bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effect of Tai Chi on Cognitive Performance in Older Adults: Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis
Authors: Wayne Peter M. , Walsh Jacquelyn N. , Taylor‐Piliae Ruth E. , Wells Rebecca E. , Papp Kathryn V. , Donovan Nancy J. , Yeh Gloria Y.
Published: January 2014

Objectives

To summarize and critically evaluate research on the effects of Tai Chi on cognitive function in older adults.

Design

Systematic review with meta‐analysis.

Setting

Community and residential care.

Participants

Individuals aged 60 and older (with the exception of one study) with and without cognitive impairment.

Measurements

Cognitive ability using a variety of neuropsychological testing.

Results

Twenty eligible studies with a total of 2,553 participants were identified that met inclusion criteria for the systematic review; 11 of the 20 eligible studies were randomized controlled trials (RCTs), one was a prospective nonrandomized controlled study, four were prospective noncontrolled observational studies, and four were cross‐sectional studies. Overall quality of RCTs was modest, with three of 11 trials categorized as high risk of bias. Meta‐analyses of outcomes related to executive function in RCTs of cognitively healthy adults indicated a large effect size when Tai Chi participants were compared with nonintervention controls (Hedges' g = 0.90; P = .04) and a moderate effect size when compared with exercise controls (Hedges' g = 0.51; P = .003). Meta‐analyses of outcomes related to global cognitive function in RCTs of cognitively impaired adults, ranging from mild cognitive impairment to dementia, showed smaller but statistically significant effects when Tai Chi was compared with nonintervention controls (Hedges' g = 0.35; P = .004) and other active interventions (Hedges' g = 0.30; P = .002). Findings from nonrandomized studies add further evidence that Tai Chi may positively affect these and other domains of cognitive function.

Conclusion

Tai Chi shows potential to enhance cognitive function in older adults, particularly in the realm of executive functioning and in individuals without significant impairment. Larger and methodologically sound trials with longer follow‐up periods are needed before more‐definitive conclusions can be drawn.
Hospitalization of Elderly Medicaid Long‐Term Care Users Who Transition from Nursing Homes
Authors: Wysocki Andrea , Kane Robert L. , Dowd Bryan , Golberstein Ezra , Lum Terry , Shippee Tetyana
Published: January 2014

Objectives

To compare hospitalizations of dually eligible older adults who had an extended Medicaid nursing home (NH) stay and transitioned out to receive Medicaid home‐ and community‐based services (HCBS) with hospitalizations of those who remained in the NH.

Design

Retrospective matched cohort study using Medicaid and Medicare claims and NH assessment data.

Setting

Community (receiving Medicaid HCBS) or NH.

Participants

Dually eligible fee‐for‐service beneficiaries aged 65 and older in Arkansas, Florida, Minnesota, New Mexico, Texas, Vermont, and Washington from 2003 to 2005. Individuals who had a Medicaid NH stay of at least 90 days and transitioned to Medicaid HCBS (N = 1,169) were matched to individuals who had a Medicaid NH stay of at least 90 days and remained in the NH (N = 1,169).

Measurements

Potentially preventable hospitalizations (defined according to ambulatory‐care‐sensitive conditions) and all hospitalizations were examined.

Results

Cox proportional hazards models were used to compare the risk of hospitalization between the groups, accounting for the differing time at risk and censoring. Being a NH transitioner increased the hazard of experiencing a potentially preventable hospitalization by 40% (95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.01–1.93) over remaining in the NH. NH transitioners had a 58% (95% CI = 1.32–1.91) greater risk of experiencing any type of hospitalization than NH stayers.

Conclusion

Individuals who transitioned from the NH to HCBS had a greater risk of hospitalization. Most of the attention in long‐term care transition programs has been focused on NH readmission, but programs encouraging NH transition should recognize that individuals may be at greater risk for hospitalization after returning to the community. Planning for the medical needs of individuals who transition from an extended NH stay may improve their posttransition outcomes.
Resisting Environmental Dispossession in Ecuador: Whom Does the Political Category of ‘Ancestral Peoples of the Mangrove Ecosystem’ Include and Aim to Empower?
Authors: Latorre Sara
Published: January 2014

The development of shrimp aquaculture in Ecuador caused massive ecological damage, particularly in the mangrove areas. Consequently, the livelihood of the population linked to this ecosystem was disrupted. Faced with environmental dispossession, the population engaged in the defence of mangroves by articulating a national grassroots movement. In 2007, this movement implemented a novel identity politics strategy that linked mangrove ecosystem to indigeneity, and positioned itself as the ‘Ancestral Peoples of the Mangrove Ecosystem’ (PAEM). This paper focuses on the political economy of the shrimp‐farming industry in Ecuador, showing the interrelation between environmental dispossession, collective action and identity formation, and analysing how this novel political identity is understood by different members of this social movement. The work argues that PAEM refers to a category that is closely linked to the processes of mangrove defence, in direct opposition to the shrimp farmer's identity, rather than to an essentialized conception of identity based on ‘nativeness’.
Management of ED under the “Severe Distress” Criteria in the NHS: A Real-Life Study
Authors: Mohee Amar , Bretsztajn Laure , Storey Anne , Eardley Ian
Published: January 2014

Introduction

The United Kingdom is unusual in that a significant proportion of patients with erectile dysfunction (ED) have their treatment fully reimbursed by the National Health Service (NHS). This may have consequences for the choice of treatment and for compliance with treatment.

Aims

The aim of this study was to evaluate the use and cost implications of phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor in an NHS setting.

Methods

Basic demographics and data on ED management for patients treated from January 2000 to April 2011 were obtained from a prospectively accrued database. We reviewed drug usage and costs as well as switching between drugs. Patients were given the choice of all available therapies and were followed up annually.

Main Outcome Measures

Switching, compliance, and costs of treating ED under the “severe distress” criteria in the NHS were reviewed for this study.

Results

Two thousand one hundred fifty-nine patients qualified for reimbursed therapy. Two hundred twenty-six patients were excluded from further analysis owing to missing data. Patients were followed up on an annual basis. The mean patient age was 60.2 years (min 23, max 90), and the mean follow-up was 50.8 months (min 1, max 127). Six hundred ninety-six were started on sildenafil, 990 on tadalafil, 163 on vardenafil, and 84 on intracavernosal alprostadil. Eighteen percent of patients initially started on the scheme and stopped medication unilaterally. Of the patients, 12.3% changed their medication during follow-up. The cost of drugs increased year by year from £257,100 in 2007 to £352,519 in 2011.

Conclusions

Our real-life observational study shows that in our institution, dropout of therapy is unusual. We hypothesize that this reflects, in part, the reimbursement issue. We also found that switching between drugs was unusual, although there are several possible explanations for that. Although this is a successful system for the patients, the hospital, which bears the costs of medication, is finding this an increasing economic drain.
Social Capital and Collective Memory: A Complex Relationship
Authors: Puntscher Sibylle , Hauser Christoph , Pichler Karin , Tappeiner Gottfried
Published: January 2014

The purpose of these analyses is to investigate collective memory, i.e. the shared historical experiences of a community, as driving force for contemporary social capital. Three societal characteristics are considered proxies for collective memory: the current institutional framework as indicator for present common experiences; the cultural attitudes as proxy for long‐term developments; and severe shocks in the history of the regions. The primary aim is thus to understand whether collective memory permits identification of not only the effects of recent (i.e. institutional) or distant (i.e. cultural) on‐going experiences, but also of the impact of such relevant shocks. For this purpose, a comprehensive case study is conducted within a cross‐border research area with special historical development, where it is possible to discriminate between these three indicators of collective memory.

The findings suggest a significant impact of collective memory on social capital endowment. Particularly striking shocks are sustained in the collective memory of a community, influencing its behavior even long after the incident occurred. As a consequence, especially the levels of social trust and networking of the affected population are significantly influenced, such that the community develops protective measures in order to secure its norms, values and traditions. As a result, the social capital of a population is heavily influenced by events that occurred outside living memory.
New scoring system for prediction of microvascular invasion in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma
Authors: Shirabe Ken , Toshima Takeo , Kimura Koichi , Yamashita Yoichi , Ikeda Tetsuo , Ikegami Toru , Yoshizumi Tomoharu , Abe Koichiro , Aishima Shinichi , Maehara Yoshihiko
Published: January 2014

Background & Aims

The microvascular invasion of cancer cells (mvi) is a good prognostic factor after hepatic resection (HR) and liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study aimed to predict mvi in patients with HCC.

Methods

We studied 63 hepatectomized patients with HCC who had HCC without any extrahepatic metastases and vascular invasion, which were detected during preoperative evaluation. The preoperative clinicopathological data of these patients were analysed to predict presence of mvi. A scoring system was designed using significant risk factors. This system was applied to another series of 34 patients with HCC who underwent HR, and was evaluated for validation.

Results

Tumour size, serum des‐gamma‐carboxy prothrombin (DCP) levels and the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) on 2‐[18F]‐fluoro‐2‐deoxy‐D‐glucose positron emission tomography were independent clinical predictors for mvi after multivariate analyses. Tumour size, serum DCP levels, and values of SUVmax were used to plot a receiver operating characteristic curve for predicting mvi. Areas under the curve of tumour size, serum DCP levels and SUV max values, were 0.8652, 0.8027 and 0.7848 respectively. Maximal sensitivity and specificity were obtained when the tumour size was 3.6 cm, SUVmax was 4.2, and the serum DCP level was 101 mAU/ml. A scoring system was designed using these three variables. The sensitivity and specificity of our scoring system were 100% and 90.9%, respectively, in the validation test.

Conclusion

Our scoring system for mvi, consisting of tumour size, serum DCP levels, and SUV max, provides a precise prediction of mvi.
Long‐term outcome in Caucasian patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection after HBsAg seroclearance
Authors: Lauret Eugenia , González‐Diéguez María L. , Rodríguez Mercedes , González Marta , Melón Santiago , Rodrigo Luis , Rodríguez Manuel
Published: January 2014

Background & Aims

The natural course after hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) seroclearance in Caucasian patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is not well‐defined. To investigate the clinical characteristics and outcome in a series of European Caucasian patients with chronic HBV infection according to HBsAg response over time.

Methods

A total of 612 patients with compensated chronic HBV infection and without other cause of liver disease were prospectively followed up. Seventy‐eight subjects cleared HBsAg and 534 remained HBsAg‐positive. Clinical and virological examinations were periodically performed and development of cirrhosis and liver‐related complications was monitored during a mean follow‐up time of 9.9 years.

Results

After HBsAg seroclearance, serum HBV DNA was undetectable in 38 patients in whom it was tested and HBsAg reappearance was observed in two subjects (2.6%). At 15 years of follow‐up, the cumulative probability of developing a liver‐related complication was 11.6% in HBsAg‐positive patients and 1.8% in those with HBsAg loss (P = 0.03), although this benefit was limited to patients with cirrhosis (P < 0.001) and to those who received therapy (P < 0.01). Among patients without cirrhosis and among those who did not receive therapy, the probability was not different between those who cleared the HBsAg and those who did not (P = 0.3 and P = 0.5 respectively).

Conclusion

Hepatitis B surface antigen loss confers a significant clinical benefit in Caucasian subjects with HBV‐related cirrhosis and in those with chronic HBV infection who receive antiviral therapy. However, HBsAg reappearance can be observed in selected cases.
Targeted inhibition of the FGF19‐FGFR4 pathway in hepatocellular carcinoma; translational safety considerations
Authors: Mellor Howard R.
Published: January 2014

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a leading cause of cancer‐related death and new therapies are urgently required to treat this disease. Recent data suggest that the FGF19‐FGFR4 axis may be a key driver in certain forms of HCC, making the pathway an interesting, emerging molecular target for potential therapeutic intervention. A complication is that, outside of malignant disease, FGFR4 plays an important physiological role in the regulation of hepatic bile acid (BA) synthesis. FGF19 signalling via FGFR4 suppresses de novo BA production in the liver, tightly maintaining hepatic and systemic levels of these detergent‐like molecules at a physiological threshold and preventing pathological complications of raised BA levels, such as cholestatic liver injury and bile acid diarrhoea. In some cases of HCC, the malignant disease causes bile duct obstruction, preventing BA secretion from the liver and resulting in cholestasis. Here, the role of FGFR4 signalling in both HCC and BA homoeostasis is discussed. The potential effects of therapeutic FGF19‐FGFR4 inhibition on human hepatobiliary/gastrointestinal physiology are considered along with the potential safety implications of FGF19‐FGFR4 blockade in patients with HCC.
Greek adolescents' views of people with mental illness through drawings: mental health education's impact
Authors: Sakellari Evanthia , Lehtonen Kimmo , Sourander Andre , Kalokerinou‐Anagnostopoulou Athena , Leino‐Kilpi Helena
Published: January 2014

People with mental illness are among the most stigmatized and discriminated against as a result of lack of knowledge among the public. Our study explored adolescents' perceptions of people with mental illness through drawings, described these perceptions, and tested the possible changes in perceptions after an educational mental health intervention. Drawings were collected before and after an educational mental health intervention from 59 Greek secondary school students. One group of participants served as the experimental group and received the educational mental health intervention. Content analysis of the drawings was used to analyze data. The drawings provided a clear understanding of adolescents' perceptions towards people with mental illness. After the educational mental health intervention the negative elements presenting the people with mental illness were less among the experimental group, while the drawings among the comparison group did not change. The findings support that educational mental health intervention can have a positive impact on adolescents' perceptions towards people with mental illness. Health professionals can use the findings of our study in order to develop and implement similar interventions.
New rodents (Cricetidae) from the Neogene of Curaçao and Bonaire, Dutch Antilles
Authors: Zijlstra Jelle S. , McFarlane Donald A. , Van Den Hoek Ostende Lars W. , Lundberg Joyce
Published: January 2014

Cordimus, a new genus of cricetid rodent, is described from Neogene deposits on the islands of Curaçao and Bonaire, Dutch Antilles. The genus is characterized by strongly cuspidate molars, the presence of mesolophs in most upper molars and the absence of mesolophids in lower molars. Similarities with the early cricetid Copemys from the Miocene of North America coupled with apparent derived characters shared with the subfamily Sigmodontinae suggest that Cordimus may be close to the root of the sigmodontine lineage, a possibility that remains to be tested through explicit phylogenetic analysis. Three species are recognized on the basis of size and details of molar morphology. Cordimus hooijeri sp. nov. is described from Bonaire on the basis of Holocene owl pellet material that consists of dentaries and postcranial material only. This species is presumed to be extinct, but focused surveys are needed to confirm this hypothesis. Cordimus debuisonjei sp. nov. and Cordimus raton sp. nov. are described from deposits on Tafelberg Santa Barbara in Curaçao. Although the age of these deposits is not known, they are most likely of late Pliocene or early Pleistocene age. Both are represented by numerous isolated molars and some osteological material.
TREM‐2 Promotes Macrophage‐Mediated Eradication of Pseudomonas aeruginosa via a PI3K/Akt Pathway
Authors: Zhu M. , Li D. , Wu Y. , Huang X. , Wu M.
Published: January 2014

Triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (TREM‐2) is a cell surface receptor abundantly expressed on myeloid lineage cells such as macrophages and dendritic cells. It is reported that TREM‐2 functions as an inflammatory inhibitor in macrophages and dendritic cells. However, the role of TREM‐2 in bacterial killing remains unclear. This study explored the role of TREM‐2 in bacterial eradication of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA), a Gram‐negative bacterium which causes various opportunistic infections. Phagocytosis assay assessed by flow cytometry suggested that TREM‐2 was not involved in the uptake of PA by macrophages, while bacterial plate count data showed that TREM‐2 was required for macrophage‐mediated intracellular killing of PA. Moreover, our results demonstrated that TREM‐2 promoted macrophage killing by enhancing reactive oxygen species (ROS), but not nitric oxygen (NO) production. Treatment with N‐acetylcysteine, a ROS scavenger, diminished the TREM‐2‐mediated intracellular killing of PA. To further investigate the underlined mechanisms of TREM‐2‐promoted bacterial killing, we examined the activation of downstream mitogen‐activated protein kinases and PI3K/Akt pathway. Western blot data showed that silencing of TREM‐2 inhibited phosphorylation of Akt, but not ERK, JNK or P38. In addition, pretreatment with PI3K active product PIP3 DiC16 reversed the elevation of intracellular bacterial load in TREM‐2‐silenced macrophages, while PI3K inhibitor wortmannin restored the decline of bacterial load in TREM‐2‐overexpressed macrophages. These data together suggested that the TREM‐2‐mediated bacterial killing is dependent on the activation of PI3K/Akt signalling, which may provide a better understanding of the host antibacterial immune defence.
Responses: Toward an Antiracist Pedagogy
Authors: Floerke Scheid Anna , Vasko Elisabeth T. , Teel Karen
Published: January 2014

The authors respond here to each other's essays published in this issue of the journal. In “Holding Us Accountable,” Anna Floerke Scheid and Elisabeth T. Vasko respond to Karen Teel's essay, “Getting Out of the Left Lane.” In “Challenges and Convergences,” Karen Teel responds to the essay “Teaching Race” by Anna Floerke Scheid and Elisabeth T. Vasko.
The Devil in Mr. Smith: A Conversation with Jonathan Z. Smith
Authors: Smith Jonathan Z. , Pearson Thomas , Gallagher Eugene V. , Jensen Tim , Fujiwara Satoko
Published: January 2014

This interview was recorded in November 2012 in Jonathan Z. Smith's Hyde Park graystone. Professor Smith offers insights into how he thinks about his classroom teaching and his students' learning through descriptions of various assignments and classroom activities he has developed over more than forty years of teaching. The discussion ranges broadly over such topics as: how students read, the failure to adequately prepare graduate students as teachers, students' faith commitments, the use of newspapers (and humor) in the classroom, and the role of definition, de‐familiarization, and critique of the study of religion in introductory classes. The discussion presents vivid glimpses into Jonathan Smith's teaching practice and his teaching persona, including the time a student brought a minister to class to do an exorcism because she thought he was the Devil.
High density of Leishmania major and rarity of other mammals' Leishmania in zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis foci, Iran
Authors: Bordbar Ali , Parvizi Parviz
Published: January 2014

Objectives

Only Leishmania major is well known as a causative agent of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) in Iran. Our objective was to find Leishmania parasites circulating in reservoir hosts, sand flies and human simultaneously.

Methods

Sand flies, rodents and prepared smears of humans were sampled. DNA of Leishmania parasites was extracted, and two fragments of ITS‐rDNA gene amplified by PCR. RFLP and sequencing were employed to identify Leishmania parasites.

Results

Leishmania major and L. turanica were identified unequivocally by targeting and sequencing ITS‐rDNA from humans, rodents and sand flies. The new Leishmania species close to gerbilli (GenBank Accession Nos. EF413076; EF413087) was discovered only in sand flies.

Conclusion

Based on parasite detection of ITS‐rDNA in main and potential reservoir hosts and vectors and humans, we conclude that at least two Leishmania species are common in the Turkmen Sahra ZCL focus. Phylogenetic analysis proved that the new Leishmania is closely related to Leishmania mammal parasites (Leishmania major, Leishmania turanica, Leishmania gerbilli). Its role as a principal agent of ZCL is unknown because it was found only in sand flies. Our findings shed new light on the transmission cycles of several Leishmania parasites in sand flies, reservoir hosts and humans.
Emerging Principles for the Therapeutic Exploitation of Glycosylation
Authors: Dalziel Martin , Crispin Max , Scanlan Christopher N. , Zitzmann Nicole , Dwek Raymond A.
Published: January 2014

Understanding Glycosylation

Glycosylation—the covalent addition of carbohydrates to proteins—is central to many biological processes. Recent advances in understanding the roles of glycans—for example, in protein folding and immune regulation—have revealed that glycans are also involved in many disease conditions, from cancer to microbial infection.

Dalziel
et al.

(p.
10.1126/science.1235681
) review the current knowledge of glycans in pathogen invasion, cancer, autoimmunity, and congenital diseases.
Pregnenolone Can Protect the Brain from Cannabis Intoxication
Authors: Vallée Monique , Vitiello Sergio , Bellocchio Luigi , Hébert-Chatelain Etienne , Monlezun Stéphanie , Martin-Garcia Elena , Kasanetz Fernando , Baillie Gemma L. , Panin Francesca , Cathala Adeline , Roullot-Lacarrière Valérie , Fabre Sandy , Hurst Dow P. , Lynch Diane L. , Shore Derek M. , Deroche-Gamonet Véronique , Spampinato Umberto , Revest Jean-Michel , Maldonado Rafael , Reggio Patricia H. , Ross Ruth A. , Marsicano Giovanni , Piazza Pier Vincenzo
Published: January 2014

Counteracting Cannabis

What is the role of steroid hormones in vulnerability to addiction? Working with rodents,

Vallée
et al.

(p.
94
) found that all major drugs of abuse (morphine, cocaine, alcohol, nicotine) increase neurosteroid levels, with the active ingredient in cannabis (THC) inducing a particularly large increase. THC and other drugs increased levels of pregnenolone, long thought to be an inactive precursor of downstream active steroids. Pregnenolone antagonized most of the known behavioral and somatic effects of THC.
The Minimalist Y
Authors: Capel Blanche
Published: January 2014

Only two genes on the Y chromosome are needed to produce a male gamete.
For Mexican Antivenom Maker, U.S. Market Is a Snake Pit
Authors: Wade Lizzie
Published: January 2014

A Mexican company's bid to sell pit viper antivenom in the United States has met with a legal challenge from the firm that now holds a monopoly on the U.S. market.
Monumental Roots
Authors: Balter Michael
Published: January 2014

The great stone monuments of prehistoric Britain, including Stonehenge, were born in a wave of innovation that apparently began on a remote Scottish island.
Variation in growth, leaf, and wood property traits of Chinese white poplar (Populus tomentosa), a major industrial tree species in Northern China
Authors: Du Qingzhang , Xu Baohua , Gong Chenrui , Yang Xiaohui , Pan Wei , Tian Jiaxing , Li Bailian , Zhang Deqiang
Published: January 2014

The natural phenotypic variation in Chinese white poplar (Populus tomentosa Carr.), which is distributed across a wide geographical area of northern China (30°N–40°N, 105°E–125°E), is a potential source of beneficial variation for poplar breeding. Thirteen traits related to growth, leaf, and wood properties were quantified in 460 P. tomentosa individuals grown in a common garden plot. There was considerable range-wide phenotypic variation in all traits across individuals according to the patterns of ANOVA among hierarchical groups (populations and regions, respectively). A clear sexual dimorphism for seven traits was examined. In total, 32 trait–trait phenotypic correlations (P ≤ 0.05), 10 trait–geographical factor correlations (P ≤ 0.05), and a highly interrelated structure network were identified, which was further supported by principal component analysis (PCA). These associations can be used in multiple-trait selective breeding programs for advantageous phenotypic traits. A hierarchical cluster analysis was used to classify four groups (southeastern, central, northeastern, and southwestern populations) among the natural populations using these 13 phenotypic traits. This study provides important perspectives into the use of direct breeding to potentially improve economic traits and provides a starting point for genome-wide association studies in P. tomentosa in the near future.
Secure P2P Cross-Community Health Record Exchange in IHE Compatible Systems
Authors: Urovi Visara , Olivieri Alex C. , de la Torre Albert Brugués , Bromuri Stefano , Fornara Nicoletta , Schumacher Michael
Published: January 2014

This paper investigates a secure mechanism for Electronic Health Records (EHR) exchange over a Peer to Peer (P2P) agent based coordination framework. Our study is based on the SemHealthCoord framework, a platform for the exchange of EHR between autonomous health organisations that extends the existing interoperability standards as proposed by the Integrating Healthcare Enterprise (IHE). Every health organisation in SemHealthCoord represents a community within a P2P network. Communities use a set of autonomous agents and a set of distributed coordination rules to coordinate the agents in the search of specific health records. To enable secure interactions among communities, we propose the use of asymmetric keys and digital certificates. We specify the interaction protocols to provide integrity and authenticity between the communities, and, to illustrate the scalability of our approach, we evaluate the proposed solution in distributed settings by comparing the performance between secured and unsecured data exchange. The contribution of this work is that enables IHE based health communities to dynamically exchange EHR of patients with a secure P2P agent coordination framework.
A Novel Quantum Immune Algorithm for Multiobjective Flexible Job Shop Scheduling
Authors: Davarzani Zohreh , Akbarzadeh-T Mohammad-R.
Published: January 2014

In this study, a hybrid of Quantum Evolutionary and Artificial Immune Algorithms (QIA) is proposed for solving Multiobjective Flexible Job Shop Scheduling Problem (MFJSSP). This problem is formulated as three-objective problem which minimizes completion time (makespan), critical machine workload and total work load of all machines. The quantum coding is shown to improve the immune strategy. The proposed algorithm overcomes the problem by increasing the speed of convergence and diversity of population. Three benchmarks of Kacem and Brandimart are examined to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm. The experimental results show a better performance in comparison to other approaches.
Privacy Preserving Data Mining Using Radial Basis Functions on Horizontally Partitioned Databases in the Malicious Model
Authors: Panteli Alexandros , Maragoudakis Manolis , Gritzalis Stefanos
Published: January 2014

This paper presents a privacy preserving protocol for the computation of a Radial Basis Function (RBF) neural network model between N participants which share horizontally partitioned datasets. The RBF model is used for regression analysis tasks. The novel aspect of the proposed protocol lies to the fact that it assumes a malicious user model and does not use homomorphic cryptographic methods, which are inherently only suited for a semi-trusted user environment. The performance analysis shows that the communication overhead is low enough to warranty its use while the computational complexity is identical in most cases with the centralized computation scenario (e.g. a trusted third party). The accuracy of the output model is only marginally subpar to a centralized computation on the union of all datasets.
A General Framework Based on Composite Granules for Mining Association Rules
Authors: Fang Gang , Wu Yue
Published: January 2014

At present many algorithms for mining association rules have been proposed, but most of them are only suitable for discovering specific frequent itemsets from characteristic data sets on the appointed environments, namely, these algorithms are not general enough when mining association rules. In this paper, a general framework based on composite granules for mining association rules is proposed, which is a general data mining model without appointed restriction from frequent itemsets, data sets or mining environments and so on. An iterative method is efficiently applied to the general mining framework for discovering frequent itemsets, which adopts repartitioning frequent attributes to iteratively reconstruct the mixed radix information system for reducing a relational database. In order that the framework for discovering frequent itemsets has a generality, in discussing and establishing the general mining framework, this paper introduces a novel conception and data model, namely, a mixed radix information system is applied to describe a relational database, and a composite granules is used to build a specific relationship between an information system and a mixed radix information system, which can hold the same extension and simultaneously exist in two different information systems. The mixed radix information system can help the general framework to reduce information data and improve the performance of the framework for generating frequent itemsets. The composite granules model can create a relationship between an information granule and a digital information granule, and help the framework for computing the support to avoid reading the database repeatedly or using the complex data structure. Finally, a new taxonomy is presented to verify the generality and the high efficiency of the mining framework and all the experiments based on the taxonomy indicate that the general mining framework has the required generality, and the performance of the framework is better than these classical mining frameworks.
PARTONIC PICTURE OF GTMDS
Authors: LIUTI SIMONETTA , RAJAN ABHA , COURTOY AURORE , GOLDSTEIN GARY R. , HERNANDEZ J. OSVALDO GONZALEZ
Published: January 2014

We argue that due to parity constraints, the helicity combination of the purely momentum space counterparts of the Wigner distributions — the generalized transverse momentum distributions — that describes the configuration of an unpolarized quark in a longitudinally polarized nucleon, can enter the deeply virtual Compton scattering amplitude only through matrix elements involving a final state interaction. The relevant matrix elements in turn involve light cone operators projections in the transverse direction, or they appear in the deeply virtual Compton scattering amplitude at twist three. Orbital angular momentum or the spin structure of the nucleon was a major reason for these various distributions and amplitudes to have been introduced. We show that twist three contributions to deeply virtual Compton scattering provide observables related to orbital angular momentum.
SINGLE-SPIN ASYMMETRIES IN SEMI-INCLUSIVE DEEP INELASTIC SCATTERING AND DRELL-YAN PROCESSES
Authors: SIEVERT MATTHEW D.
Published: January 2014

In this brief article, we summarize our recent work1 regarding the origin of the nucleon Sivers functions within the diquark spectator model in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS) and the Drell-Yan process (DY). We demonstrate that the C, P, T symmetry properties of transverse spinors always couple the spin-dependent part of the numerator algebra to the imaginary part of the denominator in the cross section. This complex phase, and its sign change under time reversal, is believed to be responsible for the predicted sign change of the Sivers functions in SIDIS and DY. We study the complex phase generated in both processes by the "color-lensing" mechanism and find that, although the phases appear to be different in structure between SIDIS and DY, they do give rise to the expected sign flip relation at leading twist.
TRANSVERSE MOMENTUM-WEIGHTED SIVERS ASYMMETRY IN SEMI-INCLUSIVE DEEP INELASTIC SCATTERING AT NEXT-TO-LEADING ORDER
Authors: VITEV IVAN , KANG ZHONG-BO , XING HONGXI
Published: January 2014

We summarize the results of a recent study of next-to-leading order perturbative QCD corrections to the transverse momentum-weighted Sivers asymmetry in semi-inclusive hadron production in lepton-proton deep inelastic scattering. The corresponding differential cross section is evaluated as a convolution of a twist-three quark-gluon correlation function, often referred to as Qiu-Sterman function, the usual unpolarized fragmentation function, and a hard coefficient function. By studying the collinear divergence structure, we identify the evolution kernel for the Qiu-Sterman function. The hard coefficient function, which is finite and free of any divergence, is evaluated at one-loop order.
STUDIES OF ANALYTIC EVOLUTION OF TWO-PHOTON GENERALIZED DISTRIBUTION AMPLITUDE IN QCD
Authors: TANDOGAN ASLI , RADYUSHKIN ANATOLY V.
Published: January 2014

We extend our method of analytic ERBL evolution for the case of distribution amplitudes that have jumps at some points x = ζi inside the support region 0 < x < 1. As an application of the method, we use it for evolution of the two-photon generalized distribution amplitude. Our approach has advantages over the standard method of expansion in Gegenbauer polynomials, which requires infinite number of terms in order to accuretly reproduce functions in the vicinity of singular points, and over the method of straightforward iteration of initial distribution with evolution kernel which produces logarithmically divergent terms at each iteration. In our method, the logarithmic singularities are summed from the start, which immediately produces a continuous curve, with only one or two iterations needed afterwards in order to get precise results.
TSV stress-aware full-chip mechanical reliability analysis and optimization for 3D IC
Authors: Jung Moongon , Mitra Joydeep , Pan David Z. , Lim Sung Kyu
Published: January 2014

Three-dimensional integrated circuit (3D IC) with through-silicon-via (TSV) is believed to offer new levels of efficiency, power, performance, and form-factor advantages over the conventional 2D IC. However, 3D IC involves disruptive manufacturing technologies compared to conventional 2D IC. TSVs cause significant thermomechanical stress that may seriously affect performance, leakage, and reliability of circuits. In this paper, we discuss an efficient and accurate full-chip thermomechanical stress and reliability analysis tool as well as a design optimization methodology to alleviate mechanical reliability issues in 3D ICs. First, we analyze detailed thermomechanical stress induced by TSVs in conjunction with various associated structures such as landing pad and dielectric liner. Then, we explore and validate the linear superposition principle of stress tensors and demonstrate the accuracy of this method against detailed finite element analysis (FEA) simulations. Next, we apply this linear superposition method to full-chip stress simulation and a reliability metric named the von Mises yield criterion. Finally, we propose a design optimization methodology to mitigate the mechanical reliability problems in 3D ICs.
Saliency-maximized audio visualization and efficient audio-visual browsing for faster-than-real-time human acoustic event detection
Authors: Lin Kai-Hsiang , Zhuang Xiaodan , Goudeseune Camille , King Sarah , Hasegawa-Johnson Mark , Huang Thomas S.
Published: January 2014

Browsing large audio archives is challenging because of the limitations of human audition and attention. However, this task becomes easier with a suitable visualization of the audio signal, such as a spectrogram transformed to make unusual audio events salient. This transformation maximizes the mutual information between an isolated event's spectrogram and an estimate of how salient the event appears in its surrounding context. When such spectrograms are computed and displayed with fluid zooming over many temporal orders of magnitude, sparse events in long audio recordings can be detected more quickly and more easily. In particular, in a 1/10-real-time acoustic event detection task, subjects who were shown saliency-maximized rather than conventional spectrograms performed significantly better. Saliency maximization also improves the mutual information between the ground truth of nonbackground sounds and visual saliency, more than other common enhancements to visualization.
Virtually split cache
Authors: Rolán Dyer , Fraguela Basilio B. , Doallo Ramón
Published: January 2014

First-level caches are usually split for both instructions and data instead of unifying them in a single cache. Although that approach eases the pipeline design and provides a simple way to independently treat data and instructions, its global hit rate is usually smaller than that of a unified cache. Furthermore, unified lower-level caches usually behave and process memory requests disregarding whether they are data or instruction requests. In this article, we propose a new technique aimed to balance the amount of space devoted to instructions and data for optimizing set-associative caches: the Virtually Split Cache or VSC. Our technique combines the sharing of resources from unified approaches with the bandwidth and parallelism that split configurations provide, thus reducing power consumption while not degrading performance. Our design dynamically adjusts cache resources devoted to instructions and data depending on their particular demand. Two VSC designs are proposed in order to track the instructions and data requirements. The Shadow Tag VSC (ST-VSC) is based on shadow tags that store the last evicted line related to data and instructions in order to determine how well the cache would work with one more way per set devoted to each kind. The Global Selector VSC (GS-VSC) uses a saturation counter that is updated every time a cache miss occurs either under an instruction or data request applying a duel-like mechanism. Experiments with a variable and a fixed latency VSC show that ST-VSC and GS-VSC reduce on average the cache hierarchy power consumption by 29% and 24%, respectively, with respect to a standard baseline. As for performance, while the fixed latency designs virtually match the split baseline in a single-core system, a variable latency ST-VSC and GS-VSC increase the average IPC by 2.5% and 2%, respectively. In multicore systems, even the slower fixed latency ST-VSC and GS-VSC designs improve the baseline IPC by 3.1% and 2.5%, respectively, in a four-core system thanks to the reduction in the bandwidth demanded from the lower cache levels. This is in contrast with many techniques that trade performance degradation for power consumption reduction. VSC particularly benefits embedded processors with a single level of cache, where up to an average 9.2% IPC improvement is achieved. Interestingly, we also find that partitioning the LLC for instructions and data can improve performance around 2%.
Automatic parallelization of fine-grained metafunctions on a chip multiprocessor
Authors: Lee Sanghoon , Tuck James
Published: January 2014

Due to the importance of reliability and security, prior studies have proposed inlining metafunctions into applications for detecting bugs and security vulnerabilities. However, because these software techniques add frequent, fine-grained instrumentation to programs, they often incur large runtime overheads. In this work, we consider an automatic thread extraction technique for removing these fine-grained checks from a main application and scheduling them on helper threads. In this way, we can leverage the resources available on a CMP to reduce the latency and overhead of fine-grained checking codes.

Our parallelization strategy extracts metafunctions from a single threaded application and executes them in
customized
helper threads—threads constructed to mirror relevant fragments of the main program’s behavior in order to keep communication and overhead low. To get good performance, we consider optimizations that reduce communication and balance work among many threads.

We evaluate our parallelization strategy on Mudflap, a pointer-use checking tool in GCC. To show the benefits of our technique, we compare it to a manually parallelized version of Mudflap. We run our experiments on an architectural simulator with support for fast queueing operations. On a subset of SPECint 2000, our automatically parallelized code using static load balance is only 19% slower, on average, than the manually parallelized version on a simulated eight-core system. In addition, our automatically parallelized code using dynamic load balance is competitive, on average, to the manually parallelized version on a simulated eight-core system. Furthermore, all the applications except parser achieve better speedups with our automatic algorithms than with the manual approach. Also, our approach introduces very little overhead in the main program—it is kept under 100%, which is more than a 5.3× reduction compared to serial Mudflap.
Democratizing transactional programming
Authors: Gramoli Vincent , Guerraoui Rachid
Published: January 2014

Control transactions without compromising their simplicity for the sake of expressiveness, application concurrency, or performance.
Altruism in Atomic Congestion Games
Authors: Hoefer Martin , Skopalik Alexander
Published: January 2014

This article studies the effects of altruism, a phenomenon widely observed in practice, in the model of atomic congestion games. Altruistic behavior is modeled by a linear trade-off between selfish and social objectives. Our model can be embedded in the framework of congestion games with player-specific latency functions. Stable states are the pure Nash equilibria of these games, and we examine their existence and the convergence of sequential best-response dynamics. In general, pure Nash equilibria are often absent, and existence is NP-hard to decide. Perhaps surprisingly, if all delay functions are affine, the games remain potential games, even when agents are arbitrarily altruistic. The construction underlying this result can be extended to a class of general potential games and social cost functions, and we study a number of prominent examples. These results give important insights into the robustness of multi-agent systems with heterogeneous altruistic incentives. Furthermore, they yield a general technique to prove that stabilization is robust, even with partly altruistic agents, which is of independent interest.

In addition to these results for uncoordinated dynamics, we consider a scenario with a central altruistic institution that can set incentives for the agents. We provide constructive and hardness results for finding the minimum number of altruists to stabilize an optimal congestion profile and more general mechanisms to incentivize agents to adopt favorable behavior. These results are closely related to Stackelberg routing and answer open questions raised recently in the literature.
Campaign extraction from social media
Authors: Lee Kyumin , Caverlee James , Cheng Zhiyuan , Sui Daniel Z.
Published: January 2014

In this manuscript, we study the problem of detecting coordinated free text campaigns in large-scale social media. These campaigns—ranging from coordinated spam messages to promotional and advertising campaigns to political astro-turfing—are growing in significance and reach with the commensurate rise in massive-scale social systems. Specifically, we propose and evaluate a content-driven framework for effectively linking free text posts with common “talking points” and extracting campaigns from large-scale social media. Three of the salient features of the campaign extraction framework are: (i) first, we investigate graph mining techniques for isolating coherent campaigns from large message-based graphs; (ii) second, we conduct a comprehensive comparative study of text-based message correlation in message and user levels; and (iii) finally, we analyze temporal behaviors of various campaign types. Through an experimental study over millions of Twitter messages we identify five major types of campaigns—namely Spam, Promotion, Template, News, and Celebrity campaigns—and we show how these campaigns may be extracted with high precision and recall.
Community detection and visualization in social networks
Authors: Cruz Juan David , Bothorel Cécile , Poulet François
Published: January 2014

Due to the explosion of social networking and the information sharing among their users, the interest in analyzing social networks has increased over the recent years. Two general interests in this kind of studies are community detection and visualization. In the first case, most of the classic algorithms for community detection use only the structural information to identify groups, that is, how clusters are formed according to the topology of the relationships. However, these methods do not take into account any semantic information which could guide the clustering process, and which may add elements to conduct further analyses. In the second case most of the layout algorithms for clustered graphs have been designed to differentiate the groups within the graph, but they are not designed to analyze the interactions between such groups. Identifying these interactions gives an insight into the way different communities exchange messages or information, and allows the social network researcher to identify key actors, roles, and paths from one community to another.

This article presents a novel model to use, in a conjoint way, the semantic information from the social network and its structural information to, first, find structurally and semantically related groups of nodes, and second, a layout algorithm for clustered graphs which divides the nodes into two types, one for nodes with edges connecting other communities and another with nodes connecting nodes only within their own community. With this division the visualization tool focuses on the connections between groups facilitating deep studies of augmented social networks.