bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Microbiological and Clinical Effects of Sitafloxacin and Azithromycin in Periodontitis Patients Receiving Supportive Periodontal Therapy
Authors: Nakajima Takako , Okui Takafumi , Ito Harue , Nakajima Mayuka , Honda Tomoyuki , Shimada Yasuko , Tabeta Koichi , Akazawa Kohei , Yamazaki Kazuhisa
Published: January 2016

Sitafloxacin (STFX) is a newly developed quinolone that has robust antimicrobial activity against periodontopathic bacteria. We previously reported that oral administration of STFX during supportive periodontal therapy was as effective as conventional mechanical debridement under local anesthesia microbiologically and clinically for 3 months. The aim of the present study was to examine the short-term and long-term microbiological and clinical effects of systemic STFX and azithromycin (AZM) on active periodontal pockets during supportive periodontal therapy. Fifty-one patients receiving supportive periodontal therapy were randomly allocated to the STFX group (200 mg/day of STFX for 5 days) or the AZM group (500 mg/day of AZM for 3 days). The microbiological and clinical parameters were examined until 12 months after the systemic administration of each drug. The concentration of each drug in periodontal pockets and the antimicrobial susceptibility of clinical isolates were also analyzed. The proportions of red complex bacteria, i.e.,
Porphyromonas gingivalis
,
Treponema denticola
, and
Tannerella forsythia
, which are the representative periodontopathic bacteria, were significantly reduced at 1 month and remained lower at 12 months than those at baseline in both the STFX and AZM groups. Clinical parameters were significantly improved over the 12-month period in both groups. An increase in the MIC of AZM against clinical isolates was observed in the AZM group. These results indicate that monotherapy with systemic STFX and AZM might be an alternative treatment during supportive periodontal therapy in patients for whom invasive mechanical treatment is inappropriate. (This study has been registered with the University Hospital Medical Information Network-Clinical Trials Registry [UMIN-CTR] under registration number UMIN000007834.)
Abundance and Biogeography of Picoprasinophyte Ecotypes and Other Phytoplankton in the Eastern North Pacific Ocean
Authors: Simmons Melinda P. , Sudek Sebastian , Monier Adam , Limardo Alexander J. , Jimenez Valeria , Perle Christopher R. , Elrod Virginia A. , Pennington J. Timothy , Worden Alexandra Z.
Published: January 2016

Eukaryotic algae within the picoplankton size class (≤2 μm in diameter) are important marine primary producers, but their spatial and ecological distributions are not well characterized. Here, we studied three picoeukaryotic prasinophyte genera and their cyanobacterial counterparts,
Prochlorococcus
and
Synechococcus
, during two cruises along a North Pacific transect characterized by different ecological regimes. Picoeukaryotes and
Synechococcus
reached maximum abundances of 1.44 × 10
5
and 3.37 × 10
5
cells · ml
−1
, respectively, in mesotrophic waters, while
Prochlorococcus
reached 1.95 × 10
5
cells · ml
−1
in the oligotrophic ocean. Of the picoeukaryotes,
Bathycoccus
was present at all stations in both cruises, reaching 21,368 ± 327 18S rRNA gene copies · ml
−1
.
Micromonas
and
Ostreococcus
clade OI were detected only in mesotrophic and coastal waters and
Ostreococcus
clade OII only in the oligotrophic ocean. To resolve proposed
Bathycoccus
ecotypes, we established genetic distances for 1,104 marker genes using targeted metagenomes and the
Bathycoccus prasinos
genome. The analysis was anchored in comparative genome analysis of three
Ostreococcus
species for which physiological and environmental data are available to facilitate data interpretation. We established that two
Bathycoccus
ecotypes exist, named here BI (represented by coastal isolate
Bathycoccus prasinos
) and BII. These share 82% ± 6% nucleotide identity across homologs, while the
Ostreococcus
spp. share 75% ± 8%. We developed and applied an analysis of ecomarkers to metatranscriptomes sequenced here and published -omics data from the same region. The results indicated that the
Bathycoccus
ecotypes cooccur more often than
Ostreococcus
clades OI and OII do. Exploratory analyses of relative transcript abundances suggest that
Bathycoccus
NRT2.1 and AMT2.2 are high-affinity NO
3
−
and low-affinity NH
4
+
transporters, respectively, with close homologs in multiple picoprasinophytes. Additionally, in the open ocean, where dissolved iron concentrations were low (0.08 nM), there appeared to be a shift to the use of nickel superoxide dismutases (SODs) from Mn/Fe/Cu SODs closer inshore. Our study documents the distribution of picophytoplankton along a North Pacific ecological gradient and offers new concepts and techniques for investigating their biogeography.
Quantification of Nonproteolytic Clostridium botulinum Spore Loads in Food Materials
Authors: Barker Gary C. , Malakar Pradeep K. , Plowman June , Peck Michael W.
Published: January 2016

We have produced data and developed analysis to build representations for the concentration of spores of nonproteolytic
Clostridium botulinum
in materials that are used during the manufacture of minimally processed chilled foods in the United Kingdom. Food materials are categorized into homogenous groups which include meat, fish, shellfish, cereals, fresh plant material, dairy liquid, dairy nonliquid, mushroom and fungi, and dried herbs and spices. Models are constructed in a Bayesian framework and represent a combination of information from a literature survey of spore loads from positive-control experiments that establish a detection limit and from dedicated microbiological tests for real food materials. The detection of nonproteolytic
C. botulinum
employed an optimized protocol that combines selective enrichment culture with multiplex PCR, and the majority of tests on food materials were negative. Posterior beliefs about spore loads center on a concentration range of 1 to 10 spores kg
−1
. Posterior beliefs for larger spore loads were most significant for dried herbs and spices and were most sensitive to the detailed results from control experiments. Probability distributions for spore loads are represented in a convenient form that can be used for numerical analysis and risk assessments.
Radicicol-Mediated Inhibition of Topoisomerase VIB-VIA Activity of the Human Malaria Parasite Plasmodium falciparum
Authors: Chalapareddy Sureshkumar , Chakrabarty Swati , Bhattacharyya Mrinal Kanti , Bhattacharyya Sunanda
Published: January 2016

In this study we characterize topoisomerase VI from
Plasmodium falciparum
using genetic and biochemical approaches. We use various inhibitors and identify radicicol as a specific inhibitor of its decatenation activity. We establish a very simple and economical biochemical assay system that can be exploited to screen inhibitors of PfTopoVI.
Evaluation of frequency of paediatric oral liquid medication dosing errors by caregivers: amoxicillin and josamycin
Authors: Berthe-Aucejo A , Girard D , Lorrot M , Bellettre X , Faye A , Mercier J C , Brion F , Bourdon O , Prot-Labarthe S
Published: January 2016

Objective

To study reconstitution and preparation dosing errors of liquid oral medications given by caregivers to children.

Methods

A prospective observational study was carried out in the departments of general paediatrics and emergency paediatrics at the Robert-Debré Children's University Hospital. An interview with caregivers involved (1) practical reconstitution and preparation of an oral liquid medication from a prescription drawn at random (amoxicillin (Clamoxyl, dosing spoon) or josamycin (Josacine, dose-weight pipette)) and (2) a questionnaire about their use.

Results

One hundred caregivers were included. Clamoxyl and Josacine were incorrectly reconstituted in 46% (23/50) and 56% (28/50) of cases, respectively, with a risk of underdosing of Clamoxyl (16/23) and overdosing of Josacine (23/28). Dose preparation with the dosing spoon was incorrect in 56% of cases, and in 10% of cases with the dose-weight pipette. Female sex, native French speaker, and age were significantly associated with correct reconstitution. Male sex and medication were significantly associated with correct preparation.

Conclusions

This study highlights the high incidence of errors made by caregivers in reconstituting and preparing doses of these liquid oral medicines, which are associated with considerable risks of over- and underdosing. Factors associated with these errors have been identified which could help health professionals to optimise their strategy for educating families about the use of liquid oral medications and the need to check that they understand these instructions.
The long-term outcomes of atypical haemolytic uraemic syndrome: a national surveillance study
Authors: Durkan Anne M , Kim Siah , Craig Jonathan , Elliott Elizabeth
Published: January 2016

Background

Atypical haemolytic uraemic syndrome (aHUS) accounts for ∼10% of all cases of HUS and is often due to complement dysregulation. The short-term outcomes for this disease are established, but there are limited long-term data. The long-term outcomes of a comprehensive nationwide cohort of children with aHUS are presented here.

Methods

The Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit prospectively collected data on all cases of HUS in children seen by paediatricians between 1994 and 2001. Patients with aHUS were followed-up with a written questionnaire to the treating clinician at 1 year and again before transition to adult services or at last known follow-up.

Results

There were 146 reported cases of HUS, of which 14 were aHUS. Ten children required dialysis at first presentation, including two who died and three who did not recover renal function. The disease was relapsing in all but one who survived the presenting episode, with most relapses occurring in the first 12 months. At 1 year, one child was lost to follow-up. Nine of the remaining 11 patients were dialysis dependent. Thirteen kidneys were transplanted into eight children. There was disease recurrence in eight kidneys, which resulted in graft loss in seven. There were three further deaths 1.7, 6.7 and 16.1 years after the initial presentation. Five children developed neurological complications and two had cardiac complications, largely at the time of onset of the disease.

Conclusions

aHUS is a rare but devastating disease with very high mortality and morbidity that extends beyond the initial presentation period.
PAN's labyrinth: a multidisciplinary delayed diagnosis and patient's perspective
Authors: Barlow Emma Louise , Seddon Owen , Healy Brendan
Published: January 2016

Polyarteritis nodosa (PAN) is a rare, severe form of vasculitis affecting medium-sized vessels. It manifests as a multisystem syndrome, and may be associated with hepatitis B virus-associated PAN (HBV-PAN) although the incidence of this is declining with better vaccination strategies and awareness of bloodborne virus screening. We report a case in which a patient displayed many classical features of the disease, occurring separately over a period of months and leading to contact with various medical specialties. Managing each symptom in isolation led to a number of misdiagnoses (including testicular cancer) and the patient experienced considerable psychological stress and morbidity as a result. The case was complicated by acute pancreatitis developing after an initial treatment response. This may have been iatrogenic (as a consequence of either entecavir or steroids) or secondary to PAN. For our patient, this led to a protracted clinical course but eventual complete resolution of both pathologies.
Changes of individual perception in psychosocial stressors related to German reunification in 1989/1990 and cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular diseases in a population-based study in East Germany
Authors: Bohley Stefanie , Kluttig Alexander , Werdan Karl , Nuding Sebastian , Greiser Karin Halina , Kuss Oliver , Markus Marcello Ricardo Paulista , Schmidt Carsten Oliver , Völzke Henry , Krabbe Christine , Haerting Johannes
Published: January 2016

Objectives

Aim was to examine the relationship between individually perceived changes in psychosocial stressors associated with German reunification and cardiovascular effects. We hypothesised that higher levels of psychosocial stress related to German reunification were associated with an increase in cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs).

Design

Cross-sectional data from 2 cohort studies in East Germany were used: Cardiovascular Disease, Living and Ageing in Halle Study (CARLA), and Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP).

Setting

2 populations in East Germany.

Participants

CARLA study: 1779 participants, aged 45–83 years at baseline (812 women), SHIP study: 4308 participants, aged 20–79 years at baseline (2193 women).

Primary and secondary outcome measures

Psychosocial stressors related to reunification were operationalised by the Reunification Stress Index (RSI; scale from 0 to 10). This index was composed of questions that were related to individually perceived changes in psychosocial stressors (occupational, financial and personal) after reunification. To examine the associations between the RSI and each stressor separately with cardiovascular risk factors and CVD, regression models were used.

Results

RSI was associated with CVD in women (RR=1.15, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.33). Cardiovascular risk factors were associated with RSI for both men and women, with strongest associations between RSI and diabetes in women (RR=1.10, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.20) and depressive disorders in men (RR=1.15, 95% CI 1.07 to 2.77). The change in occupational situation related to reunification was the major contributing psychosocial stressor. We observed a strong association with CVD in women who experienced occupational deterioration after reunification (RR=4.04, 95% CI 1.21 to 13.43).

Conclusions

Individually perceived deterioration of psychosocial stressors (occupational, financial and personal) related to German reunification was associated with cardiovascular risk factors and CVD. The associations were stronger for women than for men. An explanation for these findings could be that women were more often affected by unemployment after reunification. Morbidity and mortality follow-up of both cohorts could enhance the results.
Sleep among bereaved caregivers of patients admitted to hospice: a 1-year longitudinal pilot study
Authors: Lerdal Anners , Slåtten Kari , Saghaug Elisabeth , Grov Ellen Karine , Normann Are Peder , Lee Kathryn A , Bjorvatn Bjørn , Gay Caryl L
Published: January 2016

Objectives

This pilot study aimed to describe the sleep of partners and other family caregivers prior to and in the first year after a hospice patient's death. The study also evaluated the feasibility of the study protocol and determined the effect sizes in preparation for a full-scale study.

Design

The pilot study used a longitudinal, descriptive and comparative design.

Setting and participants

Participants included primary family caregivers of patients admitted to a hospice in Oslo, Norway.

Primary outcome

Caregiver sleep was measured subjectively with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and objectively using wrist actigraphy for 4 nights and 3 days at three different times: during the hospice stay, and at 6 and 12 months after the patient's death.

Results

16 family caregivers (10 partners and 6 other family members) completed the 1-year study protocol. Overall, sleep quality and quantity were stable over time and at each assessment, approximately half of the sample had poor sleep quality, both by self-report and objective measures. However, the sleep trajectories differed significantly over time, with older caregivers (≥65 years) having significantly longer sleep durations than younger caregivers (<65 years). Furthermore, sleep quality also differed over time depending on the caregiver's relationship to the patient, with partner caregivers having significantly worse sleep quality than other family caregivers.

Conclusions

Caring for a dying family member is known to interfere with sleep, yet little is known about bereaved caregivers. The results of this pilot study demonstrate the feasibility of the longitudinal study protocol and indicate that sleep problems are common for caregivers and continue into the bereavement period, particularly for partner caregivers. The caregiver's relationship to the patient may be an important factor to consider in future studies.
Retrospective morphometric study of the suitability of renal arteries for renal denervation according to the Symplicity HTN2 trial criteria
Authors: Schönherr Elisabeth , Rehwald Rafael , Nasseri Parinaz , Luger Anna K , Grams Astrid E , Kerschbaum Julia , Rehder Peter , Petersen Johannes , Glodny Bernhard
Published: January 2016

Objective

The aim of this study was to describe the renal arteries of humans in vivo, as precisely as possible, and to formulate an expected value for the exclusion of renal denervation due to the anatomical situation based on the criteria of the Symplicity HTN trials.

Design and setting

In a retrospective cohort study, the renal arteries of 126 patients (57 women, 69 men, mean age 60±17.2 years (CI 57.7 to 63.6)) were segmented semiautomatically from high-contrast CT angiographies.

Results

Among the 300 renal arteries, there were three arteries with fibromuscular dysplasia and one with ostial renal artery stenosis. The first left renal artery was shorter than the right (34±11.4 mm (CI 32 to 36) vs 45.9±15 mm (CI 43.2 to 48.6); p<0.0001), but had a slightly larger diameter (5.2±1.4 mm (CI 4.9 to 5.4) vs 4.9±1.2 mm (CI 4.6 to 5.1); p>0.05). The first left renal arteries were 1.1±0.4 mm (CI 0.9 to 1.3), and the first right renal arteries were 0.3±0.6 mm (CI 0.1 to 0.5) thinner in women than in men (p<0.05). Ostial funnels were up to 14 mm long. The cross-sections were elliptical, more pronounced on the right side (p<0.05). In 23 cases (18.3%), the main artery was shorter than 2 cm; in 43 cases (34.1%), the diameter was not >4 mm. Some 46% of the patients, or 58.7% when variants and diseases were taken into consideration, were theoretically not suitable for denervation.

Conclusions

Based on these precise measurements, the anatomical situation as a reason for ruling out denervation appears to be significantly more common than previously suspected. Since this can be the cause of the failure of treatment in some cases, further development of catheters or direct percutaneous approaches may improve success rates.
Factors related to prolonged on-scene time during ambulance transportation for critical emergency patients in a big city in Japan: a population-based observational study
Authors: Nagata Isao , Abe Toshikazu , Nakata Yoshinori , Tamiya Nanako
Published: January 2016

Objectives

We aimed to investigate the factors related to prolonged on-scene times, which were defined as being over 30 min, during ambulance transportation for critical emergency patients in the context of a large Japanese city.

Design

A population-based observational study.

Setting

Kawasaki City, Japan's eighth largest city.

Participants

The participants in this study were all critical patients (age ≥15 years) who were transported by ambulance between April 2010 and March 2013 (N=11 585).

Outcome measures

On-scene time during ambulance transportation for critical emergency patients.

Results

The median on-scene time for all patients was 17 min (IQR 13–23). There was a strong correlation between on-scene time and the number of phone calls to hospitals from emergency medical service (EMS) personnel (p<0.001). In multivariable logistic regression, the number of phone calls to hospitals from EMS personnel, intoxication, minor disease and geographical area were associated with on-scene times over 30 min. Age, gender, day of the week and time of the day were not associated with on-scene times over 30 min.

Conclusions

To make on-scene time shorter, it is vital to redesign our emergency system and important to develop a system that accommodates critical patients with intoxication and minor disease, and furthermore to reduce the number of phone calls to hospitals from EMS personnel.
Diagnostic and prognostic accuracy of miR-21 in renal cell carcinoma: a systematic review protocol
Authors: Rasti Arezoo , Mehrazma Mitra , Madjd Zahra , Keshtkar Abbas Ali , Roudi Raheleh , Babashah Sadegh
Published: January 2016

Introduction

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most common neoplasm in adult kidneys. One of the most important unmet medical needs in RCC is a prognostic biomarker to enable identification of patients at high risk of relapse after nephrectomy. New biomarkers can help improve diagnosis and hence the management of patients with renal cancer. Thus, this systematic review aims to clarify the prognostic and diagnostic accuracy of miR-21 in patients with RCC.

Methods and analysis

We will include observational studies evaluating the diagnostic and prognostic roles of miR-21 in patients with renal cancer. The index test and reference standards should ideally be performed on all patients. We will search PubMed, SCOPUS and ISI Web of Science with no restriction of language. The outcome will be survival measures in adult patients with RCC. Study selection and data extraction will be performed by two independent reviewers. QUADAS-1 will be used to assess study quality. Publication bias and data synthesis will be assessed by funnel plots and Begg's and Egger's tests using Stata software V.11.1.

Ethics and dissemination

No ethical issues are predicted. These findings will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and presented at national and international conferences.

Trail registration number

This systematic review protocol is registered in the PROSPERO International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews, registration number CRD42015025001.
Sickness absence and return to work among Japanese stroke survivors: a 365-day cohort study
Authors: Endo Motoki , Sairenchi Toshimi , Kojimahara Noriko , Haruyama Yasuo , Sato Yasuto , Kato Rika , Yamaguchi Naohito
Published: January 2016

Objectives

The objective of this study was to investigate the cumulative return to work (RTW) rate and to clarify the predictors of the time to full-time RTW (full RTW) and resignation among Japanese stroke survivors, within the 365-day period following their initial day of sickness absence due to stroke.

Setting

This study was based on tertiary prevention of occupational health in large-scaled Japanese companies of various industries.

Participants

The participants in this study were 382 Japanese workers who experienced an episode of sickness leave due to clinically certified stroke diagnosed between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2011. Data were obtained from an occupational health register. Participants were followed up for 365 days after the start day of the first sickness absence. The cumulative RTW rates by Kaplan-Meier estimates and predictors for time to full RTW and resignation by Cox regression were calculated.

Results

A total of 382 employees had their first sickness absence due to stroke during the 12-year follow-up period. The cumulative full RTW rates at 60, 120, 180 and 365 days were 15.1%, 33.6%, 43.5% and 62.4%, respectively. Employees who took sick leave due to cerebral haemorrhage had a longer time to full RTW (HR, 0.50; 95% CI 0.36 to 0.69) than those with cerebral infarction. Older employees (over 50 years of age) demonstrated a shorter time to resignation than younger employees (HR, 3.30; 95% CI 1.17 to 9.33). Manual workers had a longer time to resignation than non-manual workers (HR, 0.24; 95% CI 0.07 to 0.78).

Conclusions

Cumulative RTW rates depended on the subtype of stroke, and older age was a predictor of resignation.
Early warning scores: a health warning
Authors: Challen Kirsty , Roland Damian
Published: January 2016

Early warning scores are frequently used in UK adult emergency departments (EDs) and are gaining traction in paediatric emergency care. Like many innovations with inherent face validity, they have great appeal to clinicians, managers and commissioners. However, it is important to ensure unintended consequences and balancing measures are mitigated. We review the background to their development and introduction in the ED, the evidence for their usefulness, their limitations in our field and areas for further research.
Data visualisation in surveillance for injury prevention and control: conceptual bases and case studies
Authors: Martinez Ramon , Ordunez Pedro , Soliz Patricia N , Ballesteros Michael F
Published: January 2016

Background

The complexity of current injury-related health issues demands the usage of diverse and massive data sets for comprehensive analyses, and application of novel methods to communicate data effectively to the public health community, decision-makers and the public. Recent advances in information visualisation, availability of new visual analytic methods and tools, and progress on information technology provide an opportunity for shaping the next generation of injury surveillance.

Objective

To introduce data visualisation conceptual bases, and propose a visual analytic and visualisation platform in public health surveillance for injury prevention and control.

Methods

The paper introduces data visualisation conceptual bases, describes a visual analytic and visualisation platform, and presents two real-world case studies illustrating their application in public health surveillance for injury prevention and control.

Results

Application of visual analytic and visualisation platform is presented as solution for improved access to heterogeneous data sources, enhance data exploration and analysis, communicate data effectively, and support decision-making.

Conclusions

Applications of data visualisation concepts and visual analytic platform could play a key role to shape the next generation of injury surveillance. Visual analytic and visualisation platform could improve data use, the analytic capacity, and ability to effectively communicate findings and key messages. The public health surveillance community is encouraged to identify opportunities to develop and expand its use in injury prevention and control.
Novel immunohistochemical markers differentiate intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma from benign bile duct lesions
Authors: Bertram Stefanie , Padden Juliet , Kälsch Julia , Ahrens Maike , Pott Leona , Canbay Ali , Weber Frank , Fingas Christian , Hoffmann Andreas C , Vietor Antonie , Schlaak Joerg F , Eisenacher Martin , Reis Henning , Sitek Barbara , Baba Hideo A
Published: January 2016

Aims

The distinction between intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) and benign bile duct lesions can be challenging. Using our previously identified potential biomarkers for ICC, we examined whether these are useful for the differential diagnosis of ICC, bile duct adenoma and reactive bile duct proliferations in an immunohistochemical approach and identified a diagnostic marker panel including known biomarkers.

Methods

Subjects included samples from 77 patients with ICC, 33 patients with bile duct adenoma and 47 patients with ductular reactions in liver cirrhosis. Our previously identified biomarkers (stress-induced phosphoprotein 1 (STIP1), SerpinH1, 14-3-3Sigma) were tested immunohistochemically following comparison with candidates from the literature (cluster of differentiation 56, heat shock protein (HSP)27, HSP70, B-cell-lymphoma2, p53, ki67).

Results

The expression of SerpinH1 and 14-3-3Sigma was significantly higher in ICC than in bile duct adenomas and ductular reactions (p<0.05), whereas STIP1 expression was significantly higher (p<0.05) in ICC than in ductular reactions, but the difference to the bile duct adenoma group was not significant. A panel of the biomarker SerpinH1, 14-3-3Sigma and ki67 (≥2 marker positive) showed a high diagnostic accuracy (sensitivity 87.8%, specificity 95.9%, accuracy 91.8%) in the differential diagnosis of ICC versus non-malignant bile duct lesions.

Conclusions

This suggests that 14-3-3Sigma and SerpinH1 may be useful in the differential diagnosis of malignant, benign and reactive bile duct lesions in addition to ki67 where a cut-off of >5% might be used for the distinction of malignant and non-malignant lesions.
Relative role of population density and climatic factors in shaping the body growth rate of Lilford’s Wall Lizard (Podarcis lilfordi)
Authors: Rotger A. , Igual J.M. , Smith J.J. , Tavecchia G.
Published: January 2016

The body growth rate in small reptiles is modulated by per-capita food resources and recent evidences suggested that this constraint is the mechanism underlying differences between cohorts. Per-capita food resources depend on population size and climatic factors, but their relative role in explaining the variations in growth rate is unclear. We used morphological data collected over 6 years to model the body growth of an insular lizard (Lilford’s Wall Lizard, Podarcis lilfordi (Günther, 1874)). We used nonlinear equations to describe the appropriate length-at-age relationship. For each sex, seasonal growth was observed and the oscillatory von Bertalanffy curve was fitted to the data. Three age classes were recognized, and we investigated the relative role of density, spring rainfall, and temperature in explaining the variation of the growth rate in each sex-by-age class. Results showed that the relative role of density and climatic factors varied according to the age considered. While population size and temperature had a negative effect on the growth rate of juveniles, rainfall had a positive influence on the growth of subadults. Adult growth was near zero and constant over time. The different role of density-dependent and climatic factors in explaining age-dependent growth rate provides an important insight in understanding lizard population dynamics and life-history tactics.
Effect of a stochastic electric field on plasma confinement in FTU
Authors: Martorelli Roberto , Montani Giovanni , Carlevaro Nakia
Published: January 2016

We discuss a stochastic model for the behavior of electrons in a magnetically confined plasma having axial symmetry. The aim of the work is to provide an explanation for the density limit observed in the Frascati Tokamak Upgrade (FTU) machine. The dynamical framework deals with an electron embedded in a stationary and uniform magnetic field and affected by an orthogonal random electric field. The behavior of the average plasma profile is determined by the appropriate Fokker–Planck equation associated to the considered model and the disruptive effects of the stochastic electric field are shown. The comparison between the addressed model and the experimental data allows to fix the relevant spatial scale of such a stochastic field. It is found to be of the order of the Tokamak micro-physics scale, i.e. few millimeters. Moreover, it is clarified how the diffusion process outlines a dependence on the magnetic field as [Formula: see text].
A torsional completion of gravity for Dirac matter fields and its applications to neutrino oscillations
Authors: Fabbri Luca , Vignolo Stefano
Published: January 2016

In this paper, we consider the torsional completion of gravitation for an underlying background filled with Dirac fields, applying it to the problem of neutrino oscillations: we discuss the effects of the induced torsional interactions as corrections to the neutrino oscillations mechanism.
Electronic structure, magnetism and stability of Co2CrX (X =Al, Ga, In) ab initio study
Authors: Dahmane F. , Mesri D. , Tadjer A. , Khenata R. , Benalia S. , Djoudi L. , Doumi B. , Boumia L. , Aourag H.
Published: January 2016

The structural, electronic as well as the magnetic properties of the Co2CrX (X[Formula: see text]Al, Ga and In) full-Heusler alloy have been studied using first-principles calculations performed in the framework of density functional theory (DFT) within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA). It was taken into account both possible L21 structures (i.e. Hg2CuTi- and Cu2MnAl-type). Basically, for all compounds, the Cu2MnAl-type structure is energetically more stable than Hg2CuTi-type structure at the equilibrium volume. The electronic structure calculations for Co2CrAl reveal that half-metallic (HM) character in Cu2MnAl-type structure, Co2CrGa show nearly HM behavior and Co2CrIn has a metallic character. The predicted total magnetic moment is [Formula: see text] for Co2CrX (X[Formula: see text]Al, Ga) which is in good convergence with the Slater–Pauling (SP) rule.
Existence Conditions of Homoclinic Trajectories in Tigan System
Authors: Leonov G.
Published: January 2016

For Tigan system existence conditions of homoclinic trajectories are obtained. Algorithms for computing bifurcation values of parameters corresponding to homoclinic trajectories are formulated.
Distributionally Scrambled Set for an Annihilation Operator
Authors: Yin Zongbin , Yang Qigui
Published: January 2016

This paper investigates distributionally scrambled sets for an annihilation operator of the unforced quantum harmonic oscillator. Precisely, for each positive integer [Formula: see text], the [Formula: see text]th iteration of the annihilation operator admits infinitely many densely invariant distributionally [Formula: see text]-scrambled linear manifolds for any [Formula: see text].
Limitation of Perpetual Points for Confirming Conservation in Dynamical Systems
Authors: Jafari Sajad , Nazarimehr Fahimeh , Sprott J. C. , Golpayegani Seyed Mohammad Reza Hashemi
Published: January 2016

Perpetual Points (PPs) have been introduced as an interesting new topic in nonlinear dynamics, and there is a hypothesis that these points can determine whether a system is dissipative or not. This paper demonstrates that this hypothesis is not true since there are counterexamples. Furthermore, we explain that it is impossible to determine dissipation of a system based only on the structure of the system and its equations.
Redundant memory mappings for fast access to large memories
Authors: Karakostas Vasileios , Gandhi Jayneel , Ayar Furkan , Cristal Adrián , Hill Mark D. , McKinley Kathryn S. , Nemirovsky Mario , Swift Michael M. , Ünsal Osman
Published: January 2016

Page-based virtual memory improves programmer productivity, security, and memory utilization, but incurs performance overheads due to costly page table walks after TLB misses. This overhead can reach 50% for modern workloads that access increasingly vast memory with stagnating TLB sizes.

To reduce the overhead of virtual memory, this paper proposes Redundant Memory Mappings (RMM), which leverage ranges of pages and provides an efficient, alternative representation of many virtual-to-physical mappings. We define a range be a subset of process's pages that are virtually and physically contiguous. RMM translates each range with a single range table entry, enabling a modest number of entries to translate most of the process's address space. RMM operates in parallel with standard paging and uses a software range table and hardware range TLB with arbitrarily large reach. We modify the operating system to automatically detect ranges and to increase their likelihood with eager page allocation. RMM is thus transparent to applications.

We prototype RMM software in Linux and emulate the hardware. RMM performs substantially better than paging alone and huge pages, and improves a wider variety of workloads than direct segments (one range per program), reducing the overhead of virtual memory to less than 1% on average.
Flexible software profiling of GPU architectures
Authors: Stephenson Mark , Sastry Hari Siva Kumar , Lee Yunsup , Ebrahimi Eiman , Johnson Daniel R. , Nellans David , O'Connor Mike , Keckler Stephen W.
Published: January 2016

To aid application characterization and architecture design space exploration, researchers and engineers have developed a wide range of tools for CPUs, including simulators, profilers, and binary instrumentation tools. With the advent of GPU computing, GPU manufacturers have developed similar tools leveraging hardware profiling and debugging hooks. To date, these tools are largely limited by the fixed menu of options provided by the tool developer and do not offer the user the flexibility to observe or act on events not in the menu. This paper presents SASSI (NVIDIA assembly code "SASS" Instrumentor), a low-level assembly-language instrumentation tool for GPUs. Like CPU binary instrumentation tools, SASSI allows a user to specify instructions at which to inject user-provided instrumentation code. These facilities allow strategic placement of counters and code into GPU assembly code to collect user-directed, fine-grained statistics at hardware speeds. SASSI instrumentation is inherently parallel, leveraging the concurrency of the underlying hardware. In addition to the details of SASSI, this paper provides four case studies that show how SASSI can be used to characterize applications and explore the architecture design space along the dimensions of instruction control flow, memory systems, value similarity, and resilience.
Towards sustainable in-situ server systems in the big data era
Authors: Li Chao , Hu Yang , Liu Longjun , Gu Juncheng , Song Mingcong , Liang Xiaoyao , Yuan Jingling , Li Tao
Published: January 2016

Recent years have seen an explosion of data volumes from a myriad of distributed sources such as ubiquitous cameras and various sensors. The challenges of analyzing these geographically dispersed datasets are increasing due to the significant data movement overhead, time-consuming data aggregation, and escalating energy needs. Rather than constantly move a tremendous amount of raw data to remote warehouse-scale computing systems for processing, it would be beneficial to leverage in-situ server systems (InS) to pre-process data, i.e., bringing computation to where the data is located.

This paper takes the first step towards designing server clusters for data processing in the field. We investigate two representative in-situ computing applications, where data is normally generated from environmentally sensitive areas or remote places that lack established utility infrastructure. These very special operating environments of in-situ servers urge us to explore standalone (i.e., off-grid) systems that offer the opportunity to benefit from local, self-generated energy sources. In this work we implement a heavily instrumented proof-of-concept prototype called InSURE: in-situ server systems using renewable energy. We develop a novel energy buffering mechanism and a unique joint spatio-temporal power management strategy to coordinate standalone power supplies and in-situ servers. We present detailed deployment experiences to quantify how our design fits with in-situ processing in the real world. Overall, InSURE yields 20%~60% improvements over a state-of-the-art baseline. It maintains impressive control effectiveness in under-provisioned environment and can economically scale along with the data processing needs. The proposed design is well complementary to today's grid-connected cloud data centers and provides competitive cost-effectiveness.
ShiDianNao
Authors: Du Zidong , Fasthuber Robert , Chen Tianshi , Ienne Paolo , Li Ling , Luo Tao , Feng Xiaobing , Chen Yunji , Temam Olivier
Published: January 2016

In recent years, neural network accelerators have been shown to achieve both high energy efficiency and high performance for a broad application scope within the important category of recognition and mining applications.

Still, both the energy efficiency and performance of such accelerators remain limited by memory accesses. In this paper, we focus on image applications, arguably the most important category among recognition and mining applications. The neural networks which are state-of-the-art for these applications are
Convolutional Neural Networks
(CNN), and they have an important property: weights are shared among many neurons, considerably reducing the neural network memory footprint. This property allows to entirely map a CNN within an SRAM, eliminating all DRAM accesses for weights. By further hoisting this accelerator next to the image sensor, it is possible to eliminate all remaining DRAM accesses, i.e., for inputs and outputs.

In this paper, we propose such a CNN accelerator, placed next to a CMOS or CCD sensor. The absence of DRAM accesses combined with a careful exploitation of the specific data access patterns within CNNs allows us to design an accelerator which is 60× more energy efficient than the previous state-of-the-art neural network accelerator. We present a full design down to the layout at 65 nm, with a modest footprint of 4.86mm
2
and consuming only 320mW, but still about
30×
faster than high-end GPUs.
Branch vanguard
Authors: McFarlin Daniel S. , Zilles Craig
Published: January 2016

While control speculation is highly effective for generating good schedules in out-of-order processors, it is less effective for in-order processors because compilers have trouble scheduling in the presence of unbiased branches, even when those branches are highly predictable. In this paper, we demonstrate a novel architectural branch decomposition that separates the prediction and deconvergence point of a branch from its resolution, which enables the compiler to profitably schedule across predictable, but unbiased branches. We show that the hardware support for this branch architecture is a trivial extension of existing systems and describe a simple code transformation for exploiting this architectural support. As architectural changes are required, this technique is most compelling for a dynamic binary translation-based system like Project Denver.

We evaluate the performance improvements enabled by this transformation for several in-order configurations across the SPEC 2006 benchmark suites. We show that our technique produces a Geomean speedup of 11% for SPEC 2006 Integer, with speedups as large as 35%. As floating point benchmarks contain fewer unbiased, but predictable branches, our Geomean speedup on SPEC 2006 FP is 7%, with a maximum speedup of 26%.
Architecting to achieve a billion requests per second throughput on a single key-value store server platform
Authors: Li Sheng , Lim Hyeontaek , Lee Victor W. , Ahn Jung Ho , Kalia Anuj , Kaminsky Michael , Andersen David G. , Seongil O. , Lee Sukhan , Dubey Pradeep
Published: January 2016

Distributed in-memory key-value stores (KVSs), such as memcached, have become a critical data serving layer in modern Internet-oriented datacenter infrastructure. Their performance and efficiency directly affect the QoS of web services and the efficiency of datacenters. Traditionally, these systems have had significant overheads from inefficient network processing, OS kernel involvement, and concurrency control. Two recent research thrusts have focused upon improving key-value performance. Hardware-centric research has started to explore specialized platforms including FPGAs for KVSs; results demonstrated an order of magnitude increase in throughput and energy efficiency over stock memcached. Software-centric research revisited the KVS application to address fundamental software bottlenecks and to exploit the full potential of modern commodity hardware; these efforts too showed orders of magnitude improvement over stock memcached.

We aim at architecting high performance and efficient KVS platforms, and start with a rigorous architectural characterization across system stacks over a collection of representative KVS implementations. Our detailed full-system characterization not only identifies the critical hardware/software ingredients for high-performance KVS systems, but also leads to guided optimizations atop a recent design to achieve a record-setting throughput of 120 million requests per second (MRPS) on a single commodity server. Our implementation delivers 9.2X the performance (RPS) and 2.8X the system energy efficiency (RPS/watt) of the best-published FPGA-based claims. We craft a set of design principles for future platform architectures, and via detailed simulations demonstrate the capability of achieving a billion RPS with a single server constructed following our principles.
Warped-compression
Authors: Lee Sangpil , Kim Keunsoo , Koo Gunjae , Jeon Hyeran , Ro Won Woo , Annavaram Murali
Published: January 2016

This paper presents Warped-Compression, a warp-level register compression scheme for reducing GPU power consumption. This work is motivated by the observation that the register values of threads within the same warp are similar, namely the arithmetic differences between two successive thread registers is small. Removing data redundancy of register values through register compression reduces the effective register width, thereby enabling power reduction opportunities. GPU register files are huge as they are necessary to keep concurrent execution contexts and to enable fast context switching. As a result register file consumes a large fraction of the total GPU chip power. GPU design trends show that the register file size will continue to increase to enable even more thread level parallelism. To reduce register file data redundancy warped-compression uses low-cost and implementation-efficient base-delta-immediate (BDI) compression scheme, that takes advantage of banked register file organization used in GPUs. Since threads within a warp write values with strong similarity, BDI can quickly compress and decompress by selecting either a single register, or one of the register banks, as the primary base and then computing delta values of all the other registers, or banks. Warped-compression can be used to reduce both dynamic and leakage power. By compressing register values, each warp-level register access activates fewer register banks, which leads to reduction in dynamic power. When fewer banks are used to store the register content, leakage power can be reduced by power gating the unused banks. Evaluation results show that register compression saves 25% of the total register file power consumption.
CloudMonatt
Authors: Zhang Tianwei , Lee Ruby B.
Published: January 2016

Cloud customers need guarantees regarding the security of their virtual machines (VMs), operating within an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud system. This is complicated by the customer not knowing where his VM is executing, and on the semantic gap between what the customer wants to know versus what can be measured in the cloud. We present an architecture for monitoring a VM's security health, with the ability to attest this to the customer in an unforgeable manner. We show a concrete implementation of property-based attestation and a full prototype based on the OpenStack open source cloud software.
Perspectives of TRPV1 Function on the Neurogenesis and Neural Plasticity
Authors: Ramírez-Barrantes R. , Cordova C. , Poblete H. , Muñoz P. , Marchant I. , Wianny F. , Olivero P.
Published: January 2016

The development of new strategies to renew and repair neuronal networks using neural plasticity induced by stem cell graft could enable new therapies to cure diseases that were considered lethal until now. In adequate microenvironment a neuronal progenitor must receive molecular signal of a specific cellular context to determine fate, differentiation, and location. TRPV1, a nonselective calcium channel, is expressed in neurogenic regions of the brain like the subgranular zone of the hippocampal dentate gyrus and the telencephalic subventricular zone, being valuable for neural differentiation and neural plasticity. Current data show that TRPV1 is involved in several neuronal functions as cytoskeleton dynamics, cell migration, survival, and regeneration of injured neurons, incorporating several stimuli in neurogenesis and network integration. The function of TRPV1 in the brain is under intensive investigation, due to multiple places where it has been detected and its sensitivity for different chemical and physical agonists, and a new role of TRPV1 in brain function is now emerging as a molecular tool for survival and control of neural stem cells.