bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A comprehensive formulation for volumetric modulated arc therapy planning
Authors: Nguyen Dan , Lyu Qihui , Ruan Dan , O'Connor Daniel , Low Daniel A. , Sheng Ke
Published: June 2016

Purpose:

Volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) is a widely employed radiation therapy technique, showing comparable dosimetry to static beam intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) with reduced monitor units and treatment time. However, the current VMAT optimization has various greedy heuristics employed for an empirical solution, which jeopardizes plan consistency and quality. The authors introduce a novel direct aperture optimization method for VMAT to overcome these limitations.

Methods:

The comprehensive VMAT (comVMAT) planning was formulated as an optimization problem with an L2‐norm fidelity term to penalize the difference between the optimized dose and the prescribed dose, as well as an anisotropic total variation term to promote piecewise continuity in the fluence maps, preparing it for direct aperture optimization. A level set function was used to describe the aperture shapes and the difference between aperture shapes at adjacent angles was penalized to control MLC motion range. A proximal‐class optimization solver was adopted to solve the large scale optimization problem, and an alternating optimization strategy was implemented to solve the fluence intensity and aperture shapes simultaneously. Single arc comVMAT plans, utilizing 180 beams with 2° angular resolution, were generated for a glioblastoma multiforme case, a lung (LNG) case, and two head and neck cases—one with three PTVs (H&N3PTV) and one with foue PTVs (H&N4PTV)—to test the efficacy. The plans were optimized using an alternating optimization strategy. The plans were compared against the clinical VMAT (clnVMAT) plans utilizing two overlapping coplanar arcs for treatment.

Results:

The optimization of the comVMAT plans had converged within 600 iterations of the block minimization algorithm. comVMAT plans were able to consistently reduce the dose to all organs‐at‐risk (OARs) as compared to the clnVMAT plans. On average, comVMAT plans reduced the max and mean OAR dose by 6.59% and 7.45%, respectively, of the prescription dose. Reductions in max dose and mean dose were as high as 14.5 Gy in the LNG case and 15.3 Gy in the H&N3PTV case. PTV coverages measured by D95, D98, and D99 were within 0.25% of the prescription dose. By comprehensively optimizing all beams, the comVMAT optimizer gained the freedom to allow some selected beams to deliver higher intensities, yielding a dose distribution that resembles a static beam IMRT plan with beam orientation optimization.

Conclusions:

The novel nongreedy VMAT approach simultaneously optimizes all beams in an arc and then directly generates deliverable apertures. The single arc VMAT approach thus fully utilizes the digital Linac's capability in dose rate and gantry rotation speed modulation. In practice, the new single VMAT algorithm generates plans superior to existing VMAT algorithms utilizing two arcs.
Antibiotics, birth mode, and diet shape microbiome maturation during early life
Authors: Bokulich Nicholas A. , Chung Jennifer , Battaglia Thomas , Henderson Nora , Jay Melanie , Li Huilin , D. Lieber Arnon , Wu Fen , Perez-Perez Guillermo I. , Chen Yu , Schweizer William , Zheng Xuhui , Contreras Monica , Dominguez-Bello Maria Gloria , Blaser Martin J.
Published: June 2016

A longitudinal study of intestinal microbiota in children and their mothers shows that antibiotics, cesarean section, and infant formula alter patterns of microbial acquisition and succession during the first 2 years of childhood.
Does a mother’s voice influence a child’s social communication abilities?
Authors: Fung Lawrence K.
Published: June 2016

Brain circuits that underlie the recognition of a mother’s voice may serve as a substrate for social communication abilities in her child.
Who knows best—your mother or her microbiome?
Authors: Moore Daniel J.
Published: June 2016

Obesity and excess weight gain in pregnancy may be driven by underlying alterations in the maternal microbiome.
Transcription Factor KLF2 in Dendritic Cells Downregulates Th2 Programming via the HIF-1α/Jagged2/Notch Axis
Authors: Xiong Ye , Lingrel Jerry B. , Wüthrich Marcel , Klein Bruce S. , Vasudevan Neelakantan T. , Jain Mukesh K. , George Mariam , Deepe George S.
Published: June 2016

The adaptive immune response is tightly regulated by complex signals in dendritic cells (DCs). Although Th2 polarization is dictated by defined functional DC subsets, the molecular factors that govern the amplitude of these responses are not well understood. Krüppel-like factor 2 (KLF2) is a transcription factor that negatively regulates the activation of numerous immune cells in response to stimuli. Here, we demonstrate that suppression of KLF2 in conditioned DCs preferentially amplifies Th2 responses in two model systems, one of which is a prototypical intracellular pathogen and the other an allergen. This elevation in Th2 responses was dependent on contact-mediated Notch signalingin vitroandin vivo. A deficiency of KLF2 increased the expression of Notch ligand Jagged2 via hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α), which led to Th2 amplification. Our results revealed a novel circuit in DCs for Th2 polarization that is governed by KLF2.

IMPORTANCEDendritic cells are the key element that bridges innate and adaptive immunity. A complex and not-well-understood area in dendritic cell biology is the regulatory network that predetermines or moderates their function to shape the adaptive immune response. Our study for the first time demonstrates that KLF2, a transcription factor, conditions dendritic cells to regulate Th2 responses via a Jagged2/Notch axis. Downregulation of KLF2 expression in dendritic cells may provide a beneficial effect for treatment of diseases such as obesity or parasitic infections but may be deleterious in the case of invasion by intracellular pathogens. Strategies to tune KLF2 may be useful for future therapeutic approaches to particular diseases of mankind.
Associations among Wine Grape Microbiome, Metabolome, and Fermentation Behavior Suggest Microbial Contribution to Regional Wine Characteristics
Authors: Bokulich Nicholas A. , Collins Thomas S. , Masarweh Chad , Allen Greg , Heymann Hildegarde , Ebeler Susan E. , Mills David A.
Published: June 2016

Regionally distinct wine characteristics (terroir) are an important aspect of wine production and consumer appreciation. Microbial activity is an integral part of wine production, and grape and wine microbiota present regionally defined patterns associated with vineyard and climatic conditions, but the degree to which these microbial patterns associate with the chemical composition of wine is unclear. Through a longitudinal survey of over 200 commercial wine fermentations, we demonstrate that both grape microbiota and wine metabolite profiles distinguish viticultural area designations and individual vineyards within Napa and Sonoma Counties, California. Associations among wine microbiota and fermentation characteristics suggest new links between microbiota, fermentation performance, and wine properties. The bacterial and fungal consortia of wine fermentations, composed from vineyard and winery sources, correlate with the chemical composition of the finished wines and predict metabolite abundances in finished wines using machine learning models. The use of postharvest microbiota as an early predictor of wine chemical composition is unprecedented and potentially poses a new paradigm for quality control of agricultural products. These findings add further evidence that microbial activity is associated with wineterroir.

IMPORTANCEWine production is a multi-billion-dollar global industry for which microbial control and wine chemical composition are crucial aspects of quality.Terroiris an important feature of consumer appreciation and wine culture, but the many factors that contribute toterroirare nebulous. We show that grape and wine microbiota exhibit regional patterns that correlate with wine chemical composition, suggesting that the grape microbiome may influenceterroir. In addition to enriching our understanding of how growing region and wine properties interact, this may provide further economic incentive for agricultural and enological practices that maintain regional microbial biodiversity.
Deciphering Clostridium tyrobutyricum Metabolism Based on the Whole-Genome Sequence and Proteome Analyses
Authors: Lee Joungmin , Jang Yu-Sin , Han Mee-Jung , Kim Jin Young , Lee Sang Yup
Published: June 2016

Clostridium tyrobutyricum
is a Gram-positive anaerobic bacterium that efficiently produces butyric acid and is considered a promising host for anaerobic production of bulk chemicals. Due to limited knowledge on the genetic and metabolic characteristics of this strain, however, little progress has been made in metabolic engineering of this strain. Here we report the complete genome sequence of
C. tyrobutyricum
KCTC 5387 (ATCC 25755), which consists of a 3.07-Mbp chromosome and a 63-kbp plasmid. The results of genomic analyses suggested that
C. tyrobutyricum
produces butyrate from butyryl-coenzyme A (butyryl-CoA) through acetate reassimilation by CoA transferase, differently from
Clostridium acetobutylicum
, which uses the phosphotransbutyrylase-butyrate kinase pathway; this was validated by reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) of related genes, protein expression levels,
in vitro
CoA transferase assay, and fed-batch fermentation. In addition, the changes in protein expression levels during the course of batch fermentations on glucose were examined by shotgun proteomics. Unlike
C. acetobutylicum
, the expression levels of proteins involved in glycolytic and fermentative pathways in
C. tyrobutyricum
did not decrease even at the stationary phase. Proteins related to energy conservation mechanisms, including Rnf complex, NfnAB, and pyruvate-phosphate dikinase that are absent in
C. acetobutylicum
, were identified. Such features explain why this organism can produce butyric acid to a much higher titer and better tolerate toxic metabolites. This study presenting the complete genome sequence, global protein expression profiles, and genome-based metabolic characteristics during the batch fermentation of
C. tyrobutyricum
will be valuable in designing strategies for metabolic engineering of this strain
.

IMPORTANCE
Bio-based production of chemicals from renewable biomass has become increasingly important due to our concerns on climate change and other environmental problems.
C. tyrobutyricum
has been used for efficient butyric acid production. In order to further increase the performance and expand the capabilities of this strain toward production of other chemicals, metabolic engineering needs to be performed. For this, better understanding on the metabolic and physiological characteristics of this bacterium at the genome level is needed. This work reporting the results of complete genomic and proteomic analyses together with new insights on butyric acid biosynthetic pathway and energy conservation will allow development of strategies for metabolic engineering of
C. tyrobutyricum
for the bio-based production of various chemicals in addition to butyric acid.
Functional Analysis of the Rhoptry Kinome during Chronic Toxoplasma gondii Infection
Authors: Knoll Laura J.
Published: June 2016

Toxoplasma gondii
is one of the most common parasitic infections of humans worldwide. Once exposed, humans remain infected with
T. gondii
for life, and there are no therapeutics capable of eliminating a chronic infection. In the search for novel drug targets,
T. gondii
is known to contain several unique secretory organelles, one of which is called the rhoptries. Rhoptry organelles contain and secrete numerous proteins with kinase domains, but the roles of most of these kinases during infection remain unknown. In a recent mBio article, B. A. Fox et al. [mBio 7(3):e00193-16, 2016,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mBio.00193-16
] performed a tour de force deletion analysis of 31 rhoptry kinases and examined their roles in the development of chronic infection. While rhoptry kinase deletion strains that displayed an acute infection defect also showed a reduction in chronic infection cyst burden, two rhoptry kinase deletion strains had decreased cyst burden without any change in acute virulence. These results indicate the necessity of the rhoptry kinases for the establishment and perhaps maintenance of chronic infection. They also highlight the potential of these kinases as drug targets to clear chronic infection or as candidates to generate a nonpersisting vaccine.
Physical impairments in symptomatic femoroacetabular impingement: a systematic review of the evidence
Authors: Freke Matthew , Kemp Joanne L , Svege Ida , Risberg May Arna , Semciw Adam Ivan , Crossley Kay M
Published: June 2016

Background

Femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) and associated pathologies are associated with pain and reduced quality of life. Physical impairments can be associated with worse symptoms and may be an important target of rehabilitation programmes in this patient group. Knowledge regarding physical impairments in people with symptomatic FAI is limited.

Hypothesis

In adults aged 18–50 years with symptomatic FAI: (1) to identify physical impairments in range of motion (ROM), hip muscle function and functional tasks; (2) to compare physical impairments with healthy controls; and (3) to evaluate the effects of interventions targeting physical impairments.

Study design

Systematic review.

Methods

A systematic review of the literature was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement. The modified Downs and Black checklist was used for quality appraisal. Studies of adults aged 18–50 years with symptomatic FAI that examined ROM, hip muscle function and functional tasks were included. Standardised mean differences were calculated where possible or best evidence synthesis and study conclusions were presented.

Results

Twenty-two studies fulfilled all inclusion criteria. Methodological quality was varied. Results for hip joint ROM differences between people with symptomatic FAI compared and control subjects were varied. People with symptomatic FAI demonstrated some deficits in hip muscle strength and reduced balance on one leg when compared with control subjects. For hip joint ROM and hip muscle strength results for within-group differences between preintervention and postintervention time points were limited and inconclusive. No randomised controlled trials evaluated the effect of different types of interventions for symptomatic patients with symptomatic FAI.

Conclusions

People with symptomatic FAI demonstrate impairments in some hip muscle strength and single leg balance. This information may assist therapists in providing targeted rehabilitation programmes for people with FAI and associated pathology. Further research is needed to determine whether symptomatic FAI affects other aspects of functional performance; and to evaluate whether targeted interventions are effective in symptomatic FAI.

Clinical relevance

This information may assist therapists in providing targeted rehabilitation programmes for people with symptomatic FAI.
Multistrategy childcare-based intervention to improve compliance with nutrition guidelines versus usual care in long day care services: a study protocol for a randomised controlled trial
Authors: Seward Kirsty , Wolfenden Luke , Finch Meghan , Wiggers John , Wyse Rebecca , Jones Jannah , Gillham Karen , Yoong Sze Lin
Published: June 2016

Introduction

Interventions to improve child diet are recommended as dietary patterns developed in childhood track into adulthood and influence the risk of chronic disease. For child health, childcare services are required to provide foods to children consistent with nutrition guidelines. Research suggests that foods and beverages provided by services to children are often inconsistent with nutrition guidelines. The primary aim of this study is to assess, relative to a usual care control group, the effectiveness of a multistrategy childcare-based intervention in improving compliance with nutrition guidelines in long day care services.

Methods and analysis

The study will employ a parallel group randomised controlled trial design. A sample of 58 long day care services that provide all meals (typically includes 1 main and 2 mid-meals) to children while they are in care, in the Hunter New England region of New South Wales, Australia, will be randomly allocated to a 6-month intervention to support implementation of nutrition guidelines or a usual care control group in a 1:1 ratio. The intervention was designed to overcome barriers to the implementation of nutrition guidelines assessed using the theoretical domains framework. Intervention strategies will include the provision of staff training and resources, audit and feedback, ongoing support and securing executive support. The primary outcome of the trial will be the change in the proportion of long day care services that have a 2-week menu compliant with childcare nutrition guidelines, measured by comprehensive menu assessments. As a secondary outcome, child dietary intake while in care will also be assessed. To assess the effectiveness of the intervention, the measures will be undertaken at baseline and ∼6 months postbaseline.

Ethics and dissemination

The study was approved by the Hunter New England Human Research Ethics Committee. Study findings will be disseminated widely through peer-reviewed publications.
Basilar artery perforator aneurysms (BAPAs): review of the literature and classification
Authors: Satti Sudhakar R , Vance Ansar Z , Fowler Dawn , Farmah Anthony V , Sivapatham Thinesh
Published: June 2016

Basilar artery perforator aneurysms (BAPAs) are an uncommon subtype of perforating artery aneurysms, with only 18 published cases since their initial description in 1996 by Ghogawalaet al. To date, there are only seven published cases of ruptured BAPAs treated using endovascular techniques. Given the rarity of these aneurysms, the natural history and ideal approach to treatment has not been established. We describe a new endovascular approach to treating these aneurysms using staged telescoping stents, summarize all published cases of BAPAs, and present a unique classification system to enable future papers to standardize descriptions.
Effects of pork differentiation strategies in Canada on pig performance and carcass characteristics
Authors: Zhang H. , Aalhus J.L. , Gariépy C. , Uttaro B. , López-Campos O. , Prieto N. , Dugan M.E.R. , Jin Y. , Juárez M.
Published: June 2016

Performance and quality traits were measured in carcasses from combinations of genotype, diet supplement, slaughter weight, and carcass chilling regime. Iberian-crossed pigs had lower live animal performance than Duroc and Lacombe. From 70 to 115 kg, Lacombe pigs grew slightly faster than Duroc. Duroc carcasses had a higher lean percentage, heavier ham and picnic primals, and lighter loins and bellies, compared with Lacombe and Iberian. Heavier carcasses had lower lean yield, except those from Iberian-crossed pigs, and bigger bellies. Meat from Duroc-crossed pigs was lighter in colour and higher in marbling, with intermediate values for fat hardness. Iberian carcasses displayed dark meat with intermediate marbling and the hardest fat. Meat from Lacombe pigs was the leanest although, like in all three breeds, marbling scores were higher in heavier carcasses. Generally, supplementing with canola and flax decreased and blast chilling increased fat hardness values. Dietary canola also seemed to affect meat colour traits, but these effects were not consistent among breeds and slaughter weights. The commercial combination of Duroc breed, control diet, and 115-kg slaughter weight showed a balance in terms of performance, carcass, and quality traits. Other combinations evaluated in this study showed potential to efficiently produce differentiated pork.
Effects of extracted rice bran supplementation on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, diarrhea score, blood profiles, and fecal microbial shedding in comparison with apramycin (antibiotic growth promoter) in weanling pigs
Authors: Hossain M.M. , Park J.W. , Nyachoti C.M. , Kim I.H.
Published: June 2016

This study evaluated the efficacy of extracted rice bran (ERB) in weanling piglets. One hundred forty weanling pigs [(Yorkshire × Landrace) × Duroc] with an average BW of 5.70 ± 1.41 kg (21 d of age) were fed in two phases in a 6-wk experiment. Weanling pigs were allotted to diets containing 0 or 0.1 g kg−1 of ERB, and 0 or 165 mg kg−1 of apramycin according to a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments. Both apramycin and ERB supplementation increased growth efficiency (G:F) during phase 1 and overall, respectively (P < 0.05). The apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of dry matter (DM) was increased in response to either ERB or apramycin at wk 2 and 6 (P < 0.05). Supplementation of ERB decreased total cholesterol (TC) and increased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) in diets lacking ERB at wk 6 (P < 0.05). Pigs receiving diets supplemented with apramycin reduced Escherichia coli at wk 2 and 6, and Salmonella counts at wk 6 (P < 0.05). Supplementation of ERB increased fecal Lactobacillus and reduced Salmonella counts at wk 6 (P < 0.05). In conclusion, results indicated that dietary supplementation of ERB improved performance in weanling pigs.
Measuring fish and their physical habitats: versatile 2D and 3D video techniques with user-friendly software
Authors: Neuswanger Jason R. , Wipfli Mark S. , Rosenberger Amanda E. , Hughes Nicholas F.
Published: June 2016

Applications of video in fisheries research range from simple biodiversity surveys to three-dimensional (3D) measurement of complex swimming, schooling, feeding, and territorial behaviors. However, researchers lack a transparently developed, easy-to-use, general purpose tool for 3D video measurement and event logging. Thus, we developed a new measurement system, with freely available, user-friendly software, easily obtained hardware, and flexible underlying mathematical methods capable of high precision and accuracy. The software, VidSync, allows users to efficiently record, organize, and navigate complex 2D or 3D measurements of fish and their physical habitats. Laboratory tests showed submillimetre accuracy in length measurements of 50.8 mm targets at close range, with increasing errors (mostly <1%) at longer range and for longer targets. A field test on juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) feeding behavior in Alaska streams found that individuals within aggregations avoided the immediate proximity of their competitors, out to a distance of 1.0 to 2.9 body lengths. This system makes 3D video measurement a practical tool for laboratory and field studies of aquatic or terrestrial animal behavior and ecology.
Effect of a static magnetic field onEscherichia coliadhesion and orientation
Authors: Mhamdi Lotfi , Mhamdi Nejib , Mhamdi Naceur , Lejeune Philippe , Jaffrezic Nicole , Burais Nöel , Scorretti Riccardo , Pokorny Jiry , Ponsonnet Laurence
Published: June 2016

This preliminary study focused on the effect of exposure to 0.5 T static magnetic fields on Escherichia coli adhesion and orientation. We investigated the difference in bacterial adhesion on the surface of glass and indium tin oxide-coated glass when exposed to a magnetic field either perpendicular or parallel to the adhesion surface (vectors of magnetic induction are perpendicular or parallel to the adhesion surface, respectively). Control cultures were simultaneously grown under identical conditions but without exposure to the magnetic field. We observed a decrease in cell adhesion after exposure to the magnetic field. Orientation of bacteria cells was affected after exposure to a parallel magnetic field. On the other hand, no effect on the orientation of bacteria cells was observed after exposure to a perpendicular magnetic field.
Variation in stiffness regulates cardiac myocyte hypertrophy via signaling pathways
Authors: Li Jieli , Mkrtschjan Michael A. , Lin Ying-Hsi , Russell Brenda
Published: June 2016

Much diseased human myocardial tissue is fibrotic and stiff, which increases the work that the ventricular myocytes must perform to maintain cardiac output. The hypothesis tested is that the increased load due to greater stiffness of the substrata drives sarcomere assembly of cells, thus strengthening them. Neonatal rat ventricular myocytes (NRVM) were cultured on polyacrylamide or polydimethylsiloxane substrates with stiffness of 10 kPa, 100 kPa, or 400 kPa, or glass with stiffness of 61.9 GPa. Cell size increased with stiffness. Two signaling pathways were explored, phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase (p-FAK) and lipids by phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2). Subcellular distributions of both were determined in the sarcomeric fraction by antibody localization, and total amounts were measured by Western or dot blotting, respectively. More p-FAK and PIP2 distributed to the sarcomeres of NRVM grown on stiffer substrates. Actin assembly involves the actin capping protein Z (CapZ). Both actin and CapZ dynamic exchange were significantly increased on stiffer substrates when assessed by fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) of green fluorescent protein tags. Blunting of actin FRAP by FAK inhibition implicates linkage from mechano-signalling pathways to cell growth. Thus, increased stiffness of cardiac disease can be modeled with polymeric materials to understand how the microenvironment regulates cardiac hypertrophy.
A Novel Framework of Using Petri Net to Timed Service Business Process Modeling
Authors: Yang Xiaoxian , Yu Tao , Xu Huahu
Published: June 2016

In open and changeful Internet, the enterprise business process needs to be organized or restructured dynamically in order to adapt to environment changes and business logic updates. The solution of Web service and service-oriented architecture (SOA) provides a promising approach. The business processes working as a temporary workflow can be composed by distributed services. However, the cross-organizational service feature of business process requires considering not only the functional requirements but also the timed constraints. The timed property plays an important role in service interactions between business processes, such as timed activity, timeout and timed deadlock. Thus, if time requirements cannot be guaranteed, the new created business process will not be acceptable. In this paper, it proposes a framework of using Petri Net to model timed service business process. First, it defines the behavior model of service business process and gives process composition patterns for different structural forms. Second, service model is extended with time specifications, describing timed constraints among business activity interactions. Third, to support further verifications, it introduces a method for the automatic timed properties generation in the form of temporal logic formulae. Our framework gives a reference in practice to formalize service business process into timed service model.
Deterministic joint remote state preparation via partially entangled quantum channel
Authors: Chen Na , Quan Dong-Xiao , Zhu Chang-Hua , Li Jia-Zhen , Pei Chang-Xing
Published: June 2016

In this paper, we propose a scheme for deterministic joint remote state preparation (JRSP). Two spatially separated senders intend to help a receiver remotely prepare an arbitrary single-qubit state. Four-particle partially entangled state is constructed to serve as the quantum channel. By determining right unitary operations for the senders and appropriate recovery operations for the receiver, the target state can be reestablished with unit success probability, irrespective of the channel parameter.
UNLOCKING THE INNOVATION POTENTIAL IN LARGE FIRMS THROUGH TIMELY AND MEANINGFUL INTERACTIONS WITH YOUNG VENTURES
Authors: HOGENHUIS BABKE N. , VAN DEN HENDE ELLIS A. , HULTINK ERIK JAN
Published: June 2016

Since the introduction of open innovation (OI), both firms and academics have widely acknowledged the potential of unlocking large firms’ innovation potential through interactions with external parties, such as young ventures. These asymmetric partnerships are prone to several problems related to communication, roles and responsibilities, cultural differences, and operational issues, for which solutions and best practices have been proposed. However, all these solutions focus on the partnership itself; hence, on the “Get & Manage (GM)” stages. Unfortunately, the processes leading to a partnership; i.e., the “Want & Find (WF)” stages before the partnership, have largely been overlooked. The central thesis of this manuscript is that solutions that are implemented in the early “WF” stages have a positive impact on the outcomes of an asymmetric large firm — young venture partnership. We will show that attention to set-up and communication efforts in these early stages is needed, and discuss how our detailed explanations of such fruitful solutions contribute to the extant literature on asymmetric OI collaborations.
China’s Embrace of the UN Post-2015 Development Agenda
Authors: Zhu Dandan , Xu Qiyuan
Published: June 2016

Since the 1990s, the United Nations has issued three agendas for global development cooperation. China’s attitude toward these agendas has also undergone three phases: from cautious passivity at first, to active yet restrained involvement, and to fully embracing them. On January 1, 2016, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) replaced the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as the primary goals for global development cooperation in the next 15 years. But there are substantial differences between the SDGs and MDGs, which will inevitably exert significant impacts on China’s domestic development and its involvement in international cooperation. In its response, China should carefully examine its strengths and constraints before making a comprehensive national strategy for sustainable development, so as to advance domestic structural reforms and facilitate its commitment to the implementation of the SDGs. Meanwhile, China should actively push forward international collaboration in line with its opening-up policy, including South-South and South-North cooperation, as well as new mechanisms for trilateral cooperation. All these efforts will contribute to the establishment of new global partnerships for common development and the fulfillment of the SDGs.
Scale-Free Compact Routing Schemes in Networks of Low Doubling Dimension
Authors: Konjevod Goran , Richa Andréa W. , Xia Donglin
Published: June 2016

We consider compact routing schemes in networks of low doubling dimension, where the doubling dimension is the least value α such that any ball in the network can be covered by at most 2
α
balls of half radius. There are two variants of routing-scheme design: (i) labeled (name-dependent) routing, in which the designer is allowed to rename the nodes so that the names (labels) can contain additional routing information, for example, topological information; and (ii) name-independent routing, which works on top of the arbitrary original node names in the network, that is, the node names are independent of the routing scheme.

In this article, given any constant ϵ ∈ (0, 1) and an
n
-node edge-weighted network of doubling dimension α ∈
O
(loglog
n
), we present

—a (1 + ϵ)-stretch labeled compact routing scheme with ⌈log
n
⌉-bit routing labels,
O
(log
2
n
/loglog
n
)-bit packet headers, and ((1/ϵ)

O
(α)

log
3
n
)-bit routing information at each node;

—a (9 + ϵ)-stretch name-independent compact routing scheme with
O
(log
2
n
/loglog
n
)-bit packet headers, and ((1/ϵ)

O
(α)

log
3
n
)-bit routing information at each node.

In addition, we prove a lower bound: any name-independent routing scheme with
o
(
n
(ϵ/60)
2
) bits of storage at each node has stretch no less than 9 − ϵ for any ϵ ∈ (0, 8). Therefore, our name-independent routing scheme achieves asymptotically optimal stretch with polylogarithmic storage at each node and packet headers.

Note that both schemes are scale-free in the sense that their space requirements do not depend on the normalized diameter Δ of the network. We also present a simpler nonscale-free (9 + ϵ)-stretch name-independent compact routing scheme with improved space requirements if Δ is polynomial in
n
.
Atom Decomposition with Adaptive Basis Selection Strategy for Matrix Completion
Authors: Hu Yao , Zhao Chen , Cai Deng , He Xiaofei , Li Xuelong
Published: June 2016

Estimating missing entries in matrices has attracted much attention due to its wide range of applications like image inpainting and video denoising, which are usually considered as low-rank matrix completion problems theoretically. It is common to consider nuclear norm as a surrogate of the rank operator since it is the tightest convex lower bound of the rank operator under certain conditions. However, most approaches based on nuclear norm minimization involve a number of singular value decomposition (SVD) operations. Given a matrix
X
∈ R

m
×
n

, the time complexity of the SVD operation is
O
(
mn
2
), which brings prohibitive computational burden on large-scale matrices, limiting the further usage of these methods in real applications. Motivated by this observation, a series of atom-decomposition-based matrix completion methods have been studied. The key to these methods is to reconstruct the target matrix by pursuit methods in a greedy way, which only involves the computation of the top SVD and has great advantages in efficiency compared with the SVD-based matrix completion methods. However, due to gradually serious accumulation errors, atom-decomposition-based methods usually result in unsatisfactory reconstruction accuracy. In this article, we propose a new efficient and scalable atom decomposition algorithm for matrix completion called
Adaptive Basis Selection Strategy
(
ABSS
). Different from traditional greedy atom decomposition methods, a two-phase strategy is conducted to generate the basis separately via different strategies according to their different nature. At first, we globally prune the basis space to eliminate the unimportant basis as much as possible and locate the probable subspace containing the most informative basis. Then, another group of basis spaces are learned to improve the recovery accuracy based on local information. In this way, our proposed algorithm breaks through the accuracy bottleneck of traditional atom-decomposition-based matrix completion methods; meanwhile, it reserves the innate efficiency advantages over SVD-based matrix completion methods. We empirically evaluate the proposed algorithm
ABSS
on real visual image data and large-scale recommendation datasets. Results have shown that
ABSS
has much better reconstruction accuracy with comparable cost to atom-decomposition-based methods. At the same time, it outperforms the state-of-the-art SVD-based matrix completion algorithms by similar or better reconstruction accuracy with enormous advantages on efficiency.
Ranking and Tradeoffs in Sponsored Search Auctions
Authors: Roberts Ben , Gunawardena Dinan , Kash Ian A. , Key Peter
Published: June 2016

In a sponsored search auction, decisions about how to rank ads impose tradeoffs between objectives, such as revenue and welfare. In this article, we examine how these tradeoffs should be made. We begin by arguing that the most natural solution concept to evaluate these tradeoffs is the lowest symmetric Nash equilibrium (SNE). As part of this argument, we generalise the well-known connection between the lowest SNE and the VCG outcome. We then propose a new ranking algorithm, loosely based on the revenue-optimal auction, that uses a reserve price to order the ads (not just to filter them) and give conditions under which it raises more revenue than simply applying that reserve price. Finally, we conduct extensive simulations examining the tradeoffs enabled by different ranking algorithms and show that our proposed algorithm enables superior operating points by a variety of metrics.
Quadratic Maps Are Hard to Sample
Authors: Viola Emanuele
Published: June 2016

This note proves the existence of a quadratic GF(2) map
p
: {0, 1}

n

→ {0, 1} such that no constant-depth circuit of size poly(
n
) can sample the distribution (
u
,
p
(
u
)) for uniform
u
.
Enhanced Light Scattering by Preferred Orientation Control of Ga Doped ZnO Films Prepared through MOCVD
Authors: Bach Long Giang , Nguyen Nam Giang , Ho Van Thi Thanh
Published: June 2016

We have explored the effective approach to fabricate GZO/ZnO films that can make the pyramidal surface structures of GZO films for effective light scattering by employing a low temperature ZnO buffer layer prior to high temperature GZO film growth. The GZO thin films exhibit the typical preferred growth orientations along the (002) crystallographic direction at deposition temperature of 400°C and SEM showed that column-like granule structure with planar surface was formed. In contrast, GZO films with a pyramidal texture surface were successfully developed by the control of (110) preferred orientation. We found that the light diffuse transmittance of the film with a GZO (800 nm)/ZnO (766 nm) exhibited 13% increase at 420 nm wavelength due to the formed large grain size of the pyramidal texture surface. Thus, the obtained GZO films deposited over ZnO buffer layer have high potential for use as front TCO layers in Si-based thin film solar cells. These results could develop the potential way to fabricate TCO based ZnO thin film using MOCVD or sputtering techniques by depositing a low temperature ZnO layer to serve as a template for high temperature GZO film growth. The GZO films exhibited satisfactory optoelectric properties.
Current Evidence for Developmental, Structural, and Functional Brain Defects following Prenatal Radiation Exposure
Authors: Verreet Tine , Verslegers Mieke , Quintens Roel , Baatout Sarah , Benotmane Mohammed A.
Published: June 2016

Ionizing radiation is omnipresent. We are continuously exposed to natural (e.g., radon and cosmic) and man-made radiation sources, including those from industry but especially from the medical sector. The increasing use of medical radiation modalities, in particular those employing low-dose radiation such as CT scans, raises concerns regarding the effects of cumulative exposure doses and the inappropriate utilization of these imaging techniques. One of the major goals in the radioprotection field is to better understand the potential health risk posed to the unborn child after radiation exposure to the pregnant mother, of which the first convincing evidence came from epidemiological studies onin uteroexposed atomic bomb survivors. In the following years, animal models have proven to be an essential tool to further characterize brain developmental defects and consequent functional deficits. However, the identification of a possible dose threshold is far from complete and a sound link between early defects and persistent anomalies has not yet been established. This review provides an overview of the current knowledge on brain developmental and persistent defects resulting fromin uteroradiation exposure and addresses the many questions that still remain to be answered.
The Histopathological Spectrum of Pyogenic Granuloma: A Case Series
Authors: Marla Vinay , Shrestha Ashish , Goel Khushboo , Shrestha Sajeev
Published: June 2016

Background.Pyogenic granuloma is a reactive tumor-like lesion commonly affecting the oral cavity. These lesions usually appear as localized solitary nodule with a sessile or pedunculated base and colour varying from red, purplish, or pink, depending on the vascularity of the lesion. Pyogenic granuloma shows predilection for gingiva and is usually slow growing, but at times it shows rapid growth. The natural course of this lesion can be categorized into three distinct phases, namely, (i) cellular phase, (ii) capillary phase/vascular phase, and (iii) involutionary phase. Histopathologically, pyogenic granuloma is classified into lobular capillary hemangioma (LCH) and non-lobular capillary hemangioma (non-LCH).Case Presentation. In this series, four cases (varied age groups and both genders) of pyogenic granuloma showing varying histopathological presentation in relation to its clinical course have been described. The lesion in its early phase reveals diffuse endothelial cells, with few budding into capillaries. Among the capillary phase, the LCH type shows numerous blood vessels organized into lobular aggregates whereas the non-LCH type does not show any such organization and resembles granulation tissue. The involutionary phase shows healing of the lesion and is characterized by extensive fibrosis in the connective tissue.Conclusion.In conclusion, knowledge of the various histopathological presentation of this lesion is necessary for proper identification.
Screening of Undiagnosed Hypothyroidism in Elderly Persons with Diabetes according to Age-Specific Reference Intervals for Serum Thyroid Stimulating Hormone and the Impact of Antidiabetes Drugs
Authors: Fontes Rosita , Teixeira Patricia de Fatima dos Santos , Vaisman Mario
Published: June 2016

Background. Studies have suggested that hypothyroidism is more frequent in the elderly with diabetes mellitus. However, an adaptation of TSH levels to age should be considered in this assessment. Some antidiabetes drugs reportedly interfere with TSH levels. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the prevalence of undiagnosed hypothyroidism in patients with diabetes and the influence of antidiabetes drugs.Material and Methods. 1160 subjects, 60 years and older (751 with diabetes), were studied; results were compared according to diabetes treatment and with persons without diabetes. TSH, FT4, antithyroperoxidase, fasting glucose, and HbA1c were measured.Results and Discussion. 6.4% of patients with diabetes had hypothyroidism, a higher prevalence compared with persons without diabetes (5.1%), but lower than observed in many studies. The use of age-specific TSH reference interval (RI) could explain this difference. Patients taking metformin (MTF) had TSH (showed in medians) slightly lower (2.8 mU/L) than those not on MTF (3.3 mU/L),p<0.05. MTF doses influenced TSH levels.Conclusions. The use of specific TSH RI could avoid the misdiagnosis of hypothyroidism in elderly with diabetes. Patients in use of MTF as single drug had lower TSH than those using other medications and persons without diabetes.
A Calculation Method for the Sloshing Impact Pressure Imposed on the Roof of a Passive Water Storage Tank of AP1000
Authors: Lu Daogang , Zeng Xiaojia , Dang Junjie , Liu Yu
Published: June 2016

There is a large water storage tank installed at the top of containment of AP1000, which can supply the passive cooling. In the extreme condition, sloshing of the free surface in the tank may impact on the roof under long-period earthquake. For the safety assessment of structure, it is necessary to calculate the impact pressure caused by water sloshing. Since the behavior of sloshing impacted on the roof is involved into a strong nonlinear phenomenon, it is a little difficult to calculate such pressure by theoretical or numerical method currently. But it is applicable to calculate the height of sloshing in a tank without roof. In the present paper, a simplified method was proposed to calculate the impact pressure using the sloshing wave height, in which we first marked the position of the height of roof, then produced sloshing in the tank without roof and recorded the maximum wave height, and finally regarded approximately the difference between maximum wave height and roof height as the impact pressure head. We also designed an experiment to verify this method. The experimental result showed that this method overpredicted the impact pressure with a certain error of no more than 35%. By the experiment, we conclude that this method is conservative and applicable for the engineering design.
ECG Sensor Verification System with Mean-Interval Algorithm for Handling Sport Issue
Authors: Tseng Kuo-Kun , Zeng Fufu , Ip W. H. , Wu C. H.
Published: June 2016

With the development of biometric verification, we proposed a new algorithm and personal mobile sensor card system for ECG verification. The proposed new mean-interval approach can identify the user quickly with high accuracy and consumes a small amount of flash memory in the microprocessor. The new framework of the mobile card system makes ECG verification become a feasible application to overcome the issues of a centralized database. For a fair and comprehensive evaluation, the experimental results have been tested on public MIT-BIH ECG databases and our circuit system; they confirm that the proposed scheme is able to provide excellent accuracy and low complexity. Moreover, we also proposed a multiple-state solution to handle the heat rate changes of sports problem. It should be the first to address the issue of sports in ECG verification.
Identification of Genes Coding Aminoglycoside Modifying Enzymes inE. coliof UTI Patients in India
Authors: Mir Abdul Rouf , Bashir Yasir , Dar Firdous Ahmad , Sekhar M.
Published: June 2016

This study is to probe the pattern of antibiotic resistance against aminoglycosides and its mechanism inE. coliobtained from patients from Chennai, India. Isolation and identification of pathogens were done on MacConkey agar. Antimicrobial sensitivity testing was done by disc diffusion test. The identification of genes encoding aminoglycoside modifying enzymes was done by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Out of 98 isolates, 71 (72.45%) isolates were identified asE. coliand the remaining 27 (27.55%) as other bacteria. Disc diffusion method results showed a resistance level of 72.15% for streptomycin, 73.4% for gentamicin, 63.26% for neomycin, 57.14% for tobramycin, 47.9% for netilmicin, and 8.16% for amikacin inE. coli. PCR screening showed the presence of four genes, namely,rrs,aacC2,aacA-aphD, andaphA3, in their plasmid DNA. The results point towards the novel mechanism of drug resistance inE. colifrom UTI patients in India as they confirm the presence of genes encoding enzymes that cause resistance to aminoglycoside drugs. This could be an alarm for drug prescription to UTI patients.
Regulation of MAPKs Signaling Contributes to the Growth Inhibition of 1,7‐Dihydroxy‐3,4‐dimethoxyxanthone on Multidrug Resistance A549/Taxol Cells
Authors: Zuo Jian , Jiang Hui , Zhu Yan-Hong , Wang Ya-Qin , Zhang Wen , Luan Jia-Jie
Published: June 2016

1,7‐Dihydroxy‐3,4‐dimethoxyxanthone (XAN) is a bioactive compound isolated from Securidaca inappendiculata Hassk. and validated with antiproliferative activities on a panel of cancer cell lines. This study was designed to investigate its growth inhibitory effects on multidrug resistance (MDR) non‐small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) cell line A549/Taxol and explore the possible linkage between modulation of MAPKs and the bioactivities. Its growth inhibitory potency on the cells was estimated by MTT assay, and flow cytometric analysis was employed to investigate its potential cell cycle arrest and proapoptosis effects. Expressions of hallmark proteins were assessed by Western‐Blot method. The results showed A549/Taxol cells were sensitive to XAN. XAN inhibited the proliferation of A549/Taxol cells in the time and concentration dependent manners. It acted as a potent inducer of apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in the cells. Western‐Blot investigation validated the proapoptosis and cell cycle arrest activities of XAN and the potential of MDR reversion. Upregulation of p38 by XAN, which accounted for the cell cycle arrest at G2 phase, and the downregulation of ERK associated with the proapoptosis activity were also revealed. Further analysis found p53 may be the central role mediated the bioactivities of MAPKs in A549/Taxol cells. Based on these evidences, a conclusion has been deduced that XAN could be a potential agent for MDR NSCLC therapy targeting specifically MAPKs.