretical foundation and assessment framework of climatic carrying capacity; secondly, the assessment should be focused on practicality and operability in accordance with local conditions; thirdly, the assessment on climatic carrying capacity needs to be integrated with other disciplines, and the application areas and service objects should be broadened; and finally, carrying out the assessment of climatic carrying capacity, especially quantitative assessment, requires continuous innovation and further involvement of new technological methods.
PiGraphs
Authors: Savva Manolis , Chang Angel X. , Hanrahan Pat , Fisher Matthew , Nießner Matthias
Published: July 2016

We learn a probabilistic model connecting human poses and arrangements of object geometry from real-world observations of interactions collected with commodity RGB-D sensors. This model is encoded as a set
of prototypical interaction graphs
(PiGraphs), a human-centric representation capturing physical contact and visual attention linkages between 3D geometry and human body parts. We use this encoding of the joint probability distribution over pose and geometry during everyday interactions to generate
interaction snapshots
, which are static depictions of human poses and relevant objects during human-object interactions. We demonstrate that our model enables a novel human-centric understanding of 3D content and allows for jointly generating 3D scenes and interaction poses given terse high-level specifications, natural language, or reconstructed real-world scene constraints.
Non-linear shape optimization using local subspace projections
Authors: Musialski Przemyslaw , Hafner Christian , Rist Florian , Birsak Michael , Wimmer Michael , Kobbelt Leif
Published: July 2016

In this paper we present a novel method for non-linear shape optimization of 3d objects given by their surface representation. Our method takes advantage of the fact that various shape properties of interest give rise to underdetermined design spaces implying the existence of many good solutions. Our algorithm exploits this by performing iterative projections of the problem to local subspaces where it can be solved much more efficiently using standard numerical routines. We demonstrate how this approach can be utilized for various shape optimization tasks using different shape parameterizations. In particular, we show how to efficiently optimize natural frequencies, mass properties, as well as the structural yield strength of a solid body. Our method is flexible, easy to implement, and very fast.
Real-time rendering on a power budget
Authors: Wang Rui , Yu Bowen , Marco Julio , Hu Tianlei , Gutierrez Diego , Bao Hujun
Published: July 2016

With recent advances on mobile computing, power consumption has become a significant limiting constraint for many graphics applications. As a result, rendering on a power budget arises as an emerging demand. In this paper, we present a real-time, power-optimal rendering framework to address this problem, by finding the
optimal
rendering settings that minimize power consumption while maximizing visual quality. We first introduce a novel power-error, multi-objective cost space, and formally formulate power saving as an optimization problem. Then, we develop a two-step algorithm to efficiently explore the vast power-error space and leverage optimal Pareto frontiers at runtime. Finally, we show that our rendering framework can be generalized across different platforms, desktop PC or mobile device, by demonstrating its performance on our own OpenGL rendering framework, as well as the commercially available Unreal Engine.
Time-varying weathering in texture space
Authors: Bellini Rachele , Kleiman Yanir , Cohen-Or Daniel
Published: July 2016

We present a technique to synthesize time-varying weathered textures. Given a single texture image as input, the degree of weathering at different regions of the input texture is estimated by prevalence analysis of texture patches. This information then allows to gracefully increase or decrease the popularity of weathered patches, simulating the evolution of texture appearance both backward and forward in time. Our method can be applied to a wide variety of different textures since the reaction of the material to weathering effects is physically-oblivious and learned from the input texture itself. The weathering process evolves new structures as well as color variations, providing rich and natural results. In contrast with existing methods, our method does not require any user interaction or assistance. We demonstrate our technique on various textures, and their application to time-varying weathering of 3D scenes. We also extend our method to handle multi-layered textures, weathering transfer, and interactive weathering painting.
Task-based locomotion
Authors: Agrawal Shailen , van de Panne Michiel
Published: July 2016

High quality locomotion is key to achieving believable character animation, but is often modeled as a generic stepping motion between two locations. In practice, locomotion often has task-specific characteristics and can exhibit a rich vocabulary of step types, including side steps, toe pivots, heel pivots, and intentional foot slides. We develop a model for such types of behaviors, based on task-specific foot-step plans that act as motion templates. The footstep plans are invoked and optimized at interactive rates and then serve as the basis for producing full body motion. We demonstrate the production of high-quality motions for three tasks: whiteboard writing, moving boxes, and sitting behaviors. The model enables retargeting to characters of varying proportions by yielding motion plans that are appropriately tailored to these proportions. We also show how the task effort or duration can be taken into account, yielding coarticulation behaviors.
Crowd-driven mid-scale layout design
Authors: Feng Tian , Yu Lap-Fai , Yeung Sai-Kit , Yin KangKang , Zhou Kun
Published: July 2016

We propose a novel approach for designing mid-scale layouts by optimizing with respect to human crowd properties. Given an input layout domain such as the boundary of a shopping mall, our approach synthesizes the paths and sites by optimizing three metrics that measure crowd flow properties: mobility, accessibility, and coziness. While these metrics are straightforward to evaluate by a full agent-based crowd simulation, optimizing a layout usually requires hundreds of evaluations, which would require a long time to compute even using the latest crowd simulation techniques. To overcome this challenge, we propose a novel data-driven approach where nonlinear regressors are trained to capture the relationship between the agent-based metrics, and the geometrical and topological features of a layout. We demonstrate that by using the trained regressors, our approach can synthesize crowd-aware layouts and improve existing layouts with better crowd flow properties.
Surface-only liquids
Authors: Da Fang , Hahn David , Batty Christopher , Wojtan Chris , Grinspun Eitan
Published: July 2016

We propose a novel surface-only technique for simulating incompressible, inviscid and uniform-density liquids with surface tension in three dimensions. The liquid surface is captured by a triangle mesh on which a Lagrangian velocity field is stored. Because advection of the velocity field may violate the incompressibility condition, we devise an orthogonal projection technique to remove the divergence while requiring the evaluation of only two boundary integrals. The forces of surface tension, gravity, and solid contact are all treated by a boundary element solve, allowing us to perform detailed simulations of a wide range of liquid phenomena, including waterbells, droplet and jet collisions, fluid chains, and crown splashes.
Fast approximations for boundary element based brittle fracture simulation
Authors: Hahn David , Wojtan Chris
Published: July 2016

We present a boundary element based method for fast simulation of brittle fracture. By introducing simplifying assumptions that allow us to quickly estimate stress intensities and opening displacements during crack propagation, we build a fracture algorithm where the cost of each time step scales linearly with the length of the crack-front.

The transition from a full boundary element method to our faster variant is possible at the beginning of any time step. This allows us to build a hybrid method, which uses the expensive but more accurate BEM while the number of degrees of freedom is low, and uses the fast method once that number exceeds a given threshold as the crack geometry becomes more complicated.

Furthermore, we integrate this fracture simulation with a standard rigid-body solver. Our rigid-body coupling solves a Neumann boundary value problem by carefully separating translational, rotational and deformational components of the collision forces and then applying a Tikhonov regularizer to the resulting linear system. We show that our method produces physically reasonable results in standard test cases and is capable of dealing with complex scenes faster than previous finite- or boundary element approaches.
Adjoint-driven Russian roulette and splitting in light transport simulation
Authors: Vorba Jiří , Křivánek Jaroslav
Published: July 2016

While Russian roulette (RR) and splitting are considered fundamental importance sampling techniques in neutron transport simulations, they have so far received relatively little attention in light transport. In computer graphics, RR and splitting are most often based solely on local reflectance properties. However, this strategy can be far from optimal in common scenes with non-uniform light distribution as it does not accurately predict the actual path contribution. In our approach, like in neutron transport, we estimate the expected contribution of a path as the product of the path weight and a pre-computed estimate of the adjoint transport solution. We use this estimate to generate so-called weight window which keeps the path contribution roughly constant through RR and splitting. As a result, paths in unimportant regions tend to be terminated early while in the more important regions they are spawned by splitting. This results in substantial variance reduction in both path tracing and photon tracing-based simulations. Furthermore, unlike the standard computer graphics RR, our approach does not interfere with importance-driven sampling of scattering directions, which results in superior convergence when such a technique is combined with our approach. We provide a justification of this behavior by relating our approach to the zero-variance random walk theory.
Preserving geometry and topology for fluid flows with thin obstacles and narrow gaps
Authors: Azevedo Vinicius C. , Batty Christopher , Oliveira Manuel M.
Published: July 2016

Fluid animation methods based on Eulerian grids have long struggled to resolve flows involving narrow gaps and thin solid features. Past approaches have artificially inflated or voxelized boundaries, although this sacrifices the correct geometry and topology of the fluid domain and prevents flow through narrow regions. We present a
boundary-respecting
fluid simulator that overcomes these challenges. Our solution is to intersect the solid boundary geometry with the cells of a background regular grid to generate a topologically correct, boundary-conforming cut-cell mesh. We extend both pressure projection and velocity advection to support this enhanced grid structure. For pressure projection, we introduce a general graph-based scheme that properly preserves discrete incompressibility even in thin and topologically complex flow regions, while nevertheless yielding symmetric positive definite linear systems. For advection, we exploit polyhedral interpolation to improve the degree to which the flow conforms to irregular and possibly non-convex cell boundaries, and propose a modified PIC/FLIP advection scheme to eliminate the need to inaccurately reinitialize invalid cells that are swept over by moving boundaries. The method naturally extends the standard Eulerian fluid simulation framework, and while we focus on thin boundaries, our contributions are beneficial for volumetric solids as well. Our results demonstrate successful one-way fluid-solid coupling in the presence of thin objects and narrow flow regions even on very coarse grids.