bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Intelligent Hybrid Cloud Data Hosting Services with Effective Cost and High Availability
Authors: Myneni Madhu Bala , Narasimha Prasad L V , Naveen Kumar D
Published: October 2017

In this Paper the major concentration is an efficient and user based data hosting service for hybrid cloud. It provides friendly transaction scheme with the features of cost effective and high availability to all users. This framework intelligently puts data into cloud with effective cost and high availability. This gives a plan of proof of information respectability in which the client has utilize to check the rightness of his information. In this study the major cloud storage vendors in India are considered and the parameters like storage space, cost of storage, outgoing bandwidth and type of transition mode. Based on available knowledge on all parameters of existing cloud service providers in India, the intelligent hybrid cloud data hosting framework are assured to customers for low cost and high availability with mode of transition. It guarantees that the ability at the customer side is negligible and which will be helpful for customers.
Functional Verification of Large-integers Circuits using a Cosimulation-based Approach
Authors: Alimi Nejmeddine , Lahbib Younes , Machhout Mohsen , Tourki Rached
Published: October 2017

Cryptography and computational algebra designs are complex systems based on modular arithmetic and build on multi-level modules where bit-width is generally larger than 64-bit. Because of their particularity, such designs pose a real challenge for verification, in part because large-integer’s functions are not supported in actual hardware description languages (HDLs), therefore limiting the HDL testbench utility. In another hand, high-level verification approach proved its efficiency in the last decade over HDL testbench technique by raising the latter at a higher abstraction level. In this work, we propose a high-level platform to verify such designs, by leveraging the capabilities of a popular tool (Matlab/Simulink) to meet the requirements of a cycle accurate verification without bit-size restrictions and in multi-level inside the design architecture. The proposed high-level platform is augmented by an assertion-based verification to complete the verification coverage. The platform experimental results of the testcase provided good evidence of its performance and re-usability.
Current Controller Based Power Management Strategy for Interfacing DG Units to Micro Grid
Authors: Chaitanya N. , Sujatha P. , Sekhar K. Chandra
Published: October 2017

This paper proposes a power management strategy of parallel inveters based system, to enhance the power generation capacity of the existing system with distributed energy sources one has to choose DG source based inverter connected in parallel with the existing system.Two DG sources PV, Fuel cells feeds the DC voltage to two parallel inverters connected to the grid. Fixed band hysteresis current control with Instantaneous p-q power theory is adopted to create an artificial environment. Two parallel inverters are able to deliver the harvested power from PV, FC to grid and able to balance the load Without communication between parallel inverters this controller having the capability of load following, the harmonic components of currents at output of inverter are also very low; this will automatically reduces the circulating currents between parallel inverters. Simulation studies are carried out to investigate the results of PV, FC systems connected to the utility grid.
Accurate Symbolic Steady State Modeling of Buck Converter
Authors: Setiawan Eko , Hirata Takuya , Hodaka Ichijo
Published: October 2017

Steady state analysis is fundamental to any electric and electronic circuit design. Buck converter is one of most popular power electronics circuit and has been analyzed in various situations. Although the behavior of buck converters can be understood approximately by the well-known state space averaging method, little is known in the sense of detailed behavior or exact solution to equations. In this paper a steady state analysis of buck converter is proposed which allows the exact calculation of steady state response. Our exact solution is expressed as a Fourier series. Our result is compared with numerical calculation to be verified. Our method copes with more complicated problems such as describing average power and root-mean-square power that are most critical issues in power electronics circuit.
A Hybrid Digital Watermarking Approach Using Wavelets and LSB
Authors: Kumar V. Ashok , Dharmaraj C. , Rao Ch. Srinivasa
Published: October 2017

The present paper proposed a novel approach called Wavelet based Least Significant Bit Watermarking (WLSBWM) for high authentication, security and copyright protection. Alphabet Pattern (AP) approach is used to generate shuffled image in the first stage and Pell’s Cat Map (PCM) is used for providing more security and strong protection from attacks. PCM applied on each 5×5 sub images. A wavelet concept is used to reduce the dimensionality of the image until it equals to the size of the watermark image. Discrete Cosign Transform is applied in the first stage; later N level Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) is applied for reducing up to the size of the watermark image. The water mark image is inserted in LHn Sub band of the wavelet image using LSB concept. Simulation results show that the proposed technique produces better PSNR and similarity measure. The experimental results indicate that the present approach is more reliable and secure efficient.The robustness of the proposed scheme is evaluated against various image-processing attacks.
Signboard Text Translator: A Guide to Tourist
Authors: Kavati Ilaiah , Kumar G Kiran , Kesagani Sarika , Rao K Srinivasa
Published: October 2017

The travelers face troubles in understanding the signboards which are written in local language. The travelers can rely on smart phone for traveling purposes. Smart phones become most popular in recent years in terms of market value and the number of useful applications to the users. This work intends to build up a web application that can recognize the English content present on signboard pictures captured using a smart phone, translate the content from English to Telugu, and display the translated Telugu text back onto the screen of the phone. Experiments have been conducted on various signboard pictures and the outcomes demonstrate the viability of the proposed approach.
The Effect of Bandwidth on Speech Intelligibility in Albanian Language by Using Multimedia Applications like Skype and Viber
Authors: Osmanaj Sabrije , Shala Altin , Prevalla Blerta
Published: October 2017

This paper intends to analyze subjective measurements of intelligibility of speech on Albanian language during the conversation between two people using applications which today are very used for communication such as Skype and Viber. The measurement is done as follows: on the entry part of the transmission system sentences or words are spoken or just syllables while on receiving part is recorded what is heard; the percentage of words, sentences or syllables correctly received, on proportion to those imposed on the entry of the system, providing the percentage of intelligibility (the words, sentences or syllables). Methods of measurements are made at different speed of the Internet, in an environment without noise and with noise, in order to see the impact on understanding of the speech with different target parameters.
Robustness and Stability Analysis of a Predictive PI Controller in WirelessHART Network Characterised by Stochastic Delay
Authors: Hassan Sabo Miya , Ibrahim Rosdiazli , Saad Nordin , Asirvadam Vijanth Sagayan , Bingi Kishore , Chung Tran Duc
Published: October 2017

As control over wireless network in the industry is receives increasing attention, its application comes with challenges such as stochastic network delay. The PIDs are ill equipped to handle such challenges while the model based controllers are complex. A settlement between the two is the PPI controller. However, there is no certainty on its ability to preserve closed loop stability under such challenges. While classical robustness measures do not require extensive uncertainty modelling, they do not guarantee stability under simultaneous process and network delay variations. On the other hand, the model uncertainty measures tend to be conservative. Thus, this work uses extended complementary sensitivity function method which handles simultaneously those challenges. Simulation results shows that the PPI controller can guarantee stability even under model and delay uncertainties.
LusRegTes: A Regression Testing Tool for Lustre Programs
Authors: Binh Nguyen Thanh , Duy Trinh Cong , Parissis Ioannis
Published: October 2017

Lustre is a synchronous data-flow declarative language widely used for safety-critical applications (avionics, energy, transport...). In such applications, the testing activity for detecting errors of the system plays a crucial role. During the development and maintenance processes, Lustre programs are often evolving, so regression testing should be performed to detect bugs. In this paper, we present a tool for automatic regression testing of Lustre programs. We have defined an approach to generate test cases in regression testing of Lustre programs.  In this approach, a Lustre program is represented by an operator network, then the set of paths is identified and the path activation conditions are symbolically computed for each version. Regression test cases are generated by comparing paths between versions. The approach was implemented in a tool, called LusRegTes, in order to automate the test process for Lustre programs.
Hybrid Spectrum Sensing Method for Cognitive Radio
Authors: Khobragade A. S. , Raut R.D.
Published: October 2017

With exponential rise in the internet applications and wireless communications, higher and efficient data transfer rates are required. Hence proper and effective spectrum is the need of the hour, As spectrum demand increases there are limited number of bands available to send and receive the data. Optimizing the use of these bands efficiently is one of the tedious tasks. Various techniques are used to send the data at same time, but for that we have to know which bands are free before sending the data. For this purpose various spectrum sensing approaches came with variety of solutions. In this paper the sensing problem is tackled with the use of hybrid spectrum sensing method, This new networking paradox uses the Centralized concept of spectrum sensing and creates one of the most trusted spectrums sensing mechanism. This proposed technique is simulated using MATLAB software.This paper also provides comparative study of various spectrum sensing methodologies
Hybrid Method HVS-MRMR for Variable Selection in Multilayer Artificial Neural Network Classifier
Authors: Adil Ben-Hdech , Youssef Ghanou , Abderrahim El Qadi
Published: October 2017

The variable selection is an important technique the reducing dimensionality of data frequently used in data preprocessing for performing data mining. This paper presents a new variable selection algorithm uses the heuristic variable selection (HVS) and Minimum Redundancy Maximum Relevance (MRMR). We enhance the HVS method for variab le selection by incorporating (MRMR) filter. Our algorithm is based on wrapper approach using multi-layer perceptron. We called this algorithm a HVS-MRMR Wrapper for variables selection. The relevance of a set of variables is measured by a convex combination of the relevance given by HVS criterion and the MRMR criterion. This approach selects new relevant variables; we evaluate the performance of HVS-MRMR on eight benchmark classification problems. The experimental results show that HVS-MRMR selected a less number of variables with high classification accuracy compared to MRMR and HVS and without variables selection on most datasets. HVS-MRMR can be applied to various classification problems that require high classification accuracy.
Optimization of Fuzzy Tsukamoto Membership Function using Genetic Algorithm to Determine the River Water
Authors: Kotimah Qoirul , Mahmudy Wayan Firdaus , Wijayaningrum Vivi Nur
Published: October 2017

Some aquatic ecosystems in rivers depend on the river water, so it needs to be maintained by measuring and analyzing the river water quality. STORET is one of the methods used to measure the river water quality, but it takes a quite high of time and costs. Fuzzy Tsukamoto is an alternative method that works by grouping the river water data, but it is difficult to determine the membership function value. The solution offered in this study is the use of genetic algorithm to determine the membership function value of each criterion. Based on the test results, the optimization of fuzzy membership function using genetic algorithm provides higher accuracy value that is 95%, while the accuracy value without optimization process is 90%. The parameters used in genetic algorithm are as follows: population size is 80, generation number is 175, crossover rate (cr) is 0.6, and mutation rate (mr) is 0.4.
Cursive Handwriting Segmentation using Ideal Distance Approach
Authors: Fitrianingsih Fitrianingsih , Madenda Sarifuddin , Ernastuti Ernastuti , Widodo Suryarini , Rodiah Rodiah
Published: October 2017

Offline cursive handwriting becomes a major challenge due to the huge amount of handwriting varieties such as slant handwriting, space between words, the size and direction of the letter, the style of writing the letter and handwriting with contour similarity on some letters. There are some steps for recursive handwriting recognition. The steps are preprocessing, morphology, segmentation, features of letter extraction and recognition. Segmentation is a crucial process in handwriting recognition since the success of segmentation step will determine the success level of recognition. This paper proposes a segmentation algorithm that segment recursive handwriting into letters. These letters will form words using a method that determine the intersection cutting point of image recursive handwriting with an ideal image distance. The ideal distance of recursive handwriting image is an ideal distance segmentation point in order to avoid the cutting of other letter’s section. The width and height of images are used to determine the accurate segmentation point. There were 999 recursive handwriting input images taken from 25 researchers used for this study. The images used are the images obtained from preprocessing step. Those are the images with slope correction. This study used Support Vector Machine (SVM) to recognize recursive handwriting. The experiments show the proposed segmentation algorithm able to segment the image precisely and have 97% success recognizing the recursive handwriting.
Theoretical Analysis of a Two-stage Sagnac loop filter using Jones Matrices
Authors: Ahmad N. A. B. , Dahlan S. H. , Cholan N. A.
Published: October 2017

In this work, a theoretical analysis of a Sagnac loop filter (SLF) with two-stage polarization maintaining fibers (PMFs) and polarization controllers (PCs) is presented. The transmission function of this two-stage SLF is calculated in detail by using Jones matrix. The calculation is performed in order to investigate the filtering characteristics. The theoretical results show that the wavelength interval is depending on the dynamic settings of the length of the PMFs and the polarization angle of the PCs. By changing the polarization angle of the PCs, a multiple of single, dual or triple wavelength in each channel can be achieved. Based on this study, a flat multiwavelength spectrum can be obtained by adjusting the PMFs and the PCs in the two-stage SLF. This finding significantly contributes to the generation of multiwavelength fiber laser (MWFL) that can be used for many optical applications.
SCNN Based Electrical Characteristics of Solar Photovoltaic Cell Model
Authors: Purwahyudi Bambang , Kuspijani Kuspijani , Ahmadi Ahmadi
Published: October 2017

Solar photovoltaic (PV) cell is one of the renewable energy sources and a main component of PV power systems. The design of PV power systems requires accurately its electrical output characteristics. The electrical characteristics of solar PV cell consist of I-V and P-V characteristics. They depend on the parameters of PV cell such as short circuit current, open circuit voltage and maximum power. Solar PV cell model can be described through an equivalent circuit including a current source, a diode, a series resistor and a shunt resistor. In this paper, the development solar PV cell model is built by using self constructing neural network (SCNN) methods. This SCNN technique is used to improve the accuracy of the electrical characteristic of solar PV cell model. SCNN solar PV cell model have three inputs and two outputs. They are respectively solar radiation, temperature, series resistance, current and power. The effectiveness of SCNN technique is verified using simulation results based on different physical and environmental conditions. Simulations are conducted by the change of the solar irradiation, temperature and series resistance. Simulation results show SCNN model can yield the I-V and P-V characteristics according to the characteristics of solar PV cell.
Modeling of Lightning Strike Events, and it’s Correlational with Power Outages in South-West Coast, Nigeria
Authors: A. O. Melodi A. O. , Oyeleye Olayinka Matthew
Published: October 2017

This paper aimed to model lightning strike events and evaluate its correlation with power outages in a Nigerian power distribution system. A specified coastal distribution network of southwest Nigeria was selected as a case study. Zone-specific records of cloud-to-ground lightning strikes for 84 months were obtained from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet); records of power outage frequencies and durations for 36 months were obtained at the substations of the selected distribution network. Using numerical statistical analysis techniques, lightning activity in the system area were characterized in relative frequency terms, and correlation statistics were evaluated and analyzed for power outages and lightning events on the 11kV, 33kV, and 132kV voltage levels. An analysis of the results shows that the modelled lightning strike events patterns are closely related but the expected frequencies vary from one zone to another; and there is correlation between lightning strike and power outages in the distribution networks, which is strong and positive at the 33 kV and 132 kV circuits. In essence, the results provided salient information, useful for power systems lightning protection review, management and planning in the area.
250 MHz Multiphase Delay Locked Loop for Low Power Applications
Authors: Suman Shruti , Sharma K. G. , Ghosh P. K.
Published: October 2017

Delay locked loop is a critical building block of high speed synchronous circuits. An improved architecture of amixed signaldelay locked loop (DLL) is presented here. In this DLL, delay cell based on single ended differential pair configuration is used for voltage controlled delay line (VCDL) implementation. This delay cell provides a high locking range with less phase noise and jitter due to differential pair configuration.For increasing the acquisition range and locking speed of the DLL, modified true single phase clock (TSPC) based phase frequency detector is used. The proposed design is implemented at 0.18 um CMOS technology and at power supply of 1.8V . It has power consumption of 1.39 mW at 125 MHz center frequency with locking range from 0.5 MHz to 250 MHz.
Design and Implementation of an Embedded System for Software Defined Radio
Authors: Abdelkareem A. E. , Mohammed Saleh Saad , D. Jasim Ammar
Published: October 2017

In this paper, developing high performance software for demanding real-time embedded systems is proposed. This software-based design will enable the software engineers and system architects in emerging technology areas like 5G Wireless and Software Defined Networking (SDN) to build their algorithms. An ADSP-21364 floating point SHARC Digital Signal Processor (DSP) running at 333 MHz is adopted as a platform for an embedded system. To evaluate the proposed embedded system, an implementation of frame, symbol and carrier phase synchronization is presented as an application. Its performance is investigated with an on line Quadrature Phase Shift keying (QPSK) receiver. Obtained results show that the designed software is implemented successfully based on the SHARC DSP which can utilized efficiently for such algorithms. In addition, it is proven that the proposed embedded system is pragmatic and capable of dealing with the memory constraints and critical time issue due to a long length interleaved coded data utilized for channel coding.
A Response Analysis of Mobile Augmented Reality Application for Tourism Objects
Authors: Tahyudin Imam , Surya Saputra Dhanar Intan
Published: October 2017

As a form of innovation in a promotion media Tourism Objects in Indonesia especially at Purbalingga District, one is through Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR). The utilization of technology application of MAR, give the impression of interactive and real towards an object tourism and provide a special experience for tourists to get the information completely including the tourism location. To deliver care facilities to users, we need the evaluation to development or improvement for next application. The method used in this research is evaluation of user satisfaction towards the multimedia elements. The result of MAR user satisfaction showed that almost all respondents are well satisfied.
Solving Course Selection Problem by a Combination of Correlation Analysis and Analytic Hierarchy Process
Authors: Al-Sarem Mohammed
Published: October 2017

In the universities where students have a chance to select and enroll in a particular course, they require special support to avoid the wrong combination of courses that might lead to delay their study. Analysis shows that the students' selection is mainly influenced by list of factors which we categorized them into three groups of concern: course factors, social factors, and individual factors. This paper proposed a two-phased model where the most correlated courses are generated and prioritized based on the student preferences. At this end, we have applied the multi-criteria analytic hierarchy process (MC-AHP) in order to generate the optimum set of courses from the available courses pool. To validate the model, we applied it to the data from students of the Information System Department at Taibah University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 
Reviewing the Effectivity Factor in Existing Techniques of Image Forensics
Authors: TM Shashidhar , Ramesh KB
Published: October 2017

Studies towards image forensics are about a decade old and various forms of research techniques have been presented till date towards image forgery detection. Majority of the existing techniques deals with identification of tampered regions using different forms of research methodologies. However, it is still an open-end question about the effectiveness of existing image forgery detection techniques as there is no reported benchmarked outcome till date about it. Therefore, the present manuscript discusses about the most frequently addressed image attacks e.g. image splicing and copy-move attack and elaborates the existing techniques presented by research community to resist it. The paper also contributes to explore the direction of present research trend with respect to tool adoption, database adoption, and technique adoption, and frequently used attack scenario. Finally, significant open research gap are explored after reviewing effectiveness of existing techniques.
Comparative Study of Neural Networks Algorithms for Cloud Computing CPU Scheduling
Authors: Hicham Gibet Tani , Chaker El Amrani , Lotfi Elaachak
Published: October 2017

Cloud Computing is the most powerful computing model of our time. While the major IT providers and consumers are competing to exploit the benefits of this computing model in order to thrive their profits, most of the cloud computing platforms are still built on operating systems that uses basic CPU (Core Processing Unit) scheduling algorithms that lacks the intelligence needed for such innovative computing model. Correspdondingly, this paper presents the benefits of applying Artificial Neural Networks algorithms in regards to enhancing CPU scheduling for Cloud Computing model. Furthermore, a set of characteristics and theoretical metrics are proposed for the sake of comparing the different Artificial Neural Networks algorithms and finding the most accurate algorithm for Cloud Computing CPU Scheduling.
Efficient End-to-End Secure Key Management Protocol for Internet of Things
Authors: Benslimane Yamina , BenAhmed Khelifa
Published: October 2017

Internet of things (IoT) has described a futurevision of internetwhere users, computing system, and everyday objects possessing sensing and actuating capabilities are part of distributed applications and required to support standard internet communication with more powerful device or internet hosts. This vision necessitates the security mechanisms for end-to-end communication. A key management protocol is critical to ensuring the secure exchange of data between interconnecting entities, but due to the nature of this communication system where a high resource constrained node may be communicating with node with high energy makes the application of existing key management protocols impossible. In this paper, we propose a new lightweight key management protocol that allows the constrained node in 6loWPAN network to transmit captured data to internet host in secure channel. This protocol is based on cooperation of selected 6loWPAN routers to participate in computation of highly consuming cryptographic primitives. Our protocol is assessed with AVISPA tool, the results show that our scheme ensured security properties.
A Survey on Automatically Mining Facets for Web Queries
Authors: Pawar Duhita , M. Lomte Vina
Published: October 2017

In this paper, a detailed survey on different facet mining techniques, their advantages and disadvantages is carried out. Facets are any word or phrase which summarize an important aspect about the web query. Researchers proposed different efficient techniques which improves the user’s web query search experiences magnificently. Users are happy when they find the relevant information to their query in the top results. The objectives of their research are: (1) To present automated solution to derive the query facets by analyzing the text query; (2) To create taxonomy of query refinement strategies for efficient results; and (3) To personalize search according to user interest.
The baroque potheads: modification and embellishment in repeated call sequences of long-finned pilot whales
Authors: Zwamborn Elizabeth M.J. , Whitehead Hal
Published: October 2017

Vocal variation within calls that are generally stereotyped suggests multiple simultaneous functions. These vocal cues may be especially important for group-living species. We describe two fundamental call transition types within repeated call sequences of long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas): embellishment — discrete changes to a specific part of a call — and morphing — non-discrete small changes across a call. Of transitions between consecutive calls, 31% were embellished and 20% morphed. Modifications between pairs of consecutive calls were often followed by another modification of the same type, with sequences of embellished transitions generally alternating between ornamentation and simplification. Ten classes of embellishment varied in rate of occurrence as well as temporal location within a call. Most common were the addition/deletion of pulsed or tonal elements. Functions of these modifications could include conveying information on location or the emotional state of the signaller, or they could be products of vocal innovation.
Contrasting seasonal reactions of two sibling woodpeckers to playback stimulation in urban areas — implications for inventory and monitoring of the Syrian woodpecker
Authors: Figarski Tomasz
Published: October 2017

The Syrian woodpecker (Dendrocopos syriacus) is the most synanthropic species among European woodpeckers and can be considered to be a synurbic species benefiting from human activity and man-made habitats. Because it is closely related to the common great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major), the interactions between the species should be investigated before conducting any study on the Syrian woodpecker. The aim of this study was to assess, analyse and compare both species reactions to the broadcasting of Syrian woodpecker playbacks throughout the year, in urban areas. The study was conducted in three Polish towns. All sites hosted populations of Syrian and great spotted woodpeckers living sympatrically. Both woodpeckers were observed throughout each year of study and responded to playback. The Syrian woodpecker more willingly responded to playbacks. Especially interesting was that the Syrian woodpecker female participated in territorial activity to a greater degree than males (sex-role reversed species). This is the first woodpecker study that shows a stronger territorial activity in females than males and the first reporting woodpecker reactions to playback stimulation throughout the year. The Syrian woodpecker is a rare and threatened species in Europe (protected under the Birds Directive of the European Union (2009/147/EC) and is considered a keystone species for woods and associated biodiversity in urban areas. Therefore, application of efficient methods for precise recognition of Syrian woodpecker territories (not only breeding ones) on the basis of correct interpretation of its behaviour is crucial for its conservation and urban habitat management.
The Response of an Idealized Atmosphere to Localized Tropical Heating: Superrotation and the Breakdown of Linear Theory
Authors: Lutsko Nicholas J.
Published: October 2017

An equatorial heat source mimicking the strong diabatic heating above the west Pacific is added to an idealized, dry general circulation model. For small (<0.5 K day−1) heating rates the responses closely match the expectations from linear Matsuno–Gill theory, though the amplitudes of the responses increase sublinearly. This “linear” regime breaks down for larger heating rates and it is found that this is because the stability of the tropical atmosphere increases. At the same time, the equatorial winds increasingly superrotate. This superrotation is driven by stationary eddy momentum fluxes by the waves excited by the heating and is damped by the vertical advection of low-momentum air by the mean flow and, at large heating rates, by the divergence of momentum by transient eddies.

These dynamics are explored in additional experiments in which the equator-to-pole temperature gradient is varied. Very strong superrotation is produced when a large heating rate is applied to a setup with a relatively weak equator-to-pole temperature gradient, though there is no evidence that this is a case of “runaway” superrotation.
A Simple Nonlinear and End-Member-Free Approach for Obtaining Ocean Remineralization Patterns
Authors: De La Fuente Patricia , Pelegrí Josep L. , Canepa Antonio , Gasser Marc , Domínguez Francisco , Marrasé Cèlia
Published: October 2017

The variability of a biogeochemical property in the ocean is the outcome of both nonconservative (such as respiration and photosynthesis) and conservative (mixing of water masses with distinct concentrations at origin) processes. One method to separate both contributions is based on a multiple regression of the biogeochemical property in terms of temperature θ and salinity S as conservative proxies of water masses. This regression delivers the variability related to the conservative fraction and hence allows for identifying the residual as the biogeochemical anomaly. Here, the standard multiple linear regression (MLR) method, which assumes that water masses mix locally and linearly, is compared with a nonlinear polynomial regression (PR) over the entire (θ, S) space. The PR method has two important advantages over MLR: allows for simultaneous nonlinear mixing of all water masses and does not require knowing the end-member water types. Both approaches are applied to data along 7.5°N in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean, and the biogeochemical anomalies are calculated for humic-like fluorescent dissolved organic matter, apparent oxygen utilization, and nitrate—all of them related through in situ remineralization processes. The goodness of both approaches is assessed by analyzing the linear dependence and the coefficient of correlation between the anomalies. The results show that the PR method can be applied over the entire water column and yet retains the local variability associated with nonconservative processes. The potential of the PR approach is also illustrated by calculating the oxygen–nitrate stoichiometric ratio for the entire 7.5°N transatlantic section.
Flexural response of carbon fiber reinforced aluminum foam sandwich
Authors: Yan Chang , Song Xuding , Zhu Hui , Jing Chuanhe , Feng Shuo
Published: October 2017

Sandwich panels with carbon fiber fabric/epoxy resin face-sheet and aluminum foam core have a potential application value in the engineering field. To study the bending mechanical properties of the reinforced sandwich structure, three-point bending test was conducted by using WDW-T100 electronic universal tensile testing machine. The relation between load and displacement of the aluminum foam sandwich was obtained. Deformations and failure modes of the specimens were recorded. Scanning electron microscopy was used to observe the failure mechanism. Results showed that when aluminum foam was reinforced by carbon fiber fabric as face-sheet, its flexural load-carrying capacity and energy absorption ability improved significantly. Foam core density and number of carbon fiber plies had serious impacts on the peak load value and energy absorption value of the composite structure. It was suggested that aluminum foam core sandwich structure with low foam core density of 0.49 g/cm3 and 5 plies of carbon fiber fabric had the highest energy absorption ability and medium load-carrying ability. Failure modes analysis showed that shear failure leaded to the final failure of sandwich panels with medium peak load and interface de-bonding leaded to the final failure of sandwich panels with high peak load.
Retail Sugar From One Zambian Community Does Not Meet Statutory Requirements for Vitamin A Fortification
Authors: Greene Matthew D. , Kabaghe Gladys , Musonda Mofu , Palmer Amanda C.
Published: October 2017

Background:

Industrial food fortification is a major strategy to improve dietary micronutrient intakes and prevent deficiencies. Zambia introduced mandatory sugar fortification with vitamin A, at a target of 10 mg/kg, in 1998. Representative surveys conducted since that time do not support marked improvement in vitamin A status.

Objective:

To describe vitamin A concentrations in retail sugar, as well as vendor practices, perceptions of fortified foods, and sugar use practices.

Methods:

We conducted a census of sugar vendors in one Zambian community, capturing information on vendors, available brands and packaging options, and storage conditions. We purchased all brands and package types of sugar available at each vendor. In a 15% subsample, we conducted semi-structured interviews with vendor–consumer pairs. We tested 50% of sugar samples at random for vitamin A using an iCheck portable fluorimeter.

Results:

The distribution of vitamin A in sugar in market samples was highly skewed, with a median of 3.1 mg/kg (25th-75th percentiles: 1.8-5.5) and a range from 0.2 to 29.9 mg/kg. Only 11.3% of samples met the 10 mg/kg statutory requirement. Sugar was primarily repackaged and sold in small quantities, with rapid turnover of stocks. Perceptions of fortification by vendors and consumers were generally positive.

Conclusions:

Vitamin A in fortified sugar fell well below statutory requirements. Our data point to challenges at regional depot and/or poor adherence to fortification standards at the factory level. A renewed commitment to monitoring and enforcement will be required for Zambia to benefit from a food fortification strategy.
Sustained Improvement in Administration of the Hepatitis B Vaccine Birth Dose: A Quality Improvement Initiative
Authors: Nemerofsky Sheri L. , Akingboye Bolanle , Ferguson Claudia , Africa Dawn
Published: October 2017

The New York State Department of Health recommends the administration of the hepatitis B vaccine birth dose within 12 hours of life (HOL) for all full-term babies irrespective of maternal hepatitis B status. The primary and secondary aims of the project were to improve the timeliness of vaccine administration and increase the total number of infants vaccinated prior to discharge. Multiple Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles were performed. Statistical process charts of percentages of vaccination within 12 HOL and prior to discharge were constructed with 3-σ (data within 3 standard deviations from a mean) control limits. These control limits were adjusted after achieving significant improvements in performance over time. Administration within 12 HOL improved from 13% to ≥65% within 6 months, and has been sustained for >1 year. Vaccine administration prior to discharge increased from 94% to 98%. Quality improvement methods can rapidly improve adherence to newborn vaccine recommendations and these effects are sustainable.
A Data-Driven Synthesis of Research Evidence for Domains of Hearing Loss, as Reported by Adults With Hearing Loss and Their Communication Partners
Authors: Vas Venessa , Akeroyd Michael A. , Hall Deborah A.
Published: October 2017

A number of assessment tools exist to evaluate the impact of hearing loss, with little consensus among researchers as to either preference or psychometric adequacy. The item content of hearing loss assessment tools should seek to capture the impact of hearing loss on everyday life, but to date no one has synthesized the range of hearing loss complaints from the perspectives of the person with hearing loss and their communication partner. The current review aims to synthesize the evidence on person with hearing loss- and communication partner-reported complaints of hearing loss. Searches were conducted in Cos Conference Papers Index, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Excerpta Medica Database, PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar to identify publications from May 1982 to August 2015. A manual search of four relevant journals updated the search to May 2017. Of the 9,516 titles identified, 78 records (comprising 20,306 participants) met inclusion criteria and were taken through to data collection. Data were analyzed using meta-ethnography to form domains representing the person with hearing loss- and communication partner-reported complaints of hearing loss as reported in research. Domains and subdomains mutual to both perspectives are related to “Auditory” (listening, communicating, and speaking), “Social” (relationships, isolation, social life, occupational, and interventions), and “Self” (effort and fatigue, emotions, identity, and stigma). Our framework contributes fundamental new knowledge and a unique resource that enables researchers and clinicians to consider the broader impacts of hearing loss. Our findings can also be used to guide questions during diagnostic assessment and to evaluate existing measures of hearing loss.
Association between patient outcomes and key performance indicators of stroke care quality: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Urimubenshi Gerard , Langhorne Peter , Cadilhac Dominique A , Kagwiza Jeanne N , Wu Olivia
Published: October 2017

Purpose

Translating research evidence into clinical practice often uses key performance indicators to monitor quality of care. We conducted a systematic review to identify the stroke key performance indicators used in large registries, and to estimate their association with patient outcomes.

Method

We sought publications of recent (January 2000–May 2017) national or regional stroke registers reporting the association of key performance indicators with patient outcome (adjusting for age and stroke severity). We searched Ovid Medline, EMBASE and PubMed and screened references from bibliographies. We used an inverse variance random effects meta-analysis to estimate associations (odds ratio; 95% confidence interval) with death or poor outcome (death or disability) at the end of follow-up.

Findings

We identified 30 eligible studies (324,409 patients). The commonest key performance indicators were swallowing/nutritional assessment, stroke unit admission, antiplatelet use for ischaemic stroke, brain imaging and anticoagulant use for ischaemic stroke with atrial fibrillation, lipid management, deep vein thrombosis prophylaxis and early physiotherapy/mobilisation. Lower case fatality was associated with stroke unit admission (odds ratio 0.79; 0.72–0.87), swallow/nutritional assessment (odds ratio 0.78; 0.66–0.92) and antiplatelet use for ischaemic stroke (odds ratio 0.61; 0.50–0.74) or anticoagulant use for ischaemic stroke with atrial fibrillation (odds ratio 0.51; 0.43–0.64), lipid management (odds ratio 0.52; 0.38–0.71) and early physiotherapy or mobilisation (odds ratio 0.78; 0.67–0.91). Reduced poor outcome was associated with adherence to swallowing/nutritional assessment (odds ratio 0.58; 0.43–0.78) and stroke unit admission (odds ratio 0.83; 0.77–0.89). Adherence with several key performance indicators appeared to have an additive benefit.

Discussion

Adherence with common key performance indicators was consistently associated with a lower risk of death or disability after stroke.

Conclusion

Policy makers and health care professionals should implement and monitor those key performance indicators supported by good evidence.
Research on the roles that education plays in Chinese poverty alleviation
Authors: Li Mengzhu
Published: October 2017

Human capital investment is important for reduction in poverty. This paper – based on human capital theory, taking rural households in the Wuling Mountain Region as the samples, and adopting binary logistic regression – investigates the influences that education has on poverty alleviation in rural China. The results show that educational attainment plays a crucial role in poverty alleviation. For instance, 65.65% of illiterate or just literate people make less than 2300 yuan a year, while 48.76% of those with a primary education earn money at the same level. With a greater educational level, only 34.17% are at the poverty level. The results of logistic regression further support the argument. Our research suggests that policy-makers in China’s anti-poverty action should allocate more educational resources to the poor rural areas in order to further alleviate poverty in rural China.
Extracellular fluid tonicity impacts sickle red blood cell deformability and adhesion
Authors: Carden Marcus A. , Fay Meredith E. , Lu Xinran , Mannino Robert G. , Sakurai Yumiko , Ciciliano Jordan C. , Hansen Caroline E. , Chonat Satheesh , Joiner Clinton H. , Wood David K. , Lam Wilbur A.
Published: October 2017

Key Points

Intravenous fluids are used when treating VOE, but guidelines are lacking, and how IVF tonicity affects sickle red cell biomechanics is unknown. Modifying extracellular fluid tonicity alters deformability, adhesivity, and occlusion risk for sRBCs in microfluidic vascular models.
Common best proximity point theorem for multivalued mappings in partially ordered metric spaces
Authors: Pragadeeswarar V , Poonguzali G , Marudai M , Radenović Stojan
Published: October 2017

In this paper, we prove the existence of a common best proximity point for a pair of multivalued non-self mappings in partially ordered metric spaces. Also, we provide some interesting examples to illustrate our main results.
Lamotrigine-induced sexual dysfunction and non-adherence: case analysis with literature review
Authors: Kaufman Kenneth R. , Coluccio Melissa , Sivaraaman Kartik , Campeas Miriam
Published: October 2017

Background

Optimal anti-epileptic drug (AED) treatment maximises therapeutic response and minimises adverse effects (AEs). Key to therapeutic AED treatment is adherence. Non-adherence is often related to severity of AEs. Frequently, patients do not spontaneously report, and clinicians do not specifically query, critical AEs that lead to non-adherence, including sexual dysfunction. Sexual dysfunction prevalence in patients with epilepsy ranges from 40 to 70%, often related to AEDs, epilepsy or mood states. This case reports lamotrigine-induced sexual dysfunction leading to periodic non-adherence.

Aims

To report lamotrigine-induced sexual dysfunction leading to periodic lamotrigine non-adherence in the context of multiple comorbidities and concurrent antidepressant and antihypertensive pharmacotherapy.

Method

Case analysis with PubMed literature review.

Results

A 56-year-old male patient with major depression, panic disorder without agoraphobia and post-traumatic stress disorder was well-controlled with escitalopram 20 mg bid, mirtazapine 22.5 mg qhs and alprazolam 1 mg tid prn. Comorbid conditions included complex partial seizures, psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES), hypertension, gastroesophageal reflux disease and hydrocephalus with patent ventriculoperitoneal shunt that were effectively treated with lamotrigine 100 mg tid, enalapril 20 mg qam and lansoprazole 30 mg qam. He acknowledged non-adherence with lamotrigine secondary to sexual dysfunction. With lamotrigine 300 mg total daily dose, he described no libido with impotence/anejaculation/anorgasmia. When off lamotrigine for 48 h, he described becoming libidinous with decreased erectile dysfunction but persistent anejaculation/anorgasmia. When off lamotrigine for 72 h to maximise sexual functioning, he developed auras. Family confirmed patient's consistent monthly non-adherence for 2–3 days during the past year.

Conclusions

Sexual dysfunction is a key AE leading to AED non-adherence. This case describes dose-dependent lamotrigine-induced sexual dysfunction with episodic non-adherence for 12 months. Patient/clinician education regarding AED-induced sexual dysfunction is warranted as are routine sexual histories to ensure adherence.