bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Development and evaluation of SNP panels for the detection of hybridization between wild and escaped Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in the western Atlantic
Authors: Wringe Brendan F. , Anderson Eric C. , Jeffery Nicholas W. , Stanley Ryan R.E. , Bradbury Ian R.
Published: July 2018

Hybridization between wild and escaped cultured Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) can threaten the stability and persistence of locally adapted wild populations. Here we describe the development and validation of a genomic-based approach to quantify recent hybridization between escapee and wild salmon in the western Atlantic. Based on genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) scans of wild and cultured salmon, collectively diagnostic panels were created for Newfoundland and the Canadian Maritimes. These panels were capable of both discriminating hybrids from nonhybrids and of correctly assigning individuals to hybrid class (i.e., pure wild, pure farm, F1, F2, and backcrosses) with a high degree of accuracy (Newfoundland 96 SNPs > 90%, Maritimes 720 SNPs > 80%). These genomic panels permit the assessment of the impacts of past and future farmed salmon escape events on wild populations and can inform the protection and conservation of wild Atlantic salmon genetic integrity in the western Atlantic.
Ketamine ameliorates ischemia–reperfusion injury after liver autotransplantation by suppressing activation of Kupffer cells in rats
Authors: Li Xinyi , Wang Jin , Song Xuemin , Wu Huisheng , Guo Peipei , Jin Zhao , Wang Chengyao , Tang Chaoliang , Wang Yanlin , Zhang Zongze
Published: July 2018

This study aimed to investigate the protective effects of ketamine against hepatic ischemia–reperfusion (I/R) injury by suppressing activation of Kupffer cells (KCs) in rat liver autotransplantation. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomized into 3 groups (n = 10 each). Group I, the sham group, received saline. Group II received saline and underwent orthotopic liver autotransplantation (OLAT). Group III received 10 mg/kg ketamine and underwent OLAT. Blood samples were obtained at 3, 6, 12, and 24 h after I/R, and following ALT, AST, LDH, IL-6, TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-10 in serum were detected. Model rats were sacrificed at the indicated time points and the graft liver tissues were evaluated histologically. KCs were isolated from rat liver tissues, and inflammatory products and proteins of NF-κB signaling pathway were detected using quantitative RT–PCR and Western blotting. Our results showed that ketamine significantly decreased ALT, AST, LDH, IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-1β levels and increased IL-10 level. Furthermore, ketamine alleviated the histopathology changes, by less KC infiltration and lower hepatocyte apoptosis. Moreover, activity of NF-κB signaling pathway in KCs was suppressed. In addition, production of pro- and anti-inflammatory factors is consistent with the results in tissues. Ketamine ameliorated I/R injury after liver transplantation by suppressing activation of KCs in rats.
Adoption of precision agriculture technologies in Ontario crop production
Authors: Mitchell Sean , Weersink Alfons , Erickson Bruce
Published: July 2018

Ontario agricultural service providers were surveyed on their use of precision agricultural technologies. Global positioning systems are the most commonly adopted, while adoption rates for variable rate systems are significantly less. Enhancing adoption requires turning the vast amount of data collected on crop production into valuable decisions for the farmer.
Improving the field efficacy of manuka oil using tank-mixes with surfactants and commercial organic herbicides
Authors: Harris Sierra , Li Zhenyi , Riddle Rachel , O’Sullivan John , Van Acker Rene
Published: July 2018

Manuka oil was applied in combination with surfactants and other organic herbicides for a total of 10 different treatments. Three surfactants (Nu Film P, Agral 90, and yucca extract) and two essential oil based organic herbicides (clove–cinnamon oil and citrus oil) were tank-mixed with manuka oil. Herbicide treatments were analyzed against two checks (weedy and weed-free) in eight unique scenarios to determine what tank-mix options enhanced the preemergence (PRE) and postemergence (POST) efficacy of manuka oil. The eight unique scenarios included two locations (Simcoe and Ridgetown, ON), two crops (sweet corn and tomatoes), and two planting dates (early and late). Crop yield and visual weed efficacy data indicated that manuka oil had very weak PRE herbicidal properties in field scenarios. Manuka oil based treatments caused minimal crop injury on recently transplanted tomatoes and newly emerging sweet corn seedlings. Manuka oil was able to provide good weed control when applied POST either alone or in tank-mixes. The efficacy of manuka oil increased when manuka oil was used as a tank-mix partner compared with manuka oil applied alone.
Is it possible to measure new general relativistic third-body effects on the orbit of Mercury with BepiColombo?
Authors: Iorio Lorenzo
Published: July 2018

Recently, Will calculated an additional contribution to the Mercury’s precession of the longitude of perihelion $$\varpi $$
ϖ
of the order of $${\dot{\varpi }}_\text {W}\simeq 0.22~\text {milliarcseconds per century}$$

ϖ
˙

W

≃
0.22

milliarcseconds per century

($$\text {mas cty}^{-1}$$

mas

cty

-
1

). It is partly a direct consequence of certain 1pN third-body accelerations entering the planetary equations of motion, and partly an indirect, mixed effect due to the simultaneous interplay of the standard 1pN pointlike acceleration of the primary with the Newtonian N-body acceleration, to the quadrupole order, in the analytical calculation of the secular perihelion precession with the Gauss equations. We critically discuss the actual measurability of the mixed effects with respect to direct ones. The current uncertainties in either the magnitude of the Sun’s angular momentum $$S_\odot $$

S
⊙

and the orientation of its spin axis $${\varvec{\hat{S}}}_\odot $$

S
^

⊙

impact the precessions $${\dot{\varpi }}_{J_2^\odot },~{\dot{\varpi }}_\text {LT}$$

ϖ
˙

J
2
⊙

,

ϖ
˙

LT

induced by the Sun’s quadrupole mass moment and angular momentum via the Lense–Thirring effect to a level which makes almost impossible to measure $${\dot{\varpi }}_\text {W}$$

ϖ
˙

W

, even in the hypothesis that it comes entirely from the aforementioned 1pN third-body accelerations. On the other hand, from the point of view of the Lense–Thirring effect itself, the mismodeled quadrupolar precession $$\delta {\dot{\varpi }}_{J_2^\odot }$$

δ

ϖ
˙

J
2
⊙

due to the uncertainties in $${\varvec{\hat{S}}}_\odot $$

S
^

⊙

corresponds to a bias of $$\simeq 9\%$$

≃
9
%

of the relativistic one. The resulting simulated mismodeled range and range-rate times series of BepiColombo are at about the per cent level of the nominal gravitomagnetic ones.
Simple-ribbon fusions and primeness of knots
Authors: Kishimoto Kengo , Shibuya Tetsuo , Tsukamoto Tatsuya
Published: July 2018

In [K. Kishimoto, T. Shibuya and T. Tsukamoto, Simple-ribbon fusions and genera of links, J. Math. Soc. Japan 68 (2016) 1033–1045], we introduced a special kind of fusions, the simple-ribbon fusions. In this paper, we give a sufficient condition for simple-ribbon fusions to produce a prime knot.
Formal Verification of Medical CPS
Authors: Geraldes André A. , Geretti Luca , Bresolin Davide , Muradore Riccardo , Fiorini Paolo , Mattos Leonardo S. , Villa Tiziano
Published: July 2018

The use of robots in operating rooms improves safety and decreases patient recovery time and surgeon fatigue, but it introduces new potential hazards that can lead to severe injury or even the loss of human life. Thus, safety has been perceived as a crucial system property since the early days by the industry, the medical community, and the regulatory agents. In this article, we discuss the application of the mathematically rigorous technique known as Formal Verification to analyze the safety properties of a laser incision case study, and we assess its safe and predictable operation. Like all formal methods approaches, our analysis has three distinct components: a method to create a model of the system, a language to specify the properties, and a strategy to prove rigorously that the behavior of the model fulfills the desired properties. The model of the system takes the form of a hybrid automaton consisting of a discrete control part that operates in a continuous environment. The safety constraints are formalized as reachability properties of the hybrid automaton model, while the verification strategy exploits the capabilities of the tool A
riadne
to address the verification problem and answer the related questions ranging from safety to efficiency and effectiveness.
POP-PL
Authors: Florence Spencer P. , Fetscher Burke , Flatt Matthew , Temps William H. , St-Amour Vincent , Kiguradze Tina , West Dennis P. , Niznik Charlotte , Yarnold Paul R. , Findler Robert Bruce , Belknap Steven M.
Published: July 2018

A medical prescription is a set of health care instructions that govern the plan of care for an individual patient, which may include orders for drug therapy, diet, clinical assessment, and laboratory testing. Clinicians have long used algorithmic thinking to describe and implement prescriptions but without the benefit of a formal programming language. Instead, medical algorithms are expressed using a natural language patois, flowcharts, or as structured data in an electronic medical record system. The lack of a prescription programming language inhibits expressiveness; results in prescriptions that are difficult to understand, hard to debug, and awkward to reuse; and increases the risk of fatal medical error.

This article reports on the design and evaluation of Patient-Oriented Prescription Programming Language (POP-PL), a domain-specific programming language designed for expressing prescriptions. The language is based around the idea that programs and humans have complementary strengths that, when combined properly, can make for safer, more accurate performance of prescriptions. Use of POP-PL facilitates automation of certain low-level vigilance tasks, freeing up human cognition for abstract thinking, compassion, and human communication.

We implemented this language and evaluated its design attempting to write prescriptions in the new language and evaluated its usability by assessing whether clinicians can understand and modify prescriptions written in the language. We found that some medical prescriptions can be expressed in a formal domain-specific programming language, and we determined that medical professionals can understand and correctly modify programs written in POP-PL. We also discuss opportunities for refining and further developing POP-PL.
Algorithms for Algebraic Path Properties in Concurrent Systems of Constant Treewidth Components
Authors: Chatterjee Krishnendu , Ibsen-Jensen Rasmus , Goharshady Amir Kafshdar , Pavlogiannis Andreas
Published: July 2018

We study algorithmic questions wrt algebraic path properties in concurrent systems, where the transitions of the system are labeled from a complete, closed semiring. The algebraic path properties can model dataflow analysis problems, the shortest path problem, and many other natural problems that arise in program analysis. We consider that each component of the concurrent system is a graph with constant treewidth, a property satisfied by the controlflow graphs of most programs. We allow for multiple possible queries, which arise naturally in demand driven dataflow analysis. The study of multiple queries allows us to consider the tradeoff between the resource usage of the
one-time
preprocessing and for
each individual
query. The traditional approach constructs the product graph of all components and applies the best-known graph algorithm on the product. In this approach, even the answer to a single query requires the transitive closure (i.e., the results of all possible queries), which provides no room for tradeoff between preprocessing and query time.

Our main contributions are algorithms that significantly improve the worst-case running time of the traditional approach, and provide various tradeoffs depending on the number of queries. For example, in a concurrent system of two components, the traditional approach requires hexic time in the worst case for answering one query as well as computing the transitive closure, whereas we show that with one-time preprocessing in almost cubic time, each subsequent query can be answered in at most linear time, and even the transitive closure can be computed in almost quartic time. Furthermore, we establish conditional optimality results showing that the worst-case running time of our algorithms cannot be improved without achieving major breakthroughs in graph algorithms (i.e., improving the worst-case bound for the shortest path problem in general graphs). Preliminary experimental results show that our algorithms perform favorably on several benchmarks.
EyeSpyVR
Authors: Ahuja Karan , Islam Rahul , Parashar Varun , Dey Kuntal , Harrison Chris , Goel Mayank
Published: July 2018

Low cost virtual reality (VR) headsets powered by smartphones are becoming ubiquitous. Their unique position on the user's face opens interesting opportunities for interactive sensing. In this paper, we describe EyeSpyVR, a software-only eye sensing approach for smartphone-based VR, which uses a phone's front facing camera as a sensor and its display as a passive illuminator. Our proof-of-concept system, using a commodity Apple iPhone, enables four sensing modalities: detecting when the VR head set is worn, detecting blinks, recognizing the wearer's identity, and coarse gaze tracking - features typically found in high-end or specialty VR headsets. We demonstrate the utility and accuracy of EyeSpyVR in a series of studies with 70 participants, finding a worn detection of 100%, blink detection rate of 95.3%, family user identification accuracy of 81.4%, and mean gaze tracking error of 10.8° when calibrated to the wearer (12.9° without calibration). These sensing abilities can be used by developers to enable new interactive features and more immersive VR experiences on existing, off-the-shelf hardware.
Reflection Companion
Authors: Kocielnik Rafal , Xiao Lillian , Avrahami Daniel , Hsieh Gary
Published: July 2018

Mobile, wearable and other connected devices allow people to collect and explore large amounts of data about their own activities, behavior, and well-being. Yet, learning from-, and acting upon such data remain a challenge. The process of reflection has been identified as a key component of such learning. However, most tools do not explicitly design for reflection, carrying an implicit assumption that providing access to self-tracking data is sufficient. In this paper, we present Reflection Companion, a mobile conversational system that supports engaging reflection on personal sensed data, specifically physical activity data collected with fitness trackers. Reflection Companion delivers daily adaptive mini-dialogues and graphs to users' mobile phones to promote reflection. To generate our system's mini dialogues, we conducted a set of workshops with fitness trackers users, producing a diverse corpus of 275 reflection questions synthesized into a set of 25 reflection mini dialogues. In a 2-week field deployment with 33 active Fitbit users, we examined our system's ability to engage users in reflection through dialog. Results suggest that the mini-dialogues were successful in triggering reflection and that this reflection led to increased motivation, empowerment, and adoption of new behaviors. As a strong indicator of our system's value, 16 of the 33 participants elected to continue using the system for two additional weeks without compensation. We present our findings and describe implications for the design of technology-supported dialog systems for reflection on data.
TwistIn
Authors: Leung Ho-Man Colman , Fu Chi-Wing , Heng Pheng-Ann
Published: July 2018

Smart devices contain sensitive information that has to be guarded against unauthorized access through authentication. Existing authentication methods become obsolete as they are designed either for logging-in one device at a time or are ineffective in a multi-user multi-device environment. This paper presents TwistIn, a simple gesture that takes a smartwatch as an authentication token for fast access and control of other smart devices. Our mechanism is particularly useful for devices such as smartphones, smart glasses, and small IoT objects. To log in a device, one simply need to pick it up and twist it a few times. Then, by co-analyzing the motion data from the device and the watch, our method can extend the user authentication on the watch to the device. This is a simple and tangible interaction that takes only one to two seconds to perform. Furthermore, to account for user variation in wrist bending, we decompose wrist and forearm rotations via an optimization to improve the method accuracy. We implemented TwistIn, collected thousands of gesture samples, and conducted various experiments to evaluate our prototype system and show that it achieved over 95% detection accuracy.
Remotion
Authors: Qian Jing , Chapin Arielle , Papoutsaki Alexandra , Yang Fumeng , Nelissen Klaas , Huang Jeff
Published: July 2018

Remotion is an end-to-end system for capturing and replaying rich mobile device interactions, comprising both on-screen video and physical device motions. The blueprints and software provided here allow an interface to be instrumented with Remotion's capture and visualization system. Remotion is able to mimic mobile device motion through a software 3D graphical visualization and a robotic mount that replicates the movements of a mobile device from afar. Deployed together, experimenters can emulate the mobile device postures of a remote user as if they were in the room. This is important since many usability studies are carried remotely and the contribution and scale of those studies are irreplaceable. We compared how HCI experts ("analysts") observed remote users behavioral data across three replay platforms: a traditional live time-series of motion, Remotion's software visualization, and Remotion's hardware visualization. We found that Remotion can assist analysts to infer the user's attention, emotional state, habits, and active hand posture; Remotion also has a reduced effect on mental demand for analysts when analyzing the remote user's contextual information.
Touch Sense
Authors: Zhang Xiao , Lyu Yongqiang , Luo Xiaomin , Zhang Jingyu , Yu Chun , Yin Hao , Shi Yuanchun
Published: July 2018

Non-intrusive and sensitive measurement of users' stress is very crucial for computers to dynamically understand and respond to users' mental status while users are naturally interacting with them, such as context-aware reminding, smart assistant, health monitoring etc. Compared to others, physiological measures are known as more sensitive and reliable ones. However, most of the current physiological methods need explicit and obtrusive sensors that deter natural human-computer interactions. In this study, we propose a photoplethysmogram-based mental stress measuring method through infrared touchscreen, which, from the best of our knowledge, is the first to integrate with the touch modality to enable natural, sensitive and reliable measurement. We designed and conducted two user experiments with touch-and-hold mode and tap mode respectively. By using person-independent classifiers to handle the photoplethysmographic parameters, the results reached a 97% and 87% average stress recognition accuracy for static test and interaction test respectively.
Understanding Cytoskeletal Dynamics During the Plant Immune Response
Authors: Li Jiejie , Staiger Christopher J.
Published: July 2018

The plant cytoskeleton is a dynamic framework of cytoplasmic filaments that rearranges as the needs of the cell change during growth and development. Incessant turnover mechanisms allow these networks to be rapidly redeployed in defense of host cytoplasm against microbial invaders. Both chemical and mechanical stimuli are recognized as danger signals to the plant, and these are perceived and transduced into cytoskeletal dynamics and architecture changes through a collection of well-recognized, previously characterized players. Recent advances in quantitative cell biology approaches, along with the powerful molecular genetics techniques associated with Arabidopsis, have uncovered two actin-binding proteins as key intermediaries in the immune response to phytopathogens and defense signaling. Certain bacterial phytopathogens have adapted to the cytoskeletal-based defense mechanism during the basal immune response and have evolved effector proteins that target actin filaments and microtubules to subvert transcriptional reprogramming, secretion of defense-related proteins, and cell wall–based defenses. In this review, we describe current knowledge about host cytoskeletal dynamics operating at the crossroads of the molecular and cellular arms race between microbes and plants.
Are Cattle Markets the Last Frontier? Vertical Coordination in Animal-Based Procurement Markets
Authors: Crespi John M. , Saitone Tina L.
Published: July 2018

Vertical integration and contracting have been documented as important developments in enhancing the efficiency of supply chains in agriculture. Despite the efficiency gains, movement toward greater integration remains controversial. Meanwhile, the diffusion of these alternative procurement mechanisms has been heterogeneous over time and across commodities. In this review we compare and contrast the livestock and poultry industries in the United States to provide insights into the future of integration and coordination throughout the beef cattle supply chain. While similarities exist across livestock and poultry industries, there are significant differences that placed the beef industry on a different trajectory, with a variety of structural and biological factors that have limited the industry's progression toward greater integration.
Folic acid supplementation improves vascular endothelial function, yet not skin blood flow during exercise in the heat, in patients with heart failure
Authors: Balmain Bryce N. , Jay Ollie , Morris Norman R. , Stewart Glenn M. , Shiino Kenji , McFarland Amelia J. , Jayasinghe Rohan , Chan Jonathan , Sabapathy Surendran
Published: July 2018

Heart failure (HF) patients are susceptible to heat strain during exercise, secondary to blunted skin blood flow (SkBF) responses, which may be explained by impaired nitric oxide (NO)-dependent vasodilation. Folic acid improves vascular endothelial function and SkBF through NO-dependent mechanisms in healthy older individuals and patients with cardiovascular disease. We examined the effect of folic acid supplementation (5 mg/day for 6 wk) on vascular function [brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD)] and SkBF responses [cutaneous vascular conductance (CVC)] during 60 min of exercise at a fixed metabolic heat production (300 ẆHprod) in a 30°C environment in 10 patients with HF (New York Heart Association Class I–II) and 10 healthy controls (CON). Serum folic acid concentration increased in HF [preintervention (pre): 1.4 ± 0.2; postintervention (post): 8.9 ± 6.7 ng/ml, P = 0.01] and CON (pre: 1.3 ± 0.6; post: 5.2 ± 4.9 ng/ml, P = 0.03). FMD improved by 2.1 ± 1.3% in HF ( P < 0.01), but no change was observed in CON postintervention ( P = 0.20). During exercise, the external workload performed on the cycle ergometer to attain the fixed level of heat production for exercise was similar between groups (HF: 60 ± 13; CON: 65 ± 20 external workload, P = 0.52). Increases in CVC during exercise were similar in HF (pre: 0.89 ± 0.43; post: 0.83 ± 0.45 au/mmHg, P = 0.80) and CON (pre: 2.01 ± 0.79; post: 2.03 ± 0.72 au/mmHg, P = 0.73), although the values were consistently lower in HF for both pre- and postintervention measurement intervals ( P < 0.05). These findings demonstrate that folic acid improves vascular endothelial function in patients with HF but does not enhance SkBF during exercise at a fixed metabolic heat production in a warm environment.
Simulation of electromyographic recordings following transcranial magnetic stimulation
Authors: Moezzi Bahar , Schaworonkow Natalie , Plogmacher Lukas , Goldsworthy Mitchell R. , Hordacre Brenton , McDonnell Mark D. , Iannella Nicolangelo , Ridding Michael C. , Triesch Jochen
Published: July 2018

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a technique that enables noninvasive manipulation of neural activity and holds promise in both clinical and basic research settings. The effect of TMS on the motor cortex is often measured by electromyography (EMG) recordings from a small hand muscle. However, the details of how TMS generates responses measured with EMG are not completely understood. We aim to develop a biophysically detailed computational model to study the potential mechanisms underlying the generation of EMG signals following TMS. Our model comprises a feed-forward network of cortical layer 2/3 cells, which drive morphologically detailed layer 5 corticomotoneuronal cells, which in turn project to a pool of motoneurons. EMG signals are modeled as the sum of motor unit action potentials. EMG recordings from the first dorsal interosseous muscle were performed in four subjects and compared with simulated EMG signals. Our model successfully reproduces several characteristics of the experimental data. The simulated EMG signals match experimental EMG recordings in shape and size, and change with stimulus intensity and contraction level as in experimental recordings. They exhibit cortical silent periods that are close to the biological values and reveal an interesting dependence on inhibitory synaptic transmission properties. Our model predicts several characteristics of the firing patterns of neurons along the entire pathway from cortical layer 2/3 cells down to spinal motoneurons and should be considered as a viable tool for explaining and analyzing EMG signals following TMS.

NEW & NOTEWORTHY A biophysically detailed model of EMG signal generation following transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is proposed. Simulated EMG signals match experimental EMG recordings in shape and amplitude. Motor-evoked potential and cortical silent period properties match experimental data. The model is a viable tool to analyze, explain, and predict EMG signals following TMS.
Optimal Bus-Bridging Service under a Metro Station Disruption
Authors: Yin Haodong , Wu Jianjun , Sun Huijun , Qu Yunchao , Yang Xin , Wang Bo
Published: July 2018

A station disruption is an abnormal operational situation that the entrance or exit gates of a metro station have to be closed for a certain of time due to an unexpected incident. The passengers’ travel behavioral responses to the alternative station disruption scenarios and the corresponding controlling strategies are complex and hard to capture. This can lead to the hardness of estimating the changes of the network-wide passenger demand, which is the basis of carrying out a response plan. This paper will establish a model to solve the metro station disruption problem by providing optimal additional bus-bridging services. Two main contributions are made: (1) a three-layer discrete choice behavior model is developed to analyze the dynamic passenger flow demand under station disruption; and (2) an integrated algorithm is designed to manage and control the station disruption crisis by providing additional bus-bridging services with the objective of minimizing the total travel time of affected passengers and the operating cost of bridging-buses. Besides, the multimodal transport modes, including metro, bridging-bus, shared-bike, and taxi, are considered as passengers’ alternative choices in face of the station disruption. A numerical study based on the Beijing metro network shows that additional bus-bridging services can significantly eliminate the negative impact of the station disruption.
Fog Computing‐Based Differential Positioning Method for BDS
Authors: Wang Lina , Li Linlin
Published: July 2018

As one of the four global satellite navigation and positioning systems, BeiDou satellite navigation system (BDS) has received increasingly more attention. The differential positioning technology of BDS has greatly enhanced its accuracy and meets the needs of high‐precision applications, but its positioning time still has much room for improvement. Fog computing allows the use of its services with low latency and mobility support to make up for the disadvantages of differential positioning algorithm. The paper proposes the fog computing‐based differential positioning (FCDP) method which introduces fog computing technology to BDS. Compared with the original data center‐based differential positioning (DCDP) method, the simulation results demonstrate that the FCDP method decreases the latency of positioning, while assuring the positioning accuracy.
Flood Simulation in South Carolina Watersheds Using Different Precipitation Inputs
Authors: Gao Peng , Carbone Gregory J. , Lu Junyu
Published: July 2018

Flooding induced by extreme rainfall events causes tremendous loss of life and property and infrastructure failure. Accurate representation of precipitation, which has high variation in space and time, is critical to hydrologic model simulations and flood analyses. In this study, we examined responses of differently sized United States Geological Survey (USGS) hydrologic units to heavy precipitation using three different data sets. The first consists of rainfall observed at individual meteorological gauges. The second uses the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) 4 km gridded radar-estimated precipitation (GRIB) Stage IV data. The third one derives from the method we developed that blends gauge data with the spatial coverage of the Parameter-elevation Relationships on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM) data. We examined how two watersheds in South Carolina respond to the three different representations of heavy rainfall, using the Hydrologic Engineering Center’s Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS) developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. We found that the latter two precipitation inputs that consider spatial representation of rainfall yielded similar performance and improved simulated streamflow as compared to simulation using rainfall observed at individual meteorological gauges. The method we developed overcomes the spatial sparsity of rain gauges required for interpolation and extends availability of precipitation surfaces. Our study advances the understanding of advantages and limitations of different precipitation products for flood simulation.
Magneto Dielectric-Laden Miniaturized Wideband Meander Line Antenna for Mobile Devices
Authors: Luadang Bancha , Senathong Rewat , Phongcharoenpanich Chuwong
Published: July 2018

This research presents a miniaturized wideband meander line antenna (MLA) using a magneto dielectric (MD) material for mobile device applications. The proposed MLA attached the lower and upper ground planes of the folder-type chassis, connected electrically by grounding strip. The MD material (ECCOSORB MF-124) was subsequently loaded onto the coupling element area of the MLA. The MD-laden MLA was ultracompact (10 mm × 25 mm × 1 mm), with the electrical size of 0.015λ × 0.039λ × 0.0015λ at 470 MHz. The surface current distribution was simulated to determine the optimal parameters of the MD-laden MLA. To verify, a prototype antenna was fabricated and the experiments were performed. The measured impedance bandwidth (S11<−6 dB) covered the frequency range of 467–1012 MHz (73.6%), with an omnidirectional radiation pattern. The radiation efficiency was in excess of 90%, rendering it suitable for the DVB-H/LTE13/GSM850/900 applications.
Influences of Specimen Geometry and Loading Rate on Compressive Strength of Unstabilized Compacted Earth Block
Authors: Lan Guan-qi , Wang Yi-hong , Chao Si-si
Published: July 2018

Loading rate and specimen geometry are critical parameters used in simple compressive tests to determine the strength of earth materials. In this study, cubic and cylindrical unstabilized compacted earth block of different sizes were manufactured and tested in unconfined compression to investigate the size and shape effects on the compressive strength of earth materials under different loading rates. The correlation between the compressive strength of earth materials and the geometric parameters of the specimen was determined. The recommended loading rate and sample for testing the compressive strength of earth materials were given. Finally, a constitutive model for describing the stress‐strain response of earth materials was proposed. This model modifies the defects of the constitutive equations suggested in previous studies and may be applied to the numerical analysis of earth structure.
Modeling the Effects of Spatial Heterogeneity and Seasonality on Guinea Worm Disease Transmission
Authors: Losio Anthony A. E. , Mushayabasa Steady
Published: July 2018

Guinea worm disease is one of the neglected tropical diseases that is on the verge of elimination. Currently the disease is endemic in four countries, namely, Ethiopia, Mali, Chad, and South Sudan. Prior studies have demonstrated that climate factors and limited access to safe drinking water have a significant impact on transmission and control of Guinea worm disease. In this paper, we present a new mathematical model to understand the transmission dynamics of Guinea worm disease in South Sudan. The model incorporates seasonal variations, educational campaigns, and spatial heterogeneity. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis of the model have been carried out. Utilizing Guinea worm disease surveillance data of South Sudan (2007-2013) we estimate the model parameters. Meanwhile, we perform an optimal control study to evaluate the implications of vector control on long-term Guinea worm infection dynamics. Our results demonstrate that vector control could play a significant role on Guinea worm disease eradication.
Cold Load and Storage Functional Backfill for Cooling Deep Mine
Authors: Wang Mei , Liu Lang , Chen Liu , Zhang Xiaoyan , Zhang Bo , Ji Changfa
Published: July 2018

Considering the deep mining heat‐hazard problem, the concept and academic idea of cold load and storage (CLS) functional backfill applied on deep mine cooling was put forward. Firstly, according to characteristics of filling mining, a method of cooling stopes with CLS phase changing backfill which is made from the backfill material with CLS phase change material (PCM) was proposed. The working process, cooling physics, and the economic and safety benefits of CLS phase changing backfill were produced. Secondly, the theory system of cooling with CLS phase changing backfill was built. The theoretical basis of the key problems involved was investigated and analyzed which concluded heat transfer, fluid mechanics, and backfill mechanics. Lastly, the technology system of cooling with CLS phase changing backfill was established on the basis of the required technical assistance. It includes four parts: the backfill material design, the backfill material conveying way design, the stope temperature control scheme design, and the strength of cemented tailings backfill analysis. The idea of applying CLS phase changing backfill on cooling deep mine stopes and its theory and technology systems provide a scientific research and suitable development direction for deep mine cooling.
Solar Radiation Models and Gridded Databases to Fill Gaps in Weather Series and to Project Climate Change in Brazil
Authors: Bender Fabiani Denise , Sentelhas Paulo Cesar
Published: July 2018

The quantification of climate change impacts on several human activities depends on reliable weather data series, without gaps and long enough to build up future climate. Based on that, this study aimed to evaluate the performance of temperature-based models for estimating global solar radiation and gridded databases (AgCFSR, AgMERRA, NASA/POWER, and XAVIER) as alternative ways for filling gaps in historical weather series (1980–2009) in Brazil and to project climate change scenarios based on measured and gridded weather data. Projections for mid- and end-of-century periods (2040–2069 and 2070–2099), using seven global climate models from CMIP5 under intermediate (RCP4.5) and high (RCP8.5) emission scenarios, were performed. The Bristow–Campbell model was the one that best estimated solar radiation, whereas the XAVIER gridded database was the closest to observed weather data. Future climate projections, under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios, as expected, showed warmer conditions for all scenarios over Brazil. On the contrary, rainfall projections are more uncertain. Despite that, the rainfall amounts will be reduced in the North-Northeast region and increased in Southern Brazil. No significant differences between projections using the observed and XAVIER gridded database were observed; therefore, such a database showed to be reliable for both to fill gaps and to generate climate change scenarios.
Ridesharing Problem with Flexible Pickup and Delivery Locations for App-Based Transportation Service: Mathematical Modeling and Decomposition Methods
Authors: Zhao Meng , Yin Jiateng , An Shi , Wang Jian , Feng Dejian
Published: July 2018

App-based transportation service system, such as Uber and Didi, has brought a new transportation mode to users, who are able to make reservations using mobile apps conveniently. However, one of the fundamental challenges in app-based transportation system is the inefficiency and unreliability of the vehicle routing plans caused by complex topology of urban road network and unpredictable traffic conditions. A common way to tackle this problem is repositioning pickup or delivery locations via the coordination between drivers and passengers. This paper studies an on-demand ridesharing problem that determines the optimal ride-share matching strategy and vehicle routing plan with respect to flexible pickup and delivery locations. By introducing the concept of space-time windows, the problem is formulated as the pickup and delivery problem with space-time windows (PDPSW) in space-time network. To solve the model efficiently and accurately, we particularly develop a customized solution approach based on Lagrangian relaxation. Numerical examples are conducted to demonstrate the performance of the proposed framework and draw some managerial insights into the optimal system operation. The results indicate that adopting the serving strategy of flexible pickup and delivery locations will evidently reduce the system cost and improve the service quality in app-based transportation service systems.
Anthropogenetic Variability in the Group of Individuals with Febrile Seizures: Population-Genetic Study
Authors: Dimitrijevic Sanja , Cvjeticanin Suzana , Pusica Aleksandra , Jekic Biljana , Filipovic Tamara , Nikolic Dimitrije
Published: July 2018

Febrile seizures (FS) are the most common neurological disorder in childhood and are a great stress for parents due to their dramatic clinical appearance. Using test for determination of homozygously recessive characteristics in humans (HRC test) we analyzed presence, distribution, and individual combination of 20 selected genetically controlled morphophysiological traits among FS patients (N=121) and control (N=121) to determine a possible deviation in the homozygosity level and genetic loads in the group of affected children and whether there is a predisposition to the occurrence of FS. The results of our study show a statistically significant difference in the mean values of the HRC tested (x¯HRC/20 CN = 3.2 ± 0.2; x¯HRC/20 FS = 4.6 ± 0.2, t= 5.74 , p< 0.0001), as well as in the distribution and variability of two studied samples (VC=55,3%, VFS= 39,6%), which indicates a complex polygenic difference among the tested groups of subjects. The differences in the degree of genetic homozygosity and variability are also present between the genders (t Cf/FSf = 4.12; t Cm/FSm = 3.98; p <0.0001) (VCf=56.9%, VFSf= 39.3%; VCm=54.1%, VFSm=40.1%). Obtained results indicate the enlargement of recessively homozygous genetic loads in the group of children with FS which may represent some kind of predisposition for expressivity of this type of seizures.
Risk Propagation of Delayed Payment in Stakeholder Network of Large Hydropower Project Construction considering Risk Resistance and Mitigation
Authors: Chen Yun , Hu Zhigen , Liu Quan , Zhao Maoyang
Published: July 2018

Large hydropower project involves numerous stakeholders in the construction phase. The risk of delayed payment may escalate into an event of catastrophic economic loss through complex stakeholders’ relationships. This paper builds a complex stakeholder network by collecting all contract prices in large hydropower project construction (LHPC) and proposes a novel mathematical model based on Cellular Automata Susceptible-Infected-Susceptible (CA-SIS) framework to analyze the risk propagation of delayed payment (RPDP). In the model, to approximate actual loss diffusion, risk-resisting and risk-mitigating abilities of stakeholders are combined, and relevance between risk mitigation and time is taken into account. The rationality and feasibility of the novel model are illustrated through its application to an actual LHPC. The simulation results include the following: RPDP presents three phases: risk first slightly propagates, risk then exponentially breaks out, and at last propagation consequence will reach a stable state related to stakeholders’ risk-resisting ability closely; in respect of stakeholders’ risk-mitigating ability and property of the network, RPDP range decreases with the increase of number of partners and homogeneity of contract price distribution; in respect of stakeholders’ risk-resisting ability, RPDP range decreases with the decrease of number of partners. This research can serve as a powerful complement to analyze and control the delayed payment in LHPC.
Cryptanalysis and Security Enhancement of Three Authentication Schemes in Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Li Wenting , Li Bin , Zhao Yiming , Wang Ping , Wei Fushan
Published: July 2018

Nowadays wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have drawn great attention from both industrial world and academic community. To facilitate real‐time data access for external users from the sensor nodes directly, password‐based authentication has become the prevalent authentication mechanism in the past decades. In this work, we investigate three foremost protocols in the area of password‐based user authentication scheme for WSNs. Firstly, we analyze an efficient and anonymous protocol and demonstrate that though this protocol is equipped with a formal proof, it actually has several security loopholes been overlooked, such that it cannot resist against smart card loss attack and violate forward secrecy. Secondly, we scrutinize a lightweight protocol and point out that it cannot achieve the claimed security goal of forward secrecy, as well as suffering from user anonymity violation attack and offline password guessing attack. Thirdly, we find that an anonymous scheme fails to preserve two critical properties of forward secrecy and user friendliness. In addition, by adopting the “perfect forward secrecy (PFS)” principle, we provide several effective countermeasures to remedy the identified weaknesses. To test the necessity and effectiveness of our suggestions, we conduct a comparison of 10 representative schemes in terms of the underlying cryptographic primitives used for realizing forward secrecy.
The Dynamics and Optimal Control of a Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease Model
Authors: Tan Hongwu , Cao Hui
Published: July 2018

We build and study the transmission dynamics of a hand-foot-mouth disease model with vaccination. The reproduction number is given, the existence of equilibria is obtained, and the global stability of disease-free equilibrium is proved by constructing the Lyapunov function. We also apply optimal control theory to the hand-foot-mouth disease model. The treatment and vaccination interventions are considered in the hand-foot-mouth disease model, and the optimal control strategies based on minimizing the cost of intervention and minimizing the number of the infected people are given. Numerical results show the usefulness of the optimization strategies.
Vitamin D Status and Associated Factors in Neonates in a Resource Constrained Setting
Authors: Bhimji Khadija Murtaza , Naburi Helga , Aboud Said , Manji Karim
Published: July 2018

Vitamin D deficiency (VDD) is emerging as a serious public health problem globally; however due to lack of resources, vitamin D levels are not routinely measured among neonates. The study was conducted to determine vitamin D levels in neonates and factors associated with the same. A cross-sectional study was conducted among neonates admitted at neonatal ward of a tertiary care hospital. Means and proportions were calculated from summarized data in frequency tables. Chi square test was used to determine association between vitamin D and various associated factors such as sex, infant birth weight, gestation age, parity of the mother, maternal age, and HIV status of the mother. A total of 170 neonates were studied, out of which 80% had vitamin D deficiency. Neonates born to HIV-infected mothers were significantly less likely to have vitamin D deficiency (OR 0.21, 95% CI 0.06 – 0.77, p = 0.009). Subgroup analysis revealed the association to be stronger in terms neonates (p = 0.005). The association was not observed among preterm newborns. The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in neonates was observed to be very high and needs more attention.
Data‐Driven Hybrid Internal Temperature Estimation Approach for Battery Thermal Management
Authors: Liu Kailong , Li Kang , Peng Qiao , Guo Yuanjun , Zhang Li
Published: July 2018

Temperature is a crucial state to guarantee the reliability and safety of a battery during operation. The ability to estimate battery temperature, especially the internal temperature, is of paramount importance to the battery management system for monitoring and thermal control purposes. In this paper, a data‐driven approach combining the RBF neural network (NN) and the extended Kalman filter (EKF) is proposed to estimate the internal temperature for lithium‐ion battery thermal management. To be specific, the suitable input terms and the number of hidden nodes for the RBF NN are first optimized by a two‐stage stepwise identification algorithm (TSIA). Then, the teaching‐learning‐based optimization (TLBO) algorithm is developed to optimize the centres and widths in every neuron of basis function. After optimizing the RBF NN model, a battery lumped thermal model is adopted as the state function with the EKF to filter out the outliers of the RBF model and reduce the estimation error. This data‐driven approach is validated under four different conditions in comparison with the linear NN models. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed RBF data‐driven approach outperforms the other approaches and can be extended to other types of batteries for thermal monitoring and management.