bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Rpa1 mediates an immune response to avrRpm1Psa and confers resistance against Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae
Authors: Yoon Minsoo , Rikkerink Erik H.A.
Published: December 2019

The type three effector AvrRpm1Pma from Pseudomonas syringae pv. maculicola (Pma) triggers an RPM1‐mediated immune response linked to phosphorylation of RIN4 (RPM1‐interacting protein 4) in Arabidopsis. However, the effector–resistance (R) gene interaction is not well established with different AvrRpm1 effectors from other pathovars. We investigated the AvrRpm1‐triggered immune responses in Nicotiana species and isolated Rpa1 (Resistance to Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae 1) via a reverse genetic screen in Nicotiana tabacum. Transient expression and gene silencing were performed in combination with co‐immunoprecipitation and growth assays to investigate the specificity of interactions that lead to inhibition of pathogen growth. Two closely related AvrRpm1 effectors derived from Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae biovar 3 (AvrRpm1Psa) and Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae strain B728a (AvrRpm1Psy) trigger immune responses mediated by RPA1, a nucleotide‐binding leucine‐rich repeat protein with an N‐terminal coiled‐coil domain. In a display of contrasting specificities, RPA1 does not respond to AvrRpm1Pma, and correspondingly AvrRpm1Psa and AvrRpm1Psy do not trigger the RPM1‐mediated response, demonstrating that separate R genes mediate specific immune responses to different AvrRpm1 effectors. AvrRpm1Psa co‐immunoprecipitates with RPA1, and both proteins co‐immunoprecipitate with RIN4. In contrast with RPM1, however, RPA1 was not activated by the phosphomimic RIN4T166D and silencing of RIN4 did not affect the RPA1 activity. Delivery of AvrRpm1Psa by Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pto) in combination with transient expression of Rpa1 resulted in inhibition of the pathogen growth in N. benthamiana. Psa growth was also inhibited by RPA1 in N. tabacum.
PP7L is essential for MAIL1‐mediated transposable element silencing and primary root growth
Authors: de Luxán‐Hernández Cloe , Lohmann Julia , Hellmeyer Wiebke , Seanpong Senoch , Wöltje Kerstin , Magyar Zoltan , Pettkó‐Szandtner Aladár , Pélissier Thierry , De Jaeger Geert , Hoth Stefan , Mathieu Olivier , Weingartner Magdalena
Published: December 2019

The two paralogous Arabidopsis genes MAINTENANCE OF MERISTEMS (MAIN) and MAINTENANCE OF MERISTEMS LIKE1 (MAIL1) encode a conserved retrotransposon‐related plant mobile domain and are known to be required for silencing of transposable elements (TE) and for primary root development. Loss of function of either MAIN or MAIL1 leads to release of heterochromatic TEs, reduced condensation of pericentromeric heterochromatin, cell death of meristem cells and growth arrest of the primary root soon after germination. Here, we show that they act in one protein complex that also contains the inactive isoform of PROTEIN PHOSPHATASE 7 (PP7), which is named PROTEIN PHOSPHATASE 7‐LIKE (PP7L). PP7L was previously shown to be important for chloroplast biogenesis and efficient chloroplast protein synthesis. We show that loss of PP7L function leads to the same root growth phenotype as loss of MAIL1 or MAIN. In addition, pp7l mutants show similar silencing defects. Double mutant analyses confirmed that the three proteins act in the same molecular pathway. The primary root growth arrest, which is associated with cell death of stem cells and their daughter cells, is a consequence of genome instability. Our data demonstrate so far unrecognized functions of an inactive phosphatase isoform in a protein complex that is essential for silencing of heterochromatic elements and for maintenance of genome stability in dividing cells.
Transmission Line Capacity Enhancement with Unified Power Flow Controller Considering Loadability Analysis
Authors: Yusuf Samuel Sunday
Published: December 2019

This paper proposes transmission line capacity enhancement with optimal location and sizing of UPFC on IEEE 14-bus network. This is necessary because of the increase in load growth with every passing day without an equivalent increase of line capacity which has brought many power systems closer to their stability limit. The dynamic and practical application of this proposed method is achieved by increasing linearly, the loading factor (λ) from 1.25 to 1.50 of the base case value of 1.0 and then, its effect is investigated. In each of the increment, the power flow result is obtained using Newton-Raphson method, while the optimal location and sizing of UPFC are done using Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO) technique. The voltage deviation before and after the installation of the FACTS device is also studied at each load variation. This approach will help the bulk dispatcher of power to plan ahead so as to meet and supply the ever-growing in the demand for adequate and reliable power system as a result of population growth, improved living standards and technological advancement. The efficacy of the proposed method is verified on a standard IEEE 14-bus system. The simulation results show the effectiveness and suitable performance of the proposed methodology at enhancing transmission capacity and deferring or eliminating for transmission line upgrading.
A Review of Content-Based Video Retrieval Techniques for Person Identification
Authors: Ahmad Ridzuan Syahmi Syahiran , Omar Zaid , Sheikh Usman Ullah
Published: December 2019

The rise of technology spurs the advancement in the surveillance field. Many commercial spaces reduced the patrol guard in favor of Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) installation and even some countries already used surveillance drone which has greater mobility. In recent years, the CCTV Footage have also been used for crime investigation by law enforcement such as in Boston Bombing 2013 incident. However, this led us into producing huge unmanageable footage collection, the common issue of Big Data era. While there is more information to identify a potential suspect, the massive size of data needed to go over manually is a very laborious task. Therefore, some researchers proposed using Content-Based Video Retrieval (CBVR) method to enable to query a specific feature of an object or a human. Due to the limitations like visibility and quality of video footage, only certain features are selected for recognition based on Chicago Police Department guidelines. This paper presents the comprehensive reviews on CBVR techniques used for clothing, gender and ethnic recognition of the person of interest and how can it be applied in crime investigation. From the findings, the three recognition types can be combined to create a Content-Based Video Retrieval system for person identification.
A New Turbulent Wall-Pressure Fluctuation Model for Fluid–Structure Interaction
Authors: Frendi Abdelkader , Zhang Man
Published: December 2019

Most fluid flows of practical applications are turbulent. In flows involving interactions with flexible structures, such as an aircraft skin, the knowledge of turbulent wall-pressure fluctuations is critical. Both measurements and direct numerical simulations of the wall-pressure fluctuations are difficult and costly. Therefore, the use of the semi-empirical turbulent wall-pressure fluctuation models is wide spread. One of the most widely used models is that due to Corcos (Resolution of Pressure in Turbulence,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 35(2), pp. 192–199). The biggest advantages of this model are simplicity and ease of use. However, the model has several weaknesses as well and therefore many models have been proposed to address them. In this paper, we briefly review existing models and then propose a model that remedies their weaknesses. The proposed model keeps the simplicity of the Corcos model and it is given in both space-frequency and wavenumber-frequency spaces. The new model accurately captures the convective peak and shows better agreement with experimental data at lower wavenumbers.
Section VIII–Division I: Rules for Construction of Pressure Vessels
Authors: Pastor Thomas P. , Vattappilly Jay
Published: December 2019

Section VIII, Division 1 is written for the construction of new pressure vessels, and it covers a wide range of industrial and commercial pressure vessel applications. It applies to small compressed air receivers as well as to very large pressure vessels needed by the petrochemical and refining industry. This chapter provides an overview to each of the parts of Section VIII, Division 1. It discusses the historical background of this Section in relation to the construction and safe operation of boilers and pressure vessels. Subsection A of Division 1 deals with the general requirements for all methods of construction and materials, covering design, inspection, and tests. Here, the requirements specific to the use of forgings, permitted material specifications for pipes and tubes, and requirements of prefabricated or preformed pressure parts are covered. Subsection B contains rules that apply to specific methods used for the fabrication of pressure vessels. The specific methods covered by Subsection B include welded construction, forging, and brazing. Subsection C deals with the requirements for pressure vessels: constructed of carbon and low alloy steels, nonferrous materials, high alloy steels, cast iron, and impregnated graphite; constructed of material with corrosion-resistant integral cladding, weld metal overlay, or with applied linings; and constructed of ferritic steels with tensile properties enhanced by heat treatment. Requirements are also provided for pressure vessels fabricated by layered construction and constructed of materials having higher allowable stresses at low temperature. Mandatory appendices include supplementary design formulas, rules for the design of bolted flanged connections that use gaskets that are entirely within the bolt circle, and rounded indications that are discovered by radiographic examination of welds. The basis for establishing allowable loads for tube-to-tubesheet joints and suggested methods for obtaining the operating temperature of vessel walls in service are covered under nonmandatory appendices.
Retroreflex ellipsometry for isotropic substrates with nonplanar surfaces
Authors: Chen Chia-Wei , Hartrumpf Matthias , Längle Thomas , Beyerer Jürgen
Published: December 2019

Ellipsometry is a widely-used and highly-accurate method for characterizing materials and thin films, though conventional ellipsometry restricts the geometric shape of samples to flat or nearly flat surfaces. For nonplanar surfaces, the beam path of the reflected or transmitted light will be altered owing to the curvature of the surfaces. The concept of retroreflex ellipsometry was developed at Fraunhofer IOSB to overcome the limitation of conventional ellipsometry via a retroreflector (retroreflective sheet). However, prior information regarding the samples is still necessary. In this paper, retroreflex ellipsometry is combined with reflectance measurements to derive the optical properties for isotropic substrates with nonplanar surfaces using the reflectance R and the ellipsometric data (Ψ, Δ) without prior knowledge of incident angles. The experimental results show that this retroreflex ellipsometry prototype has excellent accuracy and precision for the full Mueller matrix measurement and is capable of measuring refractive indices of nonplanar surfaces.
Differential Impact of Nevirapine on Artemether-Lumefantrine Pharmacokinetics in Individuals Stratified by
CYP2B6
c.516G>T Genotypes
Authors: Abdullahi Sa’ad T. , Soyinka Julius O. , Olagunju Adeniyi , Bolarinwa Rahman A. , Olarewaju Olusola J. , Bakare-Odunola Moji T. , Winterberg Markus , Tarning Joel , Owen Andrew , Khoo Saye
Published: December 2019

There is an increased recognition of the need to identify and quantify the impact of genetic polymorphisms on drug-drug interactions. This study investigated the pharmacogenetics of the pharmacokinetic drug-drug interaction between nevirapine and artemether-lumefantrine in HIV-positive and HIV-negative adult Nigerian subjects.
A Population Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamic Approach To Optimize Tazobactam Activity in Critically Ill Patients
Authors: Kalaria Shamir N. , Gopalakrishnan Mathangi , Heil Emily L.
Published: December 2019

The percentage of the time that the free drug concentration remains above a concentration threshold (%
fT
> concentration threshold) has frequently been identified to be the optimal pharmacokinetic (PK)-pharmacodynamic (PD) target of interest for tazobactam using
in vitro
infection models.
Unindicated hysterectomies in India: the aftermath
Authors: Davis Amenda Ann
Published: December 2019

Unindicated hysterectomy is a disturbing problem in India. Women are counselled into the procedure by the fear of cancer, and by reinforcing their notion that unrelated somatic problems are solved by the removal of the uterus. This is a case of a woman from the state of Bihar, India, who was referred to us after an unindicated hysterectomy at the age of 24, performed as a first-line treatment for lower abdominal pain. This highlights the problem of rising hysterectomy in India and the lack of integrated treatment for women with the debilitating condition of chronic pelvic pain. Pelvic pain and vaginal discharge are often not indicative of pelvic inflammatory disease, and need a more considerate and broad-minded approach. Public health initiatives should take more account of women’s lack of knowledge of reproductive health and make efforts to disseminate such information by the use of television, radio and newspapers in local languages.
Pragmatic multicentre randomised controlled trial evaluating the impact of a routine molecular point-of-care ‘test-and-treat’ strategy for influenza in adults hospitalised with acute respiratory illness (FluPOC): trial protocol
Authors: Beard Kate , Brendish Nathan , Malachira Ahalya , Mills Samuel , Chan Cathleen , Poole Stephen , Clark Tristan
Published: December 2019

Background

Influenza infections often remain undiagnosed in patients admitted to hospital due to lack of routine testing. When tested for, the diagnosis and treatment of influenza are often delayed due to the slow turnaround times of centralised laboratory PCR testing. Newer molecular systems, have comparable accuracy to laboratory PCR testing, and can generate a result in under 1 hour, making them potentially deployable as point-of-care tests (POCTs). High-quality evidence for the impact of routine POCT for influenza on clinical outcomes is, however, currently lacking. This large pragmatic multicentre randomised controlled trial aims to address this evidence gap.

Methods and analysis

The FluPOC trial is a pragmatic, multicentre, randomised controlled trial evaluating adults admitted to a large teaching hospital and a district general hospital with an acute respiratory illness, during influenza season and defined by Public Health England. Up to 840 patients will be recruited over up to three influenza seasons, and randomised (1:1) to receive either POCT using the FilmArray respiratory panel, or routine clinical care. Clinical and infection control teams will be informed of the results in real time and where influenza is detected clinical teams will be encouraged to offer neuraminidase inhibitor (NAI) treatment in accordance with national guidelines. Those allocated to standard clinical care will have a swab taken for later analysis to allow assessment of missed diagnoses. The outcomes assessment will be by retrospective case note analysis. The outcome measures include the proportion of influenza-positive patients detected and appropriately treated with NAIs, isolation facility use, antibiotic use, length of hospital stay, complications and mortality.

Ethics and dissemination

Prior to commencing the study, approval was obtained from the South Central Hampshire A Ethics Committee (reference 17/SC/0368, granted 7 September 2017). Results generated from this protocol will be published in peer-reviewed scientific journals and presented at national and international conferences.

Trial registration number

ISRCTN17197293
Indications and outcomes of paediatric tracheotomy: a descriptive study using a Japanese claims database
Authors: Mizuno Kayoko , Takeuchi Masato , Kishimoto Yo , Kawakami Koji , Omori Koichi
Published: December 2019

Objective

To examine the incidence of and indications for paediatric tracheotomy to clarify the disease burden relevant to tracheotomy in a population-based context.

Design

A descriptive analysis of a retrospective cohort.

Setting

This study utilised a nationwide claims database in Japan constructed by JMDC (Tokyo, Japan). The database includes claims data for approximately 3.75 million insured persons (approximately 3.1% of the population of Japan) comprising mainly company employees and their family members.

Participants

We identified children registered to have undergone tracheotomy from 2005 to 2017 among about 1.2 million children aged 0–15 years.

Main outcome measures

The characteristics of the study population, and indications for tracheotomy, duration of hospital stay, duration of mechanical ventilation, duration of tracheotomy dependence, complications related to tracheotomy and death were assessed. When there were multiple indications, classification for a child into multiple groups was allowed.

Results

The study included 215 children (120 males, 56%). The median age at tracheotomy was 0.8 years. The most common age at tracheotomy was less than 12 months (n=127, 59.1%). The most common indications for tracheotomy were chronic lung disease (n=79, 36.7%), followed by neuromuscular disease (n=77, 35.8%), cardiovascular disease (n=53, 24.3%), upper airway obstruction (n=43, 20%), premature birth and related conditions (n=34, 15.8%), trauma (n=16, 7.4%), prolonged ventilation due to other causes (n=12, 5.6%) and malignancy (n=9, 4.2%). The median duration of tracheotomy dependence was 17.2 months. During the follow-up period, decannulation was achieved in 84 children (39.1%), and the median time from tracheotomy to decannulation was 12.0 months.

Conclusions

Most paediatric tracheotomies were performed due to chronic underlying diseases, and the mean duration of tracheotomy dependence was nearly 1-½ years. The long-term duration of tracheotomy dependence might have some impacts on patients’ physical and mental development and the quality of life.
Protocol for developing a core outcome set for evaluating school-based physical activity interventions in primary schools
Authors: Foley Kimberley A , Venkatraman Tishya , Ram Bina , Ells Louisa , van Sluijs Esther , Hargreaves Dougal S , Greaves Felix , Taghavi Azar Sharabiani Mansour , Viner Russell M , Bottle Alex , Saxena Sonia
Published: December 2019

Introduction

Primary school-based physical activity interventions, such as The Daily Mile initiative, have the potential to increase children’s physical activity levels over time, which is associated with a variety of health benefits. Comparing interventions or combining results of several studies of a single intervention is challenging because previous studies have examined different outcomes or used different measures that are not feasible or relevant for researchers in school settings. The development and implementation of a core outcome set (COS) for primary school-based physical activity interventions would ensure outcomes important to those involved in implementing and evaluating interventions are standardised.

Methods and analysis

Our aim is to develop a COS for studies of school-based physical activity interventions. We will achieve this by undertaking a four-stage process:(1) identify a list of outcomes assessed in studies through a systematic review of international literature; (2) establish domains from these outcomes to produce questionnaire items; (3) prioritise outcomes through a two-stage Delphi survey with four key stakeholder groups (researchers, public health professionals, educators and parents), where stakeholders rate the importance of each outcome on a 9-point Likert scale (consensus that the outcomes should be included in the COS will be determined as 70% or more of all stakeholders scoring the outcome 7%–9% and 15% or less scoring 1 to 3); (4) achieve consensus on a final COS in face-to-face meetings with a sample of stakeholders and primary school children.

Ethics and dissemination

We have received ethical approval from Imperial College London (ref: 19IC5428). The results of this study will be disseminated via conference presentations/public health meetings, peer-reviewed publications and through appropriate media channels.

Trial registration number

Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials Initiative (COMET) number: 1322.
Preschool group practices and preschool children’s sedentary time: a cross-sectional study in Finland
Authors: Määttä Suvi , Lehto Reetta , Konttinen Hanna , Ray Carola , Sajaniemi Nina , Erkkola Maijaliisa , Roos Eva
Published: December 2019

Objectives

Preschool is an important setting for regulating sedentary time (ST). The preschool day in Finland follows daily structures by having morning and afternoon slots for group-based activities that can encourage children for movement (eg, free play and outdoor time) or be still (eg, teacher-led sessions and sitting-based circles). This study aims to explore if the weekly routines in preschool and if more frequent visits in places encouraging physical activity (PA) are associated with children’s ST during preschool hours.

Design

Cross-sectional DAGIS (Increased Health and Wellbeing in Preschools) study in the years 2015 and 2016.

Setting

In Finland.

Participants

864 children (48% girls, 4.7 years) from 159 preschool groups in 66 preschools

Outcome measures

A total of 778 children wore required lengths of time (at least 240 min per preschool day, at least 2 days) the accelerometer during preschool hours. Each preschool group reported their weekly schedule during the week, and one early educator completed a questionnaire covering practices. The following five measures related to weekly structures were formed; times of outdoors (times per day), teacher-led sessions (times per day), free play (low, middle or high), organised PA lessons (no lessons at all/others) and mixed activities (no lessons at all/others), and the following five measures about the frequencies of visits in places encouraging PA; nature trips (times per week), play parks (times per week), neighbourhood sport facilities (no visits at all/others), visits to gym or other indoor facility (no visits at all/others) and field trips to neighbourhoods (times per week). Multilevel linear regression analyses were conducted to measure the associations.

Results

Of all the tested associations, only more frequently conducted nature trips were associated with lower children’s ST during preschool hours (β=−1.026; 95% CI −1.804 to −0.248).

Conclusion

Frequent nature trips in preschools may be important due to its association with lower preschool children’s ST.
Patients’ perceptions of continuity of care across primary care level and emergency departments in Belgium: cross-sectional survey
Authors: Karam Marlene , Lambert Anne-Sophie , Macq Jean
Published: December 2019

Objectives

To assess patients’ perceptions of continuity of care (COC) across primary care level and emergency departments (EDs) and to identify contextual and individual factors that influence this perception.

Design

Cross-sectional multicentre survey.

Setting

Five EDs in Brussels and Wallonia.

Participants

501 adult patients referred to the ED by their primary care physician (PCP). Patients with cognitive impairment or in critical condition were excluded.

Results

Patients perceived high levels of the three types of COC. On an individual level, older patients showed a perception of higher levels of continuity. Lower levels of informational and management continuity were observed among patients suffering from chronic diseases and patients with a high level of education. Patients also perceived a redundancy of medical exams, in parallel to a high degree of accessibility between care levels. On an organisational level, three structural factors were identified as barriers to COC, namely, ED workload, suboptimal sharing information system and the current fee-for-service payment system that encourages competition and hinders coordination between actors.

Conclusion

Belgian healthcare services seem satisfying for patients and easily accessible. However, efforts need to be directed towards improving their efficiency. A stronger primary care level is also needed to benefit the healthcare system by reducing overuse of emergency services. On the individual level, a more enhanced patient-centred approach could be beneficial in improving patients experience of care.
Prospective multicentre open-label randomised controlled trial of 3-month versus 12-month dual antiplatelet therapy after implantation of the new generation biodegradable polymer sirolimus TARGET-eluting coronary stent: protocol of the TARGET DAPT trial
Authors: Yang Hongbo , Zhang Feng , Yang Ji'e , Zheng Ming , Cao Ruifen , Dai Yuxiang , Li Chenguang , Yao Kang , Qian Juying , Ge Junbo
Published: December 2019

Introduction

Dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) with aspirin and thienopyridine is required after placement of coronary stents to prevent thrombotic complications. However, current recommendation for duration of DAPT remains controversial. Firehawk is a biodegradable polymer applied to recessed abluminal grooves, sirolimus target-eluting stent associated with early excellent healing response and almost complete strut coverage, as well as possibly reduced myocardial ischaemic events. But the optimal DAPT duration for such a new generation stent is less known. Therefore, the present trial seeks to evaluate the safety and efficacy of 3-month versus 12-month DAPT in broad patients receiving Firehawk stents.

Methods and analysis

The TARGET DAPT study is designed to access the benefits and risks of short-term (3 months) versus long-term (12 months) DAPT in preventing stent thrombosis or major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events in subjects undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention for the treatment of coronary artery obstructive lesions. The TARGET DAPT trial is a large, prospective, multicentre, randomised (1:1) non-inferiority clinical trial that will enrol 2446 subjects treated with Firehawk stents. The primary endpoint is net adverse clinical and cerebral events, a composite of all-cause death, myocardial infarction, cerebral vascular accident and major bleeding (BARC 2,3 or 5) at 18 months clinical follow-up postindex procedure.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethics approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of Zhongshan Hospital, Shanghai. The reference number is B2018-146R. Study findings will be made available to interested participants. Study results will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Also the protocol will be submitted and approved by the institutional Ethics Committee at each participating clinical centre.

Trial registration

NCT03008083
Diagnostic accuracy of dynamic ultrasound imaging in partial and complete anterior cruciate ligament tears: a retrospective study in 247 patients
Authors: Breukers Manon , Haase Dorieke , Konijnenberg Stephan , Klos Tiburtius V S , Dinant Geert-Jan , Ottenheijm Ramon P G
Published: December 2019

Objectives

Dynamic ultrasound (US) imaging shows promising possibilities for accurate imaging in diagnosing anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears and can be used as a point-of-care test. The aim of this study is to determine the diagnostic accuracy of dynamic US imaging for detecting partial and complete ACL tears.

Methods

247 patients presenting with knee complaints, who underwent dynamic US imaging as well as arthroscopy for any intra-articular knee pathology, were retrospectively evaluated. We differentiated between partial and complete ACL tears.

Results

Dynamic US imaging revealed 95 of 108 arthroscopically confirmed ACL tears (sensitivity 88%, specificity 82%, positive predictive value (PPV) 79%, negative predictive value (NPV) 90%, and diagnostic OR (DOR) of 33.3). Sensitivity of US in the detection of partial ACL tears was 52%, specificity 85%, PPV 52%, NPV 84% and DOR 5.8. Complete ACL tears were depicted with a sensitivity of 79%, specificity of 89%, PPV of 63%, NPV of 95% and DOR 29.8. Multivariate regression analysis adjusting for age (dichotomised per 5 years) and previous knee surgery showed similar DOR.

Conclusion

The excellent NPV for complete ACL tears indicates that dynamic US imaging can be used as an initial imaging point-of-care test. However, the clinical presentation should be taken into account, especially in case of subtotal tears. Whereas it seems relatively easy to differentiate between (small) partial ACL tears, complete ACL tears and no tears, it seems to be difficult to differentiate subtotal tears from complete tears.
Side effects of and contraindications for whole-body electro-myo-stimulation: a viewpoint
Authors: Stöllberger Claudia , Finsterer Josef
Published: December 2019

Whole-body electro-myo-stimulation (WB-EMS) has been introduced as an alternative to physical training. Data about side effects and contraindications of WB-EMS are summarised. From healthy subjects, elevation of creatine-kinase (CK) activity with inter-individual variability was reported after WB-EMS. No data about applied current types, stimulation frequency and risk factors were given. In randomised trials investigating WB-EMS, CK activity was not measured. Seven cases of rhabdomyolysis after WB-EMS were found, and it remains open whether WB-EMS was the only risk factor. In healthy subjects, WB-EMS does not seem to affect blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen uptake. The lists of exclusion criteria are, in part, contradictory between different studies, especially regarding malignancy and heart failure. Risk factors for rhabdomyolysis are not mentioned as contraindications for WB-EMS. Scientific research should concentrate on muscle damage as a side effect of WB-EMS considering current types applied, stimulation frequency and risk factors for rhabdomyolysis. Research about WB-EMS should include longitudinal muscle force measurements and MRI. Subjects, intending to perform WB-EMS, should undergo investigations by a physician comprising a screen for risk factors for rhabdomyolysis. The education of operators working in gyms with WB-EMS should be regulated and improved. Regulatory authorities should become aware of the problem. Those working in the field should start an initiative on an international level to increase the safety of WB-EMS.
Subset Selection Using Frequency Decomposition with Applications
Authors: Tang W. M. , Yiu K. F. C. , Wong H.
Published: December 2019

In time series modeling, one problem is to identify a small number of influential factors to explain variations in the variable of interest. With a vast number of possible factors available, suitable features need to be identified to yield multi-factor models with good explanatory power. In this paper, we propose a novel subset selection method which makes use of the properties in the frequency domain environment. The proposed system ensures key patterns in the target variable be sought and suitable factors be selected based on frequency peaks in common. It can perform well even when the number of factors is significantly greater than the sample size. Moreover, a very important feature of the proposed system is the capability of handling factors with different timeframes, which is lacking in existing methods. We demonstrate the system via several examples with dataset from finance, economic, road traffic and air pollution.
Human-Like Gait Adaptation to Slippery Surfaces for the NAO Robot Wearing Instrumented Shoes
Authors: Ferreira João P. , Franco Guilherme , Coimbra A. Paulo , Crisóstomo Manuel
Published: December 2019

Gait development for bipedal/humanoid robots has been a field of study with a lot of attention for several years and is becoming increasingly important as robots slowly become part of our daily lives. Therefore, it is expectable that robots should adopt human-like behaviors in order to make their interactions with humans more natural and studies have been made involving robots that have a natural, human-like gait. However, very few focus on scenarios with slippery floors. In this paper, the humanoid robot NAO is used and the effects of a human-based walking pattern on the robot’s balance when walking on floors with different slipperiness degrees were analyzed. The simulations are done having the robot equipped with specially developed shoes that enable the measurement of the friction coefficient. From that analysis, an algorithm that automatically adapts the gait parameters to the floor’s slipperiness was developed, in order to prevent the robot from suffering unexpected disturbances and possibly falling over. This paper focusses on preventing balance disturbances, instead of correcting them.
On the error term of a lattice counting problem, II
Authors: Bordellès Olivier
Published: December 2019

Under the Riemann Hypothesis, we improve the error term in the asymptotic formula related to the counting lattice problem studied in a first part of this work. The improvement comes from the use of Weyl’s bound for exponential sums of polynomials and a device due to Popov allowing us to get an improved main term in the sums of certain fractional parts of polynomials.
Forecasting with Alternative Data
Authors: Fleder Michael , Shah Devavrat
Published: December 2019

We consider the problem of forecasting fine-grained company financials, such as daily revenue, from two input types: noisy proxy signals a la alternative data (e.g. credit card transactions) and sparse ground-truth observations (e.g. quarterly earnings reports). We utilize a classical linear systems model to capture both the evolution of the hidden or latent state (e.g. daily revenue), as well as the proxy signal (e.g. credit cards transactions). The linear system model is particularly well suited here as data is extremely sparse (4 quarterly reports per year). In classical system identification, where the central theme is to learn parameters for such linear systems, unbiased and consistent estimation of parameters is not feasible: the likelihood is non-convex; and worse, the global optimum for maximum likelihood estimation is often non-unique. As the main contribution of this work, we provide a simple, consistent estimator of all parameters for the linear system model of interest; in addition the estimation is unbiased for some of the parameters. In effect, the additional sparse observations of aggregate hidden state (e.g. quarterly reports) enable system identification in our setup that is not feasible in general. For estimating and forecasting hidden state (actual earnings) using the noisy observations (daily credit card transactions), we utilize the learned linear model along with a natural adaptation of classical Kalman filtering (or Belief Propagation). This leads to optimal inference with respect to mean-squared error. Analytically, we argue that even though the underlying linear system may be "unstable," "uncontrollable," or "undetectable" in the classical setting, our setup and inference algorithm allow for estimation of hidden state with bounded error. Further, the estimation error of the algorithm monotonically decreases as the frequency of the sparse observations increases. This, seemingly intuitive insight contradicts the word on the Street. Finally, we utilize our framework to estimate quarterly earnings of 34 public companies using credit card transaction data. Our data-driven method convincingly outperforms the Wall Street consensus (analyst) estimates even though our method uses only credit card data as input, while the Wall Street consensus is based on various data sources including experts' input.
Achieving Efficient Routing in Reconfigurable DCNs
Authors: Yang Zhenjie , Cui Yong , Xiao Shihan , Wang Xin , Li Minming , Li Chuming , Liu Yadong
Published: December 2019

Heavy and highly dynamic traffic demands in today's data center networks (DCNs) pose great challenges to efficient traffic engineering. With gigabit bandwidth, wireless communication technologies, such as free space optics and 60GHz wireless, are promising to augment DCNs and enable efficient traffic engineering. Complementary to the emerging reconfigurable architectures, we aim to achieve efficient routing and effectively balance the load with the performance guarantee. We derive a general interference model and propose a decomposition technique with proven performance guarantee and solve the load balancing problem in reconfigurable DCNs. In addition, we propose two solutions, WiRo and OFS, to flexibly reconfigure network topology and enable hybrid-routing with paths consisting of both stable wired links and flexible wireless links with different methods. Our measurement-facilitated and trace-driven simulations demonstrate that our solutions outperform existing flow scheduling algorithms with the average throughput of large flows increased by up to 190% and the average completion time reduced by up to 72.6%. Meanwhile, the average completion time of small flows is reduced by up to 64.5%.
Fundamental Limits of Volume-based Network DoS Attacks
Authors: Fu Xinzhe , Modiano Eytan
Published: December 2019

Volume-based network denial-of-service (DoS) attacks refer to a class of cyber attacks where an adversary seeks to block user traffic from service by sending adversarial traffic that reduces the available user capacity. In this paper, we explore the fundamental limits of volume-based network DoS attacks by studying the minimum required rate of adversarial traffic and investigating optimal attack strategies. We start our analysis with single-hop networks where user traffic is routed to servers following the Join-the-Shortest-Queue (JSQ) rule. Given the service rates of servers and arrival rates of user traffic, we first characterize the feasibility region of the attack and show that the attack is feasible if and only if the rate of the adversarial traffic lies in the region. We then design an attack strategy that is (i).optimal: it guarantees the success of the attack whenever the adversarial traffic rate lies in the feasibility region and (ii).oblivious: it does not rely on knowledge of service rates or user traffic rates. Finally, we extend our results on the feasibility region of the attack and the optimal attack strategy to multi-hop networks that employ Back-pressure (Max-Weight) routing. At a higher level, this paper addresses a class of dual problems of stochastic network stability, i.e., how to optimally de-stabilize a network.
Generalized Sketch Families for Network Traffic Measurement
Authors: Zhou You , Zhang Youlin , Ma Chaoyi , Chen Shigang , Odegbile Olufemi O.
Published: December 2019

Traffic measurement provides critical information for network management, resource allocation, traffic engineering, and attack detection. Most prior art has been geared towards specific application needs with specific performance objectives. To support diverse requirements with efficient and future-proof implementation, this paper takes a new approach to establish common frameworks, each for a family of traffic measurement solutions that share the same implementation structure, providing a high level of generality, for both size and spread measurements and for all flows. The designs support many options of performance-overhead tradeoff with as few as one memory update per packet and as little space as several bits per flow on average. Such a family-based approach will unify implementation by removing redundancy from different measurement tasks and support reconfigurability in a plug-n-play manner. We demonstrate the connection and difference in the design of these traffic measurement families and perform experimental comparisons on hardware/software platforms to find their tradeoff, which provide practical guidance for which solutions to use under given performance goals.
Fundamental Limits of Approximate Gradient Coding
Authors: Wang Sinong , Liu Jiashang , Shroff Ness
Published: December 2019

In the distributed graident coding problem, it has been established that, to exactly recover the gradient under s slow machines, the mmimum computation load (number of stored data partitions) of each worker is at least linear ($s+1$), which incurs a large overhead when s is large~\citetandon2017gradient. In this paper, we focus on approximate gradient coding that aims to recover the gradient with bounded error ε. Theoretically, our main contributions are three-fold: (i) we analyze the structure of optimal gradient codes, and derive the information-theoretical lower bound of minimum computation load: $O(łog(n)/łog(n/s))$ for ε = 0$ and $d\geq O(łog(1/ε)/łog(n/s))$ for ε>0$, where d is the computation load, and ε is the error in the gradient computation; (ii) we design two approximate gradient coding schemes that exactly match such lower bounds based on random edge removal process; (iii) we implement our schemes and demonstrate the advantage of the approaches over the current fastest gradient coding strategies. The proposed schemes provide order-wise improvement over the state of the art in terms of computation load, and are also optimal in terms of both computation load and latency.
Mean Field Analysis of Join-Below-Threshold Load Balancing for Resource Sharing Servers
Authors: Horváth Illés Antal , Scully Ziv , Van Houdt Benny
Published: December 2019

Load balancing plays a crucial role in many large scale computer systems. Much prior work has focused on systems with First-Come-First-Served (FCFS) servers. However, servers in practical systems are more complicated. They serve multiple jobs at once, and their service rate can depend on the number of jobs in service. Motivated by this, we study load balancing for systems using Limited-Processor-Sharing (LPS). Our model has heterogeneous servers, meaning the service rate curve and multiprogramming level (limit on the number of jobs sharing the processor) differs between servers. We focus on a specific load balancing policy: Join-Below-Threshold (JBT), which associates a threshold with each server and, whenever possible, dispatches to a server which has fewer jobs than its threshold. Given this setup, we ask: how should we configure the system to optimize objectives such as mean response time? Configuring the system means choosing both a load balancing threshold and a multiprogramming level for each server. To make this question tractable, we study the many-server mean field regime. In this paper we provide a comprehensive study of JBT in the mean field regime. We begin by developing a mean field model for the case of exponentially distributed job sizes. The evolution of our model is described by a differential inclusion, which complicates its analysis. We prove that the sequence of stationary measures of the finite systems converges to the fixed point of the differential inclusion, provided a unique fixed point exists. We derive simple conditions on the service rate curves to guarantee the existence of a unique fixed point. We demonstrate that when these conditions are not satisfied, there may be multiple fixed points, meaning metastability may occur. Finally, we give a simple method for determining the optimal system configuration to minimize the mean response time and related metrics. While our theoretical results are proven for the special case of exponentially distributed job sizes, we provide evidence from simulation that the system becomes insensitive to the job size distribution in the mean field regime, suggesting our results are more generally applicable.
Efficient DistributedWorkload (Re-)Embedding
Authors: Henzinger Monika , Neumann Stefan , Schmid Stefan
Published: December 2019

Modern networked systems are increasingly reconfigurable, enabling demand-aware infrastructures whose resources can be adjusted according to the workload they currently serve. Such dynamic adjustments can be exploited to improve network utilization and hence performance, by moving frequently interacting communication partners closer, e.g., collocating them in the same server or datacenter. However, dynamically changing the embedding of workloads is algorithmically challenging: communication patterns are often not known ahead of time, but must be learned. During the learning process, overheads related to unnecessary moves (i.e., re-embeddings) should be minimized. This paper studies a fundamental model which captures the tradeoff between the benefits and costs of dynamically collocating communication partners on *#953; servers, in an online manner. Our main contribution is a distributed online algorithm which is asymptotically almost optimal, i.e., almost matches the lower bound (also derived in this paper) on the competitive ratio of any (distributed or centralized) online algorithm.
QuickStop
Authors: Wei Honghao , Kang Xiaohan , Wang Weina , Ying Lei
Published: December 2019

This paper combines data-driven and model-driven methods for real-time misinformation detection. Our algorithm, named Quick- Stop, is an optimal stopping algorithm based on a probabilistic information spreading model obtained from labeled data. The algorithm consists of an offline machine learning algorithm for learning the probabilistic information spreading model and an online optimal stopping algorithm to detect misinformation. The online detection algorithm has both low computational and memory complexities. Our numerical evaluations with a real-world dataset show that QuickStop outperforms existing misinformation detection algorithms in terms of both accuracy and detection time (number of observations needed for detection). Our evaluations with synthetic data further show that QuickStop is robust to (offline) learning errors.
Non-Markovian Monte Carlo on Directed Graphs
Authors: Lee Chul-Ho , Kang Min , Young Eun Do
Published: December 2019

Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) has been the de facto technique for sampling and inference of large graphs such as online social networks. At the heart ofMCMC lies the ability to construct an ergodicMarkov chain that attains any given stationary distribution ', often in the form of random walks or crawling agents on the graph. Most of the works around MCMC, however, presume that the graph is undirected or has reciprocal edges, and become inapplicable when the graph is directed and non-reciprocal. Here we develop a similar framework for directed graphs called Non- Markovian Monte Carlo (NMMC) by establishing a mapping to convert ' into the quasi-stationary distribution of a carefully constructed transient Markov chain on an extended state space. As applications, we demonstrate how to achieve any given distribution ' on a directed graph and estimate the eigenvector centrality using a set of non-Markovian, history-dependent random walks on the same graph in a distributed manner.We also provide numerical results on various real-world directed graphs to confirm our theoretical findings, and present several practical enhancements to make our NMMC method ready for practical use in most directed graphs. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed NMMC framework for directed graphs is the first of its kind, unlocking all the limitations set by the standard MCMC methods for undirected graphs.
Quantum spatial computing
Authors: Werner Martin
Published: December 2019

Quantum computing is expected to create a major shift across the whole computing industry given that it can solve a certain set of operations that used to be very hard in comparably short time. In this article, the author intends to introduce central aspects of quantum algorithms to the GIS community and explores some probable directions of research related to quantum computing for spatial algorithms. The author hopes that this paper enables researchers of our community to place an informed decision whether and when it is worth looking at this exciting new area of algorithm research and computing while staying on an abstraction level high enough for concise presentation.