bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effect of refracted light distribution on the photoelastic generation of zero-group velocity Lamb modes in optically low-absorbing plates
Authors: Raetz Samuel , Laurent Jérôme , Dehoux Thomas , Royer Daniel , Audoin Bertrand , Prada Claire
Published: December 2015

Zero-group velocity (ZGV) Lamb modes are associated with sharp local acoustic resonances and allow, among other features, local measurement of Poisson's ratio. While the thermoelastic generation of Lamb waves in metal plates has been widely studied, the case of materials of low-optical absorption remains unexplored. In materials such as glasses, the generation of bulk elastic waves has been demonstrated to be sensitive to the refracted light distribution. In this paper, a detailed analysis of the effect of light refraction on the laser-based generation of ZGV Lamb modes is presented. Experiments are performed on a bare glass plate without the need for an additional layer for light absorption or reflection. Using an appropriate tilted volume source, it is shown that the laser-ultrasonic technique allows non-contact measurement of the Poisson's ratio.
Numerical analyses of the sound absorption of cylindrical microperforated panel space absorbers with cores
Authors: Toyoda Masahiro , Fujita Shota , Sakagami Kimihiro
Published: December 2015

Microperforated panels (MPPs) are next-generation absorption materials because they can provide wideband sound absorption without fibrous materials and can be composed of diverse materials to meet global environmental demands. The fundamental absorbing mechanism is Helmholtz-resonance absorption due to perforations and an air cavity. MPPs are typically backed by rigid flat walls, but to reduce the restrictions on the MPP absorber properties, one of the authors has proposed MPP space sound absorbers without backing structures, including three-dimensional cylindrical microperforated panel space absorbers (CMSAs). Advantages of MPPs without backing structures are design flexibility and ease of use. Besides, the absorption characteristics of a CMSA with a core, which has a rigid cylindrical core inside the CMSA, have been experimentally tested, but a method to predict the absorption characteristics is necessary to design CMSAs with cores. Herein the two-dimensional combined Helmholtz integral formulation method is employed, and its prediction accuracy is evaluated by comparing the measured and predicted absorption characteristics of a CMSA with a core. Furthermore, a parametric study with regard to the core size is carried out to investigate the transition of the absorbing mechanism.
Psychological Skills Training in NCAA Division I Athletics: Are Athletes Ready for Change?
Authors: Massey William V. , Gnacinski Stacy L. , Meyer Barbara B.
Published: December 2015

Research has demonstrated the efficacy of psychological skills training (PST), yet many athletes do not appear ready to do whatever it takes to improve the mental aspects of performance. Although the transtheoretical model of behavior change (TTM), generally, and readiness to change, specifically, have received considerable attention in a range of allied health fields, few studies have been conducted to examine this construct in applied sport psychology. The purpose of the current study was to examine National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I athletes’ readiness for PST as it relates to their stage of change, decisional balance, self-efficacy, and use of processes of change. The data trends observed in the current study were consistent with the theoretical underpinnings of the TTM as well as previous research on NCAA Division I athletes. The results of the current study highlight the need to consider readiness to change when designing and implementing PST interventions.
Athletes’ Perceptions of Their Team Motivational Climate, Career Exploration and Engagement, and Athletic Identity
Authors: Poux Kiira N. , Fry Mary D.
Published: December 2015

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between studentathletes’ perceptions of the motivational climate on their sport teams and their own career exploration and engagement and athletic identity. Student-athletes (N = 101) from various National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I institutions were administered online surveys. Canonical correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between the climate variables (i.e., caring, task, and ego) and athletic identity, career self-efficacy, and career exploration/engagement. One significant function emerged: Perceptions of a high task-involving climate and moderate caring climate were positively associated with athletes’ reporting higher athletic identity, career self-efficacy, and career exploration/engagement. Results suggest that Division I athletes may benefit from having coaches who foster a caring and task-involving team climate with regard to the athletes’ development as holistic individuals who spend their college years performing at a high level of sport and also preparing for their lives after college and sports.
Intolerance of Uncertainty as a Predictor of Performance Anxiety and Robustness of Sport Confidence in University Student-Athletes
Authors: Robinson Gary , Freeston Mark
Published: December 2015

A growing body of research has provided evidence for intolerance of uncertainty (IU)—a dispositional characteristic resulting from negative beliefs about uncertainty and its implications—as a possible transdiagnostic maintaining factor across a range of anxiety disorders. No studies have yet examined IU in performance anxiety in sport. The purpose of the present investigation, therefore, was to investigate the relationship between IU and performance anxiety in sport. Participants included 160 university athletes (51% female) who completed measures of IU, performance anxiety, and robustness of sport confidence. Regression analyses revealed that the inhibitory dimension of IU and robustness of sport confidence were significant predictors of performance anxiety. A simple mediation model was also tested and suggested indirect and direct effects of inhibitory IU on performance anxiety symptoms through robustness of sport confidence. Implications of these findings for researchers and practitioners and directions for future research are discussed.
Gritty, Hardy, and Resilient: Predictors of Sport Engagement and Life Satisfaction in Wheelchair Basketball Players
Authors: Martin Jeffrey J. , Byrd Brigid , Watts Michele Lewis , Dent Maana
Published: December 2015

The purpose of the current study was to predict both general and sport-specific quality of life using measures of grit, hardiness, and resilience. Seventy-five adults (74 men, 1 woman) who are wheelchair basketball athletes participated in the current study. Twenty-six percent of the variance in life satisfaction was accounted for. Both hardiness and resilience accounted for meaningful variance, as indicated by their significant beta weights. Twenty-two percent of the variance in sport engagement was predicted; resilience and grit accounted for meaningful variance, as indicated by their significant beta weight. The regression results indicate that athletes reporting the highest levels of grit and resilience tended to also be the most engaged in their sport, and athletes with high levels of hardiness and resilience reported the highest quality of life. The descriptive results support an affirmation model of disability for the current sample of wheelchair athletes in that they reported moderate to strong levels of resiliency, grit, hardiness, sport engagement, and a high quality of life.
Differential Spleen Remodeling Associated with Different Levels of Parasite Virulence Controls Disease Outcome in Malaria Parasite Infections
Authors: Huang Ximei , Huang Sha , Ong Lai Chun , Lim Jason Chu-Shern , Hurst Rebecca Joan Mary , Mushunje Annals Tatenda , Matsudaira Paul Thomas , Han Jongyoon , Preiser Peter Rainer
Published: December 2015

The spleen and its response to parasite infection are important in eliminating parasites in malaria. By comparing
P. yoelii
parasite lines with different disease outcomes in mice that had either intact spleens or had had their spleens removed, we showed that upon parasite infection, the spleen exhibits dramatic changes that can affect parasite clearance. The spleen itself directly impacts RBC deformability independently of parasite genetics. The data indicated that the changes in the biomechanical properties of malaria parasite-infected RBCs are the result of the complex interaction between host and parasite, and RBC deformability itself can serve as a novel predictor of clinical outcome. The results also suggest that early responses in the spleen are a key factor directing the clinical outcome of an infection.
Restoration of pretrabeculectomy visual acuity and a functioning filtering bleb in an eye with delayed suprachoroidal haemorrhage following trabeculectomy
Authors: Senthil Sirisha , Gupta Supriya , Balijepalli Pasyanthi
Published: December 2015

A 35-year-old myopic man with juvenile open angle glaucoma was referred to us with fluctuating intraocular pressure (IOP) and progression in his only seeing left eye. He had systemic features suggestive of Marfan's syndrome. He underwent trabeculectomy with low dose mitomycin-C with operative precautions to prevent postoperative hypotony in view of high myopia and scleral thinning. On the second postoperative day, he had severe pain in his left eye, with vomiting, and presented with decreased vision, high IOP and a flat anterior chamber. Ultrasound B scan revealed 360° haemorrhagic choroidal detachment. He was conservatively managed and monitored over the next 1 month with appropriate medical treatment. He not only recovered his pretrabeculectomy visual acuity but also had a well functioning bleb at the end of 2 months.
Short stature with congenital ichthyosis
Authors: Lakhani Som J , Lakhani Om J
Published: December 2015

PIBIDS syndrome (photosensitivity, ichthyosis, brittle hair, intellectual impairment, decreased fertility and short stature) is a variant of trichothiodystrophy. It is a rare form of autosomal recessive congenital ichthyosis. Short stature is a vital component of PIBIDS syndrome. We present the cases of two siblings in whom we diagnosed PIBIDS syndrome. On evaluation for short stature, they were found to have severe vitamin D deficiency, which on correction led to the patients having considerable gain in stature. With this case, we would also like to propose that vitamin D deficiency could be one of the treatable causes of short stature in PIBIDS syndrome.
Cutaneous lupus erythematosus flare following exposure to surgical light during a dental procedure
Authors: Tiao Janice , Werth Victoria P
Published: December 2015

A patient in her 60s with systemic lupus erythematosus presented to an outpatient dermatology clinic on multiple occasions, with exacerbations of cutaneous lupus after exposure to surgical lighting during dental procedures. Her photosensitivity to surgical lighting suggests that artificial light sources pose potential triggers of lupus erythematosus in extra photosensitive individuals. This case report summarises those potential triggers and some options to decrease exposure from surgical lighting.
Measuring and improving patient safety through health information technology: The Health IT Safety Framework
Authors: Singh Hardeep , Sittig Dean F
Published: December 2015

Health information technology (health IT) has potential to improve patient safety but its implementation and use has led to unintended consequences and new safety concerns. A key challenge to improving safety in health IT-enabled healthcare systems is to develop valid, feasible strategies to measure safety concerns at the intersection of health IT and patient safety. In response to the fundamental conceptual and methodological gaps related to both defining and measuring health IT-related patient safety, we propose a new framework, the Health IT Safety (HITS) measurement framework, to provide a conceptual foundation for health IT-related patient safety measurement, monitoring, and improvement. The HITS framework follows both Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) and sociotechnical approaches and calls for new measures and measurement activities to address safety concerns in three related domains: 1) concerns that are unique and specific to technology (e.g., to address unsafe health IT related to unavailable or malfunctioning hardware or software); 2) concerns created by the failure to use health IT appropriately or by misuse of health IT (e.g. to reduce nuisance alerts in the electronic health record (EHR)), and 3) the use of health IT to monitor risks, health care processes and outcomes and identify potential safety concerns before they can harm patients (e.g. use EHR-based algorithms to identify patients at risk for medication errors or care delays). The framework proposes to integrate both retrospective and prospective measurement of HIT safety with an organization's existing clinical risk management and safety programs. It aims to facilitate organizational learning, comprehensive 360 degree assessment of HIT safety that includes vendor involvement, refinement of measurement tools and strategies, and shared responsibility to identify problems and implement solutions. A long term framework goal is to enable rigorous measurement that helps achieve the safety benefits of health IT in real-world clinical settings.
Weak signal detection and propagation in diluted feed-forward neural network with recurrent excitation and inhibition
Authors: Wang Jiang , Han Ruixue , Wei Xilei , Qin Yingmei , Yu Haitao , Deng Bin
Published: December 2015

Reliable signal propagation across distributed brain areas provides the basis for neural circuit function. Modeling studies on cortical circuits have shown that multilayered feed-forward networks (FFNs), if strongly and/or densely connected, can enable robust signal propagation. However, cortical networks are typically neither densely connected nor have strong synapses. This paper investigates under which conditions spiking activity can be propagated reliably across diluted FFNs. Extending previous works, we model each layer as a recurrent sub-network constituting both excitatory (E) and inhibitory (I) neurons and consider the effect of interactions between local excitation and inhibition on signal propagation. It is shown that elevation of cellular excitation–inhibition (EI) balance in the local sub-networks (layers) softens the requirement for dense/strong anatomical connections and thereby promotes weak signal propagation in weakly connected networks. By means of iterated maps, we show how elevated local excitability state compensates for the decreased gain of synchrony transfer function that is due to sparse long-range connectivity. Finally, we report that modulations of EI balance and background activity provide a mechanism for selectively gating and routing neural signal. Our results highlight the essential role of intrinsic network states in neural computation.
Experimental and Numerical Studies of Metro Train-Induced Vibrations on Adjacent Masonry Buildings
Authors: Qian Xia , Wen-Jun Qu
Published: December 2015

This paper studies the subway-induced vibrations on two adjacent masonry structures in Shanghai with focus on the vibration level and frequency. The results show that: (1) the vibration levels of the two masonry structures in three directions are all higher during the peak traffic hours than the off-peak hours and are higher in the daytime than at night. In addition, they are higher at the mid-span of the floor than the wall-floor junctions and staircase. (2) The parameters of the numerical model were calibrated by the measured vibration response. The slab properties, room size, and other factors can affect the vibration response distribution. (3) The vertical vibrations in the rooms with precast slab are greater than those with cast-in-situ slab. The vertical vibrations at the ash seam between the precast slabs are amplified. In addition, the room depth has a small effect on the vibration intensity. The relationship between the room depth and the vibration intensity depends on the relative width and depth of the room. (4) The width of the room has a significant effect on the vertical vibration. The floor corner and surrounding wall constraint conditions greatly affect the vibration intensity.
The Hamiltonian Generating Quantum Stochastic Evolutions in the Limit from Repeated to Continuous Interactions
Authors: Gregoratti Matteo
Published: December 2015

We consider a quantum stochastic evolution in continuous time defined by the quantum stochastic differential equation of Hudson and Parthasarathy. On one side, such an evolution can also be defined by a standard Schrödinger equation with a singular and unbounded Hamiltonian operator K. On the other side, such an evolution can also be obtained as a limit from Hamiltonian repeated interactions in discrete time. We study how the structure of the Hamiltonian K emerges in the limit from repeated to continuous interactions. We present results in the case of 1-dimensional multiplicity and system spaces, where calculations can be explicitly performed, and the proper formulation of the problem can be discussed.
Generalized Conditional Entropy — Determinicity of a Process and Rokhlin's Formula
Authors: Falniowski Fryderyk
Published: December 2015

We consider a generalization of the entropy of a process — the conditional g-entropy of a process introduced by de Paly. We show that this quantity can be used to detect the process determinicity. Moreover, we give an effective formula for the introduced measure for ergodic processes defined on the full shift.
Media, Mood, and Meetings
Authors: Schneider Kurt , Liskin Olga , Paulsen Hilko , Kauffeld Simone
Published: December 2015

This article investigates relationships between media, mood, and communication in teams, and studies how they are related to project success. Team projects are an essential part of the software engineering curriculum. Student teams carry out full software projects, including requirements elicitation, project management, implementation, and testing. This requires various technical skills, but non-technical and psychological aspects are of utmost importance as well, just as in professional software teams. Modern software is often developed by distributed teams. In many cases, team members feel isolated and distant from each other. Indirect communication and inappropriate media create a similar feeling of distance as geographical location. This perceived distance could have an impact on their individual and group moods, and eventually on project success. Therefore, these factors should be considered in educational software engineering team projects.

In a longitudinal study at Leibniz Universität Hannover, 20 student teams were observed over a period of 4 months. They were free to schedule team meetings when and where they wanted; and they could use any communication media they chose. Statistical correlations and non-parametric test are used for quantitative empirical analysis. Furthermore, we used analyses of variance for repeated measures to investigate conflicts over time. Results led to a number of recommendations for course organizers. They are interesting for software engineering in general.
Cooperative Data Reduction in Wireless Sensor Network
Authors: Zhang Shiwen , Zhang Qingquan , Xiao Sheng , Zhu Ting , Gu Yu , Lin Yaping
Published: December 2015

In wireless sensor networks, owing to the limited energy of the sensor node, it is very meaningful to propose a dynamic scheduling scheme with data management that reduces energy as soon as possible. However, traditional techniques treat data management as an isolated process on only selected individual nodes. In this article, we propose an aggressive data reduction architecture, which is based on error control within sensor segments and integrates three parallel dynamic control mechanisms. We demonstrate that this architecture not only achieves energy savings but also guarantees the data accuracy specified by the application. Furthermore, based on this architecture, we propose two implementations. The experimental results show that both implementations can raise the energy savings while keeping the error at an predefined and acceptable level. We observed that, compared with the basic implementation, the enhancement implementation achieves a relatively higher data accuracy. Moreover, the enhancement implementation is more suitable for the harsh environmental monitoring applications. Further, when both implementations achieve the same accuracy, the enhancement implementation saves more energy. Extensive experiments on realistic historical soil temperature data confirm the efficacy and efficiency of two implementations.
Chasing Offensive Conduct in Social Networks
Authors: Ros Santiago Pina , Canelles Ángel Pina , Pérez Manuel Gil , Mármol Félix Gómez , Pérez Gregorio Martínez
Published: December 2015

Social network users take advantage of anonymity to share rumors or gossip about others, making it important to provide means to report offensive conduct. This article presents a proposal to automatically manage these reports. We consider not only the users’ public behavior, but also private messages between users. The automatic approach is based, in both cases, on the reporters’ reputation along with other metrics intrinsic to social networks. Promising results from adopting the proposed reporting methods on Frisber, a geolocalized social network in production, are presented as well as some experiments based on real data extracted from Frisber.
The Relevance of Categories for Trusting Information Sources
Authors: Falcone Rino , Sapienza Alessandro , Castelfranchi Cristiano
Published: December 2015

In this article, we are interested in the fact that relevance and trustworthiness of information acquired by an agent X from a source F strictly depends and derives from X's trust in F with respect to the kind of information. In particular, we are interested in analyzing the relevance of F's category as indicator for its trustworthiness with respect to the specific informative goals of X. In this article, we analyze an interactive cognitive model for searching information in a world in which each agent can be considered as belonging to a specific agent's category. We also consider variability within the canonical categorical behavior and consequent influence on the trustworthiness of provided information. The introduced interactive cognitive model also allows evaluation of the trustworthiness of a source both on the basis of its category and on past direct experience with it, thus selecting the more adequate source with respect to the informative goals to achieve. We present a computational approach based on fuzzy sets and some selected simulation scenarios together with the discussion of their more interesting results.
RAW 2014
Authors: Raitza Michael , Vogt Markus , Hochberger Christian , Pionteck Thilo
Published: December 2015

Random numbers are important ingredients in a number of applications. Especially in a security context, they must be well distributed and unpredictable. We investigate the practical use of random number generators (RNGs) that are built from digital elements found in FPGAs. For this, we implement different types of ring oscillators (ROs) and memory collision-based circuits on FPGAs from major vendors. Implementing RNGs on the same device as the rest of the system benefits an overall reduction of vulnerability to attacks and wire tapping. Nevertheless, we investigate different attacks by tampering with power supply, chip temperature, and by exposition to strong magnetic fields and X-radiation. We also consider their usability as massively deployed components, whose functionality cannot be tested individually anymore, by conducting a technology invariance experiment. Our experiments show that BlockRAM-based RNGs cannot be considered as a suitable entropy source. We further show that RO-based RNGs work reliably under a wide range of operating conditions. While magnetic fields and X-rays did not induce any notable change, voltage and temperature variations caused an increase in propagation delays within the circuits. We show how reliable RNGs can be constructed and deployed on FPGAs.
A Reconfigurable Architecture for the Detection of Strongly Connected Components
Authors: Attia Osama G. , Townsend Kevin R. , Jones Phillip H. , Zambreno Joseph
Published: December 2015

The Strongly Connected Components (SCCs) detection algorithm serves as a keystone for many graph analysis applications. The SCC execution time for large-scale graphs, as with many other graph algorithms, is dominated by memory latency. In this article, we investigate the design of a parallel hardware architecture for the detection of SCCs in directed graphs. We propose a design methodology that alleviates memory latency and problems with irregular memory access. The design is composed of 16 processing elements dedicated to parallel Breadth-First Search (BFS) and eight processing elements dedicated to finding intersection in parallel. Processing elements are organized to reuse resources and utilize memory bandwidth efficiently. We demonstrate a prototype of our design using the Convey HC-2 system, a commercial high-performance reconfigurable computing coprocessor. Our experimental results show a speedup of as much as 17× for detecting SCCs in large-scale graphs when compared to a conventional sequential software implementation.
Value State Flow Graph
Authors: Zaidi Ali Mustafa , Greaves David
Published: December 2015

Although custom (and reconfigurable) computing can provide orders-of-magnitude improvements in energy efficiency and performance for many numeric, data-parallel applications, performance on nonnumeric, sequential code is often worse than conventional superscalar processors. This work attempts to improve sequential performance in custom hardware by (a) switching from a statically scheduled to a dynamically scheduled (dataflow) execution model and (b) developing a new compiler IR for high-level synthesis—the value state flow graph (VSFG)—that enables aggressive exposition of ILP even in the presence of complex control flow. Compared to existing control-data flow graph (CDFG)-based IRs, the VSFG exposes more instruction-level parallelism from control-intensive sequential code by exploiting aggressive speculation, enabling control dependence analysis, as well as execution along multiple flows of control. This new IR is directly implemented as a static-dataflow graph in hardware by our prototype high-level synthesis tool chain and shows an average speedup of 1.13× over equivalent hardware generated using LegUp, an existing CDFG-based HLS tool. Furthermore, the VSFG allows us to further trade area and energy for performance through loop unrolling, increasing the average speedup to 1.55×, with a peak speedup of 4.05×. Our VSFG-based hardware approaches the sequential cycle counts of an Intel Nehalem Core i7 processor while consuming only 0.25× the energy of an in-order Altera Nios II
f
processor.
Effective Interpolation and Preservation in Guarded Logics
Authors: Benedikt Michael , Cate Balder Ten , Boom Michael Vanden
Published: December 2015

Desirable properties of a logic include decidability, and a model theory that inherits properties of first-order logic, such as interpolation and preservation theorems. It is known that the Guarded Fragment (GF) of first-order logic is decidable and satisfies some preservation properties from first-order model theory; however, it fails to have Craig interpolation. The Guarded Negation Fragment (GNF), a recently defined extension, is known to be decidable and to have Craig interpolation. Here we give the first results on effective interpolation for extensions of GF. We provide an interpolation procedure for GNF whose complexity matches the doubly exponential upper bound for satisfiability of GNF. We show that the same construction gives not only Craig interpolation, but Lyndon interpolation and relativized interpolation, which can be used to provide effective proofs of some preservation theorems. We provide upper bounds on the size of GNF interpolants for both GNF and GF input, and complement this with matching lower bounds.
On Multiple Keyword Sponsored Search Auctions with Budgets
Authors: Colini-Baldeschi Riccardo , Leonardi Stefano , Henzinger Monika , Starnberger Martin
Published: December 2015

We study
multiple keyword
sponsored search auctions with budgets. Each keyword has
multiple ad slots
with a click-through rate. The bidders have additive valuations, which are linear in the click-through rates, and budgets, which are restricting their overall payments. Additionally, the number of slots per keyword assigned to a bidder is bounded.

We show the following results: (1) We give the first mechanism for multiple keywords, where click-through rates differ among slots. Our mechanism is incentive compatible in expectation, individually rational in expectation, and Pareto optimal. (2) We study the combinatorial setting, where each bidder is only interested in a subset of the keywords. We give an incentive compatible, individually rational, Pareto-optimal, and deterministic mechanism for identical click-through rates. (3) We give an impossibility result for incentive compatible, individually rational, Pareto-optimal, and deterministic mechanisms for bidders with diminishing marginal valuations.
Belief Merging by Examples
Authors: Liberatore Paolo
Published: December 2015

A common assumption in belief revision is that the reliability of the information sources is either given, derived from temporal information, or the same for all. This article does not describe a new semantics for integration but studies the problem of obtaining the reliability of the sources given the result of a previous merging. As an example, corrections performed manually on the result of merging some databases may indicate that the relative reliability of their sources is different from what was previously assumed, helping subsequent data mergings.
A Framework for Application-Guided Task Management on Heterogeneous Embedded Systems
Authors: Gaspar Francisco , Taniça Luis , Tomás Pedro , Ilic Aleksandar , Sousa Leonel
Published: December 2015

In this article, we propose a general framework for fine-grain application-aware task management in heterogeneous embedded platforms, which allows integration of different mechanisms for an efficient resource utilization, frequency scaling, and task migration. The proposed framework incorporates several components for accurate runtime monitoring by relying on the OS facilities and performance self-reporting for parallel and iterative applications. The framework efficiency is experimentally evaluated on a real hardware platform, where significant power and energy savings are attained for SPEC CPU2006 and PARSEC benchmarks, by guiding frequency scaling and intercluster migrations according to the runtime application behavior and predefined performance targets.
PLDI 2004
Authors: Michael Maged M.
Published: December 2015

Dynamic memory allocators (malloc/free) rely on mutual exclusion locks for protecting the consistency of their shared data structures under multithreading. The use of locking has many disadvantages with respect to performance, availability, robustness, and programming flexibility. A lock-free memory allocator guarantees progress regardless of whether some threads are delayed or even killed and regardless of scheduling policies. This paper presents a completely lockfree memory allocator. It uses only widely-available operating system support and hardware atomic instructions. It offers guaranteed availability even under arbitrary thread termination and crash-failure, and it is immune to deadlock regardless of scheduling policies, and hence it can be used even in interrupt handlers and real-time applications without requiring special scheduler support. Also, by leveraging some high-level structures from Hoard, our allocator is highly scalable, limits space blowup to a constant factor, and is capable of avoiding false sharing. In addition, our allocator allows finer concurrency and much lower latency than Hoard. We use PowerPC shared memory multiprocessor systems to compare the performance of our allocator with the default AIX 5.1 libc malloc, and two widely-used multithread allocators, Hoard and Ptmalloc. Our allocator outperforms the other allocators in virtually all cases and often by substantial margins, under various levels of parallelism and allocation patterns. Furthermore, our allocator also offers the lowest contention-free latency among the allocators by significant margins
ICFP 2004
Authors: Lämmel Ralf , Jones Simon Peyton
Published: December 2015

Writing boilerplate code is a royal pain. Generic programming promises to alleviate this pain by allowing the programmer to write a generic "recipe" for boilerplate code, and use that recipe in many places. In earlier work we introduced the "Scrap your boilerplate" approach to generic programming, which exploits Haskell's existing type-class mechanism to support generic transformations and queries.

This paper completes the picture. We add a few extra "introspective" or "reflective" facilities, that together support a rich variety of serialisation and de-serialisation. We also show how to perform generic "zips", which at first appear to be somewhat tricky in our framework. Lastly, we generalise the ability to over-ride a generic function with a type-specific one.

All of this can be supported in Haskell with independently-useful extensions: higher-rank types and type-safe cast. The GHC implementation of Haskell readily derives the required type classes for user-defined data types.
OOPSLA 2004
Authors: Bracha Gilad , Ungar David
Published: December 2015

We identify three design principles for reflection and metaprogramming facilities in object oriented programming languages.
Encapsulation
: meta-level facilities must encapsulate their implementation.
Stratification
: meta-level facilities must be separated from base-level functionality.
Ontological correspondence
: the ontology of meta-level facilities should correspond to the ontology of the language they manipulate. Traditional/mainstream reflective architectures do not follow these precepts. In contrast, reflective APIs built around the concept of
mirrors
are characterized by adherence to these three principles. Consequently, mirror-based architectures have significant advantages with respect to distribution, deployment and general purpose metaprogramming
POPL 2005
Authors: Foster J. Nathan , Greenwald Michael B. , Moore Jonathan T. , Pierce Benjamin C. , Schmitt Alan
Published: December 2015

We propose a novel approach to the well-known view
update problem
for the case of tree-structured data: a domainspecific\ programming language in which all expressions denote bi-directional transformations on trees. In one direction, these transformations--dubbed lenses--map a "concrete" tree into a simplified "abstract view"; in the other, they map a modified abstract view, together with the original concrete tree, to a correspondingly modified concrete tree. Our design emphasizes both robustness and ease of use, guaranteeing strong well-behavedness and totality properties for well-typed lenses

We identify a natural space of well-behaved bi-directional transformations over arbitrary structures, study definedness and continuity in this setting, and state a precise connection with the classical theory of "update translation under a constant complement" from databases. We then instantiate this semantic framework in the form of a collection of
lens combinators
that can be assembled to describe transformations on trees. These combinators include familiar constructs from functional programming (composition, mapping, projection, conditionals, recursion) together with some novel primitives for manipulating trees (splitting, pruning, merging, etc.). We illustrate the expressiveness of these combinators by developing a number of bi-directional list-processing transformations as derived forms
Effect of a novel BKCa opener on BKCa currents and contractility of the rabbit corpus cavernosum
Authors: Hannigan K. I. , Large R. J. , Bradley E. , Hollywood M. A. , Sergeant G. P. , McHale N. G. , Thornbury K. D.
Published: December 2015

Large-conductance Ca2+-activated K+ (BKCa) channels are thought to play a key role in the regulation of corpus cavernosum smooth muscle (CCSM) excitability. Few BKCa channel openers have been accepted for clinical development. The effect of the novel BKCa channel opener GoSlo-SR5-130 on electrical activity in isolated rabbit CCSM cells and mechanical activity in strips of rabbit CCSM was examined. Single-channel currents were observed in inside-out patches. These channels were sensitive to Ca2+, blocked by penitrem A, and had a conductance of 291 ± 20 pS ( n = 7). In the presence of GoSlo-SR5-130, the number of open BKCa channels increased. Using voltage-ramp protocols, GoSlo-SR5-130 caused currents to activate at more negative potentials in a concentration-dependent manner, shifting the half-maximal activation voltage potential to the left on the voltage axis. Therefore, BKCa channels were open within the physiological range of membrane potentials in the presence of GoSlo-SR5-130. GoSlo-SR5-130 also resulted in an increase in the activity of spontaneous transient outward currents in myocytes isolated from CCSM, and this effect was reversed by iberiotoxin. In current-clamp mode, GoSlo-SR5-130 hyperpolarized the cell membrane. Isometric tension recording of strips of rabbit corpus cavernosum showed that GoSlo-SR5-130 inhibited spontaneous contractions in a concentration-dependent manner. This effect was reversed in the presence of iberiotoxin, suggesting that GoSlo-SR5-130 exerts its effect through BKCa channels. These findings suggest that GoSlo-SR5-130 is an effective tool for the study of BKCa channels and that these channels can modulate CCSM activity and are possible targets for the treatment of erectile dysfunction.
Phenotypic flexibility of thermogenesis in the hwamei (Garrulax canorus): responses to cold acclimation
Authors: Zhou Li-Meng , Xia Su-Su , Chen Qian , Wang Run-Mei , Zheng Wei-Hong , Liu Jin-Song
Published: December 2015

Cold acclimation in birds involves a comprehensive array of physiological and morphological adjustment ranging from changes in aerobic enzyme activity to metabolic rate and organ mass. In the present study, we investigated phenotypic variation in thermogenic activity in the hwamei ( Garrulax canorus) under normal (35°C) or cold (15°C) ambient temperature conditions. Acclimation to an ambient temperature of 15°C for 4 wk significantly increased the body mass, basal metabolic rate (BMR), and energy intake, including both gross energy intake and digestible energy intake, compared with birds kept at 35°C. Furthermore, birds acclimated to 15°C increased the dry mass of their liver and kidneys, but not their heart and pectoral muscles, and displayed higher state-4 respiration in the liver, kidneys, heart, and pectoral muscles, and higher cytochrome- c oxidase (COX) activity in liver, kidney, and pectoral muscle, compared with those kept at 35°C. There was a positive correlation between BMR and state-4 respiration in all of the above organs except the liver, and between BMR and COX activity in all of the above organs. Taken together, these data illustrate the morphological, physiological, and enzymatic changes associated with cold acclimation, and support the notion that the hwamei is a bird species from temperate climates that exhibits high phenotypic flexibility of thermogenic capacity.
Increasing cutaneous afferent feedback improves proprioceptive accuracy at the knee in patients with sensory ataxia
Authors: Macefield Vaughan G. , Norcliffe-Kaufmann Lucy , Goulding Niamh , Palma Jose-Alberto , Fuente Mora Cristina , Kaufmann Horacio
Published: December 2015

Hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy type III (HSAN III) features disturbed proprioception and a marked ataxic gait. We recently showed that joint angle matching error at the knee is positively correlated with the degree of ataxia. Using intraneural microelectrodes, we also documented that these patients lack functional muscle spindle afferents but have preserved large-diameter cutaneous afferents, suggesting that patients with better proprioception may be relying more on proprioceptive cues provided by tactile afferents. We tested the hypothesis that enhancing cutaneous sensory feedback by stretching the skin at the knee joint using unidirectional elasticity tape could improve proprioceptive accuracy in patients with a congenital absence of functional muscle spindles. Passive joint angle matching at the knee was used to assess proprioceptive accuracy in 25 patients with HSAN III and 9 age-matched control subjects, with and without taping. Angles of the reference and indicator knees were recorded with digital inclinometers and the absolute error, gradient, and correlation coefficient between the two sides calculated. Patients with HSAN III performed poorly on the joint angle matching test [mean matching error 8.0 ± 0.8° (±SE); controls 3.0 ± 0.3°]. Following application of tape bilaterally to the knee in an X-shaped pattern, proprioceptive performance improved significantly in the patients (mean error 5.4 ± 0.7°) but not in the controls (3.0 ± 0.2°). Across patients, but not controls, significant increases in gradient and correlation coefficient were also apparent following taping. We conclude that taping improves proprioception at the knee in HSAN III, presumably via enhanced sensory feedback from the skin.
Serotonin increases synaptic activity in olfactory bulb glomeruli
Authors: Brill Julia , Shao Zuoyi , Puche Adam C. , Wachowiak Matt , Shipley Michael T.
Published: December 2015

Serotoninergic fibers densely innervate olfactory bulb glomeruli, the first sites of synaptic integration in the olfactory system. Acting through 5HT2Areceptors, serotonin (5HT) directly excites external tufted cells (ETCs), key excitatory glomerular neurons, and depolarizes some mitral cells (MCs), the olfactory bulb's main output neurons. We further investigated 5HT action on MCs and determined its effects on the two major classes of glomerular interneurons: GABAergic/dopaminergic short axon cells (SACs) and GABAergic periglomerular cells (PGCs). In SACs, 5HT evoked a depolarizing current mediated by 5HT2Creceptors but did not significantly impact spike rate. 5HT had no measurable direct effect in PGCs. Serotonin increased spontaneous excitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic currents (sEPSCs and sIPSCs) in PGCs and SACs. Increased sEPSCs were mediated by 5HT2Areceptors, suggesting that they are primarily due to enhanced excitatory drive from ETCs. Increased sIPSCs resulted from elevated excitatory drive onto GABAergic interneurons and augmented GABA release from SACs. Serotonin-mediated GABA release from SACs was action potential independent and significantly increased miniature IPSC frequency in glomerular neurons. When focally applied to a glomerulus, 5HT increased MC spontaneous firing greater than twofold but did not increase olfactory nerve-evoked responses. Taken together, 5HT modulates glomerular network activity in several ways: 1) it increases ETC-mediated feed-forward excitation onto MCs, SACs, and PGCs; 2) it increases inhibition of glomerular interneurons; 3) it directly triggers action potential-independent GABA release from SACs; and 4) these network actions increase spontaneous MC firing without enhancing responses to suprathreshold sensory input. This may enhance MC sensitivity while maintaining dynamic range.
Organotypic slice cultures containing the preBötzinger complex generate respiratory-like rhythms
Authors: Phillips Wiktor S. , Herly Mikkel , Del Negro Christopher A. , Rekling Jens C.
Published: December 2015

Study of acute brain stem slice preparations in vitro has advanced our understanding of the cellular and synaptic mechanisms of respiratory rhythm generation, but their inherent limitations preclude long-term manipulation and recording experiments. In the current study, we have developed an organotypic slice culture preparation containing the preBötzinger complex (preBötC), the core inspiratory rhythm generator of the ventrolateral brain stem. We measured bilateral synchronous network oscillations, using calcium-sensitive fluorescent dyes, in both ventrolateral (presumably the preBötC) and dorsomedial regions of slice cultures at 7–43 days in vitro. These calcium oscillations appear to be driven by periodic bursts of inspiratory neuronal activity, because whole cell recordings from ventrolateral neurons in culture revealed inspiratory-like drive potentials, and no oscillatory activity was detected from glial fibrillary associated protein-expressing astrocytes in cultures. Acute slices showed a burst frequency of 10.9 ± 4.2 bursts/min, which was not different from that of brain stem slice cultures (13.7 ± 10.6 bursts/min). However, slice cocultures that include two cerebellar explants placed along the dorsolateral border of the brainstem displayed up to 193% faster burst frequency (22.4 ± 8.3 bursts/min) and higher signal amplitude (340%) compared with acute slices. We conclude that preBötC-containing slice cultures retain inspiratory-like rhythmic function and therefore may facilitate lines of experimentation that involve extended incubation (e.g., genetic transfection or chronic drug exposure) while simultaneously being amenable to imaging and electrophysiology at cellular, synaptic, and network levels.
The Oscillating Component of the Internal Jugular Vein Flow: The Overlooked Element of Cerebral Circulation
Authors: Sisini Francesco , Toro Eleuterio , Gambaccini Mauro , Zamboni Paolo
Published: December 2015

The jugular venous pulse (JVP) provides valuable information about cardiac haemodynamics and filling pressures and is an indirect estimate of the central venous pressure (CVP). Recently it has been proven that JVP can be obtained by measuring the cross-sectional area (CSA) of the IJV on each sonogram of an ultrasound B-mode sonogram sequence. It has also been proven that during its pulsation the IJV is distended and hence that the pressure gradient drives the IJV haemodynamics. If this is true, then it will imply the following: (i) the blood velocity in the IJV is a periodic function of the time with period equal to the cardiac period and (ii) the instantaneous blood velocity is given by a time function that can be derived from a flow-dynamics theory that uses the instantaneous pressure gradient as a parameter. The aim of the present study is to confirm the hypothesis that JVP regulates the IJV blood flow and that pressure waves are transmitted from the heart toward the brain through the IJV wall.