bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Trigger Enzymes: Coordination of Metabolism and Virulence Gene Expression
Authors: Commichau Fabian M. , Stülke Jörg
Published: July 2015

Virulence gene expression serves two main functions, growth in/on the host, and the acquisition of nutrients. Therefore, it is obvious that nutrient availability is important to control expression of virulence genes. In any cell, enzymes are the components that are best informed about the availability of their respective substrates and products. It is thus not surprising that bacteria have evolved a variety of strategies to employ this information in the control of gene expression. Enzymes that have a second (so-called moonlighting) function in the regulation of gene expression are collectively referred to as trigger enzymes. Trigger enzymes may have a second activity as a direct regulatory protein that can bind specific DNA or RNA targets under particular conditions or they may affect the activity of transcription factors by covalent modification or direct protein-protein interaction. In this chapter, we provide an overview on these mechanisms and discuss the relevance of trigger enzymes for virulence gene expression in bacterial pathogens.
Anatomy and Physiology of the Urinary Tract: Relation to Host Defense and Microbial Infection
Authors: Hickling Duane R. , Sun Tung-Tien , Wu Xue-Ru
Published: July 2015

The urinary tract exits to a body surface area that is densely populated by a wide range of microbes. Yet, under most normal circumstances, it is typically considered sterile, i.e., devoid of microbes, a stark contrast to the gastrointestinal and upper respiratory tracts where many commensal and pathogenic microbes call home. Not surprisingly, infection of the urinary tract over a healthy person’s lifetime is relatively infrequent, occurring once or twice or not at all for most people. For those who do experience an initial infection, the great majority (70% to 80%) thankfully do not go on to suffer from multiple episodes. This is a far cry from the upper respiratory tract infections, which can afflict an otherwise healthy individual countless times. The fact that urinary tract infections are hard to elicit in experimental animals except with inoculum 3–5 orders of magnitude greater than the colony counts that define an acute urinary infection in humans (10
5
cfu/ml), also speaks to the robustness of the urinary tract defense. How can the urinary tract be so effective in fending off harmful microbes despite its orifice in a close vicinity to that of the microbe-laden gastrointestinal tract? While a complete picture is still evolving, the general consensus is that the anatomical and physiological integrity of the urinary tract is of paramount importance in maintaining a healthy urinary tract. When this integrity is breached, however, the urinary tract can be at a heightened risk or even recurrent episodes of microbial infections. In fact, recurrent urinary tract infections are a significant cause of morbidity and time lost from work and a major challenge to manage clinically. Additionally, infections of the upper urinary tract often require hospitalization and prolonged antibiotic therapy. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the basic anatomy and physiology of the urinary tract with an emphasis on their specific roles in host defense. We also highlight the important structural and functional abnormalities that predispose the urinary tract to microbial infections.
Anemone altaica Induces Apoptosis in Human Osteosarcoma Cells
Authors: Chang I-Chang , Chiang Tsay-I , Lo Chun , Lai Yi-Hua , Yue Chia-Herng , Liu Jer-Yuh , Hsu Li-Sung , Lee Chia-Jen
Published: July 2015

In the past decade, no significant improvement has been made in chemotherapy for osteosarcoma (OS). To develop improved agents against OS, we screened 70 species of medicinal plants and treated two human OS cell lines with different agent concentrations. We then examined cell viability using the MTT assay. Results showed that a candidate plant, particularly the rhizomes of Anemone altaica Fisch. ex C. A. Mey aqueous extract (AAE), suppressed the viability of HOS and U2OS cells in a concentration-dependent manner. Flow cytometry analysis revealed that AAE significantly increased the amount of cell shrinkage (Sub-G1 fragments) in HOS and U2OS cells. Moreover, AAE increased cytosolic cytochrome c and Bax, but decreased Bcl-2. The amount of cleaved caspase-3 and poly-(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) were significantly increased. AAE suppressed the growth of HOS and U2OS through the intrinsic apoptotic pathway. Data suggest that AAE is cytotoxic to HOS and U2OS cells and has no significant influence on human osteoblast hFOB cells. The high mRNA levels of apoptosis-related factors (PPP1R15A, SQSTM1, HSPA1B, and DDIT4) and cellular proliferation markers (SKA2 and BUB1B) were significantly altered by the AAE treatment of HOS and U2OS cells. Results show that the anticancer activity of AAE could up-regulate the expression of a cluster of genes, especially those in the apoptosis-related factor family and caspase family. Thus, AAE has great potential as a useful therapeutic drug for human OS.
Vacuum structure and gravitational bags produced by metric-independent space–time volume-form dynamics
Authors: Guendelman Eduardo , Nissimov Emil , Pacheva Svetlana
Published: July 2015

We propose a new class of gravity-matter theories, describing [Formula: see text] gravity interacting with a nonstandard nonlinear gauge field system and a scalar “dilaton,” formulated in terms of two different non-Riemannian volume-forms (generally covariant integration measure densities) on the underlying space–time manifold, which are independent of the Riemannian metric. The nonlinear gauge field system contains a square-root [Formula: see text] of the standard Maxwell Lagrangian which is known to describe charge confinement in flat space–time. The initial new gravity-matter model is invariant under global Weyl-scale symmetry which undergoes a spontaneous breakdown upon integration of the non-Riemannian volume-form degrees of freedom. In the physical Einstein frame we obtain an effective matter-gauge-field Lagrangian of “k-essence” type with quadratic dependence on the scalar “dilaton” field kinetic term [Formula: see text], with a remarkable effective scalar potential possessing two infinitely large flat regions as well as with nontrivial effective gauge coupling constants running with the “dilaton” [Formula: see text]. Corresponding to each of the two flat regions we find “vacuum” configurations of the following types: (i) [Formula: see text] and a nonzero gauge field vacuum [Formula: see text], which corresponds to a charge confining phase; (ii) [Formula: see text] (“kinetic vacuum”) and ordinary gauge field vacuum [Formula: see text] which supports confinement-free charge dynamics. In one of the flat regions of the effective scalar potential we also find: (iii) [Formula: see text] (“kinetic vacuum”) and a nonzero gauge field vacuum [Formula: see text], which again corresponds to a charge confining phase. In all three cases, the space–time metric is de Sitter or Schwarzschild–de Sitter. Both “kinetic vacuums” (ii) and (iii) can exist only within a finite-volume space region below a de Sitter horizon. Extension to the whole space requires matching the latter with the exterior region with a nonstandard Reissner–Nordström–de Sitter geometry carrying an additional constant radial background electric field. As a result, we obtain two classes of gravitational bag-like configurations with properties, which on one hand partially parallel some of the properties of the solitonic “constituent quark” model and, on the other hand, partially mimic some of the properties of MIT bags in QCD phenomenology.
Two-body decay widths of lowest lying and next-to-lowest lying scalar and pseudoscalar mesons in generalized linear sigma model
Authors: Zebarjad S. Mohammad , Zarepour Soodeh
Published: July 2015

Two-body decay widths of lowest lying and next-to-lowest lying scalar and pseudoscalar mesons are studied in generalized linear sigma model (GLSM) of low-energy QCD. This model which considers mixing between “two-quark” and “four-quark” chiral nonets has been employed to investigate various decays and scatterings in low-energy region of QCD. In this paper, [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] are obtained and it is shown that two-body decay widths of lowest lying mesons are well predicted by this model while for the next-to-lowest lying mesons, only some of the decay widths agree with the experimental results. We have compared the predicted decay widths in GLSM with the results obtained in single nonet linear sigma model (SNLSM) to indicate that chiral nonet mixing greatly improves the predictions of SNLSM for decay widths.
A spin-orbit coupling for a neutral particle from Lorentz symmetry breaking effects in the CPT-odd sector of the Standard Model Extension
Authors: Belich H. , Bakke K.
Published: July 2015

We start by investigating the arising of a spin-orbit coupling and a Darwin-type term that stem from Lorentz symmetry breaking effects in the CPT-odd sector of the Standard Model Extension. Then, we establish a possible scenario of the violation of the Lorentz symmetry that gives rise to a linear confining potential and an effective electric field in which determines the spin-orbit coupling for a neutral particle analogous to the Rashba coupling [E. I. Rashba, Sov. Phys. Solid State 2, 1109 (1960)]. Finally, we confine the neutral particle to a quantum dot [W.-C. Tan and J. C. Inkson, Semicond. Sci. Technol. 11, 1635 (1996)] and analyze the influence of the linear confining potential and the spin-orbit coupling on the spectrum of energy.
Thermoelectric properties of T-shaped graphene nanodevice
Authors: Jafari A. , Ghoranneviss M. , Boochani A. , Hantehzadeh M. R.
Published: July 2015

The thermoelectric properties of a T-shaped graphene nanodevice (TGN) are investigated by means of the Landauer approach using the π-electron tight-binding model. The dependence of thermopower on the temperature is studied and the results are qualitatively in agreement with many features recently observed in thermoelectric measurements on graphene nanodevice which suggests the existence of a minimum when the EF is several kBT away from the Dirac point. Thermoconductance κ is proportional to transmission coefficient and thermal current has a linear dependence on the temperature. Further, both the electrical and thermal current of electrons in TGN are calculated. The results could be useful in designing efficient graphene-based thermoelectric devices.
Traveling wave solution of higher-order traffic flow model with discontinuous fundamental diagram
Authors: Wu Chun-Xiu
Published: July 2015

The traveling wave solution of a unified higher-order traffic flow model is investigated with a discontinuous fundamental diagram under the Lagrange coordinate. The equilibrium velocity is a piecewise function which consists of two concave functions. The weak solution theory is applied to study the traveling wave solution of the model, in which a set of equations about the characteristic parameters are obtained. Through numerical simulation, the moving cluster solutions of the anisotropic and isotropic traffic flow models are reproduced, respectively. The numerical results agree with the analytical ones.
EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE ROLLING–SLIDING CONTACT CONDITIONS IN A PA66/STEEL GEAR USING TWIN-DISC TEST RIG: FRICTION AND WEAR ANALYSIS
Authors: MBAREK MEFTAH , RHAIEM SADOK , KHARRAT MOHAMED , DAMMAK MAHER
Published: July 2015

This study investigates the effects of sliding ratio on the tribological response of the contact between the teeth of a metal/polymer gear in the regions close to the pitch point. For this purpose, a new twin-disc test rig was developed on the basis of two discs of different diameters rotating one above the other at the same angular speed. Two different materials were used: non-alloyed structural steel (C45) and polyamide (PA66). The effect of the slip ratio (4%, 12%, 20% and 28%) was studied at a constant pressure of 34 MPa and a constant angular speed of 300 rpm. In addition, the contact conditions were controlled with measurements of the two discs surface temperatures. The results indicate that the wear and the friction are closely related to the contact temperature generated by the sliding phenomenon. At low slip ratio (4% and 12%), the coefficient of friction and the temperature are characterized by a quasi-linear increase with time, and the wear increases slowly. At higher slip ratio (20% and 28%), the coefficient of friction and the temperature presents a steady state, and the wear increases dramatically. During the test, a film of transferred PA66 is formed on the steel surface causing the development of adhesive interactions between the contacting discs which increase the friction coefficient and the contact temperature. The high thermal conductivity of steel as compared to that of the polymer can reduce enormously the contact temperature generated by the sliding process.
Obstruction criteria for modular deformation problems
Authors: Hatley Jeffrey
Published: July 2015

For a cuspidal newform [Formula: see text] of weight [Formula: see text] and a prime [Formula: see text] of [Formula: see text], the deformation problem for its associated mod [Formula: see text] Galois representation is unobstructed for all primes outside some finite set. Previous results gave an explicit bound on this finite set for [Formula: see text] of squarefree level; we modify this bound and remove the squarefree hypothesis. We also show that if the [Formula: see text]-adic deformation problem for [Formula: see text] is unobstructed, then [Formula: see text] is not congruent mod [Formula: see text] to a newform of lower level.
Automated Pricing in a Multiagent Prediction Market Using a Partially Observable Stochastic Game
Authors: Jumadinova Janyl , Dasgupta Prithviraj
Published: July 2015

Prediction markets offer an efficient market-based mechanism to aggregate large amounts of dispersed or distributed information from different people to predict the possible outcome of future events. Recently, automated prediction markets where software trading agents perform market operations such as trading and updating beliefs on behalf of humans have been proposed. A challenging aspect in automated prediction markets is to develop suitable techniques that can be used by automated trading agents to update the price at which they should trade securities related to an event so that they can increase their profit. This problem is nontrivial, as the decision to trade and the price at which trading should occur depends on several dynamic factors, such as incoming information related to the event for which the security is being traded, the belief-update mechanism and risk attitude of the trading agent, and the trading decision and trading prices of other agents. To address this problem, we have proposed a new behavior model for trading agents based on a game-theoretic framework called
partially observable stochastic game with information
(POSGI). We propose a correlated equilibrium (CE)-based solution strategy for this game that allows each agent to dynamically choose an action (to buy or sell or hold) in the prediction market. We have also performed extensive simulation experiments using the data obtained from the Intrade prediction market for four different prediction markets. Our results show that our POSGI model and CE strategy produces prices that are strongly correlated with the prices of the real prediction markets. Results comparing our CE strategy with five other strategies commonly used in similar market show that our CE strategy improves price predictions and provides higher utilities to the agents compared to other existing strategies.
Latent Discriminative Models for Social Emotion Detection with Emotional Dependency
Authors: Quan Xiaojun , Wang Qifan , Zhang Ying , Si Luo , Wenyin Liu
Published: July 2015

Sentiment analysis of such opinionated online texts as reviews and comments has received increasingly close attention, yet most of the work is intended to deal with the detection of authors’ emotion. In contrast, this article presents our study of the social emotion detection problem, the objective of which is to identify the evoked emotions of readers by online documents such as news articles. A novel Latent Discriminative Model (LDM) is proposed for this task. LDM works by introducing intermediate hidden variables to model the latent structure of input text corpora. To achieve this, it defines a joint distribution over emotions and latent variables, conditioned on the observed text documents. Moreover, we assume that social emotions are not independent but correlated with one another, and the dependency of them is capable of providing additional guidance to LDM in the training process. The inclusion of this emotional dependency into LDM gives rise to a new Emotional Dependency-based LDM (eLDM). We evaluate the proposed models through a series of empirical evaluations on two real-world corpora of news articles. Experimental results verify the effectiveness of LDM and eLDM in social emotion detection.
JCloudScale
Authors: Zabolotnyi Rostyslav , Leitner Philipp , Hummer Waldemar , Dustdar Schahram
Published: July 2015

Building Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) applications today is a complex, repetitive, and error-prone endeavor, as IaaS does not provide abstractions on top of virtual machines. This article presents JC
loud
S
cale
, a Java-based middleware for moving elastic applications to IaaS clouds, with minimal adjustments to the application code. We discuss the architecture and technical features, as well as evaluate our system with regard to user acceptance and performance overhead. Our user study reveals that JC
loud
S
cale
allows many participants to build IaaS applications more efficiently, compared to industrial Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions. Additionally, unlike PaaS, JC
loud
S
cale
does not lead to a control loss and vendor lock-in.
Why cybercrime?
Authors: Garg Vaibhav , Camp L. Jean
Published: July 2015

How do cybercrime markets emerge, evolve, and persist? How can cybercrime be prevented, decreased and mitigated? Extant anti-cybercrime efforts have concentrated on deterrence through criminal prosecution and technical mitigation. Deterrence-only strategies, however, may be more expensive for the network than for attackers, particularly considering the asymmetric nature of computer security. The implicit assumption of deterrence, i.e. criminals are strictly self-optimizing rational agents cognizant only of a cost-benefit function, is contentious. Criminal actions are constrained/enabled by the institutional structures of their immediate neighborhood. Exposure to crime (or probability of victimization is similarly influenced. Thus, this paper examines the respective economic, structural, and cultural theories in criminology and explores their relevance online. We discuss the implications for technical solutions, security design, as well as public policy. An intuitive position is to lower the entry cost of legal enterprise, and thereby increase the opportunity cost of cybercrime engagement. We also discuss solutions that allow simultaneous investments (to reduce crime online) by both public and private entities, while mitigating for potential moral hazard. Our concluding argument, then, is for complementing deterrence with policy solutions that preemptively engage potential criminals as legitimate market stakeholders. In addition to the explicit examination of deterrence theories of cybercrime, this work offers a broader consideration of cybercrime that is grounded in theories of crime offline.
Non-profit geographically constrained locator
Authors: McGuffee James W.
Published: July 2015

There exist numerous non-profit entities and organizations that provide social services to those in need. These organizations may be governmental, secular, parochial, or religious. The services provided may be long term institutionalized support, seasonal or limited time benefits. Beneficiaries of social services may be restricted by age, sex, family status, citizenship, and/or income level. Given this variability, we envisioned the need to create an interactive geographically constrained web based social services client matching system. In this system, a client would enter basic demographic information and the system would return a set of available social services within a specific geographic area.

As a first step in trying to create this system, undergraduate student Dan Myers investigated the viability of using Scrapy to crawl and scrape data from the web based on geographic location. Scrapy is an open-source web crawling framework written in Python. Scrapy was chosen because it is open source, widely used, and provides tools for both scraping and crawling [2]. The main focus of Dan Myers' project was to write a web crawler that utilizes regular expressions to extract relevant data from geographically targeted websites. Specifically, Dan's project used Scrapy to find all web mentions of physical addresses in the zip codes of the three most northern counties in Kentucky. The two main tasks for this project were (1) to use Scrapy's spider class to extract street addresses from the chosen zip codes and (2) to create a Scrapy item object to manage the data. This project demonstrated that by using the open source tool Scrapy, the problem of extracting geographically relevant information is faster and easier to manage than previously proposed systems such as the gazetteer approach used in the web-a-where project [1].

The next phase of the project will be undertaken by a team of UR-STEM students in the summer of 2015. At NKU, UR-STEM (which stands for undergraduate research in STEM) is a paid summer research opportunity for students early in their college careers. A goal for this summer's research will be the creation of a fully working prototype of a web based non-profit geographically constrained locator. Depending on the quality of the code produced, the project may be released as the first version of an ongoing open source software project which could, potentially, lead to the creation of an HFOSS (Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software) project whose original programmers are all students [3].
Mathematical Equations to Predict Positive Airway Pressures for Obstructive Sleep Apnea: A Systematic Review
Authors: Camacho Macario , Riaz Muhammad , Tahoori Armin , Certal Victor , Kushida Clete A.
Published: July 2015

Objective. To systematically review the international literature for mathematical equations used to predict effective pressures for positive airway pressure (PAP) devices.Methods. Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, Embase, Web of Science, CINAHL, and The Cochrane Library were searched through June 27, 2015. The PRISMA statement was followed. There was no language limitation.Results. 709 articles were screened, fifty were downloaded, and twenty-six studies presented equations that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. In total, there were 4,436 patients in the development phases and 3,489 patients in the validation phases. Studies performed multiple linear regressions analyses as part of the equation(s) development and included the following variables: physical characteristics, polysomnography data, behavioral characteristics, and miscellaneous characteristics, which were all predictive to a variable extent. Of the published variables, body mass index (BMI) and mean oxygen saturation are the most heavily weighted, while BMI (eighteen studies), apnea-hypopnea index (seventeen studies), and neck circumference (eleven studies) were the variables most frequently used in the mathematical equations. Ten studies were from Asian countries and sixteen were from non-Asian countries.Conclusion. This systematic review identified twenty-six unique studies reporting mathematical equations which are summarized. Overall, BMI and mean oxygen saturation are the most heavily weighted.
Pulmonary Responses of Sprague-Dawley Rats in Single Inhalation Exposure to Graphene Oxide Nanomaterials
Authors: Han Sung Gu , Kim Jin Kwon , Shin Jae Hoon , Hwang Joo Hwan , Lee Jong Seong , Kim Tae-Gyu , Lee Ji Hyun , Lee Gun Ho , Kim Keun Soo , Lee Heon Sang , Song Nam Woong , Ahn Kangho , Yu Il Je
Published: July 2015

Graphene is receiving increased attention due to its potential widespread applications in future. However, the health effects of graphene have not yet been well studied. Therefore, this study examined the pulmonary effects of graphene oxide using male Sprague-Dawley rats and a single 6-hour nose-only inhalation technique. Following the exposure, the rats were allowed to recover for 1 day, 7 days, or 14 days. A total of three groups were compared: control (fresh air), low concentration (0.46±0.06 mg/m3), and high concentration (3.76±0.24 mg/m3). The exposure to graphene oxide did not induce significant changes in the body weights, organ weights, and food consumption during the 14 days of recovery time. The microalbumin and lactate dehydrogenase levels in the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid were not significantly changed due to the exposure. Similarly, total cell count, macrophages, polymorphonuclear leukocytes, and lymphocytes were not significantly altered in the BAL fluid. Plus, the histopathological examination of the rat lungs only showed an uptake of graphene oxide in the alveolar macrophages of the high-concentration group. Therefore, these results demonstrate that the single inhalation exposure to graphene oxide induce minimal toxic responses in rat lungs at the concentrations and time points used in the present study.
SensorHUB: An IoT Driver Framework for Supporting Sensor Networks and Data Analysis
Authors: Lengyel László , Ekler Péter , Ujj Tamás , Balogh Tamás , Charaf Hassan
Published: July 2015

The Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming the surrounding everyday physical objects into an ecosystem of information that enriches our everyday life. The IoT represents the convergence of advances in miniaturization, wireless connectivity, and increased data storage and is driven by various sensors. Sensors detect and measure changes in position, temperature, light, and many others; furthermore, they are necessary to turn billions of objects into data-generating “things” that can report on their status and often interact with their environment. Application and service development methods and frameworks are required to support the realization of solutions covering data collection, transmission, data processing, analysis, reporting, and advanced querying. This paper introduces the SensorHUB framework that utilizes the state-of-the-art open source technologies and provides a unified tool chain for IoT related application and service development. SensorHUB is both a method and an environment to support IoT related application and service development; furthermore, it supports the data monetization approach, that is, provides a method to define data views on top of different data sources and analyzed data. The framework is available in a Platform as a Service (PaaS) model and has been applied for the vehicle, health, production lines, and smart city domains.
Forced Responses of the Parametric Vibration System for the Electromechanical Integrated Magnetic Gear
Authors: Hao Xiu-hong , Zhu Xue-jun
Published: July 2015

Considering the magnetic fields modulating in the electromechanical integrated magnetic gear (EIMG), the electromagnetic coupling stiffnesses vary periodically and the expressions are given by the finite element method. The parametric vibration model and the dynamic differential equations are founded. The expressions of forced responses of EIMG system are deduced when the main resonances and the combination resonances occur. And then, the time and frequency responses are figured out. The dynamic characteristics of EIMG system are discussed. The results show that the dominant frequencies in the resonances are always the natural frequency of EIMG system. The relative amplitudes of the components have great difference and the components amplitudes of the main resonances are much bigger than the components amplitudes of the combination resonances. The time-varying meshing stiffness wave between the inner stator and the inner ferromagnetic pole-pieces has little influence on EIMG system.
First Case of Tricuspid Valve Endocarditis Caused byGemella bergeri
Authors: Pachirat Orathai , Watt George , Pussadhamma Burabha
Published: July 2015

Gemella bergeriis a Gram-positive cocci species arranged in pairs and composes the normal flora of oral cavity, digestive and urinary tract. Several species ofGemellaare known to cause endocarditis. Here, we report the first case in Thailand ofG. bergeriendocarditis whose blood culture was negative using routine methods but was positive by PCR identification of bacteria in the affected valve. A 37-year-old male presented with prolonged fever, weight loss, and dyspnea on exertion. By transthoracic echocardiography, he was suspected of having infective endocarditis of the tricuspid valve. The patient underwent tricuspid valve repair and vegetectomy. Routine hospital blood cultures were negative butG. bergeriwas identified by PCR/sequencing of the heart valve tissue.
The Impact of Fracture Incidence on Health Related Quality of Life among Community-Based Postmenopausal Women
Authors: Barcenilla-Wong A. L. , Chen J. S. , Cross M. J. , March L. M.
Published: July 2015

This prospective study aimed to examine the impact of fracture incidence on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among postmenopausal women. Study subjects were Australian female community-dwellers in the Global Longitudinal Study of Osteoporosis in Women (GLOW). Self-administered questionnaires were collected annually from 2007 to 2010. Outcomes were the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 (SF-36 physical function (SF36PFS) and vitality (SF36VS) scores), European Quality of Life (EQ-5D), and self-reported general health (GH) of excellent/good. Questionnaires were divided into prior to, the 1st, the 2nd, and the 3rd year after incident fracture assessments. Generalized linear models with generalised estimating equations (GEE) were employed for the analysis. The 2,872 participants (age: median 65; interquartile range 60–73 years) provided a total of 10,436 assessments including 266, 165 and 76 assessments for the 1st, the 2nd, and the 3rd year after incident fracture, respectively. Multivariate adjustments showed reductions in HRQOL measures peaking at the 1st year for SF36VS (coefficient −3.0; 95% CI: −5.1, −0.8) and EQ-5D (coefficient −0.03; 95% CI: −0.06, −0.00) and at the 2nd year for SF36PFS (coefficient −3.0; 95% CI: −5.6, −0.5) and GH (odds ratio 0.92; 95% CI: 0.70, 1.19). Fracture incidence reduced HRQOL including vitality and physical function among relatively young, healthy postmenopausal women and the reduction in European Quality of Life measure was clinically important.
Imaging Tumor Acidity: pH-Low Insertion Peptide Probe for Optoacoustic Tomography
Authors: Reshetnyak Yana K.
Published: July 2015

Optoacoustic tomography has been used for the detection of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma targeted by pH-low insertion peptide (pHLIP) conjugated to near-infrared fluorescent dye. It was proved that tumor targeting is pH dependent. The approach could have major implication for detection and monitoring of pancreatic and other cancers. Clin Cancer Res; 21(20); 4502–4. ©2015 AACR.

See related article by Kimbrough et al., p. 4576
Gestational Weight Gain and Offspring Longitudinal Growth in Early Life
Authors: Diesel Jill C. , Eckhardt Cara L. , Day Nancy L. , Brooks Maria M. , Arslanian Silva A. , Bodnar Lisa M.
Published: July 2015

Background: Excessive gestational weight gain (GWG) increases the risk of childhood obesity, but little is known about its association with infant growth patterns. Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the association between GWG and infant growth patterns. Methods: Pregnant women (n = 743) self-reported GWG at delivery, which we classified as inadequate, adequate or excessive based on the current guidelines. Offspring weight-for-age z-score (WAZ), length-for-age z-score (LAZ (with height-for-age (HAZ) in place of length at 36 months)) and body mass index z-score (BMIZ) were calculated at birth, 8, 18 and 36 months using the 2006 World Health Organization growth standards. Linear mixed models estimated the change in z-score from birth to 36 months by GWG. Results: The mean (SD) WAZ was -0.22 (1.20) at birth. Overall, WAZ and BMIZ increased from birth to, approximately, 24 months and decreased from 24 to 36 months, while LAZ/HAZ decreased from birth through 36 months. Excessive GWG was associated with higher offspring WAZ and BMIZ at birth, 8 and 36 months, and higher HAZ at 36 months, compared with adequate GWG. Compared with the same referent, inadequate GWG was associated with smaller WAZ and BMIZ at birth and 8 months. Conclusion: Excessive GWG may predispose infants to obesogenic growth patterns, while inadequate GWG may not have a lasting impact on infant growth.
RegentK: The Scientific Investigation of a 40-Year-Old Method in Regenerative Medicine
Authors: Litscher Gerhard
Published: July 2015

Background: Mohamed Khalifa has been healing even the most severe muscle and joint injuries in Austria for more than 40 years, without surgery, only with his hands by applying pressure on the skin. In this article, the author summarises the first scientific results trying to describe the way of functioning of this unusual form of therapy called RegentK. Historical aspects, regional oxygen saturation of deeper knee tissues, thermographic measurements, and electrodermal mapping are described in detail. Summary: Rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is a high-incidence injury usually treated surgically. According to common knowledge, it does not heal spontaneously, although some claim the opposite. RegentK was developed for injuries of the musculoskeletal system. In one study, it was shown that after 3 months, 47% of the RegentK patients, but no physiotherapy patient, demonstrated an end-to-end homogeneous ACL on magnetic resonance imaging. Key Messages: We conclude that ACL healing can be improved with RegentK.
Extrastriate Visual Areas Integrate Form Features over Space and Time to Construct Representations of Stationary and Rigidly Rotating Objects
Authors: McCarthy J. Daniel , Kohler Peter J. , Tse Peter U. , Caplovitz Gideon Paul
Published: July 2015

When an object moves behind a bush, for example, its visible fragments are revealed at different times and locations across the visual field. Nonetheless, a whole moving object is perceived. Unlike traditional modal and amodal completion mechanisms known to support spatial form integration when all parts of a stimulus are simultaneously visible, relatively little is known about the neural substrates of the spatiotemporal form integration (STFI) processes involved in generating coherent object representations from a succession visible fragments. We used fMRI to identify brain regions involved in two mechanisms supporting the representation of stationary and rigidly rotating objects whose form features are shown in succession: STFI and position updating. STFI allows past and present form cues to be integrated over space and time into a coherent object even when the object is not visible in any given frame. STFI can occur whether or not the object is moving. Position updating allows us to perceive a moving object, whether rigidly rotating or translating, even when its form features are revealed at different times and locations in space. Our results suggest that STFI is mediated by visual regions beyond V1 and V2. Moreover, although widespread cortical activation has been observed for other motion percepts derived solely from form-based analyses [Tse, P. U. Neural correlates of transformational apparent motion. Neuroimage, 31, 766–773, 2006; Krekelberg, B., Vatakis, A., & Kourtzi, Z. Implied motion from form in the human visual cortex. Journal of Neurophysiology, 94, 4373–4386, 2005], increased responses for the position updating that lead to rigidly rotating object representations were only observed in visual areas KO and possibly hMT+, indicating that this is a distinct and highly specialized type of processing.
Artefact ‘Scripts’ and the Performer-Developer
Authors: Carey Benjamin
Published: July 2015

This paper outlines the methodological and theoretical considerations encountered in the practice-based research of a performer-developer. Considering the relevance of self-reflective and autoethnographic methods for practice-based, creative-production research projects, the relationship between development and use of technological artefacts for musical performance is discussed with reference to relevant theory.
Taxonomic novelties in Jacquemontia Choisy (Convolvulaceae) from Southeastern Brazil
Authors: Pastore Mayara , Simão-Bianchini Rosangela
Published: July 2015

Two additional species are recognised in Jacquemontia. The new combination Jacquemontia frankeana is proposed, based on Convolvulus frankeanus, since this species is clearly referable to Jacquemontia rather than Convolvulus based on its stigma morphology and possession of stellate hairs. It is distinguished from closely related species of Jacquemontia by the glabrescent leaves, the stellate adpressed hairs with 4–5-rays, and the two outer sepals being smaller than the inner. Jacquemontia glabrescens is also recognized at specific rank, based on Jacquemontia grandiflora var. glabrescens. It is distinguished from the morphologically similar J. ferruginea and J. cataractae by a combination of glabrescent leaves, bigger flowers, rhombic to ovate outer sepals and glabrous to glabrescent. Synonymy of these taxa and typification are also addressed.
A new species of Hechtia (Bromeliaceae: Hechtioideae) from Hidalgo (Mexico)
Authors: Ramírez Ivón M. , Hornung-Leoni Claudia , González Manuel , Treviño-Carreon Jacinto
Published: July 2015

We propose that two populations previously referred to Hechtia epigyna, from the Mexican state of Hidalgo, represent a new species. Plants from the Hidalgo populations share the inferior ovary with Hechtia epigyna, an unusual trait in the genus, but they differ in their growth pattern (central vs. lateral inflorescence), characters of the adaxial foliar surface, petal color, and fruit position during dehiscence. We also provide a clarification on the typification of Hechtia epigyna. An assessment of the conservation status of the new species, Hechtia deceptrix following IUCN criteria resulted as CR (Critically Endangered).
A new species of Grossera (Euphorbiaceae) from Equatorial Guinea
Authors: Barberá Patricia , Riina Ricarda , Velayos Mauricio
Published: July 2015

Grossera angustifolia, a new species of Euphorbiaceae from Equatorial Guinea, is described and illustrated. The new species belongs to sect. Grossera and it is most similar to G. paniculata, but the two species can be readily distinguished by several leaf characters. A key for the species of sect. Grossera is provided.
Bryconops munduruku (Characiformes: Characidae), a new species of fish from the lower Tapajós River basin, Brazil
Authors: SILVA-OLIVEIRA CÁRLISON , CANTO ANDRÉ LUIZ C. , RIBEIRO FRANK RAYNNER V.
Published: July 2015

A new species of Bryconops is described from a right tributary of the lower Tapajós River, State of Pará, Brazil. Bryconops munduruku, sp. nov., differs from its congeners, except B. inpai and B. piracolina, by having a black adipose fin (vs. adipose fin hyaline in alcohol) and, except B. inpai, by possessing two humeral blotches (vs. lack of humeral blotch or only one humeral blotch). Bryconops munduruku differs from B. inpai by having a uniform color pattern on the posterior portion of the side of the body (vs. a dark stripe extending posteriorly from the half of the anal-fin base onto the base of the middle caudal-fin rays). It differs further from B. inpai and B. piracolina by the presence of a black adipose fin that is hyaline along its base (vs. entirely black adipose fin in B. inpai and B. piracolina). The new species is allocated in the subgenus Creatochanes by having a maxillary bone with one to three teeth on both sides, and its posterior extension reaching the junction of second and third infraorbital bones.
Representation of African Easterly Waves in CMIP5 Models
Authors: Martin Elinor R. , Thorncroft Chris
Published: July 2015

African easterly waves (AEWs) can act as seed disturbances for tropical cyclones (TCs) in the Atlantic, and changes in future AEW activity may have important consequences for development of TCs. The simulation of AEWs was investigated using output from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) suite of experiments, including coupled historical and future simulations and atmosphere only (AMIP) simulations. Large biases exist in the simulation of low- (850 hPa) and midlevel (700 hPa) eddy kinetic energy (EKE, a proxy for AEW activity) in AMIP and historical simulations. CMIP5 models simulate excessive EKE and deficient rainfall south of 17°N. The same biases exist in historical and AMIP models and are not a consequence of errors in sea surface temperatures. The models also struggle to accurately couple AEWs and rainfall, with little improvement from CMIP3 models. CMIP5 models are unable to propagate AEWs across the coast and into the Atlantic, which is shown to be related to the resolution of the Guinea Highlands. Future projections of the annual cycle of AEW activity show a reduction in late spring and early summer and a large increase between July and October that is consistent with rainfall projections in the Sahel, but large differences exists in future projections between high- and low-resolution models. The simulation of AEWs is challenging for CMIP5 models and must be further diagnosed in order to accurately predict future TC activity and rainfall in the Sahel.
The caspase-3/p120 RasGAP module generates a NF-κB repressor in response to cellular stress
Authors: Khalil Hadi , Loukili Noureddine , Regamey Alexandre , Cuesta-Marban Alvaro , Santori Elettra , Huber Marcel , Widmann Christian
Published: July 2015

The NF-κB transcription factor is a master regulator of inflammation. Short-term NF-κB activation is generally beneficial. However, sustained NF-κB may be detrimental, directly causing apoptosis of cells or leading to a persistent damaging inflammatory response. NF-κB activity in stressed cells needs therefore to be controlled for homeostasis maintenance. Here we show that fragment N that is produced by the caspase-3/p120 RasGAP sensor in mildly stressed cells is a potent NF-κB inhibitor. Fragment N decreases the transcriptional activity of NF-κB by promoting its export from the nucleus. Cells unable to generate fragment N displayed increased NF-κB activation upon stress. Knock-in mice expressing the uncleavable RasGAP mutant showed exaggerated NF-κB activation when their epidermis was treated with anthralin, a drug used for the treatment of psoriasis. Our study provides biochemical and genetic evidence of the importance of the caspase-3/p120 RasGAP stress-sensing module in the control of stress-induced NF-κB activation.
Discovering, Indexing and Interlinking Information Resources
Authors: Celli Fabrizio , Keizer Johannes , Jaques Yves , Konstantopoulos Stasinos , Vudragović Dušan
Published: July 2015

The social media revolution is having a dramatic effect on the world of scientific publication. Scientists now publish their research interests, theories and outcomes across numerous channels, including personal blogs and other thematic web spaces where ideas, activities and partial results are discussed. Accordingly, information systems that facilitate access to scientific literature must learn to cope with this valuable and varied data, evolving to make this research easily discoverable and available to end users. In this paper we describe the incremental process of discovering web resources in the domain of agricultural science and technology. Making use of Linked Open Data methodologies, we interlink a wide array of custom-crawled resources with the AGRIS bibliographic database in order to enrich the user experience of the AGRIS website. We also discuss the SemaGrow Stack, a query federation and data integration infrastructure used to estimate the semantic distance between crawled web resources and AGRIS.
Identifying Effective Factors in Transformation of Khajoo Bridge Into A Successful Linear Public Space Based on Jan Gehl’s Criteria
Authors: Torbaty Khatereh , Hashemian Atefeh
Published: July 2015

Khajoo Bridge in Isfahan is one of these successful historical examples. Taking it as a sample, we have tried to identify reasons _ with an aim to find proper applicable approach_ behind the preservation of liveliness in this bridge in past and present .To begin we first explained the meaning of city design and criteria of desirable city space according to Jan Gehl ( a famous Danish architect, sociologist, and urban design consultant). Then we searched, studied and analyzed related documents and observations for better understanding of functions and liveliness of Khajoo Bridge. our comprehensive researches showed that elements used in designing and building of the khajoo bridge have been in agreement with Jan Gehl’s criteria of desirable place (protection, comfort, joy). Evaluation of functions and personality of Khajoo Bridge during different eras also revealed that, by employing humanity, culture and architecture, design of the Khajoo Bridge is most harmonious with the third criteria of Jan Gehl for a desirable place (joy). Taking this approach (joyous-entertaining-life giving) has contributed to the sustention of the Khajoo Bridge in many years.
The equivocal concept: The work of Bourahima Ouattara
Authors: Goldsmiths Jean-Paul Martinon
Published: July 2015

The philosopher Bourahima Ouattara claims that Africans have a unique feature that can help them fight against the west’s economic, cultural and intellectual hegemony and therefore against globalization. This feature is that of ‘being’ outside of all conceptuality. Being outside (or being-third), sub-Saharan Africans are therefore able to expose the weakness of the west’s mighty power: the stubborn repetition of its founding principle: the concept. Instead of just emulating concepts from former colonies or avidly promoted by global capitalism, sub-Saharan Africa should, according to him, unhinge itself from the concept in order to undermine the concept-driven modernity that marks our world’s destiny. Can Bourahima Ouattara’s bold claim really work? Should we all – i.e. not just Africans – listen to him? This article tries not only to make sense but also to test this ambitious attempt to undermine the arrogance and imperialism of the concept, this cornerstone of western philosophy since Plato.

Le philosophe Bourahima Ouattara nous dit que les Africains ont une caractéristique unique qui peut les aider à combattre l’hégémonie économique, culturelle et intellectuelle de l’occident et donc à lutter contre la mondialisation dominante. Cette caractéristique est celle ‘d’être’ l’autre de toute conceptualité. Étant l’autre de l’autre (ou ‘être-en-tiers’), les Africains subsahariens peuvent donc exposer la faiblesse de l’occident: la répétition jamais suffisamment achevée de son principe fondateur: le concept. Au lieu de simplement suivre ou imiter les concepts et donc les valeurs des anciennes colonies, toujours avidement promus par le capitalisme mondial, l’Afrique subsaharienne devrait, selon lui, se ‘decrocher’ du concept de façon à saper l’axe modernité / concept, cet axe qui marque le destin du monde. Se peut-il que Bourahima Ouattara ait raison? Devrions-nous tous – et non pas seulement l’Afrique – l’écouter et nous ‘decrocher’ ainsi du concept? Cet essai a deux buts: présenter brièvement l’oeuvre de B. Ouattara et tester cette tentative ambitieuse de ruiner l’arrogance et l’impérialisme du concept, cette pierre angulaire de la philosophie occidentale depuis Platon.