bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Barriers to the implementation of sexual and reproductive health education programmes in low-income and middle-income countries: a scoping review protocol
Authors: Mashora Moreblessing Chipo , Dzinamarira Tafadzwa , Muvunyi Claude Mambo
Published: October 2019

Introduction

Health education programmes (HEPs) have been associated with a number of benefits. These include providing individuals with information on matters related to their mental, social, physical as well as emotional health. HEPs also play a major role in preventing diseases and reducing the level of engagement of individuals in risky behaviours. While this is the case, there are barriers to the effective implementation of HEPs, especially in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) where resources are scarce. Available evidence has revealed socioeconomic challenges ranging from literacy issues, discomfort about issues of sexuality, and cultural barriers to financial constraints as key barriers to the implementation of sexual and reproductive health HEPs in LMICs. We will focus on HEPs related to sexual and reproductive health; all age groups will be considered with no restrictions on geographical setting nor model of HEP delivery. This review will map literature on the barriers to the effective implementation of HEPs in LMICs to guide future implementation research.

Methods

Arksey and O’Malley’s 2005 scoping methodological framework will act as the guide for this review. We will search the following electronic databases: EBSCOhost (Academic search complete, PsycINFO, Health Sources, CINAHL and MEDLINE with full text), Google Scholar, PubMed, SCOPUS, Science Direct and Web of Science. Grey literature from Mount Kenya University theses and dissertations, governments’ as well as international organisations’ reports, such as WHO, and reference lists of included studies will be searched for eligible studies. We will limit our search to publications from 1 January 2000 to 30 September 2019. Using thematic content analysis, we will employ NVivo V.12 to extract the relevant outcomes from the included articles. We will conduct a quality appraisal of the included articles using the mixed methods appraisal tool (MMAT) version 2018.

Ethics and dissemination

No ethical approval is needed for the study as it will not include animal nor human participants. The results of the proposed scoping review will be disseminated electronically, in print and through conference presentation as well as at key stakeholder meetings.
Feasibility and implementation of a healthy lifestyles program in a community setting in Ontario, Canada: protocol for a pragmatic mixed methods pilot study
Authors: Alvarez Elizabeth , Qutob Majdi , Mbuagbaw Lawrence , Lavis John , Lokker Cynthia , Walli-Attaei Marjan , Samaan Zainab , Sutton Arielle , Singh Japteg , Feeny David , Fortuna John
Published: October 2019

Introduction

Rates of chronic conditions, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity are increasing in Canada and internationally. There are effective lifestyle interventions that are known to improve chronic conditions. However, there is often a gap in ‘how to’ make lifestyle changes. Mental health and other determinants of health play a role in the development and progression of chronic conditions. Changing habits takes time and requires the use of multiple techniques, including mental health and behavioural change strategies, based on a person’s needs. A new, multidisciplinary, person-centred and evidence-based and practice-based programme has been created to address these needs. This proposal aims to evaluate the feasibility and implementation of this programme and to determine changes in participant-directed and clinical outcomes through a pilot study.

Methods and analysis

A pragmatic mixed methods design will be used to study multiple dimensions of the year-long healthy lifestyles programme. The pilot study includes a randomised controlled trial, with 30 participants randomised to either the programme or to a comparator arm, and qualitative components to determine the feasibility of the programme, including recruitment and retention, data missing rates and resources needed to run this programme. Changes in participant-directed and clinical outcomes will be measured. Descriptive statistics, t-tests and repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) for within group comparisons and generalised estimating equations for between group analyses will be used. Qualitative interviews of programme staff and healthcare providers and family focus groups will be used to further enhance the findings and improve the programme.

Ethics and dissemination

Approval from the Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board (HiREB) has been obtained. Informed consent will be obtained prior to enrolling any participant into the study. Participant IDs will be used during data collection and entry. Peer-reviewed publications and presentations will target researchers, health professionals and stakeholders.

Trial registration number

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:NCT03258138.

HiREB project number: 3793.
Codesigning a mobile gamified attention bias modification intervention: research protocol
Authors: Zhang Melvyn WB , Heng Sandor , Song Guo , Fung Daniel Shuen Sheng , Smith Helen
Published: October 2019

Introduction

Advances in experimental psychology has highlighted the need to modify underlying automatic cognitive biases, such as attentional biases. While prior research has documented the effectiveness of cognitive bias modification, such interventions tend to be highly repetitive and individuals lack motivation to train over time. Participatory action research methods have been more widely applied in psychiatry to help design interventions that are of relevant to key stakeholders and end users. This study aimed to involve both healthcare professionals and patients in the joint codesign of a gamified mobile attention bias modification intervention.

Methods and analysis

The participatory design research method adopted is that of a use-oriented design approach, in the form of a future workshop. 20 participants, comprising 10 healthcare professionals, 5 inpatients and 5 outpatients will be recruited to participate in three separate codesign workshops. In the first phase of the workshop, the participants share their critique of an attention bias modification intervention. In the second phase of the workshop, participants are asked to brainstorm features. The participants are also shown gamification approaches and are asked to consider if gaming elements could enhance the existing application. In the last phase, the participants are asked to sketch a new prototype.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval has been obtained from the National Healthcare Group’s Domain Specific Research Board (approval number 2018/01363). The findings arising from this study will be disseminated by means of conferences and publications.
Primary palliative care for older people in three European countries: a mortality follow-back quality study
Authors: de Nooijer Kim , Pivodic Lara , Deliens Luc , Miccinesi Guido , Vega Alonso Tomas , Moreels Sarah , Van den Block Lieve
Published: October 2019

Background

Many older people with serious chronic illnesses experience complex health problems for which palliative care is indicated. We aimed to examine the quality of primary palliative care for people aged 65–84 years and those 85 years and older who died non-suddenly in three European countries.

Methods

This is a nationwide representative mortality follow-back study. General practitioners (GPs) belonging to epidemiological surveillance networks in Belgium (BE), Italy (IT) and Spain (ES) (2013–2015) registered weekly all deaths in their practices. We included deaths of people aged 65 and excluded sudden deaths judged by GPs. We applied a validated set of quality indicators.

Results

GPs registered 3496 deaths, of which 2329 were non-sudden (1126 aged 65–84, 1203 aged 85+). GPs in BE (reference category) reported higher scores than IT across almost all indicators. Differences with ES were not consistent. The score in BE particularly differed from IT on GP–patient communication (aged 65–84: 61% in BE vs 20% in IT (OR=0.12, 95% CI 0.07 to 0.20) aged 85+: 47% in BE vs 9% in IT (OR=0.09, 95% CI 0.05 to 0.16)). Between BE and ES, we identified a large difference in involvement of palliative care services (aged 65–84: 62% in BE vs 89% in ES (OR=4.81, 95% CI 2.41 to 9.61) aged 85+: 61% in BE vs 77% in ES (OR=3.1, 95% CI 1.71 to 5.53)).

Conclusions

Considerable country differences were identified in the quality of primary palliative care for older people. The data suggest room for improvement across all countries, particularly regarding pain measurement, GP–patient communication and multidisciplinary meetings.
Socioeconomic position and risk of atrial fibrillation: a nationwide Danish cohort study
Authors: Lunde Elin Danielsen , Joensen Albert Marni , Lundbye-Christensen Søren , Fonager Kirsten , Paaske Johnsen Søren , Larsen Mogens Lytken , Berg Johansen Martin , Riahi Sam
Published: October 2019

Aim

To examine the association between socioeconomic position and the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) in different stages of life in a population of Danish citizens.

Methods

Register-based study. We followed all individuals turning 35, 50, 65 or 80 years from 1 January 1996 to 31 December 2005 until AF, death, emigration or the end of study period (31 December 2015). Exposure was education and income. We used Cox regression for the HRs (95% CI) and the pseudo-observation method for the adjusted risk difference (RD) (%).

Results

A total of 2 173 857 participants were enrolled and 151 340 incident cases of AF occurred over a median of 13.6 years of follow-up. Adjusted HR (95% CI) of incident AF for the youngest age group with the highest education (ref lowest) was 0.62 (0.50 to 0.77) (women) and 0.85 (0.76 to 0.96) (men). The associations attenuated with increasing age, that is, HRs for the oldest age group were 1.04 (0.97 to 1.10) and 0.98 (0.96 to 1.04), respectively. The corresponding adjusted RDs (%) were: −0.28 (−0.43 to −0.14), −0.18 (−0.36 to −0.01), 3.04 (−0.55 to 6.64) and −0.74 (−3.38 to 2.49), respectively. Similar but weaker associations were found for income.

Conclusion

Higher level of education and income was associated with a lower risk of being diagnosed with AF in young individuals but the association decreased with increasing age and was almost absent for the oldest age cohort. However, since AF is relatively rare in the youngest the RDs were low.
Evaluation and comparison of pain questionnaires for clinical screening of osteoarthritis in cats
Authors: Stadig Sarah , Lascelles B Duncan X , Nyman Gorel , Bergh Anna
Published: October 2019

Background

Feline osteoarthritis (OA) is a common cause of long‐standing pain and physical dysfunction. Performing a physical examination of a cat is often challenging. There is a need for disease‐specific questionnaires or the so‐called clinical metrology instruments (CMIs) to facilitate diagnosis and evaluation of treatment of feline OA. The CMI provides the owners an assessment of the cat's behavioural and lifestyle changes in the home environment. The purpose of the study was to evaluate readability, internal consistency, reliability and discriminatory ability of four CMIs.

Methods

This is a prospective, cross‐sectional study with 142 client‐owned cats. Feline OA was diagnosed based on medical history, orthopaedic examination and radiography.

Results

The results indicate that all four instruments have sound readability, internal consistency, are reliable over time and have good discriminatory ability. Preliminary cut‐off values with optimal sensitivity and specificity were suggested for each instrument. The osteoarthritic cats showed significant changes in behavioural response to pain during orthopaedic examination, compared with sound cats.

Conclusion

The results indicate that all four questionnaires make an important contribution in a clinical setting, and that the cat's behavioural response to pain during physical examination should be a parameter to take into account as a possible indication of chronic pain.
An experimental investigation of the response of slender protective structures to rockfall impacts
Authors: Lambert Stéphane , Bourrier Frank , Gotteland Philippe , Nicot François
Published: October 2019

This article investigates the mechanical response of slender rockfall protection embankments subjected to impacts based on real-scale experiments. More specifically, it deals with rectangular (in cross-section) vertical-sided gabion structures, designed to meet footprint constraints. These three-layered structures, 3 m in width and 4 m in height, are made up of gabion cages filled with different materials, depending on their location in the structure. Real-scale experiments were conducted with impact energies up to about 2000 kJ on two structures differing by the fill material used for their middle layer: ballast or sand–tire mixture. The experiments demonstrate the capacity of these slender structures in resisting high-energy impacts. The response of the structures is also addressed considering data obtained using different measuring techniques and a large number of sensors within the structure. The results are presented and discussed with the aim of highlighting some issues associated with the structure impact response, such as the load lateral diffusion, stone breakage, the contribution of the wire mesh, and the fill material characteristics. In the end, a structure with a middle layer filled with ballast appears more efficient in reducing the structure back face displacement.
Building information modeling and field operations: opportunities and challenges
Authors: Harris Britani N. , Alves Thais da C.L.
Published: October 2019

Building information modeling (BIM) use in field operations to support daily activities during the construction phase is still lacking when compared with design and office-related activities like design, clash detection, estimating, and planning in the owner–architecture–engineering–construction (OAEC) industry. This study explores the use of BIM in field operations or lack thereof, identifies factors that either act as barriers to or promoters of BIM implementation in field operations, and identifies ways in which BIM implementation in field operations can be improved. The study was developed using a mixed-mode approach including case studies, interviews, and a survey, and using Lean construction-related literature to analyze the results. Findings support the importance of using BIM to visualize and plan field operations and prevent wasteful interactions between resources (workers, equipment, and time). Additionally, findings indicate that those who receive more training on BIM use tend to have more trust on its potential and use it more often.
An efficient hybrid method for dynamic interaction of train–track–bridge coupled system
Authors: Zhu Zhihui , Zhang Lei , Gong Wei , Wang Lidong , Bai Yu , Harik Issam E.
Published: October 2019

An efficient hybrid method (HM) is proposed by combining the direct stiffness method (DSM) and the mode superposition method (MSM) for analyzing the train–track–bridge coupled system (TTBS). The train and the track are modeled by applying the multi-body dynamics and the DSM, respectively. The bridge is modeled by applying the MSM that is efficient in capturing the dynamic behavior with a small number of modes. The train–track subsystem and the bridge subsystem are coupled by the interaction forces between them. The computational efficiency is significantly improved because of the considerably reduced number of equations of motion of the TTBS. Numerical simulations of a train traversing an arch railway bridge are performed and the results are compared with the field test data and the data from other methods, demonstrating the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method.
Is speeding more likely during weekend night hours? Evidence from sensor-collected data in Montréal
Authors: Heydari Shahram , Miranda-Moreno Luis F. , Fu Liping
Published: October 2019

A number of traffic safety studies have investigated temporal variations in road safety indicators such as crash frequency, confirming that such variations exist. This paper examined whether speeding is more likely on weekend nights relative to all other times of the day by directly comparing speeding during weekends and weekdays. To this end, we analyzed a sample of local streets, in Montréal, for which speed data were collected automatically using traffic analyzer sensors. We found that, interestingly, weekend speeding was less likely to occur during night hours, whereas it was more likely to occur during evening and midday hours. Among other findings, the results indicated that one-way streets and those having a speed limit of 50 km/h were slightly less prevalent in speeding on weekends. Our results can be useful in designing road safety interventions, including publicity campaigns and police enforcement, which aim at reducing speeding behaviours.
Factors affecting space use by wild boars (Sus scrofa) in high-elevation tropical forests
Authors: Morais T.A. , Rosa C.A. , Azevedo C.S. , Viana-Junior A.B. , Santos P. , Passamani M.
Published: October 2019

The wild boar (Sus scrofa Linnaeus, 1758) is considered one of the 100 worst invasive species in the world and is present in the high-elevation forests in Brazil. Our objective was to understand how landscape and atmospheric conditions affect space use by wild boars. We hypothesized that wild boars would be more frequent at lower elevations, warmer and wetter forested areas, and away from human disturbances. After three years of data collection (2013–2016) using 16 camera traps, 881 independent records were obtained with a mean of 4.44 ± 9.25 pigs per record. Wild boar frequency of occurrence was higher at lower elevations, in more humid and warmer areas, and farther away human disturbance factors, corroborating our initial hypothesis. Understanding space-use patterns of wild boars is necessary for the design of management strategies that target areas of more intense usage, as well as for defining more effective population-control techniques.
Higher-order power corrections in a transverse-momentum cut for colour-singlet production at NLO
Authors: Cieri Leandro , Oleari Carlo , Rocco Marco
Published: October 2019

We consider the production of a colourless system at next-to-leading order in the strong coupling constant $$\alpha _{{\displaystyle } {\scriptstyle } {\scriptscriptstyle } {\scriptscriptstyle } \mathrm{S}}$$αS. We impose a transverse-momentum cutoff, $$q_{{\displaystyle } {\scriptstyle } {\scriptscriptstyle } {\scriptscriptstyle } \mathrm{T}}^{{\displaystyle } {\scriptstyle } {\scriptscriptstyle } {\scriptscriptstyle } \mathrm{cut}}$$qTcut, on the colourless final state and we compute the power corrections for the inclusive cross section in the cutoff, up to the fourth power. The study of the dependence of the cross section on $$q_{{\displaystyle } {\scriptstyle } {\scriptscriptstyle } {\scriptscriptstyle } \mathrm{T}}^{{\displaystyle } {\scriptstyle } {\scriptscriptstyle } {\scriptscriptstyle } \mathrm{cut}}$$qTcut allows for an understanding of its behaviour at the boundaries of the phase space, giving hints on the structure at all orders in $$\alpha _{{\displaystyle } {\scriptstyle } {\scriptscriptstyle } {\scriptscriptstyle } \mathrm{S}}$$αS and on the identification of universal patterns. The knowledge of such power corrections is also a required ingredient in order to reduce the dependence on the transverse-momentum cutoff of the QCD cross sections at higher orders, when the $$q_{\mathrm{T}}$$qT-subtraction method is applied. We present analytic results for both Drell–Yan vector boson and Higgs boson production in gluon fusion and we illustrate a process-independent procedure for the calculation of the all-order power corrections in the cutoff. In order to show the impact of the power-correction terms, we present selected numerical results and discuss how the residual dependence on $$q_{{\displaystyle } {\scriptstyle } {\scriptscriptstyle } {\scriptscriptstyle } \mathrm{T}}^{{\displaystyle } {\scriptstyle } {\scriptscriptstyle } {\scriptscriptstyle } \mathrm{cut}}$$qTcut affects the total cross section for Drell–Yan Z production and Higgs boson production via gluon fusion at the LHC.
AN AI APPROACH TO MEASURING FINANCIAL RISK
Authors: YU LINING , HÄRDLE WOLFGANG KARL , BORKE LUKAS , BENSCHOP THIJS
Published: October 2019

AI artificial intelligence brings about new quantitative techniques to assess the state of an economy. Here, we describe a new measure for systemic risk: the Financial Risk Meter (FRM). This measure is based on the penalization parameter (λ) of a linear quantile lasso regression. The FRM is calculated by taking the average of the penalization parameters over the 100 largest US publicly-traded financial institutions. We demonstrate the suitability of this AI-based risk measure by comparing the proposed FRM to other measures for systemic risk, such as VIX, SRISK and Google Trends. We find that mutual Granger causality exists between the FRM and these measures, which indicates the validity of the FRM as a systemic risk measure. The implementation of this project is carried out using parallel computing, the codes are published on www.quantlet.de with keyword [Formula: see text] FRM. The R package RiskAnalytics is another tool with the purpose of integrating and facilitating the research, calculation and analysis methods around the FRM project. The visualization and the up-to-date FRM can be found on hu.berlin/frm.
Analysis of compact stars in logarithmic-corrected R2 gravity
Authors: Shamir M. Farasat , Fayyaz Iffat
Published: October 2019

We discuss the existence of compact stars in the context of [Formula: see text] gravity model, where additional logarithmic corrections are assumed. Here, [Formula: see text] is the Ricci scalar and [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] are constant values. Further, the compact stars are considered to be anisotropic in nature, due to the spherical symmetry and high density. For this purpose, we derive the Einstein field equations by considering Krori–Barua spacetime. For our proposed model, the physical acceptability is verified by employing several physical tests like the energy conditions, Herrera cracking concept and stability condition. In addition to this, we also discuss some important properties such as mass–radius relation, surface redshift and the speed of sound are analyzed. Our results are compared with observational stellar mass data, namely, 4U 1820-30, Cen X-3, EXO 1785-248 and LMC X-4. The graphical representation of obtained solutions provide strong evidences for more realistic and viable stellar model.
The magnetoelectric coupling in electrodynamics
Authors: Martín-Ruiz A. , Cambiaso M. , Urrutia L. F.
Published: October 2019

We explore a model akin to axion electrodynamics in which the axion field [Formula: see text] rather than being dynamical is a piecewise constant effective parameter [Formula: see text] encoding the microscopic properties of the medium inasmuch as its permittivity or permeability, defining what we call a [Formula: see text]-medium. This model describes a large class of phenomena, among which we highlight the electromagnetic response of materials with topological order, like topological insulators for example. We pursue a Green’s function formulation of what amounts to typical boundary-value problems of [Formula: see text]-media, when external sources or boundary conditions are given. As an illustration of our methods, which we have also extended to ponderable media, we interpret the constant [Formula: see text] as a novel topological property of vacuum, a so called [Formula: see text]-vacuum, and restrict our discussion to the cases where the permittivity and the permeability of the media is one. In this way we concentrate upon the effects of the additional [Formula: see text] coupling which induce remarkable magnetoelectric effects. The issue of boundary conditions for electromagnetic radiation is crucial for the occurrence of the Casimir effect, therefore we apply the methods described above as an alternative way to approach the modifications to the Casimir effect by the inclusion of topological insulators.
Impurity concentration effects on mechanical properties of Al-doped B2-NiSc intermetallics from first-principles investigation
Authors: Wu Yali , Guo Xuefeng , Lei Mingke , Cui Hongbao , Yang Wenpeng , Yu Heshuai
Published: October 2019

First-principles method based on density functional theory has been performed to study the crystal structures, phase stability, site preferences, elastic properties, hardness, melting points, Debye temperatures and electronic properties of Al-doped B2-NiSc intermetallics with different concentrations systematically. The results show that the Al atom occupies the Sc site preferentially. For the doped systems in which an Sc atom is substituted by one Al atom, the bulk modulus increases as the Al doping concentration increases and is larger than that of pure B2-NiSc. However, the shear modulus and Young’s modulus are smaller than the parent phase. The ductility of B2-NiSc intermetallics can be improved by adding Al element, and it increases with the increase of doping concentration. But, the increase of ductility is accompanied by the decrease of hardness. The melting points of doped alloys are all lower than the parent phase. Besides, on the basis of the calculated electronic properties, Al doping weakens covalent bonding and enhances the metal bonding of Al-doped NiSc.
Solitons for the (2+1)-dimensional Boiti–Leon–Manna–Pempinelli equation for an irrotational incompressible fluid via the Pfaffian technique
Authors: Hu Lei , Gao Yi-Tian , Jia Shu-Liang , Su Jing-Jing , Deng Gao-Fu
Published: October 2019

Fluids are common in nature, the study of which helps the design of the related industries. Under investigation in this letter is the (2[Formula: see text]+[Formula: see text]1)-dimensional Boiti–Leon–Manna–Pempinelli equation for an irrotational incompressible fluid. Pfaffian solutions have been obtained based on the Pfaffian technique with the assistance of the real auxiliary function [Formula: see text]. N-soliton solutions with [Formula: see text] are constructed, where y is the scaled space coordinate and [Formula: see text] is the steady stream function in the irrotational incompressible flow. Background shapes of the solutions are affected by [Formula: see text], but the structures of the solutions are affected by the derivative of the log terms in the solutions. Neighborhoods at the origins of the solitons are different in consequence of the different values of the real auxiliary parameter a. One- and two-soliton solutions are illustrated, which are the superpositions of the two kink solitons and different forms of [Formula: see text]. Interactions of the two solitons are presented, from which we see that the velocities, amplitudes and shapes of the two solitons remain unchanged before and after each interaction.
Field confinement effect induced by nonlinear interface between nonlinear focusing and defocusing media
Authors: Savotchenko S. E.
Published: October 2019

We describe the non-symmetrical spatial-distributed electric field near the thin optic layer with nonlinear properties that separated two focusing and defocusing media with Kerr-type nonlinearity differing by values of refractive index. The nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE) with nonlinear potential containing two parameters describes the distribution of electric field strength in adiabatic approximation. The problem is reduced to the solution of NLSEs at the half-spaces with the nonlinear boundary conditions at the interface plane. We obtain five new types of nonlinear stationary states describing the confinement effect of electric field strength across the interface. The field confinement effect is the localization of nonlinear spatially periodic wave during the transition from a one half-space to another one where the field distribution is monotonically damping from the interface. We derive and analyze the frequencies of field confinement effect possibility in dependence of media and interface characteristics.
Global Dynamics and Synchronization in a Duopoly Game with Bounded Rationality and Consumer Surplus
Authors: Cao Yinxia , Zhou Wei , Chu Tong , Chang Yingxiang
Published: October 2019

Based on the oligopoly game theory, a dynamic duopoly Cournot model with bounded rationality and consumer surplus is established. On the one hand, the type and the stability of the boundary equilibrium points and the stability conditions of the Nash equilibrium point are discussed in detail. On the other hand, the potential complex dynamics of the system is demonstrated by a set of 2D bifurcation diagrams. It is found that the bifurcation diagrams have beautiful fractal structures when the adjustment speed of production is taken as the bifurcation parameter. And it is verified that the area with scattered points in the 2D bifurcation diagrams is caused by the coexistence of multiple attractors. It is also found that there may be two, three or four coexisting attractors. It is even found the coexistence of Milnor attractor and other attractors. Moreover, the topological structure of the attracting basin and global dynamics of the system are investigated by the noninvertible map theory, using the critical curve and the transverse Lyapunov exponent. It is concluded that two different types of global bifurcations may occur. Because of the symmetry of the system, it can be concluded that the diagonal of the system is an invariant one-dimensional submanifold. And it is controlled by a one-dimensional map which is equivalent to the classical Logistic map. The bifurcation curve of the system on the adjustment speed and the weight of the consumer surplus is obtained based on the properties of the Logistic map. And the synchronization phenomenon along the invariant diagonal is discussed at the end of the paper.
A Holling–Tanner Predator–Prey Model with Strong Allee Effect
Authors: Arancibia-Ibarra Claudio , Flores José D. , Pettet Graeme , van Heijster Peter
Published: October 2019

We analyze a modified Holling–Tanner predator–prey model where the predation functional response is of Holling type II and we incorporate a strong Allee effect associated with the prey species production. The analysis complements the results of previous articles by Saez and González-Olivares [1999] and Arancibia-Ibarra and González-Olivares [2015] discussing Holling–Tanner models which incorporate a weak Allee effect. The extended model exhibits rich dynamics and we prove the existence of separatrices in the phase plane separating basins of attraction related to coexistence and extinction of the species. We also show the existence of a homoclinic curve that degenerates to form a limit cycle and discuss numerous potential bifurcations such as saddle-node, Hopf, and Bogdanov–Takens bifurcations.
Spatial Patterns of a Predator–Prey Model with Beddington–DeAngelis Functional Response
Authors: Wang Yu-Xia , Li Wan-Tong
Published: October 2019

This paper is concerned with the spatial patterns of a predator–prey system with Beddington–DeAngelis functional response, in which the parameter [Formula: see text] measuring the mutual interference between predators can play an essential role. By using the bifurcation theory and implicit function theorem we first consider the positive steady state solution bifurcating from the semitrivial steady state solution set of the system and prove that the positive steady state solution is constant. Then we show that nonconstant positive steady state solution may bifurcate from the constant positive steady state solution when [Formula: see text] is neither small nor large. Finally, we show that spatially nonhomogeneous periodic orbits may also bifurcate from the constant positive steady state solution as [Formula: see text] is not large.
Probability Calculation of Spatial Chaos Appearance in MIMO Cascade Nonlinear Systems Using Monte Carlo Method
Authors: Samardzic Biljana , Zlatkovic Bojana M.
Published: October 2019

In this work, Monte Carlo method is used for the probability calculation of the appearance of spatial chaos in MIMO cascade nonlinear systems. The obtained results are given in tables and presented graphically using probability histograms. Their validity is confirmed by comparison with the results of spatial chaos appearance analysis that uses bifurcation diagrams, Lyapunov diagrams and spatial phase portraits.
Fuzzy Noise-Induced Codimension-Two Bifurcations Captured by Fuzzy Generalized Cell Mapping with Adaptive Interpolation
Authors: Liu Xiao-Ming , Jiang Jun , Hong Ling , Li Zigang , Tang Dafeng
Published: October 2019

In this paper, the Fuzzy Generalized Cell Mapping (FGCM) method is developed with the help of the Adaptive Interpolation (AI) in the space of fuzzy parameters. The adaptive interpolation on the set-valued fuzzy parameter is introduced in computing the one-step transition membership matrix to enhance the efficiency of the FGCM. For each of initial points in the state space, a coarse database is constructed at first, and then interpolation nodes are inserted into the database iteratively each time errors are examined with the explicit formula of interpolation error until the maximal errors are just under the error bound. With such an adaptively expanded database on hand, interpolating calculations assure the required accuracy with maximum efficiency gains. The new method is termed as Fuzzy Generalized Cell Mapping with Adaptive Interpolation (FGCM with AI), and is used to investigate codimension-two bifurcations in two-dimensional and three-dimensional nonlinear dynamical systems with fuzzy noise. It is found that global changes in fuzzy dynamics are dominated by the underlying deterministic counterparts, and the fuzzy attractor expands along the unstable manifold leading to a collision with a saddle when a bifurcation occurs. The examples show that the FGCM with AI has a thirtyfold to fiftyfold efficiency over the traditional FGCM to achieve the same analyzing accuracy.
Maximal Lyapunov Exponents and Steady-State Moments of a VI System based Upon TDFC and VED
Authors: Wang Deli , Xu Wei , Ren Zhicong , Pei Haiqing
Published: October 2019

This paper focuses on the investigation of a vibro-impact (VI) system based upon time-delayed feedback control (TDFC) and visco-elastic damping (VED) under bounded random excitations. A pretreatment for the TDFC and VED is necessary. A further simplification for the system is achieved by introducing the mirror image transformation. The averaging approach is adopted to analyze the above system relying on a parametric principal resonance consideration. By means of the first kind of a modified Bessel function, explicit asymptotic formulas for the maximal Lyapunov exponent (MLE) are given to examine the almost sure stability or instability of the trivial steady-state amplitude solution. Besides, the steady-state moments (SSM) of the nontrivial solutions of the system’s amplitude are derived by the application of the moment method and Itô’s calculus. Finally, the stability and its critical situations of the trivial solution are explored in detail through the important system parameters, i.e. embodying the TDFC parameters, the VED parameters, the restitution coefficient, the excitation amplitude and the random noise intensity. They are tested by numerical simulations. Additionally, the exploration of the steady-state moments involves the emergence of the general frequency response curve and the frequency island, discussions of conditions satisfied by the unstable boundary, and variations of the time-delayed island. Stochastic jumps and bifurcations are observed for the stationary joint transition probability density of the system’s trivial and nontrivial solutions based on parameter schemes of VED and TDFC.
Selective anion transport mediated by strap-extended calixpyrroles
Authors: Clarke Harriet J. , Wu Xin , Light Mark E. , Gale Philip A.
Published: October 2019

Synthetic anion receptors that facilitate transmembrane chloride transport are of interest as potential therapeutic agents for cancer and cystic fibrosis. Transporters selective for chloride over protons are desired for therapeutic applications to avoid autophagy inhibition and cytotoxicity. Examples of such compounds are rare because the majority of anion transporters can interact with the carboxylate head groups of fatty acids leading to proton leakage. In this paper, we report the synthesis, anion binding and transmembrane anion transport properties of two novel bis-triazole-functionalized calixpyrroles with extended straps, and compare them to previously reported shorter-strap analogues known to exhibit high Cl [Formula: see text] H[Formula: see text] selectivity. We demonstrate improved chloride transport activities of the strap-extended compounds that likely benefit from increased lipophilicity, and reduced Cl [Formula: see text] H[Formula: see text] selectivity due to the larger anion binding cavities facilitating interaction with fatty acids. The results are instructive for future design of ideal anion transporters with potent activity and high selectivity against proton leakage.
BAMB
Authors: Ling Zhaolong , Yu Kui , Wang Hao , Liu Lin , Ding Wei , Wu Xindong
Published: October 2019

The discovery of Markov blanket (MB) for feature selection has attracted much attention in recent years, since the MB of the class attribute is the optimal feature subset for feature selection. However, almost all existing MB discovery algorithms focus on either improving computational efficiency or boosting learning accuracy, instead of both. In this article, we propose a novel MB discovery algorithm for balancing efficiency and accuracy, called BAlanced Markov Blanket (BAMB) discovery. To achieve this goal, given a class attribute of interest, BAMB finds candidate PC (parents and children) and spouses and removes false positives from the candidate MB set in one go. Specifically, once a feature is successfully added to the current PC set, BAMB finds the spouses with regard to this feature, then uses the updated PC and the spouse set to remove false positives from the current MB set. This makes the PC and spouses of the target as small as possible and thus achieves a trade-off between computational efficiency and learning accuracy. In the experiments, we first compare BAMB with 8 state-of-the-art MB discovery algorithms on 7 benchmark Bayesian networks, then we use 10 real-world datasets and compare BAMB with 12 feature selection algorithms, including 8 state-of-the-art MB discovery algorithms and 4 other well-established feature selection methods. On prediction accuracy, BAMB outperforms 12 feature selection algorithms compared. On computational efficiency, BAMB is close to the IAMB algorithm while it is much faster than the remaining seven MB discovery algorithms.
Cloud Pricing Models
Authors: Wu Caesar , Buyya Rajkumar , Ramamohanarao Kotagiri
Published: October 2019

This article provides a systematic review of cloud pricing in an interdisciplinary approach. It examines many historical cases of pricing in practice and tracks down multiple roots of pricing in research. The aim is to help both cloud service provider (CSP) and cloud customers to capture the essence of cloud pricing when they need to make a critical decision either to achieve competitive advantages or to manage cloud resource effectively. Currently, the number of available pricing schemes in the cloud market is overwhelming. It is an intricate issue to understand these schemes and associated pricing models clearly due to involving several domains of knowledge, such as cloud technologies, microeconomics, operations research, and value theory. Some earlier studies have introduced this topic unsystematically. Their approaches inevitably lead to much confusion for many cloud decision-makers. To address their weaknesses, we present a comprehensive taxonomy of cloud pricing, which is driven by a framework of three fundamental pricing strategies that are built on nine cloud pricing categories. These categories can be further mapped onto a total of 60 pricing models. Many of the pricing models have been already adopted by CSPs. Others have been widespread across in other industries. We give descriptions of these model categories and highlight both advantages and disadvantages. Moreover, this article offers an extensive survey of many cloud pricing models that were proposed by many researchers during the past decade. Based on the survey, we identify four trends of cloud pricing and the general direction, which is moving from intrinsic value per physical box to extrinsic value per serverless sandbox. We conclude that hyper-converged cloud resources pool supported by cloud orchestration, virtual machine, Open Application Programming Interface, and serverless sandbox will drive the future of cloud pricing.
Academic Plagiarism Detection
Authors: Foltýnek Tomáš , Meuschke Norman , Gipp Bela
Published: October 2019

This article summarizes the research on computational methods to detect academic plagiarism by systematically reviewing 239 research papers published between 2013 and 2018. To structure the presentation of the research contributions, we propose novel technically oriented typologies for plagiarism prevention and detection efforts, the forms of academic plagiarism, and computational plagiarism detection methods. We show that academic plagiarism detection is a highly active research field. Over the period we review, the field has seen major advances regarding the automated detection of strongly obfuscated and thus hard-to-identify forms of academic plagiarism. These improvements mainly originate from better semantic text analysis methods, the investigation of non-textual content features, and the application of machine learning. We identify a research gap in the lack of methodologically thorough performance evaluations of plagiarism detection systems. Concluding from our analysis, we see the integration of heterogeneous analysis methods for textual and non-textual content features using machine learning as the most promising area for future research contributions to improve the detection of academic plagiarism further.
Video Description
Authors: Aafaq Nayyer , Mian Ajmal , Liu Wei , Gilani Syed Zulqarnain , Shah Mubarak
Published: October 2019

Video description is the automatic generation of natural language sentences that describe the contents of a given video. It has applications in human-robot interaction, helping the visually impaired and video subtitling. The past few years have seen a surge of research in this area due to the unprecedented success of deep learning in computer vision and natural language processing. Numerous methods, datasets, and evaluation metrics have been proposed in the literature, calling the need for a comprehensive survey to focus research efforts in this flourishing new direction. This article fills the gap by surveying the state-of-the-art approaches with a focus on deep learning models; comparing benchmark datasets in terms of their domains, number of classes, and repository size; and identifying the pros and cons of various evaluation metrics, such as SPICE, CIDEr, ROUGE, BLEU, METEOR, and WMD. Classical video description approaches combined subject, object, and verb detection with template-based language models to generate sentences. However, the release of large datasets revealed that these methods cannot cope with the diversity in unconstrained open domain videos. Classical approaches were followed by a very short era of statistical methods that were soon replaced with deep learning, the current state-of-the-art in video description. Our survey shows that despite the fast-paced developments, video description research is still in its infancy due to the following reasons: Analysis of video description models is challenging, because it is difficult to ascertain the contributions towards accuracy or errors of the visual features and the adopted language model in the final description. Existing datasets neither contain adequate visual diversity nor complexity of linguistic structures. Finally, current evaluation metrics fall short of measuring the agreement between machine-generated descriptions with that of humans. We conclude our survey by listing promising future research directions.
Contributions of Aging to Cerebral Small Vessel Disease
Authors: De Silva T. Michael , Faraci Frank M.
Published: October 2019

Cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) is characterized by changes in the pial and parenchymal microcirculations. SVD produces reductions in cerebral blood flow and impaired blood-brain barrier function, which are leading contributors to age-related reductions in brain health. End-organ effects are diverse, resulting in both cognitive and noncognitive deficits. Underlying phenotypes and mechanisms are multifactorial, with no specific treatments at this time. Despite consequences that are already considerable, the impact of SVD is predicted to increase substantially with the growing aging population. In the face of this health challenge, the basic biology, pathogenesis, and determinants of SVD are poorly defined. This review summarizes recent progress and concepts in this area, highlighting key findings and some major unanswered questions. We focus on phenotypes and mechanisms that underlie microvascular aging, the greatest risk factor for cerebrovascular disease and its subsequent effects.
microRNA-451a prevents activation of matrix metalloproteinases 2 and 9 in human cardiomyocytes during pathological stress stimulation
Authors: Scrimgeour Nathan Robert , Wrobel Aleksandra , Pinho Maria João , Høydal Morten Andre
Published: October 2019

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) are important for cardiac remodeling. Recently, microRNA (miR)-451a has been found to inhibit the expression of both MMP-2 and MMP-9 in human malignancies, but its role in cardiomyocytes has not been explored. We hypothesized that miR-451a modulates MMP-2 and MMP-9 levels in human cardiomyocytes. The role of miR-451a on regulation of MMP-2 and MMP-9 was evaluated in two separate pathological models using Cor.4U human inducible pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPS-CMs): 1) endothelin-1 (ET-1), and 2) 48-h hypoxia (1% O2). Both models were transfected with synthetic miR-451a mimics or scramble control. Expression of both mRNA and miR was determined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and protein activity by (MMP-2/9) activity assay. Bioinformatic analyses were performed using Targetscan 7.1 and STRING 10.5. hiPS-CMs stimulated by hypoxia increased both MMP-2 and MMP-9 expression levels compared with normoxia ( P < 0.05), whereas ET-1 stimulation only increased the MMP-9 level compared with vehicle controls ( P < 0.05). miR-451a mimics prevented the increase of MMP-2 and MMP-9 expression in both models. Protein activity of MMP-2 and MMP-9 was confirmed to be lower following treatment with miR-451a mimic compared with scramble-controls. Six of 28 predicted gene transcripts of miR-451a were linked to MMP-2 and MMP-9; Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) was the only predicted target of miR-451a that was increased by ET-1 and hypoxia and reduced following miR-451a mimic transfection. miR-451a prevent the increase of MMP-2 and MMP-9 in human cardiomyocytes during pathological stress. The modulation by miR-451a on MMP-2 and MMP-9 is caused by MIF.