bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Defect-induced magnetism in liquid sodium-exposed stainless steel as studied by Mössbauer and positron annihilation spectroscopic techniques
Authors: Panda Alaka , Herojit Singh L. , Govindaraj R. , Abhaya S. , Yadav R. Kumar , Rajagopalan S. , Venugopal Rao G. , Ragunathan V. , Amarendra G.
Published: December 2016

Detailed Mössbauer studies carried out in liquid sodium (Na)-exposed austenitic stainless steel (SS-316) show that there is a partial formation of ferromagnetically (FM)-ordered ferritic zones in the paramagnetic austenitic matrix. Results of low energy positron beam-based Doppler broadening studies imply the occurrence of vacancy kind of defects in the liquid Na-exposed SS-316. Correlating these results, the partial occurrence of FM-ordered zones in the liquid Na-exposed SS-316 is understood to be due to open volume defects, predominantly that of Ni vacancies occurring at the surface and upto a certain depth of liquid Na-exposed stainless steel. These results are elucidated in terms of hyperfine parameters associated with ferritic zones.
Immediate price impact of a stock and its warrant: Power-law or logarithmic model?
Authors: Xu Hai-Chuan , Jiang Zhi-Qiang , Zhou Wei-Xing
Published: December 2016

Based on the order flow data of a stock and its warrant, the immediate price impacts of market orders are estimated by two competitive models, the power-law model (PL model) and the logarithmic model (LG model). We find that the PL model is overwhelmingly superior to the LG model, regarding the robustness of the estimated parameters and the accuracy of out-of-sample forecasting. We also find that the price impacts of ask and bid orders are consistent with each other for filled trades, since significant positive correlations are observed between the model parameters of both types of orders. Our findings may provide valuable insights for optimal trade execution.
Cryptanalysis and improvement of multiparty semiquantum secret sharing based on rearranging orders of qubits
Authors: Yin Aihan , Fu Fangbo
Published: December 2016

Recently, a multiparty semiquantum secret sharing scheme based on rearranging orders of qubits was proposed by Gao et al. [Mod. Phys. Lett. B 30 (2016) 1650130]. In this paper, we show that in their scheme the last agent and other agents can illegally get the sender’s secret keys without being detected. Furthermore, an improved scheme is proposed to resist such attack.
Finsler-geometric continuum mechanics and the micromechanics of fracture in crystals
Authors: Clayton J. D.
Published: December 2016

A continuum theory for the mechanical response of solid bodies subjected to potentially finite deformation is further developed and applied to solve several new problems in the context of the micromechanics of crystalline solids. The theory invokes concepts from Finsler differential geometry, and it provides a diffuse interface description of fracture surfaces. The director or internal state vector is associated with an order parameter describing degradation of the solid. Here, the deformation gradient between pseudo-Finsler reference and spatial configuration spaces is decomposed into a product of two terms, neither necessarily integrable to a vector field. The first is the recoverable elastic deformation, the second is the residual deformation attributed to changes in free volume in failure zones. The latter is restricted to spherical or isotropic symmetry; resulting Euler–Lagrange equations for mechanical and state variable equilibrium are derived. Metric tensors and volume elements depend on the internal state via a conformal transformation, i.e., Weyl scaling. This version of the theory is first applied to tensile fracture of magnesium. Analytical solutions demonstrate the model's capability to predict ductile versus brittle fracture depending on incorporation of Weyl scaling, with results aligned with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The second application is shear fracture in boron carbide: solutions depict weakening and tensile pressure in conjunction with structural collapse in shear transformation zones, as suggested by experiments, quantum mechanics, and/or MD simulations.
Data-driven surrogates for rapid simulation and optimization of WAG injection in fractured carbonate reservoirs
Authors: Agada Simeon , Geiger Sebastian , Elsheikh Ahmed , Oladyshkin Sergey
Published: December 2016

Conventional simulation of fractured carbonate reservoirs is computationally expensive because of the multiscale heterogeneities and fracture–matrix transfer mechanisms that must be taken into account using numerical transfer functions and/or detailed models with a large number of simulation grid cells. The computational requirement increases significantly when multiple simulation runs are required for sensitivity analysis, uncertainty quantification and optimization. This can be prohibitive, especially for giant carbonate reservoirs. Yet, sensitivity analysis, uncertainty quantification and optimization are particularly important to analyse, determine and rank the impact of geological and engineering parameters on the economics and sustainability of different Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) techniques.

We use experimental design to set up multiple simulations of a high-resolution model of a Jurassic carbonate ramp, which is an analogue for the highly prolific reservoirs of the Arab D Formation in Qatar. We consider CO
2
water-alternating-gas (WAG) injection, which is a successful EOR method for carbonate reservoirs. The simulations are employed as a basis for generating data-driven surrogate models using polynomial regression and polynomial chaos expansion. Furthermore, the surrogates are validated by comparing surrogate predictions with results from numerical simulation and estimating goodness-of-fit measures.

In the current work, parameter uncertainties affecting WAG modelling in fractured carbonates are evaluated, including fracture network properties, wettability and fault transmissibility. The results enable us to adequately explore the parameter space, and to quantify and rank the interrelated effect of uncertain model parameters on CO
2
WAG efficiency. The results highlight the first-order impact of the fracture network properties and wettability on hydrocarbon recovery and CO
2
utilization during WAG injection. In addition, the surrogate models enable us to calculate quick estimates of probabilistic uncertainty and to rapidly optimize WAG injection, while achieving significant computational speed-up compared with the conventional simulation framework.
Permian strontium isotope stratigraphy
Authors: Korte Christoph , Ullmann Clemens V.
Published: December 2016

The secular evolution of the Permian seawater
87
Sr/
86
Sr ratios carries information about global tectonic processes, palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironments, such as occurred during the Early Permian deglaciation, the formation of Pangaea and the Permian–Triassic (P–Tr) mass extinction. Besides this application for discovering geological aspects of Earth history, the marine
87
Sr/
86
Sr curve can also be used for robust correlations when other bio-, litho- and/or chemostratigraphic markers are inadequate. The accuracy of marine
87
Sr/
86
Sr reconstructions, however, depends on high-quality age control of the reference data, and on sample preservation, both of which generally deteriorate with the age of the studied interval. The first-order Permian seawater
87
Sr/
86
Sr trend shows a monotonous decline from approximately 0.7080 in the earliest Permian (Asselian) to approximately 0.7069 in the latest Guadalupian (Capitanian), followed by a steepening increase from the latest Guadalupian towards the P–Tr boundary (
c.
0.7071–0.7072) and into the Early Triassic. Various higher-order changes in slope of the Permian
87
Sr/
86
Sr curve are indicated, but cannot currently be verified owing to a lack of sample coverage and significant disagreement of published
87
Sr/
86
Sr records.
Fault Detection Architectures for Post-Quantum Cryptographic Stateless Hash-Based Secure Signatures Benchmarked on ASIC
Authors: Mozaffari-Kermani Mehran , Azarderakhsh Reza , Aghaie Anita
Published: December 2016

Symmetric-key cryptography can resist the potential post-quantum attacks expected with the not-so-faraway advent of quantum computing power. Hash-based, code-based, lattice-based, and multivariate-quadratic equations are all other potential candidates, the merit of which is that they are believed to resist both classical and quantum computers, and applying “Shor’s algorithm”—the quantum-computer discrete-logarithm algorithm that breaks classical schemes—to them is infeasible. In this article, we propose, assess, and benchmark reliable constructions for stateless hash-based signatures. Such architectures are believed to be one of the prominent post-quantum schemes, offering security proofs relative to plausible properties of the hash function; however, it is well known that their confidentiality does not guarantee reliable architectures in the presence natural and malicious faults. We propose and benchmark fault diagnosis methods for this post-quantum cryptography variant through case studies for hash functions and present the simulations and implementations results (through application-specific integrated circuit evaluations) to show the applicability of the presented schemes. The proposed approaches make such hash-based constructions more reliable against natural faults and help protecting them against malicious faults and can be tailored based on the resources available and for different reliability objectives.
ERfair Scheduler with Processor Suspension for Real-Time Multiprocessor Embedded Systems
Authors: Nair Piyoosh Purushothaman , Sarkar Arnab , Harsha N. M. , Gandhi Megha , Chakrabarti P. P. , Ghose Sujoy
Published: December 2016

Proportional fair schedulers with their ability to provide optimal schedulability along with hard timeliness and quality-of-service guarantees on multiprocessors form an attractive alternative in real-time embedded systems that concurrently run a mix of independent applications with varying timeliness constraints. This article presents
ERfair Scheduler with Suspension on Multiprocessors (ESSM)
, an efficient, optimal proportional fair scheduler that attempts to reduce system wide energy consumption by locally maximizing the processor suspension intervals while not sacrificing the ERfairness timing constraints of the system. The proposed technique takes advantage of higher execution rates of tasks in underloaded ERfair systems and uses a procrastination scheme to search for time points within the schedule where suspension intervals are locally maximal. Evaluation results reveal that ESSM achieves good sleep efficiency and provides up to 50% higher effective total sleep durations as compared to the Basic-ERfair scheduler on systems consisting of 2 to 20 processors.
Hypergraph Acyclicity Revisited
Authors: Brault-Baron Johann
Published: December 2016

The notion of graph acyclicity has been extended to several notions of hypergraph acyclicity. In increasing order of generality:
gamma
acyclicity,
beta
acyclicity, and
alpha
acyclicity have met a great interest in many fields.

For each notion, we prove the equivalence between the numerous characterizations with a new, simpler proof, in a self-contained manner. For that purpose, we introduce new notions of alpha, beta, and gamma leaf that allow one to define new “rule-based” characterizations of each notion.

The combined presentation of the notions is completed with a study of their respective closure properties. New closure results are established, and alpha, beta, and gamma acyclicity are proved optimal w.r.t. their closure properties.
A Tensor-Based Framework for Software-Defined Cloud Data Center
Authors: Kuang Liwei , Yang Laurence T. , Rho Seungmin (Charlie) , Yan Zheng , Qiu Kai
Published: December 2016

Multimedia has been exponentially increasing as the biggest big data, which consist of video clips, images, and audio files. Processing and analyzing them on a cloud data center have become a preferred solution that can utilize the large pool of cloud resources to address the problems caused by the tremendous amount of unstructured multimedia data. However, there exist many challenges in processing multimedia big data on a cloud data center, such as multimedia data representation approach, an efficient networking model, and an estimation method for traffic patterns. The primary purpose of this article is to develop a novel tensor-based software-defined networking model on a cloud data center for multimedia big-data computation and communication. First, an overview of the proposed framework is provided, in which the functions of the representative modules are briefly illustrated. Then, three models,—forwarding tensor, control tensor, and transition tensor—are proposed for management of networking devices and prediction of network traffic patterns. Finally, two algorithms about single-mode and multimode tensor eigen-decomposition are developed, and the incremental method is employed for efficiently updating the generated eigen-vector and eigen-tensor. Experimental results reveal that the proposed framework is feasible and efficient to handle multimedia big data on a cloud data center.
F
ree
R
ider
Authors: Manilov Stanislav , Franke Björn , Magrath Anthony , Andrieu Cedric
Published: December 2016

Short-vector S
imd
and D
sp
instructions are popular extensions to common I
sa
s. These extensions deliver excellent performance and compact code for some compute-intensive applications, but they require specialized compiler support. To enable the programmer to explicitly request the use of such an instruction, many C compilers provide platform-specific intrinsic functions, whose implementation is handled specially by the compiler. The use of such intrinsics, however, inevitably results in nonportable code. In this article, we develop a novel methodology for retargeting such nonportable code, which maps intrinsics from one platform to another, taking advantage of similar intrinsics on the target platform. We employ a description language to specify the signature and semantics of intrinsics and perform graph-based pattern matching and high-level code transformations to derive optimized implementations exploiting the target’s intrinsics, wherever possible. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our new methodology, implemented in the F
ree
R
ider
tool, by automatically retargeting benchmarks derived from O
pen
CV samples and a complex embedded application optimized to run on an A
rm
C
ortex
-M4 to an I
ntel
E
dison
module with S
se
4.2 instructions (and vice versa). We achieve a speedup of up to 3.73 over a plain C baseline, and on average 96.0% of the speedup of manually ported and optimized versions of the benchmarks.
Cooperative Caching for GPUs
Authors: Dublish Saumay , Nagarajan Vijay , Topham Nigel
Published: December 2016

The rise of general-purpose computing on GPUs has influenced architectural innovation on them. The introduction of an on-chip cache hierarchy is one such innovation. High L1 miss rates on GPUs, however, indicate inefficient cache usage due to myriad factors, such as cache thrashing and extensive multithreading. Such high L1 miss rates in turn place high demands on the shared L2 bandwidth. Extensive congestion in the L2 access path therefore results in high memory access latencies. In memory-intensive applications, these latencies get exposed due to a lack of active compute threads to mask such high latencies.

In this article, we aim to reduce the pressure on the shared L2 bandwidth, thereby reducing the memory access latencies that lie in the critical path. We identify significant replication of data among private L1 caches, presenting an opportunity to reuse data among L1s. We further show how this reuse can be exploited via an L1 Cooperative Caching Network (CCN), thereby reducing the bandwidth demand on L2. In the proposed architecture, we connect the L1 caches with a lightweight ring network to facilitate intercore communication of shared data. We show that this technique reduces traffic to the L2 cache by an average of 29%, freeing up the bandwidth for other accesses. We also show that the CCN reduces the average memory latency by 24%, thereby reducing core stall cycles by 26% on average. This translates into an overall performance improvement of 14.7% on average (and up to 49%) for applications that exhibit reuse across L1 caches. In doing so, the CCN incurs a nominal area and energy overhead of 1.3% and 2.5%, respectively. Notably, the performance improvement with our proposed CCN compares favorably to the performance improvement achieved by simply doubling the number of L2 banks by up to 34%.
On the Security of Machine Learning in Malware C&C Detection
Authors: Gardiner Joseph , Nagaraja Shishir
Published: December 2016

One of the main challenges in security today is defending against malware attacks. As trends and anecdotal evidence show, preventing these attacks, regardless of their indiscriminate or targeted nature, has proven difficult: intrusions happen and devices get compromised, even at security-conscious organizations. As a consequence, an alternative line of work has focused on detecting and disrupting the individual steps that follow an initial compromise and are essential for the successful progression of the attack. In particular, several approaches and techniques have been proposed to identify the command and control (C8C) channel that a compromised system establishes to communicate with its controller.

A major oversight of many of these detection techniques is the design’s resilience to evasion attempts by the well-motivated attacker. C8C detection techniques make widespread use of a machine learning (ML) component. Therefore, to analyze the evasion resilience of these detection techniques, we first systematize works in the field of C8C detection and then, using existing models from the literature, go on to systematize attacks against the ML components used in these approaches.
Computer Vision and Natural Language Processing
Authors: Wiriyathammabhum Peratham , Summers-Stay Douglas , Fermüller Cornelia , Aloimonos Yiannis
Published: December 2016

Integrating computer vision and natural language processing is a novel interdisciplinary field that has received a lot of attention recently. In this survey, we provide a comprehensive introduction of the integration of computer vision and natural language processing in multimedia and robotics applications with more than 200 key references. The tasks that we survey include visual attributes, image captioning, video captioning, visual question answering, visual retrieval, human-robot interaction, robotic actions, and robot navigation. We also emphasize strategies to integrate computer vision and natural language processing models as a unified theme of distributional semantics. We make an analog of distributional semantics in computer vision and natural language processing as image embedding and word embedding, respectively. We also present a unified view for the field and propose possible future directions.
MaxPB
Authors: Li Zheng , Wang Fang , Feng Dan , Hua Yu , Liu Jingning , Tong Wei
Published: December 2016

Phase Change Memory (PCM) is one of the promising memory technologies but suffers from some critical problems such as poor write performance and high write energy consumption. Due to the high write energy consumption and limited power supply, the size of concurrent bit-write is restricted inside one PCM chip. Typically, the size of concurrent bit-write is much less than the cache line size and it is normal that many serially executed write units are consumed to write down the data block to PCM when using it as the main memory. Existing state-of-the-art PCM write schemes, such as FNW (Flip-N-Write) and two-stage-write, address the problem of poor performance by improving the write parallelism under the power constraints. The parallelism is obtained via reducing the data amount and leveraging power as well as time asymmetries, respectively. However, due to the extremely pessimistic assumptions of current utilization (FNW) and optimistic assumptions of asymmetries (two-stage-write), these schemes fail to maximize the power supply utilization and hence improve the write parallelism.

In this article, we propose a novel PCM write scheme, called MaxPB (Maximize the Power Budget utilization) to maximize the power budget utilization with minimum changes about the circuits design. MaxPB is a “think before acting” method. The main idea of MaxPB is to monitor the actual power needs of all data units first and then effectively package them into the least number of write units under the power constraints. Experimental results show the efficiency and performance improvements on MaxPB. For example, four-core PARSEC and SPEC experimental results show that MaxPB gets 32.0% and 20.3% more read latency reduction, 26.5% and 16.1% more write latency reduction, 24.3% and 15.6% more running time decrease, 1.32× and 0.92× more speedup, as well as 30.6% and 18.4% more energy consumption reduction on average compared with the state-of-the-art FNW and two-stage-write write schemes, respectively.
Scientific Workflows
Authors: Liew Chee Sun , Atkinson Malcolm P. , Galea Michelle , Ang Tan Fong , Martin Paul , Hemert Jano I. Van
Published: December 2016

Modern scientific collaborations have opened up the opportunity to solve complex problems that require both multidisciplinary expertise and large-scale computational experiments. These experiments typically consist of a sequence of processing steps that need to be executed on selected computing platforms. Execution poses a challenge, however, due to (1) the
complexity and diversity of applications
, (2) the
diversity of analysis goals
, (3) the
heterogeneity of computing platforms
, and (4) the
volume and distribution of data
.

A common strategy to make these in silico experiments more manageable is to model them as
workflows
and to use a workflow management system to organize their execution. This article looks at the overall challenge posed by a new order of scientific experiments and the systems they need to be run on, and examines how this challenge can be addressed by workflows and workflow management systems. It proposes a taxonomy of workflow management system (WMS) characteristics, including aspects previously overlooked. This frames a review of prevalent WMSs used by the scientific community, elucidates their evolution to handle the challenges arising with the emergence of the “fourth paradigm,” and identifies research needed to maintain progress in this area.
Accuracy Bugs
Authors: Akturk Ismail , Akram Riad , Islam Mohammad Majharul , Muzahid Abdullah , Karpuzcu Ulya R.
Published: December 2016

Parallel programming introduces notoriously difficult bugs, usually referred to as concurrency bugs. This article investigates the potential for deviating from the conventional wisdom of writing concurrency bug--free, parallel programs. It explores the benefit of accepting buggy but approximately correct parallel programs by leveraging the inherent tolerance of emerging parallel applications to inaccuracy in computations. Under algorithmic noise tolerance, a new class of concurrency bugs, accuracy bugs, degrade the accuracy of computation (often at acceptable levels) rather than causing catastrophic termination. This study demonstrates how embracing accuracy bugs affects the application output quality and performance and analyzes the impact on execution semantics.
Uncertainty in geosocial data
Authors: Kanza Yaron
Published: December 2016

In data management, uncertainty and lack of information are commonly considered as hurdles to overcome. But when it comes to management of geosocial data, where data can be used to associate people with geographic locations they visited, uncertainty is frequently not just an obstacle but also a desired feature. Uncertainty and lack of information---such as knowing only approximate locations of users or knowing only some of the locations users visited---may reduce the accuracy of data analysis. They, however, may be desired, or even required, for keeping user privacy, and for using data that otherwise would not have been collected and used. Due to the heterogeneity of geosocial data, uncertainty is prevalent in geosocial applications, and should not be overlooked. In this paper, we discuss some of the causes of uncertainty in geosocial data management. We elaborate on some of the advantages and disadvantages of using inaccurate or incomplete geosocial data, and we illustrate some of the methods to cope with uncertainty in geosocial applications.
Processing uncertain spatial data resulting from differentially-private sanitization
Authors: Maruseac Mihai , Ghinita Gabriel
Published: December 2016

The unprecedented revolution in mobile computing provides users with the ability to participate in applications that are customized to their spatial coordinates. Location-based social media and location-based recommendations are only two examples of popular scenarios where the use of geographical location can significantly improve user experience. However, serious privacy concerns arise when sharing users' locations, as an adversary may be able to derive sensitive personal details from one's whereabouts, such as health status, political or religious orientation, alternative lifestyles, etc. Privacy models such as
differential privacy (DP)
are commonly employed to protect individuals' whereabouts before sharing. Typically, privacy is achieved by introducing uncertainty with respect to a user's location. In this setting, uncertain data processing techniques become a natural choice for processing user location data that have been previously sanitized to protect privacy. In this article, we discuss some prominent scenarios where it is important to protect location data, and we explain how the de-facto standard of differentially-private location protection can be used in conjunction with uncertain data processing. We also look at a highly promising use case scenario of interest, namely privacy-preserving spatial crowd-sourcing, and provide an overview of how DP and uncertain data processing are combined to address this problem.
The second ACM SIGSPATIAL PhD workshop report Seattle, Washington, USA
Authors: Scheuermann Peter , Sarwat Mohamed
Published: December 2016

The ACM SIGSPATIAL Ph.D. Workshop is a forum where Ph.D. students present, discuss, and receive feedback on their research in a constructive atmosphere. The Workshop will be attended by professors, researchers and practitioners in the ACM SIGSPATIAL community, who will participate actively and contribute to the discussions. The workshop provided an opportunity for doctoral students to explore and develop their research interests in the broad areas addressed by the ACM SIGSPATIAL community. We invited PhD students to submit a summary of their dissertation work to share their work with students in a similar situation as well as senior researchers in the field. Submissions provided a clear problem definition, explain why it is important, survey related work, and summarize the new solutions that are pursued. Submissions also focused on describing the contribution they made in their doctoral dissertation. The strongest candidates were those who have a clear topic and research approach, and have made some progress, but who are not so far along that they can no longer make changes.
Enabling discovery through visual exploration
Authors: Bhatia Harsh
Published: December 2016

Visual metaphors have assisted human understanding since early days of mankind; the modern scientific and social-scientific evolution especially benefits greatly from the visual medium. With increasing size and complexity of contemporary data, visualization research has focused on developing techniques for novel mathematical and visual representations to assist data exploration for intended as well as fortuitous discovery. This article introduces the reader to the field of visualization, and discusses some of its important applications.
The quantified university
Authors: Heron Michael James , Belford Pauline
Published: December 2016

The Scandal in Academia is a large-scale fictional ethical case study of around 17,000 words and fourteen separate revelations. They are delivered as newspaper extracts from a newspaper reporting on an ongoing crisis at a Scottish educational institution. The scandal case study as presented in its original form comes with only limited commentary on the ethical issues raised, concentrating instead on providing the scenario in isolation. This paper is a companion piece to that case study, discussing the fifth and sixth revelations with reference to the issues raised, the mainstream media, and the formal academic literature. The discussion presented here is not intended to be exhaustive or definitive. It is instead indicative of an approach that could be taken within a formal educational context, and illustrative of the kind of discussions that ideally emerge from the effective use of the material.
Framing computer security and privacy
Authors: Slayton Rebecca
Published: December 2016

This paper provides historical perspective on recent debates about professional ethics and computer security by discussing the relationship between conceptions of professional responsibility and framings of computer security. It begins by describing Willis Ware's changing conception of the relationship between computer security and privacy. It then describes three different ways that computer security was framed between the late 1960s and early 1980s: as a tool for protecting the privacy of individual citizens and consumers from the intrusions of large bureaucratic organizations; as a means of protecting corporations from computer-related crime; and as a means of protecting U.S. national security from foreign adversaries. In each case, the framing of computer security intertwined with distinctive conceptions of professional responsibility, and motivated different kinds of collective action.
SIGCAS in the early days
Authors: Toland Janet
Published: December 2016

This article is an excerpt from a chapter in a forthcoming book, Communities of Computing: Computer Science and Society in ACM. The chapter covers the debates that went on within ACM during the 1960s and 1970s about the organization's stance on issues such as the Vietnam War, the women's movement and the human rights of Soviet computer scientists. As the special interest group on Computers and Society, SIGCAS had a leading role to play in influencing ACM's position on social issues. This excerpt charts the emergence of SIGCAS as a special interest group and explores the SIGs relationship with ACM management. The article also considers the changing focus of SIGCAS members' interests over the first twenty years.
Preattachment Embryos of Domestic Animals: Insights into Development and Paracrine Secretions
Authors: Sandra Olivier , Charpigny Gilles , Galio Laurent , Hue Isabelle
Published: December 2016

In mammalian species, endometrial receptivity is driven by maternal factors independently of embryo signals. When pregnancy initiates, paracrine secretions of the preattachment embryo are essential both for maternal recognition and endometrium preparation for implantation and for coordinating development of embryonic and extraembryonic tissues of the conceptus. This review mainly focuses on domestic large animal species. We first illustrate the major steps of preattachment embryo development, including elongation in bovine, ovine, porcine, and equine species. We next highlight conceptus secretions that are involved in the communication between extraembryonic and embryonic tissues, as well as between the conceptus and the endometrium. Finally, we introduce experimental data demonstrating the intimate connection between conceptus secretions and endometrial activity and how adverse events perturbing this interplay may affect the progression of implantation that will subsequently impact pregnancy outcome, postnatal health, and expression of production traits in livestock offspring.
Elastocapillarity: Surface Tension and the Mechanics of Soft Solids
Authors: Style Robert W. , Jagota Anand , Hui Chung-Yuen , Dufresne Eric R.
Published: December 2016

It is widely appreciated that surface tension can dominate the behavior of liquids at small scales. Solids also have surface stresses of a similar magnitude, but they are usually overlooked. However, recent work has shown that these can play a central role in the mechanics of soft solids such as gels. Here, we review this emerging field. We outline the theory of surface stresses, from both mechanical and thermodynamic perspectives, emphasizing the relationship between surface stress and surface energy. We describe a wide range of phenomena at interfaces and contact lines where surface stresses play an important role. We highlight how surface stresses cause dramatic departures from classic theories for wetting (Young–Dupré), adhesion (Johnson–Kendall–Roberts), and composites (Eshelby). A common thread is the importance of the ratio of surface stress to an elastic modulus, which defines a length scale below which surface stresses can dominate.
Amyloidosis: Insights from Proteomics
Authors: Dogan Ahmet
Published: December 2016

Amyloidoses are a spectrum of disorders caused by abnormal folding and extracellular deposition of proteins. The deposits lead to tissue damage and organ dysfunction, particularly in the heart, kidneys, and nerves. There are at least 30 different proteins that can cause amyloidosis. The clinical management depends entirely on the type of protein deposited, and thus on the underlying pathogenesis, and often requires high-risk therapeutic intervention. Application of mass spectrometry–based proteomic technologies for analysis of amyloid plaques has transformed the way amyloidosis is diagnosed and classified. Proteomic assays have been extensively used for clinical management of patients with amyloidosis, providing unprecedented diagnostic and biological information. They have shed light on the pathogenesis of different amyloid types and have led to identification of numerous new amyloid types, including ALECT2 amyloidosis, which is now recognized as one of the most common causes of systemic amyloidosis in North America.
Immunopathogenesis of Chronic Rhinosinusitis and Nasal Polyposis
Authors: Schleimer Robert P.
Published: December 2016

Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a troublesome, chronic inflammatory disease that affects over 10% of the adult population, causing decreased quality of life, lost productivity, and lost time at work and leading to more than a million surgical interventions annually worldwide. The nose, paranasal sinuses, and associated lymphoid tissues play important roles in homeostasis and immunity, and CRS significantly impairs these normal functions. Pathogenic mechanisms of CRS have recently become the focus of intense investigations worldwide, and significant progress has been made. The two main forms of CRS that have been long recognized, with and without nasal polyps, are each now known to be heterogeneous, based on underlying mechanism, geographical location, and race. Loss of the immune barrier, including increased permeability of mucosal epithelium and reduced production of important antimicrobial substances and responses, is a common feature of many forms of CRS. One form of CRS with polyps found worldwide is driven by the cytokines IL-5 and IL-13 coming from Th2 cells, type 2 innate lymphoid cells, and probably mast cells. Type 2 cytokines activate inflammatory cells that are implicated in the pathogenic mechanism, including mast cells, basophils, and eosinophils. New classes of biological drugs that block the production or action of these cytokines are making important inroads toward new treatment paradigms in polypoid CRS.
Nanobodies to Study G Protein–Coupled Receptor Structure and Function
Authors: Manglik Aashish , Kobilka Brian K. , Steyaert Jan
Published: December 2016

Ligand-induced activation of G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs) is a key mechanism permitting communication between cells and organs. Enormous progress has recently elucidated the structural and dynamic features of GPCR transmembrane signaling. Nanobodies, the recombinant antigen–binding fragments of camelid heavy-chain-only antibodies, have emerged as important research tools to lock GPCRs in particular conformational states. Active-state stabilizing nanobodies have elucidated several agonist-bound structures of hormone-activated GPCRs and have provided insight into the dynamic character of receptors. Nanobodies have also been used to stabilize transient GPCR transmembrane signaling complexes, yielding the first structural insights into GPCR signal transduction across the cellular membrane. Beyond their in vitro uses, nanobodies have served as conformational biosensors in living systems and have provided novel ways to modulate GPCR function. Here, we highlight several examples of how nanobodies have enabled the study of GPCR function and give insights into potential future uses of these important tools.
Coronary Artery Development: Progenitor Cells and Differentiation Pathways
Authors: Sharma Bikram , Chang Andrew , Red-Horse Kristy
Published: December 2016

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the number one cause of death worldwide and involves the accumulation of plaques within the artery wall that can occlude blood flow to the heart and cause myocardial infarction. The high mortality associated with CAD makes the development of medical interventions that repair and replace diseased arteries a high priority for the cardiovascular research community. Advancements in arterial regenerative medicine could benefit from a detailed understanding of coronary artery development during embryogenesis and of how these pathways might be reignited during disease. Recent research has advanced our knowledge on how the coronary vasculature is built and revealed unexpected features of progenitor cell deployment that may have implications for organogenesis in general. Here, we highlight these recent findings and discuss how they set the stage to interrogate developmental pathways during injury and disease.
Developmental Mechanisms of Aortic Valve Malformation and Disease
Authors: Wu Bingruo , Wang Yidong , Xiao Feng , Butcher Jonathan T. , Yutzey Katherine E. , Zhou Bin
Published: December 2016

Normal aortic valves are composed of valve endothelial cells (VECs) and valve interstitial cells (VICs). VICs are the major cell population and have distinct embryonic origins in the endocardium and cardiac neural crest cells. Cell signaling between the VECs and VICs plays critical roles in aortic valve morphogenesis. Disruption of major cell signaling pathways results in aortic valve malformations, including bicuspid aortic valve (BAV). BAV is a common congenital heart valve disease that may lead to calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD), but there is currently no effective medical treatment for this beyond surgical replacement. Mouse and human studies have identified causative gene mutations for BAV and CAVD via disrupted VEC to VIC signaling. Future studies on the developmental signaling mechanisms underlying aortic valve malformations and the pathogenesis of CAVD using genetically modified mouse models and patient-induced pluripotent stem cells may identify new effective therapeutic targets for the disease.
Mechanisms of Organ Injury and Repair by Macrophages
Authors: Vannella Kevin M. , Wynn Thomas A.
Published: December 2016

Macrophages regulate tissue regeneration following injury. They can worsen tissue injury by producing reactive oxygen species and other toxic mediators that disrupt cell metabolism, induce apoptosis, and exacerbate ischemic injury. However, they also produce a variety of growth factors, such as IGF-1, VEGF-α, TGF-β, and Wnt proteins that regulate epithelial and endothelial cell proliferation, myofibroblast activation, stem and tissue progenitor cell differentiation, and angiogenesis. Proresolving macrophages in turn restore tissue homeostasis by functioning as anti-inflammatory cells, and macrophage-derived matrix metalloproteinases regulate fibrin and collagen turnover. However, dysregulated macrophage function impairs wound healing and contributes to the development of fibrosis. Consequently, the mechanisms that regulate these different macrophage activation states have become active areas of research. In this review, we discuss the common and unique mechanisms by which macrophages instruct tissue repair in the liver, nervous system, heart, lung, skeletal muscle, and intestine and illustrate how macrophages might be exploited therapeutically.
Numerical Response of Migratory Shorebirds to Prey Distribution in a Large Temperate Arid Wetland, China
Authors: Zhang Yamian , Zhu Yi , Zuo Aojie , Wen Li , Lei Guangchun
Published: December 2016

Wuliangsuhai Lake provides important breeding and stopover habitats for shorebirds. The health of this wetland ecosystem is rapidly deteriorating due to eutrophication and water pollution and environmental management is urgently needed. To explore the connections among ecosystem health, prey density, and shorebird populations, we conducted surveys of both the benthic macroinvertebrates and shorebirds in the shorebird habitat of the wetland during the 2011 autumn migration season. The abundance of both shorebirds and benthic macroinvertebrates varied significantly in both space and time. Our data showed a clear association between shorebird populations and the density of benthic macroinvertebrates, which explained 53.63% of the variation in shorebird abundance. The prey density was strongly affected by environmental factors, including water and sediment quality. Chironomidae were mainly found at sites with higher total phosphorus, but with lower sediment concentrations of Cu. Lymnaeidae were mainly found at sites with a higher pH, lower salinity, and lower concentrations of total phosphorus and Cu. Habitats with very high concentrations of total phosphorus, heavy metals, or salinity were not suitable for benthic macroinvertebrates. Our findings suggest that the reductions of nutrient and heavy metal loadings are crucial in maintaining the ecological function of Wuliangsuhai as a stopover habitat for migratory shorebirds.
A Surgical Opinion in a 36-Week Pregnant with Tibia Fracture: Intramedullary Nailing
Authors: Bozkurt Celal , Sarikaya Baran
Published: December 2016

The operative treatment of tibial fractures in late pregnancy is a controversial issue that is rarely discussed in the literature. Here we present a case of a tibial diaphyseal fracture in a woman that was 36 weeks pregnant, which was treated with intramedullary nails under noninvasive foetal monitoring with cardiotocography. The patient underwent a successful surgery, and no harm or adverse events to either the mother or the foetus were reported during or after the procedure. Following surgery, the mother had a comfortable pregnancy and a normal spontaneous vaginal delivery with a healthy newborn.
The Effectiveness of Intraocular Methotrexate in the Treatment of Posterior Uveitis in Behçet’s Disease Patients Compared to Retrobulbar Steroids Injection
Authors: Khalil Hossam El Din Mohamed , El Gendy Heba A. , Youssef Hala Ahmed Raafat , Haroun Hazem Effat , Gheita Tamer Atef , Bakir Hossam Mahmoud
Published: December 2016

Aim of Work. To evaluate the efficacy of intravitreal methotrexate (MTX) compared to retrobulbar triamcinolone acetonide (TAA), in controlling posterior segment involvement and inducing remissions among Behçet’s disease (BD) patients.Study Design. This is a cross-sectional nonrandomized comparative study.Patients and Methods. 31 adult BD male patients with a mean disease duration of 5.45 years who presented with bilateral posterior segment involvement were included. Each patient received intravitreal injection of 400 μg/0.1 mL (MTX) for the right eye (Group A) and 1 mL of retrobulbar 40 mg/mL TAA for the left eye (Group B).Results. 90% of eyes showed complete improvement of anterior chamber reaction, whereas an improvement in vitreous activity in 77% with no significant differences between both groups (p≤0.1). BCVA improved in 77.4% eyes (Group A) compared to 87.1% (Group B) (p≤0.4). Relapses were noted in 11 eyes (35.5%), in group A, with the mean duration of remission being 19.1 weeks ± 2.13 compared to7.35±2.8in 20 eyes (64.5%) in group B (p≤0.1).Conclusion. No statistical differences were found between both treatment modalities; however, based on clinical observations, intravitreal MTX may ensure better control of inflammatory reaction and may encourage longer remission as compared to retrobulbar TAA in BD patients.
Generation and Identification of Ordinary Differential Equations of Maximal Symmetry Algebra
Authors: Ndogmo J. C.
Published: December 2016

An effective method for generating linear ordinary differential equations of maximal symmetry in their most general form is found, and an explicit expression for the point transformation reducing the equation to its canonical form is obtained. New expressions for the general solution are also found, as well as several identification and other results and a direct proof of the fact that a linear ordinary differential equation is iterative if and only if it is reducible to the canonical form by a point transformation. New classes of solvable equations parameterized by an arbitrary function are also found, together with simple algebraic expressions for the corresponding general solution.
Sunlight Effects on Immune System: Is There Something Else in addition to UV-Induced Immunosuppression?
Authors: González Maglio D. H. , Paz M. L. , Leoni J.
Published: December 2016

Sunlight, composed of different types of radiation, including ultraviolet wavelengths, is an essential source of light and warmth for life on earth but has strong negative effects on human health, such as promoting the malignant transformation of skin cells and suppressing the ability of the human immune system to efficiently detect and attack malignant cells. UV-induced immunosuppression has been extensively studied since it was first described by Dr. Kripke and Dr. Fisher in the late 1970s. However, skin exposure to sunlight has not only this and other unfavorable effects, for example, mutagenesis and carcinogenesis, but also a positive one: the induction of Vitamin D synthesis, which performs several roles within the immune system in addition to favoring bone homeostasis. The impact of low levels of UV exposure on the immune system has not been fully reported yet, but it bears interesting differences with the suppressive effect of high levels of UV radiation, as shown by some recent studies. The aim of this article is to put some ideas in perspective and pose some questions within the field of photoimmunology based on established and new information, which may lead to new experimental approaches and, eventually, to a better understanding of the effects of sunlight on the human immune system.
Evaluations on Profiles of the Eddy Diffusion Coefficients through Simulations of Super Typhoons in the Northwestern Pacific
Authors: Fung Jimmy Chi Hung , Gao Guangze
Published: December 2016

The modeling of the eddy diffusion coefficients (also known as eddy diffusivity) in the first-order turbulence closure schemes is important for the typhoon simulations, since the coefficients control the magnitude of the sensible heat flux and the latent heat flux, which are energy sources for the typhoon intensification. Profiles of the eddy diffusion coefficients in the YSU planetary boundary layer (PBL) scheme are evaluated in the advanced research WRF (ARW) system. Three versions of the YSU scheme (original, K025, and K200) are included in this study. The simulation results are compared with the observational data from track, center sea-level pressure (CSLP), and maximum surface wind speed (MWSP). Comparing with the original version, the K200 improves the averaged mean absolute errors (MAE) of track, CSLP, and MWSP by 6.0%, 3.7%, and 23.1%, respectively, while the K025 deteriorates the averaged MAEs of track, CSLP, and MWSP by 25.1%, 19.0%, and 95.0%, respectively. Our results suggest that the enlarged eddy diffusion coefficients may be more suitable for super typhoon simulations.