bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
ELUCIDATING THE ROLE OF METABOLITES AS QUORUM SENSING SIGNALS USING PHASE PLANE ANALYSIS: THE CASE OF INDOLE IN ESCHERICHIA COLI
Authors: FLÓREZ PARRA DANIELA CAROLINA , RAMIREZ TOVAR VANESSA , FERNANDO GONZÁLEZ BARRIOS ANDRÉS
Published: May 2014

Quorum sensing signals were initially restricted to those molecules whose only role is to sense density. Nevertheless Indole is a quorum sensing stationary phase signal secreted by Escherichia coli which is an intermediate in tryptophan synthesis. Moreover, it is known to regulate several genes such as astD, tnaB, and gabT. Hence, the main function that carries out indole in E. coli has not been clearly elucidated. Here we evaluated its role through computational and experimental techniques utilizing a flux balance analysis model. A metabolic phase plane was constructed for E. coli growth by calculating the shadow prices vector, which regards the biomass objective function sensibility upon modifications of the exchange and synthesis indole fluxes. Based on the metabolic phase plane, we found that cells do not prefer a specific role for this metabolite as both, intracellular synthesis and external signal concentration could exercise and effect on its physiological state. We experimentally corroborated our results by measuring growth rate when altering tnaA transcription rate and extracellular indole concentration hence synthesis and extracellular indole fluxes, respectively. Growth rate significantly varies when crossing the direction of the exchange flux (zero flux) as the extracellular indole variation goes from a positive to negative slope and this occurs when augmenting the indole concentration from 0.4 to 0.6 mM at the [6, 10] μM IPTG interval. Regarding the inductor concentration we found a significant variation of the growth rate when crossing the 8 μM concentration for all extracellular indole concentrations.
A STUDY OF ACTOR AND ACTION SEMANTIC RETENTION IN VIDEO SUPERVOXEL SEGMENTATION
Authors: XU CHENLIANG , DOELL RICHARD F. , HANSON STEPHEN JOSÉ , HANSON CATHERINE , CORSO JASON J.
Published: May 2014

Existing methods in the semantic computer vision community seem unable to deal with the explosion and richness of modern, open-source and social video content. Although sophisticated methods such as object detection or bag-of-words models have been well studied, they typically operate on low level features and ultimately suffer from either scalability issues or a lack of semantic meaning. On the other hand, video supervoxel segmentation has recently been established and applied to large scale data processing, which potentially serves as an intermediate representation to high level video semantic extraction. The supervoxels are rich decompositions of the video content: they capture object shape and motion well. However, it is not yet known if the supervoxel segmentation retains the semantics of the underlying video content. In this paper, we conduct a systematic study of how well the actor and action semantics are retained in video supervoxel segmentation. Our study has human observers watching supervoxel segmentation videos and trying to discriminate both actor (human or animal) and action (one of eight everyday actions). We gather and analyze a large set of 640 human perceptions over 96 videos in 3 different supervoxel scales. Furthermore, we design a feature defined on supervoxel segmentation, called supervoxel shape context, which is inspired by the higher order processes in human perception. We conduct actor and action classification experiments with this new feature and compare to various traditional video features. Our ultimate findings suggest that a significant amount of semantics have been well retained in the video supervoxel segmentation and can be used for further video analysis.
Dual-Level DVFS-Enabled Millimeter-Wave Wireless NoC Architectures
Authors: Murray Jacob , Lu Teng , Wettin Paul , Pande Partha Pratim , Shirazi Behrooz
Published: May 2014

Wireless Network-on-Chip (WiNoC) has emerged as an enabling technology to design low power and high bandwidth massive multicore chips. WiNoCs based on small-world network architecture and designed with incorporating millimeter (mm)-wave on-chip wireless links offer significantly lower power and higher bandwidth compared to traditional mesh-based counterparts. In this mm-wave small-world WiNoC (mSWNoC), long distance communication predominately takes place through the wireless shortcuts whereas the short-range data exchange still occurs through the conventional metal wires. This results in performance advantages mainly stemming from using the wireless links as long-range shortcuts between far apart cores. This performance gain can be enhanced further if the wireline links and the processing cores of the WiNoC are optimized according to the traffic patterns and application workloads. In this work, we demonstrate that by incorporating both processor- and network-level dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) in an mSWNoC, the power and thermal profiles can be improved without a significant impact on the overall execution time. We also show that depending on the applications, temperature hotspots can be formed either in the processing cores or in the network infrastructure. The proposed dual-level DVFS is capable of addressing both types of hotspots. In this work we will demonstrate how novel interconnect architectures enabled by the on-chip wireless links coupled with power management strategies can improve the energy and thermal characteristics of a NoC significantly.
Algebraic Algorithms for Linear Matroid Parity Problems
Authors: Cheung Ho Yee , Lau Lap Chi , Leung Kai Man
Published: May 2014

We present fast and simple algebraic algorithms for the linear matroid parity problem and its applications. For the linear matroid parity problem, we obtain a simple randomized algorithm with running time
O
(
mr
ω-1
), where
m
and
r
are the number of columns and the number of rows, respectively, and ω ≈ 2.3727 is the matrix multiplication exponent. This improves the
O
(
mr
ω
)-time algorithm by Gabow and Stallmann and matches the running time of the algebraic algorithm for linear matroid intersection, answering a question of Harvey. We also present a very simple alternative algorithm with running time
O
(
mr
2
), which does not need fast matrix multiplication.

We further improve the algebraic algorithms for some specific graph problems of interest. For the Mader’s disjoint
S
-path problem, we present an
O
(
n
ω
)-time randomized algorithm where
n
is the number of vertices. This improves the running time of the existing results considerably and matches the running time of the algebraic algorithms for graph matching. For the graphic matroid parity problem, we give an
O
(
n
4
)-time randomized algorithm where
n
is the number of vertices, and an
O
(
n
3
)-time randomized algorithm for a special case useful in designing approximation algorithms. These algorithms are optimal in terms of
n
as the input size could be Ω (
n
4
) and Ω (
n
3
), respectively.

The techniques are based on the algebraic algorithmic framework developed by Mucha and Sankowski, Harvey, and Sankowski. While linear matroid parity and Mader’s disjoint
S
-path are challenging generalizations for the design of combinatorial algorithms, our results show that both the algebraic algorithms for linear matroid intersection and graph matching can be extended nicely to more general settings. All algorithms are still faster than the existing algorithms even if fast matrix multiplication is not used. These provide simple algorithms that can be easily implemented in practice.
Deterministic Rendezvous, Treasure Hunts, and Strongly Universal Exploration Sequences
Authors: Ta-Shma Amnon , Zwick Uri
Published: May 2014

We obtain several improved solutions for the
deterministic rendezvous
problem in general undirected graphs. Our solutions answer several problems left open by Dessmark et al. We also introduce an interesting variant of the rendezvous problem, which we call the
deterministic treasure hunt
problem. Both the rendezvous and the treasure hunt problems motivate the study of
universal traversal sequences
and
universal exploration sequences
with some strengthened properties. We call such sequences
strongly universal traversal (exploration) sequences
. We give an explicit construction of strongly universal
exploration
sequences. The existence of strongly universal
traversal
sequences, as well as the solution of the most difficult variant of the deterministic treasure hunt problem, are left as intriguing open problems.
Neuromorphic computing gets ready for the (really) big time
Authors: Monroe Don
Published: May 2014

A technology inspired by biological principles but 'steamrolled for decades' prepares to take off as Moore's Law approaches its long-anticipated end.
General agreement
Authors: Savage Neil
Published: May 2014

Leslie Lamport contributed to the theory and practice of building distributed computing systems that work as intended.
Exploring Dynamic Redundancy to Resuscitate Faulty PCM Blocks
Authors: Chen Jie , Venkataramani Guru , Huang H. Howie
Published: May 2014

DRAM technology challenges have increased the necessity to adapt to the emerging memory technologies like Phase-Change Memory (PCM or PRAM). While such emerging technologies provide benefits like storage density, nonvolatility, and low energy consumption, they are constrained by limited write endurance that becomes more pronounced with process variation. In this article, we explore a novel PRAM-based main memory system which resuscitates a group of faulty pages in a cost-effective manner to significantly extend the PCM main memory lifetime while minimizing the performance impact. In particular, we explore three different dimensions of dynamic redundancy levels and group sizes, and design low-cost hardware and software support for our proposed schemes. We aim to have minimal hardware modifications (that have less than 1% on-chip and off-chip area overheads). Also, our schemes can improve the PRAM lifetime by up to 105× (times) over a chip with no error correction capabilities, and outperform prior schemes such as DRM and ECP at a small fraction of the hardware cost. The performance overhead resulting from our scheme is less than 8% on average across 21 applications from SPEC2006, Splash-2, and PARSEC benchmark suites.
Effect of the Active Layer on Carbon Nanotube-Based Cells for Yield Analysis
Authors: Beste Matthias , Tahoori Mehdi B.
Published: May 2014

Carbon Nanotube Field Effect Transistor (CNTFET)--based technologies become more and more a concurrent alternative to Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors (MOSFET) technologies. In contrast to a MOSFET technology, the active layer of a CNTFET technology is not a regular silicon film with homogeneous doping and rectangular dimensions, but an array of mostly aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The quality of this active layer, which depends on various technology process parameters, is expressed by parameters such as CNT alignment and array density. These parameters affect the electrical properties of the logic cells placed on top of the active layer and hence the overall CNTFET circuit yield. Although not all parameters in CNT fabrication process can be fully controlled, designers still need to assure a very high yield of their cell layouts, that is, a high reproducibility of the electrical characteristics to achieve a reasonable manufacturing yield for the entire chip. In this work we close the gap between CNTFET process fabrication and circuit design by presenting a novel accurate model for active layers in CNTFET--based technologies. Our model enables the designers to obtain technology--dependent driver strength of the custom cell layouts under realistic conditions. The new model can also be used to extract and evaluate CNTFET Design for Manufacturing (DfM) and Design for Robustness (DfR) design rules, and provide feedback to adjust process technology parameters to achieve desirable functional yield.
EMV
Authors: Anderson Ross , Murdoch Steven J.
Published: May 2014

What lessons might we learn from the chip cards used for payments in Europe, now that the U.S. is adopting them too?
FUD
Authors: Florêncio Dinei , Herley Cormac , Shostack Adam
Published: May 2014

Relying on dubious claims can cause researchers to focus on the wrong questions and organizations to misdirect security spending.
Beyond data and analysis
Authors: Davis Charles K.
Published: May 2014

Why business analytics and big data really matter for modern business organizations.
Distributed content curation on the web
Authors: Abbassi Zeinab , Hegde Nidhi , Massoulié Laurent
Published: May 2014

In recent years there has been an explosive growth of digital content in the form of news feeds, videos, and original content, on online platforms such as blogs and social networks. We consider the problem of curating this vast catalogue of content such that aggregators or publishers can offer readers content that is of interest to them, with minimal spam. Under a game-theoretic model we obtain several results on the optimal content selection and on the efficiency of distributed curation.
Modeling the value of information granularity in targeted advertising
Authors: Rallapalli Swati , Ma Qiang , Song Han Hee , Baldi Mario , Muthukrishnan S. , Qiu Lili
Published: May 2014

Behavioral Targeting (BT) in the past few years has seen a great upsurge in commercial as well as research interest. To make advertising campaigns more effective, advertisers look to target more relevant users. Ad-networks and other data collectors, such as, Cellular Service Providers (CSPs), hold a treasure trove of user information that is extremely valuable to advertisers. Moreover, these players may have complimentary sets of data. Combining and using data from different collectors can be very useful for advertising. However, in the trade of data among the various players, it is currently unclear how a price can be attached to a certain piece of information. This work contributes (i) a MOdel of the Value of INformation Granularity (MoVInG) that captures the impact of additional information on the revenue from targeted ads in case of uniform bidding and (ii) an expression that is applicable in more general scenarios. We apply MoVInG to a user data-set from a large CSP to evaluate the financial benefit of precise user data.
Pricing mechanisms for a durable good monopolist
Authors: Berbeglia Gerardo , Sloan Peter , Vetta Adrian
Published: May 2014

A durable good is a long-lasting good that can be consumed repeatedly over time. Theoretically less is known about durable goods than their more well-studied counterparts, perishable goods. However, on the practical side, durable goods abound and are very familiar to us. For example, many of the most important consumer items are (at least to some extent) durable, such as land, housing, cars, diamonds etc.

A duropolist is a monopolist in the market of a durable good { topically, duropolists include several well-known purveyors of digital goods. In this talk, we examine the strategic issues facing duropolists. Pricing a durable good is not as simple as it may appear. Specifically, whilst durable goods are more desirable to the consumer, it is questionable whether a duropolist has additional monopoly power beyond that of an equivalent monopolist for a perishable good. Indeed, quite the opposite may be true. In 1972, Richard Coase made the startling conjecture that, in fact, a duropolist has no monopoly power at all! The argument being that a duropolist is not, in essence, a monopolist: the firm does face stiff competition { not from other firms but, rather, from future incarnations of itself.

There have since been several proofs and disproofs of the conjecture for under assorted economic models and time horizons. We discuss this, and also real-world strategies that duropolists use to avoid the conundrum highlighted by Coase. Our main results are to quantify how well various price mechanisms perform. Specifically, we give tight bounds, for the finite time horizon case, on the relative profitabilities of these mechanisms in terms of the number of time periods and the total number of consumers. In doing so, we quantify the the extent to which a duropolist can generate higher profits than an equivalent monopolist for a perishable good.
Device analyzer
Authors: Wagner Daniel T. , Rice Andrew , Beresford Alastair R.
Published: May 2014

We collected usage information from 12,500 Android devices in the wild over the course of nearly 2 years. Our dataset contains 53 billion data points from 894 models of devices running 687 versions of Android. Processing the collected data presents a number of challenges ranging from scalability to consistency and privacy considerations. We present our system architecture for collection and analysis of this highly-distributed dataset, discuss how our system can reliably collect time-series data in the presence of unreliable timing information, and discuss issues and lessons learned that we believe apply to many other big data collection projects.
Security problems and challenges in a machine learning-based hybrid big data processing network systems
Authors: Whitworth Jeff , Suthaharan Shan
Published: May 2014

The data source that produces data continuously in high volume and high velocity with large varieties of data types creates Big Data, and causes problems and challenges to Machine Learning (ML) techniques that help extract, analyze and visualize important information. To overcome these problems and challenges, we propose to make use of the hybrid networking model that consists of multiple components such as Hadoop distributed file system (HDFS), cloud storage system, security module and ML unit. Processing of Big Data in this networking environment with ML technique requires user interaction and additional storage hence some artificial delay between the arrivals of data domains through external storage can help HDFSto process the Big Data efficiently. To address this problem we suggest using public cloud for data storage which will induce meaningful time delay to the data while making use of its storage capability. However, the use of public cloud will lead to security vulnerability to the data transmission and storage. Therefore, we need some form of security algorithm that provides a flexible key-based encryption technique that can provide tradeoffs between time-delay, security strength and storage risks. In this paper we propose a model for using public cloud provider trust levels to select encryption types for data storage for use within a Big Data analytics network topology.
Tactical big data analytics
Authors: Savas Onur , Sagduyu Yalin , Deng Julia , Li Jason
Published: May 2014

We discuss tactical challenges of the Big Data analytics regarding the underlying data, application space, and com- puting environment, and present a comprehensive solution framework motivated by the relevant tactical use cases. First, we summarize the unique characteristics of the Big Data problem in the Department of Defense (DoD) context and underline the main differences from the commercial Big Data problems. Then, we introduce two use cases, (i) Big Data analytics with multi-intelligence (multi-INT) sensor data and (ii) man-machine crowdsourcing using MapReduce framework. For these two use cases, we introduce Big Data analytics and cloud computing solutions in a coherent frame- work that supports tactical data, application, and computing needs.
A fast online learning algorithm for distributed mining of BigData
Authors: Zhang Yu , Sow Daby , Turaga Deepak , van der Schaar Mihaela
Published: May 2014

BigData analytics require that distributed mining of numerous data streams is performed in real-time. Unique challenges associated with designing such distributed mining systems are: online adaptation to incoming data characteristics, online processing of large amounts of heterogeneous data, limited data access and communication capabilities between distributed learners, etc. We propose a general framework for distributed data mining and develop an efficient online learning algorithm based on this. Our framework consists of an ensemble learner and multiple local learners, which can only access different parts of the incoming data. By exploiting the correlations of the learning models among local learners, our proposed learning algorithms can optimize the prediction accuracy while requiring significantly less information exchange and computational complexity than existing state-of-the-art learning solutions.
Graph stream algorithms
Authors: McGregor Andrew
Published: May 2014

Over the last decade, there has been considerable interest in designing algorithms for processing massive graphs in the data stream model. The original motivation was two-fold: a) in many applications, the dynamic graphs that arise are too large to be stored in the main memory of a single machine and b) considering graph problems yields new insights into the complexity of stream computation. However, the techniques developed in this area are now finding applications in other areas including data structures for dynamic graphs, approximation algorithms, and distributed and parallel computation. We survey the state-of-the-art results; identify general techniques; and highlight some simple algorithms that illustrate basic ideas.
State-of-the-art in string similarity search and join
Authors: Wandelt Sebastian , Deng Dong , Gerdjikov Stefan , Mishra Shashwat , Mitankin Petar , Patil Manish , Siragusa Enrico , Tiskin Alexander , Wang Wei , Wang Jiaying , Leser Ulf
Published: May 2014

String similarity search and its variants are fundamental problems with many applications in areas such as data integration, data quality, computational linguistics, or bioinformatics. A plethora of methods have been developed over the last decades. Obtaining an overview of the state-of-the-art in this field is difficult, as results are published in various domains without much cross-talk, papers use different data sets and often study subtle variations of the core problems, and the sheer number of proposed methods exceeds the capacity of a single research group. In this paper, we report on the results of the probably largest benchmark ever performed in this field. To overcome the resource bottleneck, we organized the benchmark as an international competition, a workshop at EDBT/ICDT 2013. Various teams from different fields and from all over the world developed or tuned programs for two crisply defined problems. All algorithms were evaluated by an external group on two machines. Altogether, we compared 14 different programs on two string matching problems (k-approximate search and k-approximate join) using data sets of increasing sizes and with different characteristics from two different domains. We compare programs primarily by wall clock time, but also provide results on memory usage, indexing time, batch query effects and scalability in terms of CPU cores. Results were averaged over several runs and confirmed on a second, different hardware platform. A particularly interesting observation is that disciplines can and should learn more from each other, with the three best teams rooting in computational linguistics, databases, and bioinformatics, respectively.
Two-Step Beveled UWB Printed Monopole Antenna with Band Notch
Authors: Xiao Yan , Wang Zhong-Yong , Li Ji , Yuan Zi-Lun , Qin A. K.
Published: May 2014

This paper presents a novel compact printed monopole ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna featured with the band notch. The proposed antenna consists of a two-step beveled radiant patch and a truncated ground plane, which can provide a good impedance matching from 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz. In order to generate the band-notched characteristics, two symmetrical slots are embedded along with the microstrip feeding line, resulting in a band notch from 5.05 GHz to 5.85 GHz. Accordingly, the mutual electromagnetic interference between the UWB and wireless local area network (WLAN) radio communication systems can be eliminated. In addition, it is shown how the slots integrated on the ground plane improve the radiation patterns. The experimental measurements are found to be in good agreement with the numerical simulations.
Screening Sleep Disordered Breathing in Stroke Unit
Authors: Väyrynen Kirsi , Kortelainen Kati , Numminen Heikki , Miettinen Katja , Keso Anna , Tenhunen Mirja , Huhtala Heini , Himanen Sari-Leena
Published: May 2014

In acute stroke, OSA has been found to impair rehabilitation and increase mortality but the effect of central apnea is more unclear. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the feasibility of using limited ambulatory recording system (sleep mattress to evaluate nocturnal breathing and EOG-electrodes for sleep staging) in sleep disordered breathing (SDB) diagnostics in mild acute cerebral ischemia patients and to discover the prevalence of various SDB-patterns among these patients. 42 patients with mild ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack were studied. OSA was found in 22 patients (52.4%). Central apnea was found in two patients (4.8%) and sustained partial obstruction in only one patient (2.4%). Sleep staging with EOG-electrodes only yielded a similar outcome as scoring with standard rules. OSA was found to be common even after mild stroke. Its early diagnosis and treatment would be favourable in order to improve recovery and reduce mortality. Our results suggest that OSA can be assessed by a limited recording setting with EOG-electrodes, sleep mattress, and pulse oximetry.
Simulated Annealing Based Algorithm for Identifying Mutated Driver Pathways in Cancer
Authors: Li Hai-Tao , Zhang Yu-Lang , Zheng Chun-Hou , Wang Hong-Qiang
Published: May 2014

With the development of next-generation DNA sequencing technologies, large-scale cancer genomics projects can be implemented to help researchers to identify driver genes, driver mutations, and driver pathways, which promote cancer proliferation in large numbers of cancer patients. Hence, one of the remaining challenges is to distinguish functional mutations vital for cancer development, and filter out the unfunctional and random “passenger mutations.” In this study, we introduce a modified method to solve the so-called maximum weight submatrix problem which is used to identify mutated driver pathways in cancer. The problem is based on two combinatorial properties, that is, coverage and exclusivity. Particularly, we enhance an integrative model which combines gene mutation and expression data. The experimental results on simulated data show that, compared with the other methods, our method is more efficient. Finally, we apply the proposed method on two real biological datasets. The results show that our proposed method is also applicable in real practice.
Systems Biology in the Context of Big Data and Networks
Authors: Altaf-Ul-Amin Md. , Afendi Farit Mochamad , Kiboi Samuel Kuria , Kanaya Shigehiko
Published: May 2014

Science is going through two rapidly changing phenomena: one is the increasing capabilities of the computers and software tools from terabytes to petabytes and beyond, and the other is the advancement in high-throughput molecular biology producing piles of data related to genomes, transcriptomes, proteomes, metabolomes, interactomes, and so on. Biology has become a data intensive science and as a consequence biology and computer science have become complementary to each other bridged by other branches of science such as statistics, mathematics, physics, and chemistry. The combination of versatile knowledge has caused the advent of big-data biology, network biology, and other new branches of biology. Network biology for instance facilitates the system-level understanding of the cell or cellular components and subprocesses. It is often also referred to as systems biology. The purpose of this field is to understand organisms or cells as a whole at various levels of functions and mechanisms. Systems biology is now facing the challenges of analyzing big molecular biological data and huge biological networks. This review gives an overview of the progress in big-data biology, and data handling and also introduces some applications of networks and multivariate analysis in systems biology.
Synthesis, Single Crystal X-Ray Structure, and Antimicrobial Activity of 6-(1,3-Benzodioxol-5-ylmethyl)-5-ethyl-2-{[2-(morpholin-4-yl)ethyl]sulfanyl}pyrimidin-4(3H)-one
Authors: Attia Mohamed I. , El-Brollosy Nasser R. , Kansoh Amany L. , Ghabbour Hazem A. , Al-Wabli Reem I. , Fun Hoong-Kun
Published: May 2014

Synthesis, X-ray structure and antimicrobial activity of 6-(1,3-benzodioxol-5-ylmethyl)-5-ethyl-2-{[2-(morpholin-4-yl)ethyl]sulfanyl}pyrimidin-4(3H)-one (8) are reported. Compound8exhibited activity towardsS. aureuswith MIC value of 0.0619 μmol/mL while it showed activity towardsB. subtilis,B. cereus,C. albicans, andA. nigerwith MIC = 0.1859 μmol/mL. Single crystal X-ray structure of the title compound8confirmed itsS-alkylation. The title compound crystallizes in the triclinic,P-1,a=11.1220(5) Å,b=12.2241(5) Å,c=21.5246(9) Å,α=88.958(2)°,β=79.836(2)°,γ=79.384(2)°,V=2830.9(2) Å3,Z=6,R(F)=0.046,wR(F2)=0.110,T=100 K. The crystal structure is stabilized by weak intermolecular C–H⋯O and N–H⋯O hydrogen interactions.
Multiobjective Optimization of a Counterrotating Type Pump-Turbine Unit Operated at Turbine Mode
Authors: Kim Jin-Hyuk , Kasahara Risa , Kanemoto Toshiaki , Miyaji Toru , Choi Young-Seok , Kim Joon-Hyung , Lee Kyoung-Yong , Galal Ahmed Mohamed
Published: May 2014

A multiobjective optimization for improving the turbine output and efficiency of a counterrotating type pump-turbine unit operated at turbine mode was carried out in this work. The blade geometry of both the runners was optimized using a hybrid multiobjective evolutionary algorithm coupled with a surrogate model. Three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with the shear stress transport turbulence model were discretized by finite volume approximations and solved on hexahedral grids to analyze the flow in the pump-turbine unit. As major hydrodynamic performance parameters, the turbine output and efficiency were selected as objective functions with two design variables related to the hub profiles of both the runner blades. These objectives were numerically assessed at twelve design points selected by Latin hypercube sampling in the design space. Response surface approximation models for the objectives were constructed based on the objective function values at the design points. A fast nondominated sorting genetic algorithm for the local search coupled with the response surface approximation models was applied to determine the global Pareto-optimal solutions. The trade-off between the two objectives was determined and described with respect to the Pareto-optimal solutions. The results of this work showed that the turbine outputs and efficiencies of optimized pump-turbine units were simultaneously improved in comparison to the reference unit.
Examination of a Theoretical Model of Streaming Potential Coupling Coefficient
Authors: Luong D. T. , Sprik R.
Published: May 2014

Seismoelectric effects and streaming potentials play an important role in geophysical applications. The key parameter for those phenomena is the streaming potential coupling coefficient, which is, for example, dependent on the zeta potential of the interface of the porous rocks. Comparison of an existing theoretical model to experimental data sets from available published data for streaming potentials has been performed. However, the existing experimental data sets are based on samples with dissimilar fluid conductivity, pH of pore fluid, temperature, and sample compositions. All those dissimilarities may cause the observed deviations. To critically assess the models, we have carried out streaming potential measurement as a function of electrolyte concentration and temperature for a set of well-defined consolidated samples. The results show that the existing theoretical model is not in good agreement with the experimental observations when varying the electrolyte concentration, especially at low electrolyte concentration. However, if we use a modified model in which the zeta potential is considered to be constant over the electrolyte concentration, the model fits the experimental data well in a whole range of concentration. Also, for temperature dependence, the comparison shows that the theoretical model is not fully adequate to describe the experimental data but does describe correctly the increasing trend of the coupling coefficient as function of temperature.
Quantitative Evaluation of E1 Endoglucanase Recovery from Tobacco Leaves Using the Vacuum Infiltration-Centrifugation Method
Authors: Kingsbury Nathaniel J. , McDonald Karen A.
Published: May 2014

As a production platform for recombinant proteins, plant leaf tissue has many advantages, but commercialization of this technology has been hindered by high recovery and purification costs. Vacuum infiltration-centrifugation (VI-C) is a technique to obtain extracellularly-targeted products from the apoplast wash fluid (AWF). Because of its selective recovery of secreted proteins without homogenizing the whole tissue, VI-C can potentially reduce downstream production costs. Lab scale experiments were conducted to quantitatively evaluate the VI-C method and compared to homogenization techniques in terms of product purity, concentration, and other desirable characteristics. From agroinfiltratedNicotiana benthamianaleaves, up to 81% of a truncated version of E1 endoglucanase fromAcidothermus cellulolyticuswas recovered with VI-C versus homogenate extraction, and average purity and concentration increases of 4.2-fold and 3.1-fold, respectively, were observed. Formulas were developed to predict recovery yields of secreted protein obtained by performing multiple rounds of VI-C on the same leaf tissue. From this, it was determined that three rounds of VI-C recovered 97% of the total active recombinant protein accessible to the VI-C procedure. The results suggest that AWF recovery is an efficient process that could reduce downstream processing steps and costs for plant-made recombinant proteins.
Convergence Theorems for Right Bregman Strongly Nonexpansive Mappings in Reflexive Banach Spaces
Authors: Zegeye H. , Shahzad N.
Published: May 2014

We prove a strong convergence theorem for a common fixed point of a finite family of right Bregman strongly nonexpansive mappings in the framework of real reflexive Banach spaces. Furthermore, we apply our method to approximate a common zero of a finite family of maximal monotone mappings and a solution of a finite family of convex feasibility problems in reflexive real Banach spaces. Our theorems complement some recent results that have been proved for this important class of nonlinear mappings.
Inversion of Fourier Transforms by Means of Scale-Frequency Series
Authors: Haidar Nassar H. S.
Published: May 2014

We report on inversion of the Fourier transform when the frequency variable can be scaled in a variety of different ways that improve the resolution of certain parts of the frequency domain. The corresponding inverse Fourier transform is shown to exist in the form of two dual scale-frequency series. Upon discretization of the continuous scale factor, this Fourier transform series inverse becomes a certain nonharmonic double series, a discretized scale-frequency (DSF) series. The DSF series is also demonstrated, theoretically and practically, to be rate-optimizable with respect to its two free parameters, when it satisfies, as an entropy maximizer, a pertaining recursive nonlinear programming problem incorporating the entropy-based uncertainty principle.
Determining the Toll and Capacity of a Highway to Be Constructed in Parallel with Subway
Authors: Wu Wen-Xiang , Shang Hua-Yan
Published: May 2014

This paper considers the problem of toll and capacity choice of a new highway with a bottleneck added onto an existing transit network under four ownership/tolling regimes: public fine toll, public flat toll, private fine toll, and private flat toll. Whenever fine toll and flat toll are imposed, in a competitive highway/transit network with constant returns to scale in road construction, an optimally designed and priced privately owned highway would produce positive net benefit justly equal to the total markup with respect to all autocommuters, whereas an optimally designed and priced publicly owned highway would lead to a deficit; that is, the toll revenues are insufficient to cover its all costs. The economic conditions to invest a new road are investigated under different ownership/tolling regimes.
The Effect of Electroacupuncture on the Extracellular Matrix Synthesis and Degradation in a Rabbit Model of Disc Degeneration
Authors: Huang Guo-fu , Zou Jing , Shi Jing , Zhang Dong-you , Pen Hong-fen , Zhang Qi , Gao Yu , Wang Bo-yi
Published: May 2014

The present study was aimed at determining if the electroacupuncture (EA) is able to protect degenerated disc in vivo. New Zealand white rabbits (n = 40) were used for the study. The rabbits were randomly assigned to four groups. EA intervention was applied to one of the four groups. Magnetic resonance imaging and Pfirrmann’s classification were obtained for each group to evaluate EA treatment on the intervertebral disc degeneration. Discs were analyzed using immunofluorescence for the labeling of collagens 1 and 2, bone morphogenetic protein‐2 (BMP‐2), matrix metalloproteinase‐13 (MMP‐13), and tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase‐1 (TIMP‐1). For protein expression analysis, western blot was used for biglycan and decorin. Outcomes indicated that EA intervention decreased the grades compared with the compressed disc. Immunofluorescence analysis showed a significant increase of collagens 1 and 2, TIMP‐1, and BMP‐2 positive cells, in contrast to MMP‐13 after EA treatment for 28 days. The protein expression showed a sign of regeneration that decorin and biglycan were upregulated. It was concluded that EA contributed to the extracellular matrix (ECM) anabolic processes and increased the ECM components. MMPs and their inhibitors involved in the mechanism of EA intervention on ECM decreased disc. It kept a dynamic balance between ECM synthesis and degradation.
Periodic Solutions for a Prescribed Mean Curvature Equation with Multiple Delays
Authors: Lu Shiping , Lu Ming
Published: May 2014

We study the existence of periodic solutions for the one-dimensional prescribed mean curvature delay equation(d/dt)(x'(t)/1+x't2) +∑i=1naitgxt-τit=pt. By using Mawhin's continuation theorem, a new result is obtained. Furthermore, the nonexistence of periodic solution for the equation is investigated as well.
Heterogeneity of Radiological Spectrum in Tacrolimus-Associated Encephalopathy after Lung Transplantation
Authors: Wu Qisi , Marescaux Christian , Qin Xinyue , Kessler Romain , Yang Jun
Published: May 2014

Background. Tacrolimus-associated encephalopathy (TAC-E) is usually described under the term of posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES). However, a large amount of data has suggested that TAC-E is not a homogenous entity: indeed, TAC-E which is often presented with atypical and potentially misleading imaging characteristics does not always correspond to PRES.Objective. We aimed to identify the spectrum of brain MR imaging of TAC-E and discuss the underlying pathophysiological features.Methods. From September 2008 to October 2010, the neurological statuses of 45 patients, who underwent lung transplantation with TAC as posttransplantation immunosuppressive therapy, were regularly assessed in a prospective study. MRI was repeatedly performed, until recovery, in patients who developed central neurological symptoms.Results. Symptoms suggestive of encephalopathy occurred in five out of 45 patients (11.1%). According to our MRI study, two patients presented with reversible bilateral and relatively symmetric subcortical white matter edema with proximal vasospasms on MRA; however, three other patients were characterized by coexistence of two different lesions including laminar cortical infarcts with hemorrhagic transformation not typically found in PRES and reversible deep white matter edema, associated with distal vasospasms on MRA.Conclusions. It is considered that the mechanism of TAC-E would be more heterogenous than commonly perceived.
Central Arterial Hemodynamic Effects of Dark Chocolate Ingestion in Young Healthy People: A Randomized and Controlled Trial
Authors: Pereira T. , Maldonado J. , Laranjeiro M. , Coutinho R. , Cardoso E. , Andrade I. , Conde J.
Published: May 2014

Introduction.The aim of this study was to assess the vascular benefits of dark chocolate in healthy and young individuals.Methods. A randomized and controlled trial was carried out involving 60 healthy volunteers, randomized into two groups: control group (CG;n=30) and intervention group (IG;n=30). The IG ingested a daily dosage of 10 g of dark chocolate (>75% cocoa) for a month. Blood pressure (BP), flow-mediated dilation (FMD), arterial stiffness index (ASI), aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV), and pulse wave analysis (PWA) were assessed at baseline and one week after the one-month intervention period.Results. Arterial function improved after intervention in the IG, with PWV decreasing from6.13±0.41 m/s to5.83±0.53 m/s (P=0.02), with no significant differences observed in the CG. A significant decrease in ASI (0.16±0.01to0.13±0.01;P<0.001) and AiX (-15.88±10.75to-22.57±11.16;P=0.07) was also depicted for the IG. Endothelial function improved in the IG, with the FMD increasing 9.31% after the 1-month intervention (P<0.001), with no significant variation in the CG.Conclusion. The daily ingestion of 10 g dark chocolate (>75% cocoa) during a month significantly improves vascular function in young and healthy individuals.
New substitute name for the genus Dayus Steiner & Amaral, 1999 (Annelida: Polychaeta: Histriobdellidae)
Authors: ZHANG YU-TAO
Published: May 2014

The annelid genus Dayus was established by Steiner and Amaral (1999) for a single species Stratiodrilus cirolanae Führ, 1971 from South Africa. Nevertheless the genus name Dayus is preoccupied and was initially introduced by Mahmood (1967) for a typhlocybine leafhopper genus with Dayus elongatus Mahmood, 1967 as the type species from Singapore (Insecta: Hemiptera: Cicadellidae). Thus, the genus Dayus Steiner & Amaral, 1999 is a junior homonym of the genus Dayus Mahmood, 1967. According to Article 60 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN 1999), I propose the new replacement name Steineridrilus nom. nov. for Dayus Steiner & Amaral, 1999. The resulting nomenclatural changes are summarized below.
Kicking Triturus arntzeni when it’s down: large-scale nuclear genetic data confirm that newts from the type locality are genetically admixed
Authors: WIELSTRA B. , ARNTZEN J. W.
Published: May 2014

We collected nuclear DNA data (52 markers) with next-generation sequencing for nine Triturus newt specimens, including the holotype and two of the paratypes of T. arntzeni, from the type locality at Vrtovać in eastern Serbia. We compare these data to a reference set composed of the four crested newt species distributed in eastern Serbia namely T. cristatus, T. dobrogicus, T. ivanbureschi and T. macedonicus to determine to which of these species the newts from the type locality of T. arntzeni should be attributed. The majority of alleles in individuals from Vrtovać is derived from T. macedonicus, but a considerable number of T. ivanbureschi alleles is also present; alleles typical for T. cristatus and T. dobrogicus are found at low frequency. Accordingly, we interpret Vrtovać as a T. macedonicus – T. ivanbureschi hybrid population, albeit not composed of F1 hybrids but of genetically admixed individuals derived through multiple generations of backcrossing. The data support the notion that the name T. arntzeni should not be applied to a species newly distinguished in T. karelinii sensu lato (to which the name T. ivanbureschi has been given). We conclude that because of the hybrid nature of the individuals from Vrtovać, the name T. arntzeni should be placed not only in the synonymy of T. macedonicus but also in the synonymy of T. ivanbureschi. In this study we demonstrate that next-generation sequencing can provide high quality data for type material with degraded DNA and therefore can play an important role in taxonomy.
Stratospheric Predictability: Basic Characteristics in JMA 1-Month Hindcast Experiments for 1979–2009
Authors: Taguchi Masakazu
Published: May 2014

This study investigates basic characteristics of stratospheric predictability in the Northern Hemisphere using 1-month hindcast (HC) experiment data from the Japan Meteorological Agency for 1979–2009. The author describes characteristics of forecast properties of spread, error (root-mean-square error), and anomaly correlation, contrasting the stratosphere and troposphere for different seasons and exploring the so-called spread–skill relationship for the winter stratosphere. The properties are defined for each HC set (ensemble forecasts initialized on the same day). The error and anomaly correlation are calculated with the ensemble mean as measures of forecast accuracy. The author also examines the role of stratospheric sudden warmings (SSWs) in variations in forecast accuracy. Results show that, for lead times shorter than about 10–15 days, the accuracy of the HC data is higher on average and more variable in the stratosphere than in the troposphere, especially for the northern winter. This is reflected in larger averages and variability in the predictable time limit, or the characteristic time scale of useful predictions, for the winter stratosphere. The author also reveals that the spread–skill relationship for the northern winter stratosphere is characterized by the existence of notable outliers from their expected linear distribution; the outliers have markedly large errors for given spreads. Most outliers are contributed by HC sets initialized before observed major SSWs. Such HC data fail to reproduce the strength and/or shape of the stratospheric polar vortex, including both onset and recovery phases of SSWs. The HC data tend to yield a too-strong vortex and shorter-than-average predictable limit.
Lower Social Class Does Not (Always) Mean Greater Interdependence
Authors: Stephens Nicole M. , Cameron Jessica S. , Townsend Sarah S. M.
Published: May 2014

Social resources (i.e., number and nature of relationships with family and friends) are an important, yet largely unrecognized, feature of the sociocultural contexts of social class that influence psychological functioning. To assess the nature and content of social resources, we conducted semistructured interviews with American women living in poverty ( n = 21) and working-class ( n = 31) contexts. In contrast to previous research, which demonstrates that lower social class contexts foster greater social connection and interdependence than middle-class or upper-class contexts, this study revealed that poverty constitutes a clear cutoff point at which reduced material resources no longer predict higher levels of social connection, but instead social isolation. Our interview data revealed that women in poverty had fewer connections to family and friends, experienced greater difficulty with trust, and reported more challenges involving relationships compared with working-class women. These findings extend psychological theories regarding how social class shapes psychological functioning and have important implications for understanding the maintenance and reproduction of poverty.