bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Animating deformable objects using sparse spacetime constraints
Authors: Schulz Christian , von Tycowicz Christoph , Seidel Hans-Peter , Hildebrandt Klaus
Published: July 2014

We propose a scheme for animating deformable objects based on spacetime optimization. The main feature is that it robustly and within a few seconds generates interesting motion from a sparse set of spacetime constraints. Providing only partial (as opposed to full) keyframes for positions and velocities is sufficient. The computed motion satisfies the constraints and the remaining degrees of freedom are determined by physical principles using elasticity and the spacetime constraints paradigm. Our modeling of the spacetime optimization problem combines dimensional reduction, modal coordinates, wiggly splines, and rotation strain warping. Our solver is based on a theorem that characterizes the solutions of the optimization problem and allows us to restrict the optimization to low-dimensional search spaces. This treatment of the optimization problem avoids a time discretization and the resulting method can robustly deal with sparse input and wiggly motion.
Lifted bijections for low distortion surface mappings
Authors: Aigerman Noam , Poranne Roi , Lipman Yaron
Published: July 2014

This paper introduces an algorithm for computing low-distortion, bijective mappings between surface meshes. The algorithm recieves as input a coarse set of corresponding pairs of points on the two surfaces, and follows three steps: (i) cutting the two meshes to disks in a consistent manner; (ii) jointly flattening the two disks via a novel formulation for minimizing isometric distortion while guaranteeing local injectivity (the flattenings can overlap, however); and (iii) computing a unique continuous bijection that is consistent with the flattenings.

The construction of the algorithm stems from two novel observations: first, bijections between disk-type surfaces can be uniquely and efficiently represented via consistent
locally
injective flattenings that are allowed to be globally overlapping. This observation reduces the problem of computing bijective surface mappings to the task of computing locally injective flattenings, which is shown to be easier. Second, locally injective flattenings that minimize isometric distortion can be efficiently characterized and optimized in a convex framework.

Experiments that map a wide baseline of pairs of surface meshes using the algorithm are provided. They demonstrate the ability of the algorithm to produce high-quality continuous bijective mappings between pairs of surfaces of varying isometric distortion levels.
Subspace clothing simulation using adaptive bases
Authors: Hahn Fabian , Thomaszewski Bernhard , Coros Stelian , Sumner Robert W. , Cole Forrester , Meyer Mark , DeRose Tony , Gross Markus
Published: July 2014

We present a new approach to clothing simulation using low-dimensional linear subspaces with temporally adaptive bases. Our method exploits full-space simulation training data in order to construct a pool of low-dimensional bases distributed across pose space. For this purpose, we interpret the simulation data as offsets from a kinematic deformation model that captures the global shape of clothing due to body pose. During subspace simulation, we select low-dimensional sets of basis vectors according to the current pose of the character and the state of its clothing. Thanks to this adaptive basis selection scheme, our method is able to reproduce diverse and detailed folding patterns with only a few basis vectors. Our experiments demonstrate the feasibility of subspace clothing simulation and indicate its potential in terms of quality and computational efficiency.
Smoke rings from smoke
Authors: Weißmann Steffen , Pinkall Ulrich , Schröder Peter
Published: July 2014

We give an algorithm which extracts vortex filaments ("smoke rings") from a given 3D velocity field. Given a filament strength
h
> 0, an optimal number of vortex filaments, together with their extent and placement, is given by the zero set of a complex valued function over the domain. This function is the global minimizer of a quadratic energy based on a Schrödinger operator. Computationally this amounts to finding the eigenvector belonging to the smallest eigenvalue of a Laplacian type sparse matrix.

Turning traditional vector field representations of flows, for example, on a regular grid, into a corresponding set of vortex filaments is useful for visualization, analysis of measured flows, hybrid simulation methods, and sparse representations. To demonstrate our method we give examples from each of these.
Earth mover's distances on discrete surfaces
Authors: Solomon Justin , Rustamov Raif , Guibas Leonidas , Butscher Adrian
Published: July 2014

We introduce a novel method for computing the earth mover's distance (EMD) between probability distributions on a discrete surface. Rather than using a large linear program with a quadratic number of variables, we apply the theory of optimal transportation and pass to a dual differential formulation with linear scaling. After discretization using finite elements (FEM) and development of an accompanying optimization method, we apply our new EMD to problems in graphics and geometry processing. In particular, we uncover a class of smooth distances on a surface transitioning from a purely spectral distance to the geodesic distance between points; these distances also can be extended to the volume inside and outside the surface. A number of additional applications of our machinery to geometry problems in graphics are presented.
Augmented MPM for phase-change and varied materials
Authors: Stomakhin Alexey , Schroeder Craig , Jiang Chenfanfu , Chai Lawrence , Teran Joseph , Selle Andrew
Published: July 2014

In this paper, we introduce a novel material point method for heat transport, melting and solidifying materials. This brings a wider range of material behaviors into reach of the already versatile material point method. This is in contrast to best-of-breed fluid, solid or rigid body solvers that are difficult to adapt to a wide range of materials. Extending the material point method requires several contributions. We introduce a dilational/deviatoric splitting of the constitutive model and show that an implicit treatment of the Eulerian evolution of the dilational part can be used to simulate arbitrarily incompressible materials. Furthermore, we show that this treatment reduces to a parabolic equation for moderate compressibility and an elliptic, Chorin-style projection at the incompressible limit. Since projections are naturally done on marker and cell (MAC) grids, we devise a staggered grid MPM method. Lastly, to generate varying material parameters, we adapt a heat-equation solver to a material point framework.
Discrete stochastic microfacet models
Authors: Jakob Wenzel , Hašan Miloš , Yan Ling-Qi , Lawrence Jason , Ramamoorthi Ravi , Marschner Steve
Published: July 2014

This paper investigates rendering glittery surfaces, ones which exhibit shifting random patterns of glints as the surface or viewer moves. It applies both to dramatically glittery surfaces that contain mirror-like flakes and also to rough surfaces that exhibit more subtle small scale glitter, without which most glossy surfaces appear too smooth in close-up. These phenomena can in principle be simulated by high-resolution normal maps, but maps with tiny features create severe aliasing problems under narrow-angle illumination. In this paper we present a stochastic model for the effects of random subpixel structures that generates glitter and spatial noise that behave correctly under different illumination conditions and viewing distances, while also being temporally coherent so that they look right in motion. The model is based on microfacet theory, but it replaces the usual continuous microfacet distribution with a discrete distribution of scattering particles on the surface. A novel stochastic hierarchy allows efficient evaluation in the presence of large numbers of random particles, without ever having to consider the particles individually. This leads to a multiscale procedural BRDF that is readily implemented in standard rendering systems, and which converges back to the smooth case in the limit.
Bilateral texture filtering
Authors: Cho Hojin , Lee Hyunjoon , Kang Henry , Lee Seungyong
Published: July 2014

This paper presents a novel structure-preserving image decomposition operator called
bilateral texture filter
. As a simple modification of the original bilateral filter [Tomasi and Manduchi 1998], it performs local patch-based analysis of texture features and incorporates its results into the range filter kernel. The central idea to ensure proper texture/structure separation is based on
patch shift
that captures the texture information from the most representative texture patch clear of prominent structure edges. Our method outperforms the original bilateral filter in removing texture while preserving main image structures, at the cost of some added computation. It inherits well-known advantages of the bilateral filter, such as simplicity, local nature, ease of implementation, scalability, and adaptability to other application scenarios.
PushPull++
Authors: Lipp Markus , Wonka Peter , Müller Pascal
Published: July 2014

PushPull tools are implemented in most commercial 3D modeling suites. Their purpose is to intuitively transform a face, edge, or vertex, and then to adapt the polygonal mesh locally. However, previous approaches have limitations: Some allow adjustments only when adjacent faces are orthogonal; others support slanted surfaces but never create new details. Moreover, self-intersections and edge-collapses during editing are either ignored or work only partially for solid geometry. To overcome these limitations, we introduce the PushPull++ tool for rapid polygonal modeling. In our solution, we contribute novel methods for adaptive face insertion, adjacent face updates, edge collapse handling, and an intuitive user interface that automatically proposes useful drag directions. We show that PushPull++ reduces the complexity of common modeling tasks by up to an order of magnitude when compared with existing tools.
Compressive epsilon photography for post-capture control in digital imaging
Authors: Ito Atsushi , Tambe Salil , Mitra Kaushik , Sankaranarayanan Aswin C. , Veeraraghavan Ashok
Published: July 2014

A traditional camera requires the photographer to select the many parameters at capture time. While advances in light field photography have enabled post-capture control of focus and perspective, they suffer from several limitations including lower spatial resolution, need for hardware modifications, and restrictive choice of aperture and focus setting. In this paper, we propose "compressive epsilon photography," a technique for achieving complete post-capture control of focus and aperture in a traditional camera by acquiring a carefully selected set of 8 to 16 images and computationally reconstructing images corresponding to all other focus-aperture settings. We make the following contributions: first, we learn the statistical redundancies in focal-aperture stacks using a Gaussian Mixture Model; second, we derive a greedy sampling strategy for selecting the best focus-aperture settings; and third, we develop an algorithm for reconstructing the entire focal-aperture stack from a few captured images. As a consequence, only a burst of images with carefully selected camera settings are acquired. Post-capture, the user can then select any focal-aperture setting of choice and the corresponding image can be rendered using our algorithm. We show extensive results on several real data sets.
3D object manipulation in a single photograph using stock 3D models
Authors: Kholgade Natasha , Simon Tomas , Efros Alexei , Sheikh Yaser
Published: July 2014

Photo-editing software restricts the control of objects in a photograph to the 2D image plane. We present a method that enables users to perform the full range of 3D manipulations, including scaling, rotation, translation, and nonrigid deformations, to an object in a photograph. As 3D manipulations often reveal parts of the object that are hidden in the original photograph, our approach uses publicly available 3D models to guide the completion of the geometry and appearance of the revealed areas of the object. The completion process leverages the structure and symmetry in the stock 3D model to factor out the effects of illumination, and to complete the appearance of the object. We demonstrate our system by producing object manipulations that would be impossible in traditional 2D photo-editing programs, such as turning a car over, making a paper-crane flap its wings, or manipulating airplanes in a historical photograph to change its story.
A reduced model for interactive hairs
Authors: Chai Menglei , Zheng Changxi , Zhou Kun
Published: July 2014

Realistic hair animation is a crucial component in depicting virtual characters in interactive applications. While much progress has been made in high-quality hair simulation, the overwhelming computation cost hinders similar fidelity in realtime simulations. To bridge this gap, we propose a data-driven solution. Building upon precomputed simulation data, our approach constructs a reduced model to optimally represent hair motion characteristics with a small number of guide hairs and the corresponding interpolation relationships. At runtime, utilizing such a reduced model, we only simulate guide hairs that capture the general hair motion and interpolate all rest strands. We further propose a hair correction method that corrects the resulting hair motion with a position-based model to resolve hair collisions and thus captures motion details. Our hair simulation method enables a simulation of a full head of hairs with over 150K strands in realtime. We demonstrate the efficacy and robustness of our method with various hairstyles and driven motions (e.g., head movement and wind force), and compared against full simulation results that does not appear in the training data.
Learning a manifold of fonts
Authors: Campbell Neill D. F. , Kautz Jan
Published: July 2014

The design and manipulation of typefaces and fonts is an area requiring substantial expertise; it can take many years of study to become a proficient typographer. At the same time, the use of typefaces is ubiquitous; there are many users who, while not experts, would like to be more involved in tweaking or changing existing fonts without suffering the learning curve of professional typography packages.

Given the wealth of fonts that are available today, we would like to exploit the expertise used to produce these fonts, and to enable everyday users to create, explore, and edit fonts. To this end, we build a generative manifold of standard fonts. Every location on the manifold corresponds to a unique and novel typeface, and is obtained by learning a non-linear mapping that intelligently interpolates and extrapolates existing fonts. Using the manifold, we can smoothly interpolate and move between existing fonts. We can also use the manifold as a constraint that makes a variety of new applications possible. For instance, when editing a single character, we can update all the other glyphs in a font simultaneously to keep them compatible with our changes.
Online motion synthesis using sequential Monte Carlo
Authors: Hämäläinen Perttu , Eriksson Sebastian , Tanskanen Esa , Kyrki Ville , Lehtinen Jaakko
Published: July 2014

We present a Model-Predictive Control (MPC) system for online synthesis of interactive and physically valid character motion. Our system enables a complex (36-DOF) 3D human character model to balance in a given pose, dodge projectiles, and improvise a get up strategy if forced to lose balance, all in a dynamic and unpredictable environment. Such contact-rich, predictive and reactive motions have previously only been generated offline or using a handcrafted state machine or a dataset of reference motions, which our system does not require.

For each animation frame, our system generates trajectories of character control parameters for the near future --- a few seconds --- using Sequential Monte Carlo sampling. Our main technical contribution is a multimodal, tree-based sampler that simultaneously explores multiple different near-term control strategies represented as parameter splines. The strategies represented by each sample are evaluated in parallel using a causal physics engine. The best strategy, as determined by an objective function measuring goal achievement, fluidity of motion, etc., is used as the control signal for the current frame, but maintaining multiple hypotheses is crucial for adapting to dynamically changing environments.
Unifying points, beams, and paths in volumetric light transport simulation
Authors: Křivánek Jaroslav , Georgiev Iliyan , Hachisuka Toshiya , Vévoda Petr , Šik Martin , Nowrouzezahrai Derek , Jarosz Wojciech
Published: July 2014

Efficiently computing light transport in participating media in a manner that is robust to variations in media density, scattering albedo, and anisotropy is a difficult and important problem in realistic image synthesis. While many specialized rendering techniques can efficiently resolve subsets of transport in specific media, no single approach can robustly handle all types of effects. To address this problem we unify volumetric density estimation, using point and beam estimators, and Monte Carlo solutions to the path integral formulation of the rendering and radiative transport equations. We extend multiple importance sampling to correctly handle combinations of these fundamentally different classes of estimators. This, in turn, allows us to develop a single rendering algorithm that correctly combines the benefits and mediates the limitations of these powerful volume rendering techniques.
Dynamic ray stream traversal
Authors: Barringer Rasmus , Akenine-Möller Tomas
Published: July 2014

While each new generation of processors gets larger caches and more compute power, external memory bandwidth capabilities increase at a much lower pace. Additionally, processors are equipped with wide vector units that require low instruction level divergence to be efficiently utilized. In order to exploit these trends for ray tracing, we present an alternative to traditional depth-first ray traversal that takes advantage of the available cache hierarchy, and provides high SIMD efficiency, while keeping memory bus traffic low. Our main contribution is an efficient algorithm for traversing large packets of rays against a bounding volume hierarchy in a way that groups coherent rays during traversal. In contrast to previous large packet traversal methods, our algorithm allows for individual traversal order for each ray, which is essential for efficient ray tracing. Ray tracing algorithms is a mature research field in computer graphics, and despite this, our new technique increases traversal performance by 36--53%, and is applicable to most ray tracers.
Breathing life into shape
Authors: Tsoli Aggeliki , Mahmood Naureen , Black Michael J.
Published: July 2014

Modeling how the human body deforms during breathing is important for the realistic animation of lifelike 3D avatars. We learn a model of body shape deformations due to breathing for different breathing types and provide simple animation controls to render lifelike breathing regardless of body shape. We capture and align high-resolution 3D scans of 58 human subjects. We compute deviations from each subject's mean shape during breathing, and study the statistics of such shape changes for different genders, body shapes, and breathing types. We use the volume of the registered scans as a proxy for lung volume and learn a novel non-linear model relating volume and breathing type to 3D shape deformations and pose changes. We then augment a SCAPE body model so that body shape is determined by identity, pose, and the parameters of the breathing model. These parameters provide an intuitive interface with which animators can synthesize 3D human avatars with realistic breathing motions. We also develop a novel interface for animating breathing using a
spirometer
, which measures the changes in breathing volume of a "breath actor".
Hadoop Extensions for Distributed Computing on Reconfigurable Active SSD Clusters
Authors: Kaitoua Abdulrahman , Hajj Hazem , Saghir Mazen A. R. , Artail Hassan , Akkary Haitham , Awad Mariette , Sharafeddine Mageda , Mershad Khaleel
Published: July 2014

In this article, we propose new extensions to Hadoop to enable clusters of reconfigurable active solid-state drives (RASSDs) to process streaming data from SSDs using FPGAs. We also develop an analytical model to estimate the performance of RASSD clusters running under Hadoop. Using the Hadoop RASSD platform and network simulators, we validate our design and demonstrate its impact on performance for different workloads taken from Stanford's Phoenix MapReduce project. Our results show that for a hardware acceleration factor of 20×, compute-intensive workloads processing 153MB of data can run up to 11× faster than a standard Hadoop cluster.
Building Maximum Lifetime Shortest Path Data Aggregation Trees in Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Shan Mengfan , Chen Guihai , Luo Dijun , Zhu Xiaojun , Wu Xiaobing
Published: July 2014

In wireless sensor networks, the spanning tree is usually used as a routing structure to collect data. In some situations, nodes do in-network aggregation to reduce transmissions, save energy, and maximize network lifetime. Because of the restricted energy of sensor nodes, how to build an aggregation tree of maximum lifetime is an important issue. It has been proved to be NP-complete in previous works. As shortest path spanning trees intuitively have short delay, it is imperative to find an energy-efficient shortest path tree for time-critical applications. In this article, we first study the problem of building maximum lifetime shortest path aggregation trees in wireless sensor networks. We show that when restricted to shortest path trees, building maximum lifetime aggregation trees can be solved in polynomial time. We present a centralized algorithm and design a distributed protocol for building such trees. Simulation results show that our approaches greatly improve the lifetime of the network and are very effective compared to other solutions. We extend our discussion to networks without aggregation and present interesting results.
A Method for Generating Approximate Similarity Solutions of Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations
Authors: Iqbal Mazhar , Mustafa M. T. , Siddiqui Azad A.
Published: July 2014

Standard application of similarity method to find solutions of PDEs mostly results in reduction to ODEs which are not easily integrable in terms of elementary or tabulated functions. Such situations usually demand solving reduced ODEs numerically. However, there are no systematic procedures available to utilize these numerical solutions of reduced ODE to obtain the solution of original PDE. A practical and tractable approach is proposed to deal with such situations and is applied to obtain approximate similarity solutions to different cases of an initial-boundary value problem of unsteady gas flow through a semi-infinite porous medium.
The Motile Breast Cancer Phenotype Roles of Proteoglycans/Glycosaminoglycans
Authors: Nikitovic Dragana , Kouvidi Katerina , Voudouri Kallirroi , Berdiaki Aikaterini , Karousou Evgenia , Passi Alberto , Tzanakakis George N.
Published: July 2014

The consecutive stages of cancer growth and dissemination are obligatorily perpetrated through specific interactions of the tumor cells with their microenvironment. Importantly, cell-associated and tumor microenvironment glycosaminoglycans (GAGs)/proteoglycan (PG) content and distribution are markedly altered during tumor pathogenesis and progression. GAGs and PGs perform multiple functions in specific stages of the metastatic cascade due to their defined structure and ability to interact with both ligands and receptors regulating cancer pathogenesis. Thus, GAGs/PGs may modulate downstream signaling of key cellular mediators including insulin growth factor receptor (IGFR), epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), estrogen receptors (ERs), or Wnt members. In the present review we will focus on breast cancer motility in correlation with their GAG/PG content and critically discuss mechanisms involved. Furthermore, new approaches involving GAGs/PGs as potential prognostic/diagnostic markers or as therapeutic agents for cancer-related pathologies are being proposed.
Intelligent Mechanical Fault Diagnosis Based on Multiwavelet Adaptive Threshold Denoising and MPSO
Authors: Sun Hao , Li Ke , Wang Huaqing , Chen Peng , Cao Yi
Published: July 2014

The condition diagnosis of rotating machinery depends largely on the feature analysis of vibration signals measured for the condition diagnosis. However, the signals measured from rotating machinery usually are nonstationary and nonlinear and contain noise. The useful fault features are hidden in the heavy background noise. In this paper, a novel fault diagnosis method for rotating machinery based on multiwavelet adaptive threshold denoising and mutation particle swarm optimization (MPSO) is proposed. Geronimo, Hardin, and Massopust (GHM) multiwavelet is employed for extracting weak fault features under background noise, and the method of adaptively selecting appropriate threshold for multiwavelet with energy ratio of multiwavelet coefficient is presented. The six nondimensional symptom parameters (SPs) in the frequency domain are defined to reflect the features of the vibration signals measured in each state. Detection index (DI) using statistical theory has been also defined to evaluate the sensitiveness of SP for condition diagnosis. MPSO algorithm with adaptive inertia weight adjustment and particle mutation is proposed for condition identification. MPSO algorithm effectively solves local optimum and premature convergence problems of conventional particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. It can provide a more accurate estimate on fault diagnosis. Practical examples of fault diagnosis for rolling element bearings are given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Selenium (Se) Regulates Seedling Growth in Wheat under Drought Stress
Authors: Nawaz Fahim , Ashraf Muhammad Yasin , Ahmad Rashid , Waraich Ejaz Ahmad , Shabbir Rana Nauman
Published: July 2014

Selenium (Se) is an essential micronutrient with a range of physiological and antioxidative properties. Reports regarding effect of Se application on plants growth and development are not consistent. The identification of effective Se dose and application method is crucial for better understanding of Se translocation within crop plants under drought stress. The present study aimed at investigating the role of Se supplementation in improving the drought tolerance potential of wheat at early growth stages. Two wheat genotypes (Kohistan-97 and Pasban-90) were grown in plastic pots (8 × 12 cm) in green/wire-house experiments. Results demonstrated that the growth and biomass of seedlings increased at high Se foliar concentrations and decreased at low and high Se fertigation levels. The seedlings exhibited the highest values for plant height stress tolerance index (PHSI), root length stress tolerance index (RLSI), dry matter stress tolerance index (DMSI), and fresh matter stress tolerance indices (FMSI) at Se fertigation level of 7.35 μM, whereas Se foliar treatment of 7.06 μM resulted in maximum values for these indices. The seedlings foliarly sprayed with Se maintained higher DMSI and FMSI than those fertigated with Se which suggests that Se foliar spray is more effective than Se fertigation for improving drought tolerance.
Nephrotic Syndrome Secondary to Proliferative Glomerulonephritis with Monoclonal Immunoglobulin Deposits of Lambda Light Chain
Authors: Yun Seongseok , Braunhut Beth L. , Walker Courtney N. , Bhati Waheed , Sussman Amy N. , Anwer Faiz
Published: July 2014

We describe a rare case of a 46-year-old woman with history of refractory nephrotic syndrome and hypertension who presented with worsening proteinuria and kidney function. Work-up for both autoimmune and infectious diseases and hematologic malignancies including multiple myeloma were negative. Kidney biopsy demonstrated glomerular sclerotic change with lambda light chain deposits in the subendothelial space, which is consistent with proliferative glomerulonephritis with monoclonal immunoglobulin deposit (PGNMID). The patient was treated with bortezomib and dexamethasone without clinical improvement and eventually became hemodialysis dependent.
Influence of Electric, Magnetic, and Electromagnetic Fields on the Circadian System: Current Stage of Knowledge
Authors: Lewczuk Bogdan , Redlarski Grzegorz , Żak Arkadiusz , Ziółkowska Natalia , Przybylska-Gornowicz Barbara , Krawczuk Marek
Published: July 2014

One of the side effects of each electrical device work is the electromagnetic field generated near its workplace. All organisms, including humans, are exposed daily to the influence of different types of this field, characterized by various physical parameters. Therefore, it is important to accurately determine the effects of an electromagnetic field on the physiological and pathological processes occurring in cells, tissues, and organs. Numerous epidemiological and experimental data suggest that the extremely low frequency magnetic field generated by electrical transmission lines and electrically powered devices and the high frequencies electromagnetic radiation emitted by electronic devices have a potentially negative impact on the circadian system. On the other hand, several studies have found no influence of these fields on chronobiological parameters. According to the current state of knowledge, some previously proposed hypotheses, including one concerning the key role of melatonin secretion disruption in pathogenesis of electromagnetic field induced diseases, need to be revised. This paper reviews the data on the effect of electric, magnetic, and electromagnetic fields on melatonin and cortisol rhythms—two major markers of the circadian system as well as on sleep. It also provides the basic information about the nature, classification, parameters, and sources of these fields.
Leptin Effects on the Regenerative Capacity of Human Periodontal Cells
Authors: Nokhbehsaim Marjan , Keser Sema , Nogueira Andressa Vilas Boas , Jäger Andreas , Jepsen Søren , Cirelli Joni Augusto , Bourauel Christoph , Eick Sigrun , Deschner James
Published: July 2014

Obesity is increasing throughout the globe and characterized by excess adipose tissue, which represents a complex endocrine organ. Adipose tissue secrets bioactive molecules called adipokines, which act at endocrine, paracrine, and autocrine levels. Obesity has recently been shown to be associated with periodontitis, a disease characterized by the irreversible destruction of the tooth-supporting tissues, that is, periodontium, and also with compromised periodontal healing. Although the underlying mechanisms for these associations are not clear yet, increased levels of proinflammatory adipokines, such as leptin, as found in obese individuals, might be a critical pathomechanistic link. The objective of this study was to examine the impact of leptin on the regenerative capacity of human periodontal ligament (PDL) cells and also to study the local leptin production by these cells. Leptin caused a significant downregulation of growth (TGFβ1, and VEGFA) and transcription (RUNX2) factors as well as matrix molecules (collagen, and periostin) and inhibited SMAD signaling under regenerative conditions. Moreover, the local expression of leptin and its full-length receptor was significantly downregulated by inflammatory, microbial, and biomechanical signals. This study demonstrates that the hormone leptin negatively interferes with the regenerative capacity of PDL cells, suggesting leptin as a pathomechanistic link between obesity and compromised periodontal healing.
Systematic Literature Review of the Epidemiology of Nongenetic Forms of Hypogonadism in Adult Males
Authors: Zarotsky Victoria , Huang Ming-Yi , Carman Wendy , Morgentaler Abraham , Singhal Puneet K. , Coffin Donna , Jones T. Hugh
Published: July 2014

This study summarizes the literature on the prevalence, incidence, and proportion of patients receiving treatment for male hypogonadism and a systematic literature search was performed for articles published in the last 20 years. Of the 97 studies identified, 96 examined the prevalence, 2 examined the incidence, and 4 examined the proportion of males with hypogonadism patients receiving treatment. Based on studies conducted in Europe and USA, the prevalence of hypogonadism in the general population ranged from 2.1% to 12.8% of middle-aged to older men, with an estimated incidence of 12 new cases per 1,000 person-years. Prevalence was higher among patients with comorbid conditions, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity. Approximately 10–12% of men with hypogonadism were receiving testosterone treatment. This literature review suggests that there is potentially a significant burden of hypogonadism in the general population. Burden seems to increase with age and in the presence of certain disease conditions. Data suggests that many hypogonadal men who may benefit from testosterone replacement are not receiving treatment. This may be the result of underdiagnosis of the disease, lack of awareness by patients or physicians, irregularities surrounding the diagnostic criteria, and deficiency of long-term safety studies.
An Effective Measured Data Preprocessing Method in Electrical Impedance Tomography
Authors: Yu Chenglong , Yue Shihong , Wang Jianpei , Wang Huaxiang
Published: July 2014

As an advanced process detection technology, electrical impedance tomography (EIT) has widely been paid attention to and studied in the industrial fields. But the EIT techniques are greatly limited to the low spatial resolutions. This problem may result from the incorrect preprocessing of measuring data and lack of general criterion to evaluate different preprocessing processes. In this paper, an EIT data preprocessing method is proposed by all rooting measured data and evaluated by two constructed indexes based on all rooted EIT measured data. By finding the optimums of the two indexes, the proposed method can be applied to improve the EIT imaging spatial resolutions. In terms of a theoretical model, the optimal rooting times of the two indexes range in [0.23, 0.33] and in [0.22, 0.35], respectively. Moreover, these factors that affect the correctness of the proposed method are generally analyzed. The measuring data preprocessing is necessary and helpful for any imaging process. Thus, the proposed method can be generally and widely used in any imaging process. Experimental results validate the two proposed indexes.
Isoniazid Preventive Therapy Adherence and Associated Factors among HIV Positive Patients in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Authors: Berhe Melaku , Demissie Meaza , Tesfaye Gezahegn
Published: July 2014

Tuberculosis coinfected with HIV constitutes a large proportion of patients in Ethiopia. Isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT) is recommended for the treatment of latent tuberculosis infection. However, the level of IPT adherence and associated factors among people living with HIV (PLHIV) have not been well explored. This study aimed to assess adherence to IPT and associated factors among PLHIV in Addis Ababa. Facility based cross-sectional study was conducted. The study was conducted in 10 health centers and 2 hospitals. Patients were consecutively recruited till the required sample size was obtained. From 406 PLHIV approached, a total of 381 patients on IPT were interviewed. Data were entered and analyzed using Epi-Info version 3.5 and SPSS version 16. The level of adherence to IPT was 89.5%. Patients who have taken isoniazid for ≥5 months were more likely to be adherent than those who took it for 1-2 months [AOR (95%CI) = 5.09 (1.41–18.36)]. Patients whose friends decide for them to start IPT were less likely to be adherent than others [AOR (95%CI) = 0.10 (0.01–0.82)]. The level of adherence to IPT in PLHIV was high. Counseling of patients who are in their first two months of therapy should be more strengthened. Strong Information Education Communication is essential to further enhance adherence.
Changes in Biochemical Characteristics and Activities of Ripening Associated Enzymes in Mango Fruit during the Storage at Different Temperatures
Authors: Hossain Md. Anowar , Rana Md. Masud , Kimura Yoshinobu , Roslan Hairul Azman
Published: July 2014

As a part of the study to explore the possible strategy for enhancing the shelf life of mango fruits, we investigated the changes in biochemical parameters and activities of ripening associated enzymes of Ashwina hybrid mangoes at 4-day regular intervals during storage at −10°C, 4°C, and30±1°C. Titratable acidity, vitamin C, starch content, and reducing sugar were higher at unripe state and gradually decreased with the increasing of storage time at all storage temperatures while phenol content, total soluble solid, total sugar, and nonreducing sugar contents gradually increased. The activities of amylase,α-mannosidase,α-glucosidase, and invertase increased sharply within first few days and decreased significantly in the later stage of ripening at30±1°C. Meanwhile polyphenol oxidase,β-galactosidase, andβ-hexosaminidase predominantly increased significantly with the increasing days of storage till later stage of ripening. At −10°C and 4°C, the enzymes as well as carbohydrate contents of storage mango changed slightly up to 4 days and thereafter the enzyme became fully dormant. The results indicated that increase in storage temperature and time correlated with changes in biochemical parameters and activities of glycosidases suggested the suppression ofβ-galactosidase andβ-hexosaminidase might enhance the shelf life of mango fruits.
Automated White Matter Hyperintensity Detection in Multiple Sclerosis Using 3D T2 FLAIR
Authors: Zhong Yi , Utriainen David , Wang Ying , Kang Yan , Haacke E. Mark
Published: July 2014

White matter hyperintensities (WMH) seen on T2WI are a hallmark of multiple sclerosis (MS) as it indicates inflammation associated with the disease. Automatic detection of the WMH can be valuable in diagnosing and monitoring of treatment effectiveness. T2 fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) MR images provided good contrast between the lesions and other tissue; however the signal intensity of gray matter tissue was close to the lesions in FLAIR images that may cause more false positives in the segment result. We developed and evaluated a tool for automated WMH detection only using high resolution 3D T2 fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) MR images. We use a high spatial frequency suppression method to reduce the gray matter area signal intensity. We evaluate our method in 26 MS patients and 26 age matched health controls. The data from the automated algorithm showed good agreement with that from the manual segmentation. The linear correlation between these two approaches in comparing WMH volumes was found to beY=1.04X+1.74  (R2=0.96). The automated algorithm estimates the number, volume, and category of WMH.
Global Dynamics of a Host-Vector-Predator Mathematical Model
Authors: Zhou Fengyan , Yao Hongxing
Published: July 2014

A mathematical model which links predator-vector(prey) and host-vector theory is proposed to examine the indirect effect of predators on vector-host dynamics. The equilibria and the basic reproduction numberR0are obtained. By constructing Lyapunov functional and using LaSalle’s invariance principle, global stability of both the disease-free and disease equilibria are obtained. Analytical results show thatR0provides threshold conditions on determining the uniform persistence and extinction of the disease, and predator density at any time should keep larger or equal to its equilibrium level for successful disease eradication. Finally, taking the predation rate as parameter, we provide numerical simulations for the impact of predators on vector-host disease control. It is illustrated that predators have a considerable influence on disease suppression by reducing the density of the vector population.
The Desire for Multiple Pregnancy among Patients with Infertility and Their Partners
Authors: Md Latar Ida Lilywaty , Razali Nuguelis
Published: July 2014

Objective. To study the predictors for desire for multiple pregnancies and the influence of providing information regarding the maternal and fetal complications associated with multiple pregnancies on their preference for multiple pregnancies.Methods. Couples attending an infertility clinic were offered to fill up a questionnaire separately. Following this, they were handed a pamphlet with information regarding the risks associated with multiple pregnancies. The patients will then be required to answer the question on the number of pregnancies desired again.Results. Two hundred fifty three out of 300 respondents completed the questionnaires adequately. A higher proportion of respondents, 60.3% of females and 57.9% of males, prefer singleton pregnancy. Patients who are younger than 35 years, with preexisting knowledge of risks associated with multiple pregnancies and previous treatment for infertility, have decreased desire for multiple pregnancies. However, for patients who are older than 35, with longer duration of infertility, and those patients who have preexisting knowledge of the increased risk, providing further information regarding the risks did not change their initial preferences.Conclusion. Providing and reinforcing knowledge on the risks to mother and fetus associated with multiple pregnancies did not decrease the preference for multiple pregnancies in patients.
The Antileukemia Activity of Natural Product HQ17(3) Is Possibly Associated with Downregulation of miR-17-92 Cluster
Authors: Liao Ya-Chun , Lin Tzu-Heng , Chen Chih-Ying , Lin Shwu-Bin , Au Lo-Chun
Published: July 2014

The compound 10′(Z),13′(E),15′(E)-heptadecatrienylhydroquinone [HQ17(3)] was purified from the sap of the lacquer treeRhus succedanea. HQ17(3) has cytotoxic effect on cancer cells and can inhibit topoisomerase (topo) IIαactivity. We treated various cancer cells with different doses of HQ17(3) and found that leukemia cells were most sensitive to HQ17(3). After analysis of microRNA (miRNA) profiling, we found that treatment with HQ17(3) caused downregulation of miR-17-92 cluster in some leukemia cells. These changes partially restored the normal levels from leukemia-specific miRNA expression signature. Messenger RNAs of tumor suppressor proteins, such as pRB, PTEN, and Dicer, are targets of miR-17-92 cluster. Their protein levels were increased after the treatment. c-Myc is a regulatory protein for miR-17-92 gene. Similar to topo IIα, we found that c-Myc decreased its activity after the HQ17(3) treatment, which may explain the downregulation of miR-17-92 cluster. Combined with 5-fluorouracil, NaAsO2, or ABT-737, HQ17(3) elicited additive inhibitory effects on leukemia cells. In conclusion, the high sensitivity of leukemia cells to HQ17(3) may be associated with the reduction of topo IIαand c-Myc activities, as well as with the downregulation of the miR-17-92 cluster expression.
Study on an Axial Flow Hydraulic Turbine with Collection Device
Authors: Nishi Yasuyuki , Inagaki Terumi , Okubo Kaoru , Kikuchi Norio
Published: July 2014

We propose a new type of portable hydraulic turbine that uses the kinetic energy of flow in open channels. The turbine comprises a runner with an appended collection device that includes a diffuser section in an attempt to improve the output by catching and accelerating the flow. With such turbines, the performance of the collection device, and a composite body comprising the runner and collection device were studied using numerical analysis. Among four stand-alone collection devices, the inlet velocity ratio was most improved by the collection device featuring an inlet nozzle and brim. The inlet velocity ratio of the composite body was significantly lower than that of the stand-alone collection device, owing to the resistance of the runner itself, the decreased diffuser pressure recovery coefficient, and the increased backpressure coefficient. However, at the maximum output tip speed ratio, the inlet velocity ratio and the loading coefficient were approximately 31% and 22% higher, respectively, for the composite body than for the isolated runner. In particular, the input power coefficient significantly increased (by approximately 2.76 times) owing to the increase in the inlet velocity ratio. Verification tests were also conducted in a real canal to establish the actual effectiveness of the turbine.
Molecular Characterization of Hardy Spaces Associated with Twisted Convolution
Authors: Huang Jizheng , Liu Yu
Published: July 2014

We give a molecular characterization of the Hardy space associated with twisted convolution. As an application, we prove the boundedness of the local Riesz transform on the Hardy space.
A Multiple Iterated Integral Inequality and Applications
Authors: Hou Zongyi , Wang Wu-Sheng
Published: July 2014

We establish new multiple iterated Volterra-Fredholm type integral inequalities, where the composite functionw(u(s))of the unknown functionuwith nonlinear functionwin integral functions in [Ma, QH, Pečarić, J: Estimates on solutions of some new nonlinear retarded Volterra-Fredholm type integral inequalities.Nonlinear Anal.69 (2008) 393–407] is changed into the composite functionsw1(u(s)),w2(u(s)),…, wn (u(s))of the unknown functionuwith different nonlinear functionsw1,w2,…,wn, respectively. By adopting novel analysis techniques, the upper bounds of the embedded unknown functions are estimated explicitly. The derived results can be applied in the study of solutions of ordinary differential equations and integral equations.
Hybrid Taguchi DNA Swarm Intelligence for Optimal Inverse Kinematics Redundancy Resolution of Six‐DOF Humanoid Robot Arms
Authors: Huang Hsu-Chih , Xu Sendren Sheng-Dong , Hsu Huan-Shiuan
Published: July 2014

This paper presents a hybrid Taguchi deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) swarm intelligence for solving the inverse kinematics redundancy problem of six degree‐of‐freedom (DOF) humanoid robot arms. The inverse kinematics problem of the multi‐DOF humanoid robot arm is redundant and has no general closed‐form solutions or analytical solutions. The optimal joint configurations are obtained by minimizing the predefined performance index in DNA algorithm for real‐world humanoid robotics application. The Taguchi method is employed to determine the DNA parameters to search for the joint solutions of the six‐DOF robot arms more efficiently. This approach circumvents the disadvantage of time‐consuming tuning procedure in conventional DNA computing. Simulation results are conducted to illustrate the effectiveness and merit of the proposed methods. This Taguchi‐based DNA (TDNA) solver outperforms the conventional solvers, such as geometric solver, Jacobian‐based solver, genetic algorithm (GA) solver and ant, colony optimization (ACO) solver.