bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cytadherence of Mycoplasma pneumoniae Induces Inflammatory Responses through Autophagy and Toll-Like Receptor 4
Authors: Shimizu Takashi , Kimura Yui , Kida Yutaka , Kuwano Koichi , Tachibana Masato , Hashino Masanori , Watarai Masahisa
Published: May 2014

Mycoplasma pneumoniaecauses pneumonia, tracheobronchitis, pharyngitis, and asthma in humans. The pathogenesis ofM. pneumoniaeinfection is attributed to excessive immune responses. We previously demonstrated thatM. pneumoniaelipoproteins induced inflammatory responses through Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2). In the present study, we demonstrated thatM. pneumoniaeinduced strong inflammatory responses in macrophages derived from TLR2 knockout (KO) mice. Cytokine production in TLR2 KO macrophages was increased compared with that in the macrophages of wild-type (WT) mice. Heat-killed, antibiotic-treated, and overgrownM. pneumoniaefailed to induce inflammatory responses in TLR2 KO macrophages. 3-Methyladenine and chloroquine, inhibitors of autophagy, decreased the induction of inflammatory responses in TLR2 KO macrophages. These inflammatory responses were also inhibited in macrophages treated with the TLR4 inhibitor VIPER and those obtained from TLR2 and TLR4 (TLR2/4) double-KO mice. Two mutants that lacked the ability to induce inflammatory responses in TLR2 KO macrophages were obtained by transposon mutagenesis. The transposons were inserted inatpCencoding an ATP synthase F0F1 ε subunit andF10_orf750encoding hypothetical protein MPN333. These mutants showed deficiencies in cytadherence. These results suggest that cytadherence ofM. pneumoniaeinduces inflammatory responses through TLR4 and autophagy.
Expanding the evidence within evidence-based healthcare: thinking about the context, acceptability and feasibility of interventions
Authors: Shaw Rachel L , Larkin Michael , Flowers Paul
Published: May 2014

Evidence-based medicine is crucial to contemporary healthcare. It is dependent on systematic review methodology modelled on an arguably inadequate hierarchy of evidence. There has been a significant increase in medical and health research using qualitative and mixed method designs. The perspective taken in this article is that we need to broaden our evidence base if we are to fully take account of issues of context, acceptability and feasibility in the development and implementation of healthcare interventions. One way of doing this is to use a range of methods that better fit the different aspects of intervention development and implementation. Methods for the systematic review of evidence, other than randomised-controlled trials, are available and there is a readiness to incorporate these other types of evidence into good-practice guidance, but we need a clear methodology to translate these advances in research into the world of policy.
Effect of a carbohydrate-protein multi-ingredient supplement on intermittent sprint performance and muscle damage in recreational athletes
Authors: Naclerio Fernando , Larumbe-Zabala Eneko , Cooper Robert , Jimenez Alfonso , Goss-Sampson Mark
Published: May 2014

Carbohydrate-protein–based multi-ingredient supplements have been proposed as an effective strategy for limiting the deleterious effects of exercise-induced muscle damage. This study compares the effects of a commercially available carbohydrate–protein supplement enriched with l-glutamine and l-carnitine-l-tartrate to carbohydrate alone or placebo on sprint performance, muscle damage markers, and recovery from intermittent exercise. On 3 occasions, 10 recreationally trained males ingested a multi-ingredient, a carbohydrate supplement, or a placebo before, during, and immediately after a 90-min intermittent repeated sprint test. Fifteen-metre sprint times, creatine kinase, myoglobin, and interleukin-6 were assessed before (pre), immediately after (post), 1 h after (1h), and 24 h after (24h) exercise. Total sprint time measured during the intermittent protocol was not different between conditions. Fifteen-metre sprint time was slower (p < 0.05) at post, 1h and 24h compared with pre without differences between conditions (p > 0.05). Creatine kinase at 24h was lower (p < 0.05) in the multi-ingredient (461.8 ± 271.8 U·L) compared with both carbohydrate and placebo (606 ± 314.5 U·L and 636 ± 344.6 U·L, respectively). Myoglobin increased (p < 0.05) in all 3 conditions at post and 1h compared with pre, showing lower values at 1h (p < 0.05) for the carbohydrate and a trend (p = 0.060) for multi-ingredient compared with the placebo condition (211.4 ± 127.2 ng·mL−1 and 239.4 ± 103.8 ng·mL−1 vs. 484.6 ± 200.0 ng·mL−1, respectively). Interleukin-6 increased at both post and 1h compared with pre (p < 0.05) with no differences between conditions. In conclusion, ingesting a multi-ingredient supplement before, during, and immediately after a 90-min intermittent sprint test resulted in no effects on performance and fatigue while the accumulation of some biomarkers of muscle damage could be attenuated.
Triazene derivatives of (1,x)-diazacycloalkanes. Part X. Synthesis and characterization of a series of 1,4-di[2-aryl-1-diazenyl]-trans-2,5-dimethylpiperazines
Authors: Little Vanessa Renee , Tingley Reid , Vaughan Keith
Published: May 2014

A series of 1,4-di[2-aryl-1-diazenyl]-trans-2,5-dimethylpiperazines(5a–5m), have been synthesized by the reaction of trans-2,5-dimethylpiperazine with two equivalents of the appropriate diazonium salt. The products have been characterized by IR and NMR spectroscopy, and the molecular composition has been verified by high-resolution EI mass spectrometry with accurate mass measurement of the molecular ion. The presence of stereocenters at C2 and C5 of the piperazine ring in the bis-triazene (5) creates two unique pairs of diastereotopic protons in the methylene groups at positions 3 and 6 of the piperazine ring, as evidenced by the complexity of the NMR spectra, which nevertheless can be fully assigned in some cases, such as the anisyl- (5i) and phenyl- (5j) derivatives. The assignment of the proton and carbon signals in the tolyl- derivative (5h) has been aided by the use of 2D NMR HSQC spectroscopy. These results compare favorably with assignments of proton and carbon signals reported previously for triazenes of type 1 and bis-triazenes of types 3 and 4b.
Effect of habitat use and diet on the gastrointestinal parasite community of an avian omnivore from an urbanized environment
Authors: Aponte V. , Locke S.A. , Gentes M.-L. , Giroux J.-F. , Marcogliese D.J. , McLaughlin D. , Verreault J.
Published: May 2014

With urbanization, anthropogenic foods have grown in importance for several species. A shift away from natural foods is likely to affect trophically transmitted parasites, although this has received limited attention in urban-adapted avian omnivores. We examined the effect of habitat use and diet on gastrointestinal parasite assemblages of Ring-billed Gulls (Larus delawarensis Ord, 1815) breeding in an urbanized region (Montréal, Quebec, Canada) using three approaches depicting different temporal scales. Birds were fitted with global positioning system data loggers to determine habitat-use patterns during a 2–3 day period. Stomach contents were examined, providing dietary information during the preceding hours. Liver carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotope signatures served as proxy of nutrient assimilation during the preceding 10 days. Endoparasite community variations were best explained by δ13C and δ15N ratios. Individuals with lower δ15N had lower parasite abundance, while δ13C was enriched in birds with less diverse parasites (fewer helminth genera). Tissue depletion in15N in Ring-billed Gulls from this colony has previously been associated with predominant consumption of human-related foods. The present study supports the hypothesis that Ring-billed Gulls exhibiting preference for anthropogenic food sources encounter fewer trophically transmitted parasites, which may have contributed, in part, to their population expansion during the last century.
ORTHOGONAL MAXIMUM MARGIN DISCRIMINANT PROJECTION WITH APPLICATION TO LEAF IMAGE CLASSIFICATION
Authors: ZHANG SHAN-WEN , WANG XIANFENG , ZHANG CHUANLEI
Published: May 2014

A novel supervised dimensionality reduction method called orthogonal maximum margin discriminant projection (OMMDP) is proposed to cope with the high dimensionality, complex, various, irregular-shape plant leaf image data. OMMDP aims at learning a linear transformation. After projecting the original data into a low dimensional subspace by OMMDP, the data points of the same class get as near as possible while the data points of the different classes become as far as possible, thus the classification ability is enhanced. The main differences from linear discriminant analysis (LDA), discriminant locality preserving projections (DLPP) and other supervised manifold learning-based methods are as follows: (1) In OMMDP, Warshall algorithm is first applied to constructing both of the must-link and class-class scatter matrices, whose process is easily and quickly implemented without judging whether any pairwise points belong to the same class. (2) The neighborhood density is defined to construct the objective function of OMMDP, which makes OMMDP be robust to noise and outliers. Experimental results on two public plant leaf databases clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for classifying leaf images.
OPTIMIZATION OF THE COST FUNCTION IN THE MONGE-KANTOROVICH PROBLEM (MKP) UNDER THE MONGE CONDITION
Authors: OUDRE LAURENT
Published: May 2014

This paper presents a method for adapting the cost function in the Monge–Kantorovich Problem (MKP) to a classification task. More specifically, we introduce a criterion that allows to learn a cost function which tends to produce large distance values for elements belonging to different classes and small distance values for elements belonging to the same class. Under some additional constraints (one of them being the well-known Monge condition), we show that the optimization of this criterion writes as a linear programming problem. Experimental results on synthetic data show that the output optimal cost function provides good retrieval performances in the presence of two types of perturbations commonly found in histograms. When compared to a set of various commonly used cost functions, our optimal cost function performs as good as the best cost function of the set, which shows that it can adapt well to the task. Promising results are also obtained on real data for two-class image retrieval based on grayscale intensity histograms.
FORWARD-LOOKING PRINCIPLE IN REPEATED GAMES
Authors: ARAMENDIA MIGUEL , WEN QUAN
Published: May 2014

In repeated games, equilibria requiring threats of punishment may be implausible if punishing a deviator hurts all the others. When all the punishers suffer from carrying out a punishment in the continuation, it would be in their best interest to forgive the deviation. Taking this line of reasoning into consideration, we introduce the forward-looking principle for subgame perfect equilibrium such that there must be, at least, one punisher who benefits in the continuation by carrying out the punishment. We show that this principle generally reduces payoffs that may arise from equilibrium. We characterize the payoffs that can be supported by subgame perfect equilibrium with forward-looking principle.
GLOBAL STABILITY OF NASH EQUILIBRIUM IN AGGREGATIVE GAMES
Authors: OKUGUCHI KOJI , YAMAZAKI TAKESHI
Published: May 2014

If an aggregative game satisfies the generalized Hahn conditions, then there exists a unique Nash equilibrium which may not be interior and is globally asymptotically stable under two alternative continuous adjustment processes with non-negativity constraints.
Synthesis, Spectral Analysis, In Vitro Microbiological Evaluation, and Molecular Docking Studies of Some Novel 1-(1-Aryl-1H-tetrazol-5-yl)-2-(piperidin-1-yl)ethanone Derivatives
Authors: Elavarasan Thangasamy , Bhakiaraj Durairaj Peter , Gopalakrishnan Mannathusamy
Published: May 2014

A new series of novel heterocyclic compounds containing both tetrazoles and piperidine nuclei together, namely, 1-(1-aryl-1H-tetrazol-5-yl)-2-(piperidin-1-yl)ethanone (22–28), were synthesized by the treatment of the respective 2-chloro-1-(1-aryl-1H-tetrazol-5-yl)ethanone (15–21) with piperidine in acetonitrile for 6 h. A series of novel tetrazole substituted piperidine derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their antimicrobial activity using serial dilution method. The structures of the synthesized compounds were characterized by IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, mass spectral data, and elemental analysis. Evaluation of antimicrobial activity shows that several compounds exhibit good activity when compared with the reference drug candidates and thus could be promising new lead molecules.
Analysis of Resonance Response Performance of C-Band Antenna Using Parasitic Element
Authors: Zaman M. R. , Islam M. T. , Misran N. , Mandeep J. S.
Published: May 2014

Analysis of the resonance response improvement of a planar C-band (4–8 GHz) antenna is proposed using parasitic element method. This parasitic element based method is validated for change in the active and parasitic antenna elements. A novel dual-band antenna for C-band application covering 5.7 GHz and 7.6 GHz is designed and fabricated. The antenna is composed of circular parasitic element with unequal microstrip lines at both sides and a rectangular partial ground plane. A fractional bandwidth of 13.5% has been achieved from 5.5 GHz to 6.3 GHz (WLAN band) for the lower band. The upper band covers from 7.1 GHz to 8 GHz with a fractional bandwidth of 12%. A gain of 6.4 dBi is achieved at the lower frequency and 4 dBi is achieved at the upper frequency. The VSWR of the antenna is less than 2 at the resonance frequency.
Journal Bearing Optimization Using Nonsorted Genetic Algorithm and Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm
Authors: Gorasso L. , Wang L.
Published: May 2014

In this work, a journal bearing optimization process has been developed and is divided into two stages. Each one has a set of decision variables and custom objectives aggregating performances with a weighting strategy. The performance functions used are an artificial neural network, trained with Reynolds equation solutions, and a CFD simulation of the bearings carried out with commercial software. The results show the capabilities of the algorithm to design and optimize journal bearings by reducing both power loss and mass flow with respect to ones designed with traditional methods, as well as by minimizing the maximum and average temperature.
Gossypol Toxicity from Cottonseed Products
Authors: Gadelha Ivana Cristina N. , Fonseca Nayanna Brunna S. , Oloris Silvia Catarina S. , Melo Marília M. , Soto-Blanco Benito
Published: May 2014

Gossypol is a phenolic compound produced by pigment glands in cotton stems, leaves, seeds, and flower buds (Gossypiumspp.). Cottonseed meal is a by-product of cotton that is used for animal feeding because it is rich in oil and proteins. However, gossypol toxicity limits cottonseed use in animal feed. High concentrations of free gossypol may be responsible for acute clinical signs of gossypol poisoning which include respiratory distress, impaired body weight gain, anorexia, weakness, apathy, and death after several days. However, the most common toxic effects is the impairment of male and female reproduction. Another important toxic effect of gossypol is its interference with immune function, reducing an animal’s resistance to infections and impairing the efficiency of vaccines. Preventive procedures to limit gossypol toxicity involve treatment of the cottonseed product to reduce the concentration of free gossypol with the most common treatment being exposure to heat. However, free gossypol can be released from the bound form during digestion. Agronomic selection has produced cotton varieties devoid of glands producing gossypol, but these varieties are not normally grown because they are less productive and are more vulnerable to attacks by insects.
Average Gait Differential Image Based Human Recognition
Authors: Chen Jinyan , Liu Jiansheng
Published: May 2014

The difference between adjacent frames of human walking contains useful information for human gait identification. Based on the previous idea a silhouettes difference based human gait recognition method named as average gait differential image (AGDI) is proposed in this paper. The AGDI is generated by the accumulation of the silhouettes difference between adjacent frames. The advantage of this method lies in that as a feature image it can preserve both the kinetic and static information of walking. Comparing to gait energy image (GEI), AGDI is more fit to representation the variation of silhouettes during walking. Two-dimensional principal component analysis (2DPCA) is used to extract features from the AGDI. Experiments on CASIA dataset show that AGDI has better identification and verification performance than GEI. Comparing to PCA, 2DPCA is a more efficient and less memory storage consumption feature extraction method in gait based recognition.
Adaptive Collaborative Detection for Opportunistic Vehicle Sensor Networks
Authors: Zeng Yuanyuan
Published: May 2014

Transportation is a huge problem that curbs development of societies and economy in many countries nowadays. Participatory sensing technologies encourage people to be involved in environment monitoring through smart devices. Vehicle sensor networks (VSNs) are a novel solution for road event detection with advantages. In this paper, we consider runtime road event detection using VSNs to satisfy the application-specific requirements through collaboration among vehicles. A group road detection scheme (GRD) by using dynamic clustering in VSNs is presented to improve detection performance with low time complexity and message complexity. The simulations with testbed of 5 remote controllable vehicles show that GRD scheme provides effectiveness under different road scenarios.
Implementation of Personal Health Device Communication Protocol Applying ISO/IEEE 11073-20601
Authors: Seo Deok Seok , Kim Soon Seok , Lee Yong Hee , Kim Jong Mo
Published: May 2014

In 2010, IEEE and ISO announced the exchange protocol standard (ISO/IEEE 11073-20601), optimized to secure mutual compatibility between all sorts of PHDs and the gateways for collecting bioinformation from the devices and activating related services. This international standard is the first official document that has dealt with communication related to the healthcare device. This paper is about implementing communication protocols between a weight sensor, a kind of personal health devices (PHDs) used in homes, and a gateway collecting a variety of biometric information from multiple sensors, applying international standard ISO/IEEE 11073-20601 for interoperability between medical devices. Moreover, security is enhanced by applying the international symmetric key encryption standard, advanced encryption standard (AES), for secure data transmission from the weight sensor to gateway. When the cipher algorithm was applied, we confirmed that the implementation took about 0.008 second on average than the previous.
Helical Tomotherapy Combined with Capecitabine in the Preoperative Treatment of Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer
Authors: Huang Ming-Yii , Chen Chin-Fan , Huang Chun-Ming , Tsai Hsiang-Lin , Yeh Yung-Sung , Ma Cheng-Jen , Wu Chan-Han , Lu Chien-Yu , Chai Chee-Yin , Huang Chih-Jen , Wang Jaw-Yuan
Published: May 2014

The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of helical tomotherapy plus capecitabine as a preoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT) in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC). Thirty-six LARC patients receiving preoperative CRT were analyzed. Radiotherapy (RT) consisted of 45 Gy to the regional lymph nodes and simultaneous-integrated boost (SIB) 50.4 Gy to the tumor, 5 days/week for 5 weeks. Chemotherapy consisted of capecitabine 850 mg/m2, twice daily, during the RT days. Patients underwent surgery 6–8 weeks after completion of CRT. Information was collected for patient characteristics, treatment response, and acute and late toxicities. Grade 3/4 (G3+) toxicities occurred in 11.1% of patients (4/36). Sphincter preservation rate was 85.2% (23/27). Five patients (14.3%) achieved pathological complete response. Tumor, nodal, and ypT0-2N0 downstaging were noted in 60% (21/35), 69.6% (16/23), and 57.1% (20/35). Tumor regression grade 2~4 was achieved in 28 patients (80%). After a median follow-up time of 35 months, the most common G3+ late morbidity was ileus and fistula (5.7%, 2/35). The study showed that capecitabine plus helical tomotherapy with an SIB is feasible in treatment of LARC. The treatment modality can achieve a very encouraging sphincter preservation rate and a favorable ypT0-2N0 downstaging rate without excessive toxicity.
Follistatin, an Activin Antagonist, Ameliorates Renal Interstitial Fibrosis in a Rat Model of Unilateral Ureteral Obstruction
Authors: Maeshima Akito , Mishima Keiichiro , Yamashita Shin , Nakasatomi Masao , Miya Masaaki , Sakurai Noriyuki , Sakairi Toru , Ikeuchi Hidekazu , Hiromura Keiju , Hasegawa Yoshihisa , Kojima Itaru , Nojima Yoshihisa
Published: May 2014

Activin, a member of the TGF-βsuperfamily, regulates cell growth and differentiation in various cell types. Activin A acts as a negative regulator of renal development as well as tubular regeneration after renal injury. However, it remains unknown whether activin A is involved in renal fibrosis. To clarify this issue, we utilized a rat model of unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO). The expression of activin A was significantly increased in the UUO kidneys compared to that in contralateral kidneys. Activin A was detected in glomerular mesangial cells and interstitial fibroblasts in normal kidneys. In UUO kidneys, activin A was abundantly expressed by interstitialα-SMA-positive myofibroblasts. Administration of recombinant follistatin, an activin antagonist, reduced the fibrotic area in the UUO kidneys. The number of proliferating cells in the interstitium, but not in the tubules, was significantly lower in the follistatin-treated kidneys. Expression ofα-SMA, deposition of type I collagen and fibronectin, and CD68-positive macrophage infiltration were significantly suppressed in the follistatin-treated kidneys. These data suggest that activin A produced by interstitial fibroblasts acts as a potent profibrotic factor during renal fibrosis. Blockade of activin A action may be a novel approach for the prevention of renal fibrosis progression.
A Wireless Emergency Telemedicine System for Patients Monitoring and Diagnosis
Authors: Abo-Zahhad M. , Ahmed Sabah M. , Elnahas O.
Published: May 2014

Recently, remote healthcare systems have received increasing attention in the last decade, explaining why intelligent systems with physiology signal monitoring for e-health care are an emerging area of development. Therefore, this study adopts a system which includes continuous collection and evaluation of multiple vital signs, long-term healthcare, and a cellular connection to a medical center in emergency case and it transfers all acquired raw data by the internet in normal case. The proposed system can continuously acquire four different physiological signs, for example, ECG, SpO2, temperature, and blood pressure and further relayed them to an intelligent data analysis scheme to diagnose abnormal pulses for exploring potential chronic diseases. The proposed system also has a friendly web-based interface for medical staff to observe immediate pulse signals for remote treatment. Once abnormal event happened or the request to real-time display vital signs is confirmed, all physiological signs will be immediately transmitted to remote medical server through both cellular networks and internet. Also data can be transmitted to a family member’s mobile phone or doctor’s phone through GPRS. A prototype of such system has been successfully developed and implemented, which will offer high standard of healthcare with a major reduction in cost for our society.
Low Power Adder Based Digital Filter for QRS Detector
Authors: Murali L. , Chitra D. , Manigandan T.
Published: May 2014

Most of the Biomedical applications use dedicated processors for the implementation of complex signal processing. Among them, sensor network is also a type, which has the constraint of low power consumption. Since the processing elements are the most copiously used operations in the signal processors, the power consumption of this has the major impact on the system level application. In this paper, we introduce low power concept of transistor stacking to reduce leakage power; and new architectures based on stacking to implement the full adder and its significance at the digital filter level for QRS detector are implemented. The proposed concept has lesser leakage power at the adder as well as filter level with trade-off in other quality metrics of the design. This enabled the design to be dealt with as the low-power corner and can be made adaptable to any level of hierarchical abstractions as per the requirement of the application. The proposed architectures are designed, modeled at RTL level using the Verilog-HDL, and synthesized in Synopsys Design Compiler by mapping the design to 65 nm technology library standard cells.
Pathogenesis of Painful Diabetic Neuropathy
Authors: Aslam Amir , Singh Jaipaul , Rajbhandari Satyan
Published: May 2014

The prevalence of diabetes is rising globally and, as a result, its associated complications are also rising. Painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN) is a well-known complication of diabetes and the most common cause of all neuropathic pain. About one-third of all diabetes patients suffer from PDN. It has a huge effect on a person’s daily life, both physically and mentally. Despite huge advances in diabetes and neurology, the exact mechanism of pain causation in PDN is still not clear. The origin of pain could be in the peripheral nerves of the central nervous system. In this review, we discuss various possible mechanisms of the pathogenesis of pain in PDN. We discuss the role of hyperglycaemia in altering the physiology of peripheral nerves. We also describe central mechanisms of pain.
A Hybrid Short-Term Power Load Forecasting Model Based on the Singular Spectrum Analysis and Autoregressive Model
Authors: Li Hongze , Cui Liuyang , Guo Sen
Published: May 2014

Short-term power load forecasting is one of the most important issues in the economic and reliable operation of electricity power system. Taking the characteristics of randomness, tendency, and periodicity of short-term power load into account, a new method (SSA-AR model) which combines the univariate singular spectrum analysis and autoregressive model is proposed. Firstly, the singular spectrum analysis (SSA) is employed to decompose and reconstruct the original power load series. Secondly, the autoregressive (AR) model is used to forecast based on the reconstructed power load series. The employed data is the hourly power load series of the Mid-Atlantic region in PJM electricity market. Empirical analysis result shows that, compared with the single autoregressive model (AR), SSA-based linear recurrent method (SSA-LRF), and BPNN (backpropagation neural network) model, the proposed SSA-AR method has a better performance in terms of short-term power load forecasting.
Melanoma Development and Progression Are Associated with Rad6 Upregulation andβ-Catenin Relocation to the Cell Membrane
Authors: Rosner Karli , Mehregan Darius R. , Kirou Evangelia , Abrams Judith , Kim Seongho , Campbell Michelle , Frieder Jillian , Lawrence Kelsey , Haynes Brittany , Shekhar Malathy P. V.
Published: May 2014

We have previously demonstrated that Rad6 andβ-catenin enhance each other's expression through a positive feedback loop to promote breast cancer development/progression. Whileβ-catenin has been implicated in melanoma pathogenesis, Rad6 function has not been investigated. Here, we examined the relationship between Rad6 andβ-catenin in melanoma development and progression. Eighty-eight cutaneous tumors, 30 nevi, 29 primary melanoma, and 29 metastatic melanomas, were immunostained with anti-β-catenin and anti-Rad6 antibodies. Strong expression of Rad6 was observed in only 27% of nevi as compared to 100% of primary and 96% of metastatic melanomas.β-Catenin was strongly expressed in 97% of primary and 93% of metastatic melanomas, and unlike Rad6, in 93% of nevi. None of the tumors expressed nuclearβ-catenin.β-Catenin was exclusively localized on the cell membrane of 55% of primary, 62% of metastatic melanomas, and only 10% of nevi. Cytoplasmicβ-catenin was detected in 90% of nevi, 17% of primary, and 8% of metastatic melanoma, whereas 28% of primary and 30% of metastatic melanomas exhibitedβ-catenin at both locations. These data suggest that melanoma development and progression are associated with Rad6 upregulation and membranous redistribution ofβ-catenin and thatβ-catenin and Rad6 play independent roles in melanoma development.
Influence of Nd-Doping on Photocatalytic Properties of TiO2Nanoparticles and Thin Film Coatings
Authors: Wojcieszak Damian , Mazur Michal , Kurnatowska Michalina , Kaczmarek Danuta , Domaradzki Jaroslaw , Kepinski Leszek , Chojnacki Kamil
Published: May 2014

Structural, optical, and photocatalytic properties of TiO2and TiO2:Nd nanopowders and thin films composed of those materials have been compared. Titania nanoparticles with 1, 3, and 6 at. % of Nd-dopant were synthesized by sol-gel method. Additionally, thin films with the same material composition were prepared with the aid of spin-coating method. The analysis of structural investigations revealed that all as-prepared nanopowders were nanocrystalline and had TiO2-anatase structure. The average size of crystallites was ca. 4-5 nm and the correlation between the amount of neodymium and the size of TiO2crystallites was observed. It was shown that the dopant content influenced the agglomeration of the nanoparticles. The results of photocatalytic decomposition of MO showed that doping with Nd (especially in the amount of 3 at. %) increased self-cleaning activity of the prepared titania nanopowder. Similar effect was received in case of the thin films, but the decomposition rate was lower due to their smaller active surface area. However, the as-prepared TiO2:Nd photocatalyst in the form of thin films or nanopowders seems to be a very attractive material for various applications.
Current Challenges in Commercially Producing Biofuels from Lignocellulosic Biomass
Authors: Balan Venkatesh
Published: May 2014

Biofuels that are produced from biobased materials are a good alternative to petroleum based fuels. They offer several benefits to society and the environment. Producing second generation biofuels is even more challenging than producing first generation biofuels due the complexity of the biomass and issues related to producing, harvesting, and transporting less dense biomass to centralized biorefineries. In addition to this logistic challenge, other challenges with respect to processing steps in converting biomass to liquid transportation fuel like pretreatment, hydrolysis, microbial fermentation, and fuel separation still exist and are discussed in this review. The possible coproducts that could be produced in the biorefinery and their importance to reduce the processing cost of biofuel are discussed. About $1 billion was spent in the year 2012 by the government agencies in US to meet the mandate to replace 30% existing liquid transportation fuels by 2022 which is 36 billion gallons/year. Other countries in the world have set their own targets to replace petroleum fuel by biofuels. Because of the challenges listed in this review and lack of government policies to create the demand for biofuels, it may take more time for the lignocellulosic biofuels to hit the market place than previously projected.
Activity Recognition on Smartphones via Sensor-Fusion and KDA-Based SVMs
Authors: Khan Adil Mehmood , Tufail Ali , Khattak Asad Masood , Laine Teemu H.
Published: May 2014

Although human activity recognition (HAR) has been studied extensively in the past decade, HAR on smartphones is a relatively new area. Smartphones are equipped with a variety of sensors. Fusing the data of these sensors could enable applications to recognize a large number of activities. Realizing this goal is challenging, however. Firstly, these devices are low on resources, which limits the number of sensors that can be utilized. Secondly, to achieve optimum performance efficient feature extraction, feature selection and classification methods are required. This work implements a smartphone-based HAR scheme in accordance with these requirements. Time domain features are extracted from only three smartphone sensors, and a nonlinear discriminatory approach is employed to recognize 15 activities with a high accuracy. This approach not only selects the most relevant features from each sensor for each activity but it also takes into account the differences resulting from carrying a phone at different positions. Evaluations are performed in both offline and online settings. Our comparison results show that the proposed system outperforms some previous mobile phone-based HAR systems.
WSN4QoL: A WSN-Oriented Healthcare System Architecture
Authors: Tennina S. , Di Renzo M. , Kartsakli E. , Graziosi F. , Lalos A. S. , Antonopoulos A. , Mekikis P. V. , Alonso L.
Published: May 2014

People worldwide are getting older and this fact has pushed the need for designing new, more pervasive, and possibly cost effective healthcare systems. In this field, distributed and networked embedded systems, such as wireless sensor networks (WSNs), are the most appealing technology to achieve continuous monitoring of aged people for their own safety, without affecting their daily activities. This paper proposes recent advancements in this field by introducing WSN4QoL, a Marie Curie project which involves academic and industrial partners from three EU countries. The project aims to propose new WSN-based technologies to meet the specific requirements of pervasive healthcare applications. In particular, in this paper, the system architecture is presented to cope with the challenges imposed by the specific application scenario. This includes a network coding (NC) mechanism and a distributed localization solution that have been implemented on WSN testbeds to achieve efficiency in the communications and to enable indoor people tracking. Preliminary results in a real environment show good system performance that meet our expectations.
The Ineffective Role of Cathodal tDCS in Enhancing the Functional Motor Outcomes in Early Phase of Stroke Rehabilitation: An Experimental Trial
Authors: Fusco Augusto , Assenza Federica , Iosa Marco , Izzo Simona , Altavilla Riccardo , Paolucci Stefano , Vernieri Fabrizio
Published: May 2014

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a noninvasive technique that could improve the rehabilitation outcomes in stroke, eliciting neuroplastic mechanisms. At the same time conflicting results have been reported in subacute phase of stroke, when neuroplasticity is crucial. The aim of this double-blind, randomized, and sham-controlled study was to determine whether a treatment with cathodal tDCS before the rehabilitative training might augment the final outcomes (upper limb function, hand dexterity and manual force, locomotion, and activities of daily living) in respect of a traditional rehabilitation for a sample of patients affected by ischemic stroke in the subacute phase. An experimental group (cathodal tDCS plus rehabilitation) and a control group (sham tDCS plus rehabilitation) were assessed at the beginning of the protocol, after 10 days of stimulation, after 30 days from ending of stimulation, and at the end of inpatient rehabilitation. Both groups showed significant improvements for all the assessed domains during the rehabilitation, except for the manual force, while no significant differences were demonstrated between groups. These results seem to indicate that the cathodal tDCS, provided in an early phase of stroke, does not lead to a functional improvement. To depict a more comprehensive scenario, further studies are needed.
Elevated Serum Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 Is Associated with Septic Encephalopathy in Adult Community-Onset Severe Sepsis Patients
Authors: Su Chih-Min , Cheng Hsien-Hung , Tsai Tsung-Cheng , Hsiao Sheng-Yuan , Tsai Nai-Wen , Chang Wen-Neng , Lin Wei-Che , Cheng Ben-Chung , Su Yu-Jih , Chang Ya-Ting , Chiang Yi-Fang , Kung Chia-Te , Lu Cheng-Hsien
Published: May 2014

Background and Aim. Septic encephalopathy (SE) is a common complication of severe sepsis. Increased concentrations of circulating soluble adhesion molecules are reported in septic patients. This study aimed to determine whether serum adhesion molecules are associated with SE.Methods. Seventy nontraumatic, nonsurgical adult patients with severe sepsis admitted through ER were evaluated. Serum adhesion molecules were assessed for their relationship with SE, and compared with other clinical predictors and biomarkers.Results. Twenty-three (32.8%) patients had SE. SE group had higher in-hospital mortality (40% versus 11%,P=0.009) and their sVCAM-1, sICAM-1, and lactate levels on admission were also higher than non-SE group. By stepwise logistic regression model, sVCAM-1, age, and maximum 24-hours SOFA score were independently associated with septic encephalopathy. The AUC analysis of ROC curve of different biomarkers showed that sVCAM-1 is better to predict SE. The sVCAM-1 levels in the SE group were significantly higher than those of the non-SE group at three time periods (Days 1, 4, and 7).Conclusions. Septic encephalopathy implies higher mortality in nontraumatic, nonsurgical patients with severe sepsis. VCAM-1 level on presentation is a more powerful predictor of SE in these patients than lactate concentration and other adhesion molecules on admission.
Effects of Surface Coating Preparation and Sliding Modes on Titanium Oxide Coated Titanium Alloy for Aerospace Applications
Authors: Peng Bo Yuan , Nie Xueyuan , Chen Ying
Published: May 2014

This paper investigates the mechanical response of a coated Ti-6Al-4V alloy surface under different sliding contact stress conditions. The surface was coated with an oxide ceramic material created through the use of a recently developed technique known as plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO). During the PEO procedure, a composition of silicate and phosphate was used as the electrolyte. In order to evaluate the coating, pin-on-disk (POD) tribology tests and cyclic inclined sliding tests were used under dry room conditions. Furthermore, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) were utilized to examine the morphology and composition of the coating surfaces. The results of the POD tests revealed that the PEO coating could have a low coefficient of friction and suggested that high silicon concentrations in the PEO coatings take away oxygen from stoichiometric Ti oxides to create lubricating oxides. In addition, cyclic inclined sliding tests showed that smaller pores on the surface of the coating could permit a higher coating cohesive strength and allow the coated Ti alloy surface to perform better under high inclined sliding forces.
Squamous Cell Carcinomas of the Skin Explore Angiogenesis-Independent Mechanisms of Tumour Vascularization
Authors: Pastushenko Ievgenia , Gracia-Cazaña Tamara , Vicente-Arregui Sandra , Van den Eynden Gert G. , Ara Mariano , Vermeulen Peter B. , Carapeto Franciso José , Van Laere Steven J.
Published: May 2014

Aims.To evaluate the vascularization in basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) and squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) of the skin.Methods.We performed CD31 (i.e., panendothelial marker) and CD105 (i.e., proliferating endothelium marker) immunostaining on samples of 70 SCCs and 70 BCCs of the skin. We evaluated the relative blood vessel area using the Chalkley counting method in each histologic subtype of these tumours. We calculated the degree of proliferation of blood vessel endothelium dividing CD105-Chalkley score by CD31-Chalkley score.Results.We found significantly higher peritumoral and intratumoral blood vessel area in SCC when compared to BCC (both with CD31 and CD105). Chalkley counts differed significantly between groups with different BCC histologic subtypes and SCC with different grade of differentiation. Surprisingly, the degree of proliferation of blood vessel endothelium was higher in BCC when compared to SCC.Conclusions.While SCC exhibited significantly higher intratumoral and peritumoral blood vessel areas compared to BCC, the relatively low rate of proliferating endothelium in this tumour type suggests the existence of endothelial-sprouting-independent mechanisms of vascularization in SCC.
Performance Analysis of Dijkstra-Based Weighted Sum Minimization Routing Algorithm for Wireless Mesh Networks
Authors: Alwan Nuha A. S.
Published: May 2014

Multiobjective optimization methods for routing in static wireless mesh networks (WMNs), with more than one QoS measure to be optimized, are highly challenging. To optimize the performance for a given end-to-end route in a static network, the most common metrics that need to be optimized or bounded are the path capacity and the end-to-end delay. In this work, we focus on combining desirable properties of these two metrics by minimizing a weighted metrics sum via a Dijkstra-based algorithm. The approach is directed towards fast convergence rather than optimality. It is shown that the resulting algorithm provides more satisfactory results than simple Dijkstra-based pruning algorithms in terms of simultaneously achieving high capacity and small delay. The effect of changing the weighting factor on the proposed algorithm performance is investigated.
Primary Gallbladder Small Lymphocytic Lymphoma as a Rare Postcholecystectomy Finding
Authors: Psarras Kyriakos , Symeonidis Nikolaos , Vlachaki Euthymia , Baltatzis Minas , Papatolios Georgios , Pavlidis Efstathios , Mouratidou Christina , Venizelos Ioannis , Pavlidis Theodoros , Sakantamis Athanasios , Nikolaidou Christina
Published: May 2014

Introduction. Primary lymphoma of the gallbladder is an extremely rare entity with approximately 50 cases reported so far. In many of these cases the presenting symptoms were mimicking symptomatic gallstone disease and the diagnosis was made postoperatively, especially when the preoperative imaging results were far from suspicious for malignant disease.Patients and Methods. We report a case of primary lymphoma of the gallbladder in an 85-year-old man with gallstone disease, who was admitted for elective cholecystectomy 2 months after an episode of acute cholecystitis and pancreatitis. Histological evaluation of the specimen revealed a small lymphocytic lymphoma of the gallbladder. This type of primary gallbladder lymphoma has not been previously reported.Discussion. The most common primary lymphomas of the gallbladder are MALT lymphomas and diffuse large B-cell lymphomas, although a variety of other histological types have been reported. The association of these lesions with chronic inflammation is the most convincing theory for their pathogenesis. For lesions confined to the gallbladder, cholecystectomy is considered to be sufficient, while supplementary chemotherapy significantly improves prognosis in more advanced disease.
Global Detection of Live Virtual Machine Migration Based on Cellular Neural Networks
Authors: Xie Kang , Yang Yixian , Zhang Ling , Jing Maohua , Xin Yang , Li Zhongxian
Published: May 2014

In order to meet the demands of operation monitoring of large scale, autoscaling, and heterogeneous virtual resources in the existing cloud computing, a new method of live virtual machine (VM) migration detection algorithm based on the cellular neural networks (CNNs), is presented. Through analyzing the detection process, the parameter relationship of CNN is mapped as an optimization problem, in which improved particle swarm optimization algorithm based on bubble sort is used to solve the problem. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can display the VM migration processing intuitively. Compared with the best fit heuristic algorithm, this approach reduces the processing time, and emerging evidence has indicated that this new approach is affordable to parallelism and analog very large scale integration (VLSI) implementation allowing the VM migration detection to be performed better.
Solar Tracking Error Analysis of Fresnel Reflector
Authors: Zheng Jiantao , Yan Junjie , Pei Jie , Liu Guanjie
Published: May 2014

Depending on the rotational structure of Fresnel reflector, the rotation angle of the mirror was deduced under the eccentric condition. By analyzing the influence of the sun tracking rotation angle error caused by main factors, the change rule and extent of the influence were revealed. It is concluded that the tracking errors caused by the difference between the rotation axis and true north meridian, at noon, were maximum under certain conditions and reduced at morning and afternoon gradually. The tracking error caused by other deviations such as rotating eccentric, latitude, and solar altitude was positive at morning, negative at afternoon, and zero at a certain moment of noon.
CD163+ Tumor-Associated Macrophages Correlated with Poor Prognosis and Cancer Stem Cells in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Authors: He Ke-Fei , Zhang Lu , Huang Cong-Fa , Ma Si-Rui , Wang Yu-Fan , Wang Wei-Ming , Zhao Zhi-Li , Liu Bing , Zhao Yi-Fang , Zhang Wen-Feng , Sun Zhi-Jun
Published: May 2014

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) play an important role in the progression and prognostication of numerous cancers. However, the role and clinical significance of TAM markers in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has not been elucidated. The present study was designed to investigate the correlation between the expression of TAM markers and pathological features in OSCC by tissue microarray. Tissue microarrays containing 16 normal oral mucosa, 6 oral epithelial dysplasia, and 43 OSCC specimens were studied by immunohistochemistry. We observed that the protein expression of the TAM markers CD68 and CD163 as well as the cancer stem cell (CSC) markers ALDH1, CD44, and SOX2 increased successively from the normal oral mucosa to OSCC. The expressions of CD68 and CD163 were significantly associated with lymph node status, and SOX2 was significantly correlated with pathological grade and lymph node status, whereas ALDH1 was correlated with tumor stage. Furthermore, CD68 was significantly correlated with CD163, SOX2, and ALDH1 (P<0.05). Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that OSCC patients overexpressing CD163 had significantly worse overall survival (P<0.05). TAM markers are associated with cancer stem cell marker and OSCC overall survival, suggesting their potential prognostic value in OSCC.
Control and Synchronization of Chaotic and Hyperchaotic Lorenz Systems via Extended Backstepping Techniques
Authors: Onma O. S. , Olusola O. I. , Njah A. N.
Published: May 2014

We propose novel controllers for stabilization and tracking of chaotic and hyperchaotic Lorenz systems using extended backstepping techniques. Based on the proposed approach, generalized weighted controllers were designed to control chaotic behaviour as well as to achieve synchronization in chaotic and hyperchaotic Lorenz systems. The effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed weighted controllers were verified numerically and showed their robustness against noise.