bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Gradient estimate for solutions of nonlinear singular elliptic equations below the duality exponent
Authors: Cirmi G. R. , D'Asero S. , Leonardi S.
Published: October 2017

In this paper, we study the homogeneous Dirichlet problem for an elliptic equation whose simplest model isurn:x-wiley:mma:media:mma4609:mma4609-math-0001

where,N≥3 is an open bounded set,θ∈]0,1[, andfbelongs to a suitable Morrey space. We will show that the Morrey property of the datum is transmitted to the gradient of a solution.
Homogenization of kinetic laminates in linearized elasticity
Authors: Serrano Hélia
Published: October 2017

The homogenization of kinetic laminates in the framework of time‐dependent linearized elasticity is studied from a variational point of view through the Γ‐convergence of the associated energies. The characterization of the effective coefficients is achieved by means of a finite dimensional minimization problem.
Screening for Duchenne muscular dystrophy in Germany, 1977–2011: A personal story
Authors: Scheuerbrandt Günter
Published: October 2017

EDITOR'S NOTE

This article by Dr. Günter Scheuerbrandt is a fascinating personal account and historical narrative of the birth and development of a screening program for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy in Germany, beginning 40 years ago. As the author notes, approval of an institutional review board or ethics committee was not required for this type of scientific investigation in one's field at the time this program was begun, but we have removed all personal data from any of the materials presented in here in order to conform to current concepts of ethical publication.

This article is about the screening of 528,410, mostly 4–6‐week‐old, boys in Germany between 1977 and 2011 for high levels of creatine kinase (CK) to identify those with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD). During these 34 years of infant screening, 147 boys with confirmed, probable, and possible DMD (incidence 1:3,600 male births) and 33 boys with confirmed, probable, and possible BMD (incidence 1:15,500 male births) were found. Research reports about DMD were sent to families and pediatricians participating in the screening, and, on request, to families and scientists everywhere. It is hoped that screening programs used as the basis for future therapies will be able to modify the natural history of boys with DMD. New dystrophin mutations will continue to occur, necessitating screening and early therapy.

Abstract Submitted for Presentation at the 10th International Society for Neonatal Screening–Asia Pacific Regional Meeting, August 2017, Ulaanbataar, Mongolia. Muscle Nerve 57: 185–188, 2018
In Harm's way—after which nothing was the same again too close for comfort—part 2
Authors: Broadribb Michael P.
Published: October 2017

Learning from experience is one of the four pillars of Risk‐Based Process Safety. Incidents that occur at one facility often provide opportunities to strengthen management systems at another. Sharing technical lessons learned from incidents is vital to improving process safety performance across the process industries. Most incidents also involve human factors, often as a key causal factor. Understanding performance‐shaping factors can be essential to minimizing future failures.

Most case studies on process safety incidents are written by a third party who was not directly involved in the incident. As such, the papers may lack insights that can only be properly articulated by someone directly involved.

In his early career the author was involved in two major incidents while managing day‐to‐day operation of refinery process units. This article describes the second incident involving several employees rendered unconscious from exposure to hydrogen sulfide. The first incident involving two major fires was published in Process Safety Progress [Broadribb, Process Safety Progress 32 (2013) 255–259]. In both incidents, the author found himself decidedly too close for comfort and could easily have become a casualty himself.

The second incident occurred during commissioning of a major process unit in which eight men were exposed to sour gas. The blank isolating the Reactor from the Main Fractionator column was being removed and the work had progressed to the point where the flanges had been jacked open and the blank removed, when the men on the job were overcome by gas. Breathing apparatus was not being worn. Members of the rescue party were also affected by gas.

This article will raise awareness of lessons learned relating to a number of elements of Risk‐Based Process Safety [CCPS, “Guidelines for Risk Based Process Safety”, New York, 2007] and human factors.

“This article was prepared for presentation at American Institute of Chemical Engineers 2014 Spring Meeting, 10th Global Congress on Process Safety, New Orleans, Louisiana, March 30–April 2, 2014, and American Institute of Chemical Engineers 2017 Spring Meeting, 13th Global Congress on Process Safety, San Antonio, Texas, March 26–29, 2017.” © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog 37: 140–144, 2018
Cover Image, Volume 73, Issue 11
Authors: Richards Nicola K , Mansfield Sarah , Townsend Richard J , Ferguson Colin M
Published: October 2017

The cover image, by Nicola K Richards et al., is based on the Research Article Genetic variation within species and haplotypes of the Wiseana (Lepidoptera: Hepialidae) complex and development of non‐sequenced based identification tools to aid field studies, DOI: 10.1002/ps.4620. Photo Credit: Colin M. Ferguson, AgResearch‐ Invermay.

image
A Bayesian sequential design with adaptive randomization for 2‐sided hypothesis test
Authors: Yu Qingzhao , Zhu Lin , Zhu Han
Published: October 2017

Bayesian sequential and adaptive randomization designs are gaining popularity in clinical trials thanks to their potentials to reduce the number of required participants and save resources. We propose a Bayesian sequential design with adaptive randomization rates so as to more efficiently attribute newly recruited patients to different treatment arms. In this paper, we consider 2‐arm clinical trials. Patients are allocated to the 2 arms with a randomization rate to achieve minimum variance for the test statistic. Algorithms are presented to calculate the optimal randomization rate, critical values, and power for the proposed design. Sensitivity analysis is implemented to check the influence on design by changing the prior distributions. Simulation studies are applied to compare the proposed method and traditional methods in terms of power and actual sample sizes. Simulations show that, when total sample size is fixed, the proposed design can obtain greater power and/or cost smaller actual sample size than the traditional Bayesian sequential design. Finally, we apply the proposed method to a real data set and compare the results with the Bayesian sequential design without adaptive randomization in terms of sample sizes. The proposed method can further reduce required sample size.
Satellite Positioning
Authors: COLOMBO OSCAR L. , WATKINS MICHAEL M.
Published: October 2017

The last four years have brought major changes to the practice of space geodesy, the most remarkable being the proliferation of precise techniques using the Global Positioning System to locate both points fixed to the Earth's surface and on moving vehicles. In their most accurate applications, GPS methods compare increasingly well with satellite laser ranging when measuring baselines of up to 1000 km. Meanwhile, the performance of laser systems has continued to improve, and the steady operation of laser sites around the world has extended the span of recorded observations to nearly one and a half decades of very high quality data.
Recent Progress in Snow and Ice Research
Authors: RICHTER-MENGE J. A. , COLBECK S. C. , JEZEK K. C.
Published: October 2017

Snow and ice research during the past quadrennial covers a wide range of topics varying from the climatic effects of large ice sheets and sea ice covers to applied problems such as the icing of power lines and communication facilities. This review focuses in more detail on three topics of the many subjects investigated to provide a more coherent look at the advances achieved and prospects for the future. These are: the influences of layers in seasonal snow covers; research in ice mechanics on freshwater and sea ice; and remote sensing of polar ice sheets. These topics provide useful examples of the general needs in snow and ice research applicable to most areas, e.g. better representation in models of detailed processes, careful controlled laboratory experiments to quantify processes, and field studies to provide the appropriate context for interpretation of processes from remote sensing.
Simultaneous inference for factorial multireader diagnostic trials
Authors: Konietschke Frank , Aguayo Randolph R. , Staab Wieland
Published: October 2017

We study inference methods for the analysis of multireader diagnostic trials. In these studies, data are usually collected in terms of a factorial design involving the factors Modality and Reader. Furthermore, repeated measures appear in a natural way since the same patient is observed under different modalities by several readers and the repeated measures may have a quite involved dependency structure. The hypotheses are formulated in terms of the areas under the ROC curves. Currently, only global testing procedures exist for the analysis of such data. We derive rank‐based multiple contrast test procedures and simultaneous confidence intervals which take the correlation between the test statistics into account. The procedures allow for testing arbitrary multiple hypotheses. Extensive simulation studies show that the new approaches control the nominal type 1 error rate very satisfactorily. A real data set illustrates the application of the proposed methods.
Generalized linear mixed model for binary outcomes when covariates are subject to measurement errors and detection limits
Authors: Xie Xianhong , Xue Xiaonan , Strickler Howard D.
Published: October 2017

Longitudinal measurement of biomarkers is important in determining risk factors for binary endpoints such as infection or disease. However, biomarkers are subject to measurement error, and some are also subject to left‐censoring due to a lower limit of detection. Statistical methods to address these issues are few. We herein propose a generalized linear mixed model and estimate the model parameters using the Monte Carlo Newton‐Raphson (MCNR) method. Inferences regarding the parameters are made by applying Louis's method and the delta method. Simulation studies were conducted to compare the proposed MCNR method with existing methods including the maximum likelihood (ML) method and the ad hoc approach of replacing the left‐censored values with half of the detection limit (HDL). The results showed that the performance of the MCNR method is superior to ML and HDL with respect to the empirical standard error, as well as the coverage probability for the 95% confidence interval. The HDL method uses an incorrect imputation method, and the computation is constrained by the number of quadrature points; while the ML method also suffers from the constrain for the number of quadrature points, the MCNR method does not have this limitation and approximates the likelihood function better than the other methods. The improvement of the MCNR method is further illustrated with real‐world data from a longitudinal study of local cervicovaginal HIV viral load and its effects on oncogenic HPV detection in HIV‐positive women.
Pyroelektrische Röntgenquellen zum Einsatz in der Materialanalyse
Authors: Wilke Markus , Knapp Wolfram , Harnisch Karsten , Ecke Martin , Halle Thorsten
Published: October 2017

Die Nutzung des pyroelektrischen Effektes zur Erzeugung und Beschleunigung von Elektronen kann eine günstige und schnelle Durchführung von chemischen Analysen mittels Röntgenfluoreszenzanalyse ermöglichen. Mit dem Ziel der Optimierung der Intensität von primärer und sekundärer Röntgenstrahlung wurden verschiedene Versuche durchgeführt. Untersuchungen der Dosisleistung der aus einem Röntgenfenster austretenden Strahlung zeigten, dass ein Vakuumdruck von 5 · 10−1 Pa hohe Intensitäten der Strahlung begünstigt. Verschiedene untersuchte Targetmaterialien waren geeignet, Röntgenfluoreszenzstrahlung einer Probe anzuregen. Dies ermöglichte eine Quantifizierung der in der Probe enthaltenen Elemente.
Experiences of a High‐Risk Population with Prenatal Hemoglobinopathy Carrier Screening in a Primary Care Setting: a Qualitative Study
Authors: Holtkamp Kim C. A. , Lakeman Phillis , Hader Hind , Jans Suze M. J. P. , Hoenderdos Maria , Playfair Henna A. M. , Cornel Martina C. , Peters Marjolein , Henneman Lidewij
Published: October 2017

Carrier screening for hemoglobinopathies (HbPs; sickle cell disease and thalassemia) aims to facilitate autonomous reproductive decision‐making. In the absence of a Dutch national HbP carrier screening program, some primary care midwives offer screening on an ad hoc basis. This qualitative descriptive study explores how pregnant women perceive an offer of HbP carrier screening by their midwife. Semi‐structured interviews (n = 26) were conducted with pregnant women at risk of being a HbP carrier, and whom were offered screening at their booking appointment in one of two midwifery practices in Amsterdam. The results showed that half of the respondents were familiar with HbPs. Generally, women perceived the offer of HbP carrier screening as positive, and most women (n = 19) accepted screening. Seven declined, of whom two already knew their carrier status. Important reasons to accept screening were to obtain knowledge about their own carrier status and health of their unborn child, and the ease of the procedure. A multistep process of decision‐making was observed, as many women did not give follow‐up testing (e.g. partner, invasive diagnostics) much consideration while deciding on accepting or declining HbP screening. Women experienced information overload, and preferred receiving the information at a different moment (e.g. before the intake by a leaflet, or preconceptionally). In conclusion, while prenatal HbP carrier screening is perceived as positive, informed decision‐making seems to be suboptimal, and both the content and timing of the information provided needs improvement.
Safety Needs of People With Disabilities During Earthquakes
Authors: Aryankhesal Aidin , Pakjouei Shahrzad , Kamali Mohammad
Published: October 2017

Objective

The needs of people with disabilities are not taken into account during disasters, and there is no or little preparation for them. Hence, such people are very anxious about their personal safety during disasters. The aim of this study was to explain the safety needs of people with disabilities during earthquakes.

Methods

This qualitative study was conducted with purposive sampling. A total of 12 people with movement disability, aged between 18 and 60 years, and with an experience of facing earthquakes, participated in semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was used.

Results

The safety needs of people with disabilities were categorized into three phases: those before an earthquake were considering building codes and resistant construction, building safe and resistant-to-climate-change shelters, and securing the room at the home and workplace; that during an earthquake was the existence of personal protection facilities; and those after an earthquake were adaptation of bathrooms in secure areas, prioritizing conex containers instead of tents, and sheltering in a safe and vermin-free area.

Conclusions

The sudden death of people with disabilities during disasters is preventable through proper planning and preparedness of emergency personnel. Hence, identifying the safety needs of these people and inclusion of such plans in disasters management systems can assure safety for people with disabilities during disasters. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;12:615–621)
Estimation of turbulent channel flow at based on the wall measurement using a simple sequential approach
Authors: Suzuki Takao , Hasegawa Yosuke
Published: October 2017

The unsteady flow estimation problem of wall-bounded turbulence, numerically benchmarked by Chevalier et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 552, 2006, pp. 167–187), is re-tackled with simple approaches. A turbulent channel flow at $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}}=100$ with periodic boundary conditions is reconstructed with linear stochastic estimation only based on the wall measurement, i.e. the wall shear stress in the streamwise and spanwise directions as well as the wall pressure over the entire wavenumber space. The results reveal that instantaneous information on the wall governs the success of the estimation in the vicinity of the wall ($y^{+}\lesssim 20$). The degrees of agreement are equivalent to those reported by Chevalier et al. using the extended Kalman filter as well as the ensemble Kalman filter performed in this study. This suggests that the instantaneous information on the wall dictates the reconstruction rather than the prediction step in these state observers solving the dynamical system. Subsequently, we feed the velocity components given by the linear stochastic estimation via the body-force term into the Navier–Stokes system: such an observer slightly improves the estimation in the log layer, indicating a small benefit of involving a dynamical system but over-suppression of turbulent motions beyond the viscous sublayer due to their low correlation with the wall measurement. Errors in the estimation grow in the buffer layer and prevent further reconstruction toward the centreline even if we relax the feedback forcing and let the flow evolve nonlinearly through the observer. We also discuss the flow components truly reconstructible from the wall measurement, which has limited degrees of freedom and poor correlation across wavenumbers.
Tilting at wave beams: a new perspective on the St. Andrew’s Cross
Authors: Kataoka T. , Ghaemsaidi S. J. , Holzenberger N. , Peacock T. , Akylas T. R.
Published: October 2017

The generation of internal gravity waves by a vertically oscillating cylinder that is tilted to the horizontal in a stratified Boussinesq fluid of constant buoyancy frequency, $N$, is investigated. This variant of the widely studied horizontal configuration – where a cylinder aligned with a plane of constant gravitational potential induces four wave beams that emanate from the cylinder, forming a cross pattern known as the ‘St. Andrew’s Cross’ – brings out certain unique features of radiated internal waves from a line source tilted to the horizontal. Specifically, simple kinematic considerations reveal that for a cylinder inclined by a given angle $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$ to the horizontal, there is a cutoff frequency, $N\sin \unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$, below which there is no longer a radiated wave field. Furthermore, three-dimensional effects due to the finite length of the cylinder, which are minor in the horizontal configuration, become a significant factor and eventually dominate the wave field as the cutoff frequency is approached; these results are confirmed by supporting laboratory experiments. The kinematic analysis, moreover, suggests a resonance phenomenon near the cutoff frequency as the group-velocity component perpendicular to the cylinder direction vanishes at cutoff; as a result, energy cannot be easily radiated away from the source, and nonlinear and viscous effects are likely to come into play. This scenario is examined by adapting the model for three-dimensional wave beams developed in Kataoka & Akylas (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 769, 2015, pp. 621–634) to the near-resonant wave field due to a tilted line source of large but finite length. According to this model, the combination of three-dimensional, nonlinear and viscous effects near cutoff triggers transfer of energy, through the action of Reynolds stresses, to a circulating horizontal mean flow. Experimental evidence of such an induced mean flow near cutoff is also presented.
Numerical simulation of turbulent channel flow over a viscous hyper-elastic wall
Authors: Rosti Marco E. , Brandt Luca
Published: October 2017

We perform numerical simulations of a turbulent channel flow over an hyper-elastic wall. In the fluid region the flow is governed by the incompressible Navier–Stokes (NS) equations, while the solid is a neo-Hookean material satisfying the incompressible Mooney–Rivlin law. The multiphase flow is solved with a one-continuum formulation, using a monolithic velocity field for both the fluid and solid phase, which allows the use of a fully Eulerian formulation. The simulations are carried out at Reynolds bulk $Re=2800$ and examine the effect of different elasticity and viscosity of the deformable wall. We show that the skin friction increases monotonically with the material elastic modulus. The turbulent flow in the channel is affected by the moving wall even at low values of elasticity since non-zero fluctuations of vertical velocity at the interface influence the flow dynamics. The near-wall streaks and the associated quasi-streamwise vortices are strongly reduced near a highly elastic wall while the flow becomes more correlated in the spanwise direction, similarly to what happens for flows over rough and porous walls. As a consequence, the mean velocity profile in wall units is shifted downwards when shown in logarithmic scale, and the slope of the inertial range increases in comparison to that for the flow over a rigid wall. We propose a correlation between the downward shift of the inertial range, its slope and the wall-normal velocity fluctuations at the wall, extending results for the flow over rough walls. We finally show that the interface deformation is determined by the fluid fluctuations when the viscosity of the elastic layer is low, while when this is high the deformation is limited by the solid properties.
On the evolution of the plume function and entrainment in the near-source region of lazy plumes
Authors: Marjanovic G. , Taub G. N. , Balachandar S.
Published: October 2017

Plumes occur in many natural and industrial settings, such as chimney smoke, volcanic eruptions and deep water oil spills. A plume function, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}$, is used to characterize plumes and jets. The far-field behaviour of these flows has been studied in great detail while the near-field behaviour has not quite received the same attention. We examine near-field phenomena such as radial constriction, termed necking, and vortex structure formations with new high resolution direct numerical simulations. Four lazy plumes with increasing values of the source plume parameter, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}_{0}$, are simulated. We study the evolution of entrainment and the plume function. The original assumptions, that Reynolds stresses dominate viscous shear stresses, do not hold for lazy plumes in the near field. Due to this, a deviation from self-similarity occurs initially and is corrected by a large entrainment coefficient caused by vortex stretching and compression. After correcting for the virtual origin, comparison between theory and simulations shows a monotonic decay of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}$ towards pure plume behaviour. The entrainment coefficient asymptotes to a widely accepted constant value for plumes.
Turbulent planar wakes under pressure gradient conditions
Authors: Shamsoddin Sina , Porté-Agel Fernando
Published: October 2017

Accurate prediction of the spatial evolution of turbulent wake flows under pressure gradient conditions is required in some engineering applications such as the design of high-lift devices and wind farms over topography. In this paper, we aim to develop an analytical model to predict the evolution of a turbulent planar wake under an arbitrary pressure gradient condition. The model is based on the cross-stream integration of the streamwise momentum equation and uses the self-similarity of the mean flow. We have also made an experimentally supported assumption that the ratio of the maximum velocity deficit to the wake width is independent of the imposed pressure gradient. The asymptotic response of the wake to the pressure gradient is also investigated. After its derivation, the model is successfully validated against experimental data by comparing the evolution of the wake width and maximum velocity deficit. The inputs of the model are the imposed pressure gradient and the wake width under zero pressure gradient. The model does not require any parameter tuning and is deemed to be practical, computationally fast, accurate enough, and therefore useful for the scientific and engineering communities.
IMPERIAL-STYLE CERAMIC PRODUCTION ON A ROYAL ESTATE IN THE INKA HEARTLAND (CUZCO, PERU)
Authors: Quave Kylie E.
Published: October 2017

Horizontal excavations at the large Inka heartland village of Cheqoq (Maras, Cuzco, Peru) revealed the remains of a ceramic workshop where imperial-style vessels were produced (AD 1400–1530s). Cheqoq was a multiethnic settlement of forcibly migrated retainer laborers working for the noble lineage of the Inka ruler, Wayna Qhapaq. Production of imperial-style pottery in a small workshop associated with a royal lineage indicates that the heartland craft economy was not centralized in the urban Cuzco capital. The material remains of in situ production—raw materials, manufacturing facilities, tools, and by-products—provide a baseline for comparing other Inka pottery assemblages to this production locus.
Fermionic Light Dark Matter Particles and the New Physics of Neutron Stars
Authors: Cermeño M. , Pérez-García M. Ángeles , Silk Joseph
Published: October 2017

Dark Matter constitutes most of the matter in the presently accepted cosmological model for our Universe. The extreme conditions of ordinary baryonic matter, namely high density and compactness, in Neutron Stars make these objects suitable to gravitationally accrete such a massive component provided interaction strength between both, luminous and dark sectors, at current experimental level of sensitivity. We consider several different DM phenomenological models from the myriad of those presently allowed. In this contribution, we review astrophysical aspects of interest in the interplay of ordinary matter and a fermionic light Dark Matter component. We focus in the interior nuclear medium in the core and external layers, i.e. the crust, discussing the impact of a novel dark sector in relevant stellar quantities for (heat) energy transport such as thermal conductivity or emissivities.
The Political Economy of Unfinished Development Projects: Corruption, Clientelism, or Collective Choice?
Authors: WILLIAMS MARTIN J.
Published: October 2017

Development projects like schools and latrines are popular with politicians and voters alike, yet many developing countries are littered with half-finished projects that were abandoned mid-construction. Using an original database of over 14,000 small development projects in Ghana, I estimate that one-third of projects that start are never completed, consuming nearly one-fifth of all local government investment. I develop a theory of project noncompletion as the outcome of a dynamically inconsistent collective choice process among political actors facing commitment problems in contexts of limited resources. I find evidence consistent with key predictions of this theory, but inconsistent with alternative explanations based on corruption or clientelism. I show that fiscal institutions can increase completion rates by mitigating the operational consequences of these collective choice failures. These findings have theoretical and methodological implications for distributive politics, the design of intergovernmental transfers and aid, and the development of state capacity.
BEHAVIOURAL ECONOMICS AND PATERNALISM
Authors: Hausman Daniel M.
Published: October 2017

Contemporary behavioural economics has documented common failures of reasoning that apparently make possible policies that benefit individuals by contravening or correcting their judgements. These policies appear to be paternalistic, even though a traditional view would deny that they are paternalistic on the grounds that policies such as nudges do not restrict individual liberty. It appears to many that a new definition of paternalism that takes its cue from behavioural economics is needed. Furthermore, if one revises the definition of paternalism, one must revisit traditional views concerning whether paternalist policies are wise. In Government Paternalism, Julian Le Grand and Bill New make a valuable start, although some corrections are needed. This essay provides a general setting for revising the definition of paternalism and suggests a revised definition of paternalism.
Performance Improvement for Mobile Robot Position Determination Using Cubature Kalman Filter
Authors: Zarei Jafar , Ramezani Abdolrahman
Published: October 2017

The objective of this paper is to accurately determine mobile robots' position and orientation by integrating information received from odometry and an inertial sensor. The position and orientation provided by odometry are subject to different types of errors. To improve the odometry, an inertial measurement unit is exploited to give more reliable attitude information. However, the nonlinear dynamic of these systems and their complexities such as different sources of errors make navigation difficult. Since the dynamic models of navigation systems are nonlinear in practice, in this study, a Cubature Kalman Filter (CKF) has been proposed to estimate and correct the errors of these systems. The information from odometry and a gyroscope are integrated using a CKF. Simulation results are provided to illustrate the superiority and the higher reliability of the proposed approach in comparison with conventional nonlinear filtering algorithms such as an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF).
Notions of computation as monoids
Authors: RIVAS EXEQUIEL , JASKELIOFF MAURO
Published: October 2017

There are different notions of computation, the most popular being monads, applicative functors, and arrows. In this article, we show that these three notions can be seen as instances of a unifying abstract concept: monoids in monoidal categories. We demonstrate that even when working at this high level of generality, one can obtain useful results. In particular, we give conditions under which one can obtain free monoids and Cayley representations at the level of monoidal categories, and we show that their concretisation results in useful constructions for monads, applicative functors, and arrows. Moreover, by taking advantage of the uniform presentation of the three notions of computation, we introduce a principled approach to the analysis of the relation between them.
DEXTER: A workbench for automatic term extraction with specialized corpora
Authors: PERIÑAN-PASCUAL CARLOS
Published: October 2017

Automatic term extraction has become a priority area of research within corpus processing. Despite the extensive literature in this field, there are still some outstanding issues that should be dealt with during the construction of term extractors, particularly those oriented to support research in terminology and terminography. In this regard, this article describes the design and development of DEXTER, an online workbench for the extraction of simple and complex terms from domain-specific corpora in English, French, Italian and Spanish. In this framework, three issues contribute to placing the most important terms in the foreground. First, unlike the elaborate morphosyntactic patterns proposed by most previous research, shallow lexical filters have been constructed to discard term candidates. Second, a large number of common stopwords are automatically detected by means of a method that relies on the IATE database together with the frequency distribution of the domain-specific corpus and a general corpus. Third, the term-ranking metric, which is grounded on the notions of salience, relevance and cohesion, is guided by the IATE database to display an adequate distribution of terms.
Bilingual and monolingual adults learning an additional language: ERPs reveal differences in syntactic processing
Authors: GREY SARAH , SANZ CRISTINA , MORGAN-SHORT KARA , ULLMAN MICHAEL T.
Published: October 2017

It has been suggested that bilinguals learn additional languages ‘better’ than monolinguals. However, evidence is sparse, particularly for grammar. We examined behavioral and neural correlates of learning an additional (artificial) language in early Mandarin–English bilinguals, compared to English monolinguals. Following grammar instruction, participants practiced comprehension and production, and judged grammaticality at low and high proficiency while event-related potentials (ERPs) were acquired. Bilinguals and monolinguals did not differ on behavioral measures, but showed distinct ERP patterns. At low proficiency only bilinguals showed a P600, a common ERP correlate of syntactic processing in native speakers of languages. At high proficiency both groups showed P600s, though the monolinguals also evidenced an anterior positivity not typically found in native speakers of languages during syntactic processing. These findings suggest that, even without bilingual/monolingual behavioral differences, bilinguals show ERP patterns for an additional language that are more similar to those of native speakers of languages.
Association between green tea intake and risk of gastric cancer: a systematic review and dose–response meta-analysis of observational studies
Authors: Huang Yanhong , Chen Hongru , Zhou Liang , Li Gaoming , Yi Dali , Zhang Yanqi , Wu Yazhou , Liu Xiaoyu , Wu Xiaojiao , Song Qiuyue , Liu Ling , Yi Dong
Published: October 2017

Objective

To examine and quantify the potential dose–response relationship between green tea intake and the risk of gastric cancer.

Design

We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, CBM, CNKI and VIP up to December 2015 without language restrictions.

Setting

A systematic review and dose–response meta-analysis of observational studies.

Subjects

Five cohort studies and eight case–control studies.

Results

Compared with the lowest level of green tea intake, the pooled relative risk (95 % CI) of gastric cancer was 1·05 (0·90, 1·21, I2=20·3 %) for the cohort studies and the pooled OR (95 % CI) was 0·84 (0·74, 0·95, I2=48·3 %) for the case–control studies. The pooled relative risk of gastric cancer was 0·79 (0·63, 0·97, I2=63·8 %) for intake of 6 cups green tea/d, 0·59 (0·42, 0·82, I2=1·0 %) for 25 years of green tea intake and 7·60 (1·67, 34·60, I2=86·5 %) for drinking very hot green tea.

Conclusions

Drinking green tea has a certain preventive effect on reducing the risk of gastric cancer, particularly for long-term and high-dose consumption. Drinking too high-temperature green tea may increase the risk of gastric cancer, but it is still unclear whether high-temperature green tea is a risk factor for gastric cancer. Further studies should be performed to obtain more detailed results, including other gastric cancer risk factors such as smoking and alcohol consumption and the dose of the effective components in green tea, to provide more reliable evidence-based medical references for the relationship between green tea and gastric cancer.
Direct and indirect effects of parent stress on child obesity risk and added sugar intake in a sample of Southern California adolescents
Authors: Shonkoff Eleanor T , Dunton Genevieve F , Chou Chih-Ping , Leventhal Adam M , Bluthenthal Ricky , Pentz Mary Ann
Published: October 2017

Objective

Research indicates that children are at higher risk for obesity if their parents have been exposed to a larger number of stressors, yet little is known about effects of parents’ subjective, perceived experience of stress on children’s eating behaviours and adiposity and whether weight-related parenting practices (i.e. parent rules and positive family meal practices) mediate this relationship. The present study evaluated the direct and mediated relationship between parent perceived stress and child waist circumference and parent stress and child consumption of added sugars one year later.

Design

Longitudinal panel data.

Setting

Eleven communities in Southern California, USA.

Subjects

Data were collected over two waves from parent–child dyads (n599). Most parents were female (81 %) and Hispanic (51 %); children were 11 years old on average (sd1·53; range 7–15 years) and 31 % received free school lunch.

Results

Perceived parent stress was not significantly associated with child waist circumference or consumption of added sugars one year later, and mediating pathways through parenting practices were not significant. However, parent rules were significantly associated with lower child consumption of added sugars (β=−0·14,P<0·001).

Conclusions

Results suggest that parent rules about the types of foods children can eat, clearly explained to children, may decrease child consumption of added sugars but not necessarily lead to changes in obesity risk. Parent- and family-based interventions that support development of healthy rules about child eating have the potential to improve child dietary nutrient intake.
Targeting redox homeostasis in rhabdomyosarcoma cells: GSH-depleting agents enhance auranofin-induced cell death
Authors: Habermann Karoline Johanna , Grünewald Leon , van Wijk Sjoerd , Fulda Simone
Published: October 2017

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) cells have recently been reported to be sensitive to oxidative stress. Therefore, we investigated whether concomitant inhibition of the two main antioxidant defense pathways, that is, the thioredoxin (TRX) and the glutathione (GSH) systems, presents a new strategy to trigger cell death in RMS. In this study, we discover that GSH-depleting agents, i.e. γ-glutamylcysteine synthetase inhibitor, buthionine sulfoximine (BSO) or the cystine/glutamate antiporter inhibitor erastin (ERA), synergize with thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) inhibitor auranofin (AUR) to induce cell death in RMS cells. Interestingly, AUR causes accumulation of ubiquitinated proteins when combined with BSO or ERA, in line with recent reports showing that AUR inhibits the proteasome besides TrxR. Consistently, AUR/BSO or AUR/ERA cotreatment increases ubiquitination and expression of the short-lived proteins NOXA and MCL-1, accompanied by increased binding of NOXA to MCL-1. Notably, NOXA knockdown significantly rescues RMS cells from AUR/BSO- or AUR/ERA-induced cell death. In addition, AUR acts together with BSO or ERA to stimulate BAX/BAK and caspase activation. Of note, BSO or ERA abolish the AUR-stimulated increase in GSH levels, leading to reduced GSH levels upon cotreatment. Although AUR/BSO or AUR/ERA cotreatment enhances reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, only thiol-containing antioxidants (i.e., N-acetylcysteine (NAC), GSH), but not the non-thiol-containing ROS scavenger α-Tocopherol consistently suppress AUR/BSO- and AUR/ERA-stimulated cell death in both cell lines. Importantly, re-supply of GSH or its precursor NAC completely prevents AUR/ERA- and AUR/BSO-induced accumulation of ubiquitinated proteins, NOXA upregulation and cell death, indicating that GSH depletion rather than ROS production is critical for AUR/BSO- or AUR/ERA-mediated cell death. Thus, by demonstrating that GSH-depleting agents enhance the antitumor activity of AUR, we highlight new treatment options for RMS by targeting the redox homeostasis.
NLRP3 inflammasome activation contributes to VSMC phenotypic transformation and proliferation in hypertension
Authors: Sun Hai-Jian , Ren Xing-Sheng , Xiong Xiao-Qing , Chen Yun-Zhi , Zhao Ming-Xia , Wang Jue-Jin , Zhou Ye-Bo , Han Ying , Chen Qi , Li Yue-Hua , Kang Yu-Ming , Zhu Guo-Qing
Published: October 2017

Inflammation is involved in pathogenesis of hypertension. NLRP3 inflammasome activation is a powerful mediator of inflammatory response via caspase-1 activation. The present study was designed to determine the roles and mechanisms of NLRP3 inflammasome in phenotypic modulation and proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) in hypertension. Experiments were conducted in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and primary aortic VSMCs. NLRP3 inflammasome activation was observed in the media of aorta in SHR and in the VSMCs from SHR. Knockdown of NLRP3 inhibited inflammasome activation, VSMC phenotypic transformation and proliferation in SHR-derived VSMCs. Increased NFκB activation, histone acetylation and histone acetyltransferase expression were observed in SHR-derived VSMCs and in media of aorta in SHR. Chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis revealed the increased histone acetylation, p65-NFκB and Pol II occupancy at the NLRP3 promoterin vivoandin vitro. Inhibition of NFκB with BAY11-7082 or inhibition of histone acetyltransferase with curcumin prevented the NLRP3 inflammasome activation, VSMC phenotype switching and proliferation in VSMCs from SHR. Moreover, curcumin repressed NFκB activation. Silencing of NLRP3 gene ameliorated hypertension, vascular remodeling, NLRP3 inflammasome activation and phenotype switching in the aorta of SHR. These results indicate that NLRP3 inflammasome activation response to histone acetylation and NFκB activation contributes to VSMC phenotype switching and proliferation and vascular remodeling in hypertension.
miRNA-223 upregulated by MYOD inhibits myoblast proliferation by repressing IGF2 and facilitates myoblast differentiation by inhibiting ZEB1
Authors: Li Guihuan , Luo Wen , Abdalla Bahareldin A , Ouyang Hongjia , Yu Jiao , Hu Fan , Nie Qinghua , Zhang Xiquan
Published: October 2017

Skeletal muscle differentiation can be regulated by various transcription factors and non-coding RNAs. In our previous work, miR-223 is differentially expressed in the skeletal muscle of chicken with different growth rates, but its role, expression and action mechanism in muscle development still remains unknown. Here, we found that MYOD transcription factor can upregulate miR-223 expression by binding to an E-box region of the gga-miR-223 gene promoter during avian myoblast differentiation. IGF2 and ZEB1 are two target genes of miR-223. The target inhibition of miR-223 on IGF2 and ZEB1 are dynamic from proliferation to differentiation of myoblast. miR-223 inhibits IGF2 expression only in the proliferating myoblast, whereas it inhibits ZEB1 mainly in the differentiating myoblast. The inhibition of IGF2 by miR-223 resulted in the repression of myoblast proliferation. During myoblast differentiation, miR-223 would be upregulated owing to the promoting effect of MYOD, and the upregulation of miR-223 would inhibit ZEB1 to promote myoblast differentiation. These results not only demonstrated that the well-known muscle determination factor MYOD can promote myoblast differentiation by upregulate miR-223 transcription, but also identified that miR-223 can influence myoblast proliferation and differentiation by a dynamic manner regulates the expression of its target genes.
Overactive type 2 cannabinoid receptor induces meiosis in fetal gonads and impairs ovarian reserve
Authors: De Domenico Emanuela , Todaro Federica , Rossi Gabriele , Dolci Susanna , Geremia Raffaele , Rossi Pellegrino , Grimaldi Paola
Published: October 2017

Type 2 cannabinoid receptor (CB2R) has been proposed to promote in vitro meiotic entry of postnatal male germ cells and to maintain the temporal progression of spermatogenesis in vivo. However, no information is presently available on the role played by CB2R in male and female fetal gonads. Here we show that in vitro pharmacological stimulation with JWH133, a CB2R agonist, induced activation of the meiotic program in both male and female fetal gonads. Upon stimulation, gonocytes initiated the meiotic program but became arrested at early stages of prophase I, while oocytes showed an increased rate of meiotic entry and progression toward more advanced stage of meiosis. Acceleration of meiosis in oocytes was accompanied by a strong increase in the percentage of γ-H2AX-positive pachytene and diplotene cells, paralleled by an increase of TUNEL-positive cells, suggesting that DNA double-strand breaks were not correctly repaired during meiosis, leading to oocyte apoptosis. Interestingly, in vivo pharmacological stimulation of CB2R in fetal germ cells through JWH133 administration to pregnant females caused a significant reduction of primordial and primary follicles in the ovaries of newborns with a consequent depletion of ovarian reserve and reduced fertility in adult life, while no alterations of spermatogenesis in the testis of the offspring were detected. Altogether our findings highlight a pro-meiotic role of CB2R in male and female germ cells and suggest that the use of cannabis in pregnant female might represent a risk for fertility and reproductive lifespan in female offspring.
A novel acridine derivative, LS-1-10 inhibits autophagic degradation and triggers apoptosis in colon cancer cells
Authors: Fu Wan , Li Xue , Lu Xiaopeng , Zhang Luyao , Li Ran , Zhang Nan , Liu Shan , Yang Xin , Wang Yue , Zhao Ying , Meng Xiangbao , Zhu Wei-Guo
Published: October 2017

Autophagy promotes cancer cell survival and drug resistance by degrading harmful cellular components and maintaining cellular energy levels. Disruption of autophagy may be a promising approach to sensitize cancer cells to anticancer drugs. The combination of autophagic inhibitors, such as chloroquine (CQ) and lucanthone with conventional cancer therapeutics has been investigated in clinical trials, but adverse drug–drug interactions are a high possibility. Here we designed and synthesized a novel, small-molecule library based on an acridine skeleton and the CQ structure with various modifications and substitutions and screened the compounds for effective autophagy inhibition. We found that 9-chloro-2-(3-(dimethylamino)propyl)pyrrolo[2,3,4-kl]acridin-1(2H)-one (LS-1-10) was the most effective from our library at inhibiting autophagic-mediated degradation and could decrease the viability of multiple colon cancer cells. In addition, LS-1-10 induced DNA damage and caspase 8-mediated apoptosis. Overall, this small molecule was more efficient at reducing the viability of cancer cells than other conventional chemotherapeutic agents, such as CQ and amsacrine. The anticancer and autophagy-inhibiting activities of LS-1-10 were confirmed in vivo in a xenograft mouse model. Collectively, this study has identified a new and efficient single compound with both autophagy-inhibiting and anticancer activity, which may provide a novel approach for cancer therapy.