bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Vector sensor cross-spectral density for surface noise in a stratified ocean—Formulas for arbitrary sensor geometries
Authors: Deal Thomas J.
Published: February 2018

The cross-spectral density between pressure and particle velocity channels of two vector sensors with arbitrary orientation and separation is developed for a noise field consisting of directional sources distributed on a plane. Equations for arbitrary sensor orientations are necessary because cross-spectral density is an averaged product of two sensors' outputs that cannot be projected onto another direction after it is calculated. This prevents the use of existing methods, which calculate cross-spectral density for orthogonal particle velocity sensors, for sensors with different orientations. Analytic solutions to special cases for azimuthally symmetric environments and orthogonal velocity sensor orientations are developed and compared to previous results. The general equations are stated in a form suitable for use with any propagation model that produces Green's functions for pressure and orthogonal particle velocity components. Simulation examples demonstrate how sensor geometry and propagation conditions affect vector sensor array performance for wind-driven surface noise in deep and shallow water environments. Vector sensor beamforming is shown to provide additional gain in these directional noise fields as compared to isotropic noise.
DNA methylation as a mediator of the association between prenatal adversity and risk factors for metabolic disease in adulthood
Authors: Tobi Elmar W. , Slieker Roderick C. , Luijk René , Dekkers Koen F. , Stein Aryeh D. , Xu Kate M. ,   Biobank-based Integrative Omics Studies Consortium, Slagboom P. Eline , van Zwet Erik W. , Lumey L. H. , Heijmans Bastiaan T.
Published: February 2018

DNA methylation mediates the association of prenatal famine exposure with higher adult BMI and serum triglyceride levels.
The generational scalability of single-cell replicative aging
Authors: Liu Ping , Acar Murat
Published: February 2018

Specific mathematical forms can explain survival probability and generation-duration dynamics of replicatively aging cells.
Drought will not leave your glass empty: Low risk of hydraulic failure revealed by long-term drought observations in world’s top wine regions
Authors: Charrier Guillaume , Delzon Sylvain , Domec Jean-Christophe , Zhang Li , Delmas Chloe E. L. , Merlin Isabelle , Corso Deborah , King Andrew , Ojeda Hernan , Ollat Nathalie , Prieto Jorge A. , Scholach Thibaut , Skinner Paul , van Leeuwen Cornelis , Gambetta Gregory A.
Published: February 2018

Long-term observations in Napa Valley and Bordeaux reveal that grapevines never reach a lethal level of drought.
Patients with familial adenomatous polyposis harbor colonic biofilms containing tumorigenic bacteria
Authors: Dejea Christine M. , Fathi Payam , Craig John M. , Boleij Annemarie , Taddese Rahwa , Geis Abby L. , Wu Xinqun , DeStefano Shields Christina E. , Hechenbleikner Elizabeth M. , Huso David L. , Anders Robert A. , Giardiello Francis M. , Wick Elizabeth C. , Wang Hao , Wu Shaoguang , Pardoll Drew M. , Housseau Franck , Sears Cynthia L.
Published: February 2018

Biofilms provide refuge for cancerous bacteria

Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) causes benign polyps along the colon. If left untreated, FAP leads to a high incidence of colon cancer. To understand how polyps influence tumor formation, Dejea
et al.
examined the colonic mucosa of FAP patients. They discovered biofilms containing the carcinogenic versions of the bacterial species
Escherichia coli
and
Bacteroides fragilis
. Colon tissue from FAP patients exhibited greater expression of two bacterial genes that produce secreted oncotoxins. Studies in mice showed that specific bacteria could work together to induce colon inflammation and tumor formation.

Science
, this issue p.
592
Probing optically silent superfluid stripes in cuprates
Authors: Rajasekaran S. , Okamoto J. , Mathey L. , Fechner M. , Thampy V. , Gu G. D. , Cavalleri A.
Published: February 2018

A nonlinear peek into stripes

In many theoretical models of high-temperature superconductors, remnants of superconductivity persist to temperatures higher than the transition temperature,
T
C
. Rajasekaran
et al.
used nonlinear terahertz spectroscopy to probe this region of the phase diagram of a cuprate superconductor that is well known for a stripe phase that appears for certain doping levels (see the Perspective by Ergeçen and Gedik). For a sample deep in the stripe phase, a large nonlinear signal persisted from the superconducting region up to temperatures much higher than
T
C
. The findings suggest the formation of a peculiar spatially modulated superconducting state called the pair-density wave.

Science
, this issue p.
575
; see also p.
519
Oklahoma's induced seismicity strongly linked to wastewater injection depth
Authors: Hincks Thea , Aspinall Willy , Cooke Roger , Gernon Thomas
Published: February 2018

Injection depth matters for induced earthquakes

Wastewater injection has induced earthquakes in Oklahoma, but the relative importance of operational and geologic parameters in triggering such earthquakes is unclear. Hincks
et al.
developed an advanced Bayesian network to determine the interplay between these parameters in Oklahoma. The injection depth above the crystalline basement was the most important parameter when considering the potential for release of seismic energy. This modeling strategy may provide a way to improve forecasts of the impact of proposed regulatory changes on induced seismicity.

Science
, this issue p.
1251
The fetishization of quantification
The Tyranny of Metrics
Jerry Z. Muller
Princeton University Press, 2018. 232 pp.
Authors: Porter Theodore M.
Published: February 2018

A historian explores the dark side of metric-based performance evaluation
The grand challenges of
Science Robotics
Authors: Yang Guang-Zhong , Bellingham Jim , Dupont Pierre E. , Fischer Peer , Floridi Luciano , Full Robert , Jacobstein Neil , Kumar Vijay , McNutt Marcia , Merrifield Robert , Nelson Bradley J. , Scassellati Brian , Taddeo Mariarosaria , Taylor Russell , Veloso Manuela , Wang Zhong Lin , Wood Robert
Published: February 2018

These 10 grand challenges may have major breakthroughs, research, and/or socioeconomic impacts in the next 5 to 10 years.
A Novel Rabbit Spirometry Model of Type E Botulism and Its Use for the Evaluation of Postsymptom Antitoxin Efficacy
Authors: Diamant Eran , Pass Avi , Rosen Osnat , Ben David Alon , Torgeman Amram , Barnea Ada , Tal Arnon , Rosner Amir , Zichel Ran
Published: February 2018

Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs), the most poisonous substances known in nature, pose significant concern to health authorities. The only approved therapeutic for botulism is antitoxin. While administered to patients only after symptom onset, antitoxin efficacy is evaluated in animals mostly in relation to time postintoxication regardless of symptoms. This is most likely due to the difficulty in measuring early symptoms of botulism in animals. In this study, a rabbit spirometry model was developed to quantify early respiratory symptoms of type E botulism that were further used as a trigger for treatment. Impaired respiration, in the form of a reduced minute volume, was detected as early as 18.1 ± 2.9 h after intramuscular exposure to 2 rabbit 50% lethal doses (LD
50
) of BoNT serotype E (BoNT/E), preceding any visible symptoms. All rabbits treated with antitoxin immediately following symptom onset survived. Postsymptom antitoxin efficacy was further evaluated in relation to toxin and antitoxin dosages as well as delayed antitoxin administration. Our system enabled us to demonstrate, for the first time, full antitoxin protection of animals treated with antitoxin after the onset of objective and quantitative type E botulism symptoms. This model may be utilized to evaluate the efficacy of antitoxins for additional serotypes of BoNT as well as that of next-generation anti-BoNT drugs that enter affected cells and act when antitoxin is no longer effective.
Vibrio fischeri DarR Directs Responses to
d
-Aspartate and Represents a Group of Similar LysR-Type Transcriptional Regulators
Authors: Jones Richard M. , Popham David L. , Schmidt Alicia L. , Neidle Ellen L. , Stabb Eric V.
Published: February 2018

d
-Amino acids are prevalent in the environment and are generated by organisms from all domains of life. Although some biological roles for
d
-amino acids are understood, in other cases, their functions remain uncertain. Given the ubiquity of
d
-amino acids, it seems likely that bacteria will initiate transcriptional responses to them. Elucidating
d
-amino acid-responsive regulators along with the genes they control will help uncover bacterial uses of
d
-amino acids. Here, we report the discovery of DarR, a novel LTTR in
V. fischeri
that mediates a transcriptional response to environmental
d
-Asp and underpins the catabolism of
d
-Asp. DarR represents the founding member of a group of bacterial homologs that we hypothesize control aspects of aspartate metabolism in response to
d
-Asp and/or to
d
-Asp-containing peptides.
Patient safety in transitional care of the elderly: effects of a quasi-experimental interorganisational educational intervention
Authors: Storm Marianne , Schulz Jörn , Aase Karina
Published: February 2018

Objective

The study objective was to assess the effects of an interorganisational educational intervention called the ‘Meeting Point’ on patient safety culture among staff in hospital and nursing home wards.

Design

The study employs a quasi-experimental, non-randomised design with a hospital and nursing home intervention group and a hospital and nursing home control group. The study uses one preintervention and two postintervention survey measurements. The intervention group participated in an educational programme ‘The Meeting Point’ including interorganisational staff meetings combining educational sessions with a discussion platform focusing on quality and safety in transitional care of the elderly.

Results

The results show a stable development over time for the patient safety culture factor ‘Handoff and transitions’, and small improvements for ‘Overall perceptions of patient safety culture’ and ‘Organisational learning - continuous improvement’ for the hospital intervention group. No similar development was reported in the nursing home intervention group, which is most likely explained by ongoing organisational changes. Qualitative data show the existence of ongoing initiatives in the hospital to improve transitional care, but not all were connected to the ‘Meeting Point’.

Conclusion

The ‘Meeting Point’ has the potential to be a useful measure for healthcare professionals when aiming to improve patient safety culture in transitional care. Further refinement of the key components and testing with a more robust study design will be beneficial.
Using different levels of glycerine, glucose, or sucrose in broiler starter diets to overcome negative effects of delayed feed access on growth performance
Authors: Wang Anhao , Anderson Derek , Rathgeber Bruce
Published: February 2018

Two trials were conducted to evaluate the inclusion of glycerine, glucose, or sucrose in broiler starter diets to overcome negative effects of delayed feed access. In trial 1, 2160 newly hatched chicks (mixed sexed) were randomly assigned to two feeding programs (immediate vs. 36 h delayed feed access). Nine starter diets prepared with crude glycerine, glucose, or sucrose fed at 0%, 4%, or 8% levels were fed during the first 14 d post hatch (PH). In trial 2, 720 male and 720 female newly hatched chicks were randomly assigned to two feeding programs (immediate vs. 48 h delayed feed access). Starter diets fed during the first 14 d of feed access, consisted of a control, 8% glycerine, or 8% glucose. In both trials, a common grower and finisher diet were fed during days 14–24 and 25–35, respectively. Body weight and feed consumed were measured on 7, 14, 24, and 35 d. In trial 1, all 8% diet-fed birds were heavier compared with the control on day 35 PH (2259 vs. 2198 g, P < 0.01). Birds fed glycerine starter diets had improved feed conversion ratio (FCR) during 22–35 d (P < 0.01). In trial 2, glycerine diet resulted in heavier birds after 35 d of feed access, compared with birds fed control and glucose diets immediately after hatch (2373 vs. 2276 g, P < 0.01). Dietary inclusion of 8% glycerine can assist newly hatched broiler chicks to overcome delayed feed access induced growth suppression.
Silica-supported Cu–Pt bimetallic catalysts for liquid-phase diethyl oxalate hydrogenation
Authors: Long Wei , Liu Pingle , Lv Yang , Xiong Wei , Hao Fang , Luo He’an
Published: February 2018

Silica-supported copper catalysts were prepared by different methods, and Cu/SiO2 prepared by the urea-assisted gel method was modified with co-catalyst platinum to obtain Cu-Pt/SiO2 bimetallic catalysts. The prepared catalysts were characterized by nitrogen adsorption–desorption, XRD, TEM, hydrogen chemisorption, ammonia gas chemisorption, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The characterization results show that the modification of platinum is helpful to the reduction and dispersion of copper species, which increase the hydrogen uptake quantity and metal surface area. The 30%Cu–3.0%Pt/SiO2-6 presents the best catalytic performance in liquid-phase diethyl oxalate hydrogenation; it gives 77.32% conversion of diethyl oxalate and 94.37% selectivity to the main products under 473 K and 3.0 MPa for 4 h. A possible reaction route was also proposed.
Electrocrystallization and solubility of mercury in alkaline solution
Authors: Staun Chris , Bansal Neetu , Vaughan James
Published: February 2018

The chemical thermodynamics of mercury in aqueous sodium hydroxide solution has been investigated through electrochemical polarisation and solubility experiments. A review of thermodynamic data allowed determination of the Hg/HgO electrode potential. Cyclic voltammetry revealed a complex anodic reaction beginning with aqueous dissolution of elemental mercury and subsequent electrocrystallization of mercuric oxide. Cathodic sweeps showed dual reduction reactions, attributed to the presence of aqueous mercury and mercuric oxide. The solubility and hence activity of elemental mercury in sodium hydroxide solution was determined, otherwise known as the Sechenov salt effect. Sodium hydroxide salted mercury out of solution.
Water exchange relationships predict overwintering behavior in hatchling turtles
Authors: Figueras M.P. , Bastarache B.A. , Burke R.L.
Published: February 2018

Neonatal ectotherms face a wide range of environmental hazards because of the diverse habitats that they inhabit and their small body sizes; this is especially true among turtles that live in temperate zones and experience cold winter conditions after hatching. Such hatchlings must balance challenges involving desiccation, freezing, and predation, among other threats. Turtle hatchlings either overwinter in water, terrestrially in relatively shallow nests, terrestrially deep below nests, or terrestrially outside of the nest entirely, and these different microhabitats are associated with different desiccation and freezing risks. We measured desiccation tolerance of individuals of six turtle species, including two (Diamondback Terrapins, Malaclemys terrapin (Schoepff, 1793), and Eastern Box Turtles, Terrapene carolina (Linnaeus, 1758)) that use a strategy that has not previously been explored, along with Wood Turtles (Glyptemys insculpta (Le Conte, 1830)), whose overwintering microhabitat is uncertain. We found additional support for the hypothesis that desiccation resistance is associated with overwintering strategies in hatchling turtles. Further investigation into the overwintering strategies of M. terrapin and T. carolina would be productive.
Magnetically charged black hole in framework of nonlinear electrodynamics model
Authors: Kruglov S. I.
Published: February 2018

A model of nonlinear electrodynamics is proposed and investigated in general relativity. We consider the magnetic black hole and find a regular solution which gives corrections into the Reissner–Nordström solution. At [Formula: see text] the asymptotic space–time becomes flat. The magnetic mass of the black hole is calculated and the metric function is obtained. At some values of the model parameter there can be one, two or no horizons. Thermodynamics of black holes is studied and we calculate the Hawking temperature and heat capacity of black holes. It is demonstrated that there is a phase transition of second order. At some parameters of the model black holes are thermodynamically stable.
An extended car-following model considering random safety distance with different probabilities
Authors: Wang Jufeng , Sun Fengxin , Cheng Rongjun , Ge Hongxia , Wei Qi
Published: February 2018

Because of the difference in vehicle type or driving skill, the driving strategy is not exactly the same. The driving speeds of the different vehicles may be different for the same headway. Since the optimal velocity function is just determined by the safety distance besides the maximum velocity and headway, an extended car-following model accounting for random safety distance with different probabilities is proposed in this paper. The linear stable condition for this extended traffic model is obtained by using linear stability theory. Numerical simulations are carried out to explore the complex phenomenon resulting from multiple safety distance in the optimal velocity function. The cases of multiple types of safety distances selected with different probabilities are presented. Numerical results show that the traffic flow with multiple safety distances with different probabilities will be more unstable than that with single type of safety distance, and will result in more stop-and-go phenomena.
On the Use of Linear Combination in PWCP-Nets
Authors: El Fidha Sleh , Ben Amor Nahla
Published: February 2018

Conditional preference networks (CP-nets) are a compact but powerful formalism to represent and reason with qualitative preferences using the notion of conditional preferential independence. However, they suffer from incomparabilities between possible outcomes. Several works have attempted to overcome this weakness by quantifying CP-nets. This paper proposes a new approach combining two of the most interesting extensions of CP-nets, namely Probabilistic CP-nets (PCP-nets) using probability distribution to model uncertainty in different preference statements and Weighted CP-nets (WCP-nets) adding weights to express the relative importance of some attribute values regarding others. The new model so-called PWCP-nets combines the two models by handling both uncertainty and weights. Experimental results show the efficiency of this rich extension of CP-nets compared to PCP-nets and WCP-nets.
Acquiring and Sharing Tacit Knowledge Based on Interval 2-Tuple Linguistic Assessments and Extended Fuzzy Petri Nets
Authors: Li Hui , You Jian-Xin , Liu Hu-Chen , Tian Guangdong
Published: February 2018

In the highly competitive environment, capturing and disseminating of tacit knowledge are significant to an organization’s success with the development of knowledge-based systems. However, in practical knowledge acquisition process, domain experts tend to express their judgments using multigranularity linguistic term sets, and there usually exists uncertain and incomplete information since expert knowledge is experience-based and tacit. In addition, although the technical capabilities of expert systems based on fuzzy Petri nets (FPNs) are expanding, they still fall short of meeting the increasingly complex knowledge demands. Therefore, this paper develops a theoretical model based on linguistic interval 2-tuples and interval-valued intuitionistic FPNs (IVIFPNs) for acquiring and representing tacit knowledge to increase and sustain the competitive advantages of knowledge intensive organizations. An empirical case study in medical practice is provided to demonstrate the application and feasibility of the proposed model, and the results show that it can well capture experts’ tacit knowledge and reuse the acquired knowledge productively.
A Linear Programming Method Based on an Improved Score Function for Interval-Valued Pythagorean Fuzzy Numbers and Its Application to Decision-Making
Authors: Garg Harish
Published: February 2018

The present paper proposes an improved score function for solving multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem with partially known weight information, In it, the preferences related to criteria are taken in the form of interval-valued Pythagorean fuzzy sets. Based on these preferences and an improved score function, a score matrix has been formulated and then a linear programming based method has been proposed to solve MCDM problems with unknown attribute weights. Some generalized properties have also been proven for justification. Illustrative examples have been given for showing the superiority of the approach with the other existing functions in the decision-making process.
A Bayesian Network-Based Approach for Incremental Learning of Uncertain Knowledge
Authors: Liu Weiyi , Yue Kun , Yue Mingliang , Yin Zidu , Zhang Binbin
Published: February 2018

Bayesian network (BN) is the well-accepted framework for representing and inferring uncertain knowledge. To learn the BN-based uncertain knowledge incrementally in response to the new data is useful for analysis, prediction, decision making, etc. In this paper, we propose an approach for incremental learning of BNs by focusing on the incremental revision of BN’s graphical structures. First, we give the concept of influence degree to describe the influence of new data on the existing BN by measuring the variation of BN’s probability parameters w.r.t. the likelihood of the new data. Then, for the nodes ordered decreasingly by their influence degrees, we give the scoring-based algorithm for revising BN’s subgraphs iteratively by hill-climbing search for reversing, adding or deleting edges. In the incremental revision, we emphasize the preservation of probabilistic conditional independencies implied in the BN based on the concept and properties of Markov equivalence. Experimental results show the correctness, precision and efficiency of our approach.
Nava Jyoti: Farmer’s Pursuit of Profitable Sales
Authors: Arakal Jeevan J. , Sharma Dinesh
Published: February 2018

Small and marginal farmers in India face several difficulties in selling produce due to their scale of production and related transaction costs. Aggregation of produce under the aegis of a producer organization is seen as a possible solution for improving market access. This case is about Nava Jyoti, a producer organization based in Odisha, India. Nava Jyoti received support from several institutions in the form of grants, soft loans and managerial handholding at the time of its inception. However, after a few years Nava Jyoti had incurred losses due to several internal and external factors affecting its sales operations. Building profitable sales operations was the key for farmers to stand on their own feet since grants and other institutional support would not flow indefinitely. The time had come to review the sales operations and take corrective steps, finding an optimal route to market strategy was the envisaged outcome of the review process. Solutions had to be relevant to the context and capabilities of Nava Jyoti’s members — small and marginal farmers in one of the poorest regions of the country.
Time Effects on Settlement of Rigid Pile Composite Foundation: Simplified Models
Authors: Xu Meijuan , Ni Pengpeng , Mei Guoxiong , Zhao Yanlin
Published: February 2018

The behavior of pile composite foundation is studied using the flexibility method. During the analysis, determination of the flexibility matrix (settlement) is critical. However, conventional methods of Winkler and elastic half-space foundation models are incapable of considering the time effects of soil consolidation and creep. The foundation model of Zaretsky and Tsytovich [1965] can be used to evaluate settlement for unsaturated soils, but the complexity of numerical integration over an arbitrary loading area hinders its application. In this paper, a novel scheme is proposed for numerical integration by rotating the loading surface using the equiareal transformation technique. Therefore, a simplified closed-form solution is developed to calculate time dependent settlement for foundation soils. The efficacy of the proposed technique is demonstrated using illustrative examples of an elastic half-space, a rigid raft foundation without piles, and rigid pile composite foundations with multiple piles under surface loading. Furthermore, parametric study is conducted to evaluate the sensitivity of model parameters. The permeability [Formula: see text] and Poisson’s ratio [Formula: see text] are found to be important, whereas pore pressure coefficient [Formula: see text] and degree of saturation [Formula: see text] are less significant in the calculation.
A Comparative Review of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics, Dissipative Particle Dynamics and Smoothed Dissipative Particle Dynamics
Authors: Ye Ting , Li Yu
Published: February 2018

Smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH), dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) and smoothed dissipative particle dynamics (SDPD) are three typical and related particle-based methods. They have been increasingly attractive for solving fluid flow problems, especially for the biofluid flow, because of their advantages of ease and flexibility in modeling complex structure fluids. This work aims to review what the exact similarities and differences are among them, by studying four simple fluid flows: (i) self-diffusion of quiescent flow, (ii) time-dependent Coutte flow, (iii) time-dependent Poiseuille flow, and (iv) lid-driven cavity flow. The simulations show that SPH, DPD and SDPD can give the similar results. SPH generates quite smooth results and has zero system temperature due to the absence of thermal fluctuations, suitable for macroscale problems. However, DPD and SDPD have fluctuating results around the reference results and nonzero system temperature with considerable thermal fluctuations, suitable for mesoscale problems. SDPD is more convenient than DPD to some extent, because it is not required to pre-define the force coefficients. SDPD can adopt more diverse equation of state (EOS) than DPD, because its EOS is user-defined unlike the EOS of DPD, inbuilt in the formulations.
A reassessment of the Brassington Formation (Miocene) of Derbyshire, UK and a review of related hypogene karst suffosion processes
Authors: Walsh Peter T. , Banks Vanessa J. , Jones Peter F. , Pound Matthew J. , Riding James B.
Published: February 2018

The Brassington Formation of the Pennines is the most extensive onshore Miocene succession in the UK. It is preserved as outliers in Lower Carboniferous Limestone. During the Cenozoic, central England underwent uplift, with erosion of post-Mississippian strata from the Pennine axis in the Peak District. The Brassington Formation is hence significant in reconstructing Cenozoic geological history. It is non-marine, derived from Triassic sandstone and of Mid–Late Miocene age. The
c.
60 outliers occur in three clusters over
c.
220 km
2
. They are remnants of a sedimentary prism at least 75 m thick and with a volume of
c.
10 km
3
. Suffosion of bedrock, conditioned by aggressive precursor fluids of hypogenic origin, was the major control on subsidence. The calculated volume of the fills in the Bees Nest and Green Clay outliers is 3.7–5.0 × 10
6
 m
3
. Referenced to a sub-Miocene surface at
c.
450 m OD in pre-subsidence times, the original volume of this subsidence complex was
c.
21.8 × 10
6
 m
3
and the aggregated volume of the Late Neogene White Peak palaeokarst was at least 0.66 km
3
. Subsidence was concomitant with Pliocene uplift of the Pennine Axis, suggesting suffosion accommodation of 3 × 10
6
 m
3
per km
2
or 244 m
3
per annum.
Memory-Efficient and Accurate Sampling for Counting Local Triangles in Graph Streams
Authors: Lim Yongsub , Jung Minsoo , Kang U.
Published: February 2018

How can we estimate local triangle counts accurately in a graph stream without storing the whole graph? How to handle duplicated edges in local triangle counting for graph stream? Local triangle counting, which computes the number of triangles attached to each node in a graph, is a very important problem with wide applications in social network analysis, anomaly detection, web mining, and the like.

In this article, we propose algorithms for local triangle counting in a graph stream based on edge sampling: M
ascot
for a simple graph, and M
ulti
BM
ascot
and M
ulti
WM
ascot
for a multigraph. To develop M
ascot
, we first present two naive local triangle counting algorithms in a graph stream, called M
ascot
-C and M
ascot
-A. M
ascot
-C is based on constant edge sampling, and M
ascot
-A improves its accuracy by utilizing more memory spaces. M
ascot
achieves both accuracy and memory-efficiency of the two algorithms by unconditional triangle counting for a new edge, regardless of whether it is sampled or not. Extending the idea to a multigraph, we develop two algorithms M
ulti
BM
ascot
and M
ulti
WM
ascot
. M
ulti
BM
ascot
enables local triangle counting on the corresponding simple graph of a streamed multigraph without explicit graph conversion; M
ulti
WM
ascot
considers repeated occurrences of an edge as its weight and counts each triangle as the product of its three edge weights. In contrast to the existing algorithm that requires prior knowledge on the target graph and appropriately set parameters, our proposed algorithms require only one parameter of edge sampling probability.

Through extensive experiments, we show that for the same number of edges sampled, M
ascot
provides the best accuracy compared to the existing algorithm as well as M
ascot
-C and M
ascot
-A. We also demonstrate that M
ulti
BM
ascot
on a multigraph is comparable to M
ascot
-C on the counterpart simple graph, and M
ulti
WM
ascot
becomes more accurate for higher degree nodes. Thanks to M
ascot
, we also discover interesting anomalous patterns in real graphs, including
core-peripheries
in the web, a
bimodal
call pattern in a phone call history, and
intensive collaboration
in DBLP.
FOSSIL
Authors: Alrabaee Saed , Shirani Paria , Wang Lingyu , Debbabi Mourad
Published: February 2018

Identifying free open-source software (FOSS) packages on binaries when the source code is unavailable is important for many security applications, such as malware detection, software infringement, and digital forensics. This capability enhances both the accuracy and the efficiency of reverse engineering tasks by avoiding false correlations between irrelevant code bases. Although the FOSS package identification problem belongs to the field of software engineering, conventional approaches rely strongly on practical methods in data mining and database searching. However, various challenges in the use of these methods prevent existing function identification approaches from being effective in the absence of source code. To make matters worse, the introduction of obfuscation techniques, the use of different compilers and compilation settings, and software refactoring techniques has made the automated detection of FOSS packages increasingly difficult. With very few exceptions, the existing systems are not resilient to such techniques, and the exceptions are not sufficiently efficient.

To address this issue, we propose
FOSSIL
, a novel resilient and efficient system that incorporates three components. The first component extracts the syntactical features of functions by considering opcode frequencies and applying a hidden Markov model statistical test. The second component applies a neighborhood hash graph kernel to random walks derived from control-flow graphs, with the goal of extracting the semantics of the functions. The third component applies z-score to the normalized instructions to extract the behavior of instructions in a function. The components are integrated using a Bayesian network model, which synthesizes the results to determine the FOSS function. The novel approach of combining these components using the Bayesian network has produced stronger resilience to code obfuscation.

We evaluate our system on three datasets, including real-world projects whose use of FOSS packages is known, malware binaries for which there are security and reverse engineering reports purporting to describe their use of FOSS, and a large repository of malware binaries. We demonstrate that our system is able to identify FOSS packages in real-world projects with a mean precision of 0.95 and with a mean recall of 0.85. Furthermore,
FOSSIL
is able to discover FOSS packages in malware binaries that match those listed in security and reverse engineering reports. Our results show that modern malware binaries contain 0.10--0.45 of FOSS packages.
Akap1genetic deletion increases the severity of hyperoxia-induced acute lung injury in mice
Authors: Narala Venkata Ramireddy , Fukumoto Jutaro , Hernández-Cuervo Helena , Patil Sahebgowda Sidramagowda , Krishnamurthy Sudarshan , Breitzig Mason , Galam Lakshmi , Soundararajan Ramani , Lockey Richard F. , Kolliputi Narasaiah
Published: February 2018

Critically ill patients are commonly treated with high levels of oxygen, hyperoxia, for prolonged periods of time. Unfortunately, extended exposure to hyperoxia can exacerbate respiratory failure and lead to a high mortality rate. Mitochondrial A-kinase anchoring protein (Akap) has been shown to regulate mitochondrial function. It has been reported that, under hypoxic conditions, Akap121 undergoes proteolytic degradation and promotes cardiac injury. However, the role of Akap1 in hyperoxia-induced acute lung injury (ALI) is largely unknown. To address this gap in our understanding of Akap1, we exposed wild-type ( wt) and Akap1−/−mice to 100% oxygen for 48 h, a time point associated with lung damage in the murine model of ALI. We found that under hyperoxia, Akap1−/−mice display increased levels of proinflammatory cytokines, immune cell infiltration, and protein leakage in lungs, as well as increased alveolar capillary permeability compared with wt controls. Further analysis revealed that Akap1 deletion enhances lung NF-κB p65 activity as assessed by immunoblotting and DNA-binding assay and mitochondrial autophagy-related markers, PINK1 and Parkin. Ultrastructural analysis using electron microscopy revealed that Akap1 deletion was associated with remarkably aberrant mitochondria and lamellar bodies in type II alveolar epithelial cells. Taken together, these results demonstrate that Akap1 genetic deletion increases the severity of hyperoxia-induced acute lung injury in mice.
Increasing cerebral blood flow reduces the severity of central sleep apnea at high altitude
Authors: Burgess Keith R. , Lucas Samuel J. E. , Burgess Katie M. E. , Sprecher Kate E. , Donnelly Joseph , Basnet Aparna S. , Tymko Michael M. , Day Trevor , Smith Kurt , Lewis Nia , Ainslie Philip N.
Published: February 2018

Earlier studies have indicated an important role for cerebral blood flow in the pathophysiology of central sleep apnea (CSA) at high altitude, but were not decisive. To test the hypothesis that pharmacologically altering cerebral blood flow (CBF) without altering arterial blood gas (ABGs) values would alter the severity of CSA at high altitude, we studied 11 healthy volunteers (8M, 3F; 31 ± 7 yr) in a randomized placebo-controlled single-blind study at 5,050 m in Nepal. CBF was increased by intravenous (iv) acetazolamide (Az; 10 mg/kg) plus intravenous dobutamine (Dob) infusion (2–5 μg·kg−1·min−1) and reduced by oral indomethacin (Indo; 100 mg). ABG samples were collected and ventilatory responses to hypercapnia (HCVR) and hypoxia (HVR) were measured by rebreathing and steady-state techniques before and after drug/placebo. Duplex ultrasound of blood flow in the internal carotid and vertebral arteries was used to measure global CBF. The initial 3–4 h of sleep were recorded by full polysomnography. Intravenous Az + Dob increased global CBF by 37 ± 15% compared with placebo ( P < 0.001), whereas it was reduced by 21 ± 8% by oral Indo ( P < 0.001). ABGs and HVR were unchanged in both interventions. HCVR was reduced by 28% ± 43% ( P = 0.1) during intravenous Az ± Dob administration and was elevated by 23% ± 30% ( P = 0.05) by Indo. During intravenous Az + Dob, the CSA index fell from 140 ± 45 (control night) to 48 ± 37 events/h of sleep ( P < 0.001). Oral Indo had no significant effect on CSA. We conclude that increasing cerebral blood flow reduced the severity of CSA at high altitude; the likely mechanism is via a reduction in the background stimulation of central chemoreceptors.

NEW & NOTEWORTHY This work is significant because it shows convincingly for the first time in healthy volunteers that increasing cerebral blood flow will reduce the severity of central sleep apnea in a high-altitude model, without the potentially confounding effects of altering partial pressure of arterial carbon dioxide or the ventilatory response to hypoxia. The proposed mechanism of action is that of increasing the removal of locally produced CO2from the central chemoreceptors, causing the reduction in hypercapnic ventilatory response, hence reducing loop gain.
Greater fluid loss does not fully explain the divergent hemodynamic balance mediating postexercise hypotension in endurance-trained men
Authors: Meade Robert D. , Crandall Craig G. , Gagnon Daniel , Kenny Glen P.
Published: February 2018

Following exercise, mean arterial pressure (MAP) is reduced ~5–10 mmHg from preexercise baseline. In nonendurance-trained males, postexercise hypotension results from peripheral vasodilation not offset by increased cardiac output (CO). By contrast, postexercise hypotension occurs through a reduction in CO from preexercise baseline in endurance-trained males. The reason(s) explaining these divergent responses remain unknown. Exercise at fixed percentage of peak oxygen consumption (V̇o2peak) is associated with a greater rate of metabolic heat production in trained individuals and therefore elevated sweat rates, both when compared with untrained individuals. We hypothesized that greater fluid loss would explain the postexercise reduction in CO of endurance-trained males. Twelve endurance-trained males (Trained: V̇o2peak, 64 ± 5 ml O2·kg−1·min−1) cycled for 60 min at 60% V̇o2peak (Trained60%). On separate days, 12 nonendurance trained males (Untrained: V̇o2peak, 49 ± 3 ml O2·kg−1·min−1) cycled at 1) 60% V̇o2peak (Untrained60%), and 2) a rate of heat production equivalent to that achieved by the Trained group (UntrainedMatched). Fluid loss was similar between Trained60% (−1.32 ± 0.20 kg) and UntrainedMatched (−1.32 ± 0.23 kg; P = 0.99) but was greater in these conditions relative to Untrained60% (−0.95 ± 0.11 kg; both P < 0.01). During the final 30 min of postexercise supine recovery, MAP was similarly reduced by 5 ± 2 mmHg in all three conditions ( P = 0.91). The reduction in MAP was mediated by a 0.5 ± 0.3 l/min reduction in CO from baseline in Trained60% ( P = 0.01). In contrast, CO returned to baseline following exercise during UntrainedMatched and Untrained60% (both P ≥ 0.30). These data demonstrate that greater fluid loss does not fully explain the divergent postexercise hemodynamic responses observed in trained relative to untrained males.

NEW & NOTEWORTHY Even when matched for exercise-induced fluid loss, cardiac output was decreased in trained males but returned to baseline following exercise in their untrained counterparts. However, as per our hypothesis, reductions in stroke volume were similar between groups. This suggests that exercise-induced fluid loss is an important determinant of the stroke volume response during recovery but factors affecting heart rate such as exercise intensity and/or heat stress are also important determinants of postexercise hemodynamics.
Role of gp130 in basal and exercise-trained skeletal muscle mitochondrial quality control
Authors: Fix Dennis K. , Hardee Justin P. , Gao Song , VanderVeen Brandon N. , Velázquez Kandy T. , Carson James A.
Published: February 2018

The IL-6 cytokine family activates intracellular signaling pathways through glycoprotein-130 (gp130), and this signaling has established regulatory roles in muscle glucose metabolism and proteostasis. Although the IL-6 family has been implicated as myokines regulating the muscles’ metabolic response to exercise, gp130’s role in mitochondrial quality control involving fission, fusion, mitophagy, and biogenesis is not well understood. Therefore, we examined gp130’s role in basal and exercise-trained muscle mitochondrial quality control. Muscles from C57BL/6, skeletal muscle-specific gp130 knockout (KO) mice, and C2C12 myotubes, were examined. KO did not alter treadmill run-to-fatigue or indices of mitochondrial content [cytochrome- c oxidase (COX) activity] or biogenesis (AMPK, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator-1α, mitochondrial transcription factor A, and COX IV). KO increased mitochondrial fission 1 protein (FIS-1) while suppressing mitofusin-1 (MFN-1), which was recapitulated in myotubes after gp130 knockdown. KO induced ubiquitin-binding protein p62, Parkin, and ubiquitin in isolated mitochondria from gastrocnemius muscles. Knockdown of gp130 in myotubes suppressed STAT3 and induced accumulation of microtubule-associated protein-1 light chain 3B (LC3)-II relative to LC3-I. Suppression of myotube STAT3 did not alter FIS-1 or MFN-1. Exercise training increased muscle gp130 and suppressed STAT3. KO did not alter the exercise-training induction of COX activity, biogenesis, FIS-1, or Beclin-1. KO increased MFN-1 and suppressed 4-hydroxynonenal after exercise training. These findings suggest a role for gp130 in the modulation of mitochondrial dynamics and autophagic processes.

NEW & NOTEWORTHY Although the IL-6 family of cytokines has been implicated in the regulation of skeletal muscle protein turnover and metabolism, less is understood about its role in mitochondrial quality control. We examined the glycoprotein-130 receptor in the regulation of skeletal muscle mitochondria quality control in the basal and exercise-trained states. We report that the muscle glycoprotein-130 receptor modulates basal mitochondrial dynamics and autophagic processes and is not necessary for exercise-training mitochondrial adaptations to quality control.
A New Intelligent Medical Decision Support System Based on Enhanced Hierarchical Clustering and Random Decision Forest for the Classification of Alcoholic Liver Damage, Primary Hepatoma, Liver Cirrhosis, and Cholelithiasis
Authors: Singh Aman , Pandey Babita
Published: February 2018

Diagnosis of liver disease principally depends on physician’s subjective knowledge. Automatic prediction of the disease is a critical real-world medical problem. This work presents an EHC-ERF-based intelligence-integrated model purposive to predict different types of liver disease including alcoholic liver damage, primary hepatoma, liver cirrhosis, and cholelithiasis. These diseases cause many clinical complications, and their accurate assessment is the only way for providing efficient treatment facilities to patients. EHC is deployed to divide the data into a hierarchy structure that is more informative for the disease predictions carried out by ERF. The occurrence of ERF error rate was dependent on correlation and strength of each individual tree where correlation is directly proportional to forest error rate and strength is inversely proportional to the forest rate. In total, two individual and three integrated classification models are developed to achieve enhanced predictions for the liver disease types. Analysis of results showed that the proposed framework achieved better outcomes in terms of accuracy, true positive rate, precision, F-measure, kappa statistic, mean absolute error, and root mean squared error. Furthermore, it achieved the highest accuracy rates when compared with the state-of-the-art techniques. Results also indicated that the weighted distance function employed in EHC has improved the efficiency of proposed system and has shown the capability to be used by physicians for diagnostic advice.
Multivariate Analysis of Fruit Antioxidant Activities of Blackberry Treated with 1-Methylcyclopropene or Vacuum Precooling
Authors: Li Jian , Ma Guowei , Ma Lin , Bao Xiaolin , Li Liping , Zhao Qian , Wang Yousheng
Published: February 2018

Effects of 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) and vacuum precooling on quality and antioxidant properties of blackberries (Rubus spp.) were evaluated using one-way analysis of variance, principal component analysis (PCA), partial least squares (PLS), and path analysis. Results showed that the activities of antioxidant enzymes were enhanced by both 1-MCP treatment and vacuum precooling. PCA could discriminate 1-MCP treated fruit and the vacuum precooled fruit and showed that the radical-scavenging activities in vacuum precooled fruit were higher than those in 1-MCP treated fruit. The scores of PCA showed that H2O2 content was the most important variables of blackberry fruit. PLSR results showed that peroxidase (POD) activity negatively correlated with H2O2 content. The results of path coefficient analysis indicated that glutathione (GSH) also had an indirect effect on H2O2 content.
Role of MicroRNAs in Obesity-Induced Metabolic Disorder and Immune Response
Authors: Zhong Hong , Ma Minjuan , Liang Tingming , Guo Li
Published: February 2018

In all living organisms, metabolic homeostasis and the immune system are the most fundamental requirements for survival. Recently, obesity has become a global public health issue, which is the cardinal risk factor for metabolic disorder. Many diseases emanating from obesity-induced metabolic dysfunction are responsible for the activated immune system, including innate and adaptive responses. Of note, inflammation is the manifest accountant signal. Deeply studied microRNAs (miRNAs) have participated in many pathways involved in metabolism and immune responses to protect cells from multiple harmful stimulants, and they play an important role in determining the progress through targeting different inflammatory pathways. Thus, immune response and metabolic regulation are highly integrated with miRNAs. Collectively, miRNAs are the new targets for therapy in immune dysfunction.
Two Sufficient Conditions for Convex Ordering on Risk Aggregation
Authors: Zhu Dan , Yin Chuancun
Published: February 2018

We define new stochastic orders in higher dimensions called weak correlation orders. It is shown that weak correlation orders imply stop-loss order of sums of multivariate dependent risks with the same marginals. Moreover, some properties and relations of stochastic orders are discussed.
The Half-Logistic Lomax Distribution for Lifetime Modeling
Authors: Anwar Masood , Zahoor Jawaria
Published: February 2018

We introduce a new two-parameter lifetime distribution called the half-logistic Lomax (HLL) distribution. The proposed distribution is obtained by compounding half-logistic and Lomax distributions. We derive some mathematical properties of the proposed distribution such as the survival and hazard rate function, quantile function, mode, median, moments and moment generating functions, mean deviations from mean and median, mean residual life function, order statistics, and entropies. The estimation of parameters is performed by maximum likelihood and the formulas for the elements of the Fisher information matrix are provided. A simulation study is run to assess the performance of maximum-likelihood estimators (MLEs). The flexibility and potentiality of the proposed model are illustrated by means of real and simulated data sets.