bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
HIV Transmission Rates in the United States, 2006-2008
Authors: Holtgrave David R , Hall H. Irene , Prejean Joseph
Published: April 2012

National HIV incidence for a given year x [I(x)] equals prevalence [P(x)] times the transmission rate [T(x)]. Or, simply rearranging the terms, T(x) = [I(x)/P(x)]*100 (where T(x) is the number of HIV transmissions per 100 persons living with HIV in a given year). The transmission rate is an underutilized measure of the speed at which the epidemic is spreading. Here, we utilize recently updated information about HIV incidence and prevalence in the U.S. to estimate the national HIV transmission rate for 2006 through 2008, and present a novel method to express the level of uncertainty in these estimates. Transmission rate estimates for 2006 through 2008 are as follows (respectively): 4.39 (4.01 to 4.73); 4.90 (4.49 to 5.28); and 4.06 (3.70 to 4.38). Although there are methodological challenges inherent in making these estimates, they do give some indications that the U.S. HIV transmission rate is at a historically low level.
The Physiology of Phenomenology: The Effects of Artworks
Authors: Tröndle Martin , Tschacher Wolfgang
Published: April 2012

In a five-year long research project “eMotion—mapping museum experience,” we assessed which effects artworks had on museum visitors and their behavior in the field. We tested several hypotheses such as: Does a famous work attract more attention than a less renowned one, and a “loud” artwork more than a subtle one? Do similar artworks generate similar visitor reactions? Does an artwork lose its attraction if manipulated? To investigate these questions, experiments were conducted using special technology that allowed tracking of visitors' physical locomotion and continuous measurement of physiological markers in the gallery. We also recorded visitors' general subjective assessments of their museum experience, and with respect to specific artworks. Using this innovative approach, we were able to demonstrate strong correlations between artworks, the physical reactions of the visitors, their spatial behavior, and aesthetic ratings.
How to Find Refutations of the Golden Section without Really Trying
Authors: Green Christopher D.
Published: April 2012

For over 150 years, many people have claimed that the number popularly known as the Golden Section has particularly appealing aesthetic properties when incorporated into the proportions of visual artworks. Although the empirical evidence for these claims has been equivocal, in the 1980s an important mathematical argument seemed to show that many, perhaps nearly all, empirical discoveries of the legendary number in art and nature were probably mathematical artifacts. This article overturns that argument as being, itself, the artifact of an unrealistic assumption.
Enhancing Auditors' Ability to Identify Opportunities to Commit Fraud: Instructional Resource Cases
Authors: Dickins Denise , Reisch John T.
Published: April 2012

Research suggests that audit team members, especially staff, may lack the necessary training to be able to identify fraud risks and to develop appropriate responses to identified fraud risks (e.g., Pearson and Singleton 2008; Knapp and Knapp 2001; Braun 2000; Zimbelman 1997). This lack of training may be particularly acute with respect to the perpetration of fraud in automated environments (Filipek 2007). The case studies are designed to improve undergraduate auditing, accounting information systems, and forensic accounting students' abilities to recognize and respond to indicators of fraud and general information technology (IT) control weaknesses.
Risk Factors for Falls in Older Adults with Lower Extremity Arthritis: A Conceptual Framework of Current Knowledge and Future Directions
Authors: Arnold Cathy M. , Gyurcsik Nancy C.
Published: April 2012

Purpose: As the numbers of Canadians aged 65 years and over increases over the next 20 years, the prevalence of chronic conditions, including arthritis, will rise as will the number of falls. Although known fall-risk factors are associated with hip and knee osteoarthritis (OA), minimal research has evaluated fall and fracture risk and/or rates in this population. Thus, the purpose was to summarize research on fall and fracture risk in older adults with hip or knee OA and to develop a conceptual framework of fall-risk screening and assessment. Method: The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, clinical practice guidelines for fall-risk screening, and a selected literature review were used. Results: Gaps exist in our knowledge of fall and fracture risk for this population. Muscle performance, balance, and mobility impairments have been identified, but little is known about whether personal and environmental contextual factors impact fall and fracture risk. Physical activity may help to prevent falls, but non-adherence is a problem. Conclusion: A need exists to assess fall risk in older adults with hip and knee OA. Promoting regular physical activity by focusing on disease- and activity-specific personal contextual factors may help direct treatment planning.
Should nursing ethics be distinguished from medical ethics?
Authors: Lasker Shamima Parvin
Published: April 2012

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bioethics.v2i3.10256Bangladesh Journal of Bioethics 2011;2(3):2
Eco-Polycentric Urban Systems: An Ecological Region Perspective for Network Cities
Authors: Botequilha-Leitão André
Published: April 2012

The research presented in this paper is a work in progress. It provides linkages between the author’s earlier research under the sustainable land planning framework (SLP) and emergent ideas and planning and design strategies, centered on the (landscape) ecological dimension of cities’ sustainability. It reviews several concepts, paradigms, and metaphors that have been emerging during the last decade, which can contribute to expand our vision on city planning and design. Among other issues, city form—monocentric, polycentric, and diffused—is discussed. The hypothesis set forth is that cities can improve the pathway to sustainability by adopting intermediate, network urban forms such as polycentric urban systems (PUS) under a broader vision (as compared to the current paradigm), to make way to urban ecological regions. It discusses how both the principles of SLP and those emergent ideas can contribute to integrate PUS with their functional hinterland, adopting an ecosystemic viewpoint of cities. It proposes to redirect the current dominant economic focus of PUS to include all of the other functions that are essential to urbanites, such as production (including the 3Rs), recreation, and ecology in a balanced way. Landscape ecology principles are combined with complexity science in order to deal with uncertainty to improve regional systems’ resilience. Cooperation in its multiple forms is seen as a fundamental social, but also economic process contributing to the urban network functioning, including its evolving capabilities for self-organization and adaptation.
Reciprocal Trophic Interactions and Transmission of Blood Parasites between Mosquitoes and Frogs
Authors: Ferguson Laura V. , Smith Todd G.
Published: April 2012

The relationship between mosquitoes and their amphibian hosts is a unique, reciprocal trophic interaction. Instead of a one-way, predator-prey relationship, there is a cyclical dance of avoidance and attraction. This has prompted spatial and temporal synchrony between organisms, reflected in emergence time of mosquitoes in the spring and choice of habitat for oviposition. Frog-feeding mosquitoes also possess different sensory apparatuses than do their mammal-feeding counterparts. The reciprocal nature of this relationship is exploited by various blood parasites that use mechanical, salivary or trophic transmission to pass from mosquitoes to frogs. It is important to investigate the involvement of mosquitoes, frogs and parasites in this interaction in order to understand the consequences of anthropogenic actions, such as implementing biocontrol efforts against mosquitoes, and to determine potential causes of the global decline of amphibian species.
Experience from Experimental Cell Transplantation Therapy of Myocardial Infarction: What have we Learned?
Authors: Dai Wangde , Kay Gregory L. , Jyrala Aarne J. , Kloner Robert A.
Published: April 2012

During the past 15 years, our research group has transplanted fetal/neonatal cardiomyocytes, mesenchymal stem cells, and embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes into infarcted myocardium in a rat myocardial infarction model. Our experimental data demonstrated that cell transplantation therapy provides a potential approach for the treatment of injured myocardium after myocardial infarction based on the reported positive effects upon histological appearance and left ventricular function. However, the underlying mechanisms of the benefits from cell transplantation therapy remain unclear and may involve replacement of scar tissue by transplanted cells, induced neoangiogenesis and paracrine effects of factors released by the transplanted cells. In this review, we summarize our experiences from experimental cell transplantation therapy in a rat myocardial infarction model and discuss the controversies and questions that need to be addressed in future studies.
Analysis of Biodistribution and Engraftment into the Liver of Genetically Modified Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Derived from Adipose Tissue
Authors: Di Rocco Giuliana , Gentile Antonietta , Antonini Annalisa , Truffa Silvia , Piaggio Giulia , Capogrossi Maurizio C. , Toietta Gabriele
Published: April 2012

Presently, orthotopic liver transplant is the major therapeutic option for patients affected by primary liver diseases. This procedure is characterized by major invasive surgery, scarcity of donor organs, high costs, and lifelong immunosuppressive treatment. Transplant of hepatic precursor cells represents an attractive alternative. These cells could be used either for allogeneic transplantation or for autologous transplant after ex vivo genetic modification. We used stromal cells isolated from adipose tissue (AT-SCs) as platforms for autologous cell-mediated gene therapy. AT-SCs were transduced with lentiviral vectors expressing firefly luciferase, allowing for transplanted cell tracking by bioluminescent imaging (BLI). As a complementary approach, we followed circulating human α1-antitrypsin (hAAT) levels after infusion of AT-SCs overexpressing hAAT. Cells were transplanted into syngeneic mice after CCl4-induced hepatic injury. Luciferase bioluminescence signals and serum hAAT levels were measured at different time points after transplantation and demonstrate persistence of transplanted cells for up to 2 months after administration. These data, along with immunohistochemical analysis, suggest engraftment and repopulation of injured livers by transplanted AT-SCs. Moreover, by transcriptional targeting using cellular tissue-specific regulatory sequences, we confirmed that AT-SCs differentiate towards a hepatogenic-like phenotype in vitro and in vivo. Additionally, in transplanted cells reisolated from recipient animals' livers, we detected activation of the α-fetoprotein (AFP) promoter. This promoter is normally transcriptionally silenced in adult tissues but can be reactivated during liver regeneration, suggesting commitment towards hepatogenic-like differentiation of engrafted cells in vivo. Our data support AT-SC-mediated gene therapy as an innovative therapeutic option for disorders of liver metabolism.
Microsatellite markers isolated from the wild medicinal plant Centella asiatica (Apiaceae) from an enriched genomic library
Authors: Rakotondralambo Soaharin'ny Ony Raoseta , Lussert Alexandra , Rivallan Ronan , Danthu Pascal , Noyer Jean‐Louis , Baurens Franc‐Christophe
Published: April 2012

• Premise of the study: Microsatellite markers for Centella asiatica, an important medicinal herb, were developed and characterized to promote genetic and molecular studies.

• Methods and Results: A GA/GT‐enriched genomic library was constructed from an accession from Madagascar. Roughly 75% of the 768 clones of the enriched library contained microsatellites. Eighty sequences containing microsatellites were obtained from 96 positive clones. Specific primers were designed for 20 loci, and 17 of them displayed polymorphism when screened across 17 C. asiatica accessions, with an average of 4.3 alleles per locus. The observed and expected heterozygosity values averaged 0.114 and 0.379, respectively.

• Conclusions: This is the first report constructing an enriched genomic library and identifying microsatellite markers from C. asiatica. These 17 polymorphic microsatellite markers are a useful resource for this plant, applicable for diversity studies, pedigree analyses, and genetic mapping.
Evolution de la sexualité, des désirs et avancée en âge : des regards psychanalytique, médical et sexologique
Authors: Imbert Geneviève
Published: April 2012

Le thème corps, désirs et sexualités est appréhendé à partir de propos issus d'entretiens individuels semi-directifs réalisés auprès d'une psychanalyste, Mme Catherine Bergeret-Amselek, d'un médecin généraliste, le docteur Marie-Laure Alby, et de Mme Sheila Warembourg, diplômée en Sexologie et Santé Publique. Cette approche transdisciplinaire permet d’explorer l'évolution de la sexualité, des désirs des personnes dans le contexte de l'avancée en âge sous un angle psychanalytique, biomédical et sociologique. Elle invite à définir le terme sexualité, à distinguer certaines spécificités de l'homme et de la femme au plan physio-pathologique et psychique. Elle permet aussi d'évoquer les difficultés rencontrées par les professionnels pour respecter l'intimité et la vie affective des personnes âgées vivant à domicile et en institution, en insistant sur l'importance de dépasser leurs propres représentations.
On the Development of an Ants-Inspired Navigational Network for Autonomous Robots
Authors: Jiménez Paulo A. , Zhong Yongmin
Published: April 2012

Experimental research in biology has uncovered a number of different ways in which ants use environmental cues for navigational purposes. For instance, pheromone trail laying and trail following behaviours of ants have proved to be an efficient mechanism to optimise path selection in natural as well as in artificial situations. Drawing inspiration from biology, the authors present a new neural strategy for navigation. The authors propose a navigational network composed of a gating network, memory and two recurrent neural networks (RNN). The navigational network learns to follow a trail and to orientate based on landmarks, while continuously recording the location of the home position in case the trail is lost. The orientation was encoded as a continuous ring of neurons, while the distance was encoded as a chain of neurons. Finally, the computational analysis provides a more complete exploration of the properties of the proposed navigational network. This network is able to learn and select behaviours based on sensory clues. The proposed model shows that neural path integration is possible and is easy to achieve.
Modeling and Designing an Intelligent Controller using Bond Graph for a Satellite Controlled by Magnetic Actuators
Authors: Habibi Majid , Novinzadeh Alireza B.
Published: April 2012

Satellite state control has always been an important topic in aerospace technology. Because it is required that when the satellite is stationary in orbit, it would be directed to a special object and this task should be performed in a situation where there isn’t access to the satellite. This task is performed using various technologies and one of these is the use of magnetic actuators. Magnetic actuators use mechanical torque that is resulted by interaction of electrical current of coils in the satellite and the earth’s magnetic field. The satellite is subjected to such disturbance torques, thus corrupting the direction of the satellite. This method has its advantages and disadvantages. Its drawback is that the magnetic torque is produced only perpendicular to the direction of the magnetic field and the axis of the coil. This paper models a satellite having magnetic actuators using bond graph, and finds out its state equations, and then constructs the control logic that is needed for its control. A model of three dimensional attitude maneuvers and magnetic systems using bond graph is described. The actuators are tuned using the method of particle swarm optimization (PSO). It is observed that using this method a small satellite reaches to the desired angle in a short time and becomes stationary.
Managing a Firm's Cash Flow Recovery Strategy
Authors: Rajkumar Aditya Vikram , Williams Jeffrey
Published: April 2012

Traditional cash flow estimation techniques focus on generating net cash flow estimates period-by-period, which are then discounted by the firm’s cost of capital. While conceptually strong, this aggregation approach can be insensitive to the fine-grained detail so important to managing project cash flows, in particular, that investment returns are always a combination of growth (renewal) and decline (convergence) forces at work over the firm's life. As is demonstrated in this paper, the aggregation problem can be addressed by employing a cash flow recovery period (CFRP) framework, which distinguishes and quantifies the renewal and convergence forces unique to each firm's project cash flows. The benefit of this more fine-grained approach is that it provides an additional level of detail that can be used to manage firm returns.
A Multicriteria Multilevel Group Decision Method for Supplier Selection and Order Allocation
Authors: Sodenkamp Mariya A. , Suhl Leena
Published: April 2012

Supplier selection is an integral part of supply chain management (SCM). It plays a prominent role in the purchasing activity of manufacturing and trading companies. Evaluation of vendors and procurement planning requires simultaneous consideration of tangible and intangible decision factors, some of which may conflict. A large body of analytical and intuitive methods has been proposed to trade off conflicting aspects of realism and optimize the selection process. In the large companies the fields of decision makers’ (DMs) expertise are highly distributed and DMs’ authorities are unequal. On the other hand, the decision components and their interactions are very complex. These facts restrict the effectiveness of using the existing methods in practice. The authors present a multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) method which facilitates making supplier selection decisions by the distributed groups of experts and improves quality of the order allocation decisions. A numerical example is presented and applicability of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated in the Raiffeisen Westfalen Mitte, eG in Germany.
A Rule-Based Approach to Automatic Service Composition
Authors: Santofimia Maria J. , del Toro Xavier , Villanueva Felix J. , Barba Jesus , Moya Francisco , Lopez Juan Carlos
Published: April 2012

The incapability to foresee or react to all the events that take place in a specific environment supposes an important handicap for Ambient Intelligence systems, expected to be self-managed, proactive, and goal-driven. Endowing such systems with capabilities to understand and reason about context seems like a promising solution to overcome this hitch. Supported on the service-oriented paradigm, composing rather than combining services provides a reasonable mean to implement versatile systems. This paper describes how systems for Ambient Intelligence can be improved by combining automatic service composition and reasoning capabilities upon a distributed middleware framework.
Sounds Relaxing—Looks Cool
Authors: Cunningham Stuart , Picking Rich
Published: April 2012

This paper considers the design of audio and visual user interface elements for pervasive computer systems that aim to support wellness, specifically for promoting calm, relaxation and for the relief of emotional stress. The methodology included conducting a survey of people’s favourite everyday sounds, as well as those they found the most annoying. The authors then took the most popular of these and correlated them with colours that people associated with those sounds. An adapted repertory grid approach was used for this exercise. The results suggest there is potential for a classification of sound and emotion on a shared scale based on the colour spectrum.
Minimizing Total Tardiness in Parallel-Machine Scheduling with Release Dates
Authors: Yalaoui Farouk
Published: April 2012

The considered problem is the scheduling of a set of jobs on identical parallel machines in order to minimize the total tardiness without any preemption or splitting. Each job has its own processing time, release date and due date. All the machines are considered identical (with same speed) and available during all the scheduling period. This problem is NP-hard. An exact resolution, an Ant Colony Algorithm (ACO), a Tabu Search (TS) method, a set of Heuristics based on priority rules and an adapted Biskup Hermann Gupta (BHG) method are proposed to solve the problem. The obtained results are discussed and analyzed.
Modeling of Friction Stir Welding of AL7075 Using Neural Networks
Authors: Muttineni Sasidhar , Vundavilli Pandu R.
Published: April 2012

Friction stir welding (FSW) is a solid state welding process, which is used for the welding of aluminum alloys. It is important to note that the mechanical properties of the FSW process depends on various process parameters, such as spindle speed, feed rate and shoulder depth. Two different tool materials, such as High speed steel (HSS) and H13 are considered for the welding of Al 7075. The present paper deals with the modeling of FSW process using neural networks. A three layered feed forward neural network (NN) has been used to model the FSW of aluminum alloys. It is important to note that the connection weights and bias values of the NN are optimized with the help of a binary coded genetic algorithm (GA). The training of the NN with the help of GA is a time consuming process. Hence, offline training has been provided to optimize the connection weights and bias values of the neural network. Once, the training is over, the GA trained neural network will be used for online prediction of the mechanical properties of FSW process at different operating conditions.
E-Policing
Authors: de Guzman Melchor C. , Jones Matthew A.
Published: April 2012

Increasingly, information technology has pervaded the provision of services by police agencies in the United States. Recent research (Jones & de Guzman, 2010) has illustrated that although most police organizations maintain a web presence, these departments showed significant variations in the quality of their websites and the services they offer through the Internet. Using a sample of 162 large municipal police agencies in the United States, this research isolated the factors that contribute to the adoption of e-government practices. Environmental and organizational factors were tested as explanatory variables. The results indicated that organizational resource constraints had minimal influences on the quality and function of police websites and that officer education appeared as the primary predictor. With respect to environmental factors, population size and their levels of education were significantly related to the features and characteristics of police websites. Likewise, the research examined contingency and institutional theories to explain different features and characteristics of police websites. The data tended to support assumptions made by institutional theory.
Scheduling, Binding and Routing System for a Run-Time Reconfigurable Operator Based Multimedia Architecture
Authors: Raffin Erwan , Wolinski Christophe , Charot François , Casseau Emmanuel , Floc’h Antoine , Kuchcinski Krzysztof , Chevobbe Stéphane , Guyetant Stéphane
Published: April 2012

This article presents an integrated environment for application scheduling, binding and routing used for the run-time reconfigurable, operator based, ROMA multimedia architecture. The environment is very flexible and after a minor modification can support other reconfigurable architectures. Currently, it supports the architecture model composed of a bank of single (double) port memories, two communication networks (with different topologies) and a set of run-time functionally reconfigurable non-pipelined and pipelined operators. The main novelty of this work is simultaneous solving of the scheduling, binding and routing tasks. This frequently generates optimal results, which has been shown by extensive experiments using the constraint programming paradigm. In order to show flexibility of our environment, we have used it in this article for optimization of application scheduling, binding and routing (the case of the non-pipelined execution model) and for design space exploration (case of the pipelined execution model).
Technology Acceptance Model Applied to the Adoption of Grid and Cloud Technology
Authors: Udoh Emmanuel
Published: April 2012

Advances in grid technology in the past two decades have enabled some organizations to harness enormous computational power on demand. However, the prediction of widespread adoption of grid technology has not materialized, while cloud technology is increasingly gaining acceptance. Using the online survey engine - Survey Monkey, data were collected from individuals (242 respondents) in schools, businesses and government in USA to determine the influential factors in the adoption process of grid and cloud technology. The multiple regression technique was used to determine the relationship between the intent to adopt grids and the behavioral factors: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude (competition from alternative technology- clouds) and trust (security). The research established a valuable model to predict acceptance or rejection of grids or clouds. Implications for professionals in business, information technology, and computer science are discussed.
Rhotrix Multiplication on Two-Dimensional Process Grid Topologies
Authors: Absalom Ezugwu E. , Sahalu Junaidu B.
Published: April 2012

This paper presents rhotrix multiplication and introduces its implementation on process grid topologies. Covered in this work, are reviews of generalization cases of n-dimensional rhotrix multiplication. A parallel program based on MPI master-worker paradigm is implemented. By means of analyzing the time complexity and memory requirement for the method, the authors provided insight into how to fully utilize the algorithm for heart-oriented rhotrix multiplication in anticipation of establishing a standard for parallel rhotrix multiplication and to speed up its multiplication based on existing HPC tools.
Observations on Effect of IPC in GA Based Scheduling on Computational Grid
Authors: Prakash Shiv , Vidyarthi Deo P.
Published: April 2012

Computational Grid (CG) provides a wide distributed platform for high end compute intensive applications. Inter Process Communication (IPC) affects the performance of a scheduling algorithm drastically. Genetic Algorithms (GA), a search procedure based on the evolutionary computation, is able to solve a class of complex optimization problems. This paper proposes a GA based scheduling model observing the effect of IPC on the performance of scheduling in computational grid. The proposed model studies the effects of Inter Process Communication (IPC), processing rate () and arrival rate (). Simulation experiment, to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm is conducted and results reveal the effectiveness of the model.
Adapting Web Page Tables on Mobile Devices
Authors: Potla Yaswanth , Annadi Ramakanth , Kong Jun , Walia Gursimran , Nygard Kendall
Published: April 2012

The usage of PDA and mobile devices has dramatically increased recently. However, mobile devices and PDA devices have a limited screen size, which makes it frustrating to browse tabular data on mobile devices since users have to frequently scroll up and down to find the information of interest. This paper presents an efficient means to present HTML-based tables on mobile devices. Based on the column and row headers, the authors adapt a HTML-based Web table into two adaptive styles. The first style displays all information of a table into a single narrow page to avoid horizontal scrolling; and the second style distributes information to different sub-pages, each of which approximately occupies the whole mobile screen, and thus eliminates scrolling. The approach is empirically evaluated using a controlled experiment. The main conclusions derived from the empirical study are: (1) the adaptive layout styles improves the browsing efficiency for individual subjects as compared to HTML web page style, (2) the single narrow adaptive layout resulted in the improved browsing efficiency compared to the multi-page adaptive layout for one-dimensional HTML web page tables, and (3) the multi-page adaptive layout was more efficient than the single narrow adaptive layout for two-dimensional HTML tables.
Imperceptible Simplification on Mobile Displays
Authors: Wu Fan , Agu Emmanuel , Lindsay Clifford , Chen Chung-han
Published: April 2012

Graphics on mobile devices is becoming popular because untethered computing is convenient and makes workers more productive. Mobile displays have a wide range of resolutions that affect the scene Level-of-Detail (LoD) that users can perceive: smaller displays show less detail, therefore lower resolution meshes and textures are acceptable. Mobile devices frequently have limited battery energy, low memory and disk space. To minimize wasting limited system resources, the authors render mobile graphics scenes at the lowest LoD at which users do not perceive distortion due to simplification. This is called LoD the Point of Imperceptibility (PoI). Increasing the mesh or texture resolution beyond the PoI wastes valuable system resources without increasing perceivable visual realism. The authors propose a perceptual metric that can easily be evaluated to identify the LoD corresponding to a target mobile display’s PoI and accounts for object geometry, lighting and shading. Previous work did not directly compute changes in the PoI due to target screen resolution. The perceptual metric generates a screen-dependent Pareto distribution with a knee point that corresponds to the PoI. We employ wavelets for simplification, which gives direct access to the mesh undulation frequency that we then use to parameterize the CSF curve.
Virtual EZ Grid
Authors: Ben Belgacem Mohamed , Abdennadher Nabil , Niinimaki Marko
Published: April 2012

This paper presents the Virtual EZ Grid project, based on the XtremWeb-CH (XWCH) volunteer computing platform. The goal of the project is to introduce a flexible distributed computing system, with (i) an infrastructure with a non-trivial amount of computing resources from various institutes, (ii) a stable platform that manages these computing resources and provides advanced interfaces for applications, and (iii) a set of applications that take benefit of the platform. This paper concentrates on the application support of the new version of XWCH, and describes how two medical applications, MedGIFT and NeuroWeb, utilise it.
Pricing-to-Market Using EGARCH-Error Correction Model
Authors: Lai Baoying , Joseph Nathan Lael
Published: April 2012

In this paper, the authors use an exponential generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic (EGARCH) error-correction model (ECM), that is, EGARCH-ECM, to estimate the pass-through effects of foreign exchange (FX) rates and producers’ prices for 20 U.K. export sectors. The long-run adjustment of export prices to FX rates and producers’ prices is within the range of -1.02% (for the Textiles sector) and -17.22% (for the Meat sector). The contemporaneous pricing-to-market (PTM) coefficient is within the range of -72.84% (for the Fuels sector) and -8.05% (for the Textiles sector). Short-run FX rate pass-through is not complete even after several months. Rolling EGARCH-ECMs show that the short and long-run effects of FX rate and producers’ prices fluctuate substantially as are asymmetry and volatility estimates before equilibrium is achieved.
Seru
Authors: Stecke Kathryn E. , Yin Yong , Kaku Ikou , Murase Yasuhiko
Published: April 2012

The Toyota production system (TPS) or lean has long been regarded as a powerful approach for managing manufacturing factories. However, in the early 1990s, the TPS was found not to work when it was applied to Japanese electronics companies. TPS is fit for a stable, but not volatile, business environment such as that which the electronics industry belongs. This volatile environment can be described as one with short product life cycles, uncertain product types, and fluctuating production volumes (sometimes mass, sometimes batch, and sometimes very small volumes). Seru, a new production organization, was developed to cope with this environment. Many leading global companies such as Samsung, Sony, Canon, Panasonic, LG, and Fujitsu have adopted seru. Seru overcame a lot of disadvantages inherent in TPS and brought amazing benefits to seru users. For example: 1) Seru requires a much smaller workforce, 2) It can greatly reduce space requirements, and 3) It can reduce lead time, setup time, WIP inventories, finished-product inventories, and cost. This article introduces seru’s history and defines various seru types. A seru pyramid is constructed to compare seru with the TPS. A JIT organization system is introduced. The authors show why applying it can bring great productivity, efficiency, and flexibility to a production organization.
A Multi-Level Framework for Validation of Ontology-Driven and Community-Based Web Services Composition
Authors: Bennacer Nacéra , Vidal-Naquet Guy
Published: April 2012

This paper proposes an Ontology-driven and Community-based Web Services (OCWS) framework which aims at automating discovery, composition and execution of web services. The purpose is to validate and to execute a user’s request built from the composition of a set of OCWS descriptions and a set of user constraints. The defined framework separates clearly the OCWS external descriptions from internal realistic implementations of e-services. It identifies three levels: the knowledge level, the community level and e-services level and uses different participant agents deployed in a distributed architecture. First, the reasoner agent uses a description logic extended for actions in order to reason about: (i) consistency of the pre-conditions and post-conditions of OCWS descriptions and the user constraints with ontologies semantics, (ii) consistency of the workflow matching assertions and the execution dependency graph. Then the execution plan model is generated automatically to be run by the composer agents using the dynamic execution plan algorithm (DEPA), according to the workflow matching and the established execution order. The community composer agents invoke the appropriate e-services and ensure that the non functional constraints are satisfied. DEPA algorithm works dynamically without a priori information about e-services states and has interesting properties such as taking into account the non-determinism of e-services and reducing the search space.
AIWAS
Authors: Huynh Toan , Miller James
Published: April 2012

A recent report states that 63 percent of documented vulnerabilities exist in Web applications. Hence, Web applications represent an ideal platform for malicious attackers to target. This paper presents an anomaly intrusion detection system (AIWAS) to help system administrators protect their Web applications from these attacks. AIWAS maps each user’s input into an Instance Model (IM). The IM, which contains attackable features of the input, allows machine learning algorithms to classify the input as either benign or malicious. AIWAS then prevents malicious inputs from reaching the protected Web applications. A case study demonstrates the effectiveness of AIWAS against actual attacks.
Analyzing Software Piracy from Supply and Demand Factors The Competing Roles of Corruption and Economic Wealth
Authors: Charoensukmongkol Peerayuth , Daniel Jose Luis , Sexton Shaun , Kock Ned
Published: April 2012

This study analyzes the competing roles of economic wealth and corruption on software piracy based on the supply-demand perspective. The study argues that even though greater economic wealth may encourage people to buy legal software instead of using pirated software, the ease of access to pirated copies in the open market as a result of corruption can have a stronger influence on the decision to use pirated software. The empirical results also reveal that while an increase in economic wealth can reduce software piracy, its effect tends to be moderated by the level of corruption in a country. These results indicate that a pricing strategy that makes software more affordable is not a sufficient policy for combating software piracy. Additional policies aimed at combating corruption should be implemented concomitantly for effective resolution of this problem.
High Frequency of HIV Mutations Associated with HLA-C Suggests Enhanced HLA-C–Restricted CTL Selective Pressure Associated with an AIDS-Protective Polymorphism
Authors: Blais Marie-Eve , Zhang Yonghong , Rostron Tim , Griffin Harry , Taylor Stephen , Xu Keyi , Yan Huiping , Wu Hao , James Ian , John Mina , Dong Tao , Rowland-Jones Sarah L.
Published: April 2012

Delayed HIV-1 disease progression is associated with a single nucleotide polymorphism upstream of the HLA-C gene that correlates with differential expression of the HLA-C Ag. This polymorphism was recently shown to be a marker for a protective variant in the 3′UTR of HLA-C that disrupts a microRNA binding site, resulting in enhanced HLA-C expression at the cell surface. Whether individuals with “high” HLA-C expression show a stronger HLA-C–restricted immune response exerting better viral control than that of their counterparts has not been established. We hypothesized that the magnitude of the HLA-C–restricted immune pressure on HIV would be greater in subjects with highly expressed HLA-C alleles. Using a cohort derived from a unique narrow source epidemic in China, we identified mutations in HIV proviral DNA exclusively associated with HLA-C, which were used as markers for the intensity of the immune pressure exerted on the virus. We found an increased frequency of mutations in individuals with highly expressed HLA-C alleles, which also correlated with IFN-γ production by HLA-C–restricted CD8+ T cells. These findings show that immune pressure on HIV is stronger in subjects with the protective genotype and highlight the potential role of HLA-C–restricted responses in HIV control. This is, to our knowledge, the first in vivo evidence supporting the protective role of HLA-C–restricted responses in nonwhites during HIV infection.
NIK Prevents the Development of Hypereosinophilic Syndrome-like Disease in Mice Independent of IKKα Activation
Authors: Häcker Hans , Chi Liying , Rehg Jerold E. , Redecke Vanessa
Published: April 2012

Immune cell-mediated tissue injury is a common feature of different inflammatory diseases, yet the pathogenetic mechanisms and cell types involved vary significantly. Hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES) represents a group of inflammatory diseases that is characterized by increased numbers of pathogenic eosinophilic granulocytes in the peripheral blood and diverse organs. On the basis of clinical and laboratory findings, various forms of HES have been defined, yet the molecular mechanism and potential signaling pathways that drive eosinophil expansion remain largely unknown. In this study, we show that mice deficient of the serine/threonine-specific protein kinase NF-κB–inducing kinase (NIK) develop a HES-like disease, reflected by progressive blood and tissue eosinophilia, tissue injury, and premature death at around 25–30 wk of age. Similar to the lymphocytic form of HES, CD4+ T cells from NIK-deficient mice express increased levels of Th2-associated cytokines, and eosinophilia and survival of NIK-deficient mice could be prevented completely by genetic ablation of CD4+ T cells. Experiments based on bone marrow chimeric mice, however, demonstrated that inflammation in NIK-deficient mice depended on radiation-resistant tissues, implicating that NIK-deficient immune cells mediate inflammation in a nonautonomous manner. Surprisingly, disease development was independent of NIK’s known function as an IκB kinase α (IKKα) kinase, because mice carrying a mutation in the activation loop of IKKα, which is phosphorylated by NIK, did not develop inflammatory disease. Our data show that NIK activity in nonhematopoietic cells controls Th2 cell development and prevents eosinophil-driven inflammatory disease, most likely using a signaling pathway that operates independent of the known NIK substrate IKKα.
Molecular crosstalk between apoptosis and autophagy induced by a 2-methoxyestradiol analogue (C19) in HeLa cells.
Authors: Theron A. E. , Visagie M. , Mqoco T. , Stander A. , Prudent R. , Lafanechere L. , Joubert A. M.
Published: April 2012

Using a novel synthesised sulphamoylated 2-methoxyestradiol analogue, C19, two types of cell death, namely apoptosis and autophagy, were demonstrated in vitro when cervical cancer HeLa cells were exposed to this compound.
A Survey of Membrane Proteins in Human Serum
Authors: Dung Nguyen Tien , Van Chi Phan
Published: April 2012

Serum and membrane proteins are two of the most attractive targets for proteomic analysis. Previous membrane protein studies tend to focus on tissue sample, while membrane protein studies in serum are still limited. In this study, an analysis of membrane proteins in normal human serum was carried out. Nano-liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (NanoLC-ESI-MS/MS) and bioinformatics tools were used to identify membrane proteins. Two hundred and seventeen membrane proteins were detected in the human serum, of which 129 membrane proteins have at least one transmembrane domain (TMD). Further characterizations of identified membrane proteins including their subcellular distributions, molecular weights, post translational modifications, transmembrane domains and average of hydrophobicity, were also implemented. Our results showed the potential of membrane proteins in serum for diagnosis and treatment of diseases.
Signature of the 27-day solar rotation cycle in mesospheric OH and H2O observed by the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder
Authors: Shapiro A. V. , Rozanov E. , Shapiro A. I. , Wang S. , Egorova T. , Schmutz W. , Peter Th.
Published: April 2012

Abstract. The mesospheric hydroxyl radical (OH) is mainly produced by the water vapor (H2O) photolysis and could be considered as a proxy for the influence of the solar irradiance variability on the mesosphere. We analyze the tropical mean response of the mesospheric OH and H2O data as observed by the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) to 27-day solar variability. The analysis is performed for two time periods corresponding to the different phases of the 11-yr cycle: from December 2004 to December 2005 (the period of "high activity" with a pronounced 27-day solar cycle) and from August 2008 to August 2009 ("solar minimum" period with a vague 27-day solar cycle). We demonstrate, for the first time, that in the mesosphere the daily time series of OH concentrations correlate well with the solar irradiance (correlation coefficients up to 0.79) at zero time-lag. At the same time H2O anticorrelates (correlation coefficients up to −0.74) with the solar irradiance at non-zero time-lag. We found that the response of OH and H2O to the 27-day variability of the solar irradiance is strong for the period of the high solar activity and negligible for the solar minimum conditions. It allows us to suggest that the 27-day cycle in the solar irradiance and in OH and H2O are physically connected.
Detection of particle layers in backscatter profiles: application to Antarctic lidar measurements
Authors: Gazeaux J. , Bekki S. , Naveau P. , Keckhut P. , Jumelet J. , Parades J. , David C.
Published: April 2012

Abstract. A detection method is proposed and studied to infer the presence of hidden signals in a statistical way. It is applied here to the detection of Polar Stratospheric Cloud (PSC) layers in lidar backscatter profiles measured over the Dumont D'Urville station (Antarctica). PSCs appear as layers with enhanced variance in non stationary, heteroscedastic signal profiles, between two unknown altitudes to be estimated. The method is based on a three step algorithm. The first step is the stationarization of the signal, the second performs the maximum likelihoods estimation of the signal (PSC altitude range and variance inside and outside the PSC layer). The last step uses a Fisher-Snédécor test to decide whether the detection of PSC layer is statistically significant. Performances and robustness of the method are tested on simulated data with given statistical properties. Bias and detection limit are estimated. The method is then applied to lidar backscatter profiles measured in 2008. No PSC are detected during seasons when PSCs are not expected to form. As expected, PSC layers are detected during the austral winter and early spring. The effect of time averaging of the profiles is investigated. The best compromise for detection of PSC layers in lidar backscatter profiles acquired at Dumont D'Urville is a time averaging window of 1 h typically.
Are sesquiterpenes a good source of secondary organic cloud condensation nuclei (CCN)? Revisiting β-caryophyllene CCN
Authors: Tang X. , Cocker III D. R. , Asa-Awuku A.
Published: April 2012

Abstract. Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) was formed in an environmental reaction chamber from the ozonolysis of β-caryophyllene (β-C) at very low concentrations (5 ppb or 20 ppb) near ambient conditions. Experimental parameters were varied to characterize the effects of hydroxyl radicals, light and the presence of lower molecular weight terpene precursor (isoprene) for β-C SOA formation and Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) characteristics. Changes in β-C SOA chemicophysical properties (e.g. density, volatility, oxidation state) were explored with online techniques to improve our predictive understanding of β-C CCN activity. In the absence of OH scavenger, light intensity had negligible impacts on SOA oxidation state and CCN activity. In contrast, when OH reaction was effectively suppressed (>11ppm scavenger), SOA showed a much lower CCN activity and slightly less oxygenated state consistent with previously reported values. Though there is significant oxidized material present (O/C>0.25), no linear correlation existed between the mass ratio ion fragment 44 in the bulk organic mass (f44) and O/C for the β-C-O3 system. No direct correlations were observed with other aerosol bulk ion fragment fraction (fx) and κ as well. A mixture of β-C and lower molecular weight terpenes (isoprene) consumed more ozone and formed SOA with distinct characteristics dependent on isoprene amounts. The addition of isoprene also improved the CCN predictive capabilities with bulk aerosol chemical information. The β-C SOA CCN activity reported here is much higher than previous studies (κ>0.1) that use higher precursor concentration in smaller environmental chambers; similar results were only achieved with significant use of OH scavenger. Results show that aerosol formed from a mixture of low and high molecular weight terpene ozonolysis can be hygroscopic and can contribute to the global biogenic SOA CCN budget.