bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Trust Management in Cloud Computing: A Critical Review
Authors: Firdhous Mohamed , Ghazali Osman , Hassan Suhaidi
Published: September 2012

Cloud computing has been attracting the attention of several researchers both in the academia and the industry as it provides many opportunities for organizations by offering a range of computing services. For cloud computing to become widely adopted by both the enterprises and individuals, several issues have to be solved. A key issue that needs special attention is security of clouds, and trust management is an important component of cloud security. In this paper, the authors look at what trust is and how trust has been applied in distributed computing. Trust models proposed for various distributed system has then been summarized. The trust management systems proposed for cloud computing have been investigated with special emphasis on their capability, applicability in practical heterogonous cloud environment and implementabilty. Finally, the proposed models/systems have been compared with each other based on a selected set of cloud computing parameters in a table. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/icter.v4i2.4674 International Journal on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions 2011 04 (02) : 24 – 36
eT Guide - Assisting The eTransformation Journey: A Case Study Approach
Authors: Hol Ana , Ginige Athula
Published: September 2012

eTransformation, the ability to select and implement appropriate Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) based on company’s goals, objectives and operations is essential for the businesses today. This paper identifies how an online system - eTranformation Guide (eT Guide) allows companies especially Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to track, measure and guide their eTransformation journey. In particular this paper outlines how three companies from different industry sectors namely: Manufacturing – Staircase Design, Service – Finance and Accounting Services and Tourism and Hospitality – Boat Cruise have travelled the eTransformation journey over the period of last year. Furthermore, the study highlights that eT Guide Recommendations are important indicators to the companies in terms of identifying into which Dimension they should be investing into next and what changes they should be making for the future benefits of their eTransformation journey. Moreover, the findings also benefit the research community that is investigating how best companies can undertake the eTransformation journey. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/icter.v4i3.4677 International Journal on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions 2011 04 (03) :39 – 49
Towards Designing a Routing Protocol for Opportunistic Networks
Authors: Kathiravelu Thabotharan , Pears Arnold
Published: September 2012

Intermittently connected opportunistic networks experience frequent disconnections and shorter contact durations. Therefore routing of messages towards their destinations needs to be handled from various points of view. Predictability and connectedness are two features which can be determined by participating mobile nodes of an opportunistic content distribution network using their past contacts. Epidemic or probabilistic routing protocols such as PRoPHET do not fully utilize these features to route messages towards their destinations. In this paper we describe the design, implementation, experiment set up and the performance validation of a new, adaptive routing protocol which utilizes the predictability and connectedness features to route messages efficiently. Simulation based comparative studies show that the proposed routing protocol outperforms existing Epidemic and Probabilistic routing protocols in delivering messages. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/icter.v4i3.4678 International Journal on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions 2011 04 (03) :50 – 55
Prevalence of workplace bullying of South African employees
Authors: Cunniff Leanri , Mostert Karina
Published: September 2012

Orientation: Workplace bullying has negative physical and psychological effects on employees and several negative effects on organisations. Research purpose: The purpose of the research was to determine the prevalence of workplace bullying in South Africa and whether there are differences in employees’ experiences of bullying with regard to socio-demographic characteristics, sense of coherence (SOC) and diversity experiences.Motivation for the study: This study intended to draw attention to the implications and negative effects of workplace bullying and to determine whether employees with certain socio-demographic characteristics, SOC levels and diversity experiences experience higher levels of bullying than others do.Research design, approach and method: The researchers used a cross-sectional field survey approach. They used an availability sample (N = 13 911). They computed frequencies to determine the prevalence of workplace bullying and used a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and analyses of variance (ANOVAs) to determine the differences between the groups.Main findings: The results showed that 31.1% of the sample had experienced workplace bullying. The researchers found significant differences between all the socio-demographic groups. Participants with higher levels of SOC, and who experienced diversity positively, reported lower levels of workplace bullying.Practical/managerial implications: Employers need to realise that workplace bullying is a common problem amongst South African employees and should ensure that they have the necessary prevention methods.Contribution/value-add: This study contributes to the limited research on the prevalence of workplace bullying and its relationship with SOC and diversity experiences in the South African workplace.
Evaluation of Three Lattice Boltzmann Models for Particulate Flows
Authors: Wang Liang , Guo Zhaoli , Shi Baochang , Zheng Chuguang
Published: September 2012

A comparative study is conducted to evaluate three types of lattice Boltzmann equation (LBE) models for fluid flows with finite-sized particles, including the lattice Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook (BGK) model, the model proposed by Ladd [Ladd AJC, J. Fluid Mech., 271, 285-310 (1994); Ladd AJC, J. Fluid Mech., 271, 311-339 (1994)], and the multiple-relaxation-time (MRT) model. The sedimentation of a circular particle in a two-dimensional infinite channel under gravity is used as the first test problem. The numerical results of the three LBE schemes are compared with the theoretical results and existing data. It is found that all of the three LBE schemes yield reasonable results in general, although the BGK scheme and Ladd’s scheme give some deviations in some cases. Our results also show that the MRT scheme can achieve a better numerical stability than the other two schemes. Regarding the computational efficiency, it is found that the BGK scheme is the most superior one, while the other two schemes are nearly identical. We also observe that the MRT scheme can unequivocally reduce the viscosity dependence of the wall correction factor in the simulations, which reveals the superior robustness of the MRT scheme. The superiority of the MRT scheme over the other two schemes is also confirmed by the simulation of the sedimentation of an elliptical particle.
An Efficient, Energy Stable Scheme for the Cahn-Hilliard-Brinkman System
Authors: Collins Craig , Shen Jie , Wise Steven M.
Published: September 2012

We present an unconditionally energy stable and uniquely solvable finite difference scheme for the Cahn-Hilliard-Brinkman (CHB) system, which is comprised of a Cahn-Hilliard-type diffusion equation and a generalized Brinkman equation mod-eling fluid flow. The CHB system is a generalization of the Cahn-Hilliard-Stokes model and describes two phase very viscous flows in porous media. The scheme is based on a convex splitting of the discrete CH energy and is semi-implicit. The equations at the implicit time level are nonlinear, but we prove that they represent the gradient of a strictly convex functional and are therefore uniquely solvable, regardless of time step size. Owing to energy stability, we show that the scheme is stable in the time and space discreteandnorms. We also present an efficient, practical nonlinear multigrid method . comprised of a standard FAS method for the Cahn-Hilliard part, and a method based on the Vanka smoothing strategy for the Brinkman part . for solving these equations. In particular, we provide evidence that the solver has nearly optimal complexity in typical situations. The solver is applied to simulate spinodal decomposition of a viscous fluid in a porous medium, as well as to the more general problems of buoyancy- and boundary-driven flows.
XML best practices: panel discussion
Authors: Chesnutt David , Harvey Betty , Kelly Laura , McRae Mary
Published: September 2012

Who doesn't want to do things well? Who doesn't want to stand on the shoulders of giants? Who doesn't want to share hard earned wisdom with others? So why is it that "best practices" are so elusive? In this panel discussion we consider how "best practices" (and practices that, for whatever reasons, masquerade as "best") can be discovered, recognized, verified, modified, replaced, debunked, enforced, promulgated, etc.
Moving sands: Adventures in XML e-book-land
Authors: Biezunski Michel
Published: September 2012

Converting XML to e-books supported by multiple devices is a significant task. Deficiencies in the EPUB standard, undocumented bugs in some devices, and issues such as fixed layout vs. flowable content add complexity. Fortunately, the first experts to experience weird effects are sharing their findings. This paper continues this flow of information by describing experience in a US IRS project. The first step is scheduled for completion in July 2012. When fully deployed, this project will target multiple devices, some announced but not yet available, which differ in size, features, the formats they can read, and how much of the EPUB standard they implement, if any. This paper analyzes issues that have been encountered while working on automatic production of e-books using XML technologies and also suggests a new vision to ensure a sustainable, minimally intrusive, long term solution for producing e-books on various devices. Relying on standards is necessary but not sufficient and some issues that are at the core of structured markup are coming back.: the difference between structure and presentation has never been so acute. This project reminds us that there is no short circuit to a sound approach of analysis not only of how information looks, but also of what it means.
Extending XML with SHORTREFs specified in RELAX NG
Authors: Blažević Mario
Published: September 2012

We present a novel method for specifying concrete syntax, based on and compatible with the RELAX NG schema standard. A parsing method is described for a well-formed XML document conforming to the given concrete syntax specification. The output of the parser is another XML document conforming to the abstract syntax described by the base RELAX NG schema.
Simplifying XSLT stylesheet development using higher order functions
Authors: Braaksma Abel
Published: September 2012

Higher-order functions (HOFs) are sometimes considered hard to get your head around, but they can help make stylesheets easier to maintain and can even provide a certain degree of information hiding for XSLT libraries. HOFs can be easy to use, and together with the new packaging features of XSLT 3.0 they can dramatically simplify common tasks in XSLT stylesheet and library development. Built-in functions like fn:filter, fn:map, and fn:fold-left/right have many general applications for filtering, binary search trees, and other tasks. HOFs can offer some new challenges, as well; this paper will also discuss some problems to look out for and some things not to do. HOFs are great fun, and with them programming in XSLT will be even more fun than it already is!
Leveraging XML Technology for Web Applications
Authors: Brüggemann-Klein Anne , Robles Hahn Jose Tomas , Sayih Marouane
Published: September 2012

As eBooks evolve into interactive applications, our vision at Electronic Publishing Group (EPT) is to empower authors to write and deploy not only documents and eBooks but whole Web applications using widely available tools without system lock-in. We envision XML technology as open, accessible, well supported technology to be leveraged for Web applications: Information is represented and manipulated with XML technology. Data and programs are deployed on a Web server, stored in an XML database, run by XML processors (XSLT, XQuery, XProc) and accessed from XML-aware Web clients (XForms) via the HTTP protocol.

We document a calendar system, CalendarX, as a case study. We illustrate our use of XML technology and the methodology we employed, drawing on ideas from Domain-Driven Design and Abstract State Machines.
The Ontologist
Authors: Cagle Kurt
Published: September 2012

This paper covers the design details of the Ontologist, a MarkLogic based project for using RDF triples, XQuery search capabilities and RESTful services to provide controlled vocabularies, taxonomy management and semantic wikis.
MicroXML: Who, What, Where, When, Why
Authors: Cowan John
Published: September 2012

MicroXML began at the end of 2010 when James Clark wanted to explore a subset of XML. MicroXML wasn't intended to replace XML, but to make something simple enough that people who ran screaming from XML would find it palatable. MicroXML is to XML as XML is to SGML: strip down the spec to the bare bones and start over, adding back as little as possible. James wrote a brief grammar and a really simple data model: everything is an element with a name, an attribute map, and ordered children, either elements or strings. In 2011, I wrote an Editor's Draft that expanded James's writeup to ten pages, corresponding to the 100 pages of XML, namespaces, infoset, xml:base, and xml:id. Now a Community Group at the W3C, chaired by Uche Ogbuji and with James and me as co-editors, is discussing exactly what MicroXML should be.
TCS tcs: Tata Consultancy Services trash compactor script
Authors: Halpern-Hamu Charlie
Published: September 2012

Creation of representative sample(s) of a large document collection can be automated using XSLT. Such samples will be useful for analysis, as a preliminary document analysis step in vocabulary redesign or conversion and to guide design of storage, editing, and transformation processing. Design goals are: to work intuitively with default configuration and no schema, produce plausible output, and produce a range of outputs from a large representative set to a short but highly complex sample document. The technique can be conceptualized in passes: annotate structures as original or redundant; keep wrappers to accommodate original markup found lower in the hierarchy; retain required children and attributes; and collapse similar structures. Possible settings include redundancy thresholds, text compression techniques, target length, schema-awareness, schema intuitions, how much context to preserve around kept elements, and whether similar structures should be collapsed (overlaid).
Documents as Timed Abstract Objects
Authors: Huitfeldt Claus , Vitali Fabio , Peroni Silvio
Published: September 2012

At Balisage 2009 and 2010 Renear and Wickett discussed problems in reconciling the view that documents are abstract objects with the fact that they can undergo change. In this paper we present an account of documents which we believe is quite common, but which was not discussed by Renear and Wickett.

According to this account documents are indeed abstract objects, but this is easily reconciled with the fact that they are created and can undergo change. We then point to a similarity between this account and the notion of so-called space-time slices. We argue that the proposed account of documents as timed abstract objects may be subject to the same kind of criticism that has been raised against the notion of space-time slices.

We believe that our account fares no worse than the other accounts given of documents as abstract objects. But it still fails, and we remain agnostic about the ontological status of documents and their relation to abstract objects, as well as about the nature of abstract objects. We conclude that either documents are not (or not related to) abstract objects, or they are (or are related to) abstract objects of a kind which does not correspond to the standard definition of what an abstract object is.
The MLCD Overlap Corpus (MOC)
Authors: Marcoux Yves , Huitfeldt Claus , Sperberg-McQueen C. M.
Published: September 2012

The MLCD Overlap Corpus (MOC) is a collection of samples of texts and text fragments with overlapping structures. The main immediate goal of the MOC project is to build a corpus of well understood and well documented examples of overlap, discontinuity, alternate ordering, and related phenomena in various notations, for use in the investigation of methods of recording such phenomena. The samples should be of use in documenting the history of proposals for dealing with overlap and in evaluating existing and new proposals.
Finally — an XML Markup Solution for Design-Based Publishers: Introducing the PRISM Source Vocabulary
Authors: Kennedy Dianne
Published: September 2012

In the late 1980's, when computer technologies began to find application in publishing, the universe split into two very distinct worlds; content-based publishing and design-based publishing. Content-based publishers gravitated toward "SGML/XML First" workflows employing automated layout while design-based publishers adopted design-based desktop publishing solutions. This divide remains today. While it is obvious to those on the content side that all publishers should be standardizing publishing based on document models and moving to XML-first, this remains highly problematic when art directors, not the editorial staff rule in the magazine publishing world!

But on April 2010, the design-based publishing world was rocked when the iPad became the first of many new digital publishing platforms for magazine publishers. Finally it became clear that in order to publish simultaneously in print and across all a range of diverse mobile platforms with different aspect ratios, sizes and op systems, workflows must shift to a model where a platform agnostic content XML source is used feed all platforms and designs. This session will focus on the new dynamic, design-based publishing architecture, the PRISM Source Vocabulary, developed over the past 2 years and just posted as a final public draft in mid June 2012. Learn how PSV leverages rich metadata and controlled vocabulary semantics coupled with HTML5 to enable a new paradigm for design-based publishing.
Utilizing new capabilities of XML languages to verify integrity constraints
Authors: Malý Jakub , Nečaský Martin
Published: September 2012

In this work, we show how integrity constraints expressed using Object Constraint Language (OCL) can be verified using XML technologies - Schematron, XPath/XQuery and XSLT - and using Model Driven Architecture (MDA) principles. Some constructs typical for OCL constraints are different from the methods used in XPath/XQuery expressions. That is why for translating some OCL expressions, the standard XML toolset must be extended. We introduce such extension for the 2.0 versions of the languages, but with the new features and constructs proposed in drafts for XSLT 3.0, XPath 3.0 and XQuery 3.0, the transition from OCL is much more seamless and transparent. Higher-order functions, maps, error-recovery instructions etc. provide us with necessary power to translate a general OCL expression and we discuss in detail their potential.
Serialisation, abstraction, and XML applications
Authors: Pemberton Steven
Published: September 2012

In principle the advantages of abstraction in programming are well understood. Yet daily interactions with everyday objects can lead us to confuse the concrete with the abstract, and think that the thing we are dealing with *is* the abstraction. Getting the right level of abstraction can have profound consequences. I believe that there are things we are struggling with today that are the consequences of a mistake in an abstraction made in the 1970's. This talk will be about data abstractions, and how we use them in XML applications, with a passing reference to the developments in XForms 2.0, and how declarative applications can make your life easier (or save you money, depending on who's doing the actual work).
Luminescent: parsing LMNL by XSLT upconversion
Authors: Piez Wendell
Published: September 2012

Among attempts to deal with the overlap problem, LMNL (Layered Markup and Annotation Language) has attracted its share of attention but has also never grown much past its origins as a thought experiment. LMNL’s conceptual model differs from XML’s, and by design its notation also differs from XML’s. Nonetheless, a pipeline of XSLT transformations can parse LMNL input and construct an XML representation of LMNL, with the resulting benefit that further XML tools can be used to analyze and process documents originating from the alien notation. The key is to regard the task as an upconversion: structural induction performed over plain text.
From XML to UDL: a unified document language, supporting multiple markup languages
Authors: Rennau Hans-Jürgen
Published: September 2012

A proposal is made how to extend the XML node model in order to be compatible with JSON markup as well as XML markup. As XML processing technology (XPath, XQuery, XSLT, XProc) sees instances of the node model, but does not see syntax, it is thus enabled to handle JSON as well as XML. The extended node model is dubbed a Unified Document Language, as it defines the construction of documents from building blocks (nodes) which can be encoded in various markup languages (XML, JSON, HTML).
XQuery, XSLT and JSON
Authors: Robie Jonathan
Published: September 2012

XML and JSON have become the dominant formats for exchanging data on the Internet, and applications frequently need to send and receive data in many different JSON-based or XML-based formats, consuming or producing data in JSON, XML, or HTML. JSON has not yet developed an application stack as mature as the XML application stack; for instance, there is still no standard query language, transformation language, or schema language. And the XML application stack has not yet evolved to easily process JSON.

There are several areas where the XML stack should evolve to better support developers who work with JSON together with XML, and the features needed to support JSON in XQuery and XSLT also provide data structures that simplify writing queries and transformations, and allow more efficient processing of intermediate results when processing XML. As JSON becomes increasingly common in databases, and is exchanged among servers, these same kinds of tools may even become important in environments that use only JSON.

This paper focuses on queries and transformations, looking at JSON support in several NoSQL databases, the JSONiq proposal (which adds JSON objects and arrays to XQuery), and the XSLT maps proposal (which adds maps that can represent JSON objects and arrays). At the time of writing, the W3C XML Query Working Group and the W3C XSL Working Group are considering several proposals for supporting JSON. The Working Groups expect to agree on a common solution that can be used in both XSLT and XQuery.
XiBIT
Authors: Sperberg-McQueen C. M.
Published: September 2012

The XiBIT (XML-in-the-browser interoperability tests) Project seeks to provide a systematic collection of interoperability tests to characterize the behavior of current Web browsers in the display and processing of XML. It is not a collection of conformance tests; conformance tests must cover an entire specification and must not address behaviors not constrained by the specification, while interoperability tests will tend to focus on areas where different implementations behave differently, whether those behaviors are constrained by any specification or not. Conformance tests have right and wrong answers; interoperability tests do not. XiBIT will produce both a collection of test cases and documentation of the results of running those test cases on a selection of current browsers.
Things stay the same, or, the real meaning of technical work
Authors: Sperberg-McQueen C. M.
Published: September 2012

What does not change when things change.
A standards-related web-based information system
Authors: Stührenberg Maik , Schonefeld Oliver , Witt Andreas
Published: September 2012

This late breaking proposal introduces the prototype of a web-based information system dealing with standards in the field of annotation.
On XML Languages…
Authors: Walsh Norman
Published: September 2012

Some XML languages have an XML syntax, some have a non-XML syntax, and some have both. This paper explores the intersection of these languages and syntaxes. What are the advantages of an XML syntax? What are the advantages of a non-XML syntax? After discussing the general issues, the paper presents two, alternative non-XML syntaxes for XProc as a case study to further explore the issues.
Using XProc, XSLT 2.0, and XSD 1.1 to validate RESTful services
Authors: Williams Jorge Luis , Cramer David
Published: September 2012

Documentation of RESTful services must be accurate and detailed. As a REST service is being developed, the documentation must be kept up to date and its accuracy constantly validated. Once the REST service is released the documentation becomes a contract; clients may break if an implementation drifts from the documented rules. Also, third-party implementations must adhere to the rules in order for clients to interact with multiple implementations without issue. Ensuring conformance to the documentation is complicated, tedious, and error prone. We use our existing XML documentation pipeline to generate highly efficient validators which can check a RESTful service (and it's clients) for conformance to the documentation at runtime. We validate all aspects of the HTTP request including message content, URI templates, query parameters, headers, etc. We describe the transformation process and some of the optimizations that enable real time optimization and discuss challenges including testing the documentation pipeline and the validators themselves.
Literate Programming: A Case Study and Observations
Authors: Wilmott Sam
Published: September 2012

A newly revived interest in literate programming means that we need to look at what's been done in the past. Literate Programming requires both the integration of computer programming code with its documentation, and the elimination of duplicate information between the code and the documentation. It's the latter that has been overlooked in the past. This paper describes a project that integrated programming code with its documentation, using a markup language, and discusses lessons that might be learned from it. It also illustrates the use of, and discusses the advantages of using compact markup (as exemplified by SGML short references and Wiki markup) especially as it applies to using a markup language for literate programming.
The structure of content
Authors: DeRose Steven J.
Published: September 2012

Text analytics involves extracting features of meaning from natural language texts and making them explicit, much as markup does. It uses linguistics, AI, and statistical methods to get at a level of "meaning" that markup generally does not: down in the leaves of what to XML may be unanalyzed "content". This suggests potential for new kinds of error, consistency, and quality checking. However, text analytics can also discover features that markup is used for; this suggests that text analytics can also contribute to the markup process itself.

Perhaps the simplest example of text analytics' potential for checking, is xml:lang. Language identification is well-developed technology, and xml:lang attributes "in the wild" could be much improved. More interestingly, the distribution of named entities (people, places, organizations, etc.), topics, and emphasis interacts closely with documents' markup structures. Summaries, abstracts, conclusions, and the like all have distinctive features which can be measured.

This paper provides an overview of how text analytics works, what it can do, and how that relates to the things we typically mark up in XML. It also discuss the trade-offs and decisions involved in just what we choose to mark up, and how that interacts with automation. It presents several specific ways that text analytics can help create, check, and enhance XML components, and exemplifies some cases using a high-volume analytics tool.
Case study: Quality assurance and quality control techniques in an XML data conversion project
Authors: Halpern-Hamu Charlie
Published: September 2012

A wide variety of techniques have been used in an XML data conversion project. Emphasis on Quality Assurance, not making errors in the first place, was supported by Quality Control, catching errors that occurred anyway.

Data analysis and estimation techniques included counting function points in source documents to estimate effort and autogeneration of tight schemas to discover variation. Quality assurance was based on guiding specification based on parent-child pairs and programming for context and all content. Quality Control techniques included source-to-target comparison to check for lost or duplicated content, automatic highlighting of anomalous data, and use of XQuery to review data.
XML instances to validate XML schemas
Authors: van der Vlist Eric
Published: September 2012

Ever modified an XML schema? Ever broken something while fixing a bug or adding a new feature? As with any piece of engineering, the more complex a schema is, the harder it is to maintain. In other domains, unit tests dramatically reduce the number of regressions and thus provide a kind of safety net for maintainers. Can we learn from these techniques and adapt them to XML schema languages? In this workshop session, we develop a schema using unit test techniques, to illustrate their benefits in this domain.
Quality assurance in the XML world: Beyond validation
Authors: Waldt Dale
Published: September 2012

Validation of XML documents typically provides feedback in binary, yes/no form. This avoids the ambiguity, manual intervention, and increased cost of other approaches. But it may not be enough to make XML applications efficient, accurate, or semantically rich. How do you ensure that the correct element and attribute types are applied to the appropriate content chunks? That XML documents are accurate and current? That your XML has a level of semantic richness appropriate to your business goals? How do you control quality over large collections? How do you resolve conflicting organizational goals for information integration and ensure that content and schemas help the enterprise as a whole? Conceptual and physical models, model / schema traceability, and effective stakeholder review can all help. Schematron, document comparison (diff) tools, statistical methods can also help, but may raise QA questions of their own. Improvements in requirements gathering and QA processes can produce visible results; concrete examples can and will be discussed.
Quality Control Practice for Scholars Portal, an XML-based E-journals Repository
Authors: Zhao Wei , Chengan Jayanthy , Bai Agnes
Published: September 2012

Ontario Scholars Portal (SP) is an XML based digital repository containing over 31,000,000 articles from more than 13,000 full text journals of 24 publishers which covers every academic discipline. Starting in 2006, SP began adopting NLM Journal Archiving and Interchange Tag Set v2.3 for its XML based E-journals system using MarkLogic. The publishers' native data is transformed to NLM Tag Set in SP in order to normalize data elements to a single standard for archiving, display and searching. Scholars Portal has established extremely high standards for ensuring that the content loaded into Scholars Portal is accurate and complete. Through the entire workflow from data ingest , data conversion and data display, quality control procedures have been implemented to ensure the integrity of the digital repository.
Decreased Intensity of Inflammation in Benznidazole-Treated Mice Inoculated with Trypanosoma cruzi I Stocks from Mexico and Persistence of Circulating Parasites
Authors: Cruz-Zetina Guillermo , del Rio-Rodriguez Rodolfo , Ramos-Ligonio Angel , López Ruth , Monteon Victor
Published: September 2012

We analyzed the intensity of inflammation and parasitism in BALB/c mice infected with Trypanosoma cruzi I stocks from Mexico with and without benznidazole treatment in the acute phase of disease. Heart and skeletal muscles were evaluated for parasites and inflammation and blood was evaluated for persistence of circulating parasites. Parasitemia was influenced by T. cruzi stocks used and benznidazole treatment. This treatment cleared circulating parasites three days after starting treatment when monitored by direct microscopy. There was a significant reduction of inflammation in skeletal muscles after benznidazole treatment in animals infected with Mexican T. cruzi I stocks (P < 0.05), but this reduction was not significant in the heart (P > 0.05). Trypanosoma cruzi I parasites from Mexico were demonstrated by polymerase chain reaction in tissues and blood of animals after benznidazole treatment.
Development of Clinical Immunity to Malaria in Highland Areas of Low and Unstable Transmission
Authors: Rolfes Melissa A. , McCarra Matthew , Magak Ng'wena G. , Ernst Kacey C. , Dent Arlene E. , Lindblade Kim A. , John Chandy C.
Published: September 2012

In highland areas of unstable, low malaria transmission, the extent to which immunity to uncomplicated malaria develops with age and intermittent parasite exposure has not been well characterized. We conducted active surveillance for clinical malaria during April 2003–March 2005 in two highland areas of western Kenya (Kapsisiywa and Kipsamoite). In both sites, annual malaria incidence was significantly lower in persons ≥ 15 years of age than in persons < 5 years of age (Kapsisiywa: incidence = 382.9 cases/1,000 persons among persons < 1–4 years of age versus 135.1 cases/1,000 persons among persons ≥ 15 years of age; Kipsamoite: incidence = 233.0 cases/1,000 persons in persons < 1–4 years of age versus 43.3 cases/1,000 persons in persons ≥ 15 years of age). In Kapsisiywa, among persons with malaria, parasite density and axillary body temperature were also significantly lower in persons ≥ 15 years of age than in persons < 5 years of age. Even in highland areas of unstable and low malaria transmission, age is associated with development of clinical immunity to malaria.
Genetic Population Structure of Cercariae from an Urban Foci of Schistosoma mansoni, Brazil
Authors: Souza Samaly S. , Barbosa Lúcio M. , Guimarães Isabel C. , Blank Walter A. , Reis Renato Barbosa , Reis Mitermayer G. , Blanton Ronald E. , Andrade Zilton A.
Published: September 2012

Rapid urbanization in Brazil has meant that many persons from rural areas where Schistosoma mansoni is endemic have migrated to cities. Discovery of a focus of active transmission in the city of Salvador prompted a citywide survey for active and potential transmission sites. Cercariae shed from infected snails collected from four locations were used to determine how these samples were related and if they were representative of the parasite population infecting humans. Each cercarial collection was greatly differentiated from the others, and diversity was significantly lower when compared with eggs from natural human infections in one site. Egg samples collected 7 years apart in one neighborhood showed little differentiation (Jost's D = 0.01–0.03). Given the clonal nature of parasite reproduction in the snail host and the short-term acquisition of parasites, cercariae from collections at one time point are unlikely to be representative of the diversity in the human population.
Rapid Identification of Chikungunya and Dengue Virus by a Real-Time Reverse Transcription-Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification Method
Authors: Lu Xi , Li Xiaobo , Mo Ziyao , Jin Faguang , Wang Boliang , Zhao Hongbo , Shan Xiaoxiao , Shi Lei
Published: September 2012

Both Chikungunya and Dengue virus belong to the acute arthropod-borne viruses. Because of the lack of specific symptoms, it is difficult to distinguish the two infections based on clinical manifestations. To identify and quantitatively detect Chikungunya and Dengue viruses, a real-time accelerated reverse-transcription-loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) platform was developed, and 26-confirmed RNA samples, 42 suspects, and 18 healthy serum samples were evaluated by the method. The RT-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and cDNA sequencing were used as references. The results showed that it could identify the Chikungunya and Dengue virus RNA correctly in all antibody-positive samples within 1 hour, without any cross-reactions. The virus load of the positive samples was quantitatively detected with a turbidimeter. The sensitivity was 100% and specificity was 95.25%. The findings indicate that the RT-LAMP is an effective method for rapid quantity detection of Chikungunya virus and Dengue virus in serum samples with convenient operation, high specificity, and high sensitivity.
Evaluating the Sustained Health Impact of Household Chlorination of Drinking Water in Rural Haiti
Authors: Harshfield Eric , Lantagne Daniele , Turbes Anna , Null Clair
Published: September 2012

The Jolivert Safe Water for Families program has sold sodium hypochlorite solution (chlorine) and conducted household visits in rural Haiti since 2002. To assess the impact of the program on diarrheal disease, in 2010 we conducted a survey and water quality testing in 201 program participants and 425 control households selected at random. Fifty-six percent of participants (versus 10% of controls) had free chlorine residuals between 0.2 and 2.0 mg/L, indicating correct water treatment. Using intention-to-treat analysis, we found that significantly fewer children < 5 in participant households had an episode of diarrhea in the previous 48 hours (32% versus 52%; P < 0.001) with 59% reduced odds (odds ratio = 0.41, 95% confidence interval = 0.21–0.79). Treatment-on-treated estimates of the odds of diarrhea indicated larger program effects for participants who met more stringent verifications of participation. Diarrheal disease reduction in this long-term program was comparable with that seen in short-term randomized, controlled interventions, suggesting that household chlorination can be an effective long-term water treatment strategy.
In Vivo Endoscopic Imaging of Ancylostomiasis-Induced Gastrointestinal Bleeding: Clinical and Biological Profiles
Authors: Barakat Maha , Ibrahim Naglaa , Nasr Ahmed
Published: September 2012

Little data are available regarding the association of ancylostomiasis with overt gastrointestinal bleeding. This 6-year retrospective study describes the clinical and biological profiles of unexpectedly identified ancylostomiasis in a 4-month-old baby and four adults; they presented with melena and were referred for urgent diagnostic gastrointestinal endoscopy, which confirmed numerous small intestine injuries with surrounding blood pools caused by Ancylostoma duodenale worms. Gastric erosions were also encountered in one patient. Uniquely, worm biological activities were recorded live in vivo, including mucosal invasion through a vigorous, rapid piercing process, repeated bloodsucking habits, and gut appearance during the stages of feeding, digestion, and excretion in male and female worms. In conclusion, ancylostomiasis-induced melena may occur in all ages from infants to the elderly. Worm bloodfeeding occurs after quick mucosal piercing, with blood loss being aggravated by a repeated feeding behavior. After treatment is started, bleeding stops rapidly in response to anthelmintic therapy.
Imbalance of Angiopoietin-1 and Angiopoetin-2 in Severe Dengue and Relationship with Thrombocytopenia, Endothelial Activation, and Vascular Stability
Authors: Michels Meta , van der Ven André J. A. M. , Djamiatun Kis , Fijnheer Rob , de Groot Philip G. , Griffioen Arjan W. , Sebastian Silvie , Faradz Sultana M. H. , de Mast Quirijn
Published: September 2012

The pathogenesis of plasma leakage during dengue hemorrhagic fever/dengue shock syndrome (DHF/DSS) is largely unknown. Angiopoietins are key regulators of vascular integrity: Angiopoietin-1 is stored in platelets and maintains vascular integrity, and endothelium-derived angiopoietin-2 promotes vascular leakage. We determined angiopoietin-1 and angiopoietin-2 levels in a cohort of children in Indonesia with DHF/DSS and related them to plasma leakage markers. Patients with DHF/DSS had reduced angiopoietin-1 and increased angiopoietin-2 plasma levels on the day of admission when compared with levels at discharge and in healthy controls. There was an inverse correlation between angiopoietin-1 and markers of plasma leakage and a positive correlation between angiopoietin-2 and markers of plasma leakage. Angiopoietin-1 levels followed the same trend as the soluble platelet activation marker P-selectin and correlated with platelet counts. Dengue-associated thrombocytopenia and endothelial activation are associated with an imbalance in angiopoietin-2: angiopoietin-1 plasma levels. This imbalance may contribute to the transient plasma leakage in DHF/DSS.
Validation of the Efficacy of a Solar-Thermal Powered Autoclave System for Off-Grid Medical Instrument Wet Sterilization
Authors: Kaseman Tremayne , Boubour Jean , Schuler Douglas A.
Published: September 2012

This work describes the efficacy of a solar-thermal powered autoclave used for the wet sterilization of medical instruments in off-grid settings where electrical power is not readily available. Twenty-seven trials of the solar-thermal powered system were run using an unmodified non-electric autoclave loaded with a simulated bundle of medical instruments and biological test agents. Results showed that in 100% of the trials the autoclave achieved temperatures in excess of 121°C for 30 minutes, indicator tape displayed visible reactions to steam sterilization, and biological tests showed that microbial agents had been eliminated, in compliance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requirements for efficacious wet sterilization.
Epidemiology and Molecular Characterization of Hepatitis B Virus Infection in Isolated Villages in the Western Brazilian Amazon
Authors: Castilho Márcia da Costa , Costa de Oliveira Cintia Mara , Gimaque João Bosco de Lima , Leão Jorge Di Tommaso , Braga Wornei Silva Miranda
Published: September 2012

Individuals from three isolated, rural communities in the western Brazilian Amazon were evaluated for serological markers of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, HBV genotype, and the presence of risk factors for infection and transmission. Of the 225 individuals studied, 79.1% had serological evidence of HBV infection; 10.2% individuals were chronic carriers for HBV surface antigen (HBsAg-positive). Analysis of risk factors indicates that HBV is transmitted mainly horizontally within the family from a chronic “active” carrier for hepatitis B “e” antigen (HBeAg-positive), though a strong possibility of vertical transmission remains. The predominance of HBV genotype F, with a higher genomic similarity between the isolates, indicated a relatively recent introduction of HBV, from a common source, to the area. This study sheds light on the HBV epidemiology in the Brazilian Amazon region and highlights the need for greater emphasis on HBV control and immunization programs.
Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism and Copy Number Variation of the Multidrug Resistance-1 Locus of Plasmodium vivax: Local and Global Patterns
Authors: Vargas-Rodríguez Rosa del Carmen Miluska , da Silva Bastos Melissa , Menezes Maria José , Orjuela-Sánchez Pamela , Ferreira Marcelo U.
Published: September 2012

Emerging resistance to chloroquine (CQ) poses a major challenge for Plasmodium vivax malaria control, and nucleotide substitutions and copy number variation in the P. vivax multidrug resistance 1 (pvmdr-1) locus, which encodes a digestive vacuole membrane transporter, may modulate this phenotype. We describe patterns of genetic variation in pvmdr-1 alleles from Acre and Amazonas in northwestern Brazil, and compare then with those reported in other malaria-endemic regions. The pvmdr-1 mutation Y976F, which is associated with CQ resistance in Southeast Asia and Oceania, remains rare in northwestern Brazil (1.8%) and its prevalence mirrors that of CQ resistance worldwide. Gene amplification of pvmdr-1, which is associated with mefloquine resistance but increased susceptibility to CQ, remains relatively rare in northwestern Brazil (0.9%) and globally (< 4%), but became common (> 10%) in Tak Province, Thailand, possibly because of drug-mediated selection. The global database we have assembled provides a baseline for further studies of genetic variation in pvmdr-1 and drug resistance in P. vivax malaria.
Treatment of Granulomatous Amoebic Encephalitis with Voriconazole and Miltefosine in an Immunocompetent Soldier
Authors: Webster Duncan , Umar Imram , Kolyvas George , Bilbao Juan , Guiot Marie-Christine , Duplisea Kevin , Qvarnstrom Yvonne , Visvesvara Govinda S.
Published: September 2012

A 38-year-old male immunocompetent soldier developed generalized seizures. He underwent surgical debulking and a progressive demyelinating pseudotumor was identified. Serology and molecular testing confirmed a diagnosis of granulomatous amoebic encephalitis caused by Acanthamoeba sp. in this immunocompetent male. The patient was treated with oral voriconazole and miltefosine with Acanthamoeba titers returning to control levels and serial imaging demonstrating resolution of the residual lesion.
Effects of Plant-Community Composition on the Vectorial Capacity and Fitness of the Malaria Mosquito Anopheles gambiae
Authors: Stone Christopher M. , Jackson Bryan T. , Foster Woodbridge A.
Published: September 2012

Dynamics of Anopheles gambiae abundance and malaria transmission potential rely strongly on environmental conditions. Female and male An. gambiae use sugar and are affected by its absence, but how the presence or absence of nectariferous plants affects An. gambiae abundance and vectorial capacity has not been studied. We report on four replicates of a cohort study performed in mesocosms with sugar-poor and sugar-rich plants, in which we measured mosquito survival, biting rates, and fecundity. Survivorship was greater with access to sugar-rich plant species, and mortality patterns were age-dependent. Sugar-poor populations experienced Weibull mortality patterns, and of four populations in the sugar-rich environment, two female and three male subpopulations were better fitted by Gompertz functions. A tendency toward higher biting rates in sugar-poor mesocosms, particularly for young females, was found. Therefore, vectorial capacity was pulled in opposing directions by nectar availability, resulting in highly variable vectorial capacity values.
North American Birds as Potential Amplifying Hosts of Japanese Encephalitis Virus
Authors: Nemeth Nicole , Bosco-Lauth Angela , Oesterle Paul , Kohler Dennis , Bowen Richard
Published: September 2012

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is an emerging arbovirus, and inter-continental spread is an impending threat. The virus is maintained in a transmission cycle between mosquito vectors and vertebrate hosts, including birds. We detected variation in interspecies responses among North American birds to infection with strains of two different JEV genotypes (I and III). Several native North American passerine species and ring-billed gulls had the highest average peak viremia titers after inoculation with a Vietnamese (genotype I) JEV strain. Oral JEV shedding was minimal and cloacal shedding was rarely detected. The majority of birds, both viremic (72 of 74; 97.3%) and non-viremic (31 of 37; 83.8%), seroconverted by 14 days post-inoculation and West Nile virus-immune individuals had cross-protection against JEV viremia. Reservoir competence and serologic data for a variety of avian taxa are important for development of JEV surveillance and control strategies and will aid in understanding transmission ecology in the event of JEV expansion to North America.