bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
DIMINISHING RETURNS TO R&D INVESTMENT ON INNOVATION IN MANUFACTURING SMEs: DO THE TECHNOLOGICAL INTENSITY OF INDUSTRY MATTER?
Authors: KIM KONSHIK
Published: January 2018

This paper examined the nonlinear R&D-innovation relationships of SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) and the differences in the strength and productivity of R&D investment between low-, medium-, and high-tech industry sectors. Using 2740 firm data in South Korea, this study found that R&D investment has an inverted U-shaped relationship with registered patents such that patents increase at a decreasing rate as R&D investment increases. The relationship between R&D investment and innovative sales resulting from R&D investment in manufacturing SMEs also exhibits an inverted U-shaped form. The R&D-innovation relationship of SMEs in high-tech sectors is more strengthened such that the optimal level of R&D investment in high-tech sectors is higher than those for SMEs in low-tech sectors. This study also demonstrated that the R&D-innovation relationship for high-tech sectors is more flattened so that the diminishing returns to R&D investment is weakened with the increase of technological intensity of industry sectors.
A New Static Analysis Approach for Free Vibration of Beams
Authors: Lim C. W. , Chen Zhenyu
Published: January 2018

This study deals with a new method for the free vibration analysis of beams under different boundary conditions. We show that it is possible to apply a static approach for solving free vibration systems, i.e., we obtain natural frequencies for free vibration of beams by analyzing static beam bending problems. Specifically, the basic governing equation for beams with harmonic loadings and resting on an elastic foundation is solved and the solutions are used directly to yield the beam free vibration solutions. In the free vibration analysis, the natural frequency can be a real number or an imaginary number while in the static analysis, the foundation stiffness can be either positive or negative. We show that one can solve the deflection of a beam subjected to a given concentrated force and subsequently deduce the possible infinite deflection when the stiffness becomes zero or negative. In such cases, there exists an equivalent relationship between the free vibration frequencies and the negative stiffness. Consequently, determining the natural frequencies becomes a problem of determining an appropriate negative foundation elastic constant. In general, the numerical vibration solutions can be obtained by analyzing the relationship between loadings and frequencies. For comparison, a comparison with the classical free vibration solutions is presented and excellent agreement is illustrated. We further show that this static approach for free vibration solutions has a clear edge over the classical free vibration approach in computational beam vibration solutions. Very accurate and convergent numerical solutions can be obtained using a very simple numerical solution method. This static approach for free vibration problems can be extended for plate, shell and other structural systems.
Multi-Scale Modeling of Composites with Surrogate and Uncertainty in Residual Velocity for High-Speed Impacts
Authors: Lee Minhyung , Kim Nam H.
Published: January 2018

The bullet impact onto a composite plate has been investigated both numerically and experimentally. The main purpose is to numerically identify the range of uncertainty shown in the residual velocities from the high-speed impact test data. The simulation is based on the multi-scale modeling for composites. The experimental results presented here include the tensile tests of composite specimen to identify the range of failure strains and mainly the ballistic shot test onto a laminated plate to measure the residual velocities with especial interests in the range of uncertainty. All test data have been compared with numerical predictions and the scattered test data are reasonably well captured with simulations.
An Experimentally Validated Combined Stiffness Formulation for a Finite Domain Considering Volume Fraction, Shape, Orientation, and Location of a Single Inclusion
Authors: Hage Ilige , Hamade Ramsey F.
Published: January 2018

This work characterizes the stiffness of a finite domain containing one (biaxial ellipsoidal) void due to the combined effect of inclusion’s attributes: (1) size or volume fraction, VF, (2) shape or aspect ratio, AR, (3) angular orientation, and (4) location (position) within the matrix. The values and ranges of these ellipsoidal inclusion attributes are varied according to a matrix developed using design of experiments (DOE). Modified Mori–Tanaka method combined with dual-eigenstrain method (interior and exterior eigenstrain methods) is used to determine the effective stiffness tensor of the composite domain. Employing the numerically calculated normalized axial modulus [Formula: see text] values in SAS/STAT®, a nonlinear mathematical expression of [Formula: see text] as function of the void’s variables is arrived at Stiffness values found from the numerical homogenization scheme are experimentally corroborated using compression tests conducted on 3D-printed ABS cubes having a single ellipsoidal inclusion of various geometric attributes. In addition, finite element simulations were run of said uniaxial compression test cases to further validate the numerical homogenization results. Corroborated findings suggest that while the location of the inclusions in the matrix have no significant effect on normalized modulus [Formula: see text], the void’s volume fraction has the largest effect where it decreases with VF. The effect of the void’s orientation and elliptical aspect ratio are significant. [Formula: see text] increases with AR at angles ranging from 0–[Formula: see text]; at [Formula: see text][Formula: see text] are almost constant with AR, at angles of 60–[Formula: see text] values of [Formula: see text] decrease with AR. As AR approaches unity, the effect of orientation decreases significantly.
Invariant measures of piecewise fractional linear maps and piecewise quadratic maps
Authors: Schweiger Fritz
Published: January 2018

In this paper, we first extend the main result of the paper “Differentiable equivalence of fractional linear maps” to maps with more than three branches and in the second part we comment and correct some results on so-called exceptional dual systems. Here we also give some connections to so-called flipped maps. The third part is devoted to piecewise quadratic maps. The most interesting case seems to be Bolyai’s algorithm which was brought back to the mathematical audience by A. Rényi.
Local Spectral Clustering for Overlapping Community Detection
Authors: Li Yixuan , He Kun , Kloster Kyle , Bindel David , Hopcroft John
Published: January 2018

Large graphs arise in a number of contexts and understanding their structure and extracting information from them is an important research area. Early algorithms for mining communities have focused on global graph structure, and often run in time proportional to the size of the entire graph. As we explore networks with millions of vertices and find communities of size in the hundreds, it becomes important to shift our attention from macroscopic structure to microscopic structure in large networks. A growing body of work has been adopting local expansion methods in order to identify communities from a few exemplary seed members.

In this article, we propose a novel approach for finding overlapping communities called L
emon
(
L
ocal
E
xpansion via
M
inimum
O
ne
N
orm). Provided with a few known
seeds
, the algorithm finds the community by performing a local spectral diffusion. The core idea of L
emon
is to use short random walks to approximate an invariant subspace near a seed set, which we refer to as
local spectra
. Local spectra can be viewed as the low-dimensional embedding that captures the nodes’ closeness in the local network structure. We show that L
emon
’s performance in detecting communities is competitive with state-of-the-art methods. Moreover, the running time scales with the size of the community rather than that of the entire graph. The algorithm is easy to implement and is highly parallelizable. We further provide theoretical analysis of the local spectral properties, bounding the measure of tightness of extracted community using the eigenvalues of graph Laplacian.

We thoroughly evaluate our approach using both synthetic and real-world datasets across different domains, and analyze the empirical variations when applying our method to inherently different networks in practice. In addition, the heuristics on how the seed set quality and quantity would affect the performance are provided.
Analysis of a High-Performance TSP Solver on the GPU
Authors: Robinson Jeffrey A. , Vrbsky Susan V. , Hong Xiaoyan , Eddy Brian P.
Published: January 2018

Graphical Processing Units have been applied to solve NP-hard problems with no known polynomial time solutions. An example of such a problem is the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). The TSP is one of the most commonly studied combinatorial optimization problems and has multiple applications in the areas of engineering, transportation, and logistics. This article presents an improved algorithm for approximating the TSP on fully connected, symmetric graphs by utilizing the GPU. Our approach improves an existing 2-opt hill-climbing algorithm with random restarts by considering multiple updates to the current path found in parallel, and it allows
k
number of updates per iteration, called
k-swap
. With our
k-swap
modification, we show a speed-up over the existing algorithm of 4.5× to 22.9× on data sets ranging from 1,400 to 33,810 nodes, respectively.
SRC
Authors: Sun Yuhan
Published: January 2018

Graph has become a powerful tool to model real life data. There are companies building their products based on graph data model, such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Moreover, thanks to location-aware devices, spatial data can be collected quickly with cheap price and spatial-aware services are popular in our daily lives, such as Google Map. GeoSocial graph integrates social graph model with spatial locations, which has already triggered many interesting applications. It also brings the challenges to efficiently searching the spatial graph data. In this paper, we propose an augmented R-Tree structure, Riso-Tree, which can achieve up to 100x better performance than state-of-the-art methods in solving location-based graph queries.
SRC
Authors: Lin Haowen , Chiang Yao-Yi
Published: January 2018

Historical maps are important resources for various kinds of studies, providing insights for natural science and social science studies such as biology, landscape changes, and history [1]. However, text recognition on maps remains a challenging task because map usually has a complex background in which textual content appears in numerous colors, fonts, sizes, and orientations. Even if we were able to acquire perfectly recognized words and characters automatically, it is still difficult to generate useful information because individual words are not meaningful. For example, a typical result from OCR scanning or manual map digitization is that each recognized bounding box only contains a single word (Figure 1).
Geohumanities 2017 workshop report
Authors: Martins Bruno , Murrieta-Flores Patricia
Published: January 2018

This article reports on the 1st ACM SIGSPATIAL Workshop on Geospatial Humanities, held in conjunction with the 25th ACM SIGSPATIAL International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems. The article outlines the objectives of the workshop, and briefly describes the technical program.
GeoAI 2017 workshop report: the 1st ACM SIGSPATIAL International Workshop on GeoAI: @AI and Deep Learning for Geographic Knowledge Discovery
Authors: Mao Huina , Hu Yingjie , Kar Bandana , Gao Song , McKenzie Grant
Published: January 2018

Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques are transforming a range of sectors from computer vision and natural language processing to autonomous driving and healthcare. In particular, deep learning methods achieve great success in many computer vision problems, such as image classification and object detection. Deep neural networks are very powerful to capture the hierarchical representation of features in massive and complex data by adopting multiple layers of non-linear information processing. Due to the availability of vast and high-resolution geospatial data and efficient high-performance computing architectures, deep learning techniques empower the geospatial system to provide fast and near-human level perception. For example, recent studies have shown deep learning techniques coupled with volunteered geographic information (such as OpenStreetMap data) can accurately extract buildings from satellite imagery for humanitarian mapping in rural African areas. Also, deep learning helps assimilate autonomous vehicles and intelligent transport system by incorporating a great amount of information gathered by traffic cameras and sensors. Moreover, deep learning technology facilitates the discovery of geographic information within unstructured text data across different languages. There are also many other applications of deep learning in the domain of GIS, such as the prediction for spatial diffusion patterns in epidemiology, urban expansion prediction, and hyperspectral image analysis. The 1st GeoAI workshop aims to bring geoscientists, computer scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and decision makers from academia, industry, and government to discuss the latest trends, successes, challenges, and opportunities in the field of deep learning for geographical data mining and knowledge discovery.
PredictGIS 2017 workshop report held in conjunction with ACM SIGSPATIAL 2017
Authors: Sudo Akihto , Yabe Takahiro , Sekimoto Yoshihide
Published: January 2018

The prediction of human and vehicle mobility in a city is becoming attracting field. This topic attracts researchers in broad field from the behavioral science, where understanding the complexity of the human mobility behavior is one of the hot topic, to industrial field, which apply the result to many beneficial applications. Recent progress to sensing human mobility via smartphones is boosting this trend. However, due to the complexity and context-dependence of human behavior and the incompleteness and noise of geospatial data collecting from various sensors, the prediction of human and vehicle mobility is still far from solved. This workshop aimed at collecting contributions on the cutting-edge studies in human mobility description, modeling, intelligent computational method which can advance the human and vehicle prediction research. Potential topics included, but were not limited to 1) The next location prediction of individual mobility, 2) The crowd or population mobility prediction, 3) Dynamics of pedestrians, 4) commute flow and migration flow, 5) Traffic congestion, road usage forecast and optimal vehicle routing, 6) Social event forecast using geospatial data, 7) Novel agent mobility simulators, and 8) Case studies of mobility estimation in academia as well as in industrial field.
Facilitating smartphone use for blind people through a human powered approach
Authors: Rodrigues André
Published: January 2018

From a longitudinal study of smartphone adoption with blind users, we uncovered the need for frequent assistance and the opportunity for effective and efficient knowledge sharing. Smartphones are constantly evolving platforms where new applications, features, and consequently barriers, appear every day. Building on comprehensive knowledge of challenges and coping mechanisms employed by blind people, we are exploring how human-powered solutions can contribute. A human-powered approach has the potential to address efficacy, availability and coverage issues by expanding the pool of supporters. Our goal is to devise a set of human-powered tools to facilitate and promote smartphone usage. With in-context solutions we aim to investigate solutions that enable user independence and self-learning. We will augment knowledge sharing interactions and investigate its impact in promoting new smartphone usages.
MPEG column
Authors: Timmerer Christian
Published: January 2018

The original blog post can be found at the Bitmovin Techblog and has been updated here to focus on and highlight research aspects.
Multidisciplinary column
Authors: Liem Cynthia C. S.
Published: January 2018

The Multidisciplinary Column is edited by Cynthia C. S. Liem and Jochen Huber. Every other edition, we will feature an interview with a researcher performing multidisciplinary work, or a column of our own hand. For this edition, we feature a column by Cynthia C. S. Liem.
Open-source column
Authors: Rossetto Luca , Giangreco Ivan , Gasser Ralph , Schuldt Heiko
Published: January 2018

URL: https://vitrivr.org/

vitrivr is an open source retrieval system capable of processing multimedia documents such as images, videos, music, and 3D-models. It supports a wealth of content based features for multiple modalities and comes with a ready-to-use Docker image and user interface. We focus on the vitrivr stack in its second version, comprised of ADAMPro 2.0.0, Cineast 2.0.0, and the user interface Vitrivr NG 1.0.0. All components of vitrivr are available under an MIT license.
β-Catenin in stromal progenitors controls medullary stromal development
Authors: Boivin Felix J. , Bridgewater Darren
Published: January 2018

The renal stroma is a population of matrix-producing fibroblast cells that serves as a structural framework for the kidney parenchyma. The stroma also regulates branching morphogenesis and nephrogenesis. In the mature kidney, the stroma forms at least three distinct cell populations: the capsular, cortical, and medullary stroma. These distinct stromal populations have important functions in kidney development, maintenance of kidney function, and disease progression. However, the development, differentiation, and maintenance of the distinct stroma populations are not well defined. Using a mouse model with β-catenin deficiency in the stroma cell population, we demonstrate that β-catenin is not involved in the formation of the stromal progenitors nor in the formation of the cortical stroma population. In contrast, β-catenin does control the differentiation of stromal progenitors to form the medullary stroma. In the absence of stromal β-catenin, there is a marked reduction of medullary stromal markers. As kidney development continues, the maldifferentiated stromal cells locate deeper within the kidney tissue and are eliminated by the activation of an intrinsic apoptotic program. This leads to significant reductions in the medullary stroma population and the lack of medulla formation. Taken together, our results indicate that stromal β-catenin is essential for kidney development by regulating medulla formation through the differentiation of medullary stromal cells.
Effects of a high-sodium/low-potassium diet on renal calcium, magnesium, and phosphate handling
Authors: van der Wijst Jenny , Tutakhel Omar A. Z. , Bos Caro , Danser Alexander H. J. , Hoorn Ewout J. , Hoenderop Joost G. J. , Bindels René J. M.
Published: January 2018

The distal convoluted tubule (DCT) of the kidney plays an important role in blood pressure regulation by modulating Na+reabsorption via the Na+-Cl−cotransporter (NCC). A diet containing high salt (NaCl) and low K+activates NCC, thereby causing Na+retention and a rise in blood pressure. Since high blood pressure, hypertension, is associated with changes in serum calcium (Ca2+) and magnesium (Mg2+) levels, we hypothesized that dietary Na+and K+intake affects Ca2+and Mg2+transport in the DCT. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of a high-Na+/low-K+diet on renal Ca2+and Mg2+handling. Mice were divided in four groups and fed a normal-Na+/normal-K+, normal-Na+/low-K+, high-Na+/normal-K+, or high-Na+/low-K+diet for 4 days. Serum and urine were collected for electrolyte and hormone analysis. Gene and protein expression of electrolyte transporters were assessed in kidney and intestine by qPCR and immunoblotting. Whereas Mg2+homeostasis was not affected, the mice had elevated urinary Ca2+and phosphate (Pi) excretion upon high Na+intake, as well as significantly lower serum Ca2+levels in the high-Na+/low-K+group. Alterations in the gene and protein expression of players involved in Ca2+and Pitransport indicate that reabsorption in the proximal tubular and TAL is affected, while inducing a compensatory response in the DCT. These effects may contribute to the negative health impact of a high-salt diet, including kidney stone formation, chronic kidney disease, and loss of bone mineral density.
Improved protocols for the study of urinary electrolyte excretion and blood pressure in rodents: use of gel food and stepwise changes in diet composition
Authors: Nizar Jonathan M. , Bouby Nadine , Bankir Lise , Bhalla Vivek
Published: January 2018

Many experimental protocols in rodents require the comparison of groups that are fed different diets. Changes in dietary electrolyte and/or fat content can influence food intake, which can potentially introduce bias or confound the results. Unpalatable diets slow growth or cause weight loss, which is exacerbated by housing the animals in individual metabolic cages or by surgery. For balance studies in mice, small changes in body weight and food intake and low urinary flow can amplify these challenges. Powder food can be administered as gel with the addition of a desired amount of water, electrolytes, drugs (if any), and a small amount of agar. We describe here how the use of gel food to vary water, Na, K, and fat content can reduce weight loss and improve reproducibility of intake, urinary excretion, and blood pressure in rodents. In addition, mild food restriction reduces the interindividual variability and intergroup differences in food intake and associated variables, thus improving the statistical power of an experiment. Finally, we also demonstrate the advantages of using gel food for weight-based drug dosing. These protocols can improve the accuracy and reproducibility of experimental data where dietary manipulations are needed and are especially advisable in rodent studies related to water balance, obesity, and blood pressure.
Tamoxifen attenuates development of lithium-induced nephrogenic diabetes insipidus in rats
Authors: Tingskov Stine Julie , Hu Shan , Frøkiær Jørgen , Kwon Tae-Hwan , Wang Weidong , Nørregaard Rikke
Published: January 2018

Lithium is widely used in treatment of bipolar affective disorders but often causes nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (NDI), a disorder characterized by severe urinary-concentrating defects. Lithium-induced NDI is caused by lithium uptake by collecting duct principal cells and altered expression of aquaporin-2 (AQP2), which are essential for water reabsorption of tubular fluid in the collecting duct. Sex hormones have previously been shown to affect the regulation of AQP2, so we tested whether tamoxifen (TAM), a selective estrogen receptor modulator, would attenuate lithium-induced alterations on renal water homeostasis. Rats were treated for 14 days with lithium, and TAM treatment was initiated 1 wk after onset of lithium administration. Lithium treatment resulted in severe polyuria and reduced AQP2 expression, which were ameliorated by TAM. Consistent with this, TAM attenuated downregulation of AQP2 and increased phosphorylation of the cAMP-responsive element-binding protein, which induced AQP2 expression in freshly isolated inner-medullary collecting duct suspension prepared from lithium-treated rats. In conclusion, TAM attenuated polyuria dose dependently and impaired urine concentration and downregulation of AQP2 protein expression in rats with lithium-induced NDI. These findings suggest that TAM is likely to be a novel therapeutic option for lithium-induced NDI.
Propagation of beta/gamma rhythms in the cortico-basal ganglia circuits of the parkinsonian rat
Authors: West Timothy O. , Berthouze Luc , Halliday David M. , Litvak Vladimir , Sharott Andrew , Magill Peter J. , Farmer Simon F.
Published: January 2018

Much of the motor impairment associated with Parkinson’s disease is thought to arise from pathological activity in the networks formed by the basal ganglia (BG) and motor cortex. To evaluate several hypotheses proposed to explain the emergence of pathological oscillations in parkinsonism, we investigated changes to the directed connectivity in BG networks following dopamine depletion. We recorded local field potentials (LFPs) in the cortex and basal ganglia of rats rendered parkinsonian by injection of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) and in dopamine-intact controls. We performed systematic analyses of the networks using a novel tool for estimation of directed interactions (nonparametric directionality, NPD). We used a “conditioned” version of the NPD analysis that reveals the dependence of the correlation between two signals on a third reference signal. We find evidence of the dopamine dependency of both low-beta (14–20 Hz) and high-beta/low-gamma (20–40 Hz) directed network interactions. Notably, 6-OHDA lesions were associated with enhancement of the cortical “hyperdirect” connection to the subthalamic nucleus (STN) and its feedback to the cortex and striatum. We find that pathological beta synchronization resulting from 6-OHDA lesioning is widely distributed across the network and cannot be located to any individual structure. Furthermore, we provide evidence that high-beta/gamma oscillations propagate through the striatum in a pathway that is independent of STN. Rhythms at high beta/gamma show susceptibility to conditioning that indicates a hierarchical organization compared with those at low beta. These results further inform our understanding of the substrates for pathological rhythms in salient brain networks in parkinsonism.

NEW & NOTEWORTHY We present a novel analysis of electrophysiological recordings in the cortico-basal ganglia network with the aim of evaluating several hypotheses concerning the origins of abnormal brain rhythms associated with Parkinson’s disease. We present evidence for changes in the directed connections within the network following chronic dopamine depletion in rodents. These findings speak to the plausibility of a “short-circuiting” of the network that gives rise to the conditions from which pathological synchronization may arise.
The reactive leg drop: a simple and novel sensory-motor assessment to predict fall risk in older individuals
Authors: Magrini Mitchel A. , Thiele Ryan M. , Colquhoun Ryan J. , Barrera-Curiel Alejandra , Blackstock Taryn S. , DeFreitas Jason M.
Published: January 2018

There is need for a functional ability test that appropriately assesses the rapid integration of the sensory and motor systems required for older adults to recover from a slip. The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy and reliability of a novel test, the reactive leg drop, for assessing sensory-motor function in older adults. Fourteen young (YW; mean age = 20 yr) and 11 older women (OW; mean age = 76 yr) participated in this study. For each drop, the leg was passively moved to full extension and then released. The subjects had to recognize their leg was free-falling and reactively kick up as quickly as possible during varying sensory conditions. To assess the leg drop’s reliance on proprioception, other proprioceptive tests (e.g., patellar tendon reflexes and balance) were separately performed. Leg drops performed with the eyes closed ( P = 0.011) and with a blocked view of the leg ( P = 0.033) showed significant differences in drop angle between YW and OW. Significant relationships between leg drop conditions and balance were observed in OW that were not present within YW. When collapsed across groups, reflex latency was correlated with drop angle when the eyes were closed. The reactive leg drop was age sensitive, reliable, and likely reliant on proprioception, as shown by relationships to other sensory-motor assessments, such as balance and the patellar reflex. Although more research is needed, we propose that the reactive leg drop is an effective tool to assess sensory-motor integration in a manner that may mimic fall recovery.

NEW & NOTEWORTHY The reactive leg drop was age sensitive and was significantly related to other sensory-motor assessments. The ability to accurately assess sensory-motor integration may aid clinicians, practitioners, and researchers in developing new interventions. The reactive leg drop presented in the current study is a potentially effective tool to assess sensory and motor integration in a manner that may mimic fall recovery.
3D topology of orientation columns in visual cortex revealed by functional optical coherence tomography
Authors: Nakamichi Yu , Kalatsky Valery A. , Watanabe Hideyuki , Sato Takayuki , Rajagopalan Uma Maheswari , Tanifuji Manabu
Published: January 2018

Orientation tuning is a canonical neuronal response property of six-layer visual cortex that is encoded in pinwheel structures with center orientation singularities. Optical imaging of intrinsic signals enables us to map these surface two-dimensional (2D) structures, whereas lack of appropriate techniques has not allowed us to visualize depth structures of orientation coding. In the present study, we performed functional optical coherence tomography (fOCT), a technique capable of acquiring a 3D map of the intrinsic signals, to study the topology of orientation coding inside the cat visual cortex. With this technique, for the first time, we visualized columnar assemblies in orientation coding that had been predicted from electrophysiological recordings. In addition, we found that the columnar structures were largely distorted around pinwheel centers: center singularities were not rigid straight lines running perpendicularly to the cortical surface but formed twisted string-like structures inside the cortex that turned and extended horizontally through the cortex. Looping singularities were observed with their respective termini accessing the same cortical surface via clockwise and counterclockwise orientation pinwheels. These results suggest that a 3D topology of orientation coding cannot be fully anticipated from 2D surface measurements. Moreover, the findings demonstrate the utility of fOCT as an in vivo mesoscale imaging method for mapping functional response properties of cortex in the depth axis.

NEW & NOTEWORTHY We used functional optical coherence tomography (fOCT) to visualize three-dimensional structure of the orientation columns with millimeter range and micrometer spatial resolution. We validated vertically elongated columnar structure in iso-orientation domains. The columnar structure was distorted around pinwheel centers. An orientation singularity formed a string with tortuous trajectories inside the cortex and connected clockwise and counterclockwise pinwheel centers in the surface orientation map. The results were confirmed by comparisons with conventional optical imaging and electrophysiological recordings.
Relationship between the Apical Preparation Diameter and the Apical Seal: An In Vitro Study
Authors: Laslami Kaoutar , Dhoum Sara , El Harchi Amine , Benkiran Iman
Published: January 2018

Objectives. The aim of the study is to define the relationship between the apical preparation diameter and the apical sealing ability to highlight the importance of the preservation of the diameter and the original position of the apical foramen. Materials and Methods. 50 extracted maxillary incisors were randomly allocated into three groups of 15 teeth each (n = 15) according to the apical preparation size: Group 1: finishing file F1 corresponding to size 20 reached the working length (ProTaper Universal system Dentsply®); Group 2: prepared up to size 30 corresponding to finishing file F30; Group 3: prepared up to size 50 corresponding to finishing file F5. Five teeth were assigned to positive and negative control groups. After the filling of the root canals, the teeth were isolated and immersed in a dye solution, then cut longitudinally, photographed, and the dye penetration were calculated using a computer software. Results. Comparison of the three different apical preparation sizes showed no statistically significant differences regarding the apical microleakage. Conclusion. The most important value of the dye penetration was observed in the group with the largest apical diameter.
A Marketing Strategy in a Closed-Loop Supply Chain with Loss-Averse Consumers
Authors: Liao Bi-feng , Li Bang-yi
Published: January 2018

The importance of remanufacturing system has been extensively investigated in recent years. Taking into account the consumer valuation uncertainty and the demand uncertainty, this paper addresses the issue of closed-loop supply chain with remanufacturing by game theory. We consider two types of consumers in the market: loss-neutral consumers and loss-averse consumers. The loss-neutral consumers are completely rational. The loss-averse consumers, on the other hand, are with losses being more painful than equal-sized gains being pleasant. When multichannel structure can be chosen, the manufacturer has three pricing strategies in direct market: (1) keeping the price high with a small discount, no customers choose the online store; (2) keeping the price high with a moderate discount, only the loss-neutral customers choose the online store; (3) keeping the price low with a big discount, all customers choose the online store. Consumers make up their decisive selections through comparing the price and channel attributes. We introduce utility function for analyzing the market demand and then identify the optimal pricing and channel strategy to maximize the manufacturer’s profit. Finally, the rationality and validities of the proposed model are illustrated by numerical examples, and sensitivity analyses of the parameters are also presented.
Rules for Flight Paths and Time of Flight for Flows in Porous Media with Heterogeneous Permeability and Porosity
Authors: Zuo Lihua , Weijermars Ruud
Published: January 2018

Porous media like hydrocarbon reservoirs may be composed of a wide variety of rocks with different porosity and permeability. Our study shows in algorithms and in synthetic numerical simulations that the flow pattern of any particular porous medium, assuming constant fluid properties and standardized boundary and initial conditions, is not affected by any spatial porosity changes but will vary only according to spatial permeability changes. In contrast, the time of flight along the streamline will be affected by both the permeability and porosity, albeit in opposite directions. A theoretical framework is presented with evidence from flow visualizations. A series of strategically chosen streamline simulations, including systematic spatial variations of porosity and permeability, visualizes the respective effects on the flight path and time of flight. Two practical rules are formulated. Rule  1 states that an increase in permeability decreases the time of flight, whereas an increase in porosity increases the time of flight. Rule  2 states that the permeability uniquely controls the flight path of fluid flow in porous media; local porosity variations do not affect the streamline path. The two rules are essential for understanding fluid transport mechanisms, and their rigorous validation therefore is merited.
The Quantum Description of BF Model in Superspace
Authors: Dwivedi Manoj Kumar
Published: January 2018

We consider the BRST symmetric four-dimensional BF theory, a topological theory, containing antisymmetric tensor fields in Landau gauge and extend the BRST symmetry by introducing a shift symmetry to it. Within this formulation, the antighost fields corresponding to shift symmetry coincide with antifields of standard field/antifield formulation. Furthermore, we provide a superspace description for the BF model possessing extended BRST and extended anti-BRST transformations.
Five-Year Recurrence Rate and the Predictors Following Stroke in the Mashhad Stroke Incidence Study: A Population-Based Cohort Study of Stroke in the Middle East
Authors: Salehi Maryam , Amiri Amin , Thrift Amanda G. , Kapral Moira K. , Sposato Luciano , Behrouz Réza , Fang Jiming , Shoeibi Ali , Hashemi Peyman , Farzadfard Mohammad Taghi , Mokhber Naghmeh , Azarpazhooh Mahmoud Reza
Published: January 2018

Background: Little is known about the risk of recurrent stroke in low- and middle-income countries. This study was designed to identify the long-term risk of stroke recurrence and its associated factors. Methods: From November 21, 2006 for a period of 1 year, 624 patients with first-ever stroke (FES) were registered from the residents of 3 neighborhoods in Mashhad, Iran. Patients were followed up for the next 5 years after the index event for any stroke recurrence or death. We used competing risk analysis and cause-specific Cox proportional hazard models to estimate the cumulative incidence of stroke recurrence and its associated variables. Results: The cumulative incidence of stroke recurrence was 14.5% by the end of 5 years, with the largest rate during the first year after FES (5.6%). Only advanced age (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 1.02; 95% CI 1.01–1.04) and severe stroke (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score >20; HR 2.23; 95% CI 1.05–4.74) were independently associated with an increased risk of 5-year recurrence. Case fatality at 30 days after first recurrent stroke was 43.2%, which was significantly greater than the case fatality at 30 days after FES of 24.7% (p = 0.001). Conclusion: A substantial number of our patients either died or had stroke recurrences during the study period. Advanced age and the severity of the index stroke significantly increased the risk of recurrence. This is an important finding for health policy makers and for designing preventive strategies in people surviving their stroke.
Cholestatic Jaundice as a Paraneoplastic Manifestation of Prostate Cancer Aggravated by Steroid Therapy
Authors: Kang Min Kyu , Park Jung Gil , Lee Heon Ju
Published: January 2018

Objective: To report a rare case of paraneoplastic jaundice as a manifestation of prostate cancer. Clinical Presentation and Intervention: We report on a case of paraneoplastic syndrome in a 72-year-old man with prostate cancer that manifested with idiopathic jaundice. Although steroids can be used as treatment in patients with prostate cancer, they could exacerbate paraneoplastic jaundice. The jaundice that flared up after treatment with 40 mg prednisone was improved with antiandrogen treatment. Conclusion: Physicians should be aware of the possibility of paraneoplastic jaundice in patients with prostate cancer. Appropriate antiandrogen therapy should be considered for paraneoplastic jaundice in these patients.
Acute and Chronic Increases of Circulating FSTL1 Normalize Energy Substrate Metabolism in Pacing-Induced Heart Failure
Authors: Seki Mitsuru , Powers Jeffery C. , Maruyama Sonomi , Zuriaga Maria A. , Wu Chia-Ling , Kurishima Clara , Kim Lydia , Johnson Jesse , Poidomani Anthony , Wang Tao , Muñoz Eric , Rajan Sudarsan , Park Joon Y. , Walsh Kenneth , Recchia Fabio A.
Published: January 2018

Background

FSTL1 (follistatin-like protein 1) is an emerging cardiokine/myokine that is upregulated in heart failure (HF) and is found to be cardioprotective in animal models of cardiac injury. We tested the hypothesis that circulating FSTL1 can affect cardiac function and metabolism under baseline physiological conditions and in HF.

Methods and Results

FSTL1 was acutely (10 minutes) or chronically (2 weeks) infused to attain clinically relevant blood levels in conscious dogs with cardiac tachypacing-induced HF. Dogs with no cardiac pacing and FSTL1 infusion served as control.
3
H-oleate and
14
C-glucose were infused to track the metabolic fate of free fatty acids and glucose. Cardiac uptake of lactate and ketone bodies and systemic respiratory quotient were also measured. HF caused a shift from prevalent cardiac and systemic fat to carbohydrate oxidation. Although acute FSTL1 administration caused minimal hemodynamic changes at baseline, in HF dogs it enhanced cardiac oxygen consumption and transiently reversed the changes in free fatty acid and glucose oxidation and systemic respiratory quotient. In HF, chronic FSTL1 infusion stably normalized cardiac free fatty acid, glucose, ketone body consumption, and systemic respiratory quotient, while moderately improving diastolic and contractile function. Consistently, FSTL1 prevented the downregulation of medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase—a representative enzyme of the free fatty acid oxidation pathway. Complementary in vitro experiments in primary cardiac and skeletal muscle myocytes showed that FSTL1 stimulated oxygen consumption through AMPK (AMP-activated kinase) activation.

Conclusions

These findings support a novel function for FSTL1 and provide the first direct evidence that a circulating cardiokine/myokine can alter myocardial and systemic energy substrate metabolism, in vivo.
Improving Temporal Trends in Survival and Neurological Outcomes After Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest
Authors: Buick Jason E. , Drennan Ian R. , Scales Damon C. , Brooks Steven C. , Byers Adams , Cheskes Sheldon , Dainty Katie N. , Feldman Michael , Verbeek P. Richard , Zhan Cathy , Kiss Alex , Morrison Laurie J. , Lin Steve , Chan Tim , Dorian Paul , Hutchison Jamie , Ko Dennis , Nascimiento Barto , Rizoli Sandro , Swartz Rick
Published: January 2018

Background

Considerable effort has gone into improving outcomes from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). Studies suggest that survival is improving; however, prior studies had insufficient data to pursue the relationship between markers of guideline compliance and temporal trends. The objective of the study was to evaluate trends in OHCA survival over an 8-year period that included the implementation of the 2005 and 2010 international cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) guidelines.

Methods and Results

This was a population-based cohort study of all consecutive treated OHCA patients of presumed cardiac cause between 2006 and 2013 in the City of Toronto, Canada, and surrounding regions. Temporal changes were measured by χ
2
trend test. The association between year of the OHCA and survival was evaluated using logistic regression and joinpoint analysis. A total of 23 619 patients with OHCA met study inclusion criteria. During the study period, survival to hospital discharge doubled (4.8% in 2006 to 9.4% in 2013;
P
<0.0001), and survival with good neurological outcome increased (6.2% in 2010 to 8.5% in 2013;
P
=0.005). Improvements occurred in the rates of bystander CPR and automated external defibrillator application, high-quality CPR metrics, and in-hospital targeted temperature management. After adjusting for the Utstein variables, survival to hospital discharge (odds ratio, 1.12; 95% confidence interval, 1.09–1.15) and survival with good neurological outcome (odds ratio, 1.13; 95% confidence interval, 1.05–1.22) increased with each year of study.

Conclusions

Survival after OHCA has improved over time. This trend was associated with improved rates of bystander CPR, automated external defibrillator use, high-quality CPR metrics, and in-hospital targeted temperature management. The results suggest that multiple factors, each improving over time, may have contributed to the observed increase in survival.
Neighborhood Deprivation Predicts Heart Failure Risk in a Low-Income Population of Blacks and Whites in the Southeastern United States
Authors: Akwo Elvis A. , Kabagambe Edmond K. , Harrell Frank E. , Blot William J. , Bachmann Justin M. , Wang Thomas J. , Gupta Deepak K. , Lipworth Loren
Published: January 2018

Background

Recent data suggest that neighborhood socioeconomic environment predicts heart failure (HF) hospital readmissions. We investigated whether neighborhood deprivation predicts risk of incident HF beyond individual socioeconomic status in a low-income population.

Methods and Results

Participants were 27 078 whites and blacks recruited during 2002 to 2009 in the SCCS (Southern Community Cohort Study), who had no history of HF and were using Centers for Medicare or Medicaid Services. Incident HF diagnoses through December 31, 2010, were ascertained using
International Classification of Diseases
, Ninth Revision, codes 428.x via linkage with Centers for Medicare or Medicaid Services research files. Participant residential information was geocoded and census tract determined by a spatial join to the US Census Bureau TIGER/Line Shapefiles. The neighborhood deprivation index was constructed using principal components analysis based on census tract-level socioeconomic variables. Cox models with Huber–White cluster sandwich estimator of variance were used to investigate the association between neighborhood deprivation index and HF risk. The study sample was predominantly middle aged (mean, 55.5 years), black (69%), female (63%), low income (70% earned <$15 000/y), and >50% of participants lived in the most deprived neighborhoods (third neighborhood deprivation index tertile). Over median follow-up of 5.2 years, 4300 participants were diagnosed with HF. After adjustment for demographic, lifestyle, and clinical factors, a 1 interquartile increase in neighborhood deprivation index was associated with a 12% increase in risk of HF (hazard ratio, 1.12; 95% confidence interval, 1.07–1.18), and 4.8% of the variance in HF risk (intraclass correlation coefficient, 4.8; 95% confidence interval, 3.6–6.4) was explained by neighborhood deprivation.

Conclusions

In this low-income population, scant neighborhood resources compound the risk of HF above and beyond individual socioeconomic status and traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Improvements in community resources may be a significant axis for curbing the burden of HF.
Retrospective Methods Analysis of Semiautomated Intracerebral Hemorrhage Volume Quantification From a Selection of the STICH II Cohort (Early Surgery Versus Initial Conservative Treatment in Patients With Spontaneous Supratentorial Lobar Intracerebral Haematomas)
Authors: Haley Mark D. , Gregson Barbara A. , Mould W. Andrew , Hanley Daniel F. , Mendelow Alexander David
Published: January 2018

Background and Purpose—

The ABC/2 method for calculating intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) volume has been well validated. However, the formula, derived from the volume of an ellipse, assumes the shape of ICH is elliptical. We sought to compare the agreement of the ABC/2 formula with other methods through retrospective analysis of a selection of the STICH II cohort (Early Surgery Versus Initial Conservative Treatment in Patients With Spontaneous Supratentorial Lobar Intracerebral Haematomas).

Methods—

From 390 patients, 739 scans were selected from the STICH II image archive based on the availability of a CT scan compatible with OsiriX DICOM viewer. ICH volumes were calculated by the reference standard semiautomatic segmentation in OsiriX software and compared with calculated arithmetic methods (ABC/2, ABC/2.4, ABC/3, and 2/3SC) volumes. Volumes were compared by difference plots for specific groups: randomization ICH (n=374), 3- to 7-day postsurgical ICH (n=206), antithrombotic-associated ICH (n=79), irregular-shape ICH (n=703) and irregular-density ICH (n=650). Density and shape were measured by the Barras ordinal shape and density groups (1–5).

Results—

The ABC/2.4 method had the closest agreement to the semiautomatic segmentation volume in all groups, except for the 3- to 7-day postsurgical ICH group where the ABC/3 method was superior.

Conclusions—

Although the ABC/2 formula for calculating elliptical ICH is well validated, it must be used with caution in ICH scans where the elliptical shape of ICH is a false assumption. We validated the adjustment of the ABC/2.4 method in randomization, antithrombotic-associated, heterogeneous-density, and irregular-shape ICH.

Clinical Trial Registration—

URL:
http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN22153967
. Unique identifier: ISRCTN22153967.