bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Attraction and repulsion of mobile wild organisms to finfish and shellfish aquaculture: a review
Authors: Callier Myriam D. , Byron Carrie J. , Bengtson David A. , Cranford Peter J. , Cross Stephen F. , Focken Ulfert , Jansen Henrice M. , Kamermans Pauline , Kiessling Anders , Landry Thomas , O'Beirn Francis , Petersson Erik , Rheault Robert B. , Strand Øivind , Sundell Kristina , Svåsand Terje , Wikfors Gary H. , McKindsey Christopher W.
Published: September 2017

Knowledge of aquaculture–environment interactions is essential for the development of a sustainable aquaculture industry and efficient marine spatial planning. The effects of fish and shellfish farming on sessile wild populations, particularly infauna, have been studied intensively. Mobile fauna, including crustaceans, fish, birds and marine mammals, also interact with aquaculture operations, but the interactions are more complex and these animals may be attracted to (attraction) or show an aversion to (repulsion) farm operations with various degrees of effects. This review outlines the main mechanisms and effects of attraction and repulsion of wild animals to/from marine finfish cage and bivalve aquaculture, with a focus on effects on fisheries‐related species. Effects considered in this review include those related to the provision of physical structure (farm infrastructure acting as fish aggregating devices (FADs) or artificial reefs (ARs), the provision of food (e.g. farmed animals, waste feed and faeces, fouling organisms associated with farm structures) and some farm activities (e.g. boating, cleaning). The reviews show that the distribution of mobile organisms associated with farming structures varies over various spatial (vertical and horizontal) and temporal scales (season, feeding time, day/night period). Attraction/repulsion mechanisms have a variety of direct and indirect effects on wild organisms at the level of individuals and populations and may have implication for the management of fisheries species and the ecosystem in the context of marine spatial planning. This review revealed considerable uncertainties regarding the long‐term and ecosystem‐wide consequences of these interactions. The use of modelling may help better understand consequences, but long‐term studies are necessary to better elucidate effects.
Fifty‐one cases of fungal arteritis after kidney transplantation: A case report and review of the literature
Authors: Tang Maozhi , Xu Xiaosong , Shen Bingbing , Zhang Jun , Li Peng , Pan Qianguang , Mei Mei , Xie Pan , Liu Hong
Published: September 2017

Fungal arteritis affecting graft arteries is a rare but life‐threatening complication in kidney transplantation (KT). Here, we report the case of a patient with Aspergillus arteritis who experienced renal artery rupture 8 days after KT. We also reviewed 50 other reported cases of fungal arteritis after KT. We found that fungal contamination can occur during kidney graft harvest, preservation, and/or transplantation. Typically, early diagnosis, timely antifungal treatment, and emergency surgery seem crucial for avoiding life‐threatening vascular complications.
Gain‐of‐function mutation in PTPN11 in histiocytic sarcomas of Bernese Mountain Dogs
Authors: Thaiwong T. , Sirivisoot S. , Takada M. , Yuzbasiyan‐Gurkan V. , Kiupel M.
Published: September 2017

Histiocytic sarcoma (HS) is an aggressive malignant neoplasm of dendritic cell origin that is common in certain breeds of dogs. High prevalence of fatal, disseminated HS has been described in Bernese Mountain Dogs (BMDs). Support for genetic predisposition to develop HS has been presented in several studies, but to date, causative genetic events have not been reported. In addition, no driver mutations have been identified in tumours. Recently, E76K gain‐of‐function mutation in SHP2 encoded by the PTPN11 gene has been described in human histiocytic malignancies. In our study, we identified the PTPN11E76K in HS of BMDs. Amplification of exon 3 of the PTPN11 gene followed by Sanger sequencing was used to detect the mutation and estimate the prevalence in HS from 30 BMDs, 13 Golden Retrievers and 10 other dog breeds. The overall prevalence of PTPN11E76K in HS of BMDs was 36.67% compared with 8.69% in other breeds. No mutation was identified in normal tissues from 10 BMDs with HS that carried the mutation and 12 control dogs with no neoplastic disease, including 6 BMDs. Increased immunoreactivity for AKT, phosphorylated ERK1/2 and phosphorylated AKT in a small subset of BMDs with PTPN11E76K suggests that a gain‐of‐function might be mediated by the ERK and AKT pathways. These data suggest PTPN11E76K as an important driver mutation of HS in BMDs. This information may not only aid in unravelling the tumourigenic events associated with HS in BMDs, but also help in identifying more promising therapeutic strategies.
Numerical Testing of a Trailing Edge Passive Morphing Control for Large Axial Fan Blades
Authors: Castorrini Alessio , Corsini Alessandro , Sheard Anthony G. , Rispoli Franco
Published: September 2017

The concept of morphing geometry to control and stabilize the flow has been proposed and applied in several aeronautic and wind turbine applications. We studied the effect of a similar passive system applied on an axial fan blade, analyzing potential benefits and disadvantages associated to the passive coupling between fluid and structure dynamics. The present work completes a previous study made at the section level, giving a view also on the three-dimensional (3D) effects. We use the numerical computation to simulate the system, which defines a complex fluid–structure interaction (FSI) problem. In order to do that, an in-house finite element (FE) solver, already used in the previous study, is applied to solve the coupled dynamics.
Analysis of Fouling Degree of Individual Heating Surfaces in a Pulverized Coal Fired Boiler
Authors: Madejski Paweł , Janda Tomasz , Taler Jan , Nabagło Daniel , Węzik Robert , Mazur Magdalena
Published: September 2017

The paper presents the method of fouling degree evaluation of the heating surfaces in pulverized coal-fired boiler during coal combustion and biomass co-combustion. The fouling processes have a negative impact on the boiler operation by reducing the steam outlet temperature, increasing the mass flow rate of cooling spray water, and may be the reason for overheating of the superheater (SH) tube material. This leads to a reduction of the boiler efficiency and can cause shortening of a lifetime as well as damage of boiler heat exchangers, in particular, the steam SH. The basis of fouling degree assessment method are the dimensionless coefficients, which represent current values of heat absorbed by an individual heat exchanger in comparison to the value for a clean surface. The coefficients are determined based on the calculated heat power of individual heat exchanger taking into account the adjustment resulting from the flue gas temperature inside a combustion chamber. The results of the analysis showed a significant reduction of the amount of heat absorbed by the convection SH during continuous boiler operation. The next important conclusion is a large increase of the heat amount transferred to the radiant SH, which may result in exceeding the permissible temperature of the tube material. The proposed method together with on-line monitoring system installed on the boiler is used to calculate the fouling degree of individual heating surfaces. Accurate monitoring of boiler heating surface conditions can be used to optimize soot blowers operation and finally to improve process efficiency.
Enhanced capture of bacteria and endotoxin by antimicrobial WLBU2 peptide tethered on polyethylene oxide spacers
Authors: Raman Ramya , Raper Miranda A. , Hahn Erik , Schilke Kate F.
Published: September 2017

Severe sepsis is a life threatening immune response that may be caused by endotoxins (lipopolysaccharides) in circulating bacterial cell wall fragments. Hemoperfusion through a sorbent column coated with the antimicrobial peptide polymyxin B (PMB) is a promising treatment for sepsis. However, PMB is cytotoxic and neurotoxic, and is a membrane disruptor that may fragment endotoxin vesicles. In addition, the blood is not protected from nonspecific interactions with the synthetic surface of the solid support. These effects may be responsible for the variety of undesirable clinical outcomes, including nonspecific adsorption of proteins, blood cell damage, platelet activation, and a lack of clear evidence of efficacy of the current hemoperfusion products. An alternative endotoxin-binding agent is WLBU2, a synthetic cationic amphiphilic peptide that exhibits better selectivity for bacterial cell membranes and reduced host cell cytotoxicity. Tethering the peptide at the periphery of a hydrophilic polyethylene oxide (PEO) brush should also mask the underlying surface, preventing cell and protein adsorption, and is expected to increase the solvent accessibility and molecular mobility of the tethered peptides. WLBU2 tethered on pendant PEO chains exhibited significantly greater capture of intact bacterial cells and endotoxin than surface-immobilized WLBU2. Tethered WLBU2 also captured amounts of endotoxin comparable to PMB. These results suggest that PEO-tethered WLBU2 coatings may be safer and more effective than the state-of-the-art PMB-based technology.
Cancer immunotherapy with recombinant poliovirus induces IFN-dominant activation of dendritic cells and tumor antigen–specific CTLs
Authors: Brown Michael C. , Holl Eda K. , Boczkowski David , Dobrikova Elena , Mosaheb Mubeen , Chandramohan Vidya , Bigner Darell D. , Gromeier Matthias , Nair Smita K.
Published: September 2017

PVSRIPO infection of tumors elicits antitumor immunity by damaging neoplastic cells and activating type I IFN responses in antigen-presenting cells.
Education isn’t everything (for infant immunity)
Authors: Haspel Jeffrey
Published: September 2017

A deficit in tissue-resident memory T cell production helps explain virus susceptibility in early life.
DNA Priming Increases Frequency of T-Cell Responses to a Vesicular Stomatitis Virus HIV Vaccine with Specific Enhancement of CD8
+
T-Cell Responses by Interleukin-12 Plasmid DNA
Authors: Li Shuying S. , Kochar Nidhi K. , Elizaga Marnie , Hay Christine M. , Wilson Gregory J. , Cohen Kristen W. , De Rosa Stephen C. , Xu Rong , Ota-Setlik Ayuko , Morris Daryl , Finak Greg , Allen Mary , Tieu Hong-Van , Frank Ian , Sobieszczyk Magdalena E. , Hannaman Drew , Gottardo Raphael , Gilbert Peter B. , Tomaras Georgia D. , Corey Lawrence , Clarke David K. , Egan Michael A. , Eldridge John H. , McElrath M. Juliana , Frahm Nicole ,   NIAID HIV Vaccine Trials Network
Published: September 2017

The HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) 087 vaccine trial assessed the effect of increasing doses of pIL-12 (interleukin-12 delivered as plasmid DNA) adjuvant on the immunogenicity of an HIV-1 multiantigen (MAG) DNA vaccine delivered by electroporation and boosted with a vaccine comprising an attenuated vesicular stomatitis virus expressing HIV-1 Gag (VSV-Gag). We randomized 100 healthy adults to receive placebo or 3 mg HIV-MAG DNA vaccine (ProfectusVax HIV-1
gag
/
pol
or ProfectusVax
nef
/
tat
/
vif
,
env
) coadministered with pIL-12 at 0, 250, 1,000, or 1,500 μg intramuscularly by electroporation at 0, 1, and 3 months followed by intramuscular inoculation with 3.4 × 10
7
PFU VSV-Gag vaccine at 6 months. Immune responses were assessed after the prime and boost and 6 months after the last vaccination. High-dose pIL-12 increased the magnitude of CD8
+
T-cell responses postboost compared to no pIL-12 (
P
= 0.02), while CD4
+
T-cell responses after the prime were higher in the absence of pIL-12 than with low- and medium-dose pIL-12 (
P
≤ 0.05). The VSV boost increased Gag-specific CD4
+
and CD8
+
T-cell responses in all groups (
P
< 0.001 for CD4
+
T cells), inducing a median of four Gag epitopes in responders. Six to 9 months after the boost, responses decreased in magnitude, but CD8
+
T-cell response rates were maintained. The addition of a DNA prime dramatically improved responses to the VSV vaccine tested previously in the HVTN 090 trial, leading to broad epitope targeting and maintained CD8
+
T-cell response rates at early memory. The addition of high-dose pIL-12 given with a DNA prime by electroporation and boosted with VSV-Gag increased the CD8
+
T-cell responses but decreased the CD4
+
responses. This approach may be advantageous in reshaping the T-cell responses to a variety of chronic infections or tumors. (This study has been registered at ClinicalTrials.gov under registration no. NCT01578889.)
A Perfect Storm: Increased Colonization and Failure of Vaccination Leads to Severe Secondary Bacterial Infection in Influenza Virus-Infected Obese Mice
Authors: Karlsson Erik A. , Meliopoulos Victoria A. , van de Velde Nicholas C. , van de Velde Lee-Ann , Mann Beth , Gao Geli , Rosch Jason , Tuomanen Elaine , McCullers Jon , Vogel Peter , Schultz-Cherry Stacey
Published: September 2017

Obesity is a risk factor for developing severe disease following influenza virus infection; however, the comorbidity of obesity and secondary bacterial infection, a serious complication of influenza virus infections, is unknown. To fill this gap in knowledge, lean and obese C57BL/6 mice were infected with a nonlethal dose of influenza virus followed by a nonlethal dose of
Streptococcus pneumoniae
. Strikingly, not only did significantly enhanced death occur in obese coinfected mice compared to lean controls, but also high mortality was seen irrespective of influenza virus strain, bacterial strain, or timing of coinfection. This result was unexpected, given that most influenza virus strains, especially seasonal human A and B viruses, are nonlethal in this model. Both viral and bacterial titers were increased in the upper respiratory tract and lungs of obese animals as early as days 1 and 2 post-bacterial infection, leading to a significant decrease in lung function. This increased bacterial load correlated with extensive cellular damage and upregulation of platelet-activating factor receptor, a host receptor central to pneumococcal invasion. Importantly, while vaccination of obese mice against either influenza virus or pneumococcus failed to confer protection, antibiotic treatment was able to resolve secondary bacterial infection-associated mortality. Overall, secondary bacterial pneumonia could be a widespread, unaddressed public health problem in an increasingly obese population.

IMPORTANCE
Worldwide obesity rates have continued to increase. Obesity is associated with increased severity of influenza virus infection; however, very little is known about respiratory coinfections in this expanding, high-risk population. Our studies utilized a coinfection model to show that obesity increases mortality from secondary bacterial infection following influenza virus challenge through a “perfect storm” of host factors that lead to excessive viral and bacterial outgrowth. In addition, we found that vaccination of obese mice against either virus or bacteria failed to confer protection against coinfection, but antibiotic treatment did alleviate mortality. Combined, these results represent an understudied and imminent public health concern in a weighty portion of the global population.
Picornaviruses and Apoptosis: Subversion of Cell Death
Authors: Croft Sarah N. , Walker Erin J. , Ghildyal Reena
Published: September 2017

Infected cells can undergo apoptosis as a protective response to viral infection, thereby limiting viral infection. As viruses require a viable cell for replication, the death of the cell limits cellular functions that are required for virus replication and propagation. Picornaviruses are single-stranded RNA viruses that modify the host cell apoptotic response, probably in order to promote viral replication, largely as a function of the viral proteases 2A, 3C, and 3CD. These proteases are essential for viral polyprotein processing and also cleave cellular proteins.Picornavirusproteases cleave proapoptotic adaptor proteins, resulting in downregulation of apoptosis.Picornavirusproteases also cleave nucleoporins, disrupting the orchestrated manner in which signaling pathways use active nucleocytoplasmic trafficking, including those involved in apoptosis. In addition to viral proteases, the transmembrane 2B protein alters intracellular ion signaling, which may also modulate apoptosis. Overall, picornaviruses, via the action of virally encoded proteins, exercise intricate control over and subvert cell death pathways, specifically apoptosis, thereby allowing viral replication to continue.
Combining Comprehensive Analysis of Off-Site Lambda Phage Integration with a CRISPR-Based Means of Characterizing Downstream Physiology
Authors: Tanouchi Yu , Covert Markus W.
Published: September 2017

During its lysogenic life cycle, the phage genome is integrated into the host chromosome by site-specific recombination. In this report, we analyze lambda phage integration into noncanonical sites using next-generation sequencing and show that it generates significant genetic diversity by targeting over 300 unique sites in the host
Escherichia coli
genome. Moreover, these integration events can have important phenotypic consequences for the host, including changes in cell motility and increased antibiotic resistance. Importantly, the new technologies that we developed to enable this study—sequencing secondary sites using next-generation sequencing and then selecting relevant lysogens using clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/Cas9-based selection—are broadly applicable to other phage-bacterium systems.

IMPORTANCE
Bacteriophages play an important role in bacterial evolution through lysogeny, where the phage genome is integrated into the host chromosome. While phage integration generally occurs at a specific site in the host chromosome, it is also known to occur at other, so-called secondary sites. In this study, we developed a new experimental technology to comprehensively study secondary integration sites and discovered that phage can integrate into over 300 unique sites in the host genome, resulting in significant genetic diversity in bacteria. We further developed an assay to examine the phenotypic consequence of such diverse integration events and found that phage integration can cause changes in evolutionarily relevant traits such as bacterial motility and increases in antibiotic resistance. Importantly, our method is readily applicable to other phage-bacterium systems.
Systematic Discovery of Archaeal Transcription Factor Functions in Regulatory Networks through Quantitative Phenotyping Analysis
Authors: Darnell Cynthia L. , Tonner Peter D. , Gulli Jordan G. , Schmidler Scott C. , Schmid Amy K.
Published: September 2017

To ensure survival in the face of stress, microorganisms employ inducible damage repair pathways regulated by extensive and complex gene networks. Many archaea, microorganisms of the third domain of life, persist under extremes of temperature, salinity, and pH and under other conditions. In order to understand the cause-effect relationships between the dynamic function of the stress network and ultimate physiological consequences, this study characterized the physiological role of nearly one-third of all regulatory proteins known as transcription factors (TFs) in an archaeal organism. Using a unique quantitative phenotyping approach, we discovered functions for many novel TFs and revealed important secondary functions for known TFs. Surprisingly, many TFs are required for resisting multiple stressors, suggesting cross-regulation of stress responses. Through extensive validation experiments, we map the physiological roles of these novel TFs in stress response back to their position in the regulatory network wiring. This study advances understanding of the mechanisms underlying how microorganisms resist extreme stress. Given the generality of the methods employed, we expect that this study will enable future studies on how regulatory networks adjust cellular physiology in a diversity of organisms.
Economic volatility in childhood and subsequent adolescent mental health problems: a longitudinal population-based study of adolescents
Authors: Bøe Tormod , Skogen Jens Christoffer , Sivertsen Børge , Hysing Mari , Petrie Keith J , Dearing Eric , Zachrisson Henrik Daae
Published: September 2017

Objective

The aim of the current paper was to investigate the association between the patterns of duration, timing and sequencing of exposure to low family income during childhood, and symptoms of mental health problems in adolescence.

Setting

Survey administered to a large population-based sample of Norwegian adolescents.

Participants

Survey data from 9154 participants of 16–19 years age (53% participation rate; 52.7% girls) were linked to registry-based information about childhood family income from tax return data.

Outcome measures

Mental health outcomes were symptoms of emotional, conduct, hyperactivity, peer problems and general mental health problems measured with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, symptoms of depression measured with Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire and symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) measured with the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale.

Results

Latent class analysis and the BCH approach in Mplus were used to examine associations between patterns of poverty exposure and mental health outcomes. Four latent classes of poverty exposure emerged from the analysis. Participants moving into poverty (2.3%), out of poverty (3.5%) or those chronically poor (3.1%) had more symptoms of mental health problems (Cohen’sd=16-.50) than those with no poverty exposure (91.1%). This pattern was, however, not found for symptoms of ADHD. The pattern of results was confirmed in robustness checks using observed data.

Conclusions

Exposure to poverty in childhood was found to be associated with most mental health problems in adolescence. There was no strong suggestion of any timing or sequencing effects in the patterns of associations.
REACH: study protocol of a randomised trial of rehabilitation very early in congenital hemiplegia
Authors: Boyd Roslyn N , Ziviani Jenny , Sakzewski Leanne , Novak Iona , Badawi Nadia , Pannek Kerstin , Elliott Catherine , Greaves Susan , Guzzetta Andrea , Whittingham Koa , Valentine Jane , Morgan Cathy , Wallen Margaret , Eliasson Ann-Christin , Findlay Lisa , Ware Robert , Fiori Simona , Rose Stephen
Published: September 2017

Objectives

Congenital hemiplegia is the most common form of cerebral palsy (CP). Children with unilateral CP show signs of upper limb asymmetry by 8 months corrected age (ca) but are frequently not referred to therapy until after 12 months ca. This study compares the efficacy of infant-friendly modified constraint-induced movement therapy (Baby mCIMT) to infant friendly bimanual therapy (Baby BIM) on upper limb, cognitive and neuroplasticity outcomes in a multisite randomised comparison trial.

Methods and analysis

150 infants (75 in each group), aged between 3 and 6 months ca, with asymmetric brain injury and clinical signs of upper extremity asymmetry will be recruited. Children will be randomised centrally to receive equal doses of either Baby mCIMT or Baby BIM. Baby mCIMT comprises restraint of the unimpaired hand using a simple restraint (eg, glove, sock), combined with intensive parent implemented practice focusing on active use of the impaired hand in a play-based context. In contrast, Baby BIM promotes active play requiring both hands in a play-based context. Both interventions will be delivered by parents at home with monthly home visits and interim telecommunication support by study therapists. Assessments will be conducted at study entry; at 6, 12 months ca immediately postintervention (primary outcome) and 24 months ca (retention). The primary outcome will be the Mini-Assisting Hand Assessment. Secondary outcomes include the Bayley Scale for Infant and Toddler Development (cognitive and motor domains) and the Hand Assessment of Infants. A subset of children will undertake MRI scans at 24 months ca to evaluate brain lesion severity and brain (re)organisation after intervention.

Ethics and dissemination

Full ethical approvals for this study have been obtained from the relevant sites. The findings will be disseminated in peer-reviewed publications.

Trial registration number

Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry: ACTRN12615000180516, Pre results.
Psychological distress and ischaemic heart disease: cause or consequence? Evidence from a large prospective cohort study
Authors: Welsh Jennifer , Korda Rosemary J , Joshy Grace , Butterworth Peter , Brown Alex , Banks Emily
Published: September 2017

Background

Ischaemic heart disease (IHD) incidence is elevated in people reporting psychological distress. The extent to which this relationship is causal or related to reverse causality—that is, undiagnosed disease causing distress—is unclear. We quantified the relationship between psychological distress and IHD, with consideration of confounding and undiagnosed disease.

Methods

Questionnaire data (2006–2009) from 151 811 cardiovascular disease-free and cancer-free Australian general population members aged ≥45years (45 and Up Study) were linked to hospitalisation and mortality data, to December 2013. A two-stage approach estimated HRs for incident IHD (IHD-related hospitalisation or death) for low (Kessler-10 scores: 10–<12), mild (12–<16), moderate (16–<22) and high (22–50) psychological distress, adjusting for demographic and behavioural characteristics, and then restricting to those with no/minor functioning limitations (likely free from undiagnosed disease).

Results

Over 859 396 person-years, 5230 incident IHD events occurred (rate: 6.09/1000person-years). IHD risk was increased for mild (age-adjusted and sex-adjusted HR: 1.18, 95% CI 1.11 to 1.26), moderate (1.36, 1.25 to 1.47), and high (1.69, 1.52 to 1.88) versus low distress. HRs attenuated to 1.15 (1.08 to 1.22), 1.26 (1.16 to 1.37) and 1.41 (1.26 to 1.57) after adjustment for demographic and behavioural characteristics and were further attenuated by 35%–41% in those with no/minor limitations, leaving a significant but relatively weak dose-response relationship: 1.11 (1.02 to 1.20), 1.21 (1.08 to 1.37) and 1.24 (1.02 to 1.51) for mild, moderate and high versus low distress, respectively. The observed adjustment-related attenuation suggests measurement error/residual confounding likely contribute to the remaining association.

Conclusion

A substantial part of the distress-IHD association is explained by confounding and functional limitations, an indicator of undiagnosed disease. Emphasis should be on psychological distress as a marker of healthcare need and IHD risk, rather than a causative factor.
Towards laboratory detection of topological vortices in superfluid phases of QCD
Authors: Das Arpan , Dave Shreyansh S. , De Somnath , Srivastava Ajit M.
Published: September 2017

Topological defects arise in a variety of systems, e.g. vortices in superfluid helium to cosmic strings in the early universe. There is an indirect evidence of neutron superfluid vortices from the glitches in pulsars. One also expects that the topological defects may arise in various high baryon density phases of quantum chromodynamics (QCD), e.g. superfluid topological vortices in the color flavor locked (CFL) phase. Though vastly different in energy/length scales, there are universal features in the formation of all these defects. Utilizing this universality, we investigate the possibility of detecting these topological superfluid vortices in laboratory experiments, namely heavy-ion collisions (HICs). Using hydrodynamic simulations, we show that vortices can qualitatively affect the power spectrum of flow fluctuations. This can give an unambiguous signal for superfluid transition resulting in vortices, allowing for the check of defect formation theories in a relativistic quantum field theory system, and the detection of superfluid phases of QCD. Detection of nucleonic superfluid vortices in low energy HICs will give opportunity for laboratory controlled study of their properties, providing crucial inputs for the physics of pulsars.
Squeezing and entanglement in two-mode Bose–Einstein condensates
Authors: Li Song-Song
Published: September 2017

We investigate the influence of one-body losses on the dynamics of squeezing and entanglement in two-mode Bose–Einstein condensates. We show that one-body losses play an important role in the dynamical process of generating squeezing and quantum entanglement. The stronger one-body losses induce smaller squeezing and lesser entanglement, but maintain in a longer time interval.
Anisotropic dark energy transit cosmological models with time-dependent ω(t) and redshift-dependent ω(z) EoS parameter
Authors: Maurya Dinesh Chandra
Published: September 2017

In the present paper, we have been investigated a new dark energy model in anisotropic Bianchi-type-I (B-I) space-time with redshift-dependent equation of state (EoS) parameter. The Einstein’s field equations have been solved by applying a variation-law for hyperbolic scale factor [Formula: see text] which provides a time-dependent deceleration parameter and time-dependent EoS parameter. We also have been found the redshift-dependent EoS parameter. The existing range of the dark energy EoS parameter [Formula: see text] for derived model is found to be in good agreement with the recent observations. The cosmological constant [Formula: see text] is found to be a decreasing function of time and it approaches a small positive value at the present epoch which is collaborated by results from recent supernovae Ia observations. It has also been suggested that the dark energy that explains the observed accelerating universe may arise due to the contribution to the vacuum energy of the EoS in a time-dependent background. Geometric and Kinematic properties of the model and the behavior of the anisotropy of the dark energy have been discussed.
Pólya-based approximation for the ATM-forward implied volatility
Authors: Matić Ivan , Radoičić Radoš , Stefanica Dan
Published: September 2017

We introduce a closed form approximation for the implied volatility of ATM-forward options. The relative error of this approximation is uniformly bounded for all option maturities and implied volatilities. The approximation is extremely precise, having relative error less than [Formula: see text] for all options with integrated volatility less than [Formula: see text], such as options with maturity less than three years and implied volatility less than 100%. Moreover, the approximate implied volatilities fall within the implied volatility bid–ask spread for all the liquid options, such as options with volatility less than 200% and maturity less than nine years.
Holocene source rock deposition in the Black Sea, insights from a dropcore study offshore Bulgaria
Authors: Fallah M. , Mayer J. , Tari G. , Baur J.
Published: September 2017

One of the main issues in source rock evaluation has always been the availability of thermally immature samples, which would represent the same source rock quality and facies as the mature source rock within the deeper parts of the basin. Forty dropcore sample locations from shallow depths beneath the present-day seafloor were selected and analysed for mineral composition and bulk geochemical parameters. The water depths of the samples range from shelfal to bathyal environments. The quartz content of the samples clearly decreases with increasing distance from sedimentary input sources (e.g. river deltas), whereas clay content increases towards the distal areas. Mass movements (e.g. slides and debris flows) along the present-day shelf are recognizable on the bathymetry, as well as in the mineral content. Bulk geochemical parameters show that currently only poor to fair gas-prone source rocks are deposited within the study area. This lack of source rock quality, as well as organic content, is attributed to the fine-grained sedimentary input from the Danube river. These fine-grained sediments decrease the organic productivity due to dulling (decrease in the thickness of the photic zone) of the water column, and dilute the currently deposited source rock with low TOC sediments. These effects decrease with distance from the Danube delta, as indicated by published data from outside the study area. Additionally mass movements along the present-day shelf rework possible source rocks. The results of this study clearly show that anoxic conditions alone are not sufficient for source rock deposition. Distance from major sedimentary input and basin geometry are of major importance, and should be considered in basin modelling.
Interacting with Recommenders—Overview and Research Directions
Authors: Jugovac Michael , Jannach Dietmar
Published: September 2017

Automated recommendations have become a ubiquitous part of today’s online user experience. These systems point us to additional items to purchase in online shops, they make suggestions to us on movies to watch, or recommend us people to connect with on social websites. In many of today’s applications, however, the only way for users to interact with the system is to inspect the recommended items. Often, no mechanisms are implemented for users to give the system feedback on the recommendations or to explicitly specify preferences, which can limit the potential overall value of the system for its users.

Academic research in recommender systems is largely focused on algorithmic approaches for item selection and ranking. Nonetheless, over the years a variety of proposals were made on how to design more interactive recommenders. This work provides a comprehensive overview on the existing literature on user interaction aspects in recommender systems. We cover existing approaches for preference elicitation and result presentation, as well as proposals that consider recommendation as an interactive process. Throughout the work, we furthermore discuss examples of real-world systems and outline possible directions for future works.
A See-through-Wall System for Device-Free Human Motion Sensing Based on Battery-Free RFID
Authors: Wang Zhongqin , Xiao Fu , Ye Ning , Wang Ruchuan , Yang Panlong
Published: September 2017

A see-through-wall system can be used in life detection, military fields, elderly people surveillance. and gaming. The existing systems are mainly based on military devices, customized signals or pre-deployed sensors inside the room, which are very expensive and inaccessible for general use. Recently, a low-cost RFID technology has gained a lot of attention in this field. Since phase estimates of a battery-free RFID tag collected by a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) RFID reader are sensitive to external interference, the RFID tag could be regarded as a battery-free sensor that detects reflections off targeted objects. The existing RFID-based system, however, needs to first learn the environment of the empty room beforehand to separate reflections off the tracked target. Besides, it can only track low-speed metal objects with high-positioning accuracy. Since the human body with its complex surface has a weaker ability to reflect radio frequency (RF) signals than metal objects, a battery-free RFID tag can capture only a subset of the reflections off the human body. To address these challenges, a RFID-based human motion sensing technology, called RF-HMS, is presented to track device-free human motion through walls. At first, we construct transfer functions of multipath channel based on phase and RSSI measurements to eliminate device noise and reflections off static objects like walls and furniture without learning the environment of the empty room before. Then a tag planar array is grouped by many battery-free RFID tags to improve the sensing performance. RF-HMS combines reflections from each RFID tag into a reinforced result. On this basis, we extract phase shifts to detect the absence or presence of any moving persons and further derive the reflections off a single moving person to identify his/her forward or backward motion direction. The results show that RF-HMS can effectively detect the absence or presence of moving persons with 100% accuracy and keep a high accuracy of more than 90% to track human motion directions.
Defining Emergent Software Using Continuous Self-Assembly, Perception, and Learning
Authors: Filho Roberto Rodrigues , Porter Barry
Published: September 2017

Architectural self-organisation, in which different configurations of software modules are dynamically assembled based on the current context, has been shown to be an effective way for software to self-optimise over time. Current approaches to this rely heavily on human-led definitions: models, policies, and processes to control how self-organisation works. We present the case for a paradigm shift to fully
emergent
computer software that places the burden of understanding entirely into the hands of software itself. These systems are autonomously assembled at runtime from discovered constituent parts and their internal health and external deployment environment continually monitored. An online, unsupervised learning system then uses runtime adaptation to continuously explore alternative system assemblies and locate optimal solutions. Based on our experience over the past 3 years, we define the problem space of emergent software and present a working case study of an emergent web server as a concrete example of the paradigm. Our results demonstrate two main aspects of the problem space for this case study: that different assemblies of behaviour are optimal in different deployment environment conditions and that these assemblies can be autonomously learned from generalised perception data while the system is online.
Long-Span Program Behavior Modeling and Attack Detection
Authors: Shu Xiaokui , Yao Danfeng (Daphne) , Ramakrishnan Naren , Jaeger Trent
Published: September 2017

Intertwined developments between program attacks and defenses witness the evolution of program anomaly detection methods. Emerging categories of program attacks, e.g., non-control data attacks and data-oriented programming, are able to comply with normal trace patterns at local views. This article points out the deficiency of existing program anomaly detection models against new attacks and presents long-span behavior anomaly detection (LAD), a model based on mildly context-sensitive grammar verification. The key feature of LAD is its reasoning of correlations among arbitrary events that occurred in long program traces. It extends existing correlation analysis between events at a stack snapshot, e.g., paired call and ret, to correlation analysis among events that historically occurred during the execution. The proposed method leverages specialized machine learning techniques to probe normal program behavior boundaries in vast high-dimensional detection space. Its two-stage modeling/detection design analyzes event correlation at both binary and quantitative levels. Our prototype successfully detects all reproduced real-world attacks against sshd, libpcre, and sendmail. The detection procedure incurs 0.1 ms to 1.3 ms overhead to profile and analyze a single behavior instance that consists of tens of thousands of function call or system call events.
Performance Analysis of Game Engines on Mobile and Fixed Devices
Authors: Messaoudi Farouk , Ksentini Adlen , Simon Gwendal , Bertin Philippe
Published: September 2017

Mobile gaming is an emerging concept wherein gamers are using mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets, to play best-seller games. Compared to dedicated gaming boxes or PCs, these devices still fall short of executing newly complex 3D video games with a rich immersion. Three novel solutions, relying on cloud computing infrastructure, namely, computation offloading, cloud gaming, and client-server architecture, will represent the next generation of game engine architecture aiming at improving the gaming experience. The basis of these aforementioned solutions is the distribution of the game code over different devices (including set-top boxes, PCs, and servers). In order to know how the game code should be distributed, advanced knowledge of game engines is required. By consequence, dissecting and analyzing game engine performances will surely help to better understand how to move in these new directions (i.e., distribute game code), which is so far missing in the literature. Aiming at filling this gap, we propose in this article to analyze and evaluate one of the famous engines in the market, that is, “Unity 3D.” We begin by detailing the architecture and the game logic of game engines. Then, we propose a test-bed to evaluate the CPU and GPU consumption per frame and per module for nine representative games on three platforms, namely, a stand-alone computer, embedded systems, and web players. Based on the obtained results and observations, we build a valued graph of each module, composing the Unity 3D architecture, which reflects the internal flow and CPU consumption. Finally, we made a comparison in terms of CPU consumption between these architectures.
Electronic Social Capital for Self-Organising Multi-Agent Systems
Authors: Petruzzi Patricio E. , Pitt Jeremy , Busquets Dídac
Published: September 2017

It is a recurring requirement in open systems, such as networks, distributed systems, and socio-technical systems, that a group of agents must coordinate their behaviour for the common good. In those systems—where agents are heterogeneous—unexpected behaviour can occur due to errors or malice. Agents whose practices free-ride the system can be accepted to a certain level; however, not only do they put the stability of the system at risk, but they also compromise the agents that behave according to the system’s rules.

In social systems, it has been observed thatsocial capitalis an attribute of individuals that enhances their ability to solve collective action problems. Sociologists have studied collective action through human societies and observed that social capital plays an important role in maintaining communities though time as well as in simplifying the decision-making in them. In this work, we explore the use of Electronic Social Capital for optimising self-organised collective action.

We developed a context-independent Electronic Social Capital framework to test this hypothesis. The framework comprises a set of handlers that capture events from the system and update three different forms of social capital: trustworthiness, networks, and institutions. Later, a set of metrics are generated by the forms of social capital and used for decision-making. The framework was tested in different scenarios such as two-player games,n-player games, and public goods games. The experimental results show that social capital optimises the outcomes (in terms of long-term satisfaction and utility), reduces the complexity of decision-making, and scales with the size of the population.

This work proposes an alternative solution using Electronic Social Capital to represent and reason with qualitative, instead of traditional quantitative, values. This solution could be embedded into socio-technical systems to incentivise collective action without commodifying the resources or actions in the system.
Linear-Time Parameterized Algorithms via Skew-Symmetric Multicuts
Authors: Ramanujan M. S. , Saurabh Saket
Published: September 2017

A skew-symmetric graph (
D
=(
V
,
A
),σ) is a directed graph
D
with an involution σ on the set of vertices and arcs. Flows on skew-symmetric graphs have been used to generalize maximum flow and maximum matching problems on graphs, initially by Tutte and later by Goldberg and Karzanov. In this article, we introduce a separation problem,
d
-S
kew
-S
ymmetric
M
ulticut
, where we are given a skew-symmetric graph
D
, a family τ of
d
-size subsets of vertices, and an integer
k
. The objective is to decide whether there is a set
X
⊑
A
of
k
arcs such that every set
J
in the family has a vertex υ such that υ and σ(υ) are in different strongly connected components of
D
′=(
V
,A \ (
X
∪ σ(
X
)). In this work, we give an algorithm for
d
-S
kew
-S
ymmetric
M
ulticut
that runs in time
O
((4
d
)
k
(
m
+
n
+ℓ)), where
m
is the number of arcs in the graph,
n
is the number of vertices, and ℓ is the length of the family given in the input.

This problem, apart from being independently interesting, also captures the main combinatorial difficulty of numerous classical problems. Our algorithm for
d
-S
kew
-S
ymmetric
M
ulticut
paves the way for the first linear-time parameterized algorithms for several problems. We demonstrate its utility by obtaining the following linear-time parameterized algorithms:

— We show that A
lmost
2-SAT is a special case of 1-S
kew
-S
ymmetric
M
ulticut
, resulting in an algorithm for A
lmost
2-SAT that runs in time
O
(4
k
k
4
ℓ), where
k
is the size of the solution and ℓ is the length of the input formula. Then, using linear-time parameter-preserving reductions to A
lmost
2-SAT, we obtain algorithms for O
dd
C
ycle
T
ransversal
and E
dge
B
ipartization
that run in time
O
(4
k
k
4
(
m
+
n
)) and
O
(4
k
k
5
(
m
+
n
)), respectively, where
k
is the size of the solution, and
m
and
n
are the number of edges and vertices respectively. This resolves an open problem posed by Reed et al. and improves on the earlier almost-linear-time algorithm of Kawarabayashi and Reed.

— We show that D
eletion
q-Horn B
ackdoor
S
et
D
etection
is a special case of 3-S
kew
-S
ymmetric
M
ulticut
, giving us an algorithm for D
eletion
q-Horn B
ackdoor
S
et
D
etection
that runs in time
O
(12
k
k
5
ℓ), where
k
is the size of the solution and ℓ is the length of the input formula. This gives the first fixed-parameter tractable algorithm for this problem answering a question posed in a work by Narayanaswamy et al. Using this result, we get an algorithm for S
atisfiability
that runs in time
O
(12
k
k
5
ℓ), where
k
is the size of the smallest q-Horn deletion backdoor set, with ℓ being the length of the input formula.
Security Game with Non-additive Utilities and Multiple Attacker Resources
Authors: Wang Sinong , Shroff Ness
Published: September 2017

There has been significant interest in studying security games for modeling the interplay of attacks and defenses on various systems involving critical infrastructure, financial system security, political campaigns, and civil safeguarding. However, existing security game models typically either assume additive utility functions, or that the attacker can attack only one target. Such assumptions lead to tractable analysis, but miss key inherent dependencies that exist among different targets in current complex networks. In this paper, we generalize the classical security game models to allow for non-additive utility functions. We also allow attackers to be able to attack multiple targets. We examine such a general security game from a theoretical perspective and provide a unified view. In particular, we show that each security game is equivalent to a combinatorial optimization problem over a set system ε, which consists of defender's pure strategy space. The key technique we use is based on the transformation, projection of a polytope, and the ellipsoid method. This work settles several open questions in security game domain and extends the state-of-the-art of both the polynomial solvable and NP-hard class of the security game.