bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Bluetooth embedded digital ammeter with android app data logging
Authors: Soon Chin Fhong , Teng Boon Huei , Tee Kian Sek , Jong Siat Ling , Ahmad Mohd Khairul , Morsin Marlia , Ong Tiong Hin
Published: February 2020

Monitoring current supplies to light emitting diode (LED) luminaires is one of the reliability tests performed manually. Bluetooth (HC-05) embedded digital ammeter was proposed to acquire currents of a badge of LED products and hence, quality can be assured. Android App was designed to remotely record the current supplies to the different models of LED products and checking if the current measured is within the allowed range. The current data can be further analysed to control the quality of the LED luminaires produced. The pass and fail-current range can be set in the digital ammeter for alerting abnormal current measured by the operator. Therefore, IOT embedded digital ammeter will help in monitoring data consistency of LED products and improve quality assurance procedure.
Review on water quality monitoring technologies
Authors: Ting Josephine Ong Ning , Yee S. K.
Published: February 2020

Water quality monitoring is always the prior element to ensure the drinking water is safe to be consumed. A lot of researches have been carried out over the past decades to design and develop a robust and cost-effective water monitoring system. The conventional water monitoring techniques were based on laboratory instruments which is time-consuming and laborious. Furthermore, it is not suitable when the water sampling point is far from the commercial laboratory centres. These limitations were then been solved by the developments of portable testing kits and microwave technique. The microwave techniques such as spectroscopy techniques and microwave sensor approach have improved the water quality monitoring experience which is convenient without sacrificing the measurement accuracy and sensitivity. Its portability enables the on-site measurement at rural areas and thus reduce the transportation and manpower cost. This paper intends to review the water contaminant detection techniques which include standardized drinking water parameter testing and microwave-based in terms of physical, chemical and microbiological parameters. Furthermore, this review also emphasizes the current trend of the water quality testing method in microwave technique. At the end of this paper, a significant advantages and drawbacks of the techniques are summarized, and recommendations are provided for future development in the water quality monitoring.
Fuzzy-Logic-RSSI based approach for cluster heads selection in wireless sensor networks
Authors: Rahman Azamuddin Abdul , Kahar Mohd Nizam Mohmad , Din Wan Isni Sofiah Wan
Published: February 2020

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are defined as networks of nodes that work in a cooperative way in order to sense and control the surrounding environment. Several WSNs algorithms have been proposed by utilizing the Fuzzy Logic technique to select the cluster heads (CHs). Each technique employs a different combination of input parameters such as nodes density, communication cost, and residual energy. CHs determination is critical towards this goal, whereas the combination of input parameters is expected to play an important role. Nevertheless, the received signal strength (RSSI) is one of the main criteria which get little attention from researchers on the topic of CHs selection. In this study, an RSSI based scheme was proposed which utilizes Fuzzy Logic approach in order to be combined with residual energy and centrality of the fuzzy descriptor. In order to evaluate the proposed scheme, the performance Multi-Tier Protocol (MAP) and Stable Election Protocol (SEP) were compared. The simulation results show that the proposed approach has significantly prolonged the survival time of the network against SEP and MAP, while effectively decelerating the dead process of sensor nodes.
Single-pump multiwavelength hybrid raman-EDF laser using a non-adiabatic microfiber interferometer
Authors: Ibrahim Muhammad Faiz , Naim Nani Fadzlina , Md Ali Mas Izyani Bt
Published: February 2020

This paper presents a multiwavelength fiber laser utilizing non-adiabatic tapered EDF based Mach Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) in hybrid Raman-EDF gains design with a linear cavity. A stable laser was obtained from the single pump with a 1497 nm wavelength through the employment of a 20:80 optical circulators and 99% reflective mirror. The generated backward propagating oscillates inside the laser cavity generate the stable multiwavelength output with 4 channels, which is coupled out via the 10:90 coupler and the output laser is characterized using an OSA with a resolution of 0.015 nm. The hybrid Raman-EDF gain is pumped from the external cavity by a Raman Pump Unit (RPU) and produced a stable multiwavelength laser output with SMSR of 28.9 dBm for 300 mW pump power, 30.7 dBm for 1000 mW pump power and 33.7 dBm for 1500 mW pump power.
A new hyhbrid coefficient of conjugate gradient method
Authors: Mohamed Nur Syarafina , Mamat Mustafa , Rivaie Mohd , Shaharudin Shazlyn Milleana
Published: February 2020

Hybridization is one of the popular approaches in modifying the conjugate gradient method. In this paper, a new hybrid conjugate gradient is suggested and analyzed in which the parameter

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 while using exact line search. The proposed method is shown to possess both sufficient descent and global convergence properties. Numerical performances show that the proposed method is promising and has overpowered other hybrid conjugate gradient methods in its number of iterations and central processing unit per time. 
Optimal quality ultra high video streaming based H.265
Authors: Abd al-azeez Hiba Khalid , Khamiss Nasser N.
Published: February 2020

Using Ultra-High Definition (UHD) video streaming in real-time transmission over the internet is the main challenge of this paper. Due to the widely variation of the available Internet bandwidth makes the difficulties of video streaming with flexibility and efficiency. In this paper the UHD video is down sampled and encoded at different levels of 4K, FHD, 720p, 4CIF, CIF and QCIF. Experiments were done to find the optimal configuration of H265 features at each level that give the required PSNR, 36 dB, at assigned bitrate. A controller is incorporated with H265 encoder to achieve the adaptation of video streaming on the available bandwidth by choosing the proper level that is compatible with the channel bitrate results of keeping a good quality to the end user. The adaptation of video was realized by making the controller periodically reads the status of the buffer, such function helps the controller to select the proper level, 4K, FHD, 720p, 4CIF, CIF or QCIF to be streamed over the channel. At the decoder the reconstructed video for lower level is done by interpolation scaling up.
Cyberbullying identification in twitter using support vector machine and information gain based feature selection
Authors: Dwi Purnamasari Ni Made Gita , Fauzi M. Ali , Indriati Indriati , Dewi Liana Shinta
Published: February 2020

Cyberbullying is one of the actions that violate the ITE Law where the crime is committed on social media applications such as Twitter. This action is difficult to detect if no one is reporting the tweet. Cyberbullying tweet identification aims to classify tweets that contain bullying. Classification is done using Support Vector Machine method where this method aims to find the dividing hyperplane between negative and positive class. This study is a text classification where more data is used, the more features are produced, therefore this research also uses Information Gain as feature selection to select features that are not relevant to the classification. The process of the system starts from text preprocessing with tokenizing, filtering, stemming and term weighting. Then perform the information gain feature selection by calculating the entropy value of each term. After that perform the classification process based on the terms that have been selected, and the output of the system is identification whether the tweet is bullying or not. The result of using SVM method is accuracy 75%, precision 70.27%, recall 86.66% and f-measure 77.61% on experiment maximum iteration = 20, λ = 0.5, γ = 0.001, ε = 0.000001, and C = 1. The best threshold of information gain is 90%, with accuracy 76.66%, precision 72.22%, recall 86.66% and f-measure 78.78%.
Automatic gray images colorization based on lab color space
Authors: Abbadi Nidhal K. El , Razaq Eman Saleem
Published: February 2020

The colorization aim to transform a black and white image to a color image. This is a very hard  issue and usually requiring manual intervention by the user to produce high-quality images free of artifact. The public problem of inserting gradients color to a gray image has no accurate method. The proposed method is fully automatic method. We suggested to use reference color image to help transfer colors from reference image to gray image.  The reference image converted to  Lab color space, while the gray scale image normalized according to the lightness channel L. the gray image concatenate with both a, and b channels before converting to RGB image. The results were promised compared with other methods.
Internet of things: security requirements, attacks and counter measures
Authors: Imdad Maria , Jacob Deden Witarsyah , Mahdin Hairulnizam , Baharum Zirawani , Shaharudin Shazlyn Milleana , Azmi Mohd Sanusi
Published: February 2020

Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of connected and communicating nodes. Recent developments in IoT have led to advancements like smart home, industrial IoT and smart healthcare etc. This smart life did bring security challenges along with numerous benefits. Monitoring and control in IoT is done using smart phone and web browsers easily.  There are different attacks being launched on IoT layers on daily basis and to ensure system security there are seven basic security requirements which must be met. Here we have used these requirements for classification and subdivided them on the basis of attacks, followed by degree of their severity, affected system components and respective countermeasures. This work will not only give guidelines regarding detection and removal of attacks but will also highlight the impact of these attacks on system, which will be a decision point to safeguard  system from high impact attacks on priority basis.
VM placement with effective energy management in cloud using optimal VM allocation framework (OVAF)
Authors: J A Nair Susmita , Gopalakrishnan Nair T R
Published: February 2020

The performance of servers at the data centers is affected when the servers are overloaded. To overcome this problem, the workload at the overloaded servers has to be redistributed to other servers which is possible with live VM migration. Live migration plays a crucial role in handling the overload at the data centers without service interruption. However, live migration also incurs some performance loss and energy overhead. The energy consumption at the data centers is a matter of utmost concern both in terms of economy and ecology. In this paper we are proposing a novel approach to find the most suitable server for VM placement. We have introduced an Optimal VM Allocation Framework (OVAF) in which the hosts at the source requests the destination for their available slots. Based on the response from the available servers, the utilization factor is calculated and the selection of appropriate destination for VM placement is done. Simulations carried out have shown 10% improvement in energy saving.
Performance evaluation on structural mapping choices for data-centric XML documents
Authors: Haw Su-Cheng , Soong Emyliana
Published: February 2020

eXtensible Mark-up Language (XML) has been widely used as the de facto standard for data exchange over the Web. It is crucial to ensure that the data can be mapped correctly into the underlying data storage format, that is, without any lost of information. The two mapping strategies are structural-based and model-based. The structural-based mapping involves the presence of Data Type Definition (DTD) for schema mapping while the model-based mapping does not require the present of DTD or any schema for the mapping purpose. The structural-based mapping is good especially for data-centric type of data, i.e., data which is structured and can be binded into certain schema. As such, this paper evaluates and compares the performances of two selected existing structural-based mapping via simulation. Two main evaluations are: (i) storing the XML data into relational database (RDB),
 and (ii) querying the XML data from the RDB. The time taken for each respective process will be recorded and compared. From the experimental results, it is observed that the s-XML approach outperformed the SAX approach in terms of storing and query evaluations for most of the test cases conducted.
Harmonic current classification using hybrid FAM-RBF neural network
Authors: Leow Shoun Ying , Yap Keem Siah , Wong Shen Yuong
Published: February 2020

In this paper, the type of customers of electricity in Malaysia is classified into the type of electricity consumers based on the harmonic current data. A hybrid of Fuzzy Adaptive Resonance Theory with Mapping Algorithm (Fuzzy ARTMAP) and Radial Basis Function (RBF) neural network is developed (namely FAM-RBF), and it is used to classify the harmonic current into types of consumers. The result of the proposed neural network is discussed, and compared with other neural networks in this paper. The comparison result shows that the proposed FAM-RBF obtained the best performance result and is a truthful neural network to be used in this application.
Characterising and detection of botnet in P2P network for UDP protocol
Authors: Safar Noor Zuraidin Mohd , Abdullah Noryusliza , Kamaludin Hazalila , Ishak Suhaimi Abd , Isa Mohd Rizal Mohd
Published: February 2020

Developments in computer networking have raised concerns of the associated Botnets threat to the Internet security. Botnet is an inter-connected computers or nodes that infected with malicious software and being controlled as a group without any permission of the computer’s owner.
 This paper explores how network traffic characterising can be used for identification of botnet at local networks. To analyse the characteristic, behaviour or pattern of the botnet in the network traffic, a proper network analysing tools is needed. Several network analysis tools available today are used for the analysis process of the network traffic. In the analysis phase,
 the botnet detection strategy based on the signature and DNS anomaly approach are selected to identify the behaviour and the characteristic of the botnet. In anomaly approach most of the behavioural and characteristic identification of the botnet is done by comparing between the normal and anomalous traffic. The main focus of the network analysis is studied on UDP protocol network traffic. Based on the analysis of the network traffic,
 the following anomalies are identified, anomalous DNS packet request,
 the NetBIOS attack, anomalous DNS MX query, DNS amplification attack and UDP flood attack. This study, identify significant Botnet characteristic in local network traffic for UDP network as additional approach for Botnet detection mechanism.
ORD-GAP: a hybrid-based labeling schemes to support XML dynamic updates
Authors: Amin Aisyah , Haw Su-Cheng , Subramaniam Samini
Published: February 2020

eXtensible Markup Language (XML) has been widely used as the standard for data exchange standard over the Internet. With the fast growing rate of data, especially with high updates, it is crucial to ensure that the XML is able to cope with frequent changes with very least effect on the existing structure. Therefore, in this paper, we investigate on the existing labeling schemes and mapping approaches to gauge a better understanding in terms of the robustness of the labeling schemes and the importance of the mapping schemes. Next, we propose ORD-GAP labeling schemes to identify the structural relationship among XML nodes and yet, it is persistent to re-labeling when new nodes are inserted. Subsequently, a mapping scheme is proposed to transform XML into Relational Database (RDB). Preliminary experimental evaluation demonstrated that the proposed approach achieve 66% better as compared to ORDPATH, and 56% better as compared to ME labeling in terms of data loading time. 
New deterministic initialization method for soft computing global optimization algorithms
Authors: Hashim Norazlan , Salam Zainal , Nik Ismail Nik Fasdi , Johari Dalina
Published: February 2020

The initialization stage12 of a Soft Computing (SC) algorithm is vital as it affects the success rate of algorithms in solving multi-peak global optimization problems. The individuals in an initial population, which are known as search agents, are often generated randomly using pseudo-random number generator (PRNG) due to unavailability of prior information on the location of global peak (GP). The random nature of the generated search agents causes uneven distribution of the initial population over the search space (SS), which may lead the search towards unpromising regions from the very beginning. This paper proposes a new deterministic initialization method (DIM) for SC algorithms where search agents are evenly fixed in the SS by using a simple deterministic formulation. The performance of the proposed DIM is then compared to the conventional PRNG and more recent quasi-random number generator (QRNG). An optimization case study is carried out using two popular SC algorithms which are the Particle Swarm Algorithm (PSO) and the Evolutionary Programming (EP), and three relatively new SC algorithms which are the Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA), the Elephant Herding Optimization (EHO), and the Butterfly Optimization Algorithm (BOA). The optimization is done on various one-dimensional (1D) benchmark functions, as well as practical problems such as partial shading condition (PSC). Simulation results show that the proposed DIM successfully improved the performance of each SC algorithm under study in solving almost all tested functions with 99% success rate compared to 88.7% and 80.2% for the QRNG and PRNG approaches respectively. Furthermore, the WOA is the most reliable and robust among the five SC techniques under study with a success 
Single identity in check-in using NFC in airport
Authors: Renardi Mikhael Bagus , Basjaruddin Noor Cholis , Kuspriyanto Kuspriyanto
Published: February 2020

An increase in transactions in airports is in line with a growing number of airline passengers, thus, a system which can enhance the service may be required. One of the concerns related to airline services is the long time for transactions due to the time required for each transaction and the number of transactions for each passenger. One of the transactions which require long time is the check-in process. In addition, the conventional check-in process also requires paper which its use is rapidly rising due to the increasing number of passengers. Hence, an NFC (Near Field Communication)-based system can be applied to accelerate transactions and to reduce the use of paper. Transactions in airports require several documents including booking reference and passengers’ identity cards, and both of which can be digitally stored in an NFC device. This study revealed that the implementation of SI could accommodate the check-in process in airports and decrease the redudancy of passenger data.
An IoT based SMART patient health monitoring system
Authors: Srinivasan C.R , Charan Guru , Sai Babu P Chenchu
Published: February 2020

Smart and connected health care is of specific significance in the spectrum of applications enabled the Internet of Things (IoT). Networked sensors, either embedded inside our living system or worn on the body, enable to gather rich information regarding our physical and mental health. In specific, the accessibility of information at previously unimagined scales and spatial longitudes combined with the new generation of smart processing algorithms can expedite an advancement in the medical field, from the current post-facto diagnosis and treatment of reactive framework, to an early-stage proactive paradigm for disease prognosis combined with prevention and cure as well as overall administration of well-being rather than ailment. This paper sheds some light on the current methods accessible in the Internet of Things (IoT) domain for healthcare applications. The proposed objective is to design and create a healthcare system centered on Mobile-IoT by collecting patient information from different sensors and alerting both the guardian and the doctor by sending emails and SMS in a timely manner. It remotely monitors the physiological parameters of the patient and diagnoses the illnesses swiftly. 
Analytical verification and comparison of chromogenic assays for dabigatran, rivaroxaban and apixaban determination on BCSXP and STA Compact Max analysers
Authors: Ćelap Ivana , Margetić Sandra , Brčić Marija , Mihić Roman
Published: February 2020

Introduction: The aim of the study was to perform analytical verification and comparison of chromogenic assays for determination of dabigatran,
rivaroxaban and apixaban concentration on BCSXP and STA Compact Max analysers.
Materials and methods: Precision, linearity, measurement uncertainty estimation and determination of limit of blank, limit of determination and limit of quantification were calculated. Analytical performance specifications were set according to manufacturer specifications and literature data on between laboratory variability. Comparison of the methods was done using Bland-Altman and Passing-Bablok regression analysis.
Results: Obtained results have shown acceptable precision on STA Compact Max only for dabigatran (CV = 3.5%) at lower concentration level comparing to manufacturer declaration (CV = 3.6%). On BCSXP, the highest coefficient of variation has been shown for apixaban (6.1%) at lower concentration level. Within laboratory precision was not met on STA Compact Max for all assays. Bland-Altman analysis has shown statistically significant bias for dabigatran (23.2%, 95%CI 11.2 – 35.3; P < 0.001) and apixaban (8.4%, 95%CI 1.2 – 15.6; P = 0.023). Passing-Bablok regression analysis has shown systematic and proportional deviation between methods for rivaroxaban (y = 6.52 (2.94 to 11.83) + 0.84 (0.80 to 0.89) x.
Conclusion: Chromogenic assays for dabigatran, rivaroxaban and apixaban on BCSXP and STA Compact Max analysers are shown as methods with satisfactory long-term analytical performance specifications for determination of direct oral anticoagulants in clinical laboratories. However, we cannot recommend interchangeable use because of the significant bias between assays.
Six Sigma revisited: We need evidence to include a 1.5 SD shift in the extraanalytical phase of the total testing process
Authors: Coskun Abdurrahman , Ialongo Cristiano
Published: February 2020

The Six Sigma methodology has been widely implemented in industry, healthcare, and laboratory medicine since the mid-1980s. The performance of a process is evaluated by the sigma metric (SM), and 6 sigma represents world class performance, which implies that only 3.4 or less defects (or errors) per million opportunities (DPMO) are expected to occur. However, statistically, 6 sigma corresponds to 0.002 DPMO rather than 3.4 DPMO. The reason for this difference is the introduction of a 1.5 standard deviation (SD) shift to account for the random variation of the process around its target. In contrast, a 1.5 SD shift should be taken into account for normally distributed data, such as the analytical phase of the total testing process; in practice, this shift has been included in all type of calculations related to SM including non-normally distributed data. This causes great deviation of the SM from the actual level. To ensure that the SM value accurately reflects process performance, we concluded that a 1.5 SD shift should be used where it is necessary and formally appropriate. Additionally, 1.5 SD shift should not be considered as a constant parameter automatically included in all calculations related to SM.
Symmetry in European Regional Folk Dress: A Multidisciplinary Analysis
Authors: James David A. , James Alice V.
Published: February 2020

Designs on folk dress form an expression of artistic import within a culture. A 2017 ethnomathematics paper to which the authors contributed concludes that the designs on European regional folk dress are highly symmetric and analyzes the symmetry in the costume designs of 73 European cultures. Also examined are which symmetries are favored by, for instance, Catholic cultures or mountain cultures. In this article, two of the study's coauthors summarize its key points and go on to explore the neurophysiologic, aesthetic and ethnographic reasons why humans display symmetry on their regional dress.
On cause and correlation in language change
Authors: Rosemeyer Malte , Van de Velde Freek
Published: February 2020

Studies of language change frequently wrestle with the problem of cause and correlation. It is comparatively simple to observe a correlation between historical trends. However, it is much more difficult to demonstrate that the changes in the frequency of a construction A were indeed the cause of the changes in the frequency of a construction B. We present a statistical method that can help to assess whether two historical changes are not only correlated, but also causally related. In particular, we use Granger Causality to determine whether the gradual replacement of ex-situ wh-interrogatives with clefted wh-interrogatives in 18th to 20th century Brazilian Portuguese resulted from word order change, and particularly the rise in the frequency of SV word order. Our results indeed suggest that SV word order Granger-causes the use of clefted wh-interrogatives, as well as declarative ‘that’-clefts, but not the other way around.
Using Digital Video Technology Supports the Researcher to Be a Play Participant in Children’s Play
Authors: Devi Anamika , Makris Coreena , James Maryann
Published: February 2020

Using digital video technology for collecting research data is becoming a popular qualitative method in social science research. This article explores how digital video technology could be an analytical tool for a researchers and how this tool supports the researcher to actively engage in children’s play. The study uses a cultural-historical methodological approach and Hedegaard’s “dialectical-interactive research approach” (2008b, p. 43) to analyse the data. Three different examples of a focus child, Apa, and the researcher’s participation in different play vignettes will be presented. It has been found that a researcher needs to be really skillful when taking the “doubleness approach” (Hedegaard 2008d, p. 203) of simultaneously taking part in the children’s play and video recording the moments of play. The findings also show that positioning the camera in a way where it can capture the play moments and participants’ expressions, enabled the researcher to be an active play participant in the play and to understand the play theme from the children’s perspectives without taking the authority away from the children. The authors argue that using digital video technology could be a useful analytical tool for the researcher to understand the participants’ perspectives and the research context itself.
The Grounds of Institutional Moral Theory: On the Political Philosophy of Allen Buchanan
Authors: Forst Rainer
Published: February 2020

In this paper, I discuss the conception of “institutional moral theory” that Allen Buchanan lays out in his work. I argue that it moves within a trilemma of grounding. The trilemma arises because the three routes to grounding we find in Buchanan’s works – the anthropological route appealing to human nature, the liberal route appealing to liberal values and the institutionalist route appealing to practice-immanent values – are mutually exclusive. But more than that, each horn of the trilemma encounters counterarguments from within Buchanan’s own thought, not only from the perspective of the other horns. Finally, I suggest a fourth alternative that refers to a notion of “justificatory responsibility” that Buchanan also suggests.
Plastome data provide insights into intra and interspecific diversity and ndh gene loss in Capparis (Capparaceae)

Authors: MAURYA SATISH , DARSHETKAR ASHWINI M. , DATAR MANDAR N. , TAMHANKAR SHUBHADA , LI PAN , CHOUDHARY RITESH KUMAR
Published: February 2020

The genus Capparis is well known for its medicinal properties and many species of the genus are widely used in crude drug preparation. The present study is an effort to understand the inter and intraspecific plastome variations within genus Capparis using two newly sequenced plastomes. Plastome representatives from four taxa of Capparis were compared to understand the gene composition and arrangements within the genus. The LSC and SSC regions exhibited high nucleotide variation in Capparis species. The loss of two ndh genes from C. spinosa var. herbacea is reported for the first time. Moreover, we also report pseudogenization of seven genes from the genome of Capparis spinosa var. herbacea. In addition, rpl32-ccsA, atpF-atpH, petA-psbJ, trnL-trnF, trnH-psbA spacer region and one gene ycf1 were identified as potential barcodes for the genus Capparis based on inter and intraspecific variations.
Two new Pythium species from southern China based on morphological and molecular characters

Authors: CHEN JIA-JIA , FENG HUI , SONG WEI , ZHENG XIAO-BO
Published: February 2020

Two new species of Pythium, namely P. subinflatum and P. xuzhouense, from soybean (Glycine max) in southern China are described based on their morphology and molecular phylogenetic analyses inferred from the internal transcribed spacer region of the ribosomal RNA gene and mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene. Pythium subinflatum is characterized by globose to sub-globose or ovoid hyphal swellings, filamentous inflated sporangia, smooth oogonia, mostly diclinous antheridia, elongated along the oogonial stalk, subcircular, subglobose or fist-shaped antheridial cells, and aplerotic and slightly thick-walled oospores (2–3.5 µm); P. xuzhouense differs from other species in the genus by filamentous or lobulated sporangia, smooth oogonia, mostly diclinous, sometimes monoclinous antheridia, subclavate, falcate or semicircle to subcircular antheridial cells, and plerotic or nearly plerotic and thin-walled oospores (0.5–1.5 µm). In addition, the two new species are compared to closely related Pythium species regarding their phylogenetic positions and morphological features.
Silene ohwii (Caryophyllaceae), a replaced name for Melandrium nubigenum

Authors: HSU TIAN-CHUAN , LIAO CHUN-KUEI , CHUNG SHIH-WEN , HUANG WEI-JIE
Published: February 2020

Silene Linnaeus (1753: 416) (Caryophyllaceae Juss.) is one of the largest genera of flowering plants in the world, consisting of about 700 species (Melzheimer 1988, Morton 2005) the majority of which are distributed in the Mediterranean area (Greuter 1995). The genus is critical from both taxonomic and nomenclatural points of views (see e.g., Petri et al. 2011, Rautenberg et al. 2011, Naciri et al. 2017, Đurović et al. 2018, Iamonico 2018).
Pre-imaginal stages of Cychrus schmidti Chaudoir, 1837, and Cychrus semigranosus Palliardi, 1825, with a key to the larvae of the European Cychrus species (Coleoptera: Carabidae)
Authors: BUSATO ENRICO
Published: February 2020

Among the several European and Asiatic species belonging to the genus Cychrus Fabricius, the pre-imaginal morphology isknown just for a few of them. In the present work the larval morphology of Cychrus schmidti and C. semigranosus is described.The morphology of the first species is unique due to its chaetotaxy, which is completely different from that of all of the otherCychrus larvae described so far. The latter are characterized by completely glabrous thoracic and abdominal tergites. In C.schmidti, the tergites are covered by several long setae, a feature never recorded in other Carabidae Carabinae species. Basingon actual knowledge, a preliminary identification key of the European larvae of the Cychrus genus is provided. In the presentcontribution, the pupa of C. schmidti is also described; this is the first pupa of a species belonging to the Cychrus genus to be depicted. Moreover, new data on the biology of C. schmidti were collected from a laboratory breeding programme.
The genus Centorisoma Becker in China, with a key to world species (Diptera, Chloropidae)
Authors: LIU XIAOYAN , YANG DING
Published: February 2020

A review of the species of the genus Centorisoma Becker from China is provided. The following 5 species are described as newto science: C. divisum sp. nov., C. gansuensis sp. nov., C. helanshanensis sp. nov., C. scutatum sp. nov. and C. shaanxiensis sp. nov. A key to the world species of genus Centorisoma is given.
Description and bioacoustics of a new species of the genus Isophya (Orthoptera: Tetigoniidae: Phaneropterinae) from Turkey
Authors: SEVGİLİ HASAN , DEMİRSOY ALİ , ÇIPLAK BATTAL
Published: February 2020

A new species for the genus Isophya, I. bumerangoides, is described from the Northeastern Black Sea Region of Turkey. Thenew species differs from closely related species in some aspects of morphology, mainly in male and female genitalia. Illustra-tions of external morphological characters and male and female songs are provided. Additional data on male calling song andfemale song of closely related bush-cricket Isophya rizeensis Sevgili, 2003 are also given. Scanning Electron Microscopeimages of stridulatory file of the other related species I. redtenbacheri Adelung, 1907 are provided. I. bumerangoides clearlybelongs to I. amplipennis group. Our bioacoustic results suggest that within the genus Isophya, changes in calling song seem to appear more slowly than those in external morphological characters as in most tettigoniid.
Revision of the genus Macrostomus Wiedemann (Diptera, Empididae, Empidinae). III. The limbipennis species-group
Authors: RAFAEL JOSÉ ALBERTINO , CUMMING JEFFREY M.
Published: February 2020

All species of Macrostomus Wiedemann allied with Macrostomus limbipennis (Bezzi), are treated in the limbipennis species-group, which is defined on the basis of characters of the male and female terminalia, and a relatively wide female frons. Threecurrently recognized species and two new species are included, namely M. inflatus, sp. nov. from Brazil (Federal District), M.limbipennis (Bezzi, 1909), M. nigriventris (Macquart, 1846), M. nitidus, sp. nov. from Brazil (Goiás and Mato Grosso states)and M. penai Rafael & Cumming, 2006. All primary types were examined and a lectotype is designated for M. limbipennis(Bezzi, 1909). A key to the species is presented along with the geographical distribution pattern exhibited by the limbipennis species-group.
Association of larvae and adults of Mexican species of Macrelmis (Coleoptera: Elmidae): a preliminary analysis using DNA sequences
Authors: CURIEL JOSEFINA , MORRONE JUAN J.
Published: February 2020

Insect life stages are known imperfectly in many cases, and classifications are usually based on adult morphology. This isunfortunate as information on other life stages may be useful for biomonitoring. The major impediment to using elmid(Coleoptera) larvae for freshwater biomonitoring is the lack of larval descriptions and illustrations. Reliable molecular proto-cols may be used to associate larvae and adults. After adults of seven species of Mexican Macrelmis were identified morpho-logically, seven larval specimens were associated to them based on two gene fragments: Cox1 and Cob. The phylogeneticanalysis allowed identifying the larval specimens as Macrelmis leonilae, M. scutellaris, M. species 7, M. species 10, and M.species 11. Two species based on adults associated uncertainly with one larva, and one larva did not match with any adult. Adult/larval association in elmids using DNA sequence data seems to be promising in terms of speed and reliability.
Surface Constraints on the Depth of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation: Southern Ocean versus North Atlantic
Authors: Sun Shantong , Eisenman Ian , Zanna Laure , Stewart Andrew L.
Published: February 2020

Paleoclimate proxy evidence suggests that the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) was about 1000 m shallower at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) compared to the present. Yet it remains unresolved what caused this glacial shoaling of the AMOC, and many climate models instead simulate a deeper AMOC under LGM forcing. While some studies suggest that Southern Ocean surface buoyancy forcing controls the AMOC depth, others have suggested alternatively that North Atlantic surface forcing or interior diabatic mixing plays the dominant role. To investigate the key processes that set the AMOC depth, here we carry out a number of MITgcm ocean-only simulations with surface forcing fields specified from the simulation results of three coupled climate models that span much of the range of glacial AMOC depth changes in phase 3 of the Paleoclimate Model Intercomparison Project (PMIP3). We find that the MITgcm simulations successfully reproduce the changes in AMOC depth between glacial and modern conditions simulated in these three PMIP3 models. By varying the restoring time scale in the surface forcing, we show that the AMOC depth is more strongly constrained by the surface density field than the surface buoyancy flux field. Based on these results, we propose a mechanism by which the surface density fields in the high latitudes of both hemispheres are connected to the AMOC depth. We illustrate the mechanism using MITgcm simulations with idealized surface forcing perturbations as well as an idealized conceptual geometric model. These results suggest that the AMOC depth is largely determined by the surface density fields in both the North Atlantic and the Southern Ocean.
An Evaporation Correction Approach and Its Characteristics
Authors: Li Jiamin , Wang Chenghai
Published: February 2020

Evaporation is a principal factor in the hydrological cycle and energy exchange; however, estimations of evaporation include large uncertainties. In this study, a modified estimation of evaporation based on empirical linearly simplified Penman evaporation (PES) is proposed, soil moisture and precipitation are used to correct the land surface evaporation estimation, and the temporal and spatial characteristics of the corrected evaporation (CE) are investigated globally. The results show that CE is strong at low latitudes and weak at high latitudes. CE has obvious seasonal variation, ranging from 0.2 to 4.0 mm day−1; CE is prominent in summer but feeble in winter. Compared to PES, CE is generally weaker in most regions, especially in arid regions, with differences of more than 9 mm day−1. CE agrees well with evaporation derived from FLUXNET-Model Tree Ensemble (FLUXNET-MTE), MERRA, and GLDAS. In general, the root-mean-square error (RMSE) between annual CE and FLUXNET-MTE is less than 0.2 mm day−1, and CE is about 5%–10% less than the evaporation of FLUXNET-MTE. In the arid regions, the maximum CE almost occurs in the month with the strongest precipitation; in the tropical regions, soil moisture enhances CE only when precipitation is less. In the context of global temperature rise, PES always shows an apparent increasing trend due to the water supply is not considered; however, CE decreases in western Asia, the western United States, the Amazon basin, and Central Africa, but weakly increases in the other study regions from 1984 to 2013. This study provides a method for estimating evaporation considering more restrictive factors on evaporation.
Desensitizing Toothpastes for Dentin Hypersensitivity: A Network Meta-analysis
Authors: Martins C.C. , Firmino R.T. , Riva J.J. , Ge L. , Carrasco-Labra A. , Brignardello-Petersen R. , Colunga-Lozano L.E. , Granville-Garcia A.F. , Costa F.O. , Yepes-Nuñez J.J. , Zhang Y. , Schünemann H.J.
Published: February 2020

The goal of this systematic review and network meta-analysis was to compare the relative effects of toothpaste formulations for dentin hypersensitivity (DH), tested in randomized controlled trials (RCTs). We searched 7 databases to February 2019. Paired reviewers independently screened studies, extracted data, and performed risk of bias assessment. The outcome of interest was painful response measured through tactile, cold, and air stimuli. We conducted a random-effects Bayesian network meta-analysis using standardized mean difference (SMD) and their credible intervals (CIs) as the measure of effect for each pain stimuli. We assessed certainty of evidence using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. We included 125 RCTs (12,541 patients). For tactile stimulus, the following active ingredients showed large beneficial effects compared to fluoride with moderate certainty of evidence (SMD; 95% CI): potassium + stannous fluoride (SnF2) (3.05; 1.69–4.41), calcium sodium phosphosilicate (CSP) (2.14; 0.75–3.53), SnF2 (2.02; 1.06–2.99), potassium + hydroxyapatite (2.47; 0.3–4.64), strontium (1.43; 0.46–2.41), and potassium (1.23; 0.48–1.98). For cold stimulus, CSP showed large beneficial effects compared to fluoride (3.93; 0.34–7.53) with moderate certainty; for air stimulus, arginine (2.22; 1.45–2.99), potassium + hydroxyapatite (2.44; 0.33–4.55), potassium + SnF2 (2.28; 0.87–3.69), CSP (1.98; 0.99–2.98), and SnF2 (1.9; 1.03–2.77) showed large beneficial effects compared to fluoride with moderate to high certainty. Most toothpaste formulations showed evidence of superiority against placebo or fluorides (amine fluoride, sodium monofluorophosphate, or sodium fluoride). CSP was most beneficial for all 3 stimuli with high to moderate certainty. SnF2 alone and potassium combined with SnF2 or hydroxyapatite were beneficial for tactile and air stimulus with high to moderate certainty. Arginine was beneficial for air stimulus, and strontium and potassium were beneficial for tactile stimulus, with moderate certainty.
The Countervailing Effects of Weight Stigma on Weight-Loss Motivation and Perceived Capacity for Weight Control
Authors: Major Brenda , Rathbone Joanne A. , Blodorn Alison , Hunger Jeffrey M.
Published: February 2020

We hypothesized that exposure to weight stigma simultaneously increases motivation to lose or avoid gaining weight to avoid future stigma and decreases perceived capacity to do so, by heightening concerns about experiencing stigma and negative affect. Study 1 showed that more frequently experiencing weight-based discrimination was associated with greater concerns about being a victim of weight stigma, which predicted increased motivation to lose weight but decreased perceived capacity for weight control. Study 2 showed that participants randomly assigned to view a weight-stigmatizing (vs. control) message showed increased concerns about being a target of weight stigma, which indirectly increased motivation to lose weight and decreased state self-control. These, in turn, predicted increased willingness to engage in unhealthy weight-loss behaviors and decreased perceived capacity for weight control, respectively. Study 3 showed that increased motivation to avoid stigma and increased negative affect mediate these effects of exposure to weight stigma.
Urinary bladder metastasis from malignant melanoma
Authors: Caputo Alessandro , Cretella Pasquale , Zeppa Pio , D’Antonio Antonio
Published: February 2020

Bladder metastases from malignant melanoma are very rare, with only about 30 cases reported to date. They are often associated with synchronous metastases elsewhere in the body and portend poor prognosis. Herein, we present the case of a 62-year-old man with a history of two completely resected, non-node-metastatic cutaneous malignant melanomas who presented with gross haematuria as his only symptom. We then proceed to discuss the diagnostic process and prognostic implications of primary and metastatic malignant melanomas of the urinary bladder.

Level of evidence: 5
Transcriptomic analysis of gene expression of Verticillium dahliae upon treatment of the cotton root exudates
Authors: Zhang Xinyu , Cheng Wenhan , Feng Zhidi , Zhu Qianhao , Sun Yuqiang , Li Yanjun , Sun Jie
Published: February 2020

Background

Cotton Verticillium wilt is one of the most devastating diseases for cotton production in the world. Although this diseases have been widely studied at the molecular level from pathogens, the molecular basis of V. dahliae interacted with cotton has not been well examined.

Results

In this study, RNA-seq analysis was carried out on V. dahliae samples cultured by different root exudates from three cotton cultivars (a susceptible upland cotton cultivar, a tolerant upland cotton cultivar and a resistant island cotton cultivar) and water for 0 h, 6 h, 12 h, 24 h and 48 h. Statistical analysis of differentially expressed genes revealed that V. dahliae responded to all kinds of root exudates but more strongly to susceptible cultivar than to tolerant and resistant cultivars. Go analysis indicated that ‘hydrolase activity, hydrolyzing O-glycosyl compounds’ related genes were highly enriched in V. dahliae cultured by root exudates from susceptible cotton at early stage of interaction, suggesting genes related to this term were closely related to the pathogenicity of V. dahliae. Additionally, ‘transmembrane transport’, ‘coenzyme binding’, ‘NADP binding’, ‘cofactor binding’, ‘oxidoreductase activity’, ‘flavin adenine dinucleotide binding’, ‘extracellular region’ were commonly enriched in V. dahliae cultured by all kinds of root exudates at early stage of interaction (6 h and 12 h), suggesting that genes related to these terms were required for the initial steps of the roots infections.

Conclusions

Based on the GO analysis results, the early stage of interaction (6 h and 12 h) were considered as the critical stage of V. dahliae-cotton interaction. Comparative transcriptomic analysis detected that 31 candidate genes response to root exudates from cotton cultivars with different level of V. dahliae resistance, 68 response to only susceptible cotton cultivar, and 26 genes required for development of V. dahliae. Collectively, these expression data have advanced our understanding of key molecular events in the V. dahliae interacted with cotton, and provided a framework for further functional studies of candidate genes to develop better control strategies for the cotton wilt disease.