bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Mode of delivery alters dental pulp nociception and pain-induced changes in cognitive performance in adults male rats
Authors: Mohamadi-Jorjafki Elham , Abbasnejad Mehdi , Kooshki Razieh , Esmaeili-Mahani Saeed , Raoof Maryam
Published: June 2020

This study examined the effects of delivery mode on the response to inflammatory pulpal pain and pain-induced changes in cognitive performance in adult rats. Experiments were done on rats born by vaginal or caesarean section (C-section) delivery. Dental pulp was irritated by intradental capsaicin (100 μg) application and then nociceptive scores were recorded for 40 min. Spatial and passive avoidance learning and memory were assessed using the Morris water maze (MWM) and shuttle box tools, respectively. Additionally, in vivo recording of field excitatory postsynaptic potential (fEPSP) in the CA1 of the hippocampus was used to verify synaptic plasticity. Capsaicin produced more significant nociceptive behavior in vaginally delivered rats compared to C-section rats (P < 0.01). C-section-delivered rats show better performance in both MWM and shuttle box tests. Likewise, C-section rats had greater fEPSP slopes compared to the vaginally delivered group (P < 0.05). Capsaicin impairs cognitive performance in rats born by each delivery route. However, capsaicin effects were more significant in rats delivered vaginally than by C-section. Overall, C-section-delivered rats show lower sensitivity to capsaicin-evoked pulpal nociception and better cognitive performance than vaginally delivered rats. These effects are in part mediated by reduced neuroinflammation and enhanced neuronal synaptic plasticity following C-section delivery.
Efficient modeling of higher-order dependencies in networks: from algorithm to application for anomaly detection
Authors: Saebi Mandana , Xu Jian , Kaplan Lance M. , Ribeiro Bruno , Chawla Nitesh V.
Published: June 2020

Complex systems, represented as dynamic networks, comprise of components that influence each other via direct and/or indirect interactions. Recent research has shown the importance of using Higher-Order Networks (HONs) for modeling and analyzing such complex systems, as the typical Markovian assumption in developing the First Order Network (FON) can be limiting. This higher-order network representation not only creates a more accurate representation of the underlying complex system, but also leads to more accurate network analysis. In this paper, we first present a scalable and accurate model, , for higher-order network representation of data derived from a complex system with various orders of dependencies. Then, we show that this higher-order network representation modeled by is significantly more accurate in identifying anomalies than FON, demonstrating a need for the higher-order network representation and modeling of complex systems for deriving meaningful conclusions.
The Environmental Intention of Owner-Managers: The Role of Entrepreneurial Orientation in Tunisian Industry
Authors: Tounés Azzedine , Tornikoski Erno T. , Gribaâ Fafani
Published: June 2020

Environmental intention is a key predictor of environmental behavior but there is little theoretical and empirical evidence on environmental intention, especially in developing countries. To address this gap, we study the environmental intention of industrial owner-managers in Tunisia. Based on Tunisia’s participation in sustainable development programs of the United Nations, it seems to be representative of developing countries. We study the environmental intention of owner-managers through a multidimensional concept rarely mobilized in the environmental field, namely, entrepreneurial orientation. We test our hypotheses in the textile-clothing industry, which is the source of significant amounts of water and air pollution and is among the priority industries designated by the Tunisian state as part of an environmental improvement program in 2014.

Based on a survey of 226 owner-managers, the results show that the three dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation, namely, innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking, are robust to predict the environmental intention of Tunisian owner-managers.
The Moderating Effects of Sustainability Orientation in the Entrepreneurial Intention Model
Authors: Shahidi Niousha
Published: June 2020

Given that business opportunities for sustainable development are increasing, it is opportune to consider the moderating effects of students’ sustainability orientations on the entrepreneurial intention model. This study aims to contribute to entrepreneurial intention research by extending insights from the theory of planned behaviour (i.e. attitudes towards behaviour, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control) by considering the moderating effects of sustainability orientation. To date, no known studies have tested the moderating effects of sustainability orientation on entrepreneurial intention. The main contributions of this study are thus twofold. First, it provides a framework for better understanding the entrepreneurial intention model. Second, it offers empirical evidence to validate this model with a multi-group structural equation modelling approach for two sustainability orientations – high and low. The multi-group structural equation modelling approach is then used to test the proposed model’s causal structure. The results differ between the groups.
Sustainability of Business Development Services: Evidence from the Sri Lankan Microfinance Sector
Authors: Abeysekera Ruwan
Published: June 2020

This study explores the issues faced by Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in Sri Lanka in sustaining their business development services (BDS) and the strategies that they use to overcome these issues. A multiple case study methodology was used in the study to conduct an in-depth examination of six microfinance institutions in Sri Lanka. The findings show that MFIs in Sri Lanka face issues such as lack of donor money, central bank regulations, and low client demand for BDS which hinder the financial sustainability of BDS in MFIs. MFIs therefore, employ several strategies to circumvent these issues, including the use of coupon systems, charging a fee from the client, obtaining commission from the buyers for market linkages, and linking credit to the BDS programme in order to sustain their BDS programmes. The findings are useful to microfinance practitioners, policy makers and contribute to the knowledge domain of microfinance.
Ontology-based Document Spanning Systems for Information Extraction
Authors: Lembo Domenico , Scafoglieri Federico Maria
Published: June 2020

Information Extraction (IE) is the task of automatically organizing in a structured form data extracted from free text documents. In several contexts, it is often desirable that the extracted data are then organized according to an ontology, which provides a formal and conceptual representation of the domain of interest. Ontologies allow for a better data interpretation, as well as for their semantic integration with other information, as in Ontology-based Data Access (OBDA), a popular declarative framework for data management where an ontology is connected to a data layer through mappings. However, the data layer considered so far in OBDA has consisted essentially of relational databases, and how to declaratively couple an ontology with unstructured data sources is still unexplored. By leveraging the recent study on document spanners for rule-based IE by Fagin et al., in this paper, we propose a new framework that allows to map text documents to ontologies, in the spirit of OBDA. We investigate the problem of answering conjunctive queries in this framework. For ontologies specified in the Description Logics [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], we show that the problem is polynomial in the size of the underlying documents. We also provide algorithms to solve query answering by rewriting the input query on the basis of the ontology and its mapping toward the source documents. Through these techniques, we pursue a virtual approach, similar to that typically adopted in OBDA, which allows us to answer a query without having to first populate the entire ontology. Interestingly, for [Formula: see text], both the spanners used in the mapping and the one computed by the rewriting algorithm belong to the same class of expressiveness. This holds also for [Formula: see text], modulo some limitations on the form of the mapping. These results say that in these cases our framework can be easily implemented by decoupling ontology management and document access, which can be delegated to an external IE system able to process the extraction rules we use in the mapping.
Modeling and scientific computing for the transmission dynamics of Avian influenza with half-saturated incidence
Authors: Khan Muhammad Altaf , Ullah Saif , Khan Yasir , Farhan Muhammad
Published: June 2020

This paper presents the mathematical analysis of the dynamical system for avian influenza. The proposed model considers a nonlinear dynamical model of birds and human. The half-saturated incidence rate is used for the transmission of avian influenza infection. Rigorous mathematical results are presented for the proposed models. The local and global dynamics of each model are presented and proven that when [Formula: see text], then the disease-free equilibrium of each model is stable both locally and globally, and when [Formula: see text], then the endemic equilibrium is stable both locally and globally. The numerical results obtained for the proposed model shows that influenza could be eliminated from the community if the threshold is not greater than unity.
SARAS CD/EoR Radiometer: Design and Performance of the Digital Correlation Spectrometer
Authors: Girish B. S. , Srivani K. S. , Subrahmanyan Ravi , Udaya Shankar N. , Singh Saurabh , Jishnu Nambissan T. , Sathyanarayana Rao Mayuri , Somashekar R. , Raghunathan A.
Published: June 2020

In the currently accepted model for cosmic baryon evolution, Cosmic Dawn (CD) and the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) are significant times when first light from the first luminous objects emerged, transformed and subsequently ionized the primordial gas. The 21[Formula: see text]cm (1420[Formula: see text]MHz) hyperfine transition of neutral hydrogen, redshifted from these cosmic times to a frequency range of 40[Formula: see text]MHz to 200[Formula: see text]MHz, has been recognized as an important probe of the physics of CD/EoR. The global 21[Formula: see text]cm signal is predicted to be a spectral distortion of a few 10’s to a few 100’s of mK, which is expected to be present in the cosmic radio background as a trace additive component. Shaped Antenna measurement of the background RAdio Spectrum (SARAS) is a spectral radiometer purpose designed to detect the weak 21[Formula: see text]cm signal from CD/EoR. An important subsystem of the radiometer, the digital correlation spectrometer, is developed around a high-speed digital signal processing platform called pSPEC. pSPEC is built around two quad 10-bit analog-to-digital converters (EV10AQ190) and a Virtex 6 (XC6VLX240T) field programmable gate array, with provision for multiple Gigabit Ethernet and 4.5[Formula: see text]Gbps fiber-optic interfaces. Here, we describe the system design of the digital spectrometer, the pSPEC board, and the adaptation of pSPEC to implement a high spectral resolution (61[Formula: see text]kHz), high dynamic range ([Formula: see text]:1) correlation spectrometer covering the entire CD/EoR band. As the SARAS radiometer is required to be deployed in remote locations where terrestrial radio frequency interference (RFI) is a minimum, the spectrometer is designed to be compact, portable and operating off internal batteries. The paper includes an evaluation of the spectrometer’s susceptibility to RFI and capability to detect signals from CD/EoR.
Chapter 12 Subsidence – chalk mining
Authors: Edmonds Clive N.
Published: June 2020

Old chalk and flint mine workings occur widely across southern and eastern England. Over 3500 mines are recorded in the national Stantec Mining Cavities Database and more are being discovered each year. The oldest flint mines date from the Neolithic period and oldest chalk mines from at least medieval times, possibly Roman times. The most intensive period for mining was during the 1800s, although some mining activities continued into the 1900s. The size, shape and extent of the mines vary considerably with some types only being found in particular areas. They range from crudely excavated bellpits to more extensive pillar-and-stall styles of mining. The mines were created for a series of industrial, building and agricultural purposes. Mining locations were not formally recorded so most are discovered following the collapse of the ground over poorly backfilled shafts and adits. The subsidence activity, often triggered by heavy rainfall or leaking water services, poses a hazard to the built environment and people. Purpose-designed ground investigations are needed to map out the mine workings and carry out follow-on ground stabilization after subsidence events. Where mine workings can be safely entered they can sometimes be stabilized by reinforcement rather than infilling.
Chapter 8 Swelling and shrinking soils
Authors: Jones Lee , Banks Vanessa , Jefferson Ian
Published: June 2020

Swelling and shrinking soils are soils that can experience large changes in volume due to changes in water content. This may be due to seasonal changes in moisture content, local site changes such as leakage from water supply pipes or drains, changes to surface drainage and landscaping, or following the planting, removal or severe pruning of trees or hedges. These soils represent a significant hazard to structural engineers across the world due to their shrink–swell behaviour, with the cost of mitigation alone running into several billion pounds annually. These soils usually contain some form of clay mineral, such as smectite or vermiculite, and can be found in humid and arid/semi-arid environments where their expansive nature can cause significant damage to properties and infrastructure. This chapter discusses the properties and costs associated with shrink–swell soils, their formation and distribution throughout the UK and the rest of the world, and their geological and geotechnical characterization. It also considers the mechanisms of shrink-swell soils and their behaviour, reviewing strategies for managing them in an engineering context, before finally outlining the problem of trees and shrink–swell soils.
Developing the 3D geological model for Crossrail 2, London, UK
Authors: Ting Charlene , Gilson Ben , Black Mike
Published: June 2020

A 3D geological model, referred to as the Project Stratigraphic Model, has been developed for Crossrail 2, a proposed £30 bn railway linking Surrey and Hertfordshire via 27 km long tunnels through London. The British Geological Survey 1:50 000 scale 3D model of the London Basin was adopted as the initial baseline. Over 1000 boreholes were collated, together with information from existing publications, such as tunnel face excavation records, to review and develop the Project Stratigraphic Model. Digital tools such as ArcGIS and Leapfrog Works facilitated the efficient development, interrogation and dissemination of the
c.
40 km
2
model and helped to communicate geological uncertainty. The Project Stratigraphic Model was a key tool in identifying geological hazards along the route, designing the vertical alignment, informing early design decisions for the proposed structures and estimating third-party building foundation depths for obstruction risk assessments. Further refinement of the model will continue into future design and construction stages, including the addition of project-specific ground investigation, geotechnical parameters and construction data, and will provide an invaluable geotechnical risk management tool for the project.

Thematic collection:
This article is part of the Ground models in engineering geology and hydrogeology collection available at:
https://www.lyellcollection.org/cc/Ground-models-in-engineering-geology-and-hydrogeology
Mechanism Design for Online Resource Allocation
Authors: Tan Xiaoqi , Sun Bo , Leon-Garcia Alberto , Wu Yuan , Tsang Danny H.K.
Published: June 2020

This paper concerns the mechanism design for online resource allocation in a strategic setting. In this setting, a single supplier allocates capacity-limited resources to requests that arrive in a sequential and arbitrary manner. Each request is associated with an agent who may act selfishly to misreport the requirement and valuation of her request. The supplier charges payment from agents whose requests are satisfied, but incurs a load-dependent supply cost. The goal is to design an incentive compatible online mechanism, which determines not only the resource allocation of each request, but also the payment of each agent, so as to (approximately) maximize the social welfare (i.e., aggregate valuations minus supply cost). We study this problem under the framework of competitive analysis. The major contribution of this paper is the development of a unified approach that achieves the best-possible competitive ratios for setups with different supply costs. Specifically, we show that when there is no supply cost or the supply cost function is linear, our model is essentially a standard 0-1 knapsack problem, for which our approach achieves logarithmic competitive ratios that match the state-of-the-art (which is optimal). For the more challenging setup when the supply cost is strictly-convex, we provide online mechanisms, for the first time, that lead to the optimal competitive ratios as well. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first approach that unifies the characterization of optimal competitive ratios in online resource allocation for different setups including zero, linear and strictly-convex supply costs.
Fundamental Limits on the Regret of Online Network-Caching
Authors: Bhattacharjee Rajarshi , Banerjee Subhankar , Sinha Abhishek
Published: June 2020

Optimal caching of files in a content distribution network (CDN) is a problem of fundamental and growing commercial interest. Although many different caching algorithms are in use today, the fundamental performance limits of network caching algorithms from an online learning point-of-view remain poorly understood to date. In this paper, we resolve this question in the following two settings: (1) a single user connected to a single cache, and (2) a set of users and a set of caches interconnected through a bipartite network. Recently, an online gradient-based coded caching policy was shown to enjoy sub-linear regret. However, due to the lack of known regret lower bounds, the question of the optimality of the proposed policy was left open. In this paper, we settle this question by deriving tight non-asymptotic regret lower bounds in both of the above settings. In addition to that, we propose a new Follow-the-Perturbed-Leader-based uncoded caching policy with near-optimal regret. Technically, the lower-bounds are obtained by relating the online caching problem to the classic probabilistic paradigm of balls-into-bins. Our proofs make extensive use of a new result on the expected load in the most populated half of the bins, which might also be of independent interest. We evaluate the performance of the caching policies by experimenting with the popular MovieLens dataset and conclude the paper with design recommendations and a list of open problems.
Privacy-Utility Tradeoffs in Routing Cryptocurrency over Payment Channel Networks
Authors: Tang Weizhao , Wang Weina , Fanti Giulia , Oh Sewoong
Published: June 2020

Payment channel networks (PCNs) are viewed as one of the most promising scalability solutions for cryptocurrencies today. Roughly, PCNs are networks where each node represents a user and each directed, weighted edge represents funds escrowed on a blockchain; these funds can be transacted only between the endpoints of the edge. Users efficiently transmit funds from node A to B by relaying them over a path connecting A to B, as long as each edge in the path contains enough balance (escrowed funds) to support the transaction. Whenever a transaction succeeds, the edge weights are updated accordingly. In deployed PCNs, channel balances (i.e., edge weights) are not revealed to users for privacy reasons; users know only the initial weights at time 0. Hence, when routing transactions, users typically first guess a path, then check if it supports the transaction. This guess-and-check process dramatically reduces the success rate of transactions. At the other extreme, knowing full channel balances can give substantial improvements in transaction success rate at the expense of privacy. In this work, we ask whether a network can reveal noisy channel balances to trade off privacy for utility. We show fundamental limits on such a tradeoff, and propose noise mechanisms that achieve the fundamental limit for a general class of graph topologies. Our results suggest that in practice, PCNs should operate either in the low-privacy or low-utility regime; it is not possible to get large gains in utility by giving up a little privacy, or large gains in privacy by sacrificing a little utility.
Online Primal-Dual Mirror Descent under Stochastic Constraints
Authors: Wei Xiaohan , Yu Hao , Neely Michael J.
Published: June 2020

We consider online convex optimization with stochastic constraints where the objective functions are arbitrarily time-varying and the constraint functions are independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) over time. Both the objective and constraint functions are revealed after the decision is made at each time slot. The best known expected regret for solving such a problem is $\mathcalO (\sqrtT )$, with a coefficient that is polynomial in the dimension of the decision variable and relies on theSlater condition (i.e. the existence of interior point assumption), which is restrictive and in particular precludes treating equality constraints. In this paper, we show that such Slater condition is in fact not needed. We propose a newprimal-dual mirror descent algorithm and show that one can attain $\mathcalO (\sqrtT )$ regret and constraint violation under a much weaker Lagrange multiplier assumption, allowing general equality constraints and significantly relaxing the previous Slater conditions. Along the way, for the case where decisions are contained in a probability simplex, we reduce the coefficient to have only a logarithmic dependence on the decision variable dimension. Such a dependence has long been known in the literature on mirror descent but seems new in this new constrained online learning scenario. Simulation experiments on a data center server provision problem with real electricity price traces further demonstrate the performance of our proposed algorithm.
vrfinder
Authors: Marder Alexander , Luckie Matthew , Huffaker Bradley , Claffy KC
Published: June 2020

Current methods to analyze the Internet's router-level topology with paths collected using traceroute assume that the source address for each router in the path is either an inbound or off-path address on each router. In this work, we show that outbound addresses are common in our Internet-wide traceroute dataset collected by CAIDA's Ark vantage points in January 2020, accounting for 1.7% - 5.8% of the addresses seen at some point before the end of a traceroute. This phenomenon can lead to mistakes in Internet topology analysis, such as inferring router ownership and identifying interdomain links. We hypothesize that the primary contributor to outbound addresses is Layer 3 Virtual Private Networks (L3VPNs), and propose vrfinder, a technique for identifying L3VPN outbound addresses in traceroute collections. We validate vrfinder against ground truth from two large research and education networks, demonstrating high precision (100.0%) and recall (82.1% - 95.3%). We also show the benefit of accounting for L3VPNs in traceroute analysis through extensions to bdrmapIT, increasing the accuracy of its router ownership inferences for L3VPN outbound addresses from 61.5% - 79.4% to 88.9% - 95.5%.
How Do Cells Adapt? Stories Told in Landscapes
Authors: Agozzino Luca , Balázsi Gábor , Wang Jin , Dill Ken A.
Published: June 2020

Cells adapt to changing environments. Perturb a cell and it returns to a point of homeostasis. Perturb a population and it evolves toward a fitness peak. We review quantitative models of the forces of adaptation and their visualizations on landscapes. While some adaptations result from single mutations or few-gene effects, others are more cooperative, more delocalized in the genome, and more universal and physical. For example, homeostasis and evolution depend on protein folding and aggregation, energy and protein production, protein diffusion, molecular motor speeds and efficiencies, and protein expression levels. Models provide a way to learn about the fitness of cells and cell populations by making and testing hypotheses.
Frequency and Antimicrobial Susceptibility Patterns of Diabetic Foot Infection of Patients from Bandar Abbas District, Southern Iran
Authors: Ahmadishooli Arman , Davoodian Parivash , Shoja Saeed , Ahmadishooli Bita , Dadvand Habib , Hamadiyan Hosein , Shahriarirad Reza
Published: June 2020

Diabetic foot infection is among the most common complications of diabetes mellitus which significantly causes hospitalization and is the most prevalent etiology of nontraumatic amputation worldwide. The current study aimed at assessing the frequency and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of diabetic foot infection of patients from the Bandar Abbas area, in the south of Iran. In this study, a total of 83 diabetic patients with diabetic infected foot wounds referring to Shahid Mohammadi Hospital, Bandar Abbas, from 2017 to 2018 were assessed. Samples were obtained from wound sites and evaluated by aerobic culture and also an antibiogram test for antibiotic susceptibility. Factors including age, sex, type of diabetes, the medication used for diabetes, previous history of diabetic foot infection, duration of wound incidence, fever, and laboratory indices were recorded for each subject. The most prevalent detected bacteria wereEscherichia coli(20.5%),Enterococcus sp.(16.9%),Klebsiella sp.(12%),Staphylococcus aureus(8.4%),Enterobacter sp.(7.2%), andAcinetobacter sp.(6%). The results of antibiogram tests revealed the most and the least antibiotic sensitivity forE. coli sp.as meropenem and ciprofloxacin, forEnterococcus sp.as gentamicin and ciprofloxacin, forKlebsiella sp.as amikacin and cotrimoxazole, and forEnterobacter sp.as cotrimoxazole and both amikacin and ciprofloxacin.Staphylococcus aureuswas sensitive to vancomycin and doxycycline, andAcinetobacter sp. was 100% resistant to all antibiotics except amikacin and gentamycin. A significant statistical association was found between the C-reactive protein and the patients’ diabetic foot infection organisms (P=0.019). Findings of the study revealedE. coli sp.as the most common bacteria which are infecting the foot lesions in the studied population. The highest antibiotic susceptibility was seen for vancomycin, linezolid, and carbapenem.
Silver Ecotoxicity Estimation by the Soil State Biological Indicators
Authors: Kolesnikov S. I. , Tsepina N. I. , Sudina L.V. , Minnikova T. V. , Kazeev K. Sh. , Akimenko Yu. V.
Published: June 2020

The use of silver in various spheres of life and production leads to an increase in environmental pollution, including soil. At the same time, the environmental consequences of silver pollution of soils have been studied to a much lesser extent than those of other heavy metals. The aim of this study is to estimate silver ecotoxicity using the soil state biological indicators. We studied soils that are significantly different in resistance to heavy metal pollution: ordinary chernozem (Haplic Chernozems, Loamic), sierosands (Haplic Arenosols, Eutric), and brown forest acidic soil (Haplic Cambisols, Eutric). Contamination was simulated in the laboratory. Silver was introduced into the soil in the form of nitrate in doses of 1, 10, and 100 mg/kg. Changes in biological parameters were assessed 10, 30, and 90 days after contamination. Silver pollution of soils in most cases leads to deterioration of their biological properties: the total number of bacteria, the abundance of bacteria of the genus Azotobacter, the activity of enzymes (catalase and dehydrogenases), and the phytotoxicity indicators decrease. The degree of reduction in biological properties depends on the silver concentration in the soil and the period from the contamination moment. In most cases, there is a direct relationship between the silver concentration and the degree of deterioration of the studied soil properties. The silver toxic effect was most pronounced on the 30th day after contamination. In terms of their resistance to silver pollution, the studied soils are in the following order: ordinary chernozem > sierosands ≥ brown forest soil. The light granulometric composition of sierosands and the acidic reaction of the environment of brown forest soils, as well as the low content of organic matter, contribute to high mobility and, consequently, high ecotoxicity of silver in these soils. The regional maximum permissible concentration (rMPC) of silver in ordinary chernozem (Haplic Chernozems, Loamic) is 4.4 mg/kg, in sierosands (Haplic Arenosols, Eutric) 0.9 mg/kg, and in brown forest soils (Haplic Cambisols, Eutric) 0.8 mg/kg.
Optimal Timing Selection Approach to Moving Target Defense: A FlipIt Attack-Defense Game Model
Authors: Tan Jing-lei , Zhang Heng-wei , Zhang Hong-qi , Lei Cheng , Jin Hui , Li Bo-wen , Hu Hao
Published: June 2020

The centralized control characteristics of software-defined networks (SDNs) make them susceptible to advanced persistent threats (APTs). Moving target defense, as an effective defense means, is constantly developing. It is difficult to effectively characterize an MTD attack and defense game with existing game models and effectively select the defense timing to balance SDN service quality and MTD decision-making benefits. From the hidden confrontation between the actual attack and defense sides, existing attack-defense scenarios are abstractly characterized and analyzed. Based on the APT attack process of the Cyber Kill Chain (CKC), a state transition model of the MTD attack surface based on the susceptible-infective-recuperative-malfunctioned (SIRM) infectious disease model is defined. An MTD attack-defense timing decision model based on the FlipIt game (FG-MTD) is constructed, which expands the static analysis in the traditional game to a dynamic continuous process. The Nash equilibrium of the proposed method is analyzed, and the optimal timing selection algorithm of the MTD is designed to provide decision support for the selection of MTD timing under moderate security. Finally, the application model is used to verify the model and method. Through numerical analysis, the timings of different types of attack-defense strategies are summarized.
Effects of Long‐Term Administration of Gardeniae Fructus on Intra‐Abdominal Organs of Rats
Authors: Takei Hisato , Iizuka Seiichi , Yamamoto Masahiro
Published: June 2020

Many recent reports have suggested a possible association between Japanese traditional (Kampo) medicines containing Gardeniae Fructus (GF, the fruit of Gardenia jasminoides J. Ellis) and the mesenteric phlebosclerosis (MP). MP is a chronic orphan disease characterized by venous calcification extending from the colonic wall to the mesentery, usually developing in the proximal colon. In the present study, we administered GF to Wistar/ST female rats as 1% and 2% feed in the diet for 11 months to evaluate any calcification and/or fibrosis of veins in the colonic wall and mesentery. The reversibility of GF’s effects was examined by feeding a normal diet for an additional 3 months. A significant decrease in body weight gain and food consumption occurred in the 2% GF group. Pigmentation of the liver, kidney, and spleen in macroscopic or histopathological examination was observed after 11‐month administration, which disappeared after the 3‐month recovery period. Histopathological findings such as fibrous thickening and calcification of vein walls, characteristic of human MP, were not observed. Fibrosis in the colonic lamina propria was observed in the 2% GF group but not in the 1% GF group during the treatment period, but the incidence as well as grade of this type of fibrosis decreased in the recovery period, suggesting that the effects of GF were reversible. In the present study, chronic GF administration did not result in any venous pathological changes but induced pigmentation in the liver, kidneys, and spleen and moderate fibrosis in the colonic lamina propria, all of which being reversible. Further studies are required to determine the association between GF and MP.
IgG Glycosylation Profile and the Glycan Score Are Associated with Type 2 Diabetes in Independent Chinese Populations: A Case-Control Study
Authors: Wu Zhiyuan , Li Haibin , Liu Di , Tao Lixin , Zhang Jie , Liang Baolu , Liu Xiangtong , Wang Xiaonan , Li Xia , Wang Youxin , Wang Wei , Guo Xiuhua
Published: June 2020

Background. The relationship between the IgG glycan panel and type 2 diabetes remains unclear in Chinese population. We aimed to investigate the association of the IgG glycan profile and glycan score with type 2 diabetes. Methods. In the discovery population, 162 individuals diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and 162 matched controls from Beijing health management cohort were included. We analyzed the IgG glycan profile and composed a glycan score for type 2 diabetes. Findings were validated in the replication population from Beijing Xuanwu community cohort (280 cases and 508 controls). Area under curve (AUC) using 10-fold and bootstrap validation, net reclassification index (NRI), and integrated discrimination index (IDI) were calculated for the glycan score. Results. In the discovery population, 5 initial IgG glycans and 7 derived traits were significantly associated with type 2 diabetes after Bonferroni correction and Lasso selection, which were validated in the replication population subsequently. The glycan score composed of these IgG glycans and traits showed a strong association with type 2 diabetes (combined odds ratio (OR): 3.78) and its risk factors. In the replication population, AUC of the model involving clinical traits improved from 0.74 to above 0.90, and the values of NRI and IDI were 0.35 and 0.42, respectively, with the glycan score added. Conclusions. IgG glycosylation profiles were associated with type 2 diabetes and the glycan score may be a novel indicator for diabetes which reflected a proinflammatory status.
Different Intensity Exercise Preconditions Affect Cardiac Function of Exhausted Rats through Regulating TXNIP/TRX/NF‐ĸBp65/NLRP3 Inflammatory Pathways
Authors: Li Yuemin , Xu Peng , Wang Yang , Zhang Junshi , Yang Mei , Chang Yumei , Zheng Ping , Huang Heling , Cao Xuebin
Published: June 2020

Objective. To investigate whether exercise preconditioning (EP) improves the rat cardiac dysfunction induced by exhaustive exercise (EE) through regulating NOD‐like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammatory pathways and to confirm which intensity of EP is better. Method. Ninety healthy male Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into five groups: a control group (CON), exhaustive exercise group (EE), low‐, middle‐, and high‐intensity exercise precondition and exhaustive exercise group (LEP + EE, MEP + EE, HEP + EE group). We established the experimental model by referring to Bedford’s motion load standard to complete the experiment. Then, the pathological changes of the myocardium were observed under a light microscope. Biomarker of myocardial injury in serum and oxidative stress factor in myocardial tissue were evaluated by ELISAs. The cardiac function parameters were detected using a Millar pressure and volume catheter. The levels of thioredoxin‐interacting protein (TXNIP), thioredoxin protein (TRX), nuclear transcription factor kappa Bp65 (NF‐ĸBp65), NLRP3, and cysteinaspartate specific proteinase 1 (Caspase‐1) protein in rats’ myocardium were detected by western blotting. Results. 1. The myocardial structures of three EP + EE groups were all improved compared with EE groups. 2. The levels of the creatine phosphating‐enzyme MB (CK‐MB), reactive oxygen species (ROS), interleukin‐6 (IL‐6), C‐reactive protein (CRP), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF‐α) in three EP + EE groups were all increased compared with CON but decreased compared with the EE group (P < 0.05). 3. Compared with the CON group, slope of end‐systolic pressure volume relationship (ESPVR), ejection fraction (EF), and peak rate of the increase in pressure (dP/dtmax) all dropped to the lowest level in the EE group (P < 0.05), while the values of cardiac output (CO), stroke volume (SV), end‐systolic volume (Ves), end‐diastolic volume (Ved), and relaxation time constant (Tau) increased in the EE group (P < 0.05). 4. Compared with the CON group, the expression levels of TXNIP, NF‐ĸBp65, NLRP3, and Caspase‐1 all increased obviously in the other groups (P < 0.05); meanwhile, they were all decreased in three EP + EE groups compared with the EE group (P < 0.05). 5. NLRP3 was positively correlated with heart rate, IL‐6, and ROS, but negatively correlated with EF (P < 0.01). Conclusion. EP protects the heart from EE‐induced injury through downregulating TXNIP/TRX/NF‐ĸBp65/NLRP3 inflammatory signaling pathways. Moderate intensity EP has the best protective effect.
Autogenous Chin Block Grafts in the Aesthetic Zone: A 20-Year Follow-Up Case Report
Authors: Maiorana Carlo , Ferrario Susanna , Poli Pier Paolo , Manfredini Mattia
Published: June 2020

The successful use of osseointegrated implants in the treatment of partial or complete edentulism requires a sufficient bone support. Whenever rehabilitation in atrophic edentulous areas is needed, bone augmentation procedures are recommended. The aim is to provide adequate amount of supporting bone to achieve a prosthetically guided implant placement. This in turn leads to functional and aesthetic improvements that can be maintained on the long term. Bone grafting of the atrophic site can be performed either prior to implant placement or at the time of implantation. Irrespective of the timing, bone augmentation by means of autogenous bone grafts is a reliable technique, as confirmed by several studies. On the other hand, long-term evidence on the use of autogenous chin block grafts in preprosthetic implant surgery is still scarce. Thus, the purpose of the present case is to report the 20-year clinical and radiological outcome of autogenous chin block grafts used to augment a bilateral defect due to agenesis of the upper lateral incisors for implant placement purposes.
Calculation of Friction Force for Slurry Pipe Jacking considering Soil‐Slurry‐Pipe Interaction
Authors: Ye Yichao , Peng Limin , Yang Weichao , Zou Yang , Cao Chengyong
Published: June 2020

This paper aims to provide a new approach to predict the friction resistance of slurry pipe jacking. Friction force usually constitutes the main component of jacking force. It can be calculated by multiplying an effective friction coefficient and the normal force acting on the external surface of the pipe. This effective friction coefficient is introduced to reflect the effect of contact state of pipe soil slurry, highly affected by the effect of lubrication and the interaction of pipe soil slurry. Firstly, by making some reasonable assumptions, the analytical formula of the effective friction coefficient is obtained, in which the critical quantity of contact (contact angle or width) is calculated by using the Persson contact model. Then, the analytical formula of normal force of circular pipeline is derived, which needs to determine the vertical soil pressure. To allow for a better prediction, three typical silo models are introduced and compared. Finally, a method for calculating the friction resistance of slurry pipe jacking is established. The main difference from the existing method is that this method takes into full consideration the influence of lubrication, soil properties (such as internal friction angle, cohesion, and void ratio), and design parameters (such as buried depth, overcut, and pipe diameter). By using reasonable silo models, the predicted results are in good agreement with the measured values collected from 10 in situ cases, which proves that the new approach can provide accuracy prediction of friction resistance for slurry pipe jacking with various soil conditions, and it may help for better future design and less construction costs.
Large-Scale Video Retrieval via Deep Local Convolutional Features
Authors: Zhang Chen , Hu Bin , Suo Yucong , Zou Zhiqiang , Ji Yimu
Published: June 2020

In this paper, we study the challenge of image-to-video retrieval, which uses the query image to search relevant frames from a large collection of videos. A novel framework based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) is proposed to perform large-scale video retrieval with low storage cost and high search efficiency. Our framework consists of the key-frame extraction algorithm and the feature aggregation strategy. Specifically, the key-frame extraction algorithm takes advantage of the clustering idea so that redundant information is removed in video data and storage cost is greatly reduced. The feature aggregation strategy adopts average pooling to encode deep local convolutional features followed by coarse-to-fine retrieval, which allows rapid retrieval in the large-scale video database. The results from extensive experiments on two publicly available datasets demonstrate that the proposed method achieves superior efficiency as well as accuracy over other state-of-the-art visual search methods.
Crosstalk between Acupuncture and NF‐κB in Inflammatory Diseases
Authors: Luo Dan , Liu Li , Huang Qi , Zhang Hai-ming , Yu Zhao-min , Hu Man , Li Jin-xiao , Liang Feng-xia , Chen Rui
Published: June 2020

Acupuncture has been used in China for thousands of years and concerned as a typical alternative medicine in inflammatory diseases nowadays. The nuclear factor‐κB (NF‐κB) transcription factor is an important regulator of inflammation. In this article, we discuss the role of acupuncture in NF‐κB pathways and also present the acupoints selection, acupuncture administration, and related inflammation diseases and models from previous studies to bring readers close to a more complete understanding of the mechanisms between acupuncture and NF‐κB in inflammatory diseases.
A Narrow Deep Learning Assisted Visual Tracking with Joint Features
Authors: Qian Xiaoyan , Zhang Daihao
Published: June 2020

A robust tracking method is proposed for complex visual sequences. Different from time-consuming offline training in current deep tracking, we design a simple two-layer online learning network which fuses local convolution features and global handcrafted features together to give the robust representation for visual tracking. The target state estimation is modeled by an adaptive Gaussian mixture. The motion information is used to direct the distribution of the candidate samples effectively. And meanwhile, an adaptive scale selection is addressed to avoid bringing extra background information. A corresponding object template model updating procedure is developed to account for possible occlusion and minor change. Our tracking method has a light structure and performs favorably against several state-of-the-art methods in tracking challenging scenarios on the recent tracking benchmark data set.
Experimental Study on Dynamic Mechanical Properties and Energy Evolution Characteristics of Limestone Specimens Subjected to High Temperature
Authors: Ping Qi , Zhang Chuanliang , Su Haipeng , Zhang Hao
Published: June 2020

To study the effect of high temperature on the dynamic mechanical properties and energy evolution characteristic of limestone specimens, the basic physical parameters of limestone specimens that cool naturally after experiencing high temperatures of room temperature (25°C), 200°C, 400°C, and 600°C were tested. In addition, compression tests with 6 impact loading conditions were conducted using SHPB device. The changes of basic physical properties of limestone before and after temperature were analyzed, and the relationship among dynamic characteristic parameters, energy evolution characteristics, and temperature was discussed. Test results indicated that, with the increase of temperature, the surface color of specimen changed from gray‐black to gray‐white, and its volume increased, while the mass, density, and P‐wave velocity of specimen decreased. The dynamic compressive stress‐strain curve of limestone specimens after different high‐temperature effects could be divided into three stages: elasticity stage, yield stage, and failure stage. Failure mode of specimen was in the form of spalling axial splitting, and the degree of fragmentation increased with the increase of the temperature and incident energy. With the increase of the temperature, the reflection energy, the absorption energy, the dynamic compressive strength, and dynamic elastic modulus of rock decreased, while its transmission energy, the dynamic peak strain, and strain rate increased. The dynamic compressive strength, dynamic elastic modulus, dynamic strain, and strain rate of limestone specimens all increased with the increase of incident energy, showing a quadratic function relationship.
Antimalarial Activity of Crude Extract and Solvent Fractions of the Leaves of Bersama abyssinica Fresen. (Melianthaceae) against Plasmodium berghei Infection in Swiss Albino Mice
Authors: Alehegn Agumas Alemu , Yesuf Jibril Seid , Birru Eshetie Melese
Published: June 2020

Background. Treatment of malaria has been compromised by the emergence of drug‐resistant parasites. Consequently, novel agents are urgently needed from different sources including from medicinal plants. Thus, the current study aimed at evaluating the antimalarial activity of crude extract and solvent fractions of the leaves of Bersama abyssinica (B. abyssinica) against Plasmodium berghei infection in Swiss Albino mice. Method. A 4‐day suppressive test was employed to evaluate the antimalarial effect of crude extract and solvent fractions against early infection. The curative and prophylactic effects of crude extract and fraction with the highest chemosuppression were further tested by Rane’s test and residual infection procedure. Parasitemia, survival time, packed cell volume (PCV), body weight, and rectal temperature of mice were used as evaluation parameters. Windows SPSS version 20 was used to analyze the data and analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Tukey’s post hoc test was used to compare data between groups. Results. The crude extract and aqueous fraction significantly (P < 0.05 to 0.001) suppressed parasitemia followed by protection of PCV reduction resulting in prolonging the survival time but failed to protect body weight and rectal temperature reduction in all tested models. The ethyl acetate and chloroform fractions also showed significant chemosuppression and PCV protection in the 4‐day suppressive test. The crude extract exhibited a chemosuppression of 49.51%, 57.94%, and 44.11% while the aqueous fraction showed suppression of 47.69%, 51.62%, and 37.07% in 4‐day suppressive, curative, and prophylactic tests, respectively, at 400 mg/kg. Conclusion. The crude extract and fractions showed fairly moderate antimalarial activity, and the finding supports the traditional claims and previous in vitro studies. Thus, this may call for further studies to isolate chemical entities for additional safety and efficacy tests.