bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Stratified Revised Asperity Contact Model for Worn Surfaces
Authors: Hu Songtao , Brunetiere Noel , Huang Weifeng , Liu Xiangfeng , Wang Yuming
Published: August 2016

Segmented bi-Gaussian stratified elastic asperity contact model of Leefe (1998, “‘Bi-Gaussian’ Representation of Worn Surface Topography in Elastic Contact Problems,” Tribol. Ser., 34, pp. 281–290), which suits for worn surfaces, has been improved. It still exhibits two drawbacks: (1) the arbitrary assumption of the probability density function (PDF) consisting of two component PDFs intersecting at a knee-point, violating the unity-area demand and (2) the preference for large roughness-scale part of the surface, leading to an error on the characterization of small roughness-scale part. A continuous bi-Gaussian stratified elastic asperity contact model is proposed based on a surface combination theory and a continuous separation method. The two stratified contact models are applied to a simulated pure bi-Gaussian surface and four real worn surfaces. The results show that the modified segmented and the continuous stratified contact models are both validated by a deterministic model with better accuracy for the continuous one.
Analysis of Surface Temperatures Within Heat Flux Bands During Constant Acceleration Including Deceleration to Halt
Authors: Blanchet Thierry A. , Lenihan Shane P.
Published: August 2016

In the modeling of a uniformly distributed band heat flux region experiencing constant acceleration from rest over a half-space surface, it is found that the maximum surface temperature at the instantaneous speed and the corresponding Peclet number are already well approximated by the long-established steady-state constant-speed models very soon after the moment the flux region clears the overlap of its original footprint at the initiation of motion. During startup when the flux still overlaps its original footprint, maximum temperature at any instant given the level of flux is well approximated by a simple one-dimensional conduction problem with a correspondingly stationary heat flux initiating at time zero. The above acceleration behaviors are observed regardless of whether the uniform flux is constant or Coulombic (proportional to instantaneous speed as frictional heating), though during the initial startup the maximum temperature rise in the Coulombic case is only two-thirds that of the constant flux case. The case of constant deceleration was additionally modeled, where at the eventual instant of halt, the maximum temperature in the case of constant flux was found to be directly proportional to the rate of deceleration to the 1/4 power, whereas in the case of Coulombic flux it was found that maximum temperature was instead inversely proportional to the rate of deceleration.
Optimization of Axially Magnetized Stack Structured Permanent Magnet Thrust Bearing Using Three-Dimensional Mathematical Model
Authors: Bekinal Siddappa I. , Doddamani Mrityunjay , Jana Soumendu
Published: August 2016

This work deals with optimization of axially magnetized stack structured permanent magnet (PM) thrust bearing using generalized three-dimensional (3D) mathematical model having “n” number of ring pairs. The stack structured PM thrust bearing is optimized for the maximum axial force and stiffness in a given cylindrical volume. matlab codes are written to solve the developed equations for optimization of geometrical parameters (axial offset, number of ring pairs, air gap, and inner radius of inner and outer rings). Further, the results of proposed optimization method are validated using finite element analysis (FEA) and further, generalized by establishing the relationship between optimal design variables and air gap pertaining to cylindrical volume constraint of bearing's outer diameter. Effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by optimizing PM thrust bearing in a given cylindrical volume. Mathematical model with optimized geometrical parameters dealt in the present work helps the designer in developing PM thrust bearings effectively and efficiently for variety of applications.
Lumped Element Multimode Modeling of Balanced-Armature Receiver Using Modal Analysis
Authors: Sun Wei , Hu Wenxiang
Published: August 2016

For the lack of higher-order modes, lumped element (LE) models currently used may be insufficient to predict the system of balanced-armature receiver (BAR). We develop an LE multimode model for BAR in the frequency domain based on the techniques of mode decomposition, truncation, and selection. The validation is made by comparing with both the corresponding combined finite element (FE)–LE model and the full FE model. Numerical results prove that the developed model is not only as effective as the combined FE–LE model but also much more efficient. Additionally, an in-depth investigation performed discloses the inherent deficiency of the traditional LE model.
Modulating Elastic Band Gap Structure in Layered Soft Composites Using Sacrificial Interfaces
Authors: Chen Qianli , Elbanna Ahmed
Published: August 2016

A wide range of engineered and natural composites exhibit a layered architecture whereby individual building blocks are assembled layer by layer using cohesive interfaces. We present a novel mechanism for evolving acoustic band gap structure in a model system of these composites through patterning the microstructure in a way that triggers nonplanar interfacial deformations between the layers as they are stretched. Through the controlled deformation and growth of interlayer channels under macroscopic tension, we observe the emergence of multiple wide band gaps due to Bragg diffraction and local resonance. We describe these phenomena in details for three example microstructures and discuss the implications of our approach for harnessing controlled deformation in modulating band gap properties of composite materials.
RBS-channeling study of radiation damage in Ar+ implanted CuInSe2 crystals
Authors: Yakushev Michael V. , Volkov Vladimir A. , Mursakulov Niyazi N. , Sabzaliyeva Chimnaz E. , Martin Robert W.
Published: August 2016

Chalcopyrite solar cells are reported to have a high tolerance to irradiation by high energy electrons or ions, but the origin of this is not well understood. This work studies the evolution of damage in Ar+-bombarded CuInSe2 single crystal using Rutherford backscattering/channeling analysis. Ar+ ions of 30 keV were implanted with doses in the range from 1012 to 3 × 1016 cm−2 at room temperature. Implantation was found to create two layers of damage: (1) on the surface, caused by preferential sputtering of Se and Cu atoms; (2) at the layer of implanted Ar, possibly consisting of stacking faults and dislocation loops. The damage in the second layer was estimated to be less than 2% of the theoretical prediction suggesting efficient healing of primary implantation defects.
The TRPM2 channel is a hypothalamic heat sensor that limits fever and can drive hypothermia
Authors: Song Kun , Wang Hong , Kamm Gretel B. , Pohle Jörg , Reis Fernanda de Castro , Heppenstall Paul , Wende Hagen , Siemens Jan
Published: August 2016

Body temperature homeostasis is critical for survival and requires precise regulation by the nervous system. The hypothalamus serves as the principal thermostat that detects and regulates internal temperature. We demonstrate that the ion channel TRPM2 [of the transient receptor potential (TRP) channel family] is a temperature sensor in a subpopulation of hypothalamic neurons. TRPM2 limits the fever response and may detect increased temperatures to prevent overheating. Furthermore, chemogenetic activation and inhibition of hypothalamic TRPM2-expressing neurons in vivo decreased and increased body temperature, respectively. Such manipulation may allow analysis of the beneficial effects of altered body temperature on diverse disease states. Identification of a functional role for TRP channels in monitoring internal body temperature should promote further analysis of molecular mechanisms governing thermoregulation and foster the genetic dissection of hypothalamic circuits involved with temperature homeostasis.
Diversity of the Tetracycline Mobilome within a Chinese Pig Manure Sample
Authors: Leclercq Sébastien Olivier , Wang Chao , Zhu Yaxin , Wu Hai , Du Xiaochen , Liu Zhipei , Feng Jie
Published: August 2016

Tetracycline antibiotics are widely used in livestock, and tetracycline resistance genes (TRG) are frequently reported in the manure of farmed animals. However, the diversity of TRG-carrying transposons in manure has still been rarely investigated. Using a culture-free functional metagenomic procedure, combined with large-insert library construction and sequencing, bioinformatic analyses, and functional experiments, we identified 17 distinct TRGs in a single pig manure sample, including two new
tet
genes:
tet
(59), encoding a tetracycline efflux pump, and
tet
(W/N/W), encoding mosaic ribosomal protection. Our study also revealed six new TRG-carrying putative nonconjugative transposons: Tn
5706
-like transposon Tn
6298
, IS
200
/
605
-related transposon Tn
6303
, Tn
3
family transposon Tn
6299
, and three IS
CR2
-related transposons, Tn
62300
, Tn
62301
, and Tn
62302
.

IMPORTANCE
Fertilization of agricultural fields with animal manure is believed to play a major role in antibiotic resistance dissemination in the environment. There is growing concern for the possible spread of antibiotic resistance from the environment to humans since genetic resistance determinants may be located in transposons and other mobile genetic elements potentially transferable to pathogens. Among the various antibiotic resistance genes found in manure, tetracycline resistance genes (TRGs) are some of the most common. The present study provides a detailed snapshot of the tetracycline mobilome in a single pig manure sample, revealing an unappreciated diversity of TRGs and potential TRG mobility vectors. Our precise identification of the TRG-carrying units will enable us to investigate in more details their mobility effectiveness.
Complete Genome Sequence of
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Phage AAT-1
Authors: Andrade-Domínguez Andrés , Kolter Roberto
Published: August 2016

Aspects of the interaction between phages and animals are of interest and importance for medical applications. Here, we report the genome sequence of the lytic
Pseudomonas
phage AAT-1, isolated from mammalian serum. AAT-1 is a double-stranded DNA phage, with a genome of 57,599 bp, containing 76 predicted open reading frames.
Complete Genome Sequence of a Cylindrospermopsin-Producing Cyanobacterium,
Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii
CS505, Containing a Circular Chromosome and a Single Extrachromosomal Element
Authors: Fuentes-Valdés Juan J. , Plominsky Alvaro M. , Allen Eric E. , Tamames Javier , Vásquez Mónica
Published: August 2016

Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii
is a freshwater cyanobacterium producing bloom events and toxicity in drinking water source reservoirs. We present the first genome sequence for
C. raciborskii
CS505 (Australia), containing one 4.1-Mbp chromosome and one 110-Kbp plasmid having G+C contents of 40.3% (3933 genes) and 39.3% (111 genes), respectively.
First Complete Genome Sequence of a Chikungunya Virus Strain Isolated from a Patient Diagnosed with Dengue Virus Infection in Malaysia
Authors: Ooi Man Kwan , Gan Han Ming , Rohani Ahmad , Syed Hassan Sharifah
Published: August 2016

Here, we report the complete genome sequence of a chikungunya virus coinfection strain isolated from a dengue virus serotype 2-infected patient in Malaysia. This coinfection strain was determined to be of the Asian genotype and contains a novel insertion in the
nsP3
gene.
Draft Genome Sequence of Cellulolytic and Xylanolytic
Cellulomonas
sp. Strain B6 Isolated from Subtropical Forest Soil
Authors: Piccinni Florencia , Murua Yanina , Ghio Silvina , Talia Paola , Rivarola Máximo , Campos Eleonora
Published: August 2016

Cellulomonas
sp. strain B6 was isolated from a subtropical forest soil sample and presented (hemi)cellulose-degrading activity. We report here its draft genome sequence, with an estimated genome size of 4 Mb, a G+C content of 75.1%, and 3,443 predicted protein-coding sequences, 92 of which are glycosyl hydrolases involved in polysaccharide degradation.
Genome Sequence of
Enterobacter cloacae
Strain SENG-6, a Bacterium Producing Histo-Blood Group Antigen-Like Substances That Can Bind with Human Noroviruses
Authors: Ishii Satoshi , Amarasiri Mohan , Hashiba Satoshi , Yang Peiyi , Okabe Satoshi , Sano Daisuke
Published: August 2016

Enterobacter
sp. strain SENG-6, isolated from healthy human feces, produces histo-blood group antigen (HBGA)-like substances that can bind with human noroviruses. Based on the genome sequence analysis, strain SENG-6 belongs to the species
Enterobacter cloacae
. The genome sequence of this strain should help identify genes associated with the production of HBGA-like substances.
Feasibility of a bilateral regional sternocleidomastoid muscular flap in the closure of a persistent acquired tracheopharyngeal fistula
Authors: Goh Liang Chye , Santhi Kalimuthu , Arvin Balachandran , Mohd. Razif Mohamad Yunus
Published: August 2016

An acquired persistent tracheopharyngeal fistula secondary to an infected tracheopharyngeal voice prosthesis is a common cause of recurrent aspiration pneumonia in a postlaryngectomy patient. We report a case of a successfully treated tracheopharyngeal fistula whereby both the sternocleidomastoid muscles were used as muscular flaps to close the defect and its outcome.
How effective has tobacco tax increase been in the Gambia? A case study of tobacco control
Authors: Nargis Nigar , Manneh Yahya , Krubally Bakary , Jobe Baboucarr , Ouma Ahmed E Ogwell , Tcha-Kondor Noureiny , Blecher Evan H
Published: August 2016

Objectives

The objective of the present study was to evaluate how effective tobacco tax increase has been in increasing price of tobacco products and reducing tobacco consumption in the Gambia. In addition, it tests the hypothesis that tobacco tax revenue grows while tobacco consumption decreases as a result of tax and price increase.

Setting

The study is designed at the macroeconomic level to examine the import of tobacco products and revenue collected from tobacco taxation in a low-income setting.

Participants

The participants of this study are the government officials employed in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs (MoFEA), the Gambia and the Gambia Revenue Authority, who are in charge of planning and implementing the tobacco tax policy in the Gambia.

Interventions

The study includes 2 consecutive interventions in tobacco tax policy in the Gambia. The first intervention was moving the tax base for the uniform specific excise tax on cigarettes from weight to pack of cigarettes in 2013. The second intervention involved increasing the excise and the environmental tax on tobacco products in 2014.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

The primary outcome measures were the cost, insurance and freight value and the price of tobacco products. The secondary outcome measures included the import of tobacco products and tobacco tax revenue.

Results

In 2013–2014, the Gambia MoFEA raised the specific excise rate, which increased price, reduced consumption and generated significantly more government revenue from tobacco products. This is a clear evidence of the win-win outcome of raising tobacco tax. In addition, the Gambia has set the example of harmonising tax rates between tobacco products that reduces the substitution between tobacco products.

Conclusions

The Gambia presents the best practice in tobacco taxation. There is need for documenting more country-specific evidence on the win-win outcome of raising tobacco tax.
Integrating gender and sex to unpack trends in sexually transmitted infection surveillance data in British Columbia, Canada: an ethno-epidemiological study
Authors: Knight Rod , Falasinnu Titilola , Oliffe John L , Gilbert Mark , Small Will , Goldenberg Shira , Shoveller Jean
Published: August 2016

Objectives

Surveillance data frequently indicate that young men and women experience high—yet considerably different—reported rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including bacterial infections such as chlamydia. We examined how several sex-based (eg, biological) and gender-based (eg, sociocultural) factors may interact to influence STI surveillance data trends.

Methods

Employing ethno-epidemiological techniques, we analysed cross-sectional qualitative data collected between 2006 and 2013 about young people's experiences accessing STI testing services in five communities in British Columbia, Canada. These data included 250 semistructured interviews with young men and women aged 15–24 years, as well as 39 clinicians who provided STI testing services.

Results

The findings highlight how young women are socially and medically encouraged to regularly test, while young men are rarely offered similar opportunities. Instead, young men tend to seek out testing services: (1) at the beginning or end of a sexual relationship; (2) after a high-risk sexual encounter; (3) after experiencing symptoms; or (4) based on concerns about ‘abnormal’ sexual anatomy. Our results illustrate how institutions and individuals align with stereotypical gender norms regarding sexual health responsibilities, STI testing and STI treatments. While these patterns reflect social phenomena, they also appear to intersect with sex-based, biological experiences of symptomatology in ways that might help to further explain systematic differences between young men's and women's patterns of testing for STIs.

Conclusions

The results point to the importance of taking a social and biological view to understanding the factors that contribute to the gap between young men's and women's routine engagement in STI care.
Use of a service evaluation and lean thinking transformation to redesign an NHS 111 refer to community Pharmacy for Emergency Repeat Medication Supply Service (PERMSS)
Authors: Nazar Hamde , Nazar Zachariah , Simpson Jill , Yeung Andre , Whittlesea Cate
Published: August 2016

Objectives

To demonstrate the contribution of community pharmacy from NHS 111 referrals out of hours (OOH) for emergency supply repeat medication requests via presentation of service activity, community pharmacist feedback and lean thinking transformation.

Design

Descriptive service evaluation using routine service activity data over the pilot period; survey of community pharmacists, and service redesign through lean thinking transformation.

Setting

North East of England NHS 111 provider and accredited community pharmacies across the North East of England.

Participants

Patients calling the North East of England NHS 111 provider during OOH with emergency repeat medication supply requests.

Interventions

NHS 111 referral to community pharmacies for assessment and if appropriate, supply of emergency repeat medication.

Main outcome measures

Number of emergency repeat medication supply referrals, completion rates, reasons for rejections, time of request, reason for access, medication(s), pharmaceutical advice and services provided. Secondary outcomes were community pharmacist feedback and lean thinking transformation of the patient pathway.

Results

NHS 111 referred 1468 patients to 114 community pharmacies (15/12/2014–7/4/2015). Most patients presented on Saturdays, with increased activity over national holidays. Community pharmacists completed 951 (64.8%) referrals providing 2297 medications; 412 were high risk. The most common reason for rejecting referrals was no medication in stock. Community pharmacists were positive about the provision of this service. The lean thinking transformation reduced the number of non-added value steps, waits and bottlenecks in the patient pathway.

Conclusions

NHS 111 can redirect callers OOH from urgent and emergency care services to community pharmacy for management of emergency repeat medication supply. Existing IT and community pharmacy regulations allowed patients to receive a medication supply and pharmaceutical advice. Community pharmacists supported integration into the NHS OOH services. Adopting lean thinking provided a structured framework to evaluate and redesign the service with the aim to improve effectiveness and efficiency.
Do choosing wisely tools meet criteria for patient decision aids? A descriptive analysis of patient materials
Authors: Légaré France , Hébert Jessica , Goh Larissa , Lewis Krystina B , Leiva Portocarrero Maria Ester , Robitaille Hubert , Stacey Dawn
Published: August 2016

Objectives

Choosing Wiselyis a remarkable physician-led campaign to reduce unnecessary or harmful health services. Some of the literature identifiesChoosing Wiselyas a shared decision-making approach. We evaluated the patient materials developed byChoosing Wisely Canadato determine whether they meet the criteria for shared decision-making tools known as patient decision aids.

Design

Descriptive analysis of allChoosing Wisely Canadapatient materials.

Data source

In May 2015, we selected allChoosing Wisely Canadapatient materials from its official website.

Main outcomes and measures

Four team members independently extracted characteristics of the English materials using the International Patient Decision Aid Standards (IPDAS) modified 16-item minimum criteria for qualifying and certifying patient decision aids. The research team discussed discrepancies between data extractors and reached a consensus. Descriptive analysis was conducted.

Results

Of the 24 patient materials assessed, 12 were about treatments, 11 were about screening and 1 was about prevention. The median score for patient materials using IPDAS criteria was 10/16 (range: 8–11) for screening topics and 6/12 (range: 6–9) for prevention and treatment topics. Commonly missed criteria were stating the decision (21/24 did not), providing balanced information on option benefits/harms (24/24 did not), citing evidence (24/24 did not) and updating policy (24/24 did not). Out of 24 patient materials, only 2 met the 6 IPDAS criteria to qualify as patient decision aids, and neither of these 2 met the 6 certifying criteria.

Conclusions

Patient materials developed byChoosing Wisely Canadado not meet the IPDAS minimal qualifying or certifying criteria for patient decision aids. Modifications to theChoosing Wisely Canadapatient materials would help to ensure that they qualify as patient decision aids and thus as more effective shared decision-making tools.
Admission CT perfusion may overestimate initial infarct core: the ghost infarct core concept
Authors: Boned Sandra , Padroni Marina , Rubiera Marta , Tomasello Alejandro , Coscojuela Pilar , Romero Nicolás , Muchada Marián , Rodríguez-Luna David , Flores Alan , Rodríguez Noelia , Juega Jesús , Pagola Jorge , Alvarez-Sabin José , Molina Carlos A , Ribó Marc
Published: August 2016

Background

Identifying infarct core on admission is essential to establish the amount of salvageable tissue and indicate reperfusion therapies. Infarct core is established on CT perfusion (CTP) as the severely hypoperfused area, however the correlation between hypoperfusion and infarct core may be time-dependent as it is not a direct indicator of tissue damage. This study aims to characterize those cases in which the admission core lesion on CTP does not reflect an infarct on follow-up imaging.

Methods

We studied patients with cerebral large vessel occlusion who underwent CTP on admission but received endovascular thrombectomy based on a non-contrast CT Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score (ASPECTS) >6. Admission infarct core was measured on initial cerebral blood volume (CBV) CTP and final infarct on follow-up CT. We defined ghost infarct core (GIC) as initial core minus final infarct >10 mL.

Results

79 patients were studied. Median National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score was 17 (11–20), median time from symptoms to CTP was 215 (87–327) min, and recanalization rate (TICI 2b–3) was 77%. Thirty patients (38%) presented with a GIC >10 mL. GIC >10 mL was associated with recanalization (TICI 2b–3: 90% vs 68%; p=0.026), admission glycemia (<185 mg/dL: 42% vs 0%; p=0.028), and time to CTP (<185 min: 51% vs >185 min: 26%; p=0.033). An adjusted logistic regression model identified time from symptom to CTP imaging <185 min as the only predictor of GIC >10 mL (OR 2.89, 95% CI 1.04 to 8.09). At 24 hours, clinical improvement was more frequent in patients with GIC >10 mL (66.6% vs 39%; p=0.017).

Conclusions

CT perfusion may overestimate final infarct core, especially in the early time window. Selecting patients for reperfusion therapies based on the CTP mismatch concept may deny treatment to patients who might still benefit from reperfusion.
Effect of exercise intensity on postprandial lipemia, markers of oxidative stress, and endothelial function after a high-fat meal
Authors: Lopes Krüger Renata , Costa Teixeira Bruno , Boufleur Farinha Juliano , Cauduro Oliveira Macedo Rodrigo , Pinto Boeno Francesco , Rech Anderson , Lopez Pedro , Silveira Pinto Ronei , Reischak-Oliveira Alvaro
Published: August 2016

The aim of this study was to compare the effects of 2 different exercise intensities on postprandial lipemia, oxidative stress markers, and endothelial function after a high-fat meal (HFM). Eleven young men completed 2-day trials in 3 conditions: rest, moderate-intensity exercise (MI-Exercise) and heavy-intensity exercise (HI-Exercise). Subjects performed an exercise bout or no exercise (Rest) on the evening of day 1. On the morning of day 2, an HFM was provided. Blood was sampled at fasting (0 h) and every hour from 1 to 5 h during the postprandial period for triacylglycerol (TAG), thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS), and nitrite/nitrate (NOx) concentrations. Flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) was also analyzed. TAG concentrations were reduced in exercise conditions compared with Rest during the postprandial period (P < 0.004). TAG incremental area under the curve (iAUC) was smaller after HI-Exercise compared with Rest (P = 0.012). TBARS concentrations were reduced in MI-Exercise compared with Rest (P < 0.041). FMD was higher in exercise conditions than Rest at 0 h (P < 0.02) and NOx concentrations were enhanced in MI-Exercise compared with Rest at 0 h (P < 0.01). These results suggest that acute exercise can reduce lipemia after an HFM. However, HI-Exercise showed to be more effective in reducing iAUC TAG, which might suggest higher protection against postprandial TAG enhancement. Conversely, MI-Exercise can be beneficial to attenuate the susceptibility of oxidative damage induced by an HFM and to increase endothelial function in the fasted state compared with Rest.
Citeromyces matritensis M37 is a salt-tolerant yeast that produces ethanol from salted algae
Authors: Okai Masahiko , Betsuno Ayako , Shirao Ayaka , Obara Nobuo , Suzuki Kotaro , Takei Toshinori , Takashio Masachika , Ishida Masami , Urano Naoto
Published: August 2016

Algae are referred to as a third-generation biomass for ethanol production. However, salinity treatment is a problem that needs to be solved, because algal hydrolysates often contain high salt. Here, we isolated the salt-tolerant ethanol-producing yeast Citeromyces matritensis M37 from the east coast of Miura Peninsula in Japan. This yeast grew under osmotic stress conditions (20% NaCl or 60% glucose). It produced 6.55 g/L ethanol from YPD medium containing 15% NaCl after 48 h, and the ethanol accumulation was observed even at 20% NaCl. Using salted Undaria pinnatifida (wakame), we obtained 6.33 g/L glucose from approx. 150 g/L of the salted wakame powder with acidic and heat pretreatment followed by enzymatic saccharification, and the ethanol production reached 2.58 g/L for C. matritensis M37. The ethanol concentration was 1.4 times higher compared with that using the salt-tolerant ethanol-producing yeast Zygosaccharomyces rouxii S11.
Effects of production methods and protective ingredients on the viability of probioticLactobacillus rhamnosusR0011 in air-dried alginate beads
Authors: Champagne Claude P. , Raymond Yves , Arcand Yves
Published: August 2016

The goal of this study was to use a microencapsulation technology to prepare air-dried concentrated cultures of Lactobacillus rhamnosus R0011. The cultures were microencapsulated in alginate beads, which were added to a growth medium to allow cell multiplication inside the matrix; the beads were recovered, dipped in protective solutions, and air-dried. The effects of fermentation technology and of the composition of the protective solutions on subsequent survival during air-drying were examined. The cells prepared under a constant pH of 6.2 had only 2.5% survival to air-drying at 25 °C when the protective solution was composed of sucrose and phosphate. Allowing the pH to drop to 4.2 during the biomass production step and using a protective medium composed of glycerol, maltodextrin, yeast extract, and ascorbate increased survival to 20%. If the ingredients of the protective medium at the beginning of drying were concentrated at a water activity of 0.96 rather than 0.98, survival during air-drying increased further to 56%. This rate was similar to that of a traditional freeze-drying process. These data suggest that applying a combination of acid and osmotic stresses to L. rhamnosus R0011 cells improves their subsequent stability during the air-drying process. Dried microencapsulated cultures having 2.6 × 1011CFU·g–1were obtained.
Hybrid Optimization Algorithm to Combine Neural Network for Rainfall-Runoff Modeling
Authors: Wu Jiansheng
Published: August 2016

Rainfall-runoff modeling is very important for Water Resources Management because accurate and timely prediction can avoid accidents, such as the life risk, economic losses, etc. This paper proposed the novel hybrid optimization algorithm to combine Neural Network (NN) for rainfall-runoff modeling, namely HGASA-NN. Firstly, a novel and specialized hybrid optimization strategy by incorporating Simulated Annealing algorithm (SA) into Genetic Algorithm (GA) was used to train the initial connection weights and thresholds of NN. Secondly, the Back Propagation (BP) algorithm was adjusted the final weights and biases. Finally, a numerical example of daily rainfall-runoff data was used to elucidate the forecasting performance of the proposed HGASA-NN model. The HGASA-NN can make use of not only strong global searching ability of the GASA, but also strong local searching ability of the BP algorithm. The forecasting results indicate that the proposed model yields more accurate forecasting results than the BP-NN and pure GA training NN model. Therefore, the HGASA-NN model is a promising alternative for rainfall-runoff forecasting.
Design of FIR Digital Filter with Two Dimensions Using Particle Swarm Optimization
Authors: Chang Wei-Der , Chang Tai-Ming
Published: August 2016

This paper proposes a novel method which is based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm for the two-dimensional FIR digital filter design. In the PSO algorithm, it simply uses two adjusting mechanisms including particle’s velocity and position updating to achieve the optimization. In addition, numerical representations for each candidate solution are completely real numbers. The PSO algorithm is utilized to design the two-dimensional FIR digital filter with linear-phase characteristic so that its frequency response can approximately meet the desired specification. Finally, we will illustrate the design performance of the proposed method with two experiments. Simulation results reveal that the proposed scheme has a good design performance on the two-dimensional FIR digital filter.
Impact of Parallelism and Memory Architecture on FPGA Communication Energy
Authors: Kadric Edin , Lakata David , Dehon André
Published: August 2016

The energy in FPGA computations is dominated by data communication energy, either in the form of memory references or data movement on interconnect. In this article, we explore how to use data placement and parallelism to reduce communication energy. We show that parallelism can reduce energy and that the optimal level of parallelism increases with the problem size. We further explore how FPGA memory architecture (memory block size(s), memory banking, and spacing between memory banks) can impact communication energy, and determine how to organize the memory architecture to guarantee that the energy overhead compared to the optimally matched architecture for the design is never more than 60%. We specifically show that an architecture with 32 bit wide, 16Kb internally banked memories placed every 8 columns of 10 4-LUT logic blocks is within 61% of the optimally matched architecture across the VTR 7 benchmark set and a set of parallelism-tunable benchmarks. Without internal banking, the worst-case overhead is 98%, achieved with an architecture with 32 bit wide, 8Kb memories placed every 9 columns, roughly comparable to the memory organization on the Cyclone V (where memories are placed about every 10 columns). Monolithic 32 bit wide, 16Kb memories placed every 10 columns (comparable to 18Kb and 20Kb memories used in Virtex 4 and Stratix V FPGAs) have a 180% worst-case energy overhead. Furthermore, we show practical cases where designs mapped for optimal parallelism use 4.7 × less energy than designs using a single processing element.
Comparing Pointwise and Listwise Objective Functions for Random-Forest-Based Learning-to-Rank
Authors: Ibrahim Muhammad , Carman Mark
Published: August 2016

Current random-forest (RF)-based learning-to-rank (LtR) algorithms use a classification or regression framework to solve the ranking problem in a pointwise manner. The success of this simple yet effective approach coupled with the inherent parallelizability of the learning algorithm makes it a strong candidate for widespread adoption. In this article, we aim to better understand the effectiveness of RF-based rank-learning algorithms with a focus on the comparison between pointwise and listwise approaches.

We introduce what we believe to be the first listwise version of an RF-based LtR algorithm. The algorithm directly optimizes an information retrieval metric of choice (in our case, NDCG) in a greedy manner. Direct optimization of the listwise objective functions is computationally prohibitive for most learning algorithms, but possible in RF since each tree maximizes the objective in a coordinate-wise fashion. Computational complexity of the listwise approach is higher than the pointwise counterpart; hence for larger datasets, we design a hybrid algorithm that combines a listwise objective in the early stages of tree construction and a pointwise objective in the latter stages. We also study the effect of the discount function of NDCG on the listwise algorithm.

Experimental results on several publicly available LtR datasets reveal that the listwise/hybrid algorithm outperforms the pointwise approach on the majority (but not all) of the datasets. We then investigate several aspects of the two algorithms to better understand the inevitable performance tradeoffs. The aspects include examining an RF-based unsupervised LtR algorithm and comparing individual tree strength. Finally, we compare the the investigated RF-based algorithms with several other LtR algorithms.
Recognizing Parkinsonian Gait Pattern by Exploiting Fine-Grained Movement Function Features
Authors: Wang Tianben , Wang Zhu , Zhang Daqing , Gu Tao , Ni Hongbo , Jia Jiangbo , Zhou Xingshe , Lv Jing
Published: August 2016

Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the typical movement disorder diseases among elderly people, which has a serious impact on their daily lives. In this article, we propose a novel computation framework to recognize gait patterns in patients with PD. The key idea of our approach is to distinguish gait patterns in PD patients from healthy individuals by accurately extracting gait features that capture all three aspects of movement functions, that is, stability, symmetry, and harmony. The proposed framework contains three steps: gait phase discrimination, feature extraction and selection, and pattern classification. In the first step, we put forward a sliding window--based method to discriminate four gait phases from plantar pressure data. Based on the gait phases, we extract and select gait features that characterize stability, symmetry, and harmony of movement functions. Finally, we recognize PD gait patterns by applying a hybrid classification model. We evaluate the framework using an open dataset that contains real plantar pressure data of 93 PD patients and 72 healthy individuals. Experimental results demonstrate that our framework significantly outperforms the four baseline approaches.
Why data citation is a computational problem
Authors: Buneman Peter , Davidson Susan , Frew James
Published: August 2016

Using database views to define citable units is the key to specifying and generating citations to data.
Systematic Alias Sampling
Authors: Vallivaara Ilari , Poikselkä Katja , Rikula Pauli , Röning Juha
Published: August 2016

In this article, we combine the Alias method with the concept of systematic sampling, a method commonly used in particle filters for efficient low-variance resampling. The proposed method allows very fast sampling from a discrete distribution: drawing
k
samples is up to an order of magnitude faster than binary search from the cumulative distribution function (cdf) or inversion methods used in many libraries. The produced empirical distribution function is evaluated using a modified Cramér-Von Mises goodness-of-fit statistic, showing that the method compares very favorably to multinomial sampling. As continuous distributions can often be approximated with discrete ones, the proposed method can be used as a very general way to efficiently produce random samples for particle filter proposal distributions, for example, for motion models in robotics.
Discovering Finance Keywords via Continuous-Space Language Models
Authors: Tsai Ming-Feng , Wang Chuan-Ju , Chien Po-Chuan
Published: August 2016

The growing amount of public financial data makes it increasingly important to learn how to discover valuable information for financial decision making. This article proposes an approach to discovering financial keywords from a large number of financial reports. In particular, we apply the continuous bag-of-words (CBOW) model, a well-known continuous-space language model, to the textual information in 10-K financial reports to discover new finance keywords. In order to capture word meanings to better locate financial terms, we also present a novel technique to incorporate syntactic information into the CBOW model. Experimental results on four prediction tasks using the discovered keywords demonstrate that our approach is effective for discovering predictability keywords for post-event volatility, stock volatility, abnormal trading volume, and excess return predictions. We also analyze the discovered keywords that attest to the ability of the proposed method to capture both syntactic and contextual information between words. This shows the success of this method when applied to the field of finance.
Implementing Dense Optical Flow Computation on a Heterogeneous FPGA SoC in C
Authors: Chen Wenjie , Wang Zhibin , Wu Qin , Liang Jiuzhen , Chai Zhilei
Published: August 2016

High-quality optical flow computation algorithms are computationally intensive. The low computational speed of such algorithms causes difficulties for real-world applications. In this article, we propose an optimized implementation of the classical Combine-Brightness-Gradient (CBG) model on the Xilinx ZYNQ FPGA-SoC, by taking advantage of the inherent algorithmic parallelism and ZYNQ architecture. The execution time decreases to 0.82 second with a lower power consumption (1.881W). It is better than software implementation on PC (Intel i7-3520M, 2.9GHz), which costs 2.635 seconds and 35W. We use C rather than HDLs to describe the algorithm for rapid prototyping.
Bad software architecture is a people problem
Authors: Matsudaira Kate
Published: August 2016

When people don't work well together they make bad decisions.
Designing AI systems that obey our laws and values
Authors: Etzioni Amitai , Etzioni Oren
Published: August 2016

Calling for research on automatic oversight for artificial intelligence systems.
Detection of Subconscious Face Recognition Using Consumer-Grade Brain-Computer Interfaces
Authors: Martin Miguel Vargas , Cho Victor , Aversano Gabriel
Published: August 2016

We test the possibility of tapping the subconscious mind for face recognition using consumer-grade BCIs. To this end, we performed an experiment whereby subjects were presented with photographs of famous persons with the expectation that about 20% of them would be (consciously) recognized; and since the photos are of famous persons, we expected that subjects would have seen before some of the 80% they didn’t (consciously) recognize. Further, we expected that their subconscious would have recognized some of those in the 80% pool that they had seen before. An exit questionnaire and a set of criteria allowed us to label recognitions as conscious, false, no recognitions, or subconscious recognitions. We analyzed a number of event related potentials training and testing a support vector machine. We found that our method is capable of differentiating between no recognitions and subconscious recognitions with promising accuracy levels, suggesting that tapping the subconscious mind for face recognition is feasible.
A Survey of Signed Network Mining in Social Media
Authors: Tang Jiliang , Chang Yi , Aggarwal Charu , Liu Huan
Published: August 2016

Many real-world relations can be represented by signed networks with positive and negative links, as a result of which signed network analysis has attracted increasing attention from multiple disciplines. With the increasing prevalence of social media networks, signed network analysis has evolved from developing and measuring theories to mining tasks. In this article, we present a review of mining signed networks in the context of social media and discuss some promising research directions and new frontiers. We begin by giving basic concepts and unique properties and principles of signed networks. Then we classify and review tasks of signed network mining with representative algorithms. We also delineate some tasks that have not been extensively studied with formal definitions and also propose research directions to expand the field of signed network mining.
MobiCoop
Authors: Silva Bruno M. C. , Rodrigues Joel J. P. C. , Kumar Neeraj , Proença Mario L. , Han Guangjie
Published: August 2016

Network architectures based on mobile devices and wireless communications present several constraints (e.g., processor, energy storage, bandwidth, etc.) that affect the overall network performance. Cooperation strategies have been considered as a solution to address these network limitations. In the presence of unstable network infrastructures, mobile nodes cooperate with each other, forwarding data and performing other specific network functionalities. This article proposes a generalized incentive-based cooperation solution for mobile services and applications called MobiCoop. This reputation-based scheme includes an application framework for mobile applications that uses a Web service to handle all the nodes reputation and network permissions. The main goal of MobiCoop is to provide Internet services to mobile devices without network connectivity through cooperation with neighbor devices. The article includes a performance evaluation study of MobiCoop considering both a real scenario (using a prototype) and a simulation-based study. Results show that the proposed approach provides network connectivity independency to users with mobile apps when Internet connectivity is unavailable. Then, it is concluded that MobiCoop improved significantly the overall system performance and the service provided for a given mobile application.
Efficient and Accurate Behavior-Based Tracking of Malware-Control Domains in Large ISP Networks
Authors: Rahbarinia Babak , Perdisci Roberto , Antonakakis Manos
Published: August 2016

In this article, we propose
Segugio
, a novel defense system that allows for efficiently tracking the occurrence of new
malware-control
domain names in very large ISP networks. Segugio passively monitors the DNS traffic to build a machine-domain bipartite graph representing
who is querying what
. After labeling nodes in this
query behavior
graph that are known to be either benign or malware-related, we propose a novel approach to accurately detect previously unknown malware-control domains.

We implemented a proof-of-concept version of Segugio and deployed it in large ISP networks that serve millions of users. Our experimental results show that Segugio can track the occurrence of new malware-control domains with up to 94% true positives (TPs) at less than 0.1% false positives (FPs). In addition, we provide the following results: (1) we show that Segugio can also detect control domains related to new, previously unseen malware families, with 85% TPs at 0.1% FPs; (2) Segugio’s detection models learned on traffic from a given ISP network can be deployed into a different ISP network and still achieve very high detection accuracy; (3) new malware-control domains can be detected days or even weeks before they appear in a large commercial domain-name blacklist; (4) Segugio can be used to detect previously unknown malware-infected machines in ISP networks; and (5) we show that Segugio clearly outperforms domain-reputation systems based on Belief Propagation.
Covert Voice over Internet Protocol Communications with Packet Loss Based on Fractal Interpolation
Authors: Jiang Yijing , Tang Shanyu , Zhang Liping , Xiong Muzhou , Yip Yau Jim
Published: August 2016

The last few years have witnessed an explosive growth in the research of information hiding in multimedia objects, but few studies have taken into account packet loss in multimedia networks. As one of the most popular real-time services in the Internet, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) contributes to a large part of network traffic for its advantages of real time, high flow, and low cost. So packet loss is inevitable in multimedia networks and affects the performance of VoIP communications. In this study, a fractal-based VoIP steganographic approach was proposed to realize covert VoIP communications in the presence of packet loss. In the proposed scheme, secret data to be hidden were divided into blocks after being encrypted with the block cipher, and each block of the secret data was then embedded into VoIP streaming packets. The VoIP packets went through a packet-loss system based on Gilbert model which simulates a real network situation. And a prediction model based on fractal interpolation was built to decide whether a VoIP packet was suitable for data hiding. The experimental results indicated that the speech quality degradation increased with the escalating packet-loss level. The average variance of speech quality metrics (PESQ score) between the “no-embedding” speech samples and the “with-embedding” stego-speech samples was about 0.717, and the variances narrowed with the increasing packet-loss level. Both the average PESQ scores and the SNR values of stego-speech samples and the data-retrieving rates had almost the same varying trends when the packet-loss level increased, indicating that the success rate of the fractal prediction model played an important role in the performance of covert VoIP communications.