bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Structure of the Large Extracellular Loop of FtsX and Its Interaction with the Essential Peptidoglycan Hydrolase PcsB in Streptococcus pneumoniae
Authors: Rued Britta E. , Alcorlo Martín , Edmonds Katherine A. , Martínez-Caballero Siseth , Straume Daniel , Fu Yue , Bruce Kevin E. , Wu Hongwei , Håvarstein Leiv S. , Hermoso Juan A. , Winkler Malcolm E. , Giedroc David P.
Published: January 2019

FtsX is a ubiquitous bacterial integral membrane protein involved in cell division that regulates the activity of peptidoglycan (PG) hydrolases. FtsX is representative of a large group of ABC3 superfamily proteins that function as “mechanotransmitters,” proteins that relay signals from the inside to the outside of the cell. Here, we present a structural characterization of the large extracellular loop, ECL1, of FtsX from the opportunistic human pathogen
S.
pneumoniae
. We show the molecular nature of the direct interaction between the peptidoglycan hydrolase PcsB and FtsX and demonstrate that this interaction is essential for cell viability. As such, FtsX represents an attractive, conserved target for the development of new classes of antibiotics.
Genome-Wide Profiling of Cervical RNA-Binding Proteins Identifies Human Papillomavirus Regulation of RNASEH2A Expression by Viral E7 and E2F1
Authors: Xu Junfen , Liu Habin , Yang Yanqin , Wang Xiaohong , Liu Poching , Li Yang , Meyers Craig , Banerjee Nilam Sanjib , Wang Hsu-Kun , Cam Maggie , Lu Weiguo , Chow Louise T. , Xie Xing , Zhu Jun , Zheng Zhi-Ming
Published: January 2019

High-risk HPV infections lead to development of cervical cancer. This study identified the differential expression of 16 novel genes (LY6K, FAM83A, CELSR3, ASF1B, IQGAP3, SEMA3F, CLDN10, MSX1, CXCL5, ASRGL1, ELAVL2, GRB7, KHSRP, NOVA1, PTBP1, and RNASEH2A) in HPV-infected cervical tissue samples and keratinocytes. Eight of these genes (CDKN2A, ELAVL2, GRB7, HSPB1, KHSRP, NOVA1, PTBP1, and RNASEH2A) encode RNA-binding proteins. Further studies indicated that both HPV16 and HPV18 infections lead to the aberrant expression of selected RBP-encoding genes. We found that viral E6 and E7 decrease NOVA1 expression but that E7 increases RNASEH2A expression via E2F1. The altered expression of these genes may be utilized as biomarkers for high-risk (HR)-HPV carcinogenesis and progression.
IL-6: To immunity and beyond
Authors: Choy Ernest H , Jones Simon A , Aletaha Daniel , Takeuchi Tsutomu , McInnes Iain , Smolen Josef
Published: January 2019

Interleukin (IL)−6 inhibition has been approved for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, systemic juvenile arthritis, polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis, giant cell arteritis, and, in some countries, Castleman’s disease. IL-6 has also been implicated in several non-rheumatoid arthritis inflammatory and immune conditions such as systemic sclerosis, vasculitides, systemic lupus erythematous, and psoriatic arthritis. In orphan diseases, such as systemic sclerosis, which are associated with significant morbidity and mortality and for which there are no approved treatments, IL-6 inhibition may offer a promising treatment strategy. It is also becoming clear that IL-6 may have an important role not only in inflammatory and immune diseases but also in non-immune mediated diseases such as endogenous depression and depression associated with chronic inflammatory conditions. Several studies have explored the effect of IL-6 pathway inhibition in Crohn’s disease and adult-onset Still’s disease, suggesting that IL-6 may be important in their pathogenesis.
Youth get a D+ grade in physical activity: How can we change public health messages to help reverse this trend?
Authors: Alberga Angela S. , Fortier Michelle , Bean Corliss , Freedhoff Yoni
Published: January 2019

The purpose of this paper is to critique how the promotion of physical activity (PA) is communicated and offer evidence-based alternative framings to encourage PA in youth. We argue that PA promotion messaging should not be tied to outcomes that focus on changing physical appearance, preventing or treating diseases, or sport performance or competition. From a public health perspective, we suggest that PA should instead focus on campaigns, policies, and programs that tie PA to enjoyment, wellbeing, and play.
CO465 corn inbred line
Authors: Reid L.M. , Voloaca C. , Wu J. , Woldemariam T. , Jindal K.K. , Zhu X.
Published: January 2019

CO465 is a short-season corn (Zea mays L.) inbred line with excellent combining ability with Iodent inbred testers and the early maturing AAFC line CL30. CO465 has moderate resistance to eyespot and intermediate resistance to common rust, northern corn leaf blight, and fusarium stalk rot.
BEQUEST AND MORAL HAZARD IN FAMILY
Authors: LEE INSOOK
Published: January 2019

Observed bequest patterns of widely diverse societies are polarized into unigeniture (giving all to one child) and equigeniture (dividing bequests equally). Over time, inheritance custom evolves from unigeniture to equigeniture. To explain these two observations, this paper proposes a model of bequest behavior that a parent cares welfare of his children while he wants them to expend costly and unverifiable efforts for family. All the stable equilibrium inheritance customs comprise unigeniture and equigeniture only, being consistent with the observed polarization. Moreover, a rise in the productivity of efforts for family can cause the evolution to equigeniture from unigeniture.
EEG Signal Processing Based on Multivariate Empirical Mode Decomposition and Common Spatial Pattern Hybrid Algorithm
Authors: Wu Linyan , Wang Tao , Wang Qi , Zhu Qing , Chen Jinhuan
Published: January 2019

The high accuracy of electroencephalogram (EEG) signal classification is the premise for the wide application of brain computer interface (BCI). In this paper, a hybrid method consisting of multivariate empirical mode decomposition (MEMD) and common space pattern (CSP) is proposed to recognize left-hand and right-hand hypothetical motion from EEG signals. Experiments were carried out using the BCI competition II imagery database. EEG signals were decomposed into multiple intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) by MEMD. The IMF functions with high correlation were processed by CSP, and AR coefficients and entropy values were extracted as features. After genetic algorithm optimization, classification is carried out. Our research results show that the K nearest neighbor (KNN) as an optimal classification model produces 85.36% accuracy. We also compare the proposed algorithm with the existing algorithms. The experimental results show that the performance of the proposed algorithm is comparable to or better than that of many existing algorithms.
Galois connections between lattices of preradicals induced by ring epimorphisms
Authors: Fernández-Alonso Rogelio , Magaña Janeth
Published: January 2019

We continue the study of Galois connections between the lattices of preradicals of two rings [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] induced by an adjoint pair of functors between the categories [Formula: see text]-Mod and [Formula: see text]-Mod. In this paper, we focus on the functor triple induced by any ring homomorphism [Formula: see text], and particularly when it is a ring epimorphism. We give additional results when the epimorphism is flat and when it is projective.
Finite groups with σ-Frobenius condition for non-normal σ-primary subgroups
Authors: Hu Bin , Huang Jianhong , Skiba Alexander N.
Published: January 2019

Let [Formula: see text] be a partition of the set [Formula: see text] of all primes and [Formula: see text] a finite group. A group is said to be [Formula: see text]-primary if it is a finite [Formula: see text]-group for some [Formula: see text]. We say that a [Formula: see text]-subgroup [Formula: see text] of [Formula: see text] satisfies the [Formula: see text]-Frobenius condition in [Formula: see text] if [Formula: see text] is a [Formula: see text]-group. In this paper, we determine the structure of finite groups in which every non-normal [Formula: see text]-primary subgroup satisfies the [Formula: see text]-Frobenius condition.
Strict Mittag–Leffler modules over Gorenstein injective modules
Authors: Yang Yanjiong , Yan Xiaoguang
Published: January 2019

In this paper, we study the conditions under which a module is a strict Mittag–Leffler module over the class [Formula: see text] of Gorenstein injective modules. To this aim, we introduce the notion of [Formula: see text]-projective modules and prove that over noetherian rings, if a module can be expressed as the direct limit of finitely presented [Formula: see text]-projective modules, then it is a strict Mittag–Leffler module over [Formula: see text]. As applications, we prove that if [Formula: see text] is a two-sided noetherian ring, then [Formula: see text] is a covering class closed under pure submodules if and only if every injective module is strict Mittag–Leffler over [Formula: see text].
The Partially Truncated Euler–Maruyama Method for Highly Nonlinear Stochastic Delay Differential Equations with Markovian Switching
Authors: Cong Yuhao , Zhan Weijun , Guo Qian
Published: January 2019

A class of super-linear stochastic delay differential equations (SDDEs) with variable delay and Markovian switching is considered. The main aim of this paper is to investigate the convergence and stability properties of partially truncated Euler–Maruyama (EM) method applied to the SDDEs with variable delay and Markovian switching under the generalized Khasminskii-type condition.
Preparation of C, N and P co-doped TiO2and its photocatalytic activity under visible light
Authors: Zhao Lin , Xie Yanzhao , Lin Qiuyu , Zheng Rongze , Diao Yong
Published: January 2019

A series of composite catalysts of C, N and P co-doped TiO2were prepared by sol-gel method, using a biomass (soluble starch) dopant. The samples were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The results show that TiO2is co-doped with C, N and P by one step. The resulting composite exhibited higher specific surface area, wider visible-light absorption band with respect to the pure TiO2. The sample calcined at 400∘C for 2[Formula: see text]h with a doping amount of 6[Formula: see text]g soluble starch showed the best electrochemical performance. The C, N and P co-doped TiO2was also used for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) and degradation ratio was up to 98% in 80[Formula: see text]min under visible light irradiation.
Magnonics and Supermagnonics
Authors: Bunkov Yury
Published: January 2019

The magnetic community continues to discuss the possibility of observing the magnetic superfluidity, despite the fact that it has been discovered a long time ago. It was observed in antiferromagnetic states of superfluid 3He in 1984. In this paper, we reiterate the main principles of spin superfluidity and related Bose–Einstin magnon condensation. We discuss applications of this phenomenon in supermagnonic devises.
Replicated Computational Results (RCR) Report for “Fast Random Integer Generation in an Interval”
Authors: Quaglia Francesco
Published: January 2019

The article “Fast Random Integer Generation in an Interval” by Lemire (2018) addressed the problem of reducing the cost of machine instructions needed for the random generation of integer values in a generic interval [0,
s
). The approach taken by the author is the one of exploiting the rejection method (Neumann 1951) to build an algorithm that almost eliminates the need for performing integer division operations—the algorithm still exploits divisions by powers of two, implemented in the form of cheap shift operations. In more details, the likelihood of not requiring an integer division in the proposed algorithm is 2

L

−
s
/ 2

L

, where
L
denotes the number of bits used to represent integer values. The author also presents a comparative experimental study where the new algorithm, and its implementation for x86 processors, are compared with solutions offered by common software libraries for different programming languages.
Modeling Dyadic and Group Impressions with Intermodal and Interperson Features
Authors: Okada Shogo , Nguyen Laurent Son , Aran Oya , Gatica-Perez Daniel
Published: January 2019

This article proposes a novel feature-extraction framework for inferring impression personality traits, emergent leadership skills, communicative competence, and hiring decisions. The proposed framework extracts multimodal features, describing each participant’s nonverbal activities. It captures intermodal and interperson relationships in interactions and captures how the target interactor generates nonverbal behavior when other interactors also generate nonverbal behavior. The intermodal and interperson patterns are identified as frequent co-occurring events based on clustering from multimodal sequences. The proposed framework is applied to the SONVB corpus, which is an audiovisual dataset collected from dyadic job interviews, and the ELEA audiovisual data corpus, which is a dataset collected from group meetings. We evaluate the framework on a binary classification task involving 15 impression variables from the two data corpora. The experimental results show that the model trained with co-occurrence features is more accurate than previous models for 14 out of 15 traits.
A Survey of On-Chip Optical Interconnects
Authors: Bashir Janibul , Peter Eldhose , Sarangi Smruti R.
Published: January 2019

Numerous challenges present themselves when scaling traditional on-chip electrical networks to large manycore processors. Some of these challenges include high latency, limitations on bandwidth, and power consumption. Researchers have therefore been looking for alternatives. As a result, on-chip nanophotonics has emerged as a strong substitute for traditional electrical NoCs.

As of 2017, on-chip optical networks have moved out of textbooks and found commercial applicability in short-haul networks such as links between servers on the same rack or between two components on the motherboard. It is widely acknowledged that in the near future, optical technologies will move beyond research prototypes and find their way into the chip. Optical networks already feature in the roadmaps of major processor manufacturers and most on-chip optical devices are beginning to show signs of maturity.

This article is designed to provide a survey of on-chip optical technologies covering the basic physics underlying the operation of optical technologies, optical devices, popular architectures, power reduction techniques, and applications. The aim of this survey article is to start from the fundamental concepts and move on to the latest in the field of on-chip optical interconnects.
Compositional Dataflow Circuits
Authors: Edwards Stephen A. , Townsend Richard , Barker Martha , Kim Martha A.
Published: January 2019

We present a technique for implementing dataflow networks as compositional hardware circuits. We first define an abstract dataflow model with unbounded buffers that supports data-dependent blocks (mux, demux, and nondeterministic merge); we then show how to faithfully implement such networks with bounded buffers and handshaking.

Handshaking admits compositionality: our circuits can be connected with or without buffers, and combinational cycles arise only from a completely unbuffered cycle. While bounding buffer sizes can cause the system to deadlock prematurely, the system is guaranteed to produce the same, correct, data before then. Thus, unless the system deadlocks, inserting or removing buffers only affects its performance. We demonstrate how this enables design space to be explored.
Recent Developments in Cartesian Genetic Programming and its Variants
Authors: Manazir Abdul , Raza Khalid
Published: January 2019

Cartesian Genetic Programming (CGP) is a variant of Genetic Programming with several advantages. During the last one and a half decades, CGP has been further extended to several other forms with lots of promising advantages and applications. This article formally discusses the classical form of CGP and its six different variants proposed so far, which include Embedded CGP, Self-Modifying CGP, Recurrent CGP, Mixed-Type CGP, Balanced CGP, and Differential CGP. Also, this article makes a comparison among these variants in terms of population representations, various constraints in representation, operators and functions applied, and algorithms used. Further, future work directions and open problems in the area have been discussed.
A Survey on Bayesian Nonparametric Learning
Authors: Xuan Junyu , Lu Jie , Zhang Guangquan
Published: January 2019

Bayesian (machine) learning has been playing a significant role in machine learning for a long time due to its particular ability to embrace uncertainty, encode prior knowledge, and endow interpretability. On the back of Bayesian learning’s great success, Bayesian nonparametric learning (BNL) has emerged as a force for further advances in this field due to its greater modelling flexibility and representation power. Instead of playing with the fixed-dimensional probabilistic distributions of Bayesian learning, BNL creates a new “game” with infinite-dimensional stochastic processes. BNL has long been recognised as a research subject in statistics, and, to date, several state-of-the-art pilot studies have demonstrated that BNL has a great deal of potential to solve real-world machine-learning tasks. However, despite these promising results, BNL has not created a huge wave in the machine-learning community. Esotericism may account for this. The books and surveys on BNL written by statisticians are overcomplicated and filled with tedious theories and proofs. Each is certainly meaningful but may scare away new researchers, especially those with computer science backgrounds. Hence, the aim of this article is to provide a plain-spoken, yet comprehensive, theoretical survey of BNL in terms that researchers in the machine-learning community can understand. It is hoped this survey will serve as a starting point for understanding and exploiting the benefits of BNL in our current scholarly endeavours. To achieve this goal, we have collated the extant studies in this field and aligned them with the steps of a standard BNL procedure—from selecting the appropriate stochastic processes through manipulation to executing the model inference algorithms. At each step, past efforts have been thoroughly summarised and discussed. In addition, we have reviewed the common methods for implementing BNL in various machine-learning tasks along with its diverse applications in the real world as examples to motivate future studies.
Post-Quantum Lattice-Based Cryptography Implementations
Authors: Nejatollahi Hamid , Dutt Nikil , Ray Sandip , Regazzoni Francesco , Banerjee Indranil , Cammarota Rosario
Published: January 2019

The advent of quantum computing threatens to break many classical cryptographic schemes, leading to innovations in public key cryptography that focus on post-quantum cryptography primitives and protocols resistant to quantum computing threats. Lattice-based cryptography is a promising post-quantum cryptography family, both in terms of foundational properties as well as in its application to both traditional and emerging security problems such as encryption, digital signature, key exchange, and homomorphic encryption. While such techniques provide guarantees, in theory, their realization on contemporary computing platforms requires careful design choices and tradeoffs to manage both the diversity of computing platforms (e.g., high-performance to resource constrained), as well as the agility for deployment in the face of emerging and changing standards. In this work, we survey trends in lattice-based cryptographic schemes, some recent fundamental proposals for the use of lattices in computer security, challenges for their implementation in software and hardware, and emerging needs for their adoption. The survey means to be informative about the math to allow the reader to focus on the mechanics of the computation ultimately needed for mapping schemes on existing hardware or synthesizing part or all of a scheme on special-purpose har dware.
Synthesis of Facial Expressions in Photographs
Authors: Testa Rafael Luiz , Corrêa Cléber Gimenez , Machado-Lima Ariane , Nunes Fátima L. S.
Published: January 2019

The synthesis of facial expressions has applicationsin areas such as interactive games, biometrics systems, and training of people with disorders, among others. Although this is an area relatively well explored in the literature, there are no recent studies proposing to systematize an overview of research in the area. This systematic review analyzes the approaches to the synthesis of facial expressions in photographs, as well as important aspects of the synthesis process, such as preprocessing techniques, databases, and evaluation metrics. Forty-eight studies from three different scientific databases were analyzed. From these studies, we established an overview of the process, including all the stages used to synthesize expressions in facial images. We also analyze important aspects involved in these stages such as methods and techniques of each stage, databases, and evaluation metrics. We observed that machine learning approaches are the most widely used to synthesize expressions. Landmark identification, deformation, mapping, fusion, and training are common tasks considered in the approaches. We also found that few studies used metrics to evaluate the results, and most studies used public databases. Although the studies analyzed generated consistent and realistic results while preserving the identity of the subject, there are still research themes to be exploited.
SRPT for Multiserver Systems
Authors: Grosof Isaac , Scully Ziv , Harchol-Balter Mor
Published: January 2019

The Shortest Remaining Processing Time (SRPT) scheduling policy and its variants have been extensively studied in both theoretical and practical settings. While beautiful results are known for single-server SRPT, much less is known for multiserver SRPT. In particular, stochastic analysis of the M/G/k under SRPT is entirely open. Intuition suggests that multiserver SRPT should be optimal or near-optimal for minimizing mean response time. However, the only known analysis of multiserver SRPT is in the worst-case adversarial setting, where SRPT can be far from optimal. In this paper, we give the first stochastic analysis bounding mean response time of the M/G/k under SRPT. Using our response time bound, we show that multiserver SRPT has asymptotically optimal mean response time in the heavy-traffic limit. The key to our bounds is a strategic combination of stochastic and worst-case techniques. Beyond SRPT, we prove similar response time bounds and optimality results for several other multiserver scheduling policies. This article is an introduction to our longer paper, [1].
Aggregation of MQTT Topics over Integrated Satellite-Terrestrial Networks
Authors: Palattella Maria Rita , Soua Ridha , Stemper André , Engel Thomas
Published: January 2019

The MQTT application protocol was originally designed for monitoring a oil pipeline through the desert by collecting sensor data via satellite link. Thus, by design MQTT is very suitable for data collection over integrated satelliteterrestrial networks. Leveraging on the MQTT Bridge functionality, in this work we propose a novel architecture with two MQTT Brokers located at the satellite terminal and the satellite gateway. By using the topic pattern option, supported by the bridge, a subscriber can request several topics within a single request. To reduce the amount of traffic exchanged over the satellite return channel, we introduce in the architecture a new entity, namely MQTT message aggregation filter, which aggregates all the MQTT topics matching the topic pattern in the same response.
Learning Driven Mobility Control of Airborne Base Stations in Emergency Networks
Authors: Li Rui , Zhang Chaoyun , Patras Paul , Stanica Razvan , Valois Fabrice
Published: January 2019

Mobile base stations mounted on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) provide viable wireless coverage solutions in challenging landscapes and conditions, where cellular/WiFi infrastructure is unavailable. Operating multiple such airborne base stations, to ensure reliable user connectivity, demands intelligent control of UAV movements, as poor signal strength and user outage can be catastrophic to mission critical scenarios. In this paper, we propose a deep reinforcement learning based solution to tackle the challenges of base stations mobility control. We design an Asynchronous Advantage Actor-Critic (A3C) algorithm that employs a custom reward function, which incorporates SINR and outage events information, and seeks to provide mobile user coverage with the highest possible signal quality. Preliminary results reveal that our solution converges after 4×10
5
steps of training, after which it outperforms a benchmark gradientbased alternative, as we attain 5dB higher median SINR during an entire test mission of 10,000 steps.
Morphometric Study of the Hard Palate and Its Relevance to Dental and Forensic Sciences
Authors: Mustafa Ayman G. , Tashtoush Ayssar A. , Alshboul Othman A. , Allouh Mohammed Z. , Altarifi Ahmad A.
Published: January 2019

This study was conducted to identify the morphometric features of the hard palate and to test the reliability of using palatal morphology in sex determination. Three hundred maxillary casts were collected from dental clinics in north Jordan. The age and gender of the patient and the serial number for each cast were recorded. The age range was 6 to 50 years old. A caliper was used to perform the following measurements: the length, width, and depth of the hard palate. In addition, the size, shape, and position of the incisive papilla were also determined. All measurements were done by a trained examiner who was able to perform the measurements in a reproducible manner. Statistical analysis showed that the mean palatal length, width, and depth, and size of dental papilla in both groups were the highest in males. The full logistic regression model including all the three predictors (length, width, and depth) indicated that the three parameters were significantly correlated with gender in the adult group. However, in the child group, only width and length were significantly (p=0.001,p>0.042respectively) correlated with gender. Regarding the shape and size of the incisive papilla, they were significantly different between males and females in both adult (p>0.03) and child (p=0.001) groups. These findings might be potentially relevant to anthropological studies aiming at individual and/or sex identification. Moreover, the results might have clinical value in prosthodontics, especially in fabricating complete maxillary dentures for edentulous patients.
Experimental Study on Track‐Bridge Interactions for Direct Fixation Track on Long‐Span Railway Bridge
Authors: Choi Jung-Youl , Chung Jee-Seung , Kim Sun-Hee
Published: January 2019

The rail and track girder of the direct fixation track (DFT) system on the Yeongjong Grand Bridge (YGB) in Korea exhibit integrated behavior. Therefore, unlike the DFT system in general concrete tracks, the track support stiffness (TSS) of the DFT system on the YGB cannot be evaluated with only the displacement of the rail. The actual TSS of the DFT system supported by the flexible track girders was lower than that of the DFT system supported by the general substructure. For this reason, field measurements and a finite element analysis that reflects the actual operating speed of railroad vehicles on the YGB (i.e., Airport Railroad Express (AREX), nonstop Airport Railroad Express (AREX Express), and Korea Train Express (KTX)) were conducted in this study to determine the interactions between the rail and the track girder. The results indicated that the DFT system on the YGB is supported by track girders that exhibit relatively flexible behavior. As a result, the TSS is directly influenced by the bending stiffness of the track girder.
Hopf Bifurcation Characteristics of the Vehicle with Rear Axle Compliance Steering
Authors: Xu Xiaomei , Chen Dong , Zhang Lei , Chen Ning
Published: January 2019

To overcome the shortage of traditional rear axle compliance steering (RACS) technology, a kind of viscoelastic smart material is introduced into the rear suspension of a vehicle to construct rear wheel semiactive steering system. This article focuses on the nonlinear dynamic behavior of the vehicle with RACS incorporating viscoelastic smart material. First of all, considering the tire nonlinearity and the fractional derivative constitutive relation of the viscoelastic material, the nonlinear dynamic model of the vehicle with RACS is formulated. Then, the lateral dynamic behavior of the vehicle with RACS is demonstrated through numerical experiments. Finally, some factors that influence shimmy of the compliance steering wheel are investigated. Numerical results demonstrate the Hopf bifurcation characteristics of the vehicle with RACS and disclose the influence factors of Hopf bifurcation characteristics for the vehicle with RACS, which lay the theoretical foundation for the development of the rear wheel semiactive steering technology.
Leukotriene Involvement in the Insulin Receptor Pathway and Macrophage Profiles in Muscles from Type 1 Diabetic Mice
Authors: Guimarães João Pedro Tôrres , Filgueiras Luciano Ribeiro , Martins Joilson Oliveira , Jancar Sonia
Published: January 2019

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a metabolic disease associated with systemic low-grade inflammation and macrophage reprogramming. There is evidence that this inflammation depends on the increased systemic levels of leukotriene (LT) B4 found in T1D mice, which shifts macrophages towards the proinflammatory (M1) phenotype. Although T1D can be corrected by insulin administration, over time T1D patients can develop insulin resistance that hinders glycemic control. Here, we sought to investigate the role of leukotrienes (LTs) in a metabolically active tissue such as muscle, focusing on the insulin signaling pathway and muscle-associated macrophage profiles. Type 1 diabetes was induced in the 129/SvE mouse strain by streptozotocin (STZ) in mice deficient in the enzyme responsible for LT synthesis (5LO-/-) and the LT-sufficient wild type (WT). The response to insulin was evaluated by the insulin tolerance test (ITT), insulin concentration by ELISA, and Akt phosphorylation by western blotting. The gene expression levels of the insulin receptor and macrophage markers Stat1, MCP-1, Ym1, Arg1, and IL-6 were evaluated by qPCR, and that of IL-10 by ELISA. We observed that after administration of a single dose of insulin to diabetic mice, the reduction in glycemia was more pronounced in 5LO-/- than in WT mice. When muscle homogenates were analyzed, diabetic 5LO-/- mice showed a higher expression of the insulin receptor gene and higher Akt phosphorylation. Moreover, in muscle homogenates from diabetic 5LO-/- mice, the expression of anti-inflammatory macrophage markers Ym1, Arg1, and IL-10 was increased, and the relative expression of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-6 was reduced compared with WT diabetic mice. These results suggest that LTs have an impact on the insulin receptor signaling pathway and modulate the inflammatory profile of muscle-resident macrophages from T1D mice.
Diagnosis and Treatment of Atraumatic Splenic Rupture: Experience of 8 Cases
Authors: Liu Jian , Feng Yanyu , Li Ang , Liu Chunqing , Li Fei
Published: January 2019

Atraumatic splenic rupture (ASR) is rare but life threatening. In this study, we retrospectively described our experience on the diagnosis and treatment of 8 patients (male: 6; female: 2; mean age: 49.6) with ASR. ASR accounted for 3.2% (8/251) of the splenic ruptures. The clinical presentation of ASR was similar to traumatic splenic rupture (TSR). The sensitivity of ultrasound and contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT) in ASR diagnosis was 57.1% and 85.7%, respectively. According to the classification of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST), 2 cases were classified as grade II splenic ruptures, 4 cases were classified as grade III ruptures, 1 case was classified as grade IV rupture, and 1 case was not classified. All the spleens became swollen, and hematomas were observed in 6 patients. Total splenectomy was recommended in most cases. At least 62.5% (5/8) of the patients with 7 etiological factors belonged to “atraumatic-pathological splenic rupture.” Local inflammation and cancer were the most common etiological factors.
Identification of Roughness with Optimal Contact Response with respect to Real Contact Area and Normal Stiffness
Authors: Cinat Paolo , Paggi Marco , Gnecco Giorgio
Published: January 2019

Additive manufacturing technologies are a key point of the current era of Industry 4.0, promoting the production of mechanical components via the addition of subsequent layers of material. Then, they may be also used to produce surfaces tailored to achieve a desired mechanical contact response. In this work, we develop a method to prototype profiles optimizing a suitable trade‐off between two different target mechanical responses. The mechanical design problem is solved relying on both physical assumptions and optimization methods. An algorithm is proposed, exploiting an analogy between genetics and the multiscale characterization of roughness, where various length‐scales are described in terms of rough profiles, named chromosomes. Finally, the proposed algorithm is tested on a representative example, and the topological and spectral features of roughness of the optimized profiles are discussed.
Preoperative Serum Platelet-Lymphocyte Ratio as a Prognostic Factor in Cholangiocarcinoma Patients after Radical Resection: A Retrospective Analysis of 119 Patients
Authors: Wu Ying , Zhou Danyang , Zhang Guoping , Yi Fengming , Feng Long
Published: January 2019

Aims. Although prognostic markers are important to establish therapeutic strategies in patients for conducting radical resection of cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), there is still a lack of simple, valid, and repeatable markers in clinical settings. We aim to evaluate the prognostic value of the preoperative serum platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) in CCA patients who underwent radical resection. Methods. We retrospectively analyzed CCA patients who underwent radical resection surgery in our institution from January 2011 to June 2016. Baseline PLR and other clinical pathological data were measured when patients were diagnosed initially. The prognostic value of PLR in overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were analyzed with the Cox proportional hazard model and the Kaplan–Meier method. Results. This study retrospectively analyzed 119 patients who underwent radical resection of CCA. During a median follow-up time of 11.0 months, there were 99.2% recurrences and 42.9% who died, and the median OS and PFS were 9.4 months and 7.4 months, respectively. Multivariate Cox analysis identified that elevated levels of PLR (PLR>157.25) as a significant factor predicted poorer OS (P=0.018, HR: 2.160, 95% CI: 1.139-4.096) and PFS (P=0.005, HR: 1.930, 95% CI: 1.220-3.053). In subgroup analysis, PLR also effectively predicted OS (P=0.016, HR: 2.515, 95% CI: 1.143-5.532) and PFS (P=0.042, HR: 1.908, 95% CI: 0.982-3.713) in CCA patients with positive lymphatic metastasis and/or positive surgical margin who required adjuvant therapy. Conclusions. The preoperative serum PLR is an independent prognostic factor for OS and PFS in CCA patients after radical resection, including patients requiring adjuvant therapy.
Cognate Nonlytic Interactions between CD8+ T Cells and Breast Cancer Cells Induce Cancer Stem Cell–like Properties
Authors: Stein Roland G. , Ebert Stefan , Schlahsa Laura , Scholz Claus J. , Braun Matthias , Hauck Petra , Horn Evi , Monoranu Camelia-Maria , Thiemann Vincent J. , Wustrow Michael P. , Häusler Sebastian F. , Montalbán del Barrio Itsaso , Stüber Tanja N. , Wölfl Matthias , Dietl Johannes , Rosenwald Andreas , Diessner Joachim E. , Wöckel Achim , Wischhusen Jörg
Published: January 2019

Targeting of tumor immune escape mechanisms holds enormous therapeutic potential. Still, most patients progress under immune checkpoint blockade and some even become hyperprogressors. To investigate how cancer cells respond to activated but ineffective T cells, we challenged peptide-loaded MCF-7 breast cancer cells with antigen-specific CD8+ T cells in which lytic granules had been destroyed by pretreatment with Concanamycin A. Gene expression analysis after coculture revealed simultaneous induction of PD-L1, IDO1, CEACAM1, and further immunoregulatory checkpoints in breast cancer cells. Strikingly, we further observed gene signatures characteristic for dedifferentiation and acquisition of pluripotency markers including Yamanaka factors. Cognate interaction with nonlytic CD8+ T cells also increased the proportion of stem cell–like cancer cells in a cell-to-cell contact- or (at least) proximity-dependent manner in various cell lines and in primary breast cancer cell cultures; this induction of stem cell–like properties was confirmed by enhanced tumor-forming capacity in immunodeficient mice. Resulting tumors were characterized by enhanced cell density, higher proliferation rates, and increased propensity for lymphoid metastasis. These findings describe a widely underappreciated pathway for immune escape, namely immune-mediated dedifferentiation of breast cancer cells, which is associated with profound changes in gene expression and cellular behavior. As the enhanced malignant potential of cancer cells after nonlytic cognate interactions with CD8+ T cells enables increased tumor growth and metastasis in BALB/cnu/nu mice, the described mechanism may provide a possible explanation for the clinical phenomenon of hyperprogression in response to unsuccessful immunotherapy.

Significance:

This study shows that ineffective immune responses not only fail to clear a malignancy, but can also activate pathways in cancer cells that promote stemness and tumor-seeding capacity.
Maternal Hematological Parameters and Placental and Umbilical Cord Histopathology in Intrauterine Growth Restriction
Authors: Jakó Mária , Surányi Andrea , Kaizer László , Németh Gábor , Bártfai György
Published: January 2019

Objective: To investigate the placental and umbilical cord histopathology in intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) and their relation to second-trimester maternal hematological parameters. Materials and Methods: Patients were selected for the IUGR group based on estimated fetal weight below the 10th percentile. Patients were recruited into the control group randomly. Patients were followed up with ultrasound, and blood samples were taken between the 20th and 24th gestational weeks. After delivery and formalin fixation, weight and volume of the placenta were recorded and histologic samples were processed. Results: Maternal platelet count strongly correlates with placental weight (r = 0.766). On the other hand, neonatal weight correlates with placental volume (r = 0.572) rather than with placental weight (r = 0.469). Umbilical arterial lumen cross-sectional area correlates with birth weight (r = 0.338). Conclusions: Maternal hematological parameters do not seem to affect neonatal outcome. Our main findings are the correlation of maternal platelet count with placental weight, the correlation of placental volume with birth weight being stronger than the correlation of placental weight with birth weight, and the correlation of umbilical artery lumen cross-sectional area with neonatal weight. Mild histopathologic alterations might occur in normal pregnancies; however, sufficient fetal nutrition can be maintained. This compensatory function of the placenta seems to be insufficient when two or more pathologies are present, which is characteristic for IUGR.
Fuzzy Gain Scheduling PID Control for Position of the AR.Drone
Authors: Prayitno Agung , Indrawati Veronica , Immanuel Trusulaw Ivan
Published: January 2019

This paper describes the design and implementation of fuzzy gain scheduling PID control for position of the AR.Drone. This control scheme uses 3 PID controllers as the main controller of the AR.Drone, in this case to control pitch, roll and throttle. The process of tuning parameters for each PID is done automatically by scheduling determined by Takagi-Sugeno-Kang (TSK) fuzzy logic model. This paper uses five function sets of PID parameters that will be evaluated by fuzzy logic in order to tune PID controllers. Error position (x,y,z), as inputs of controller, enters the PID Signal block yielding the ouputs in term of error, integral error and differential error. These signal become the inputs of the fuzzy scheduler to yield outputs pitch, roll and throttle to the AR.drone. The control scheme is implemented on the AR.Drone to make it fly to forming a square in the room. The experimental results show that the control scheme can follow the desired points, and process scheduling PID parameters can be shown.
Design and Implementation of an Electrical Lift Controlled using PLC
Authors: Hasan Ali Mohammed
Published: January 2019

This paper represents the possibility of controlling an electrical elevator model using PLC and studying some parameters to ensure its work, this model have been designed and constructed to perform a completed elevator work in an automating technique according to its programming and controlling method that making the connecting much more easier and safer than real relays and complicated wiring method. As well as the small DC motor drive (gear box) electrical motor that used  to drive the elevator cabinet which made the transition from floor to floor much smoother and much efficient than the traditional elevators.
Automatic Threshold on Current based Anti-pinch Mechanism for Power Windows
Authors: Wibowo Wahyu Kunto , Jeong Seok-Kwon , You Sam-Sang , Jaemin Lee
Published: January 2019

In this paper, the automotive power window has been integrated with an advanced safety mechanism called anti-pinch system for good protection. Based on a contact method, a new safety mechanism using a low-cost technology has been proposed to set a threshold value as a limit to decide the pinch condition, or automatic threshold method. The electric current information is easily detected by using current sensor installed on a motor driver without incorporating extra device. Then the pinch condition is quickly reflected and calculated by using current information in the system. Since the automatic threshold is decided by analyzing system behavior in advance, the optimal calculation can be guaranteed and then applied it on the safety mechanism in a cost-effective manner. Through extensive experimental tests, the squeezing forces of the proposed anti-pinch system have been verified to satisfy requirements of the FMVSS 118 regulations.
An Improvised Methodology to Unbar Android Mobile Phone for Forensic Examination
Authors: Balajichandrasekhar M. V. , Rao T. Srinivasa , Srinivas G.
Published: January 2019

At the end of 2015, there were 4.7 billion noteworthy mobile subscribers globally, equivalent to 63% of the world’s population. Mobile phones had all the essential components or characteristics neatly fitted into a small space and designed to achieve high speeds, massive storage, and increased functionalities. Smart phones used to carry out imparting or exchanging of information such as calling, texting, Internet browsing, e-mail, photos, videos, and etc. Criminals can use smart phones for a number of activities. Namely, committing a fraud over e-mail, harassment via text messages, drug trafficking, child pornography, etc. In this research paper, We demonstrate, if a mobile phone is identified in a criminal activity and if it is locked by any one of the locking mechanisms such as pattern lock, PIN lock and password lock, then how to unlock the mobile device without data loss for forensic examination. It is a great challenge for forensic experts to extract data from a mobile phone for forensic purpose that can be used as evidence in the court of law. The experimental results show that our approach can break all kinds of pattern locks.
Mining the Web Data for Classifying and Predicting Users’ Requests
Authors: S Girish , B Ramamurthy , T Senthilnathan
Published: January 2019

Consumers are the most important asset of any organization. The commercial activity of an organization booms with the presence of a loyal customer who is visibly content with the product and services being offered. In a dynamic market, understanding variations in client’s behavior can help executives establish operative promotional campaigns. A good number of new consumers are frequently picked up by traders during promotions. Though, several of these engrossed consumers are one-time deal seekers, the promotions undeniably leave a positive impact on sales. It is crucial for traders to identify who can be converted to loyal consumer and then have them patronize products and services to reduce the promotion cost and increase the return on investments. This study integrates a classifier that allows prediction of the type of purchase that a customer would make, as well as the number of visits that he/she would make during a year. The proposed model also creates outlines of users and brands or items used by them. These outlines may not be useful only for this particular prediction task, but could also be used for other important tasks in e-commerce, such as client segmentation, product recommendation and client base growth for brands.
Information Retrieval from Emotions and Eye Blinks with help of Sensor Nodes
Authors: Lamba Puneet Singh , Virmani Deepali
Published: January 2019

In everyday life, there are situations where the only way to communicate are emotions. EMOTICONS are the epitome of the same. This aspect of communication can also be used in emergency situations (terrorist attacks, hijacks) where the only way to communicate is by performing some extraordinary actions or through some emotions. Incorporating technology to the above mentioned circumstances the paper proposes a novel framework of detecting an emergency situation by retrieving information from emotions and eye blinks using sensor nodes. The proposed framework can be deployed in places (hotels, banks, airports etc.) which are more suspected to attacks. The framework takes input from real time parameters: eye blinks, emotions, heart rate. Based on behavioral changes, biological changes and physical changes the proposed framework extracts meticulous information. The proposed framework is further validated through implementation of a facial emotion recognition system that successfully recognizes various human emotions. The facial emotion recognition system of the proposed framework is compared with existing SVM technique in terms of accuracy, training and testing error. Accuracy with the proposed system is increased to 78.40% in comparison with existing SVM that is 75.37% and the training error is decreased to 0.004103 whereas with the existing SVM method training error is 0.008935.
Analysis of Time Diversity Gain for Satellite Communication Link based on Ku-Band Rain Attenuation Data Measured in Malaysia
Authors: Rafiqul Islam Md. , Lwas Ali Kadhim , Habaebi Mohamed Hadi , Alam Md Moktarul , Chebil Jalel , Singh Mandeep Jit , Zyoud Alhareth
Published: January 2019

This paper reports a study on mitigation of propagation impairments on Earth–space communication links. The study uses time diversity as a technique for mitigating rain propagation impairment in order to rectify rain fade. Rain attenuation time series along earth-to-satellite link were measured for two years period at 12.255 GHz in Malaysia. The time diversity technique was applied on measured rain fade to investigate the level of possible improvement in system. Time diversity gain from measured one-minute rain attenuation for two years period was estimated and significant improvement was observed with different delays of time. These findings will be utilized as a useful tool for link designers to apply time diversity as a rain fade mitigation technique in Earth-satellite communications systems.