bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
In search of relevant predictors for marine species distribution modelling using the MarineSPEED benchmark dataset
Authors: Bosch Samuel , Tyberghein Lennert , Deneudt Klaas , Hernandez Francisco , De Clerck Olivier
Published: November 2017

Aim

Ideally, datasets for species distribution modelling (SDM) contain evenly sampled records covering the entire distribution of the species, confirmed absences and auxiliary ecophysiological data allowing informed decisions on relevant predictors. Unfortunately, these criteria are rarely met for marine organisms for which distributions are too often only scantly characterized and absences generally not recorded. Here, we investigate predictor relevance as a function of modelling algorithms and settings for a global dataset of marine species.

Location

Global marine.

Methods

We selected well‐studied and identifiable species from all major marine taxonomic groups. Distribution records were compiled from public sources (e.g., OBIS, GBIF, Reef Life Survey) and linked to environmental data from Bio‐ORACLE and MARSPEC. Using this dataset, predictor relevance was analysed under different variations of modelling algorithms, numbers of predictor variables, cross‐validation strategies, sampling bias mitigation methods, evaluation methods and ranking methods. SDMs for all combinations of predictors from eight correlation groups were fitted and ranked, from which the top five predictors were selected as the most relevant.

Results

We collected two million distribution records from 514 species across 18 phyla. Mean sea surface temperature and calcite are, respectively, the most relevant and irrelevant predictors. A less clear pattern was derived from the other predictors. The biggest differences in predictor relevance were induced by varying the number of predictors, the modelling algorithm and the sample selection bias correction. The distribution data and associated environmental data are made available through the R package marinespeed and at http://marinespeed.org.

Main conclusions

While temperature is a relevant predictor of global marine species distributions, considerable variation in predictor relevance is linked to the SDM set‐up. We promote the usage of a standardized benchmark dataset (MarineSPEED) for methodological SDM studies.
Attenuated psychosis and basic self‐disturbance as risk factors for depression and suicidal ideation/behaviour in community‐dwelling adolescents
Authors: Koren Dan , Rothschild‐Yakar Lily , Lacoua Liza , Brunstein‐Klomek Anat , Zelezniak Aya , Parnas Josef , Shahar Golan
Published: November 2017

Background and Aims

Adolescents at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis, as defined by the presence of attenuated psychosis symptoms (APS), exhibit increased levels of suicidal ideation and behaviour. However, no research thus far has examined the link between basic self‐disturbances (SDs), an established marker for CHR, and suicidality/self‐harm in this population. The goal of this pilot study was to assess the association between SD, depression and suicidal ideation and behaviour among non‐help‐seeking adolescents from the community.

Method

A total of 100 community‐dwelling adolescents (age range: 13‐16) were assessed using the Examination of Anomalous Self‐experience, Prodromal Questionnaire, Structured Interview for Prodromal Syndromes, Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire and the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School‐Age Children (K‐SADS). The K‐SADS was used to derive a binary diagnosis of unipolar depression, as well as to measure suicidal ideation and behaviour and self‐harm.

Results

In a multiple regression analysis, SD accounted for variance in depressive symptoms and suicidality/self‐harm over and above that accounted for by APS. Moreover, SD accounted for variance in suicidality/self‐harm over and above that accounted for by depression symptoms.

Conclusions

These pilot results suggest that SD might be a unique dimension of vulnerability to depression and suicidality/self‐harm in adolescence. Also, they encourage assessment of SD as part of a suicide risk assessment, particularly in the context of risk for subsequent psychosis.
Patient‐initiated recruitment for clinical research: Evaluation of an outpatient letter research statement
Authors: Wienroth Matthias , Caffrey Louise , Wolfe Charles , McKevitt Christopher
Published: November 2017

Background

UK Hospital Trusts are charged with increasing patients’ research awareness and willingness to take part in research. This includes implementing strategies to encourage patient‐initiated enquiries about participation.

Objectives

To evaluate the impact of a research statement inserted in outpatient letters in one clinical service, and to derive suggestions on potential steps towards increasing patient‐initiated recruitment.

Setting

A medical outpatient clinic of a research‐active hospital trust, serving an inner‐city multi‐ethnic population across two boroughs.

Methods

Pre‐intervention and post‐intervention questionnaires were administered face‐to‐face to new patients. Questionnaires included closed questions and one open comments section. Data were analysed for frequencies, with thematic coding of open‐ended responses.

Results

The response rates were 87% for the pre‐intervention survey and 92% for the post‐intervention survey. In the post‐intervention survey, 85% of patients did not notice the research statement in the letter. More than half found the statement “a little unclear,” whilst one‐third considered it “clear.” Three‐quarters of respondents perceived the statement to be “a little helpful.” Only one person enquired about participating in clinical research having read the statement in the outpatient letter.

Conclusion

The analysis suggests that simple, single‐solution approaches such as including research statements in outpatient letters are unlikely to be sufficient to significantly facilitate patient‐initiated recruitment. Recruitment efforts need to take into consideration the diversity of patient constituencies including the reasons they seek health care, and how patients can meaningfully access information (research literacy).
Can sleep quality and burnout affect the job performance of shift‐work nurses? A hospital cross‐sectional study
Authors: Giorgi Fabio , Mattei Antonella , Notarnicola Ippolito , Petrucci Cristina , Lancia Loreto
Published: November 2017

Aim

The aim of this study was to investigate any possible relationship between sleep disorders, burnout and job performance in a shift‐work population of nurses.

Background

Sleep disorders and burnout can affect the job performance of nurses in terms of efficiency, productivity, task execution speed and supervision, which can be compromised when work shifts are organized on a 24‐hour schedule and when the shift itself is irregular.

Design

A cross‐sectional observational study was conducted from August 2014 ‐ January 2015 on a sample of 315 shift‐work nurses across 39 wards in seven central Italian hospitals.

Methods

The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index was used to detect the presence of sleep disorders, the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory was used to detect the presence of any possible type of burnout and the Job Performance Scale was used to measure job performance. Data analysis was mainly based on a multivariate logistic regression to identify variables significantly associated with investigated outcomes.

Results

On shift‐work nurses' sleep quality and burnout correlated positively. The female gender and personal burnout were significantly associated with impaired sleep quality, while working in the psychiatric setting, working a long cycle shift pattern and experiencing daytime dysfunction were significantly associated with burnout. A significant negative association between patient‐related burnout and job performance was observed.

Conclusion

Specific characteristics of shift‐work nurses can directly affect sleep quality and burnout and indirectly job performance. This evidence offers healthcare administrators opportunities to intervene with measures to promote nurse's health, well‐being and safety.
Dynamic Product‐Level Analysis of In‐Use Aluminum Stocks in the United States
Authors: Chen Wei‐Qiang
Published: November 2017

This study estimates product‐level in‐use stocks of aluminum in the United States for the period 1960–2009 (or longer in some cases) and explores patterns of the historical evolution of in‐use aluminum stocks at both product and sector levels. The principal findings are the following: (1) results estimated by the product‐level methods in this study match reasonably well with those estimated by the sector‐level method for five sectors (except the Machinery and Equipment sector), meaning that the methods verify the robustness and reliability of each other; (2) after early period(s) of increase since aluminum‐containing products were introduced into the market, in‐use aluminum stocks at the product level, based on either absolute, per capita, or per household terms, follow one of four different patterns (Increase, Decrease, Saturation, and Fluctuation), determined by the historical evolution of product stocks and flows and aluminum contents in products; and (3) when aggregated, in‐use aluminum stocks at the product level can be used to compare with and explain the historical evolution of the in‐use aluminum stocks at the sector level that are estimated by the top‐down method, with only a few products dominating or significantly influencing the historical evolution pattern for a whole sector. These results may enable manufacturers, metal suppliers, recyclers, and governments to plan their material‐related policies and actions with increased precision compared to previous top‐down results that are only available at the sector level.
Repair gene O6‐methylguanine‐DNA methyltransferase is controlled by SP1 and up‐regulated by glucocorticoids, but not by temozolomide and radiation
Authors: Aasland Dorthe , Reich Thomas R. , Tomicic Maja T. , Switzeny Olivier J. , Kaina Bernd , Christmann Markus
Published: November 2017

Therapy of malignant glioma relies on treatment with the O6‐methylating agent temozolomide (TMZ) concomitant with ionizing radiation followed by adjuvant TMZ. For the treatment of recurrences, DNA chloroethylating drugs are also used. The main killing lesion induced by these drugs is O6‐alkylguanine. Since this damage is repaired by O6‐methylguanine‐DNA methyltransferase (MGMT), the repair enzyme represents a most important factor of drug resistance, limiting the therapy of malignant high‐grade gliomas. Although MGMT has been shown to be transcriptionally up‐regulated in rodents following genotoxic stress, it is still unclear whether human MGMT is subject to up‐regulation. Here, we addressed the question whether MGMT in glioma cells is enhanced following alkylating drugs or ionizing radiation, using promoter assays. We also checked the response of glioma cell lines to dexamethasone. In a series of experiments, we found no evidence that the human MGMT promoter is significantly up‐regulated following treatment with TMZ, the chloroethylating agent nimustine or radiation. It was activated, however, by dexamethasone. Using deletion constructs, we further show that the basal level of MGMT is mainly determined by the transcription factor SP1. The high amount of SP1 sites in the MGMT promoter likely prevents transcriptional up‐regulation following genotoxic stress by neutralizing inducible signals. The regulation of MGMT by miRNAs plays only a minor role, as shown by DICER knockdown experiments. Since high dose dexamethasone concomitant with temozolomide is frequently used in glioblastoma therapy, induction of the MGMT gene through glucocorticoids in MGMT promoter unmethylated cases might cause further elevation of drug resistance, while radiation and alkylating drugs seem not to induce MGMT at transcriptional level.

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Jaw closing movement and sex differences in temporomandibular joint energy densities
Authors: Gallo L. M. , Fankhauser N. , Gonzalez Y. M. , Liu H. , Liu Y. , Nickel J. C. , Iwasaki L. R.
Published: November 2017

Energy densities (ED, mJ/mm3) quantify mechanical work imposed on articular cartilages during function. This cross‐sectional study examined differences in temporomandibular joint (TMJ) ED during asymmetric versus symmetric jaw closing in healthy females versus males. ED component variables were tested for differences between and within sexes for two types of jaw closing. Seventeen female and 17 male subjects gave informed consent to participate. Diagnostic criteria for temporomandibular disorders and images (magnetic resonance (MR), computed tomography) were used to confirm healthy TMJ status. Numerical modelling predicted TMJ loads (Fnormal) consequent to unilateral canine biting. Dynamic stereometry combined MR imaging and jaw‐tracking data to measure ED component variables during 10 trials of each type of jaw closing in each subject's TMJs. These data were then used to calculate TMJ ED during jaw closing asymmetrically and symmetrically. Paired and Student's t tests assessed ED between jaw closing movements and sexes, respectively. Multivariate data analyses assessed ED component variable differences between jaw closing movements and sexes (α = 0.05). Contralateral TMJ ED were 3.6‐fold and significantly larger (P < .0001) during asymmetric versus symmetric jaw closing, due to significantly larger (P ≤ .001) distances of TMJ stress‐field translation in asymmetric versus symmetric movement. During asymmetric jaw closing, contralateral TMJ ED were twofold and significantly larger (P = .036) in females versus males, due to 1.5‐fold and significantly smaller (P ≤ .010) TMJ disc cartilage volumes under stress fields in females versus males. These results suggest that in healthy individuals, asymmetric compared to symmetric jaw closure in females compared to males has higher TMJ mechanical fatigue liabilities.
Glomeromycotina: what is a species and why should we care?
Authors: Bruns Thomas D. , Corradi Nicolas , Redecker Dirk , Taylor John W. , Öpik Maarja
Published: November 2017

A workshop at the recent International Conference on Mycorrhiza was focused on species recognition in Glomeromycotina and parts of their basic biology that define species. The workshop was motivated by the paradigm‐shifting evidence derived from genomic data for sex and for the lack of heterokaryosis, and by published exchanges in Science that were based on different species concepts and have led to differing views of dispersal and endemism in these fungi. Although a lively discussion ensued, there was general agreement that species recognition in the group is in need of more attention, and that many basic assumptions about the biology of these important fungi including sexual or clonal reproduction, similarity or dissimilarity of nuclei within an individual, and species boundaries need to be re‐examined and scrutinized with current techniques.
Antimicrobial Photodynamic Therapy Associated with Conventional Endodontic Treatment: A Clinical and Molecular Microbiological Study
Authors: da Silva Caroline C. , Chaves Júnior Sérgio P. , Pereira Gabriela L. D. , Fontes Karla B. F. da C. , Antunes Lívia A. A. , Póvoa Helvécio C. C. , Antunes Leonardo S. , Iorio Natalia L. P. P.
Published: November 2017

This study evaluated antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) as an adjunct to endodontic treatment. Ten uniradicular teeth (control group (CG) = 4 (2 and test group (TG) = 6) with primary endodontic infections, from both genders, between 17 and 65 years old, were analyzed. Microbiological samples were collected before and after chemical–mechanical instrumentation (CMI), after aPDT (for the TG), and after the removal of the temporary restorations (second session). In TG, the aPDT was performed with 100 μg mL−1 methylene blue and irradiated with low power laser (InGaAIP, 660 nm; 100 mW; 40 s) with a fiber‐coupled optical laser. Another irradiation (3 J; 30 s; spot size of 3 mm2) was performed in the gingiva close to the apical foramen. The PCR was performed, after previous whole‐genome amplification, for Enterococcus faecalis, Candida genus and Bacteria domain. For TG, a positive tooth for Candida spp. before of the CMI presented negative results in subsequent samples. Additionally, E. faecalis species was present in four samples before CMI, two after CMI, in one after the aPDT and was not detected at the second session. aPDT may be an effective adjunct therapy, resulting in a reduction (P = 0.0286) of the incidence of E. faecalis before root canal obturation.
Style polymorphism inLinum(Linaceae): a case of Mediterranean parallel evolution?
Authors: Ruiz‐Martín J. , Santos‐Gally R. , Escudero M. , Midgley J. J. , Pérez‐Barrales R. , Arroyo J.
Published: November 2017

Heterostyly is a sex polymorphism that has challenged evolutionary biologists ever since Darwin. One of the lineages where heterostyly and related stylar conditions appear more frequently isLinum(Linaceae). This group is particularly suitable for testing competing hypotheses about ancestral and transitional stages on the evolutionary building up of heterostyly.

We generated a phylogeny ofLinumbased on extensive sampling and plastid and nuclear DNA sequences, and used it to trace the evolution of character states of style polymorphism. We also revised available data on pollination, breeding systems, and polyploidy to analyse their associations.

Our results supported former phylogenetic hypotheses: the paraphyly ofLinumand the non‐monophyly of current taxonomic sections. Heterostyly was common in the genus, but appeared concentrated in the Mediterranean Basin and the South African Cape. Ancestral character state reconstruction failed to determine a unique state as the most probable condition for style polymorphism in the genus. In contrast, approach herkogamy was resolved as ancestral state in some clades, giving support to recent hypotheses. Some traits putatively related to heterostyly, such as life history and polyploidy, did show marginal or non‐significant phylogenetic correlation, respectively. Although pollinator data are limited, we suggest that beeflies are associated with specific cases of heterostyly.

The consistent association between style polymorphism and heteromorphic incompatibility points to ecological factors as drivers of the multiple evolution of style polymorphism inLinum. Albeit based on limited evidence, we hypothesised that specialised pollinators and lack of mating opportunities drive evolution of style polymorphism and loss of the polymorphism, respectively.
The Effects of Secondary School Administrators' Servant Leadership Behaviors on Teachers' Organizational Commitment
Authors: Türkmen Fatma , Gül İbrahim
Published: November 2017

The purpose of this research is to examine the effects of secondary school administrators’ servant leadership behavior on teachers' organizational commitment. This research was designed based on the relational screening model. The population of the study consists of 753 secondary school teachers. 438 teachers from the total population participated in the study. In the analysis of the data, descriptive statistics such as percent, frequency, arithmetic mean, standard deviation and other statistical techniques such as ANOVA, t-test, and regression analysis were used. According to the research findings, school administrators have some modest and responsible managerial, empowerment and forgiveness behaviors. Teachers' level of adaptation of organizational commitment is moderate and is found to be at a high level in the sub-dimension of identification and internalization. Teachers' views on organizational commitment do not differ according to gender, marital status or seniority. Teachers' views of school administrators on servant leadership behaviors do not differ according to their marital status but differ according to their gender and seniority.
Environmental and zooplankton parameter changes during the drying of a saline shallow temporary lake in central Argentina
Authors: Vignatti Alicia María , Cabrera Gabriela Cecilia , Canosa Maila , Echaniz Santiago Andrés
Published: November 2017

Central Argentina has numerous saline lakes sustained by groundwater sources and rainfall. These lakes are temporary and experience significant changes in water level and salinity, depending on wet and dry climate cycles. This study aims to investigate the scarcely known dynamics of environmental and zooplankton parameters during the drying phase of one of these lakes. Monthly samples were taken from December 2 012
to July 2 013 in the Ojo de Agua Uriburu lake, previous to its drying. At the beginning of the study, the lake’s depth was 0.7 m and its salinity was 16.65 g/L, later, in July, its depth decreased to 0.06 m and its salinity increased to 92.9 g/L. Zooplankton species richness was low (three crustaceans and three rotifers), with Boeckella poopoensis and Moina eugeniae dominating in the system. Maximum density and biomass were attained
by the two dominant species in April (318.5 ind/L and 3 029.1 g /L dry weight; and 242.4 ind/L and 1 530.4 g/L dry weight, for B. poopoensis and M. eugeniae, respectively), and no correlation was found between these parameters and salinity. Maximum average body lengths for both species were observed in the last months of sampling (M. eugeniae: 1 020 84.2 m and B. poopoensis: 1 348.8 89.0 m). At this point of the study, neither juvenile nor larval stages were found. The increase in average body size is, arguably, the result of increased salinity in the system through a negative
effect on reproduction. Because this lake reached hypersalinity, its ecological dynamics are unique among those of other temporary, saline lakes that dried in central Argentina. Similar studies on other temporary ecosystems are needed to increase the information on these little known ecological aspects.
Flow Virometry: a Powerful Tool To Functionally Characterize Viruses
Authors: Lippé Roger
Published: November 2017

For several decades, flow cytometry has been a common approach to analyze cells and sort them to near-purity. It enables one to probe inner cellular molecules, surface receptors, or infected cells. However, the analysis of smaller entities such as viruses and exocytic vesicles has been more difficult but is becoming mainstream. This has in part been due to the development of new instrumentation with resolutions below that of conventional cytometers. It is also attributed to the several means employed to fluorescently label viruses, hence enabling them to stand out from similarly sized particles representing background noise. Thus far, more than a dozen different viruses ranging in size from 40 nm to giant viruses have been probed by this approach, which was recently dubbed “flow virometry.” These studies have collectively highlighted the breadth of the applications of this method, which, for example, has elucidated the maturation of dengue virus, served as quality control for vaccinia vaccines, and enabled the sorting of herpes simplex virus discrete viral particles. The present review focuses on the means employed to characterize and sort viruses by this powerful technology and on the emerging uses of flow virometry. It similarly addresses some of its current challenges and limitations.
Ubiquitination of the Cytoplasmic Domain of Influenza A Virus M2 Protein Is Crucial for Production of Infectious Virus Particles
Authors: Su Wen-Chi , Yu Wen-Ya , Huang Shih-Han , Lai Michael M. C.
Published: November 2017

Virus replication is mediated by interactions between the virus and host. Here, we demonstrate that influenza A virus membrane protein 2 (M2) can be ubiquitinated. The lysine residue at position 78, which is located in the cytoplasmic domain of M2, is essential for M2 ubiquitination. An M2-K78R (Lys78→Arg78) mutant, which produces ubiquitination-deficient M2, showed a severe defect in the production of infectious virus particles. M2-K78R mutant progeny contained more hemagglutinin (HA) proteins, less viral RNAs, and less internal viral proteins, including M1 and NP, than the wild-type virus. Furthermore, most of the M2-K78R mutant viral particles lacked viral ribonucleoproteins upon examination by electron microscopy and exhibited slightly lower densities. We also found that mutant M2 colocalized with the M1 protein to a lesser extent than for the wild-type virus. These findings may account for the reduced incorporation of viral ribonucleoprotein into virions. By blocking the second round of virus infection, we showed that the M2 ubiquitination-defective mutant exhibited normal levels of virus replication during the first round of infection, thereby proving that M2 ubiquitination is involved in the virus production step. Finally, we found that the M2-K78R mutant virus induced autophagy and apoptosis earlier than did the wild-type virus. Collectively, these results suggest that M2 ubiquitination plays an important role in infectious virus production by coordinating the efficient packaging of the viral genome into virus particles and the timing of virus-induced cell death.

IMPORTANCE
Annual epidemics and recurring pandemics of influenza viruses represent very high global health and economic burdens. The influenza virus M2 protein has been extensively studied for its important roles in virus replication, particularly in virus entry and release. Rimantadine, one of the most commonly used antiviral drugs, binds to the channel lumen near the N terminus of M2 proteins. However, viruses that are resistant to rimantadine have emerged. M2 undergoes several posttranslational modifications, such as phosphorylation and palmitoylation. Here, we reveal that ubiquitination mediates the functional role of M2. A ubiquitination-deficient M2 mutant predominately produced virus particles either lacking viral ribonucleoproteins or containing smaller amounts of internal viral components, resulting in lower infectivity. Our findings offer insights into the mechanism of influenza virus morphogenesis, particularly the functional role of M1-M2 interactions in viral particle assembly, and can be applied to the development of new influenza therapies.
Physical proprieties of DC glow discharges in a neon–argon gas mixture
Authors: Bouchikhi Abdelaziz
Published: November 2017

This paper reports a detailed study of 90% Ne – 10% Ar gas mixture DC glow discharge at low pressure, wherein 15 chemical reactions are considered. The second-order fluid model is used. The parameters of particle transport and their rate coefficients strictly depend on mean electron energy. In the framework of the local electric field approximation, we have developed an analytical expression of the drift velocity of positive argon ions in a neon gas [Formula: see text], which is in good agreement with the experimental results, and serves to give best results than the results obtained using [Formula: see text] that exist in the literature. The results show that the argon ion density is more important than the neon ion density despite the presence of more constant background neon gas density in the mixture. The current density reaches 0.1729 mA/cm2 for 250 V applied potential under 2 Torr pressure in a gas mixture. The spatio-temporal evolution of both electric and energetic characteristics, as well as their spatial distribution in the steady state, are shown and discussed. The maximum value of the neon metastable atom density is 4.54957 × 108 cm−3, and for argon metastable atom density is 5.4689 × 108 cm−3. The model is verified experimentally and theoretically in the particular case.
Spin–orbit splitting in graphene, silicene and germanene: Dependence on buckling
Authors: Singh Ranber
Published: November 2017

The spin–orbit splitting (E[Formula: see text]) of valence band maximum at the [Formula: see text] point is significantly smaller in 2D planner honeycomb structures of graphene, silicene, germanene and BN than that in the corresponding 3D bulk counterparts. For 2D planner honeycomb structure of SiC, it is almost same as that for 3D bulk cubic SiC. The bandgap which opens at the K and K[Formula: see text] points due to spin–orbit coupling (SOC) is very small in flat honeycomb structures of graphene and silicene, while in germanene it is about 2 meV. The buckling in these structures of graphene, silicene and germanene increases the bandgap opened at the K and K[Formula: see text] points due to SOC quadratically, while the E[Formula: see text] of valence band maximum at the [Formula: see text] point decreases quadratically with an increase in the magnitude of buckling.
Electrostrictive energy conversion property of cellular electrets after corona discharge
Authors: Zhang J. W. , Gao F. K. , Sun H. C. , Putson C. , Liu R. T.
Published: November 2017

In this paper, the authors present the electrostrictive energy conversion ability of cellular electrets after the high-voltage corona polarization. Moreover, the electrostrictive effect of such foamed polymer before and after corona polarization has also been compared and discussed. The enhancement of electrostrictive effect of cellular electrets after corona polarization was observed. In particular, the impact on the electrostrictive effect of the macroscopic electric dipoles inside of cellular polymer which are generated by high-voltage corona poling procedure has been investigated. The present research has promoted the development of the application of electret in the field of energy conversion, actuator, transducers, etc.
Harmonic Oscillators with Nonlinear Damping
Authors: Sprott J. C. , Hoover W. G.
Published: November 2017

Dynamical systems with special properties are continually being proposed and studied. Many of these systems are variants of the simple harmonic oscillator with nonlinear damping. This paper characterizes these systems as a hierarchy of increasingly complicated equations with correspondingly interesting behavior, including coexisting attractors, chaos in the absence of equilibria, and strange attractor/repellor pairs.
Color Image Encryption Using Three-Dimensional Sine ICMIC Modulation Map and DNA Sequence Operations
Authors: Liu Wenhao , Sun Kehui , He Yi , Yu Mengyao
Published: November 2017

Derived from Sine map and iterative chaotic map with infinite collapse (ICMIC), a three-dimensional hyperchaotic Sine ICMIC modulation map (3D-SIMM) is proposed based on a close-loop modulation coupling (CMC) method. Based on this map, a novel color image encryption algorithm is designed by employing a hybrid model of multidirectional circular permutation and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) masking. In this scheme, the pixel positions of image are scrambled by multidirectional circular permutation, and the pixel values are substituted by DNA sequence operations. The simulation results and security analysis show that the algorithm has good encryption effect and strong key sensitivity, and can resist brute-force, statistical, differential, known-plaintext and chosen-plaintext attacks.
An Efficient Classification Algorithm Based on T-Cells Maturation with No Parameters
Authors: Chen Jungan , Chen Jinyin , Yang Dongyong
Published: November 2017

In artificial immune system, many algorithms based on negative selection methods have been proposed to achieve satisfying classification performances. However, there are still many problems required to be solved, such as parameters sensibility and computational complexity. In this paper, a novel classification algorithm based on T-cells maturation algorithm was proposed for anomaly detection. Data set from UC Irvine Machine Learning Repository was used for 10-fold cross-validation, and simulation results confirmed its similar performances with AIRS. Compared with other classification algorithms based on negative selection methods, the proposed algorithm has no parameters and lower complexity, and can achieve satisfying classification results.
Influence of dominant wind patterns in a distal region of the NW Iberian Margin during the last glaciation
Authors: Martins Maria Virgínia Alves , Rey Daniel , Pereira Egberto , Plaza-Morlote Maider , Salgueiro Emília , Moreno João , Duleba Wânia , Ribeiro Sara , dos Santos José Francisco , Dardon Ulisses , Bernabeu Ana , Rubio Belén , Laut Lazaro Luiz Mattos , Frontalini Fabrizio , Rodrigues Maria Antonieta da Conceição , Rocha Fernando
Published: November 2017

This work combines planktonic foraminiferal assemblages, stable isotope, transfer function estimated sea surface paleotemperatures (SST) and export productivity (Pexp) with sedimentological records from the PC7 core to document paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic changes on a distal region of the NW Iberian Margin since the last glaciation (<≈68 ka). Neodymium and strontium isotope data are also used to identify the provenance of ice rafted debris (IRD) during Heinrich event 5 (H5). Our results are compared and combined with previously published records and evidence that melt water and icebergs from the Canada, Greenland, Iceland and Europe ice sheets arrived to the NW Iberian Margin causing a significant decrease of SST during the last six Heinrich Stadials (HS) and some Dansgaard–Oeschger (D-O) stadial events. εNd and
87
Sr/
86
Sr indicate that the studied locality mostly received sediments from European Ice Sheets (EIS) during H5. During the HS and D–O stadial events, SSTs were in general higher than in other cores collected in inner areas of the NW Iberian Margin. The presence and intensification of Portugal Current probably induced heat transfer to this distal region of the Iberian Margin. Our results also suggest the occurrence of high variability in the intensity and wind patterns during the last glaciation. In some periods, the intensity of northerly winds could have been very strong and contributed to a significant stimulation of ocean productivity in this distal area through the intensification of upwelling. In general, oceanic productivity decreased during the HS and D–O as the presence of cold and less saline water prevented nutrient rich waters from deep levels reaching the surface. The high productivity events were bracketed by periods characterized by the highest influence of the Azores Current eastern branch during which northerly winds and the oceanic productivity should have been weakened.

Supplementary material:
Geochemical and foraminiferal data analysed in this work as well as Pearson Correlations between the analysed data are available at
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3931813
New perspectives on pterosaur palaeobiology
Authors: Hone David W. E. , Witton Mark P. , Martill David M.
Published: November 2017

Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to evolve powered flight and occupied the skies of the Mesozoic for 160 million years. They occurred on every continent, evolved their incredible proportions and anatomy into well over 100 species, and included the largest flying animals of all time among their ranks. Pterosaurs are undergoing a long-running scientific renaissance that has seen elevated interest from a new generation of palaeontologists, contributions from scientists working all over the world and major advances in our understanding of their palaeobiology. They have especially benefited from the application of new investigative techniques applied to historical specimens and the discovery of new material, including detailed insights into their fragile skeletons and their soft tissue anatomy. Many aspects of pterosaur science remain controversial, mainly due to the investigative challenges presented by their fragmentary, fragile fossils and notoriously patchy fossil record. With perseverance, these controversies are being resolved and our understanding of flying reptiles is increasing. This volume brings together a diverse set of papers on numerous aspects of the biology of these fascinating reptiles, including discussions of pterosaur ecology, flight, ontogeny, bony and soft tissue anatomy, distribution and evolution, as well as revisions of their taxonomy and relationships.
Adaptive Contextualization Methods for Combating Selection Bias during High-Dimensional Visualization
Authors: Gotz David , Sun Shun , Cao Nan , Kundu Rita , Meyer Anne-Marie
Published: November 2017

Large and high-dimensional real-world datasets are being gathered across a wide range of application disciplines to enable data-driven decision making. Interactive data visualization can play a critical role in allowing domain experts to select and analyze data from these large collections. However, there is a critical mismatch between the very large number of dimensions in complex real-world datasets and the much smaller number of dimensions that can be concurrently visualized using modern techniques. This gap in dimensionality can result in high levels of selection bias that go unnoticed by users. The bias can in turn threaten the very validity of any subsequent insights. This article describes Adaptive Contextualization (AC), a novel approach to interactive visual data selection that is specifically designed to combat the invisible introduction of selection bias. The AC approach (1) monitors and models a user’s visual data selection activity, (2) computes metrics over that model to quantify the amount of selection bias after each step, (3) visualizes the metric results, and (4) provides interactive tools that help users assess and avoid bias-related problems. This article expands on an earlier article presented at ACM IUI 2016 [16] by providing a more detailed review of the AC methodology and additional evaluation results.
BigSUR
Authors: Kelly Tom , Femiani John , Wonka Peter , Mitra Niloy J.
Published: November 2017

The creation of high-quality semantically parsed 3D models for dense metropolitan areas is a fundamental urban modeling problem. Although recent advances in acquisition techniques and processing algorithms have resulted in large-scale imagery or 3D polygonal reconstructions, such data-sources are typically noisy, and incomplete, with no semantic structure. In this paper, we present an automatic data fusion technique that produces high-quality structured models of city blocks. From coarse polygonal meshes, street-level imagery, and GIS footprints, we formulate a binary integer program that globally balances sources of error to produce semantically parsed mass models with associated facade elements. We demonstrate our system on four city regions of varying complexity; our examples typically contain densely built urban blocks spanning hundreds of buildings. In our largest example, we produce a structured model of 37 city blocks spanning a total of 1, 011 buildings at a scale and quality previously impossible to achieve automatically.
Fast rendering of fabric micro-appearance models under directional and spherical gaussian lights
Authors: Khungurn Pramook , Wu Rundong , Noeckel James , Marschner Steve , Bala Kavita
Published: November 2017

Rendering fabrics using micro-appearance models---fiber-level microgeometry coupled with a fiber scattering model---can take hours per frame. We present a fast, precomputation-based algorithm for rendering both single and multiple scattering in fabrics with repeating structure illuminated by directional and spherical Gaussian lights.

Precomputed light transport (PRT) is well established but challenging to apply directly to cloth. This paper shows how to decompose the problem and pick the right approximations to achieve very high accuracy, with significant performance gains over path tracing. We treat single and multiple scattering separately and approximate
local
multiple scattering using precomputed transfer functions represented in spherical harmonics. We handle shadowing between fibers with precomputed per-fiber-segment visibility functions, using two different representations to separately deal with low and high frequency spherical Gaussian lights.

Our algorithm is designed for GPU performance and high visual quality. Compared to existing PRT methods, it is more accurate. In tens of seconds on a commodity GPU, it renders high-quality supersampled images that take path tracing tens of minutes on a compute cluster.
Real-time 3D eyelids tracking from semantic edges
Authors: Wen Quan , Xu Feng , Lu Ming , Yong Jun-Hai
Published: November 2017

State-of-the-art real-time face tracking systems still lack the ability to realistically portray subtle details of various aspects of the face, particularly the region surrounding the eyes. To improve this situation, we propose a technique to reconstruct the 3D shape and motion of eyelids in real time. By combining these results with the full facial expression and gaze direction, our system generates complete face tracking sequences with more detailed eye regions than existing solutions in real-time. To achieve this goal, we propose a generative eyelid model which decomposes eyelid variation into two low-dimensional linear spaces which efficiently represent the shape and motion of eyelids. Then, we modify a holistically-nested DNN model to jointly perform semantic eyelid edge detection and identification on images. Next, we correspond vertices of the eyelid model to 2D image edges, and employ polynomial curve fitting and a search scheme to handle incorrect and partial edge detections. Finally, we use the correspondences in a 3D-to-2D edge fitting scheme to reconstruct eyelid shape and pose. By integrating our fast fitting method into a face tracking system, the estimated eyelid results are seamlessly fused with the face and eyeball results in real time. Experiments show that our technique applies to different human races, eyelid shapes, and eyelid motions, and is robust to changes in head pose, expression and gaze direction.
Tensor field design in volumes
Authors: Palacios Jonathan , Roy Lawrence , Kumar Prashant , Hsu Chen-Yuan , Chen Weikai , Ma Chongyang , Wei Li-Yi , Zhang Eugene
Published: November 2017

3D tensor field design is important in several graphics applications such as procedural noise, solid texturing, and geometry synthesis. Different fields can lead to different visual effects. The topology of a tensor field, such as degenerate tensors, can cause artifacts in these applications. Existing 2D tensor field design systems cannot be used to handle the topology of a 3D tensor field. In this paper, we present to our knowledge the first 3D tensor field design system. At the core of our system is the ability to edit the topology of tensor fields. We demonstrate the power of our design system with applications in solid texturing and geometry synthesis.
Localized solutions of sparse linear systems for geometry processing
Authors: Herholz Philipp , Davis Timothy A. , Alexa Marc
Published: November 2017

Computing solutions to linear systems is a fundamental building block of many geometry processing algorithms. In many cases the Cholesky factorization of the system matrix is computed to subsequently solve the system, possibly for many right-hand sides, using forward and back substitution. We demonstrate how to exploit sparsity in both the right-hand side and the set of desired solution values to obtain significant speedups. The method is easy to implement and potentially useful in any scenarios where linear problems have to be solved locally. We show that this technique is useful for geometry processing operations, in particular we consider the solution of diffusion problems. All problems profit significantly from sparse computations in terms of runtime, which we demonstrate by providing timings for a set of numerical experiments.
Real-time global illumination by precomputed local reconstruction from sparse radiance probes
Authors: Silvennoinen Ari , Lehtinen Jaakko
Published: November 2017

We present a direct-to-indirect transport technique that enables accurate real-time rendering of indirect illumination in mostly static scenes of complexity on par with modern games while supporting fully dynamic lights, cameras and diffuse surface materials. Our key contribution is an algorithm for reconstructing the incident radiance field from a sparse set of local samples --- radiance probes --- by incorporating mutual visibility into the reconstruction filter. To compute global illumination, we factorize the direct-to-indirect transport operator into global and local parts, sample the global transport with sparse radiance probes at real-time, and use the sampled radiance field as input to our precomputed local reconstruction operator to obtain indirect radiance. In contrast to previous methods aiming to encode the global direct-to-indirect transport operator, our precomputed data is local in the sense that it needs no long-range interactions between probes and receivers, and every receiver depends only on a small, constant number of nearby radiance probes, aiding compression, storage, and iterative workflows. While not as accurate, we demonstrate that our method can also be used for rendering indirect illumination on glossy surfaces, and approximating global illumination in scenes with large-scale dynamic geometry.
Deep scattering
Authors: Kallweit Simon , Müller Thomas , Mcwilliams Brian , Gross Markus , Novák Jan
Published: November 2017

We present a technique for efficiently synthesizing images of atmospheric clouds using a combination of Monte Carlo integration and neural networks. The intricacies of Lorenz-Mie scattering and the high albedo of cloud-forming aerosols make rendering of clouds---e.g. the characteristic silverlining and the "whiteness" of the inner body---challenging for methods based solely on Monte Carlo integration or diffusion theory. We approach the problem differently. Instead of simulating all light transport during rendering, we pre-learn the spatial and directional distribution of radiant flux from tens of cloud exemplars. To render a new scene, we sample visible points of the cloud and, for each, extract a hierarchical 3D descriptor of the cloud geometry with respect to the shading location and the light source. The descriptor is input to a deep neural network that predicts the radiance function for each shading configuration. We make the key observation that progressively feeding the hierarchical descriptor into the network enhances the network's ability to learn faster and predict with higher accuracy while using fewer coefficients. We also employ a block design with residual connections to further improve performance. A GPU implementation of our method synthesizes images of clouds that are nearly indistinguishable from the reference solution within seconds to minutes. Our method thus represents a viable solution for applications such as cloud design and, thanks to its temporal stability, for high-quality production of animated content.
Gradient-domain path reusing
Authors: Bauszat Pablo , Petitjean Victor , Eisemann Elmar
Published: November 2017

Monte-Carlo rendering algorithms have traditionally a high computational cost, because they rely on tracing up to billions of light paths through a scene to physically simulate light transport. Traditional path reusing amortizes the cost of path sampling over multiple pixels, but introduces visually unpleasant correlation artifacts and cannot handle scenes with specular light transport. We present
gradient-domain path reusing
, a novel unbiased Monte-Carlo rendering technique, which merges the concept of path reusing with the recently introduced idea of gradient-domain rendering. Since correlation is a key element in gradient sampling, it is a natural fit to be performed together with path reusing and we show that the typical artifacts of path reusing are significantly reduced by exploiting the gradient domain. Further, by employing the tools for shifting paths that were designed in the context of gradient-domain rendering over the last years, we can generalize path reusing to support arbitrary scenes including specular light transport. Our method is unbiased and currently the fastest converging unidirectional rendering technique outperforming conventional and gradient-domain path tracing by up to almost an order of magnitude.