bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Quantitative separation logic: a logic for reasoning about probabilistic pointer programs
Authors: Batz Kevin , Kaminski Benjamin Lucien , Katoen Joost-Pieter , Matheja Christoph , Noll Thomas
Published: January 2019

We present
quantitative separation logic
(QSL). In contrast to classical separation logic, QSL employs quantities which evaluate to real numbers instead of predicates which evaluate to Boolean values. The connectives of classical separation logic, separating conjunction and separating implication, are lifted from predicates to quantities. This extension is conservative: Both connectives are backward compatible to their classical analogs and obey the same laws, e.g. modus ponens, adjointness, etc.

Furthermore, we develop a weakest precondition calculus for quantitative reasoning about
probabilistic pointer programs
in QSL. This calculus is a conservative extension of both Ishtiaq’s, O’Hearn’s and Reynolds’ separation logic for heap-manipulating programs and Kozen’s / McIver and Morgan’s weakest preexpectations for probabilistic programs. Soundness is proven with respect to an operational semantics based on Markov decision processes. Our calculus preserves O’Hearn’s
frame rule
, which enables local reasoning. We demonstrate that our calculus enables reasoning about quantities such as the probability of terminating with an empty heap, the probability of reaching a certain array permutation, or the expected length of a list.
Context-, flow-, and field-sensitive data-flow analysis using synchronized Pushdown systems
Authors: Späth Johannes , Ali Karim , Bodden Eric
Published: January 2019

Precise static analyses are context-, field- and flow-sensitive. Context- and field-sensitivity are both expressible as context-free language (CFL) reachability problems. Solving both CFL problems along the same data-flow path is undecidable, which is why most flow-sensitive data-flow analyses over-approximate field-sensitivity through
k
-limited access-path, or through access graphs. Unfortunately, as our experience and this paper show, both representations do not scale very well when used to analyze programs with recursive data structures.

Any single CFL-reachability problem is efficiently solvable, by means of a pushdown system. This work thus introduces the concept of synchronized pushdown systems (SPDS). SPDS encode both procedure calls/returns and field stores/loads as separate but “synchronized” CFL reachability problems. An SPDS solves both individual problems precisely, and approximation occurs only in corner cases that are apparently rare in practice: at statements where both problems are satisfied but not along the same data-flow path.

SPDS are also efficient: formal complexity analysis shows that SPDS shift the complexity from |
F
|

3
k

under
k
-limiting to |
S
||
F
|
2
, where
F
is the set of fields and
S
the set of statements involved in a data-flow. Our evaluation using DaCapo shows this shift to pay off in practice: SPDS are almost as efficient as
k
-limiting with
k
=1 although their precision equals
k
=∞. For a typestate analysis SPDS accelerate the analysis up to 83× for data-flows of objects that involve many field accesses but span rather few methods.

We conclude that SPDS can provide high precision and further improve scalability, in particularly when used in analyses that expose rather local data flows.
Bounded model checking of signal temporal logic properties using syntactic separation
Authors: Bae Kyungmin , Lee Jia
Published: January 2019

Signal temporal logic (STL) is a temporal logic formalism for specifying properties of continuous signals. STL is widely used for analyzing programs in cyber-physical systems (CPS) that interact with physical entities. However, existing methods for analyzing STL properties are incomplete even for bounded signals, and thus cannot guarantee the correctness of CPS programs. This paper presents a new symbolic model checking algorithm for CPS programs that is refutationally complete for general STL properties of bounded signals. To address the difficulties of dealing with an infinite state space over a continuous time domain, we first propose a syntactic separation of STL, which decomposes an STL formula into an equivalent formula so that each subformula depends only on one of the disjoint segments of a signal. Using the syntactic separation, an STL model checking problem can be reduced to the satisfiability of a first-order logic formula, which is decidable for CPS programs with polynomial dynamics using satisfiability modulo theories (SMT). Unlike the previous methods, our method can verify the correctness of CPS programs for STL properties up to given bounds.
Efficient parameterized algorithms for data packing
Authors: Chatterjee Krishnendu , Goharshady Amir Kafshdar , Okati Nastaran , Pavlogiannis Andreas
Published: January 2019

There is a huge gap between the speeds of modern caches and main memories, and therefore cache misses account for a considerable loss of efficiency in programs. The predominant technique to address this issue has been Data Packing: data elements that are frequently accessed within time proximity are packed into the same cache block, thereby minimizing accesses to the main memory. We consider the algorithmic problem of Data Packing on a two-level memory system. Given a reference sequence
R
of accesses to data elements, the task is to partition the elements into cache blocks such that the number of cache misses on
R
is minimized. The problem is notoriously difficult: it is NP-hard even when the cache has size 1, and is hard to approximate for any cache size larger than 4. Therefore, all existing techniques for Data Packing are based on heuristics and lack theoretical guarantees. In this work, we present the first positive theoretical results for Data Packing, along with new and stronger negative results. We consider the problem under the lens of the underlying access hypergraphs, which are hypergraphs of affinities between the data elements, where the order of an access hypergraph corresponds to the size of the affinity group. We study the problem parameterized by the treewidth of access hypergraphs, which is a standard notion in graph theory to measure the closeness of a graph to a tree. Our main results are as follows: we show that there is a number
q
*
depending on the cache parameters such that (a) if the access hypergraph of order
q
*
has constant treewidth, then there is a linear-time algorithm for Data Packing; (b) the Data Packing problem remains NP-hard even if the access hypergraph of order
q
*
−1 has constant treewidth. Thus, we establish a fine-grained dichotomy depending on a single parameter, namely, the highest order among access hypegraphs that have constant treewidth; and establish the optimal value
q
*
of this parameter. Finally, we present an experimental evaluation of a prototype implementation of our algorithm. Our results demonstrate that, in practice, access hypergraphs of many commonly-used algorithms have small treewidth. We compare our approach with several state-of-the-art heuristic-based algorithms and show that our algorithm leads to significantly fewer cache-misses.
Efficient automated repair of high floating-point errors in numerical libraries
Authors: Yi Xin , Chen Liqian , Mao Xiaoguang , Ji Tao
Published: January 2019

Floating point computation is by nature inexact, and numerical libraries that intensively involve floating-point computations may encounter high floating-point errors. Due to the wide use of numerical libraries, it is highly desired to reduce high floating-point errors in them. Using higher precision will degrade performance and may also introduce extra errors for certain precision-specific operations in numerical libraries. Using mathematical rewriting that mostly focuses on rearranging floating-point expressions or taking Taylor expansions may not fit for reducing high floating-point errors evoked by ill-conditioned problems that are in the nature of the mathematical feature of many numerical programs in numerical libraries.

In this paper, we propose a novel approach for efficient automated repair of high floating-point errors in numerical libraries. Our main idea is to make use of the mathematical feature of a numerical program for detecting and reducing high floating-point errors. The key components include a detecting method based on two algorithms for detecting high floating-point errors and a repair method for deriving an approximation of a mathematical function to generate patch to satisfy a given repair criterion. We implement our approach by constructing a new tool called AutoRNP. Our experiments are conducted on 20 numerical programs in GNU Scientific Library (GSL). Experimental results show that our approach can efficiently repair (with 100% accuracy over all randomly sampled points) high floating-point errors for 19 of the 20 numerical programs.
Pretend synchrony: synchronous verification of asynchronous distributed programs
Authors: v. Gleissenthall Klaus , Kıcı Rami Gökhan , Bakst Alexander , Stefan Deian , Jhala Ranjit
Published: January 2019

We present
pretend synchrony
, a new approach to verifying distributed systems, based on the observation that while distributed programs must execute asynchronously, we can often soundly treat them as if they were synchronous when verifying their correctness. To do so, we compute a
synchronization
, a semantically equivalent program where all sends, receives, and message buffers, have been replaced by simple assignments, yielding a program that can be verified using Floyd-Hoare style Verification Conditions and SMT. We implement our approach as a framework for writing verified distributed programs in Go and evaluate it with four challenging case studies— the classic two-phase commit protocol, the Raft leader election protocol, single-decree Paxos protocol, and a Multi-Paxos based distributed key-value store. We find that pretend synchrony allows us to develop performant systems while making verification of functional correctness
simpler
by reducing manually specified invariants by a factor of 6, and
faster
, by reducing checking time by three orders of magnitude.
A calculus for Esterel: if can, can. if no can, no can.
Authors: Florence Spencer P. , You Shu-Hung , Tov Jesse A. , Findler Robert Bruce
Published: January 2019

The language Esterel has found success in many safety-critical applications, such as fly-by-wire systems and nuclear power plant control software. Its imperative style is natural to programmers building such systems and its precise semantics makes it work well for reasoning about programs.

Existing semantics of Esterel generally fall into two categories: translation to Boolean circuits, or operational semantics that give a procedure for running a whole program. In contrast, equational theories enable reasoning about program behavior via equational rewrites at the source level. Such theories form the basis for proofs of transformations inside compilers or for program refactorings, and defining program evaluation syntactically.

This paper presents the first such equational calculus for Esterel. It also illustrates the calculus’s usefulness with a series of example equivalences and discuss how it enabled us to find bugs in Esterel implementations.
JaVerT 2.0: compositional symbolic execution for JavaScript
Authors: Fragoso Santos José , Maksimović Petar , Sampaio Gabriela , Gardner Philippa
Published: January 2019

We propose a novel, unified approach to the development of compositional symbolic execution tools, bridging the gap between classical symbolic execution and compositional program reasoning based on separation logic. Using this approach, we build JaVerT 2.0, a symbolic analysis tool for JavaScript that follows the language semantics without simplifications. JaVerT 2.0 supports whole-program symbolic testing, verification, and, for the first time, automatic compositional testing based on bi-abduction. The meta-theory underpinning JaVerT 2.0 is developed modularly, streamlining the proofs and informing the implementation. Our explicit treatment of symbolic execution errors allows us to give meaningful feedback to the developer during whole-program symbolic testing and guides the inference of resource of the bi-abductive execution. We evaluate the performance of JaVerT 2.0 on a number of JavaScript data-structure libraries, demonstrating: the scalability of our whole-program symbolic testing; an improvement over the state-of-the-art in JavaScript verification; and the feasibility of automatic compositional testing for JavaScript.
Exploring C semantics and pointer provenance
Authors: Memarian Kayvan , Gomes Victor B. F. , Davis Brooks , Kell Stephen , Richardson Alexander , Watson Robert N. M. , Sewell Peter
Published: January 2019

The semantics of pointers and memory objects in C has been a vexed question for many years. C values cannot be treated as either purely abstract or purely concrete entities: the language exposes their representations, but compiler optimisations rely on analyses that reason about provenance and initialisation status, not just runtime representations. The ISO WG14 standard leaves much of this unclear, and in some respects differs with de facto standard usage --- which itself is difficult to investigate.

In this paper we explore the possible source-language semantics for memory objects and pointers, in ISO C and in C as it is used and implemented in practice, focussing especially on pointer provenance. We aim to, as far as possible, reconcile the ISO C standard, mainstream compiler behaviour, and the semantics relied on by the corpus of existing C code. We present two coherent proposals, tracking provenance via integers and not; both address many design questions. We highlight some pros and cons and open questions, and illustrate the discussion with a library of test cases. We make our semantics executable as a test oracle, integrating it with the Cerberus semantics for much of the rest of C, which we have made substantially more complete and robust, and equipped with a web-interface GUI. This allows us to experimentally assess our proposals on those test cases. To assess their viability with respect to larger bodies of C code, we analyse the changes required and the resulting behaviour for a port of FreeBSD to CHERI, a research architecture supporting hardware capabilities, which (roughly speaking) traps on the memory safety violations which our proposals deem undefined behaviour. We also develop a new runtime instrumentation tool to detect possible provenance violations in normal C code, and apply it to some of the SPEC benchmarks. We compare our proposal with a source-language variant of the twin-allocation LLVM semantics proposal of Lee et al. Finally, we describe ongoing interactions with WG14, exploring how our proposals could be incorporated into the ISO standard.
Grounding thin-air reads with event structures
Authors: Chakraborty Soham , Vafeiadis Viktor
Published: January 2019

The key challenge in defining the concurrency semantics of a programming language is how to enable the most efficient compilation to existing hardware architectures, and yet forbid programs from reading thin-air values, i.e., ones that do not appear in the program. At POPL'17, Kang et al. achieved a major breakthrough by introducing the `promising' semantics that came with results showing that it was a good candidate solution to the problem. Unfortunately, however, the promising semantics is rather complicated, and due to its complexity it contains some flaws and limitations that are very hard to address.

In response, we present an alternative solution to this problem based on event structures. We show that it is indeed a solution by establishing the standard results about the semantics (DRF theorems, implementation and optimization correctness) as well as a formal connection to the semantics of Kang et al. Further, we show that it is easier to adapt, by extending the semantics to cover features (such as SC accesses) that are not supported by Kang et al. and to rule out some dubious behaviors admitted by the promising semantics.
ISA semantics for ARMv8-a, RISC-v, and CHERI-MIPS
Authors: Armstrong Alasdair , Bauereiss Thomas , Campbell Brian , Reid Alastair , Gray Kathryn E. , Norton Robert M. , Mundkur Prashanth , Wassell Mark , French Jon , Pulte Christopher , Flur Shaked , Stark Ian , Krishnaswami Neel , Sewell Peter
Published: January 2019

Architecture specifications notionally define the fundamental interface between hardware and software: the envelope of allowed behaviour for processor implementations, and the basic assumptions for software development and verification. But in practice, they are typically prose and pseudocode documents, not rigorous or executable artifacts, leaving software and verification on shaky ground.

In this paper, we present rigorous semantic models for the sequential behaviour of large parts of the mainstream ARMv8-A, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures, and the research CHERI-MIPS architecture, that are complete enough to boot operating systems, variously Linux, FreeBSD, or seL4. Our ARMv8-A models are automatically translated from authoritative ARM-internal definitions, and (in one variant) tested against the ARM Architecture Validation Suite.

We do this using a custom language for ISA semantics, Sail, with a lightweight dependent type system, that supports automatic generation of emulator code in C and OCaml, and automatic generation of proof-assistant definitions for Isabelle, HOL4, and (currently only for MIPS) Coq. We use the former for validation, and to assess specification coverage. To demonstrate the usability of the latter, we prove (in Isabelle) correctness of a purely functional characterisation of ARMv8-A address translation. We moreover integrate the RISC-V model into the RMEM tool for (user-mode) relaxed-memory concurrency exploration. We prove (on paper) the soundness of the core Sail type system.

We thereby take a big step towards making the architectural abstraction actually well-defined, establishing foundations for verification and reasoning.
Structuring the synthesis of heap-manipulating programs
Authors: Polikarpova Nadia , Sergey Ilya
Published: January 2019

This paper describes a deductive approach to synthesizing imperative programs with pointers from declarative specifications expressed in Separation Logic. Our synthesis algorithm takes as input a pair of assertions—a pre- and a postcondition—which describe two states of the symbolic heap, and derives a program that transforms one state into the other, guided by the shape of the heap. Our approach to program synthesis is grounded in proof theory: we introduce the novel framework of Synthetic Separation Logic (SSL), which generalises the classical notion of heap entailment
P
⊢
Q
to incorporate a possibility of transforming a heap satisfying an assertion
P
into a heap satisfying an assertion
Q
. A synthesized program represents a proof term for a transforming entailment statement
P
↝
Q
, and the synthesis procedure corresponds to a proof search. The derived programs are, thus, correct by construction, in the sense that they satisfy the ascribed pre/postconditions, and are accompanied by complete proof derivations, which can be checked independently.

We have implemented a proof search engine for SSL in a form of the program synthesizer called SuSLik. For efficiency, the engine exploits properties of SSL rules, such as invertibility and commutativity of rule applications on separate heaps, to prune the space of derivations it has to consider. We explain and showcase the use of SSL on characteristic examples, describe the design of SuSLik, and report on our experience of using it to synthesize a series of benchmark programs manipulating heap-based linked data structures.
FrAngel: component-based synthesis with control structures
Authors: Shi Kensen , Steinhardt Jacob , Liang Percy
Published: January 2019

In component-based program synthesis, the synthesizer generates a program given a library of components (functions). Existing component-based synthesizers have difficulty synthesizing loops and other control structures, and they often require formal specifications of the components, which can be expensive to generate. We present FrAngel, a new approach to component-based synthesis that can synthesize short Java functions with control structures when given a desired signature, a set of input-output examples, and a collection of libraries (without formal specifications). FrAngel aims to discover programs with many distinct behaviors by combining two main ideas. First, it
mines code fragments
from partially-successful programs that only pass some of the examples. These extracted fragments are often useful for synthesis due to a property that we call
special-case similarity
. Second, FrAngel uses
angelic conditions
as placeholders for control structure conditions and optimistically evaluates the resulting program sketches. Angelic conditions decompose the synthesis process: FrAngel first finds promising partial programs and later fills in their missing conditions. We demonstrate that FrAngel can synthesize a variety of interesting programs with combinations of control structures within seconds, significantly outperforming prior state-of-the-art.
Biologically Generated Mixing in the Ocean
Authors: Kunze Eric
Published: January 2019

This article assesses the contribution to ocean mixing by the marine biosphere at both high and low Reynolds numbers Re= uℓ/ ν. While back-of-the-envelope estimates have suggested that swimming marine organisms might generate as much high-Reynolds-number turbulence as deep-ocean tide- and wind-generated internal waves, and that turbulent dissipation rates of O(10−5 W kg−1) (Re ∼ 105) could be produced by aggregations of organisms ranging from O(0.01 m) krill to O(10 m) cetaceans, comparable to strong wind and buoyancy forcing near the surface, microstructure measurements do not find consistently elevated dissipation associated with diel vertically migrating krill. Elevated dissipation rates are associated with schools of O(0.1– 1 m) fish but with low mixing coefficients ( γ ∼ 0.002–0.02, as compared with γ ∼ 0.2 for geophysical turbulence). Likewise, viscously induced drift at low Reynolds numbers produces little mixing of temperature, solutes, dissolved nutrients, and gases when realistic swimmers and molecular scalar diffusion are taken into account. The conclusion is that, while the marine biosphere can generate turbulence, it contributes little ocean mixing compared with breaking internal gravity waves.
Climate Change, Coral Loss, and the Curious Case of the Parrotfish Paradigm: Why Don't Marine Protected Areas Improve Reef Resilience?
Authors: Bruno John F. , Côté Isabelle M. , Toth Lauren T.
Published: January 2019

Scientists have advocated for local interventions, such as creating marine protected areas and implementing fishery restrictions, as ways to mitigate local stressors to limit the effects of climate change on reef-building corals. However, in a literature review, we find little empirical support for the notion of managed resilience. We outline some reasons for why marine protected areas and the protection of herbivorous fish (especially parrotfish) have had little effect on coral resilience. One key explanation is that the impacts of local stressors (e.g., pollution and fishing) are often swamped by the much greater effect of ocean warming on corals. Another is the sheer complexity (including numerous context dependencies) of the five cascading links assumed by the managed-resilience hypothesis. If reefs cannot be saved by local actions alone, then it is time to face reef degradation head-on, by directly addressing anthropogenic climate change—the root cause of global coral decline.
The importance of surface area normalization in electrocatalysis and the role of capacitance measurements
Authors: Schalenbach Maximilian
Published: January 2019

Precise characterization of activities is crucial for benchmarking and mechanistic examinations of electrocatalysts. In this study, the importance of surface areas to correctly characterize the activities of electrocatalysts is discussed. Exemplified for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) on a smooth and porous gold electrode, normalization of the activity to the geometric surface areas of the electrodes lead to activities that deviate by orders of magnitudes. Normalization to the electrochemically active surface areas (ECSAs) as determined by capacitance measurements lead to similar activities. To verify if surface areas of different electrodes can be correctly estimated by capacitance measurements, we examined a choice of noble (Au, Pt, Rh, Ir) and non-noble (Ni, Co, Ti, Nb) metal electrodes. The capacitances of all examined metals are individually affected by potential and passivation layers or specific adsorption processes of ions and/or molecules. Thus, the measured capacitances often deviate from the double layer capacitance that is typically used to estimate the ECSA. Accordingly, capacitance measurements to estimate the ECSA must be carefully evaluated and can only be correctly applied in certain frameworks.
TP53 and Prognosis in mCRPC Survival: Biology or Coincidence?
Authors: Rebello Richard J. , Oing Christoph , Gillessen Silke , Bristow Robert G.
Published: January 2019

Cell-free circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) or circulating tumor cell (CTC) assays are potentially powerful in the treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). A new study suggests that mutation of TP53 supersedes AR in predicting mCRPC survival. A role for TP53 mutation as a driver for mCRPC remains unexplored.

See related article by De Laere et al., p. 1766
Manufactured Cell Blocks: Turning Smears into Sections
Authors: Kang Alexandra , Miranda Alina , de Boer Bastiaan
Published: January 2019

Whilst cytological smears are still the basis of cytodiagnosis, there is an increasing role for ancillary testing. Specimens obtained are not always optimal, often with limited material for ancillary studies. Several reports have described the utility of scraping material from cytological smears to manufacture cell blocks to provide material for ancillary studies. Our objective was a retrospective review of the PathWest (QE2) experience with manufactured cell blocks (mCB) over the last 10 years. A total of 178 fine-needle aspiration cases with mCB were extracted from the PathWest database. Data were subdivided into: lymph node (89), breast (31), thyroid (23), soft tissue (13), liver (11), and other sites (11) and were analysed. All available material was reviewed. Diagnostic material was identified in 163 mCB (91.6%). Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was performed on 149 cases. Positive IHC staining was seen in 139 cases (93.3%) and advanced the diagnosis in 119 cases (79.9%). Molecular studies were performed on 38 mCB with adequate DNA obtained in 37 cases (97.3%). Our review has demonstrated that cellular material scraped from air-dried or prefixed smears can be made into cell blocks. Antigen preservation is adequate to provide diagnostically useful results with IHC whilst DNA integrity is preserved to allow molecular analysis.
The Value of Ambulatory Urodynamics in the Evaluation of Treatment Effect of Sacral Neuromodulation
Authors: Drossaerts Jamie , Rademakers Kevin L.J. , Rahnama’i Sajjad M. , Marcelissen Tom , Van Kerrebroeck Philip , van Koeveringe Gommert
Published: January 2019

Objectives: To assess the improvement of symptoms by sacral neuromodulation (SNM) in an objective way by carrying out an ambulatory urodynamic study (ambulatory-UDS). Until now, successful treatment has been defined as a ≥50% improvement recorded on voiding diaries. Voiding diaries are a patient reported outcome tool. A tool with less bias is desired to evaluate the treatment results before an expensive permanent system is implanted. Methods: Between 2002 and 2015, a total of 334 patients with lower urinary tract symptoms were included consecutively in an ambulatory-UDS database. From this database, a subgroup of patients was selected which underwent SNM. Results: In 51 patients, an ambulatory-UDS was performed both at baseline and during the SNM test period. A positive treatment outcome after test stimulation based on the patients’ voiding diary, correlated (p < 0.0001) with an improvement on ambulatory-UDS. Twenty-six of the 30 patients, who have showed improvement of more than 50% on voiding diary parameters and who had subjective improvement of their symptoms, showed an early improvement on ambulatory-UDS. Conclusions: Ambulatory-UDS can be used in clinical decision making, as it is associated with voiding diary improvement during the SNM test period. Using ambulatory-UDS to confirm success could in the future justify the shortening of the test period.
Adenosquamous Carcinoma of the Choledochus
Authors: Uehara Daisuke , Takagi Hitoshi , Hoshino Takashi , Suzuki Yuhei , Takakusagi Satoshi , Maruhashi Kyoko , Kizawa Kazuko , Kosone Takashi , Naganuma Atsushi , Hisanaga Etsuko , Hirato Junko , Kakizaki Satoru , Uraoka Toshio
Published: January 2019

The patient was an 86-year-old man who was admitted with obstructive jaundice. Computed tomography revealed a tumor in the hilar choledochus with peripheral hepatic duct dilatation. Endoscopic cholangiography (ERC) demonstrated the defect in the choledochus. Brushing cytology during ERC showed Orange-G-philic keratinized atypical cells, which led to a diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma. Chemotherapy with tegafur-gimeracil-oteracil potassium was ineffective and was discontinued due to adverse effects. The patient died 5 months after the diagnosis and autopsy revealed tubular adenocarcinoma of the hilar bile duct with squamous cell carcinoma component. Progression of the disease might influence the distribution of adenosquamous carcinoma. The clinicopathological sequence of adenosquamous carcinoma of the choledochus was documented.
Hospital Variation in the Utilization of Short-Term Nondurable Mechanical Circulatory Support in Myocardial Infarction Complicated by Cardiogenic Shock
Authors: Strom Jordan B. , Zhao Yuansong , Shen Changyu , Chung Mabel , Pinto Duane S. , Popma Jeffrey J. , Cohen David J. , Yeh Robert W.
Published: January 2019

Background:

Limited knowledge exists on inter-hospital variation in the utilization of short-term, nondurable mechanical circulatory support (MCS) for myocardial infarction (MI) complicated by cardiogenic shock (CS).

Methods and Results:

Hospitalizations for MI with CS in 2014 in a nationally representative all-payer database were included. The proportion of hospitalizations for MI with CS using MCS (MCS ratio) and in-hospital mortality were evaluated. Hospital characteristics and outcomes were compared across quartiles of MCS usage. Of 1813 hospitals evaluated, 1440 (79.4%) performed ≥10 percutaneous coronary interventions annually. Of these, 1064 (73.9%) had at least one code for MCS. Forty-one percent of hospitals did not use MCS. The median (interquartile range) proportion of MCS use among admissions for MI with CS was 33.3% (0.0%–50.0%). High MCS utilizing hospitals were larger (
P
<0.001). Eighty-five percent (2808/3301) of MCS use was intra-aortic balloon pump. There was significant variation in receipt of MCS at different hospitals (median odds ratio of receiving MCS at 2 random hospitals: 1.58; 95% CI, 1.45–1.70). Adjusted in-hospital mortality was not different across quartiles of MCS use (Q4 versus Q1; odds ratio, 0.95; 95% CI, 0.77–1.16;
P
=0.58).

Conclusions:

Wide variation exists in hospital use of MCS for MI with CS, unexplained by patient characteristics. The predominant form of MCS use is intra-aortic balloon pump. Risk-adjusted mortality rates were not different between higher and lower MCS-utilizing hospitals.
A molecular phylogeny of Speonemadus Jeannel, 1922 with description of two new species from Morocco (Coleoptera: Leiodidae: Cholevinae: Anemadini)
Authors: FRESNEDA JAVIER , FAILLE ARNAUD , FERY HANS , RIBERA IGNACIO
Published: January 2019

The genus Speonemadus Jeannel, 1922 currently includes 12 species distributed in the Western Mediterranean (Iberian Peninsula, North Africa, Sicily and continental Italy). Two new species are described from Morocco, S. brusteli sp. n. from the Rif and S. comasi sp. n. from the High Atlas, the first in the S. vandalitiae-group of species and the second with an isolated position within the genus. Two species are also resurrected from synonymy, S. pulchellus (Reitter, 1885) stat. rest. (former synonym of S. orchesioides (Fairmaire, 1879)) and S. gracilis (Kraatz, 1870) stat. rest. (former synonym of S. vandalitiae (Heyden, 1870)), raising the total number of species of the genus to 16. Lectotypes are designated for Anemadus pulchellus Reitter, 1885, and Anemadus tenuipes Peyerimhoff, 1917. A molecular phylogeny of the genus Speonemadus is presented, based on a combination of mitochondrial and nuclear genes and including seven of the currently recognised species, one of the newly described (S. brusteli sp. n.) and the two reinstated taxa. The genus is estimated to have diversified from the late Miocene (Tortonian), with successive cladogenetic events related to the isolation of landmasses between Iberia and North Africa, including the opening of the Strait of Gibraltar at the end of the Messinian. The distribution of some of the species of Speonemadus remains still uncertain, due to their frequent misidentification and the problems with their taxonomic status.
Brazilian Archisotoma Linnaniemi (Collembola, Isotomidae), with description of a new species from an oceanic atoll
Authors: DE LIMA ESTEVAM C. ARAUJO , ZEPPELINI DOUGLAS , DE MENDONÇA MARIA CLEIDE
Published: January 2019

We summarize the distribution and habitat of Brazilian Archisotoma species, a taxonomic key for all species of the genus is given and a new species is described from intertidal sand of the Biologial Reserve Atol das Rocas, Brazil. Archisotoma jariani sp. nov. belongs to the besselsi group, recognized by small size, tibiotarsus III with stiff outer spur, maxillary head with thin simple capitulum, 3–2 pairs of trichobothria on abdominal segment VI. This is the first species of Collembola recorded from Atol das Rocas.
Two new species of Campsurus Eaton (Ephemeroptera: Polymitarcyidae) from Colombia
Authors: MOLINERI CARLOS , GRANADOS-MARTINEZ CRISTIAN E.
Published: January 2019

Two new species of Campsurus from Colombia are herein described, based on adults of both sexes and eggs. Campsurus vichada sp. nov. from the albifilum group, is separated from the other species in this group by: abdominal terga shaded slightly darker posteriorly, with a pale median band and pale closed markings, and pedestals short and subquadrate, main lobes of penes very long and slender, among other characters. Its sister relation with C. homaulus and C. gracilipenis is hypothesized through a cladistic analysis. A key is presented for the six species in the albifilum group of Campsurus.Campsurus cristales sp. nov. from the segnis group, closely related to C. janae, is diagnosed by: posterior margin of male abdominal sternum IX tri–lobed, pedestal strongly elongated and penes with a strongly expanded dorsal area, among other features.
A Dynamical Perspective on Atmospheric Temperature Variability and Its Response to Climate Change
Authors: Tamarin-Brodsky Talia , Hodges Kevin , Hoskins Brian J. , Shepherd Theodore G.
Published: January 2019

The atmospheric temperature distribution is typically described by its mean and variance, while higher-order moments, such as skewness, have received less attention. Skewness is a measure of the asymmetry between the positive and negative tails of the distribution, which has implications for extremes. It was recently shown that near-surface temperature in the Southern Hemisphere is positively skewed on the poleward side of the storm tracks and negatively skewed on the equatorward side. Here we take a dynamical approach to further study what controls the spatial structure of the near-surface temperature distribution in this region. We employ a tracking algorithm to study the formation, intensity, and movement of warm and cold temperature anomalies. We show that warm anomalies are generated on the equatorward side of the storm tracks and propagate poleward, while cold anomalies are generated on the poleward side and propagate equatorward. We further show that while the perturbation growth is mainly achieved through linear meridional advection, it is the nonlinear meridional advection that is responsible for the meridional movement of the temperature anomalies and therefore to the differential skewness. The projected poleward shift and increase of the temperature variance maximum in the Southern Hemisphere under global warming is shown to be composed of a poleward shift and increase in the maximum intensity of both warm and cold anomalies, and a decrease in their meridional displacements. An analytic expression is derived for the nonlinear meridional temperature tendency, which captures the spatial structure of the skewness and its projected changes.
Curricular tracking and civic and political engagement: Comparing adolescents and young adults across education systems
Authors: Witschge Jacqueline , van de Werfhorst Herman G
Published: January 2019

Country-case studies examining the relation between curricular tracking (ability sorting) in secondary education and civic and political engagement (CPE) have led to mixed findings. This calls for a comparative approach. Thus far, as a result of the available data, comparative studies examining the effect of curricular tracking on civic engagement have been cross-sectional in nature. In this paper, we introduce a longitudinal approach by drawing from two cross-sectional surveys with identical CPE measures for the same birth cohort before and after tracking (CIVED 1999, ISSP 2004 and EVS 2008). We examine the relation between the duration of curricular tracking and the development of CPE between the age of 14 and young adulthood in 25 countries. The results show that a longer tracked curriculum is negatively related to the development of civic and political engagement, particularly at the lower part of the distribution. Moreover, we find that the negative relation between length of the tracked curriculum and CPE is mediated by enrolment rates for higher education. This result suggests that tracking does not directly negatively affect civic and political engagement, but does so because it is associated with reduced participation in higher education.
Fun until the end: The nightclub fantasy in the Italian cinema of the economic miracle
Authors: Mobili Giorgio
Published: January 2019

This article examines the use of the nightclub trope in three films from the early years of the Italian “economic miracle”: Luchino Visconti’s White Nights (1957), Federico Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria (1957), and Michelangelo Antonioni’s La Notte (1961). Availing myself of psychoanalytic theory, I discuss how, in these three films, the nightclub is deployed as a hermeneutic space that sheds light on the functioning of the then nascent ideology of consumption, specifically on the way it captures the subject through fantasy. Capitalism earns our allegiance by creating the illusion that the ontological lack that marks us as subjects is in fact only contingent, and thus remediable through the acquisition of an empirical object (a commodity) that might yield the total enjoyment we crave. In mainstream Hollywood cinema—the chief disseminator of the capitalist ideology—this illusion is mostly fostered through the fantasy of the successful sexual relationship (or romantic fantasy). Through the nightclub trope, Fellini, Visconti, and Antonioni deconstruct this fantasy by letting it unfold well past the point at which Hollywood endings would stop, until it inevitably unravels into an encounter with the Real: nothing but loss awaits us at the end of fantasy. Yet this traumatic moment is politically crucial: once we realize that the enjoyment we failed to attain was always already lost, we will be free from the capitalist injunction to consume and accumulate—from the crippling illusion that our happiness lies but one more purchase away.
Working conditions and effective supervision: Does it matter for engineering faculty job satisfaction
Authors: Kakada Praveen , Deshpande YM
Published: January 2019

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of supervisor support and working conditions on job satisfaction among teaching faculty in private engineering colleges. The study on job satisfaction has greater importance with the passage of time because of its nature and impact on the faculty and society. The researcher administered a standardized questionnaire on 180 individual respondents to collect the data. Respondents filled the items manually with their characteristics: age, gender, qualification, work experience, and their job position to check their level of significance with the job satisfaction. Descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression analysis were used for the data analysis. Based on the statistical findings, supervisor support and working conditions have a significant positive relationship with job satisfaction. These findings extend the theoretical understanding of supervisor support and work environment which enhance the faculty job satisfaction. Results also urge colleges and higher educational institutions to understand and to emphasize the importance of the work environment, which has an impact on faculty job satisfaction.
Cross-linguistic Influences on Sentence Accent Detection in Background Noise
Authors: Scharenborg Odette , Kakouros Sofoklis , Post Brechtje , Meunier Fanny
Published: January 2019

This paper investigates whether sentence accent detection in a non-native language is dependent on (relative) similarity between prosodic cues to accent between the non-native and the native language, and whether cross-linguistic differences in the use of local and more widely distributed (i.e., non-local) cues to sentence accent detection lead to differential effects of the presence of background noise on sentence accent detection in a non-native language. We compared Dutch, Finnish, and French non-native listeners of English, whose cueing and use of prosodic prominence is gradually further removed from English, and compared their results on a phoneme monitoring task in different levels of noise and a quiet condition to those of native listeners. Overall phoneme detection performance was high for the native and the non-native listeners, but deteriorated to the same extent in the presence of background noise. Crucially, relative similarity between the prosodic cues to sentence accent of one’s native language compared to that of a non-native language does not determine the ability to perceive and use sentence accent for speech perception in that non-native language. Moreover, proficiency in the non-native language is not a straightforward predictor of sentence accent perception performance, although high proficiency in a non-native language can seemingly overcome certain differences at the prosodic level between the native and non-native language. Instead, performance is determined by the extent to which listeners rely on local cues (English and Dutch) versus cues that are more distributed (Finnish and French), as more distributed cues survive the presence of background noise better.
Engineering Students’ Motivation to Learn Technical English in ESP Courses: Investigating Iranian Teachers’ and Students’ Perceptions
Authors: Jafari Pazoki Saeedeh , Alemi Minoo
Published: January 2019

Needs analysis is the key step to designing relevant and useful courses in English for Specific Purposes (ESP), but finding ways to deliver needs in a motivating and interesting way is also paramount. Therefore, investigating students’ motivation to learn ESP is central in needs analysis. Few studies have investigated needs from the perspective of ESP learners’ motivation. Focussing on engineering fields at three Iranian state universities, this study aimed to identify factors that affect engineering students’ motivation for learning technical English in ESP courses. Using a mixed method design, this study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, semi-structured interviews with 40 undergraduate students helped to identify motivational variables, select a theoretical framework and develop instruments for the second phase. In the second phase, a survey using a 28-item questionnaire with 152 students, semi-structured interviews with 60 students, in-depth interviews with eight ESP practitioners and non-participant observation in seven ESP classes were done in parallel. Principal Component Analysis on survey data resulted in five motivational components of main sources of engineering students’ motivation to learn technical English: 1) ideal-self, 2) ought-to self, 3) instrumentality promotion motivation, 4) learning conditions, and 5) learning experience. These components were in agreement with Dӧrnyei’s L2 Motivational Self-system. Further quantitative and qualitative data analyses revealed that long-term goals and the practicalities of using technical English in every day life promote motivation more than a sense of obligation to learn technical English. Moreover, the results showed that Engineering students had negative attitudes towards elements of ESP learning experience, which best explained the reasons for students’ low motivation. The findings also supported the significant effect of academic levels on motivation. The factors that motivated students call for modifications in ESP courses which are discussed as pedagogical implications.
The Gerasene Exorcism and Jesus’ Eschatological Expulsion of Cosmic Powers: Echoes of Second Temple Scapegoat Traditions in Mark 5.1-20
Authors: Moscicke Hans M.
Published: January 2019

In this article, I argue that ancient expulsion rites and early Jewish scapegoat traditions have inﬂuenced the composition of Mk 5.1-20. These rites and traditions inform Mark’s portrayal of Jesus’ transfer of the demons into the swine and their disposal into the sea, which heals the Gentile man. Jesus’ scapegoat-like expulsion of Legion signals God’s banishment of hostile spiritual powers from their positions of authority over the nations and augurs God’s kingdom reign, in which Gentiles are released from bondage to cosmic forces, and their earthly counterparts, cleansed and welcomed into the family of God.
Caregiver-Implemented Intervention for Communication and Motor Outcomes for Infants and Toddlers
Authors: Windsor Kelly S. , Woods Juliann , Kaiser Ann P. , Snyder Patricia , Salisbury Christine
Published: January 2019

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of coaching caregivers to embed both communication and motor outcomes concurrently within daily routines of their infants or toddlers with significant disabilities using Enhanced Milieu Teaching (EMT) strategies. The coaching and embedding practices were part of a multicomponent intervention known as Embedded Practices and Intervention with Caregivers (EPIC). Three children, aged 15 to 23 months with significant disabilities, their caregivers, and an early intervention provider participated in this single case multiple probe design study. Primary dependent variables were caregivers’ number of naturalistic teaching strategies used and rates of correctly embedded instruction for each learning target in each routine. Child motor and communication outcomes were also examined. Results provide initial support for the positive effects of the EPIC approach using EMT strategies to embed intervention on two developmental domains concurrently in caregiver’s daily routines.