bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Pain processing in functional and idiopathic dystonia: An exploratory study
Authors: Morgante Francesca , Matinella Angela , Andrenelli Elisa , Ricciardi Lucia , Allegra Cosimo , Terranova Carmen , Girlanda Paolo , Tinazzi Michele
Published: May 2018

Background: Pain is often experienced by patients with functional dystonia and idiopathic cervical dystonia and is likely to be determined by different neural mechanisms.

Objective: In this exploratory study, we tested the sensory‐discriminative and cognitive‐emotional component of pain in patients with functional and idiopathic dystonia.

Methods: Ten patients with idiopathic cervical dystonia, 12 patients with functional dystonia, and 16 age‐ and sex‐matched healthy controls underwent psychophysical testing of tactile and pain thresholds and pain tolerance. We delivered electrical pulses of increasing intensity to the index finger of each hand and the halluces of each foot. Pain threshold and pain tolerance were respectively defined as the (1) intensity at which sensation changed from unpainful to faintly painful and (2) intensity at which painful sensation was intolerable.

Results: No differences were found between the three groups for tactile and pain thresholds assessed in hands and feet. Pain tolerance was significantly increased in all body regions only in functional dystonia. Patients with continuous functional dystonia had higher pain tolerance compared to subjects with paroxysmal functional dystonia and idiopathic cervical dystonia. There was no correlation between pain tolerance and pain scores, depression, anxiety, disease duration, and motor disability in both groups.

Conclusions: Patients with functional dystonia have a dissociation between the sensory‐discriminative and cognitive‐emotional components of pain, as revealed by normal pain thresholds and increased pain tolerance. Abnormal connectivity between the motor and limbic systems might account for abnormal pain processing in functional dystonia. © 2018 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society
Dynamical properties of the improved FK3V heart cell model
Authors: Halfar Radek , Lampart Marek
Published: May 2018

The main aim of this paper is to study the evolution of the transmembrane potential on the cardiac cell under different rates and amplitudes of stimulation. For modeling this potential, the modification of the Fenton‐Karma model was applied. It is a phenomenological model with 3 degrees of freedom that corresponds to nondimensional transmembrane potential and gating variables for regulation of inward and outward ion currents that can better reproduce the shape of the transmembrane potential than the original Fenton‐Karma model. The model was newly forced by stimulus with the shape of the half‐sine period. As the main goal of the paper is to show that this model is showing regular as well as irregular motion; periodic and chaotic patterns are detected using bifurcation diagrams, the Fourier spectra, Poincaré sections, and 0‐1 test for chaos.
Low‐cost metamaterial absorber using three‐dimensional circular truncated cone
Authors: Yoon Youngseo , Lim Daecheon , Tentzeris Manos M. , Lim Sungjoon
Published: May 2018

In this article, we propose a low‐cost three‐dimensional (3D) printed metamaterial absorber. The proposed metamaterial consists of a periodic structure of circular truncated cones. The dielectric materials supporting the circular truncated cone are made from a poly(lactic acid) filament using the 3D printer. The conductor of the circular truncated cone is developed by spraying silver‐coated copper. The performance of the proposed absorber is numerically and experimentally investigated. The simulated and measured absorptivity are 91% and 95% at 10.8 and 10.81 GHz, respectively. As a result of the 3D printing and silver spray coating processes, the proposed absorber can be easily fabricated at a low cost.
Substrate‐integrated waveguide based antenna in remote respiratory sensing
Authors: Muharram Bushra , Okoniewski Michal
Published: May 2018

Continuous respiratory monitoring is important in a hospital environment. It has the potential to reduce mortality in central sleep apnea. Remote monitoring can be achieved using electromagnetic waves. A leaky‐wave array antenna using substrate‐integrated waveguide technology is proposed in remote respiratory sensing. It operates between 8 and 9 GHz and offers inexpensive beam‐scanning ability to scan a hospital bed and locate patient's chest for monitoring. The proposed antenna is also tested in detecting simulated chest movements manifested as phase variations of back reflected signal and converted to displacement data.
A microring conjugate mirror design and simulation for naked‐eye 3D imaging application
Authors: Pornsuwancharoen N. , Youplao P. , Tamee K. , Amiri I. S. , Ali J. , Singh G. , Yupapin P. , Suhailin F. H. , Cacha L. A. , Poznanski R. R.
Published: May 2018

We present a design of micro‐conjugate mirror using a nonlinear microring resonator, which is made of GaAsInP/P, is rapidly achieving widespread option in several three‐dimensional (3D) imaging applications. By exploiting the conjugate mirror properties, the 3D light probes can be formed by the whispering gallery modes (WGM) in which the WGM probe is also available within a nonlinear microring resonator. It is important to understand, these light probes use the similar functional principle to provide structured light through the object, just as the reference beams to light up and develop a hologram using the holographic method. The interference of 2 beams constructs the 3D image which can be seen by the naked‐eye while providing the 3D perception. The simulation results obtained from the transmission of 3D imaging are processed using MATLAB and OptiFDTD are compared and analyzed. These convincing theoretical results suggest that the proposed method can be used in practice to realize the naked‐eye 3D imaging with convincing visual perception and efficient transmission while providing the ultimate mode of convenience for viewers.
Tightly arranged orthogonal mode antenna for 5G MIMO mobile terminal
Authors: Sun Libin , Feng Haigang , Li Yue , Zhang Zhijun
Published: May 2018

This letter presents an orthogonal mode 4‐antenna system operating in the 3.5‐GHz band (3.3–3.6 GHz) for the fifth‐generation (5G) multiple‐input multiple‐output (MIMO) mobile device. The 4‐antenna system is composed of 2 identical tightly arranged antenna pairs, and each pair is formed with an arrow‐shaped monopole and a bended dipole with gap‐coupled feeding. The tightly‐arranged antenna pair is face‐to‐face arranged on the front and back side of the substrate and the distance between the center of the 2 elements is only 1 mm; however, they have good isolation (better than 10 dB) and diversity performance (envelope correlation coefficient better than 0.11) with the help of orthogonal mode. This configuration provides promising solution for compactness of the MIMO antenna in mobile phone. The prototype was fabricated and measured, and the measured results show good agreements with the simulated ones.
A stretchable smart and highly efficient radio frequency antenna on low cost substrate
Authors: Deepa Nivethika S. , Sreeja B. S. , Manikandan E. , Radha S.
Published: May 2018

The manufacture and characterization of highly efficient smart antenna with stretchable behavior for C band wireless applications is described. The smart antenna uses stretchable substrate as well as stretchable patch. Ag elastomer is used as conductive and ethyl vinyl acetate is used as dielectric substrate for elastic applications. The exactness in antenna manufacture is achieved by utilizing corelDraw software. It is shown that, frequency reconfigures by varying the strain and can withstand up to 25% strain with relatively good efficiency. Furthermore, the results indicate that the antenna parameters with respect to no strain, 10% strain and 23% strain are simulated using HFSS and are found to be in match with the measured results.
Closely spaced MIMO antenna based on substrate‐integrated waveguide technology
Authors: Sung Youngje
Published: May 2018

In this letter, a compact array system for multiple‐input‐multiple‐output (MIMO) applications is designed, based on substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technology. In order to verify the potential of the proposed antenna as a MIMO application, 2 types of 4‐element SIW antenna are placed in a compact space. Four isosceles triangle (type 1) and rectangle (type 2) SIW antennas, consisting of metallic vias at 1 side and slit at the other side, are used as radiating elements. The side‐to‐side distance of the elements is only 0.006 λ0. The peak gain of these patterns is −3 dBi. The envelope correlation coefficient is calculated from the measured 3D patterns and shows good MIMO performance. The proposed antenna achieves both a significant reduction of size and mutual coupling by metallic vias.
Comment on “a compact ultra‐thin ultra‐wideband microwave metamaterial absorber”
Authors: Marathe Dushyant Subhash , Kulat Kishore
Published: May 2018

In the recently published article, Ramya et al. (Microw Opt Technol Lett. 2017;59:1837–1845. https://doi.org/10.1002/mop.30636) proposed asymmetrical metamaterial absorber structure for wideband applications. It was shown that, the reported structure has wideband absorptivity (above 85%) from 10.36 to 16.67 GHz. It is demonstrated in this article that, the reported unit cell is not a metamaterial electromagnetic wave absorbing structure. It is found that, peak absorptivity is 37.6%, 26.5%, and 28.6% at frequencies 10.5, 13.9, and 16.2 GHz, respectively. The strong wideband absorption caused in the original article is due to ignorance of cross‐polarized reflections in the calculation of absorbivity rather than true absorption as authors claimed.
Pulsed Magnetic Resonance to Signal‐Enhance Metabolites within Seconds by utilizing para‐Hydrogen
Authors: Korchak Sergey , Yang Shengjun , Mamone Salvatore , Glöggler Stefan
Published: May 2018

Diseases such as Alzheimer's and cancer have been linked to metabolic dysfunctions, and further understanding of metabolic pathways raises hope to develop cures for such diseases. To broaden the knowledge of metabolisms in vitro and in vivo, methods are desirable for direct probing of metabolic function. Here, we are introducing a pulsed nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) approach to generate hyperpolarized metabolites within seconds, which act as metabolism probes. Hyperpolarization represents a magnetic resonance technique to enhance signals by over 10 000‐fold. We accomplished an efficient metabolite hyperpolarization by developing an isotopic labeling strategy for generating precursors containing a favorable nuclear spin system to add para‐hydrogen and convert its two‐spin longitudinal order into enhanced metabolite signals. The transfer is performed by an invented NMR experiment and 20 000‐fold signal enhancements are achieved. Our technique provides a fast way of generating hyperpolarized metabolites by using para‐hydrogen directly in a high magnetic field without the need for field cycling.
Impact of front contact layers on performance of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells in relaxed and metastable states
Authors: Koida Takashi , Nishinaga Jiro , Ueno Yuko , Higuchi Hirohumi , Takahashi Hideki , Iioka Masayuki , Shibata Hajime , Niki Shigeru
Published: May 2018

We studied the impacts of front contact layers composed of transparent conducting oxide (TCO) and transparent oxide semiconductor (TOS) layers on the performance of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells with glass/Mo/CIGS/CdS/TOS/TCO in relaxed and metastable states. After annealing under illumination, the CIGS solar cells with KF and NaF postdeposition treatments exhibited metastable increases in open‐circuit voltage, fill factor, and the resulting conversion efficiency with a metastable decrease in short‐circuit current density. These are partly attributed to an increase in metastable acceptor density in the CIGS layers, being stable for a day even at room temperature, with a reduced space charge width. We found that the net acceptor density evaluated by capacitance‐voltage measurements largely varied depending on the TOS/TCO layers, whereas the open‐circuit voltage was identical. On the other hand, no significant differences in both the net acceptor density and open‐circuit voltage were observed regardless of the TOS/TCO layers in the relaxed state produced by annealing in the dark. The results suggest that the CdS/CIGS heterojunction can no longer be treated as an n+/p junction in the metastable state and that the evaluated acceptor density was apparent values with large difference originating from different potential distribution in the CdS layer, which is related to the TOS/CdS and TCO/CdS junctions. In addition, the TOS/TCO layers largely affected the short‐circuit current density owing to their optical constants and film thicknesses. The presented results highlight the importance of the design of CdS/TOS/TCO layers in solar cells operated in metastable states.
Epidemiology of Robin sequence with cleft palate in the East of Scotland between 2004 and 2013
Authors: Wright Marie , Mehendale Felicity , Urquhart Don S.
Published: May 2018

Background

Robin sequence (RS) is a congenital disorder characterized by cleft palate, micrognathia, and glossoptosis which can result in clinically significant upper airway obstruction (UAO). Historically, incidence of RS in the UK has been estimated as 1 in 8500 live births. Our study describes birth prevalence, clinical characteristics, and management of RS in the East of Scotland (EoS) region.

Methods

Retrospective case note review of infants born in EoS from 2004 to 2013 with a clinical diagnosis of RS. Cases were identified by searching the regional cleft service patient database and review of Hospital Activity Statistics data. Regional live birth rate provided the denominator for incidence calculations.

Results

A total of 105 cases of RS were identified, giving a birth prevalence of 1:2685 live births. No trends in annual incidence were observed over the 10‐year period. Intrauterine exposure to potentially teratogenic agents was identified in 17% cases, including Methadone in 8% cases. Signs of UAO were present in 93% of infants, 63% of whom required active airway management. Nasopharyngeal airway (NPA) was the most commonly used intervention (53% cases), whilst only 7% required surgical management. Infants with an underlying syndrome or additional anomalies (RS+) were significantly more likely to be admitted to a tertiary center and require surgical airway or feeding support compared to those with isolated RS.

Conclusions

RS incidence in EoS is substantially higher than that reported within other populations, and than previously reported in the UK. A possible association with intrauterine Methadone exposure warrants further investigation.
Pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome associated with human metapneumovirus and respiratory syncytial virus
Authors: Ravindranath Thyyar M. , Gomez Amanda , Harwayne‐Gidansky Ilana , Connors Thomas J. , Neill Nathan , Levin Bruce , Howell Joy D. , Saiman Lisa , Baird John S.
Published: May 2018

Objectives

To study the incidence, risk factors, clinical course, and outcome of ARDS in children with HMP and RSV.

Working Hypothesis

We hypothesized that ARDS in children with HMP was similar in incidence, risk factors, clinical course, and outcomes to ARDS in children with RSV.

Study Design

Retrospective, observational study over 2 years.

Patient‐Subject Selection

Patients included were <18 years old with HMP or RSV detected from nasopharyngeal specimens by commercial reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction assay admitted to a study site.

Methodology

We described the incidence of ARDS within 1 week following the detection of HMP or RSV using recently developed Pediatric ARDS (PARDS) criteria. We also assessed risk factors, clinical course, and outcomes of children in the PICU with HMP or RSV and PARDS or non‐PARDS.

Results

We identified 57 patients with HMP and 161 patients with RSV: the proportions of patients with either virus who developed PARDS (HMP: 23%, RSV: 20%) and severe PARDS (HMP: 9%, RSV: 7%) were similar, as were the proportions of patients with acute (or acute‐on‐chronic) respiratory failure who developed PARDS (HMP: 41%, RSV: 31%). In a logistic regression model, risk factors associated with PARDS included neurologic comorbidity and PIM 3 probability of mortality, but not virus type. The risk factors, clinical course, and outcomes were similar for patients with PARDS associated with HMP and RSV.

Conclusions

About 1/3 of children with HMP or RSV and acute (or acute‐on‐chronic) respiratory failure developed PARDS. Children with either virus and a neurologic comorbidity or an increased PIM 3 probability of mortality were at increased risk for PARDS.
Leveraging botanical resources for crop protection: the isolation, bioactivity and structure–activity relationships of lycoris alkaloids
Authors: Hu Zhan , Wang Ziwen , Liu Yuxiu , Wang Qingmin
Published: May 2018

BACKGROUND

Lycoris aurea (L' Herit.) Herb (Amaryllidaceae) is a native pesticide in China. The ethanolic extract of Lycoris aureate bulbs, the total alkaloids of L. aurea bulbs and the main alkaloids of L. aurea bulbs were systematically investigated as part of a novel project to study their antiviral, fungicidal (phytopathogenic) and insecticidal activities. We also prepared 18 lycorine derivatives and evaluated their bioactivities.

RESULTS

Lycorine had excellent larvicidal activity against Plutella xylostella (LC50 = 10.6 mg L−1) and was also effective during a field trial. It also showed good inhibitory activity against tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and good fungicidal activity against Phytophthora capsici (EC50 = 7.76 mg L−1). Compounds 13 and 15 exhibited good anti‐TMV activity, excellent fungicidal activity against Rhizoctonia cerealis (EC50 = 6.78 mg L−1) and excellent larvicidal activity against Culex pipiens pallens (LC50 at 0.1–0.25 mg L−1).

CONCLUSION

Lycorine was identified as the main active component of L. aurea bulbs and showed potential for field application against P. xylostella. The activities of compounds 13 and 15 make them excellent candidates for new lead compounds in novel pesticide research. This study provides the basis for developing these alkaloids into potential agrochemicals. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry
Model selection based on resampling approaches for cluster longitudinal data with missingness in outcomes
Authors: Chen Chun‐Shu , Shen Chung‐Wei
Published: May 2018

In medical and health studies, longitudinal and cluster longitudinal data are often collected, where the response variable of interest is observed repeatedly over time and along with a set of covariates. Model selection becomes an active research topic but has not been explored largely due to the complex correlation structure of the data set. To address this important issue, in this paper, we concentrate on model selection of cluster longitudinal data especially when data are subject to missingness. Motivated from the expected weighted quadratic loss of a given model, data perturbation and bootstrapping methods are used to estimate the loss and then the model that has the smallest expected loss is selected as the best model. To justify the proposed model selection method, we provide various numerical assessments and a real application regarding the asthma data set is also analyzed for illustration.
Design of Silica Nanostructures with Tunable Architectures Templated by Ferrocene Peptides
Authors: Xu Sheng , Wang Yuefei , Qi Wei , Su Rongxin , He Zhimin
Published: May 2018

In this work, we report the synthesis of silica nanomaterials with controllable architectures using self‐assembling peptides as templates. We utilized three different peptides, including ferrocene‐L‐Phe‐OH (Fc−F), ferrocene‐L‐Phe‐L‐Phe‐OH (Fc‐FF) and ferrocene‐L‐Phe‐L‐Phe‐L‐Phe‐OH (Fc‐FFF). These peptides could self‐assemble in aqueous solution to form one‐dimensional (1D) nanostructures, such as nanofibers and nanohelices. By incorporating tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and co‐structure directing agent N‐trimethoxysilylpropyl‐N, N, N‐trimethylammonium chloride (TMAPS), we could control the condensation and mineralization of the silica precursors with the self‐assembled peptide nanostructures. This led to the formation of a series of silica nanostructures, including nanotubes, nanohelices and mesoporous silica nanofibers. The morphology of the silica nanostructures could be controlled by changing the length of the peptide sequence, pH, solvents and counterions. The results outline a strategy for the fabrication of well‐ordered silica nanomaterials, which is of significance for the practical applications in biosensing, catalysis and drug delivery.
Toward efficient business behavior prediction using location‐based social networks
Authors: Al Sonosy Ola A. , Rady Sherine , Badr Nagwa L. , Hashem Mohammed
Published: May 2018

Understanding business behavior in a city requires acquiring huge amount of data coming from diverse field studies. The growing use of mobile devices in social media provides massive data transactions that can replace such data acquired by field studies. Location‐based social networks' (LBSNs') data can be exploited in urban analysis for economic reasons. In this research, the spatial correlation of business turnouts for venues registered in LBSNs is studied for business behavior predictions. A novel similarity embedded (SE)‐spatial interpolation technique is proposed for business turnouts' predictions. The proposed technique utilizes diverse features provided by LBSNs in the prediction process to improve prediction performance. Moreover, a local filter is introduced to avoid local extreme involvements in the prediction process issuing better prediction results. To test the proposed techniques, experimental case study is implemented for predicting business behavior of venues registered in Foursquare in Texas. The proposed SE‐spatial interpolation has shown better prediction accuracy than classical spatial interpolation predictions. The additional integration of the local filter shows further alleviated prediction errors. Furthermore, this study extends the work for the efficient application of the proposed prediction technique in big datasets. An iterative nearest neighbors first search method is designed for accelerating the execution time of the prediction technique implementation regardless the dataset size. The proposed method was tested over several size datasets. The test results show accelerated execution time for the proposed method when compared with the classical implementation execution time.

This article is categorized under:

Algorithmic Development > Spatial and Temporal Data Mining

Fundamental Concepts of Data and Knowledge > Big Data Mining

Technologies > Prediction
Media reporting of conflict between wildlife and people spending time in nature
Authors: Stafford Nicole T. , Welden Robert F. , Bruyere Brett L.
Published: May 2018

There is a great deal of investment in the United States by land management agencies and conservation organizations to promote visitation and experiencing of natural and wild places. Given the relationship between outdoor experiences and support for conservation and pro‐environmental behavior, such campaigns are critical. We examined 392 articles about conflict between wildlife and humans recreating in the natural world between 2010 and 2015 to address how the conflict was framed by news media and discuss implications of the frames on how people might think and feel about time spent in nature. Sampled articles were from newspapers in 7 states in the Intermountain West region of the United States. We studied how articles were framed, to whom articles most often assigned blame for the incident, and if articles included information for how to prevent or mitigate such situations. We found that a majority of articles were framed episodically; therefore, were more likely to evoke an emotional response by readers that were more likely to negatively influence attitudes and behaviors about spending time in nature. In addition, wildlife were most often blamed for the conflict, and safety tip information was typically not included. © 2018 The Wildlife Society.
Triphenylphosphane Oxide Complexes of Lanthanide Nitrates: Polymorphs and Photophysics
Authors: Barnes Francis H. , Kelly Andrew W. , Melzer Henry , Patterson Howard H. , Pike Robert D.
Published: May 2018

A series of mer‐[Ln(NO3)3(Ph3PO)3] complexes were prepared from Ln(NO3)3·xH2O and Ph3PO in chloroform (Ln = La, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, and Er). The La and Nd complexes were 0.25 CHCl3 solvates, whereas the others were solvent‐free. The identical reaction using Yb(NO3)3·xH2O produced the unique salt trans‐[Yb(NO3)2(Ph3PO)4][Yb(NO3)4(Ph3PO)]·Et2O. All nitrate ions in all complexes are η2‐chelating. A comparison of the various [Ln(NO3)3(Ph3PO)3] structures, including those in the literature, reveals at least four common polymorphs, each of which is represented by isomorphic structures of multiple Ln ions. Luminescence of mer‐[Ln(NO3)3(Ph3PO)3] (Ln = Y, La, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, and Dy), trans‐[Yb(NO3)2(Ph3PO)4][Yb(NO3)4(Ph3PO)] and Ph3PO assignments are reported. Latva's empirical rule allows for the antenna effect, in which energy is transferred from the triplet state of the Ph3PO ligand, to occur only for Tb3+. Excitation via Ph3PO results in strong green luminescence for Tb3+ having twice the intensity as that which results from direct excitation of the f‐f transitions.
Hydroalumination of Oligoalkynylgermanes and ‐digermanes – Reactions with Heterocumulenes by Al–C or Ge–C Bond Activation and Formation of a Hexazenedialuminum Complex
Authors: Uhl Werner , Honacker Christian , Lawrence Neil , Hepp Alexander , Schürmann Lina , Layh Marcus
Published: May 2018

Hydroalumination of the dialkynylgermane Ph2Ge(C≡CtBu)2 (1) and the digermanes Phn(tBuC≡C)3–nGe–Ge(C≡CtBu)3–nPhn (2a: n = 2; 2b: n = 1) with two equivalents of H–AltBu2 or H–AlEt2 yielded the mixed Al/Ge compounds Ph2Ge[C(AltBu2)=CH‐tBu]2 (3), [Ph2GeC(AltBu2)=CH‐tBu]2 (4a), and [Ph2GeC(AlEt2)=CH‐tBu]2 (4b). Reactions of 2b with both aluminum hydrides afforded inseparable mixtures of products. 3 reacted with heterocumulenes by retrohydroalumination. Phenyl isocyanate gave insertion of the C=N group into the resulting Ge–C(≡C–tBu) bond (5), whereas the NCS and NCN groups of phenyl isothiocyanate and a carbodiimide inserted into Al–Cvinyl bonds (6 and 7) with unaffected terminal Ge–C≡C–tBu moieties. The generation of 5 represents the first example of the insertion of a heterocumulene into a Ge–C bond, which may be favored by the activation of the isocyanate group by the Lewis acidic Al atom and the increased polarity of the N=C=O fragment as determined by NBO calculations. The reactions of the digermanes 4 with heterocumulenes were unselective and afforded inseparable mixtures. Treatment of 4a with the azide (4‐tBu)C6H4CH2–N3 led interestingly to reductive coupling of two azide molecules, and the hexazene complex (tBuC6H4CH2N3–N3C6H4tBu)(AltBu2)2 (8) was isolated in moderate yield. Six nitrogen atoms form a dianionic chain, which coordinated two AltBu2 fragments by formation of two joint AlN4 heterocycles.
Challenges in Riverine Ecosystem Management
Authors: Sendzimir Jan , Schmutz Stefan
Published: May 2018

This book is dedicated to those interested in the natural and social sciences and elements of governance that will support the sustainable management of rivers and aquatic ecosystems. Since elements of nature and society interact to determine the integrity and trajectory of these systems, they are referred to hereafter as social-ecological systems (SESs). This introduction opens the door to these topics in four steps. It begins by explaining why a book dedicated to river management and science is needed at this point. In the second part, it outlines the history of some of the major developments that challenge the integrity of SESs worldwide. In the third part, it describes several of the principal tools used to study as well as manage SES. Tools to measure the degree of degradation of an SES include indicators of biological integrity, ecosystem health, and resilience. Tools to assess and manage the trajectory of an SES include the DPSIR and adaptive management. The introduction closes by outlining the structure of the book through the progression of its chapters.
River Morphology, Channelization, and Habitat Restoration
Authors: Hohensinner Severin , Hauer Christoph , Muhar Susanne
Published: May 2018

Authorities and planners involved in river restoration projects often tend to focus on the hydromorphological state of a short river reach or certain aquatic habitats where the pending deficits are most evident. Nevertheless, for long-term and sustainable restoration, one should also consider flood dynamics and other interlinked processes at larger spatio-temporal scales, ideally at the catchment scale. Channel geometry and fluvial dynamics are not solely determined by local geomorphological framework conditions. Rather they are the product of influxes from the upstream catchment. Over the long term, both sediment transport and discharge, on the one side, and the local/sectional setting (e.g. geology, topography) on the other side lead to the formation of certain channel patterns. Changes in upstream sediment delivery and altered discharge regimes trigger local channel adjustments.

Accordingly, channelization measures do not only affect the physical configuration and dynamic fluvial processes at a respective river reach. Rather they influence much longer river sections or even the whole river system, including the tributaries. Human interventions into riverine environments always call for consideration of unintended side effects and potential long-term legacies that may cause new problems at upstream or downstream sections. What seems to be clear for river channelization does also apply to restoration measures. Locally implemented river restoration projects may also influence the up- and downstream fluvial processes and, thus, the habitat availability and the ecological state of longer river sections.
Classical conformal blocks and accessory parameters from isomonodromic deformations
Authors: Lencsés Máté , Novaes Fábio
Published: May 2018

Abstract

Classical conformal blocks appear in the large central charge limit of 2D Virasoro conformal blocks. In the AdS3/CFT2correspondence, they are related to classical bulk actions and used to calculate entanglement entropy and geodesic lengths. In this work, we discuss the identification of classical conformal blocks and the Painlevé VI action showing how isomonodromic deformations naturally appear in this context. We recover the accessory parameter expansion of Heun’s equation from the isomonodromicτ-function. We also discuss how thec= 1 expansion of the τ -function leads to a novel approach to calculate the 4-point classical conformal block.
Light-cone reduction vs. TsT transformations: a fluid dynamics perspective
Authors: Dutta Suvankar , Krishna Hare
Published: May 2018

Abstract

We compute constitutive relations for a charged (2+1) dimensional Schrödinger fluid up to first order in derivative expansion, using holographic techniques. Starting with a locally boosted, asymptotically AdS, 4 + 1 dimensional charged black brane geometry, we uplift that to ten dimensions and perform TsT transformations to obtain an effective five dimensional local black brane solution with asymptotically Schrödinger isometries. By suitably implementing the holographic techniques, we compute the constitutive relations for the effective fluid living on the boundary of this space-time and extract first order transport coefficients from these relations. Schrödinger fluid can also be obtained by reducing a charged relativistic conformal fluid over light-cone. It turns out that both the approaches result the same system at the end. Fluid obtained by light-cone reduction satisfies a restricted class of thermodynamics. Here, we see that the charged fluid obtained holographically also belongs to the same restricted class.
Construction of a plasmid interspecific transfer system in Bacillus species with the counter-selectable marker mazF
Authors: Zhao XingYa , Xu JianYong , Tan Ming , Yu ZhenXiao , Yang ShiBin , Zheng HongChen , Song Hui
Published: May 2018

Bacillus sp. strains as attractive hosts for the production of heterologous secretory proteins usually play important roles in bio-industry. However, low transformation efficiency of exogenous plasmids limited the application of Bacillus species. Here, a novel plasmid interspecific transfer system, with high transformation efficiency, high positive rate, and convenient manipulation, has been successfully constructed. A high electrotransformation efficiency strain Bacillus subtilis F-168 containing the counter-selectable marker mazF was used as the plasmid donor strain in this transfer method. A shuttled plasmid pBE980 and its recombinant plasmids pBE980::pulA and pBE980::HSPA were successfully transferred into the recipient Bacillus strains (Bacillus amyloliquefaciens 66, Bacillus licheniformis 124 and Bacillus megaterium 258) by this method. After co-culturing the donor cells (OD600nm = 1.3–1.7) and the recipient cells (OD600nm = 0.5–0.9) for 24 h in 22 °C, more than 1.0 × 105 positive transformants were obtained and a interspecific transformation efficiency of 1.0 × 10−3. It would provide a new approach for genetic manipulation in Bacillus strains and accelerate the research progress of the wild Bacillus strains in bio-industry.
Prospects for engineering dynamic CRISPR–Cas transcriptional circuits to improve bioproduction
Authors: Fontana Jason , Voje William E , Zalatan Jesse G , Carothers James M
Published: May 2018

Dynamic control of gene expression is emerging as an important strategy for controlling flux in metabolic pathways and improving bioproduction of valuable compounds. Integrating dynamic genetic control tools with CRISPR–Cas transcriptional regulation could significantly improve our ability to fine-tune the expression of multiple endogenous and heterologous genes according to the state of the cell. In this mini-review, we combine an analysis of recent literature with examples from our own work to discuss the prospects and challenges of developing dynamically regulated CRISPR–Cas transcriptional control systems for applications in synthetic biology and metabolic engineering.
Effect of Topical Tranexamic Acid on Reducing Blood Loss in Primary Total Knee Arthroplasty in Southern Chinese Population
Authors: Pui Kwok Pui , Ki Ho Ka , Bruce Yang Isaac , Leung Sha Wai , Leung Wong Hok , Yin Chow Yuk
Published: May 2018

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of topical tranexamic acid (TA) on the postoperative blood loss and transfusion rate after primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Two hundred ninety-six patients (n = 296) undergoing TKA in Pok Oi Hospital were included in this study from July 2015 to September 2016. The topical TA group (n =154) showed a significant reduction in haemoglobin drop (2.76 g/dL vs. 3.62 g/dL, p < 0.001), haematocrit drop (0.0876 vs. 0.112, p < 0.001), transfusion rate (3.2% vs. 23.9%, p < 0.001), drain output (199 mL vs. 276 mL, p < 0.001) and length of stay (9 days vs. 11 days, p < 0.001) compared with those in the control group (n = 142). There was no thromboembolic complication associated with TA use. The results supported the use of topical TA to control postoperative blood loss after TKA.
Montenegro, NATO and the divided society
Authors: Bešić Miloš , Spasojević Dušan
Published: May 2018

In this paper we are investigating the political and social effects of Montenegro joining NATO. This issue is highly controversial and follows the political divisions in Montenegro, which motivated us to apply social cleavage theory. As method, we applied logistic regression clustered for standard error. We found that besides socio-demographic variables (ethnic division between Montenegrins and Serbs), the main line of the cleavage indicated by support of, or opposition to NATO membership falls along the issues of the independence of Montenegro, its relationship with the EU vs. Russia, as well as the attitude toward political power and party identification.
Secondary instabilities in the wake of an elongated two-dimensional body with a blunt trailing edge
Authors: Gibeau B. , Koch C. R. , Ghaemi S.
Published: May 2018

The secondary instability in the wake of a two-dimensional blunt body with a chord to thickness ratio of 46.5 was experimentally investigated for Reynolds numbers of 3500, 5200 and 7000 based on the blunt trailing edge height $h$. Planar, stereoscopic and high-speed particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements were performed to characterise the wake and upstream boundary layer. The same mode B secondary instability that is found in the cylinder wake was found to be present in the wake of the elongated body studied here. The most probable wavelength of the secondary instability, defined as the spanwise distance between adjacent streamwise vortex pairs in the wake, was found to range from $0.7h$ to $0.8h$ by applying a spatial autocorrelation to the spanwise–wall-normal instantaneous fields of the $Q$-criterion. The temporal evolution of the secondary wake vortices was investigated using time-resolved stereoscopic PIV measurements and it was shown that the vortices maintain both their directions of rotation and spanwise positions during the primary vortex shedding cycles. In agreement with previous literature, the secondary instability did not greatly change as the upstream boundary layer transitioned from laminar to turbulent. Moreover, any upstream boundary layer structures were found to rapidly evolve into wake structures just past the blunt trailing edge. The wavelength of the secondary instability was shown to match the spanwise distance between adjacent low-speed zones of streamwise velocity in the wake. These undulating velocity patterns proved to be a viable method for determining the secondary instability wavelength; however, this type of analysis is highly sensitive to the energy content used for data reconstruction when proper orthogonal decomposition is applied beforehand.
Effect of the multiphase composition in a premixed fuel–air stream on wedge-induced oblique detonation stabilisation
Authors: Ren Zhaoxin , Wang Bing , Xiang Gaoming , Zheng Longxi
Published: May 2018

An oblique detonation wave in two-phase kerosene–air mixtures over a wedge is numerically studied for the first time. The features of initiation and stabilisation of the two-phase oblique detonation are emphasised, and they are different from those in previous studies on single-phase gaseous detonation. The gas–droplet reacting flow system is solved by means of a hybrid Eulerian–Lagrangian method. The two-way coupling for the interphase interactions is carefully considered using a particle-in-cell model. For discretisation of the governing equations of the gas phase, a WENO-CU6 scheme (Hu et al., J. Comput. Phys., vol. 229 (23), 2010, pp. 8952–8965) and a sixth-order compact scheme are employed for the convective terms and the diffusive terms, respectively. The inflow parameters are chosen properly from real flight conditions. The fuel vapour, droplets and their mixture are taken as the fuel in homogeneous streams with a stoichiometric ratio, respectively. The effects of evaporating droplets and initial droplet size on the initiation, transition from oblique shock to detonation and stabilisation are elucidated. The two-phase oblique detonation wave is stabilised from the oblique shock wave induced by the wedge. As the mass flow rate of droplets increases, a shift from a smooth transition with a curved shock to an abrupt one with a multi-wave point is found, and the initiation length of the oblique detonation increases, which is associated with the increase of the transition pressure. By increasing the initial droplet size, a smooth transition pattern is observed, even if the equivalence ratio remains constant, and the transition pressure decreases. The factor responsible is incomplete evaporation before the detonation fronts, which results in a complicated flame structure, including regimes of formation of oblique detonation, evaporative cooling of droplets and post-detonation reaction.
Special Collections: What are They and How do we Build Them? (1)
Authors: LeMay Jason
Published: May 2018

An organization needs to consider a number of preservation issues when building a special collection. The level of control one can exert over these issues will vary, but they can have a direct impact on the integrity of special collection materials. This presentation will briefly deal with concerns related to the types of materials being collected; room and location considerations; environmental conditions; and pest and mold issues. Many of these are interrelated, so this is not a truly systematic process. Rather, one will probably find it necessary to go back and forth among these topics.
Race, Law Enforcement, and the Beloved Community
Authors: Soulen Allison Rutland
Published: May 2018

In 2016 Georgia Appleseed issued a report entitled “Seeking the Beloved Community: Fostering Crucial Conversations about Race, Law Enforcement, and the Law.” The International Association of Law Libraries invited me to speak at its conference because it was interested in why Georgia Appleseed had chosen that project, and they were also interested in the methods we used to create the report. Here I'll provide a summary of my talk, first introducing the work of Georgia Appleseed, and then turning to the project report itself.
Taxonomy ofCladonia angustilobaand related species
Authors: PINO-BODAS Raquel , BURGAZ Ana Rosa , AHTI Teuvo , STENROOS Soili
Published: May 2018

The lichen speciesCladonia angustilobais characterized by a well-developed primary thallus and narrow squamules which show deep incisions, and the presence of usnic and fumarprotocetraric acids. Morphologically it is similar toC. foliaceaandC. convoluta, from which it can be distiguished by the squamule size and morphology. Since similar characters were used to distinguishC. foliaceafromC. convolutawhich do not represent different lineages, it is necessary to examine the taxonomic status ofC. angustilobaby means of DNA sequences. In this study, the species delimitation within theC. foliaceacomplex was studied by sequencing three loci, ITS rDNA,cox1andRPB2. The data were analyzed by means of phylogenetic and species delimitation methods (GMYC, PTP, ABGD and BPP). Our results show that none of the three species is monophyletic. Most of the species delimitation methods did not support the current species as evolutionary lineages. Only some of the BPP analyses supportedC. angustilobaas a species distinct fromC. foliaceaandC. convoluta. However, the hypothesis that considers theC. foliaceacomplex as constituted by a unique species obtained the best Bayes Factor value. Therefore,C. angustilobaandC. convolutaare synonymized withC. foliacea.A new, thoroughly checked synonymy with typifications of the wholeC. foliaceacomplex is presented. An updated survey of the world distribution data is compiled.
The draft genome of the lichen-forming fungusLasallia hispanica(Frey) Sancho & A. Crespo
Authors: DAL GRANDE Francesco , MEISER Anjuli , GRESHAKE TZOVARAS Bastian , OTTE Jürgen , EBERSBERGER Ingo , SCHMITT Imke
Published: May 2018

Lasallia hispanica (Frey) Sancho & A. Crespo is one of threeLasalliaspecies occurring in central-western Europe. It is an orophytic, photophilous Mediterranean endemic which is sympatric with the closely related, widely distributed, highly clonal sister taxonL. pustulatain the supra- and oro-Mediterranean belts. We sequenced the genome ofL. hispanicafrom a multispore isolate. The total genome length is 41·2 Mb, including 8488 gene models. We present the annotation of a variety of genes that are involved in protein secretion, mating processes and secondary metabolism, and we report transposable elements. Additionally, we compared the genome ofL. hispanicato the closely related, yet ecologically distant,L. pustulataand found high synteny in gene content and order. The newly assembled and annotatedL. hispanicagenome represents a useful resource for future investigations into niche differentiation, speciation and microevolution inL. hispanicaand other members of the genus.
Assessing phylogeny and historical biogeography of the largest genus of lichen-forming fungi, Xanthoparmelia (Parmeliaceae, Ascomycota)
Authors: LEAVITT Steven D. , KIRIKA Paul M. , AMO DE PAZ Guillermo , HUANG Jen-Pan , HUR Jae-Seoun , ELIX John A. , GREWE Felix , DIVAKAR Pradeep K. , LUMBSCH H. Thorsten
Published: May 2018

Species richness is not evenly distributed across the tree of life and a limited number of lineages comprise an extraordinarily large number of species. In lichen-forming fungi, only two genera are known to be ‘ultradiverse’ (>500 species), with the most diverse genus, Xanthoparmelia, consisting of c. 820 species. While Australia and South Africa are known as current centres of diversity for Xanthoparmelia, it is not well known when and where this massive diversity arose. To better understand the geographical and temporal context of diversification in this diverse genus, we sampled 191 Xanthoparmelia specimens representing c. 124 species/species-level lineages from populations worldwide. From these specimens, we generated a multi-locus sequence data set using Sanger and high-throughput sequencing to reconstruct evolutionary relationships in Xanthoparmelia, estimate divergence times and reconstruct biogeographical histories in a maximum likelihood and Bayesian framework. This study corroborated the phylogenetic placement of several morphologically or chemically diverse taxa within Xanthoparmelia, such as Almbornia, Chondropsis, Karoowia, Namakwa, Neofuscelia, Omphalodiella, Paraparmelia, Placoparmelia and Xanthomaculina, in addition to improved phylogenetic resolution and reconstruction of previously unsampled lineages within Xanthoparmelia. Our data indicate that Xanthoparmelia most likely originated in Africa during the early Miocene, coinciding with global aridification and development of open habitats. Reconstructed biogeographical histories of Xanthoparmelia reveal diversification restricted to continents with infrequent intercontinental exchange by long-distance dispersal. While likely mechanisms by which Xanthoparmelia obtained strikingly high levels of species richness in Australia and South Africa remain uncertain, this study provides a framework for ongoing research into diverse lineages of lichen-forming fungi. Finally, our study highlights a novel approach for generating locus-specific molecular sequence data sets from high throughput metagenomic reads.