bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Interpreting signals in other people's behavior to sense things about them and to infer things about their world
Authors: Wu Wenjie , Sheppard Elizabeth , Mitchell Peter
Published: December 2019

In this article, we propose a new framework for investigating how accurately and by what process people read others' minds—a process that requires perceivers to make a retrodictive inference. In this context, we discuss the value of a novel methodological approach that complements the conceptual framework. This framework is formulated on the basis of a series of empirical articles emerging over the past few years in which the ideas appear in nascent form. Retrodiction is the process in which, on observing a person's behavior (often but not exclusively a facial expression), people are equipped not only to sense the underlying inner state but also to infer the event that caused that inner state. Indeed, the goal of mindreading need not always be to identify an inner state explicitly but to infer the event that caused the inner state. Doing so is adaptive in that it permits access to a more expansive view of the world through the lens of another mind. This view of mindreading naturally leads to a reconsideration of methods that are fit for purpose and leads to testable hypotheses.
Data-Driven Dynamic Network Modeling for Analyzing the Evolution of Product Competitions
Authors: Xie Jian , Bi Youyi , Sha Zhenghui , Wang Mingxian , Fu Yan , Contractor Noshir , Gong Lin , Chen Wei
Published: December 2019

Understanding the impact of engineering design on product competitions is imperative for product designers to better address customer needs and develop more competitive products. In this paper, we propose a dynamic network-based approach for modeling and analyzing the evolution of product competitions using multi-year buyer survey data. The product co-consideration network, formed based on the likelihood of two products being co-considered from survey data, is treated as a proxy of products’ competition relations in a market. The separate temporal exponential random graph model (STERGM) is employed as the dynamic network modeling technique to model the evolution of network as two separate processes: link formation and link dissolution. We use China’s automotive market as a case study to illustrate the implementation of the proposed approach and the benefits of dynamic network models compared to the static network modeling approach based on an exponential random graph model (ERGM). The results show that since STERGM takes preexisting competition relations into account, it provides a pathway to gain insights into why a product may maintain or lose its competitiveness over time. These driving factors include both product attributes (e.g., fuel consumption) as well as current market structures (e.g., the centralization effect). With the proposed dynamic network-based approach, the insights gained from this paper can help designers better interpret the temporal changes of product competition relations to support product design decisions.
Numerical Simulation of a Steam Injector for Passive Residual Heat Removal
Authors: Schulenberg Thomas , Heinze David
Published: December 2019

In the case of depressurization of a supercritical water-cooled reactor (SCWR), the steam pressure can be used to pump coolant back into the reactor, either by using a turbine driven pump or a steam injector. The latter option is cheaper, more robust, and requires less periodic inspections. The numerical simulation of a steam injector, however, has still been a challenge. In principle, a steam injector consists of a steam nozzle, a mixing chamber, and a diffuser. This paper describes a one-dimensional two-phase flow model simulating the flow and condensation phenomena occurring in the steam nozzle, the structure of shock fronts at the nozzle outlet, the direct contact condensation of steam with cold water in the mixing chamber, and the sudden pressure increase in the final condensation shock front. The model is based only on first principles and on the existing correlations. Correction factors adapting the model to experimental results have not been used yet. For validation, the model has been applied both to separate effect tests and to steam injector tests.
Impaired frequency selectivity and sensitivity to temporal fine structure, but not envelope cues, in children with mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss
Authors: Halliday Lorna F. , Rosen Stuart , Tuomainen Outi , Calcus Axelle
Published: December 2019

Psychophysical thresholds were measured for 8–16 year-old children with mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss (MMHL; N = 46) on a battery of auditory processing tasks that included measures designed to be dependent upon frequency selectivity and sensitivity to temporal fine structure (TFS) or envelope cues. Children with MMHL who wore hearing aids were tested in both unaided and aided conditions, and all were compared to a group of normally hearing (NH) age-matched controls. Children with MMHL performed more poorly than NH controls on tasks considered to be dependent upon frequency selectivity, sensitivity to TFS, and speech discrimination (/bɑ/-/dɑ/), but not on tasks measuring sensitivity to envelope cues. Auditory processing deficits remained regardless of age, were observed in both unaided and aided conditions, and could not be attributed to differences in nonverbal IQ or attention between groups. However, better auditory processing in children with MMHL was predicted by better audiometric thresholds and, for aided tasks only, higher levels of maternal education. These results suggest that, as for adults with MMHL, children with MMHL may show deficits in frequency selectivity and sensitivity to TFS, but sensitivity to the envelope may remain intact.
Recruitment of CD103
+
dendritic cells via tumor-targeted chemokine delivery enhances efficacy of checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy
Authors: Williford John-Michael , Ishihara Jun , Ishihara Ako , Mansurov Aslan , Hosseinchi Peyman , Marchell Tiffany M. , Potin Lambert , Swartz Melody A. , Hubbell Jeffrey A.
Published: December 2019

Targeted delivery of CCL4 to the tumor stroma recruits CD103
+
dendritic cells and enhances the efficacy of CPI immunotherapy.
Comparative Evaluation of the
In Vitro
Activities of WCK 5222 (Cefepime-Zidebactam) and Combination Antibiotic Therapies against Carbapenem-Resistant
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Authors: Mullane Elias M. , Avery Lindsay M. , Nicolau David P.
Published: December 2019

The
in vitro
activity of WCK 5222 (cefepime-zidebactam) was compared to that of several available combination therapies among 30 clinical carbapenem-resistant
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
(CRP) strains using gradient diffusion strips. The combinations included nonsusceptible β-lactams (cefepime, ceftolozane-tazobactam, and meropenem) with amikacin and fosfomycin.
Successful management of ultra short bowel syndrome in an elderly patient
Authors: Hayes Cathal , Khan Waqar , Barry Kevin
Published: December 2019

An 83-year-old woman presented emergently with a 1-week history of increasing abdominal pain and vomiting. Imaging confirmed an incarcerated incisional hernia containing viable small bowel. Laparotomy revealed profound ischaemic insult extending beyond the hernial contents, affecting virtually the entire small bowel, consistent with acute superior mesenteric artery thrombosis. The patient underwent resection of the entire small bowel except for 20 cm of the jejunum and 15 cm of the terminal ileum. Her duodenum and large bowel were unaffected. Despite her age, comorbidities and only 35 cm of the remnant small bowel, this patient made a remarkable recovery. She transitioned from total parenteral nutrition dependence in an acute hospital setting to being discharged into the community, relying on partial parenteral nutrition two times per week in a home setting.
Can a simple ‘cost-awareness’ campaign for laparoscopic hysterectomy change the use and costs of disposable surgical supplies? Pre–post non-controlled study
Authors: Ross Sue , Lier Douglas , Mackinnon Goldie , Bentz Christine , Rakowski Gloria , Capstick Valerie A
Published: December 2019

Objectives

Does a cost-awareness campaign for gynaecologists lead to a change in use and costs of disposable surgical supplies for laparoscopic hysterectomy (LH) without increasing hospital utilisation measures (operating room (OR) time or hospital length of stay (LOS))?

Design

Pre–post non-controlled study. The OR database was used to identify relevant cases before and after the cost-awareness intervention, and provided information on quantity of each supply item, operative details and LOS.

Setting

Lois Hole Hospital for Women, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Participants

12 laparoscopic trained gynaecologists (7 female, 5 male) participated in both phases of the study. Eligible surgical cases were all LH cases for any indication for women aged ≥18 years. 201 cases were undertaken before the intervention (2011–2013) and 229 cases after the intervention (2016–2017).

Intervention

The cost-awareness intervention for gynaecologists included site meetings and rounds providing information on costs of disposable and reusable instruments, a full day skills lab, OR posters about cost and effectiveness of disposable and reusable surgical supplies and demonstrations of reusable equipment (2015–2016).

Primary outcome measure

Disposable supplies costs per case (standardised for 2016 unit costs).

Results

There was a significant (p<0.05) reduction (unadjusted) in disposable supplies cost per case for LH between cases before and after the intervention: from $C1073, SD 281, to $C943 SD 209. Regression analysis found that the adjusted cost per case after the intervention was $C116 lower than before the intervention (95% CI −160 to −71). Neither OR time nor hospital LOS differed significantly between cohorts.

Conclusions

Our study suggests that cost-awareness campaigns may be associated with reduction in the cost of surgery for LH. However, many other factors may have contributed to this cost reduction, possibly including other local initiatives to reduce costs and emerging evidence indicating lack of effectiveness of some surgical practices.
Furosemide versus mannitol in Japanese patients with thoracic malignancy who received cisplatin-based chemotherapy using short hydration: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial
Authors: Murakami Eriko , Akamatsu Hiroaki , Shimokawa Toshio , Wada Kiyoko , Yamamoto Nobuyuki
Published: December 2019

Introduction

Cisplatin (CDDP) is a key drug for various thoracic malignancies. To avoid renal toxicity of CDDP, mannitol is routinely used, but it sometimes causes phlebitis which damages patients’ quality of life. Furosemide is another widely used option for diuresis administered more quickly. To date, previous comparisons of these diuretics have lacked statistical significance owing to study design. We therefore undertake a randomised phase II comparative study of furosemide and mannitol in CDDP-based chemotherapy using short hydration.

Methods and analysis

This is a two-arm, prospective, randomised, single-centre, open-label phase II study. The primary endpoint is set as the proportion of patients who experienced any grade of ‘creatinine increase’ using the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events V.4.0, during the first cycle. Secondary endpoints are: the proportion of patients who experienced ≥grade 2 of creatinine increase during the first cycle, any grade and ≥grade 2 of creatinine increase after the completion of fourth cycle, and the proportion of patients with phlebitis. Enrolled in this trial will be 105 patients.

Ethics and dissemination

This study was approved by the Wakayama Medical University Institutional Review Board on 30 March 2018 study (approval number: 2258). Patients have been enrolled since May 2018. As the study will complete accrual in March 2021, results will be published by 2021. This study will provide important information about the utility of furosemide compared with mannitol to protect against nephrotoxicity.

Trial registration number

UMIN000031910.
Cost-effectiveness analysis of pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy for previously untreated metastatic non-small cell lung cancer in the USA
Authors: Zeng Xiaohui , Wan Xiaomin , Peng Liubao , Peng Ye , Ma Fang , Liu Qiao , Tan Chongqing
Published: December 2019

Objectives

Evaluating the cost-effectiveness of pembrolizumab plus standard chemotherapy in the first-line setting for patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) from the US payer perspective.

Design

A Markov model was constructed to analyse the cost-effectiveness of pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy in the first-line treatment of metastatic NSCLC. Health outcomes were estimated in quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). The cost information was from Medicare in 2018. One-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses examined the impact of uncertainty and assumptions on the results.

Setting

The US payer perspective.

Participants

A hypothetical US cohort of patients with previously untreated metastatic nonsquamous NSCLC without EGFR or ALK mutations.

Interventions

Pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy versus chemotherapy.

Primary outcome measures

Costs, QALYs, incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy expressed as cost per QALY gained compared with chemotherapy

Results

The base case analysis demonstrated that pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy provided an additional 0.78 QALYs at incremental cost of $151 409, resulting in an ICER of $194 372/QALY. ICER for pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy was >$149 680/QALY in all of our univariable and probabilistic sensitivity analyses.

Conclusions

Pembrolizumab in addition to chemotherapy provides modest incremental benefit at high incremental cost per QALY for the treatment of previously untreated metastatic NSCLC.
Secondhand smoke exposure and support for smoke-free policies in cities and rural areas of China from 2009 to 2015: a population-based cohort study (the ITC China Survey)
Authors: Sansone Genevieve , Fong Geoffrey T , Yan Mi , Meng Gang , Craig Lorraine , Xu Steve S , Quah Anne C K , Wu Changbao , Feng Guoze , Jiang Yuan
Published: December 2019

Objectives

To examine trends in smoking prevalence in key venues (workplaces, restaurants, bars) and in public support for comprehensive smoke-free laws, with comparisons between cities and rural areas in China.

Design

Data are from Waves 3–5 (2009–2015) of the International Tobacco Control (ITC) China Survey, a cohort survey of smokers and non-smokers. Logistic regression analyses employing generalised estimating equations assessed changes in smoking prevalence and support for smoke-free laws over time; specific tests assessed whether partial smoking bans implemented in three cities between Waves 3 and 4 had greater impact.

Setting

Face-to-face surveys were conducted in seven cities (Beijing, Changsha, Guangzhou, Kunming, Shanghai, Shenyang and Yinchuan) and five rural areas (Changzhi, Huzhou, Tongren, Yichun and Xining).

Participants

In each survey location at each wave, a representative sample of approximately 800 smokers and 200 non-smokers (aged 18+) were selected using a multistage cluster sampling design.

Main outcome measures

Prevalence of smoking (whether respondents noticed smoking inside restaurants, bars and workplaces); smoking rules inside these venues; and support for complete smoking bans in these venues.

Results

Although smoking prevalence decreased and support increased over time, neither trend was greater in cities that implemented partial smoke-free laws. Smoking was higher in rural than urban workplaces (62% vs 44%, p<0.01), but was equally high in all restaurants and bars. There were generally no differences in secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure between smokers and non-smokers except in rural workplaces (74% vs 58%, p<0.05). Support for comprehensive bans was equally high across locations.

Conclusions

Partial laws have had no effect on reducing SHS in China. There is an urgent need for comprehensive smoke-free laws to protect the public from exposure to deadly tobacco smoke in both urban and rural areas. The high support among Chinese smokers for such a law demonstrates that public support is not a barrier for action.
Fall-related mortality trends in older Japanese adults aged ≥65 years: a nationwide observational study
Authors: Hagiya Hideharu , Koyama Toshihiro , Zamami Yoshito , Tatebe Yasuhisa , Funahashi Tomoko , Shinomiya Kazuaki , Kitamura Yoshihisa , Hinotsu Shiro , Sendo Toshiaki , Rakugi Hiromi , Kano Mitsunobu R
Published: December 2019

Objectives

Fall-related mortality among older adults is a major public health issue, especially for ageing societies. This study aimed to investigate current trends in fall-related mortality in Japan using nationwide population-based data covering 1997–2016.

Design

We analysed fall-related deaths among older persons aged ≥65 years using the data provided by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

Results

The crude and age-standardised mortality rates were calculated per 100 000 persons by stratifying by age (65–74, 75–84 and ≥85 years) and sex. To identify trend changes, a joinpoint regression model was applied by estimating change points and annual percentage change (APC). The total number of fall-related deaths in Japan increased from 5872 in 1997 to 8030 in 2016, of which 78.8% involved persons aged ≥65 years. The younger population (65–74 years) showed continuous and faster-decreasing trends for both men and women. Average APC among men aged ≥75 years did not decrease. Among middle-aged and older women (75–84 and ≥85 years) decreasing trends were observed. Furthermore, the age-adjusted mortality rate of men was approximately twice that of women, and it showed a faster decrease for women.

Conclusions

Although Japanese healthcare has shown improvement in preventing fall-related deaths over the last two decades, the crude mortality for those aged over 85 years remains high, indicating difficulty in reducing fall-related deaths in the super-aged population. Further investigations to uncover causal factors for falls in older populations are required.
Association of registered nurse and nursing support staffing with inpatient hospital mortality
Authors: Needleman Jack , Liu Jianfang , Shang Jinjing , Larson Elaine L , Stone Patricia W
Published: December 2019

Background

The association of nursing staffing with patient outcomes has primarily been studied by comparing high to low staffed hospitals, raising concern other factors may account for observed differences. We examine the association of inpatient mortality with patients’ cumulative exposure to shifts with low registered nurse (RN) staffing, low nursing support staffing and high patient turnover.

Methods

Cumulative counts of exposure to shifts with low staffing and high patient turnover were used as time-varying covariates in survival analysis of data from a three-campus US academic medical centre for 2007–2012. Staffing below 75% of annual median unit staffing for each staff category and shift type was characterised as low. High patient turnover per day was defined as admissions, discharges and transfers 1 SD above unit annual daily averages.

Results

Models included cumulative counts of patient exposure to shifts with low RN staffing, low nursing support staffing, both concurrently and high patient turnover. The HR for exposure to shifts with low RN staffing only was 1.027 (95% CI 1.002 to 1.053, p<0.001), low nursing support only, 1.030 (95% CI 1.017 to 1.042, p<0.001) and shifts with both low, 1.025 (95% CI 1.008 to 1.043, p=0.035). For a model examining cumulative exposure over the second to fifth days of an admission, the HR for exposure to shifts with low RN staffing only was 1.048 (95% CI 0.998 to 1.100, p=0.061), low nursing support only, 1.032 (95% CI 1.008 to 1.057, p<0.01) and for shifts with both low,1.136 (95% CI 1.089 to 1.185, p<0.001). No relationship was observed for high patient turnover and mortality.

Conclusion

Low RN and nursing support staffing were associated with increased mortality. The results should encourage hospital leadership to assure both adequate RN and nursing support staffing.
From hermeneutics to heteroglossia: ‘The Patient’s View’ revisited
Authors: Chin-Yee Benjamin , Diaz Pablo , Bryden Pier , Soklaridis Sophie , Kuper Ayelet
Published: December 2019

This article explores conceptual and methodological challenges surrounding the recovery of patients’ voices in the history of medicine. We examine the debate that followed Roy Porter’s seminal article, ‘The Patient’s View: Doing Medical History from Below’ (1985). Porter argued that patients should be given a central role in medical history, aiming to restore to patients a voice and agency that is often lost in ‘physician-centered’ historical narratives. His work carried significant influence but also sparked an ongoing debate about the possibility of conducting ‘patient-centered’ history of medicine. The growth of the medical humanities has afforded renewed attention to patient narratives, supporting the need to recognise patients’ voices in contemporary healthcare and medical education. However, several barriers complicate and problematise the expansion of a patient-centred epistemology across historical periods. Postmodern critics have expressed scepticism that ‘the patient’s view’ can be recovered from history, with some claiming that ‘the patient’ is a construct of the ‘medical gaze’ whose subjectivity cannot be reconstituted outside of sociohistorical discourses of knowledge and power. Psychiatry in the mid-20th century presents a particular challenge for patient-centred history. We discuss the influence of postmodern theorists, especially Michel Foucault, whose work is seen as undermining the possibility of a patient-centred epistemology. We argue against Foucault’s erasure of the patient, and instead explore alternate constructivist epistemologies, focusing on the hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer and dialogism of Mikhail Bakhtin, to help address historiographical challenges in recovering ‘the patient’s view’. To illustrate the value of Gadamerian and Bakhtinian approaches, we apply them to a case study from the Verdun Protestant Hospital (Québec, Canada) from 1941 to 1956, which sheds light on the introduction of the first antipsychotic, chlorpromazine, into clinical practice. We highlight how Gadamer’s hermeneutics and Bakhtin’s dialogism together offer insights into patient perspectives during this liminal period in the history of psychiatry.
Quantum aspects of Yukawa model with scalar and axial scalar fields in curved spacetime
Authors: Buchbinder Iosif L. , Rodrigues Andreza Rairis , dos Reis Eduardo Antonio , Shapiro Ilya L.
Published: December 2019

We study the Yukawa model with one scalar and one axial scalar fields, coupled to N copies of Dirac fermions, in curved spacetime background. The theory possesses a reach set of coupling constants, including the scalar terms with odd powers of scalar fields in the potential, and constants of non-minimal coupling of the scalar fields to gravity. Using the heat-kernel technique and dimensional regularization, we derive the one-loop divergences, describe the renormalization of the theory under consideration and calculate the full set of beta- and gamma-functions for all coupling constants and fields. As a next step, we construct the renormalized one-loop effective potential of the scalar fields up to the terms linear in scalar curvature. This calculation includes only the contributions from quantum scalar fields, and is performed using covariant cut-off regularization and local momentum representation. Some difficulties of the renormalization group approach to the effective potential in the case under consideration are discussed.
Discontinuous Galerkin approximation for excitatory-inhibitory networks with delay and refractory periods
Authors: Sharma Dipty , Singh Paramjeet
Published: December 2019

In this study, we consider the network of noisy leaky integrate-and-fire (NNLIF) model, which governs by a second-order nonlinear time-dependent partial differential equation (PDE). This equation uses the probability density approach to describe the behavior of neurons with refractory states and the transmission delays. A numerical approximation based on the discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method is used for the spatial discretization with the analysis of stability. The strong stability-preserving explicit Runge–Kutta (SSPERK) method is performed for the temporal discretization. Finally, some test examples and numerical simulations are given to examine the behavior of the solution. The execution of the constructed scheme is measured by the quantitative comparison with the existing finite difference technique, namely weighted essentially nonoscillatory (WENO) scheme.
Multiscale correlation dimension method
Authors: Yilmaz Adil , Unal Gazanfer
Published: December 2019

We propose a new method as an extension of the correlation dimension analysis by combining it with multiscale analysis taking into consideration the features in multiple time scales. We introduce and demonstrate multiscale correlation dimension analysis (MSCD) on several chaotic and stochastic time series in detail. We also study the choice of effective scaling filter as an alternative to the overlapping coarse-graining procedure we used for MSCD analysis and suggest the Gaussian filter according to its favorable performance and experiment it by assigning it for the second part of the study. Based on MSCD analysis, we further investigate CD and Hurst exponent relationship in multiscale on the same set of time series. We unveil a remarkable consistent patterns for the stochastic time series and describe it in a functional form. Consequently, the observed distinguishing patterns imply to opening up a new way of characterizing chaotic and stochastic time series.
Diagnosing Tsallis holographic dark energy models with interactions
Authors: Zhang Nan , Wu Ya-Bo , Chi Jia-Nan , Yu Zhe , Xu Dong-Fang
Published: December 2019

It has been found that the geometrical diagnostic methods can break the degeneracy for dark energy models. In this paper, we investigate the Om diagnostic, the statefinder hierarchy [Formula: see text] and the composite null diagnostic [Formula: see text] for the Tsallis holographic dark energy models with interactions. We find that model parameters and the forms of interaction will influence the values of diagnostic parameters or the trends of the evolutionary trajectories for each model. Moreover, the statefinder hierarchy [Formula: see text] together with [Formula: see text] could give good diagnostic results. Furthermore, we also obtain some issues of cosmological structure by means of the composite null diagnostic.
Review of inflationary cosmology via quantum corrections in M-theory
Authors: Hiraga Kazuho , Hyakutake Yoshifumi
Published: December 2019

In this paper, we review inflationary cosmology in M-theory with quantum corrections. In old days the inflation was proposed as a resolution to the cosmological problems, and nowadays models of the inflation are severely restricted by the observations. Among them, the predictions of the Starobinsky model, which contains scalar curvature squared term, is consistent with the observations. The higher curvature terms will come from quantum effect of the gravity, and it is natural to ask its origin in superstring theory or M-theory. We investigate inflationary solution in the M-theory with higher curvature terms. We show that higher curvature terms induce an exponentially expanding solution in the early universe, and the inflation naturally ends when the corrections are suppressed. We also discuss that the ambiguity of the higher curvature terms do not affect the inflationary scenario in the M-theory.
Multi-electrode lens optimization using genetic algorithms
Authors: Hesam Mahmoudi Nezhad N. , Ghaffarian Niasar M. , Mohammadi Gheidari A. , Hagen C. W. , Kruit P.
Published: December 2019

In electrostatic charged particle lens design, optimization of a multi-electrode lens with many free optimization parameters is still quite a challenge. A fully automated optimization routine is not yet available, mainly because the lens potential calculations are often done with very time-consuming methods that require meshing of the lens space. A new method is proposed that improves on the low speed of the potential calculation while keeping the high accuracy of the mesh-based calculation methods. This is done by first using a fast potential calculation based on the so-called Second-Order Electrode Method (SOEM), at the cost of losing some accuracy, and then using a Genetic Algorithm (GA) for the optimization. Then, by using the parameters of the approximate systems found from this optimization based on SOEM, an accurate GA optimization routine is performed based on potential calculation with the commercial finite element package COMSOL. A six-electrode electrostatic lens was optimized accurately within a few hours, using all lens dimensions and electrode voltages as free parameters and the focus position and maximum allowable electric fields between electrodes as constraints.
Longitudinal beam dynamics with a higher-harmonic cavity for bunch lengthening
Authors: Bassi Gabriele , Tagger Jüri
Published: December 2019

We discuss the longitudinal beam dynamics in storage rings in the presence of a higher-harmonic cavity (HHC) system for bunch lengthening. First, we review the general conditions for HHC operations, both in active or passive modes, assuming the stability of the system. For uniform filling patterns, a distinction is made between operations with a normal-conducting HHC, where optimal conditions for bunch lengthening can be satisfied, and operations with a super-conducting HHC, where optimal conditions can be met only approximately. Second, we discuss the option to operate the NSLS-II storage ring with a passive, super-conducting third harmonic cavity (3HC) system. The stability and performance of the system in the presence of a gap in the uniform filling, which corresponds to the present mode of operation of the NSLS-II storage ring, is investigated with self-consistent Vlasov–Fokker–Planck simulations performed with the code SPACE. [G. Bassi, A. Blednykh and V. Smaluk, Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 19, 024401 (2016).]
Weak Poincaré inequalities for convolution probabilities measures
Authors: Cheng Li-Juan , Zhang Shao-Qin
Published: December 2019

In this paper, weak Poincaré inequalities are obtained for convolution probabilities with explicit rate functions by constructing suitable Lyapunov functions. Here, one of these Lyapunov functions is introduced for the first time and can be used to improve parts of results on the estimate of rate functions for super Poincaré inequalities 13 as well. In addition, these weak Poincaré inequalities are applied to some concrete examples, which can refine some of results even for the case without convolution.
BPNN-Based Real-Time Recognition of Locomotion Modes for an Active Pelvis Orthosis with Different Assistive Strategies
Authors: Gong Cheng , Xu Dongfang , Zhou Zhihao , Vitiello Nicola , Wang Qining
Published: December 2019

Real-time human intent recognition is important for controlling low-limb wearable robots. In this paper, to achieve continuous and precise recognition results on different terrains, we propose a real-time training and recognition method for six locomotion modes including standing, level ground walking, ramp ascending, ramp descending, stair ascending and stair descending. A locomotion recognition system is designed for the real-time recognition purpose with an embedded BPNN-based algorithm. A wearable powered orthosis integrated with this system and two inertial measurement units is used as the experimental setup to evaluate the performance of the designed method while providing hip assistance. Experiments including on-board training and real-time recognition parts are carried out on three able-bodied subjects. The overall recognition accuracies of six locomotion modes based on subject-dependent models are 98.43% and 98.03% respectively, with the wearable orthosis in two different assistance strategies. The cost time of recognition decision delivered to the orthosis is about 0.9[Formula: see text]ms. Experimental results show an effective and promising performance of the proposed method to realize real-time training and recognition for future control of low-limb wearable robots assisting users on different terrains.
Path integral for new models of time-dependent harmonic oscillators
Authors: Berrabah Badri , Bentag Baya
Published: December 2019

We have presented a particular direct method to solve time-dependent quantum problems within the framework of path integrals by using explicitly time-dependent transformations. We have applied it to the case of harmonic oscillator with time-dependent mass and frequency. Some examples have illustrated the method used. From their exact propagators, normalized solutions have been obtained.
Hexylsulfanyl-substituted CoPc and GO-CoPc on Ni foam as electroactive material for supercapacitors
Authors: Taşaltın Nevin , Taşaltın Cihat , Aydın Hamide , Şahintürk Utkan , Gürek Ayşe Gül
Published: December 2019

For energy storage applications, hexylsulfanyl-substituted CoPc and GO-CoPc electrodes were prepared on Ni foam, and then electrochemical properties of the materials were investigated. The GO-CoPc nanocomposite electrode exhibits 56 mFcm[Formula: see text] at 1.4 mAcm[Formula: see text] current density. The results show that the GO-CoPc nanocomposite electrode is a promising electroactive material for supercapacitors.
The Emergence of Multidrug Resistance Bacteria at Kong Kong River, Johor, Malaysia: Preliminary Study
Authors: Zain Nor Azimah Mohd , Othman Nurezzaati , Suhaimi Mohd Suardi
Published: December 2019

Kampung Kong Kong Laut is a fishing village located in Kong Kong, Masai, Johor, Malaysia that is one of the main seafood producers in the area. The status quo on the emergence of the multidrug resistance bacteria in Johor is unknown. Thus, this study aims at investigating the emergence of multidrug resistance bacteria in the water sample form the selected site. Besides that, the resistance of the isolated bacteria toward antibiotics were studied against selected antibiotics, such as ampicilin, bacitracin, chloramphenicol, erythromycin, kanamycin, nalidixic acid and streptomycin. A total of 18 different strains were succesfully isolated and based on the morphological and conventional biochemical tests, the isolates were identified as Escherichia sp., Bacillus sp., Pseudomonas sp., Staphylococcus sp., Proteus sp., Helicobacter sp. and Serratia sp. From this study, it was found that all the 61% of the bacteria (11 strains) were resistant toward all the antibiotic tested. The rest of the strains (38% or seven strains) showed resistance toward at least one antibiotic. All the seven strains showed different range of sensitivity toward bacitracin, chloramphenicol, erythromycin, kanamycin and streptomycin.
Wasf-Vec
Authors: Abdulhameed Tiba Zaki , Zitouni Imed , Abdel-Qader Ikhlas
Published: December 2019

Word clustering is a serious challenge in low-resource languages. Since words that share semantics are expected to be clustered together, it is common to use a feature vector representation generated from a distributional theory-based word embedding method. The goal of this work is to utilize Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) for better clustering performance of the low-resource Iraqi vocabulary. We began with a new Dialect Fast Stemming Algorithm (DFSA) that utilizes the MSA data. The proposed algorithm achieved 0.85 accuracy measured by the F1 score. Then, the distributional theory-based word embedding method and a new simple, yet effective, feature vector named Wasf-Vec word embedding are tested. Wasf-Vec word representation utilizes a word’s topology features. The difference between Wasf-Vec and distributional theory-based word embedding is that Wasf-Vec captures relations that are not contextually based. The embedding is followed by an analysis of how the dialect words are clustered within other MSA words. The analysis is based on the word semantic relations that are well supported by solid linguistic theories to shed light on the strong and weak word relation representations identified by each embedding method. The analysis is handled by visualizing the feature vector in two-dimensional (2D) space. The feature vectors of the distributional theory-based word embedding method are plotted in 2D space using the t-sne algorithm, while the Wasf-Vec feature vectors are plotted directly in 2D space. A word’s nearest neighbors and the distance-histograms of the plotted words are examined. For validation purpose of the word classification used in this article, the produced classes are employed in Class-based Language Modeling (CBLM). Wasf-Vec CBLM achieved a 7% lower perplexity (pp) than the distributional theory-based word embedding method CBLM. This result is significant when working with low-resource languages.
Design and Evaluation of an RDMA-aware Data Shuffling Operator for Parallel Database Systems
Authors: Liu Feilong , Yin Lingyan , Blanas Spyros
Published: December 2019

The commoditization of high-performance networking has sparked research interest in the RDMA capability of this hardware. One-sided RDMA primitives, in particular, have generated substantial excitement due to the ability to directly access remote memory from within an application without involving the TCP/IP stack or the remote CPU. This article considers how to leverage RDMA to improve the analytical performance of parallel database systems. To shuffle data efficiently using RDMA, one needs to consider a complex design space that includes (1) the number of open connections, (2) the contention for the shared network interface, (3) the RDMA transport function, and (4) how much memory should be reserved to exchange data between nodes during query processing. We contribute eight designs that capture salient tradeoffs in this design space as well as an adaptive algorithm to dynamically manage RDMA-registered memory. We comprehensively evaluate how transport-layer decisions impact the query performance of a database system for different generations of InfiniBand. We find that a shuffling operator that uses the RDMA Send/Receive transport function over the Unreliable Datagram transport service can transmit data up to 4× faster than an RDMA-capable MPI implementation in a 16-node cluster. The response time of TPC-H queries improves by as much as 2×.
Privacy Adversarial Network
Authors: Liu Sicong , Du Junzhao , Shrivastava Anshumali , Zhong Lin
Published: December 2019

The remarkable success of machine learning has fostered a growing number of cloud-based intelligent services for mobile users. Such a service requires a user to send data, e.g. image, voice and video, to the provider, which presents a serious challenge to user privacy. To address this, prior works either obfuscate the data, e.g. add noise and remove identity information, or send representations extracted from the data, e.g. anonymized features. They struggle to balance between the service utility and data privacy because obfuscated data reduces utility and extracted representation may still reveal sensitive information.

This work departs from prior works in methodology: we leverage adversarial learning to better balance between privacy and utility. We design a representation encoder that generates the feature representations to optimize against the privacy disclosure risk of sensitive information (a measure of privacy) by the privacy adversaries, and concurrently optimize with the task inference accuracy (a measure of utility) by the utility discriminator. The result is the privacy adversarial network (PAN), a novel deep model with the new training algorithm, that can automatically learn representations from the raw data. And the trained encoder can be deployed on the user side to generate representations that satisfy the task-defined utility requirements and the user-specified/agnostic privacy budgets.

Intuitively, PAN adversarially forces the extracted representations to only convey information required by the target task. Surprisingly, this constitutes an implicit regularization that actually improves task accuracy. As a result, PAN achieves better utility and better privacy at the same time! We report extensive experiments on six popular datasets, and demonstrate the superiority of PAN compared with alternative methods reported in prior work.
My Mom was Getting this Popup
Authors: Mendel Tamir , Toch Eran
Published: December 2019

Security and privacy pose a serious barrier to the use of mobile technology by older adults. While support from family and friends is known to be an effective enabler in older adults' technology adoption, we know very little about the family members' motivations for providing help, the context, and the process in which they provide it. To bridge this gap, we have conducted a mixed method study, qualitatively analyzing the helpers' assistance stories and quantitatively estimating the factors that affect helpers' willingness to offer assistance to older relatives regarding mobile security and privacy problems. Our findings point to the potential for helping older relatives, i.e., people are more willing to help and guide them than other social groups. Furthermore, we show that familiarity with an older relative's preferences is essential in providing meaningful support. We discuss our findings in the context of developing a theory of collective efficacy for security and privacy and new collaborative technologies that can reduce the barriers to social help.
VocaBura
Authors: Hautasaari Ari , Hamada Takeo , Ishiyama Kuntaro , Fukushima Shogo
Published: December 2019

Learning a new language is difficult and time-consuming. Apart from dedicated classroom study, second language (L2) learners often lack opportunities to switch their attention to vocabulary learning over other daily routines. In this work, we propose a method that enables L2 learners to study new vocabulary items during their dead time, such as when commuting to school or work. We developed a smartphone application, VocaBura, which combines audio learning with location-relevant L1-L2 word pairs to allow users to discover new vocabulary items while walking past buildings, shops and other locations. Our evaluation results indicated that Japanese beginner level English learners were able to retain more vocabulary items with the proposed method compared to traditional audio-based study despite being less aware of L2 vocabulary acquisition having occurred. In our second study, we report on the level of English vocabulary coverage for L2 learning achievable with our proposed method. We discuss several design implications for educational technologies supporting second language learning.
LimbMotion
Authors: Zhou Han , Gao Yi , Song Xinyi , Liu Wenxin , Dong Wei
Published: December 2019

Wearable-based human-computer interaction is a promising technology to enable various applications. This paper aims to track the 3D posture of the entire limb, both wrist/ankle and elbow/knee, of a user wearing a smart device. This limb tracking technology can trace the geometric motion of the limb, without introducing any training stage usually required in gesture recognition approaches. Nonetheless, the tracked limb motion can also be used as a generic input for gesture-based applications. The 3D posture of a limb is defined by the relative positions among main joints, e.g., shoulder, elbow, and wrist for an arm. When a smartwatch is worn on the wrist of a user, its position is affected by both elbow and shoulder motions. It is challenging to infer the entire 3D posture when only given a single point of sensor data from the smartwatch. In this paper, we propose LimbMotion, an accurate and real-time limb tracking system. The performance gain of LimbMotion comes from multiple key technologies, including an accurate attitude estimator based on a novel two-step filter, fast acoustic ranging, and point clouds-based positioning. We implemented LimbMotion and evaluated its performance using extensive experiments, including different gestures, moving speeds, users, and limbs. Results show that LimbMotion achieves real-time tracking with a median error of 7.5cm to 8.9cm, which outperforms the state-of-the-art approach by about 32%.
HeyTeddy
Authors: Kim Yoonji , Choi Youngkyung , Kang Daye , Lee Minkyeong , Nam Tek-Jin , Bianchi Andrea
Published: December 2019

Physical computing is a complex activity that consists of different but tightly coupled tasks: programming and assembling hardware for circuits. Prior work clearly shows that this coupling is the main source of mistakes that unfruitfully take a large portion of novices' debugging time. While past work presented systems that simplify prototyping or introduce novel debugging functionalities, these tools either limit what users can accomplish or are too complex for beginners. In this paper, we propose a general-purpose prototyping tool based on conversation. HeyTeddy guides users during hardware assembly by providing additional information on requests or by interactively presenting the assembly steps to build a circuit. Furthermore, the user can program and execute code in real-time on their Arduino platform without having to write any code, but instead by using commands triggered by voice or text via chat. Finally, the system also presents a set of test capabilities for enhancing debugging with custom and proactive unit tests. We codesigned the system with 10 users over 6 months and tested it with realistic physical computing tasks. With the result of two user studies, we show that conversational programming is feasible and that voice is a suitable alternative for programming simple logic and encouraging exploration. We also demonstrate that conversational programming with unit tests is effective in reducing development time and overall debugging problems while increasing users' confidence. Finally, we highlight limitations and future avenues of research.
Facilitating Temporal Synchronous Target Selection through User Behavior Modeling
Authors: Zhang Tengxiang , Yi Xin , Wang Ruolin , Gao Jiayuan , Wang Yuntao , Yu Chun , Li Simin , Shi Yuanchun
Published: December 2019

Temporal synchronous target selection is an association-free selection technique: users select a target by generating signals (e.g., finger taps and hand claps) in sync with its unique temporal pattern. However, classical pattern set design and input recognition algorithm of such techniques did not leverage users' behavioral information, which limits their robustness to imprecise inputs. In this paper, we improve these two key components by modeling users' interaction behavior. In the first user study, we asked users to tap a finger in sync with blinking patterns with various period and delay, and modeled their finger tapping ability using Gaussian distribution. Based on the results, we generated pattern sets for up to 22 targets that minimized the possibility of confusion due to imprecise inputs. In the second user study, we validated that the optimized pattern sets could reduce error rate from 23% to 7% for the classical Correlation recognizer. We also tested a novel Bayesian, which achieved higher selection accuracy than the Correlation recognizer when the input sequence is short. The informal evaluation results show that the selection technique can be effectively scaled to different modalities and sensing techniques.