bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Digenean larvae parasitizing Ruditapes decussatus (Bivalvia) from Tunisianan coasts
Authors: Dhrif E. , Antar R. , Abidli S. , Gargouri L.
Published: April 2015

Eleven species of trematode larvae (sporocysts and cercariae of Bucephalus labracis Paggi et Orecchia, 1965 and Cercaria lata Lespes, 1857 and metacercariae of Acanthoparyphium sp. Dietz , 1909, Caecincola parvulus Marshall et Gilbert, 1905, Curtuteria australis Allison, 1979, Gymnophallus fossarum Bartoli, 1965, Gymnophallus rebecqui Bartoli, 1983, Lepocreadium pegorchis Stossich, 1901, Parazoogonus sp. Looss, 1901, Psilostomum brevicolle Creplin, 1829 and Robphildollfusium fractum Rudolphi, 1819) were found in the clam (Ruditapes decussatus) from Tunisian coasts. A part from B. labracis and Cercaria lata, the other trematode species were recorded for the first time in Tunisia. The examination of the frequency of recorded parasites reveals some monthly variation. This variation is statistically significant by comparing the sampling sites. These results indicate that more frequent parasites (G. fossarum, Cercaria lata, Curtuteria australis and Acanthoparyphium sp.) could be considered as biological indicators making it possible to predict the capture localities of the clams.
Cardinal temperatures for germination of Salvia leriifolia Benth
Authors: Dashti Majid , Kafi Mohammad , Tavakkoli Hossein , Mirza Mahdi
Published: April 2015

The focus of this study is based on the examination of the germination traits and the development of thermal models of the medicinal plant Salvia leriifolia Benth. A laboratory experiment was carried out at constant temperatures ranging from 0 to 35°C, at 5°C intervals in a completely randomized design with eight replications. To describe the germination rate response to temperature, three regression models, namely Intersected-Lines (ISL), Quadratic Polynomial (QPN) and Five-Parameters Beta (FPB) were used. The highest Germination Percentage (GP) (92.8%) occurred in 15°C, but GP in the range of 10-25°C was not significant (p≤0.05). The germination process stopped at 0°C and at above 30°C. The results indicated that the highest Germination Rate (GR), the lowest Mean Germination Time (MGT) and also times to 50% germination (D50) were obtained at 20°C. Seeds did not reach to their 50% germination level in temperatures higher than 25°C. The FPB model had the best realistic estimation for cardinal temperatures. Based on models estimation, Base (Tb), Optimum (To) and Ceiling (Tc) temperatures were in the ranges of (1-1.9°C), (18.1-20.8°C) and (34.5-38.7°C), respectively.
Application of in vitro stevia (Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni) cultures in obtaining steviol glycoside rich material
Authors: Luwańska Aleksandra , Perz Aleksandra , Mańkowska Grażyna , Wielgus Karolina
Published: April 2015

Stevia is a plant attracting attention due to its capability to synthesize a group of chemical compounds with sweet taste, i.e. steviol glycosides. Steviol glycosides are successfully applied as a natural sweetener, and some of them have also therapeutic properties. This paper presents available information on the use of stevia plant tissue cultures with the focus on their potential application in food industry. Detailed analysis was done concerning the research employing in vitro culture techniques and the use of them in biosynthesis of secondary metabolites of high importance for the food industry. Both established achievements and most recent publications on stevia were used for assessment of practical applications of the aforementioned techniques and prospects for their development.
Navigational audio games: an effective approach toward improving spatial contextual learning for blind people
Authors: Balan Oana , Moldoveanu Alin , Moldoveanu Florica
Published: April 2015

For people who suffer from a visual impairment, navigating in an unknown environment represents a considerable challenge. To help them develop spatial orientation and mobility skills, researchers have employed audio-based computer games as a practical, interactive and user-centered learning approach. The highly immersive and attractive nature of audio games enables blind people to create a spatial representation of their environment that can be assigned to aid performing real-life navigation tasks. This paper reviews the most notable navigational audio-based games in terms of their conceptual and technological approach, accessibility and user interaction efficiency.
Creating the Norm: The African-American Literary Tradition
Authors: Cogeanu Oana
Published: April 2015

This paper starts from the premise that norm, in the sense of a prescriptive tradition based on a set of standards deriving from past practices and regulating future ones, is the result of an initial creative gesture; in other words, first there was creativity and creativity became the norm. Based on this premise, the paper looks at some of the earliest African-American pieces of writing to trace the itinerary from creativity to norm, thus witnessing the birth of the African-American literary tradition. To this end, the paper analyses the first published Black narrative and identifies the trope of the talking book as illustrating that original gesture which, by creatively incorporating the norm, marks the beginning of a new tradition. Then the paper follows subsequent early Black narratives and identifies the creative transgression of the norm illustrated by the Middle Passage as the process by which the new norm is established.
From Regularities to Norms in the Secondary Formation of Romanian ICT Terms
Authors: Postolea Sorina
Published: April 2015

Starting from a parallel corpus of general use texts, this article investigates what kind of regularities are discernible in the formation of the terms used in the Romanian language of information and communication technology (ICT). After a brief presentation of the corpus that supported this research, the article begins with an introduction to the distinction made between the processes of primary and secondary term formation and considers it in relation to the concepts of translation regularities and norms as theorized by Gideon Toury. Starting from a concise examination of the sentence-based turn in translation studies, the final part of the article analyzes the main strategies used in the secondary formation of Romanian ICT terms (borrowing, loan translation, hybrid formation, and translation proper) and attempts to determine which of them could be seen as regularities that ampler studies could confirm as norms in this process.
Betrayed by History: Redressing a Wounded Community in Kerri Sakamoto’s the Electrical Field
Authors: Anton Alina
Published: April 2015

What does it take to heal the scars of a traumatic experience? And is any kind of restoration even possible when the wound is larger than the single individual, afflicting an entire community? The now well-documented experience of internment that marred the cultural memory of the Japanese Canadian community is one such trauma still bidding for redress. The present paper therefore proposes to revisit this painful wound caused by history at both the personal and the community level, as it is reflected through the fictional lens of award-winning Japanese Canadian author Kerri Sakamoto, in her dark lyrical debut novel The Electrical Field (1998). Following the thread of possible alleviation, we will analyze the effect of war and injustice on the individual mind and heart, and look at how difficult to obtain is love, the only redress available to those betrayed by history.
Achieving Gender Equality in Teaching and Learning: Identifying Problems and Searching for Solutions
Authors: Bursuc George Cristian
Published: April 2015

The paper intends to investigate the ways in which gender equality is perceived throughout the world, to identify the main concerns relating to gender equality and to pinpoint some international measures already taken in this field. The research for this paper is based on other studies, reports and analyses concerning gender equality conducted by several entities that have as their main interests the research of the gender variable in teaching. A local study was also conducted, where I tried to observe whether Romanian textbooks of English are sensitive to gender equality in their visual aids (“cotext”). Seven textbooks were analyzed, printed from 1997 to 2004, ranging from the 2nd to 11th grades. Both the theoretical and the practical aspects of the research reveal that although awareness concerning gender equality has been raised, gender equality is yet to be achieved. Neither the pragmatic aspects of teaching nor the written support represented by English textbooks treat boys and girls equally, thus reinforcing genderbased stereotypes and attitudes.
The Internet and Elt: Costs, Gains and Compromises
Authors: Ungureanu Rebeca
Published: April 2015

The paper analyzes some present and future trends in education, zooming in on the English class, through the impact of the most influential product of the human mind, the Internet. Extensive research is currently being done on the roles of the Internet upon our society, with special emphasis on education. I follow some of these research projects’ threads and offer up-to-date insights into the debates and controversies the Internet has awoken. As a result of scanning some of the future educational trends, the conclusion I draw is that of an obvious compromise the English teacher has to sign: teaching both classical and modern competencies but learning to use the digital language of today’s generation, while not overlooking the students’ emotional needs.
The Hollow Crown:Shakespeare, the BBC, and the 2012 London Olympics
Authors: Morse Ruth
Published: April 2015

During the summer of 2012, and to coincide with the Olympics, BBC2 broadcast a series called The Hollow Crown, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s second tetralogy of English history plays. The BBC commission was conceived as part of the Cultural Olympiad which accompanied Britain’s successful hosting of the Games that summer. I discuss the financial, technical, aesthetic, and political choices made by the production team, not only in the context of the Coalition government (and its attacks on the BBC) but also in the light of theatrical and film tradition. I argue that the inclusion or exclusion of two key scenes suggest something more complex and balanced that the usual nationalism of the plays'; rather, the four nations are contextualised to comprehend and acknowledge the regions - apropos not only in the Olympic year, but in 2014's referendum on the Union of the crowns of England/Wales and Scotland.
Inchbald’S Kotzebue: The Wise Man of the East (1799) and Social Assemblage Theory
Authors: Worrall David
Published: April 2015

This article argues that Lord Mansfield's judgement in favour of the actor Charles Macklin in 1775 wrought a profound change on noisy and disruptive theatre auditoriums. Mansfield ruled that persons returning to theatres to repeatedly disrupt performances were guilty of conspiracy and performers' lost earning were assessed as felonies in English common law. Those found guilty might have substantial damages awarded against them and might be liable for a prison sentence. The paper traces that Garrick's Drury Lane was repeatedly disrupted but with no action being taken, even though ringleaders had been identified. Macklin's case, arising from his engagement at Covent Garden, suppressed repeatedly rowdy evenings. The paper suggests that Sarah Siddons's rise at Drury Lane from 1782 onwards was linked to these changes in the legal environment for stage performers.
Hur gick det för 1960- och 1970-talets svenska narkotikamissbrukare?
Authors: Alm Susanne
Published: April 2015

What happened to the Swedish problem drug users of the 1960's and 1970's?

AimS & DESIGN

– In this study we follow a Stockholm birth cohort born in 1953 (n= 14 294) from youth to middle age. The cohort members were in their teenage years when drug abuse was established as a considerable threat to Swedish society and some of the cohort members themselves became drug abusers (n=431).

Results

– As expected, life became dramatically worse for those with documented drug abuse when young, than for the rest of the cohort members. While 72 percent of those without documented drug abuse were socially included at the age of 56, the corresponding share among those with documented drug abuse was 18 per cent. And while 5 percent in the former group were diseased at 56, this was true for 38 percent in the latter group. Supplementary analyses showed that social inclusion was also less stable among those with documented drug abuse than among the rest of the cohort, and that the flow from exclusion to inclusion was virtually nonexistent, which was not the case for those without experience of drug abuse.

Conclusions

– Gender specific analyses showed that the situation, at least in absolute terms, tended to be even worse for male drug abusers than for women. Gender differences in alcohol abuse, criminality, and with respect to parenthood are suggested as possible explanations to be further studied in future research.
Prisoners' experiences of drug treatment and punishment in four Nordic countries
Authors: Giertsen Hedda , Nylander Per åke , Frank Vibeke Asmussen , Kolind Torsten , Tourunen Jouni
Published: April 2015

Aims

This article describes and analyses prisoners' experiences of drug treatment in prison in four Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The article examines how prisoners experience drug treatment, control and sanctions as related to three main topics, namely motivation; the content of the measure and relations to staff; and control and sanctions.

Methods & DATA

– The article is based on data from twelve prisons, three in each of the four countries; 91 interviews with prisoners; and around six months of observation. The two main kinds of drug treatment measures are drug treatment units and day programmes.

Results

– Prisoners described several motives to participate in drug treatment measures: to leave drugs and crime; to renew relations with family and friends; to solve health problems; and to improve their prison conditions. Prisoners found that drug treatment measures offered possibilities to acquire new ways of being. Staff behaviour seemed to be more important to prisoners than the methods used, and some prisoners seemed more positive to staff involved with the drug treatment than to other staff. A surprising finding was the prisoners' limited critique of controls and sanctions. We see this as embedded in the situation of being a prisoner, and also in relation to contexts outside prison.

Conclusion

In discussing their experiences in the treatment units, prisoners are not so concerned about the rehabilitative features or the controls and sanctions. They evaluate their present situation in light of a future, which is their real concern. This is in line with a main task for staff, which is to prepare prisoners for release.
Know Thy Neighbor: Crypto Library Detection in Cloud
Authors: Irazoqui Gorka , IncI Mehmet Sinan , Eisenbarth Thomas , Sunar Berk
Published: April 2015

Software updates and security patches have become a standard method to fix known and recently discovered security vulnerabilities in deployed software. In server applications, outdated cryptographic libraries allow adversaries to exploit weaknesses and launch attacks with significant security results. The proposed technique exploits leakages at the hardware level to first, determine if a specific cryptographic library is running inside (or not) a co-located virtual machine (VM) and second to discover the IP of the co-located target. To this end, we use a Flush+Reload cache side-channel technique to measure the time it takes to call (load) a cryptographic library function. Shorter loading times are indicative of the library already residing in memory and shared by the VM manager through deduplication. We demonstrate the viability of the proposed technique by detecting and distinguishing various cryptographic libraries, including MatrixSSL, PolarSSL, GnuTLS, OpenSSL and CyaSSL along with the IP of the VM running these libraries. In addition, we show how to differentiate between various versions of libraries to better select an attack target as well as the applicable exploit. Our experiments show a complete attack setup scenario with single-trial success rates of up to 90% under light load and up to 50% under heavy load for libraries running in KVM.
Portrait of a Privacy Invasion
Authors: Shoshitaishvili Yan , Kruegel Christopher , Vigna Giovanni
Published: April 2015

The popularity of online social networks has changed the way in which we share personal thoughts, political views, and pictures. Pictures have a particularly important role in the privacy of users, as they can convey substantial information (e.g., a person was attending an event, or has met with another person). Moreover, because of the nature of social networks, it has become increasingly difficult to control who has access to which content. Therefore, when a substantial amount of pictures are accessible to one party, there is a very serious potential for violations of the privacy of users. In this paper, we demonstrate a novel technique that, given a large corpus of pictures shared on a social network, automatically determines who is dating whom, with reasonable precision. More specifically, our approach combines facial recognition, spatial analysis, and machine learning techniques to determine pairs that are dating. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first privacy attack of this kind performed on social networks. We implemented our approach in a tool, called Creepic, and evaluated it on two real-world datasets. The results show that it is possible to automatically extract non-obvious, and nondisclosed, relationships between people represented in a group of pictures, even when the people involved are not directly part of a connected social clique.
Analyzing the Great Firewall of China Over Space and Time
Authors: Ensafi Roya , Winter Philipp , Mueen Abdullah , Crandall Jedidiah R.
Published: April 2015

A nation-scale firewall, colloquially referred to as the “Great Firewall of China,” implements many different types of censorship and content filtering to control China’s Internet traffic. Past work has shown that the firewall occasionally fails. In other words, sometimes clients in China are able to reach blacklisted servers outside of China. This phenomenon has not yet been characterized because it is infeasible to find a large and geographically diverse set of clients in China from which to test connectivity. In this paper, we overcome this challenge by using a hybrid idle scan technique that is able to measure connectivity between a remote client and an arbitrary server, neither of which are under the control of the researcher performing measurements. In addition to hybrid idle scans, we present and employ a novel side channel in the Linux kernel’s SYN backlog. We show that both techniques are practical by measuring the reachability of the Tor network which is known to be blocked in China. Our measurements reveal that failures in the firewall occur throughout the entire country without any conspicuous geographical patterns.We give some evidence that routing plays a role, but other factors (such as how the GFW maintains its list of IP/port pairs to block) may also be important.
The Need of Belonging and Sense of Belonging versus Effectiveness of Coping
Authors: Wilczyńska Agnieszka , Januszek Maciej , Bargiel-Matusiewicz Kamilla
Published: April 2015

The aim of this research was to describe the dependence between the need for and sense of belonging and symptoms of depression vs. one’s capacity to cope effectively. Using path analysis of our data (N = 178), we found direct patterns, in which both depression symptoms and life satisfaction depend to a considerable degree on the sense of belonging. The belonging need influences, in a direct way, the coping focused on the search for social support. Undertaking active techniques of coping, including confrontation with a stressful situation and its negative controlling impact, depends on having a high level of the sense of belonging. In contrast, individuals who cope by means of taking psychoactive drugs show the symptoms of depression.
Self-compassion and social functioning of people – research review
Authors: Dzwonkowska Irena , Żak-Łykus Alicja
Published: April 2015

Self-compassion is considered to be a healthy and adaptive attitude towards oneself, occurring both as a feature, as well as a state. Self-compassionate attitude towards oneself is composed of: a) kindness and understanding given to oneself b) mindfulness of one’s own experiences and c) a sense of community of experiences with humanity. Compassion towards oneself is structurally and functionally distinct from the self-commiseration and self-pity that lead to worse adaptation. Research shows that self-compassion is associated with better regulation of negative emotions. Neff (2003 a) in her theoretical assumption states that due to more effective emotion regulation , people with a higher level of selfcompassion can generally cope better with reality. Therefore a question arises as to what the relationship is between a compassionate attitude towards oneself and social functioning of people. This article is a review of research that has been conducted so far regarding relations between self-compassion and the various dimensions of social functioning.
Preferential access to emotion under attentional blink: evidence for threshold phenomenon
Authors: Szczepanowski Remigiusz , Traczyk Jakub , Fan Zhao , Harvey Lewis O.
Published: April 2015

The present study provides evidence that the activation strength produced by emotional stimuli must pass a threshold level in order to be consciously perceived, contrary to the assumption of continuous quality of representation. An analysis of receiver operating characteristics (ROC) for attentional blink performance was used to distinguish between two (continuous vs. threshold) models of emotion perception by inspecting two different ROC’s shapes. Across all conditions, the results showed that performance in the attentional blink task was better described by the two-limbs ROC predicted by the Krantz threshold model than by the curvilinear ROC implied by the signal-detection theory.
Domain Adaptation for Machine Translation with Instance Selection
Authors: Biçici Ergun
Published: April 2015

Domain adaptation for machine translation (MT) can be achieved by selecting training instances close to the test set from a larger set of instances. We consider 7 different domain adaptation strategies and answer 7 research questions, which give us a recipe for domain adaptation in MT. We perform English to German statistical MT (SMT) experiments in a setting where test and training sentences can come from different corpora and one of our goals is to learn the parameters of the sampling process. Domain adaptation with training instance selection can obtain 22% increase in target 2-gram recall and can gain up to 3:55 BLEU points compared with random selection. Domain adaptation with feature decay algorithm (FDA) not only achieves the highest target 2-gram recall and BLEU performance but also perfectly learns the test sample distribution parameter with correlation 0:99. Moses SMT systems built with FDA selected 10K training sentences is able to obtain F1 results as good as the baselines that use up to 2M sentences. Moses SMT systems built with FDA selected 50K training sentences is able to obtain F1 point better results than the baselines.
Scalable Reordering Models for SMT based on Multiclass SVM
Authors: Alrajeh Abdullah , Niranjan Mahesan
Published: April 2015

In state-of-the-art phrase-based statistical machine translation systems, modelling phrase reorderings is an important need to enhance naturalness of the translated outputs, particularly when the grammatical structures of the language pairs differ significantly. Posing phrase movements as a classification problem, we exploit recent developments in solving large-scale multiclass support vector machines. Using dual coordinate descent methods for learning, we provide a mechanism to shrink the amount of training data required for each iteration. Hence, we produce significant computational saving while preserving the accuracy of the models. Our approach is a couple of times faster than maximum entropy approach and more memory-efficient (50% reduction). Experiments were carried out on an Arabic-English corpus with more than a quarter of a billion words. We achieve BLEU score improvements on top of a strong baseline system with sparse reordering features.
Types of Geoecosystems of the Lobelia Lakes of the Tricity Area
Authors: Markowski Maciej , Kwidzińska Monika
Published: April 2015

In the years 2009-2010 limnological research was carried out on 13 lobelia lakes of the Tricity metropolitan area. These lakes, of unique value not only on the scale of the country, are undergoing degradation due to increasing anthropogenic pressure. Grade of degradation of these lakes, depends on geoecosystem type, which they are representing. Geoecosystem type of the lake, defines the rate of natural eutrophication of reservoir. In this article types of geoecosystems of analysed lobelia lakes where defined in accordance with the guidelines of Bajkiewicz-Grabowska (1981, 1983, 1985, 1987, 2002). The obtained results indicate that only one of the analysed lakes (Zawiat Lake) is likely to retain a low trophic level. Four lakes (Głębokie, Kamień, Borowo, Techlinko) represent geoecosystems with a moderate rate of natural eutrophication. The remaining of the analysed lobelia lakes are threatened with fast water eutrophication, which is demonstrated by a high catchment vulnerability to activate areal load, and a low resistance of the lakes (resulting from their natural properties) to external supply. The obtained results correspond to field measurements and make it possible to indicate actions aimed at protecting the group of the analysed lobelia lakes.
The Isle of The Dead Benchmark, the Sydney, Fort Denison Tide Gauge and the Ipcc Ar5 Chapter 13 Sea Levels Revisited
Authors: Parker Albert
Published: April 2015

The paper revisits the Isle of the Dead benchmark and the Sydney, Fort Denison tide gauge to confirm that long term, high quality tide gauges are acceleration free, consistently to the analysis of key sites suggesting the sea levels are not sharply raising following the carbon dioxide emissions. The paper also discusses the flaws of the IPCC AR5 Chapter13 Sea levels. The time history of the relative rate of rise computed by linear fitting of the data locally collected by tide gauges is the best parameter to assess the effect of global warming providing length and quality requirements are satisfied. There is no reason to search for less reliable alternative methods because the climate models predicted different trends. The Global Positioning System (GPS) inferred vertical tide gauge velocity suffers of significant inaccuracies. Larger inaccuracies are provided by the satellite altimetry Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) that is a computation and not a measurement.
Well-being in the Czech Republic in an Aggregate Perspective
Authors: Fialová Kamila , Štika Pavel
Published: April 2015

The article assesses well-being in the Czech Republic compared to other Visegrad countries (Slovakia, Hungary, Poland) and neighbouring Germany and Austria. By employing various approaches designed by several international organisations it takes an aggregate perspective to assess both the current well-being and its sustainability into the future. All employed indicators that relate to current well-being evaluate the well-being in the Czech Republic as moderate among the OECD countries. The results indicate that the position in well-being rankings improves with the growing number of dimensions or subjective factors included in the well-being measure, mainly due to the reduction in relative importance of income dimension and higher emphasis on the multidimensionality and complexity of well-being. In the case of sustainability, large differences can be identified in evaluation stemming from Happy Planet Index and Sustainable Society Index perspective. Although both of them agree on unfavourable situation as regards environmental sustainability in the Czech Republic, different accent on economic area alters the final result substantially. The analysis shows that for any well-being assessment, the choice of indicators is crucial and a large portion of caution is necessary when interpreting these.
On the shortfall risk control: A refinement of the quantile hedging method
Authors: Barski Michał
Published: April 2015

The issue of constructing a risk minimizing hedge under an additional almost-surely type constraint on the shortfall profile is examined.
Several classical risk minimizing problems are adapted to the new setting and solved. In particular, the bankruptcy threat of optimal strategies appearing in the classical risk minimizing setting is ruled out. The existence and concrete forms of optimal strategies in a general semimartingale market model with the use of conditional statistical tests are proven. The quantile hedging method applied in
[Finance Stoch. 3 (1999), 251–273; Finance Stoch. 4 (2000), 117–146]
as well as the classical Neyman–Pearson lemma are generalized. Optimal hedging strategies with shortfall constraints in the Black–Scholes and exponential Poisson model are explicitly determined.
Outcomes of Infants Born to Women Infected With Hepatitis B
Authors: Schillie Sarah , Walker Tanja , Veselsky Steven , Crowley Susan , Dusek Cristina , Lazaroff Julie , Morris Sandra A. , Onye Kenneth , Ko Stephen , Fenlon Nancy , Nelson Noele P. , Murphy Trudy V.
Published: April 2015

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:

Perinatal exposure is an important mode of hepatitis B virus (HBV) transmission, resulting in chronic disease in ∼90% of infected infants. Immunoprophylaxis recommended for infants born to hepatitis B surface antigen–positive mothers reduces up to 95% of perinatal HBV infections. We sought to identify factors associated with perinatal HBV transmission.

METHODS:

We analyzed prospectively collected data from 5 of 64 US-funded Perinatal Hepatitis B Prevention Programs during 2007–2013. We examined effects of maternal demographic and laboratory results, infant gestational age and birth weight, and immunoprophylactic management on perinatal HBV infection.

RESULTS:

Data from 17 951 mother-infant pairs were analyzed. Among 9252 (51.5%) infants for whom hepatitis B surface antigen testing results were available, 100 (1.1%) acquired perinatal HBV infection. Both hepatitis B (HepB) vaccine and hepatitis B immune globulin were administered within 12 hours of birth for 10 760 (94.9%) of 11 335 infants with information. Perinatal HBV infection was associated with younger maternal age (P = .01), Asian/Pacific Islander race (P < .01), maternal hepatitis B e-antigen positivity (P < .01), maternal antibody to hepatitis B e-antigen negativity (P < .01), maternal viral load ≥2000 IU/mL (P = .04), and infant receipt of <3 HepB vaccine doses (P = .01). Four infants born to 429 mothers with viral load testing were infected; all 4 were born to mothers with viral loads in the ninth or tenth decile.

CONCLUSIONS:

Perinatal HBV infection occurred among 1% of infants, most of whom received recommended immunoprophylaxis. Infants at greatest risk of infection were those born to women who were younger, hepatitis B e-antigen positive, or who had a high viral load or those infants who received <3 HepB vaccine doses.
First records of the snake Siphlophis leucocephalus (Günther, 1863) in Minas Gerais, Brazil, and a review of the geographic distribution of S. longicaudatus (Andersson, 1901) (Squamata: Dipsadidae)
Authors: Thomassen Hans , Costa Henrique C. , Silveira Adriano Lima , Garcia Paulo Cristiano de Anchieta , Bérnils Renato Silveira
Published: April 2015

We report Siphlophis leucocephalus in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. This species is now known to occur in ombrophilous and semidecidual forests in the state of Bahia, and Cerrado gallery forests in Tocantins and Minas Gerais. We also review the distribution of S. longicaudatus, a species inhabiting dense ombrophilous forests, ecotones with mixed ombrophilous forests or semidecidual forests, and Cerrado rocky outcrops (campos rupestres). This species is recorded from the Brazilian states of Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul.
Guided-mode resonance and field enhancement in semiconductor nanorod arrays
Authors: Yu W. X. , Yi Y.
Published: April 2015

Guided mode resonance was numerically demonstrated in the tapered silicon nitride nanorod arrays on glass substrate. Finite difference time domain technique was employed to investigate the detailed light-matter interaction dynamics and the generation of resonance at femtoseconds. Enhanced electromagnetic (EM) field intensity with enhancement factor of 200∼250 could be achieved. This highly concentrated electromagnetic field could be extended to the nanorod array tips and substrate for higher order resonance modes, which allows future application of this transverse propagating field in optical signal amplification, like fluorescence or Raman enhancement.
Molecular Basis of Evolved Resistance to Glyphosate and Acetolactate Synthase-Inhibitor Herbicides in Kochia (Kochia scoparia) Accessions from Montana
Authors: Kumar Vipan , Jha Prashant , Giacomini Darci , Westra Eric P. , Westra Philip
Published: April 2015

The rapid evolution and spread of glyphosate-resistant (GR) kochia in the Northern Great Plains is an increasing threat to GR cropping systems and conservation tillage practices common in this region. GR kochia accessions with 4.6- to 11-fold levels of resistance to glyphosate have recently been reported in Montana. Those GR kochia accessions were also suspected to be resistant to acetolactate synthase (ALS) inhibitors, i.e., multiple herbicide-resistant (MHR) kochia. In this research, the level of resistance to the ALS-inhibitor herbicides (sulfonylureas) and the molecular mechanisms conferring resistance to glyphosate and ALS-inhibitor herbicides in MHR kochia was investigated. On the basis of whole-plant dose–response assays, MHR kochia accessions (GIL01, JOP01, and CHES01) were 9.3- to 30-fold more resistant to premixed thifensulfuron methyl + tribenuron methyl + metsulfuron methyl than the susceptible (SUS) accession. In an in vivo leaf-disk shikimate assay, MHR plants accumulated less shikimate than the SUS plants at a discriminate dose of 100 μM glyphosate. Sequencing of the conserved region ofEPSPSrevealed no target-site mutation at Thr102or Pro106residue. MHR kochia accessions had increased relativeEPSPSgene copies (~ 4 to 10) compared with the SUS accession (single copy). Furthermore, MHR kochia accumulated higher EPSPS protein compared with the SUS plants. Resistance to the ALS-inhibitor herbicides was conferred by Pro197amino acid substitution (proline to glutamine).EPSPSgene amplification and a single target-site mutation at Pro197inALSgene confer resistance to glyphosate and ALS-inhibitor herbicides, respectively, in MHR kochia accessions from Montana. This is the first confirmation of occurrence of MHR kochia in Montana.
Predicting faunal fire responses in heterogeneous landscapes: the role of habitat structure
Authors: Swan Matthew , Christie Fiona , Sitters Holly , York Alan , Di Stefano Julian
Published: April 2015

Predicting the effects of fire on biota is important for biodiversity conservation in fire‐prone landscapes. Time since fire is often used to predict the occurrence of fauna, yet for many species, it is a surrogate variable and it is temporal change in resource availability to which animals actually respond. Therefore prediction of fire–fauna relationships will be uncertain if time since fire is not strongly related to resources. In this study, we used a space‐for‐time substitution across a large diverse landscape to investigate interrelationships between the occurrence of ground‐dwelling mammals, time since fire, and structural resources. We predicted that much variation in habitat structure would remain unexplained by time since fire and that habitat structure would predict species' occurrence better than time since fire. In line with predictions, we found that time since fire was moderately correlated with habitat structure yet was a poor surrogate for mammal occurrence. Variables representing habitat structure were better predictors of occurrence than time since fire for all species considered. Our results suggest that time since fire is unlikely to be a useful surrogate for ground‐dwelling mammals in heterogeneous landscapes. Faunal conservation in fire‐prone landscapes will benefit from a combined understanding of fauna–resource relationships and the ways in which fire (including planned fires and wildfires) alters the spatial and temporal distribution of faunal resources.
Angiotensin(1-7) and ACE2, “The Hot Spots” of Renin-Angiotensin System, Detected in the Human Aqueous Humor
Authors: Holappa Mervi , Valjakka Jarkko , Vaajanen Anu
Published: April 2015

Background:

The main purpose of the study was to establish whether essential components of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) exist in the human aqueous humor.

Methods:

Forty-five patients ≥ 60 (74±7) years of age undergoing cataract surgery at Tampere University Hospital were randomly selected for the prospective study. The exclusion criterion was the use of oral antihypertensive medicine acting via renin-angiotensin system. Aqueous humor samples were taken at the beginning of normal cataract extraction. The samples were frozen and stored at -80 °C. The concentrations of intraocular endogenous RAS components Ang(1-7), ACE2, and ACE1 were measured using ELISA.

Results:

Concentration medians of Ang(1-7), ACE2, and ACE1 in the aqueous humor were: Ang(1-7) 4.08 ng/ml, ACE2 2.32 ng/ml and ACE1 0.35 ng/ml. The concentrations were significantly higher in glaucomatous than in non-glaucomatous eyes, ACE1 (p=0.014) and Ang(1-7) (p=0.026) vs non-glaucomatous eyes.

Conclusions:

Ang(1-7), ACE2 and ACE1 are found in the human aqueous humor. The observations are consistent with the conception that local tissue-RAS exists in the human eye and it might have a role in the control of intraocular pressure.
Optical Coherence Tomography, Scanning Laser Polarimetry and Confocal Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopy in Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Measurements of Glaucoma Patients
Authors: Fanihagh Farsad , Kremmer Stephan , Anastassiou Gerasimos , Schallenberg Maurice , Steuhl Klaus-Peter , Selbach Michael
Published: April 2015

Purpose:

To determine the correlations and strength of association between different imaging systems in analyzing the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) of glaucoma patients: optical coherence tomography (OCT), scanning laser polarimetry (SLP) and confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (CSLO).

Materials and Methodology:

114 eyes of patients with moderate open angle glaucoma underwent spectral domain OCT (Topcon SD-OCT 2000 and Zeiss Cirrus HD-OCT), SLP (GDx VCC and GDx Pro) and CSLO (Heidelberg Retina Tomograph, HRT 3). Correlation coefficients were calculated between the structural parameters yielded by these examinations. The quantitative relationship between the measured RNFL thickness globally and for the four regions (superior, inferior, nasal, temporal) were evaluated with different regression models for all used imaging systems.

Results:

The strongest correlation of RNFL measurements was found between devices using the same technology like GDx VCC and GDx Pro as well as Topcon OCT and Cirrus OCT. In glaucoma patients, the strongest associations (R²) were found between RNFL measurements of the two optical coherence tomography devices Topcon OCT and Cirrus OCT (R² = 0.513) and between GDx VCC and GDx Pro (R² = 0.451). The results of the OCTs and GDX Pro also had a strong quantitative relationship (Topcon OCT R² = 0.339 and Cirrus OCT R² = 0.347).
GDx VCC and the OCTs showed a mild to moderate association (Topcon OCT R² = 0.207 and Cirrus OCT R² = 0.258). The confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (HRT 3) had the lowest association to all other devices (Topcon OCT R² = 0.254, Cirrus OCT R² = 0.158, GDx Pro R² = 0.086 and GDx VCC R² = 0.1).

Conclusion:

The measurements of the RNFL in glaucoma patients reveal a high correlation of OCT and GDx devices because OCTs can measure all major retinal layers and SLP can detect nerve fibers allowing a comparison between the results of this devices. However, CSLO by means of HRT topography can only measure height values of the retinal surface but it cannot distinguish between different retinal layers.

This may explain the rather poor correlations and associations between CSLO measurements and those of all other imaging devices which makes it difficult to compare HRT 3 nerve fiber data.

These correlations are important in clinical routine especially when different techniques are used in the follow-up of glaucoma patients.
Evaluation of a Full‐Scale Water‐Based Scrubber for Removing Siloxanes from Digester Gas: A Case Study
Authors: Surita Sharon C. , Tansel Berrin
Published: April 2015

Siloxanes are becoming more prominent in digester gas at water resource recovery facilities because of their wide use in personal care products. This study evaluates a full‐scale water‐based scrubber operating in a water resource recovery facility (Miami, FL). The digester gas is used for energy generation due to its high methane content. During energy generation, siloxanes are converted to silicates and Silicon Dioxide (SiO2), which leave deposits on engine components. Trimethylsilanol (TMSOH), Octamethyltrisiloxane (L3), Hexamethylcyclotrisiloxane (D3), Octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4), Decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5), and Dodecamethylcyclohexasiloxane (D6) were detected in the digester gas. D4 and D5 were present at the highest concentrations, 5000 and 1800 μg/m3, respectively. Sampling results have indicated that scrubbers employed for hydrogen sulfide (H2S) removal at the facility do not provide effective removal of siloxanes due to their high Henry's Constant. Post scrubber treatment is needed to remove siloxanes from the digester gas prior to combustion.
Integrating Health Behavior Theory and Design Elements in Serious Games
Authors: Cheek Colleen , Fleming Theresa , Lucassen Mathijs FG , Bridgman Heather , Stasiak Karolina , Shepherd Matthew , Orpin Peter
Published: April 2015

Background

Internet interventions for improving health and well-being have the potential to reach many people and fill gaps in service provision. Serious gaming interfaces provide opportunities to optimize user adherence and impact. Health interventions based in theory and evidence and tailored to psychological constructs have been found to be more effective to promote behavior change. Defining the design elements which engage users and help them to meet their goals can contribute to better informed serious games.

Objective

To elucidate design elements important in SPARX, a serious game for adolescents with depression, from a user-centered perspective.

Methods

We proposed a model based on an established theory of health behavior change and practical features of serious game design to organize ideas and rationale. We analyzed data from 5 studies comprising a total of 22 focus groups and 66 semistructured interviews conducted with youth and families in New Zealand and Australia who had viewed or used SPARX. User perceptions of the game were applied to this framework.

Results

A coherent framework was established using the three constructs of self-determination theory (SDT), autonomy, competence, and relatedness, to organize user perceptions and design elements within four areas important in design: computer game, accessibility, working alliance, and learning in immersion. User perceptions mapped well to the framework, which may assist developers in understanding the context of user needs. By mapping these elements against the constructs of SDT, we were able to propose a sound theoretical base for the model.

Conclusions

This study’s method allowed for the articulation of design elements in a serious game from a user-centered perspective within a coherent overarching framework. The framework can be used to deliberately incorporate serious game design elements that support a user’s sense of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, key constructs which have been found to mediate motivation at all stages of the change process. The resulting model introduces promising avenues for future exploration. Involving users in program design remains an imperative if serious games are to be fit for purpose.
Retailer’s optimal ordering policies for EOQ model with imperfective items under a temporary discount
Authors: Lin Wen , Chang Horng
Published: April 2015

In this article, we study inventory models to determine the optimal special
order and maximum saving cost of imperfective items when the supplier offers
a temporary discount. The received items are not all perfect and the
defectives can be screened out by the end of 100% screening process. Three
models are considered according to the special order occurs at regular
replenishment time, non-regular replenishment time, and screening time of
economic order quantity cycle. Each model has two sub-cases to be discussed.
In temporary discount problems, in general, there are integer operators in
objective functions. We suggest theorems to find the closed-form solutions to
these kinds of problems. Furthermore, numerical examples and sensitivity
analysis are given to illustrate the results of the proposed properties and
theorems.
Microstructural evolution and grain refinement in an intermetallic titanium aluminide alloy with a high molybdenum content
Authors: Rashkova Boryana , Spiradek-Hahn Krystina , Brabetz Manfred , Zhang Zaoli , Schöberl Thomas , Clemens Helmut , Mayer Svea
Published: April 2015

As a strong β-stabilizing alloying element, Mo has gained importance for intermetallic β/γ-TiAl alloys. In general, TiAl alloys containing a significant volume fraction of the disordered body-centered cubic β-phase exhibit improved processing characteristics during hot-working. To increase the understanding of the alloying effect of Mo, a model alloy with the chemical composition Ti-44Al-7Mo-0.1B (in at.%) was investigated. In this work, the microstructural evolution after individual heat-treatment steps was studied by means of scanning as well as conventional and in-situ transmission electron microscopy. Additionally, macro-hardness and nanoindentation measurements were conducted to study the change in hardness due to grain refinement and solid-solution hardening. The variation of the observed macro- and nano-hardness corresponds well with the microstructural evolution. The obtained grain refinement effect leads to a significant increase in the macro-hardness, whereas the increase in the average nano-hardness of the individual phases is related to solid-solution hardening.
Powder metallurgy of high speed-steel produced by solid state sintering and heat treatment
Authors: Zhang Dan , Li Zhi , Xie Lang , Xiao Yifeng , Yin Fucheng
Published: April 2015

High-speed steel is successfully fabricated by solid state sintering of Fe, Co, WC, Mo2C, Cr3C2 and VC powders under vacuum. The sintering density, microstructure, phase structure, hardness, and transverse rupture strength of the specimens are examined. Results show that the density increases with increasing sintering temperature. Nearly full density is obtained without microstructural coarsening in the sintering temperature range of 1190–1210°C. The optimum sintering temperature for the steel is 1200°C. The suitable quenching temperatures range from 1200 to 1240°C. After heat treatments, the microstructure consists of a martensitic matrix (grain size ≈5 μm) with a homogeneous distribution of MC and M
6C carbides (average size lower than 1 μm). The highest hardness of 68.5 ± 0.3 HRC and the maximum transverse rupture strength of 3.58 ± 0.12 GPa is obtained for the specimen tempered at 560°C.