bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Rapid and reproducible phosphopeptide enrichment by tandem metal oxide affinity chromatography: application to boron deficiency induced phosphoproteomics
Authors: Chen Yanmei , Hoehenwarter Wolfgang
Published: December 2018

Mass spectrometry has been instrumental in enabling the study of molecular signaling on a cellular scale by way of site‐specific quantification of protein post‐translational modifications, in particular phosphorylation. Here we describe an updated tandem metal oxide affinity chromatography (MOAC) combined phosphoprotein/phosphopeptide enrichment strategy, a scalable phosphoproteomics approach that allows rapid identification of thousands of phosphopeptides in plant materials. We implemented modifications to several steps of the original tandem MOAC procedure to increase the amount of quantified phosphopeptides and hence site‐specific phosphorylation of proteins in a sample beginning with the less amounts of tissue and a substantially smaller amount of extracted protein. We applied this technology to generate time‐resolved maps of boron signaling in Arabidopsis roots. We show that the successive enrichment of phosphoproteins in a first and phosphopeptide extraction in a second step using our optimized procedure strongly enriched the root phosphoproteome. Our results reveal that boron deficiency affects over 20% of the measured root phosphoproteome and that many phosphorylation sites with known biological function, and an even larger number of previously undescribed sites, are modified during the time course of boron deficiency. We identify transcription factors as key regulators of hormone signaling pathways that modulate gene expression in boron deprived plants. Furthermore, our phosphorylation kinetics data demonstrate that mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades mediate polarized transport of boron in Arabidopsis roots. Taken together, we establish and validate a robust approach for proteome‐wide phosphorylation analysis in plant biology research.
Characterization of cavitation-radiated acoustic power using diffraction correction
Authors: Rich Kyle T. , Holland Christy K. , Rao Marepalli B. , Mast T. Douglas
Published: December 2018

A method is developed for compensating absolute pressure measurements made by a calibrated passive cavitation detector (PCD) to estimate the average acoustic power radiated from a region of interest (ROI) defined to encompass all cavitating bubbles. A diffraction correction factor for conversion of PCD-measured pressures to cavitation-radiated acoustic power per unit area or volume is derived as a simple analytic expression, accounting for position- and frequency-dependent PCD sensitivity. This approach can be applied to measurements made by any PCD without precise knowledge of the number, spatial, or temporal distribution of cavitating bubbles. The diffraction correction factor is validated in simulation for a wide range of ROI dimensions and frequencies. The correction factor is also applied to emission measurements obtained during in vitro ultrasound-enhanced sonophoresis experiments, allowing comparison of stable cavitation levels between therapeutic configurations with different source center frequencies. Results incorporating sonication at both 0.41 and 2.0 MHz indicate that increases in skin permeability correlate strongly with the acoustic power of subharmonic emissions radiated per unit skin area.
Stimulus bandwidth impact on auditory evoked potential thresholds and estimated upper-frequency limits of hearing in dolphins
Authors: Coffinger Sean , Houser Dorian , Finneran James J. , Mulsow Jason , Gentner Timothy Q , Burkard Robert
Published: December 2018

The frequency range of hearing is important for assessing the potential impact of anthropogenic noise on marine mammals. Auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) are commonly used to assess toothed whale hearing, but measurement methods vary across researchers and laboratories. In particular, estimates of the upper-frequency limit of hearing (UFL) can vary due to interactions between the unintended spread of spectral energy to frequencies below the desired test frequency and a sharp decline in hearing sensitivity at frequencies near the UFL. To assess the impact of stimulus bandwidth on UFL measurement, AEP hearing tests were conducted in four bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) with normal and impaired hearing ranges. Dolphins were tested at frequencies near the UFL and at a frequency 1/2-octave below the UFL, where hearing sensitivity was better (i.e., threshold was lower). Thresholds were measured using sinusoidal amplitude modulated (SAM) tones and tone-bursts of varying bandwidth. Measured thresholds varied inversely as a function of stimulus bandwidth near the UFL with narrow-band tone-bursts approximating thresholds measured using SAM tones. Bandwidth did not impact measured thresholds where hearing was more sensitive, highlighting how stimulus bandwidth and the rate of decline of hearing sensitivity interact to affect measured threshold near the UFL.
Transcriptomics: Quantifying Non-Uniform Read Distribution Using MapReduce
Authors: Alnasir Jamie J. , Shanahan Hugh P.
Published: December 2018

RNA-seq is a high-throughput Next-sequencing technique for estimating the concentration of all transcripts in a transcriptome. The method involves complex preparatory and post-processing steps which can introduce bias, and the technique produces a large amount of data [7, 19]. Two important challenges in processing RNA-seq data are therefore the ability to process a vast amount of data, and methods to quantify the bias in public RNA-seq datasets. We describe a novel analysis method, based on analysing sequence motif correlations, that employs MapReduce on Apache Spark to quantify bias in Next-generation sequencing (NGS) data at the deep exon level. Our implementation is designed specifically for processing large datasets and allows for scalability and deployment on cloud service providers offering MapReduce. In investigating the wild and mutant organism types in the species D. melanogaster we have found that motifs with runs of Gs (or their complement) exhibit low motif-pair correlations in comparison with other motif-pairs. This is independent of the mean exon GC content in the wild type data, but there is a mild dependence in the mutant data. Hence, whilst both datasets show the same trends, there is however significant variation between the two samples.
Meissner effect from Landau problem
Authors: Arias Paola , Gamboa J. , Méndez F. , Valenzuela David
Published: December 2018

The Landau problem for inhomogeneous magnetic fields is examined in a very general context and several interesting analogies with the Nielsen–Olesen vortices are established. Firstly, we show that the Landau problem with non-homogeneous magnetic fields exhibits Meissner effect that is unstable unless two-body interactions are added and vortices emerge. Using the scaling freedom, we can write the Schrödinger equation in terms of the scales ratio [Formula: see text] where the last identification is realized simply by using the Ginzburg–Landau theory. We find our equations are valid in the superconducting regime, and it is not possible for the Cooper pairs amplitude to reach to a constant, nonzero value, and therefore the theory is unstable. The supersymmetric quantum mechanics version, by completeness, is also considered.
Structure of Al-based composite coatings prepared by thermal diffusion of the arc-ion plating Al coatings
Authors: Yang Wenmao , Li Xueyuan , Du Dongxing , Cao Yinchun , Leng Yongxiang
Published: December 2018

In order to improve the high-temperature oxidation resistance of the hydrogen-resistant steel, Al coatings were firstly deposited on the hydrogen-resistant steel by arc-ion plating and then the thermal diffusion treatment was used to produce the Al-based composite coatings on the hydrogen-resistant steel. The effect of thermal diffusion parameters on the structure of Al-based composite coatings was studied. The crystal structure, composition and morphology of Al-based composite coatings were analyzed by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results showed that the double inner diffusion layer was formed on Al coatings treated at 700[Formula: see text]C. And the single inner diffusion layer with uniform composition distribution could be formed on Al coatings treated at 950[Formula: see text]C. The Al-based composite coating prepared by thermal diffusion treatment at 950[Formula: see text]C had a dense and thick [Formula: see text]-Al2O3 surface layer, and it exhibited good high-temperature oxidation resistance.
Efficient Algorithms for Hierarchical Graph-Based Segmentation Relying on the Felzenszwalb–Huttenlocher Dissimilarity
Authors: Cahuina Edward Cayllahua , Cousty Jean , Kenmochi Yukiko , de Albuquerque Araújo Arnaldo , Cámara-Chávez Guillermo , Guimarães Silvio Jamil F.
Published: December 2018

Hierarchical image segmentation provides a region-oriented scale-space, i.e. a set of image segmentations at different detail levels in which the segmentations at finer levels are nested with respect to those at coarser levels. However, most image segmentation algorithms, among which a graph-based image segmentation method relying on a region merging criterion was proposed by Felzenszwalb–Huttenlocher in 2004, do not lead to a hierarchy. In order to cope with a demand for hierarchical segmentation, Guimarães et al. proposed in 2012 a method for hierarchizing the popular Felzenszwalb–Huttenlocher method, without providing an algorithm to compute the proposed hierarchy. This paper is devoted to providing a series of algorithms to compute the result of this hierarchical graph-based image segmentation method efficiently, based mainly on two ideas: optimal dissimilarity measuring and incremental update of the hierarchical structure. Experiments show that, for an image of size 321 × 481 pixels, the most efficient algorithm produces the result in half a second whereas the most naive one requires more than 4 h.
Online Tibetan Handwriting Recognition for Large Character Set on New Databases
Authors: Wang Weilan , Li Zhengjiang , Cai Zhengqi , Lv Xiaobao , Zhaxi Caike , Han Yuehui
Published: December 2018

The online handwriting recognition of Tibetan characters is still in its infancy. For further research, an online handwriting database of large Tibetan character set was developed, and a recognition research was carried out on this database as a baseline result. The Northwest Minzu University Online Tibetan Handwriting Database (NMU-OLTHWDB) contains 7240 different types of characters, and the sample number in each type is 5000. The total number of samples is [Formula: see text]. The database covers Tibetan Character Collection, Information Technology Tibetan Coded Character set (Extension Set A), and Information Technology Tibetan Coded Character set (Extension Set B). The characters in the database are composed of 170 types of different components. We studied the online handwritten Tibetan recognition software also, and the character feature extraction, classifier training, and the statistics and analysis of the recognition results on the test set were mainly introduced. The character features included the direction attribute coefficients and spatial combination, and the feature matrix was compressed by Linear Discriminate Analysis (LDA). A quick classifier was designed by a modified quadratic discriminate function (QMQDF), and was trained with 4500 sets of samples. In the large character set, the recognition rates of top 1, top 3, top 5, and top 10 were 75.2%, 89.56%, 93.02%, and 95.96%, respectively. Moreover, an online handwriting recognition system for Tibetan large character set was designed with good performance.
3D Reconstruction and Visual Simulation of Double-Flowered Plants Based on Laser Scanning
Authors: Cai Dongna , Li Zhi , Huai Yongjian
Published: December 2018

Flower plants have become a major difficulty in virtual plant research because of their rich external morphological structure and complex physiological processes. Computer vision simulation provides powerful tools for exploring powerful biological systems and operating laws. In this paper, Chrysanthemum and Chinese rose, double flowers as the symbolic flowers of Beijing, are chosen as the study subject. On the basis of maximizing the protection of flower growth structure, an effective method based on laser scanning for three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction and visual simulation of flower plants is proposed. This method uses laser technology to scan the sample and store it as point cloud data. After applying a series of image analysis and processing techniques such as splicing, denoising, repairing and color correction, the digital data optimized by the sample is obtained accurately and efficiently, and a highly realistic 3D simulation model of the plant is formed. The results of the research indicate that it is a convenient research method for the 3D reconstruction of flower plants and computer vision simulation of virtual plants. It also provides an effective way for in-depth study of scientific experiments and digital protection of rare and endangered plants.
Artificial Intelligence Control Algorithm for the Steering Motion of Wheeled Soccer Robot
Authors: Xiong Xiaowei
Published: December 2018

In this paper, the artificial intelligence control algorithm for steering robot of steering wheel is studied. The steering movement of wheeled soccer robot is controlled by artificial intelligence control algorithm, and the steering movement is modeled and simulated. Firstly, the characteristics of artificial neurons are simulated and a similar control model is constructed to complete the simulation of football. The artificial intelligence control algorithm has a dynamic feedback item compared with the traditional intelligent model, which has a better effect on the steering control of the wheeled soccer robot. In this paper, artificial intelligence control algorithm is used to optimize the parameters of artificial intelligence control algorithm, and the output of control signal of each steering part of wheeled soccer robot is simulated in the experiment, and the control of the steering action of wheeled soccer robot by artificial intelligence control algorithm is verified by experiments. Then the artificial intelligence control algorithm forms the connection structure. This method provides a good reference for steering control of wheeled soccer robots.
High-resolution imaging of graphene by tip-enhanced coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering
Authors: Kou Xiaolong , Zhou Qian , Wang Dong , Yuan Jinghe , Fang Xiaohong , Wan Lijun
Published: December 2018

Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) is able to enhance molecular signals by vibrational coherence compared to weak Raman signal. The surface or tip enhancement are successful technologies, which make it possible for Raman to detect single molecule with nanometer resolution. However, due to technical difficulties, tip-enhanced CARS (TECARS) is not as successful as expected. For single molecular detection, high sensitivity and resolution are two main challenges. Here, we reported the first single atom layer TECARS imaging on Graphene with the highest resolution about 20[Formula: see text]nm, which has ever been reported. The highest EF[Formula: see text] is about 104, the similar order of magnitude with SECARS (EF of tip is usually smaller than that of substrates). Such resolution and sensitivity is promising for medical, biology and chemical applications in the future.
Sensitization of TiO2 by the symmetric cationic polymethine dye for the photocatalytic reduction of methylene blue
Authors: Kobasa I. M. , Kondratyeva I. V. , Kropelnytska Yu. V.
Published: December 2018

Using the spectral, electrochemical and energy transformation characteristics of the cationic polymethine dye (D) 2-[(1E)-1,3-butadienyl-]-1-(phenylmethyl)-benindolium borfluoride, it has been found that the dye can be applied as a highly efficient sensitizer of TiO2. An intensity of the initially narrow light adsorption band becomes wider and embraces practically entire visible and near IR zones as a result of application of the dye to the surface of TiO2. Due to this effect, a wider array of light quanta can potentially be involved in the photocatalytic transformations. Some new heterostructures (HS) of the type D/TiO2 have been developed and their photocatalytic activities were determined in the test reaction of reduction of methylene blue by formaldehyde for different dye contents and under various modes of irradiation. The schemes of the energy transformation initiated by the light with different wavelengths are proposed and discussed.
Time-domain identification of One Noninteger Order Plus Time Delay models from step response measurements
Authors: Alagoz Baris Baykant , Tepljakov Aleksei , Ates Abdullah , Petlenkov Eduard , Yeroglu Celaleddin
Published: December 2018

Practical performances of controller design methods strongly depend on relevancy of identified models. Fractional order system models promise advantage of more accurate modeling of real systems. This study presents a discussion on utilization of two fundamental numerical solution methods of fractional calculus in identification problems of One Noninteger Order Plus Time Delay with one pole (NOPTD-I) models. The identification process is carried out by estimating parameters of a NOPTD-I type transfer function template so that the step response of the NOPTD-I model can sufficiently fit experimental step response data. In the study, step responses of NOPTD-I models are numerically calculated according to two fundamental methods, which are Mittag-Leffler (ML) function and Grunwald–Letnikov (GL) definition. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is used to perform data fitting. Illustrative examples are presented to evaluate model parameter estimation performances of these two methods for synthetically generated noisy test data. An experimental study is conducted for modeling pitch rotor of TRMS to compare experimental performances.
Landscape-Based Extreme Heat Vulnerability Assessment
Authors: Hamstead Zoé A. , Farmer Carson , McPhearson Timon
Published: December 2018

Extreme heat is becoming an increasingly dangerous threat to urban residents. However, unlike hazards such as storm surges which have been well studied by agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Commission in the United States, communities lack basic knowledge of where extreme heat threats are likely to have the most impact, and who is likely to be most affected. Here, we apply a mapping approach to identify areas of New York City where people are likely to be particularly vulnerable to extreme heat-related health effects based on both exposure to biophysical elements that exacerbate heat, and sensitivity to heat-related health impacts. Unlike most studies that develop indicators of heat vulnerability at Census-based aggregations, we disaggregate population data to a fine scale, in order to more precisely identify vulnerable communities. Using a landscape-based indicator that links exposure to properties of the urban built and natural landscape, we develop an approach for informing land-based strategies for mitigating micro-urban heat islands. Our findings indicate that African Americans and households living below the poverty line are disproportionately exposed to high surface temperatures. This study illustrates an approach for identifying multiple dimensions of vulnerability to extreme heat with improved location precision, in a way that informs spatially strategic extreme heat mitigation efforts.
Molecular dynamics study of two-dimensional discrete breather in nickel
Authors: Bachurina Olga V. , Murzaev Ramil T. , Bachurin Dmitry V.
Published: December 2018

A discrete breather (DB) is a spatially localized vibrational mode of large amplitude in a defect-free anharmonic lattice. Generally, zero-dimensional DB is considered to be localized in all [Formula: see text] directions of the [Formula: see text]-dimensional lattice. However, the question of existence of DBs localized in [Formula: see text]–[Formula: see text] directions and delocalized in other [Formula: see text] directions remains open. In the present paper, for the first time, the case of [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] is considered by constructing a two-dimensional (2D) DB in the fcc nickel lattice using molecular dynamics methods. In order to excite such DB, one of the delocalized vibrational modes of the triangular lattice was used (the (111) plane in fcc crystal is a triangular lattice). All simulations were carried out at zero temperature. The investigated 2D DB demonstrates hard-type nonlinearity, when its oscillation frequency increases with increasing amplitude. The oscillation frequencies of the DB are above the upper edge of the phonon spectrum for nickel, which is 10.3[Formula: see text]THz. The maximum DB lifetime is found to be 9.5[Formula: see text]ps. The obtained results expand our understanding of diversity of nonlinear spatially localized vibrational modes in nonlinear lattices.
Detecting Door Events Using a Smartphone via Active Sound Sensing
Authors: Dissanayake Thilina , Maekawa Takuya , Amagata Daichi , Hara Takahiro
Published: December 2018

Event detection of indoor objects, including doors, has a wide variety of applications, including intruder detection, HVAC control, and surveillance of independently living elderly people. Hence, this has been the focus of multiple research projects in the UbiComp research community. Herein, we propose a method to accurately detect door events in an indoor environment, without the installation and maintenance costs of using distributed ubiquitous sensors. In particular, we recognize the events of multiple doors existing in the environment via active sound probing using a disused smartphone installed in the environment. We perform event recognition by fusing the analysis of the Doppler shift caused by the moving doors with the acoustic characteristics describing the open/close states of the doors acquired via impulse response. To accurately distinguish between the events of different doors via sound probing, our method employs the time-series analysis of the Doppler shift as well as the active sound probing using directional high-frequency sine waves and stereo sound recording. In addition, by incorporating prior knowledge about the state transitions of a door object into a recognition model, we attempt to improve the accuracy of event recognition. Moreover, our method is capable of recognizing walking activities of a person related to door events in the environment, which are necessary information for applications such as HVAC control that require information about both door events and human presence.
Device-free Personalized Fitness Assistant Using WiFi
Authors: Guo Xiaonan , Liu Jian , Shi Cong , Liu Hongbo , Chen Yingying , Chuah Mooi Choo
Published: December 2018

There is a growing trend for people to perform regular workouts in home/office environments because work-at-home people or office workers can barely squeeze in time to go to dedicated exercise places (e.g., gym). To provide personalized fitness assistance in home/office environments, traditional solutions, e.g., hiring personal coaches incur extra cost and are not always available, while new trends requiring wearing smart devices around the clock are cumbersome. In order to overcome these limitations, we develop a device-free fitness assistant system in home/office environments using existing WiFi infrastructure. Our system aims to provide personalized fitness assistance by differentiating individuals, automatically recording fine-grained workout statistics, and assessing workout dynamics. In particular, our system performs individual identification via deep learning techniques on top of workout interpretation. It further assesses the workout by analyzing both short and long-term workout quality, and provides workout reviews for users to improve their daily exercises. Additionally, our system adopts a spectrogram-based workout detection algorithm along with a Cumulative Short Time Energy (CSTE)-based workout segmentation method to ensure its robustness. Extensive experiments involving 20 participants demonstrate that our system can achieve a 93% accuracy on workout recognition and a 97% accuracy for individual identification.
Coconut
Authors: Li Tianshi , Agarwal Yuvraj , Hong Jason I.
Published: December 2018

Although app developers are responsible for protecting users' privacy, this task can be very challenging. In this paper, we present Coconut, an Android Studio plugin that helps developers handle privacy requirements by engaging developers to think about privacy during the development process and providing real-time feedback on potential privacy issues. We start by presenting new findings based on a series of semi-structured interviews with Android developers, probing into the difficulties with privacy that developers face when building apps. Based on these findings, we implemented a proof-of-concept prototype of Coconut and evaluated it in a controlled lab study with 18 Android developers (including eight professional developers). Our study results suggest that apps developed with Coconut handled privacy concerns better, and the developers that used Coconut had a better understanding of their code's behavior and wrote a better privacy policy for their app. We also found that requiring developers to do a small amount of annotating work regarding their apps' personal data practices during the development process may result in a significant improvement in app privacy.
What Will You Do for the Rest of the Day?
Authors: Sadri Amin , Salim Flora D. , Ren Yongli , Shao Wei , Krumm John C. , Mascolo Cecilia
Published: December 2018

Understanding and predicting human mobility is vital to a large number of applications, ranging from recommendations to safety and urban service planning. In some travel applications, the ability to accurately predict the user's future trajectory is vital for delivering high quality of service. The accurate prediction of detailed trajectories would empower location-based service providers with the ability to deliver more precise recommendations to users. Existing work on human mobility prediction has mainly focused on the prediction of the next location (or the set of locations) visited by the user, rather than on the prediction of the continuous trajectory (sequences of further locations and the corresponding arrival and departure times). Furthermore, existing approaches often return predicted locations as regions with coarse granularity rather than geographical coordinates, which limits the practicality of the prediction.

In this paper, we introduce a novel trajectory prediction problem: given historical data and a user's initial trajectory in the morning, can we predict the user's full trajectory later in the day (e.g. the afternoon trajectory)? The predicted continuous trajectory includes the sequence of future locations, the stay times, and the departure times. We first conduct a comprehensive analysis about the relationship between morning trajectories and the corresponding afternoon trajectories, and found there is a positive correlation between them. Our proposed method combines similarity metrics over the extracted temporal sequences of locations to estimate similar informative segments across user trajectories.

Our evaluation shows results on both labeled and geographical trajectories with a prediction error reduced by 10-35% in comparison to the baselines. This improvement has the potential to enable precise location services, raising usefulness to users to unprecedented levels. We also present empirical evaluations with Markov model and Long Short Term Memory (LSTM), a state-of-the-art Recurrent Neural Network model. Our proposed method is shown to be more effective when smaller number of samples are used and is exponentially more efficient than LSTM.
Rewind
Authors: Tan Neille-Ann H. , Sha Han , Celen Eda , Tran Phucanh , Wang Kelly , Cheung Gifford , Hinch Philip , Huang Jeff
Published: December 2018

Snapping photos or videos on a smartphone makes recording visual memories convenient, but what isn't captured may still be meaningful in retrospect. In this paper, digital mementos are automatically generated for participants using the Rewind system, which assists the recall of location-based minutiae. Rewind is a video-like medium describing people's daily excursions using a sequence of street-level images determined by self-tracked location data. The Rewinds are color-processed to reflect seasonal, time-of-day and weather characteristics. Through two user studies with a combined 40 users, Rewinds were shown to be used as memory artifacts, and are especially meaningful in the many situations when photos or videos are not available. The small cues in Rewinds evoke longer fragments of memory tied to nostalgic routines or significant events, and the sequence of images provide a first-person perspective of remembrance for users. While they are more generic and can possess inaccuracies, Rewinds give people anchors for memories that feel like their own that are used to craft a narrative for that day. Rewind strikes a balance between automatic logging and manually-curated memories by personalizing it in meaningful visuals and consolidating an otherwise overwhelming amount of data.
A Language for Online State Processing of Binary Sensors, Applied to Ambient Assisted Living
Authors: Volanschi Nic , Serpette Bernard , Carteron Adrien , Consel Charles
Published: December 2018

There is a large variety of binary sensors in use today, and useful context-aware services can be defined using such binary sensors. However, the currently available approaches for programming context-aware services do not conveniently support binary sensors. Indeed, no existing approach simultaneously supports a notion of state, central to binary sensors, offers a complete set of operators to compose states, allows to define reusable abstractions by means of such compositions, and implements efficient online processing of these operators.

This paper proposes a new language for event processing specifically targeted to binary sensors. The central contributions of this language are a native notion of state and semi-causal operators for temporal state composition including: Allen's interval relations generalized for handling multiple intervals, and temporal filters for handling delays. Compared to other approaches such as CEP (complex event processing), our language provides less discontinued information, allows less restricted compositions, and supports reusable abstractions. We implemented an interpreter for our language and applied it to successfully rewrite a full set of real Ambient Assisted Living services. The performance of our prototype interpreter is shown to compete well with a commercial CEP engine when expressing the same services.
Drivers of Antimicrobial Use Practices among Tennessee Dairy Cattle Producers
Authors: Ekakoro John E. , Caldwell Marc , Strand Elizabeth B. , Okafor Chika C.
Published: December 2018

Nonjudicious antimicrobial use (AMU) and inadequate antimicrobial stewardship are known modifiable factors driving the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). A mixed methods approach using a combination of focus groups and survey questionnaires was used to explore the AMU practices of Tennessee (TN) dairy cattle producers. Specifically, the objectives of the study were to determine the following: (1) the most common drivers for using antimicrobials, (2) perceived alternatives to antimicrobials, (3) knowledge of and perceptions regarding AMR, (4) and the appropriate avenues for receiving information on prudent AMU. Two focus groups were conducted, one in July 2017 and the other in March 2018. The questionnaire was simultaneously made available to participants both in print form and online from January 26, 2018, through May 11, 2018. Twenty-three dairy producers participated in the focus groups and 45 responded to the survey. Eight (18.6%) producers never used bacterial culture and sensitivity testing (C/S) to select antimicrobials, more than half (25 producers (58.1%)) sometimes used C/S, four (9.3%) used C/S about half the time, five (11.6%) most of the time, and one (2.3%) always used C/S. The most common drivers for using antimicrobials were disease and animal welfare, pathogen surveillance, economic factors, veterinarian recommendation, producer’s experience and judgment, drug attributes, and the Veterinary Feed Directive. Good management practices, vaccination, use of immunomodulatory products, and use of appropriate technology for early disease detection were considered alternatives to AMU. Four (9.1%) dairy producers were very concerned about AMR, 27 (61.4%) moderately concerned, and 10 (22.7%) not concerned. The veterinarian was considered to be a trusted source of information on prudent AMU. Use of C/S test results for antimicrobial selection is widespread among TN dairy producers. There is a need to popularize/promote selective dry cow therapy among TN dairy producers.
OmpA-Like Proteins of Porphyromonas gingivalis Mediate Resistance to the Antimicrobial Peptide LL-37
Authors: Horie Toshi , Inomata Megumi , Into Takeshi
Published: December 2018

Subgingival bacteria are continually exposed to gingival crevicular fluids that are derived from serum, which contain various bactericidal agents. The periodontopathic bacterium Porphyromonas gingivalis has been demonstrated to possess a variety of abilities to resist bactericidal agents, due to which it is able to propagate in the subgingival environment. We previously demonstrated that the major surface glycoproteins of P. gingivalis—Pgm6 and Pgm7, also called outer membrane protein A-like proteins (OmpALPs)—mediate resistance to the bactericidal activity of human serum, but their precise role remains unknown. In this study, we investigated the sensitivity of the wild-type and Pgm6/Pgm7-deficient P. gingivalis strains toward major antimicrobial peptides in the oral cavity, human β-defensins (hBDs) 1-3, and human cathelicidin LL-37. hBDs showed a considerably weak bactericidal activity against both bacterial strains. LL-37 also showed a weak activity against the wild-type strain; however, it showed a significant activity against the Pgm6/Pgm7-deficient strain. In the Pgm6/Pgm7-deficient strain, LL-37 remarkably accumulated on the bacterial cell surface, which may result in the destruction of the outer membrane. Additionally, the bactericidal activity of hBDs against the Pgm6/Pgm7-deficient strain was found to be synergistically promoted in the presence of LL-37. Our results suggest that OmpALPs specifically protect P. gingivalis from the bactericidal activity of LL-37; thus, P. gingivalis may adeptly survive in LL-37-producing subgingival environments.
The Effects of Exercise Regimens on Irisin Levels in Obese Rats Model: Comparing High-Intensity Intermittent with Continuous Moderate-Intensity Training
Authors: Tine Kartinah Neng , Rosalyn Sianipar Imelda , Nafi’ah  , Rabia
Published: December 2018

Background. Recently, high-intensity intermittent training (HIIT) appears to have the same beneficial effects or even superior to those of continuous moderate-intensity training (CMIT) on body fat mass reduction. Exercise may induce myokine secretion such as irisin, which plays a role as a mediator of beiging process, and thus might contribute as treatment of obesity. However, the effects of those exercise formulas on irisin level changes as beiging agent are not known. In addition, metabolic states may affect the irisin responses to those exercise formulas. Therefore, this study was aimed to determine the different effects of exercises using HIIT and CMIT on circulating and tissue irisin levels in normal and abnormal metabolic conditions (obese). Methods. Sixteen male Sprague-Dawley rats (8 weeks of age) were randomized to 4 groups according to training regimens (HIIT and CMIT) and metabolic conditions (normal and abnormal/obese). The groups are (1) HIIT on normal metabolic (n=4), (2) CMIT on normal metabolic (n=4), (3) HIIT on abnormal metabolic (n=4), and (4) CMIT on abnormal metabolic (n=4). Abnormal metabolic condition was induced with high fat diet (19% fat) for 8 weeks in obese rats. Irisin levels in serum, skeletal muscle, and white adipose tissue were evaluated by ELISA. Results. Serum irisin levels were shown significantly higher in normal metabolic compared to abnormal metabolic condition (P<0.001). The effect of interaction between metabolic condition and exercise formula was found (P<0.01) on adipose irisin levels. The effect of HIIT was shown significantly more effective on adipose irisin levels, compared with CMIT in abnormal metabolic conditions. However, no significant differences of skeletal muscle irisin levels were found in both normal and abnormal metabolic subjects (P>0.05). Regarding exercise formula, no different effects were found between HIIT and CMIT on skeletal muscle irisin levels in both metabolic conditions (P>0.05). The similar findings were observed in serum irisin levels (P>0.05). Conclusions. The exercise effects in abnormal metabolic condition might be more adaptable in maintaining the irisin levels in skeletal muscle and induce the irisin uptake from circulation into adipose tissue. In addition, HIIT might be more involved to induce irisin uptake into adipose tissue; thus it might have the significant role in beiging process. However, further research about how the HIIT formula affects the regulation mechanisms of irisin uptake into adipose tissue is still warranted.
Pullout Behavior of GFRP Anti-Floating Anchor Based on the FBG Sensor Technology
Authors: Zhang Ming-yi , Kuang Zheng , Bai Xiao-yu , Chen Xiao-yu
Published: December 2018

Building anti-floating anchors have been increasingly used in recent years, but conventional steel anchors under service conditions are easily subjected to chemical erosion. Glass fiber reinforcement polymer (GFRP) is a promising solution to this problem. In this study, field pullout tests were conducted on three full instrumented GFRP anti-floating anchors in weathered granite. Specifically, the GFRP anchors during pultrusion were innovatively embedded with bare fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors to monitor the axial force distribution along depth. It was found that the embedded FBG could reliably monitor the axial force distribution of GFRP anchors. The ultimate pullout force of a GFRP anchor with diameter of 28 mm and anchorage length of 5 m was up to 400 kN. The GFRP anchor yielded at 0.8 m underground. Force distribution and field photos at failure indicated shear failure occurred at the anchor/bolt interface at the end of the tests. The feasibility of the GFRP anti-floating anchor was also verified in civil engineering. Finally, an elastic mechanical model and Mindlin’s displacement solution are used to get distribution functions of axial force and shear stress along the depth, and the results accord with the test results.
Sample Rocks Tests and Slope Stability Analysis of a Mine Waste Dump
Authors: Zou Ping , Zhao Ximo , Meng Zhonghua , Li Aibing , Liu Zhengyu , Hu Wanjie
Published: December 2018

The safety and stability of waste dump are vital influencing factors to the mine sustainability and mine employees. Based on a real mine project in a certain open‐pit mine waste dump in Tibet, the in situ test on waste rocks from waste dump, including measurements of density, water content, rock size, and natural repose angle, was conducted. Afterwards, these sample waste rocks, of which grain size is less than 5 cm, were selected for indoor large‐scale shear test under natural and saturated conditions. By using some engineering methods, the physical and mechanical parameters of waste rocks layer were then determined accordingly. MIDAS‐GTS/NX has the advantage of pre‐processing modeling. FLAC3D has good computational and analytical capabilities. The process of dump accumulation is simulated numerically. According to the calculation results of FLAC3D, the distribution of stress, displacement and plastic zone in the dump is obtained. FOS (factor of safety) for each analytical step in this model was then calculated through the strength reduction method. The limit equilibrium method is used for waste dump stability analysis considering three states: only applied gravity, applied gravity and rainfall, and applied gravity and underground water. The results from this analysis show that the waste dump is stable. The potential failure modes of waste dump mainly consist of the “combined sliding mode” which has circular sliding in upper side and broken line sliding that cuts through gravel‐soil layer into heavily weathered layer in the bottom. This paper documents some of the procedures and approaches utilized for waste dump life‐of‐mine design analysis. It provides reference for further waste dump optimization.
Optimization of Headways and Departure Times in Urban Bus Networks: A Case Study of Çorlu, Turkey
Authors: Ceylan Huseyin , Ozcan Tayfun
Published: December 2018

The traffic congestion, which has become one of the major problems of developed and developing countries, has led to a shift in the way public transport systems are viewed, and it has accelerated efforts to increase the efficiency of these systems. In recent studies, several approaches, in which both user and operator benefits are evaluated together in order to increase the demand for public transportation systems and to ensure the sustainability of these systems, are emphasized. In this study, a bilevel simulation/optimization model is developed to optimize service headways and departure times of first buses from the beginning of the routes in urban bus networks. At the upper level of the proposed model, a multiobjective function representing user and operator costs is evaluated using the metaheuristic harmony search (HS) optimization technique. The transit assignment problem, which represents the distribution of transit users over the routes, is handled at the lower level. In the proposed model, the transit assignment problem is solved by the timetable‐based assignment approach with VISUM transport planning software. The timetable‐based transit assignment is an approach in which the perception errors within the users’ route choice are taken into consideration and the transfer wait times can be precisely calculated. The proposed model is applied to a real‐life urban bus network of the Çorlu district (Tekirdağ, Turkey), and the effectiveness of the model on a medium‐sized urban bus system has been demonstrated. The results show that the user and operator benefits can be simultaneously increased by adding an initial departure offset parameter to the problem.
The Endothelin Receptor Antagonist Macitentan Improves Isosorbide‐5‐Mononitrate (ISMN) and Isosorbide Dinitrate (ISDN) Induced Endothelial Dysfunction, Oxidative Stress, and Vascular Inflammation
Authors: Steven Sebastian , Oelze Matthias , Hausding Michael , Roohani Siyer , Kashani Fatemeh , Kröller-Schön Swenja , Helmstädter Johanna , Jansen Thomas , Baum Christine , Iglarz Marc , Schulz Eberhard , Münzel Thomas , Daiber Andreas
Published: December 2018

Objective. Organic nitrates such as isosorbide‐5‐mononitrate (ISMN) and isosorbide dinitrate (ISDN) are used for the treatment of patients with chronic symptomatic stable coronary artery disease and chronic congestive heart failure. Limiting side effects of these nitrovasodilators include nitrate tolerance and/or endothelial dysfunction mediated by oxidative stress. Here, we tested the therapeutic effects of the dual endothelin (ET) receptor antagonist macitentan in ISMN‐ and ISDN‐treated animals. Methods and Results. Organic nitrates (ISMN, ISDN, and nitroglycerin (GTN)) augmented the oxidative burst and interleukin‐6 release in cultured macrophages, whereas macitentan decreased the oxidative burst in isolated human leukocytes. Male C57BL/6j mice were treated with ISMN (75 mg/kg/d) or ISDN (25 mg/kg/d) via s.c. infusion for 7 days and some mice in addition with 30 mg/kg/d of macitentan (gavage, once daily). ISMN and ISDN in vivo therapy caused endothelial dysfunction but no nitrate (or cross‐)tolerance to the organic nitrates, respectively. ISMN/ISDN increased blood nitrosative stress, vascular/cardiac oxidative stress via NOX‐2 (fluorescence and chemiluminescence methods), ET1 expression, ET receptor signaling, and markers of inflammation (protein and mRNA level). ET receptor signaling blockade by macitentan normalized endothelial function, vascular/cardiac oxidative stress, and inflammatory phenotype in both nitrate therapy groups. Conclusion. ISMN/ISDN treatment caused activation of the NOX‐2/ET receptor signaling axis leading to increased vascular oxidative stress and inflammation as well as endothelial dysfunction. Our study demonstrates for the first time that blockade of ET receptor signaling by the dual endothelin receptor blocker macitentan improves adverse side effects of the organic nitrates ISMN and ISDN.
Pupil Size Associated with the Largest Iris Volume in Normal Chinese Eyes
Authors: Li Shuning , Jiang Jing , Yang Yiquan , Wu Gewei , Li Shi-Ming , Thomas Ravi , Wang Ningli
Published: December 2018

Background. To determine the range of pupil size that has the largest iris volume in normal eyes. Methods. 31 healthy adult Chinese volunteers underwent swept-source anterior segment OCT examination in both eyes. Pilocarpine 1% was instilled in a randomly selected eye (eye with induced miosis (ME)) of each participant to obtain iris volume (IV) measurements over a range of pupil sizes. OCT was performed prior to and one hour after pilocarpine in both ME and fellow eye (FE). Iris volume (IV), anterior chamber volume (ACV), anterior chamber depth (ACD), and pupil size (PS) were recorded. A scatter plot was used to depict the association between each pupil size and IV. Results. The pupillary sizes for which IV was recorded in ME and FE ranged from 1.161 mm to 6.665 mm. The mean IV increased with miosis in both ME and FE; in 13 eyes, IV decreased with a decrease in pupillary size. PS between 3.812 and 6.665 mm was associated with an increase in IV, while PS between 3.159 and 5.54 mm was associated with a decrease. The relationship between PS and IV was in the shape of a downward parabola and was modeled using a quadratic equation (y = −1.3121x2 + 8.8429x + 16.423, R2 = 0.26886). The largest IV occurred at PS between 3 and 4 mm. Conclusions. The relationship between PS and IV in this study was in the shape of a downward parabola. The largest IV was recorded at a pupillary size between 3 and 4 mm. This trial is registered with ChiCTR-ROC-17013572.
Signos de classe
Authors: Grohmann Rafael
Published: December 2018

O artigo teoriza sobre a dimensão discursiva das classes sociais nos processos comunicacionais a partir dos signos de classe, considerando tanto o discurso midiático quanto, de forma mais ampla, a circulação de signos na comunicação e também na esfera do capital, considerando a linguagem como trabalho e mercadoria, no sentido de mostrar como a luta de classes perpassa a comunicação.
A hora dos amadores
Authors: Carreiro Rodrigo
Published: December 2018

Este artigo descreve e examina algumas influências exercidas nas fases de produção, circulação e recepção da indústria do audiovisual, de tecnologias e práticas de trabalho considerados amadores. Estes novos procedimentos têm desafiado o modo como indivíduos, tecnologias e interfaces não profissionais estão provocando uma mudança do paradigma de clareza e legibilidade que tem constituído a estética hegemônica da indústria do audiovisual. O artigo procura demonstrar alguns aspectos estilísticos do que chamamos de estética da imperfeição, que parece ser uma forte tendência na cultura audiovisual contemporânea.