bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
State Strategy in the Trans‐Local Branding of a Creative Industry Cluster: A Case Study of the Product Design Industry in Taipei
Authors: Lin Cheng‐Yi
Published: September 2020

The branding process of a creative industry cluster is not solely embedded in a local spatial association between place and creative products; increasingly, trans‐local branding is being developed at different regional marketplaces through state participation in building trans‐local networks. However, the role of state strategy in the trans‐local branding of a creative industry cluster remains relatively unexplored. When globalisation presents the uneven geographic differentiation of creative production and consumption in an interconnected world, how does the state strategically facilitate the trans‐local branding of a creative industry cluster to articulate a trans‐local network? This paper aims to explore this issue through a case study of the product design industry in Taipei. Based on 65 semi‐structured interviews with product design companies and government officers, this paper argues that the trans‐local branding of a product design industry cluster creates a firm‐event nexus as the spatial outcome; this outcome is underpinned by three state‐led strategic practices: strategic anchoring, coupling, and curating. The role of state strategy is presented as brand curation, in which the state no longer operates as an economic regulator but as a brand curator. This implies that geo‐political and geo‐economic calculations are also revealed in state strategy‐making.
Old age is associated with decreased wealth in rural villages in Mtwara, Tanzania: findings from a cross‐sectional survey
Authors: Mshamu Salum , Peerawaranun Pimnara , Kahabuka Catherine , Deen Jacqueline , Tusting Lucy , Lindsay Steve W. , Knudsen Jakob , Mukaka Mavuto , von Seidlein Lorenz
Published: September 2020

Objective

In many countries, housing is used for wealth accumulation and provides financial security in old age. We tested the hypothesis that household wealth, measured by housing quality and ownership of durable assets, would increase with age of the household head.

Methods

We conducted a survey of household heads in 68 villages surrounding Mtwara town, Tanzania and recorded relevant demographic, housing and social characteristics for each household. The primary analysis assessed the relationship between age of the household head, quality of the house structure and socio‐economic score (SES) using multivariate analysis. Principal Components Analysis (PCA) was used as a data reduction tool to estimate the social‐economic status of subjects based on relevant variables that are considered as proxy for SES.

Results

Of 13 250 household heads were surveyed of whom 49% were male. Those at least 50 years old were more likely to live in homes with an earth floor (86%) compared to younger household heads (80%; P < 0.0001), wattle and daub walls (94% vs. 90%; P < 0.0001) and corrugated iron roofs (56% vs. 52%; P < 0.0001). Wealth accumulation in the villages included in the study tends to be an inverted V‐relationship with age. Housing quality and SES rose to a peak by 50 years and then rapidly decreased. Households with a large number of members were more likely to have better housing than smaller households.

Conclusions

Housing plays a critical role in wealth accumulation and socio‐economic status of a household in rural villages in Tanzania. Households with a head under 50 years were more likely to live in improved housing and enjoyed a higher SES, than households with older heads. Larger families may provide protection against old age poverty in rural areas. Assuring financial security in old age, specifically robust and appropriate housing would have wide‐ranging benefits.
Nationwide survey of the availability and affordability of asthma and COPD medicines in Nigeria
Authors: Ozoh Obianuju B. , Eze Joy N. , Garba Bilkisu I. , Ojo Oluwafemi O. , Okorie Elizabeth‐Martha , Yiltok Esther , Okoli Chinyere V. , Hammangabdo Ahmed , Beran David
Published: September 2020

Objective(s)

To determine the availability and affordability of asthma and COPD medicines across Nigeria.

Methods

This was a cross‐sectional survey conducted in 128 pharmacies (51 in public sector hospitals, 51 private sector community pharmacies and 26 charity or big private hospitals) across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria using the WHO/Health Action Initiative method. The proportion of pharmacies where medicines were available, the median retail prices of originator and generics and affordability were analysed. A medicine was available if found in ≥ 80% of surveyed pharmacies. Unaffordability was defined as paying> 1 day’s wage (> US$1.68) for a standard 30‐day supply of the medicine.

Results

The available medicines were oral corticosteroids and oral salbutamol which are not on the WHO Essential Medicine List. Medicines were found more frequently in private than public pharmacies and in the southern than northern zones. Inhalable corticosteroid was not available at any public pharmacy nationwide. None of the EML medicines were affordable. The least number of days’ wages for a 30‐day supply of any inhalable corticosteroid‐containing medication was 3.5 days.

Conclusions

There are very limited availability and affordability of recommended asthma and COPD medicines across Nigeria with disparity across regions. Medicines that were available and affordable are not recommended and are harmful for long‐term use. This underpins the need for engagement of all stakeholders for the review of existing policies regarding access to asthma and COPD medicines to improve availability and affordability.
Identification of tannic cell walls at the outer surface of the endosperm upon Arabidopsis seed coat rupture
Authors: Demonsais Lara , Utz‐Pugin Anne , Loubéry Sylvain , Lopez‐Molina Luis
Published: September 2020

The seed coat is specialized dead tissue protecting the plant embryo from mechanical and oxidative damage. Tannins, a type of flavonoids, are antioxidants known to accumulate in the Arabidopsis seed coat and transparent testa mutant seeds, deficient in flavonoid synthesis, exhibit low viability. However, their precise contribution to seed coat architecture and biophysics remains evasive. A seed coat cuticle, covering the endosperm outer surface and arising from the seed coat inner integument 1 cell layer was, intriguingly, previously shown to be more permeable in transparent testa mutants deficient not in cuticular component synthesis, but rather in flavonoid synthesis. Investigating the role of flavonoids in cuticle permeability led us to identify periclinal inner integument 1 tannic cell walls being attached, together with the cuticle, to the endosperm surface upon seed coat rupture. Hence, inner integument 1 tannic cell walls and the cuticle form two fused layers present at the surface of the exposed endosperm upon seed coat rupture, regulating its permeability. Their potential physiological role during seed germination is discussed.
How do I implement a whole blood–based blood preparedness program in a small rural hospital?
Authors: Apelseth Torunn O. , Strandenes Geir , Kristoffersen Einar K. , Hagen Kristin G. , Braathen Hanne , Hervig Tor
Published: September 2020

Civilian and military guidelines recommend balanced transfusion to patients with life‐threatening bleeding. Early start of transfusion has shown improved survival. Thus, a balanced blood inventory must be available in all levels of health care to ensure early stabilization and damage control resuscitation of patients with bleeding. Whole blood has been reintroduced as a blood product for massive bleeding situations because it affords plasma, red blood cells, and platelets in a balanced ratio in a logistically advantageous way. In this article, we describe how to establish a whole blood–based blood preparedness program in a small rural hospital with limited resources. We present an implementation tool kit, which includes discussions on whole blood program strategies and the process of developing detailed procedures on donor selection, collection, storage, and transfusion management of whole blood. The importance of training and audit of the routines is highlighted, and establishment of an emergency walking blood bank is discussed. We conclude that implementation of a whole blood program is achievable in small rural hospitals and recommend that rural health care facilities at all treatment levels enable early balanced transfusion for patients with life‐threatening bleeding by establishing protocols for whole blood–based preparedness.
Firm heterogeneity in services trade: Micro‐level evidence from eight OECD countries
Authors: Benz Sebastian , Rouzet Dorothée , Spinelli Francesca
Published: September 2020

This paper shows that smaller and less productive firms, as well as first‐time exporters, are overproportionally affected by services trade barriers using micro‐data from Belgium, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. For these firms, both the propensity to export and export volumes to less restrictive destinations are significantly higher than to more restrictive destinations. In contrast, policy barriers measured by the OECD Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (STRI) do not affect export decisions of the largest, most productive and experience services firms. The pattern holds for two major modes of supply, cross‐border services exports and foreign affiliate sales of services firms. The findings are consistent with firm sorting mechanisms in trade models with heterogeneous firms and hysteresis of export participation in the presence of sunk export costs.
Anconeus muscle injury in a juvenile greyhound
Authors: Schaaf Olaf R. , Roennfeldt‐Philp Tyler , Webster Natalie S.
Published: September 2020

Objective

To report anconeus muscle injury in a greyhound.

Animal

One 11‐month‐old female greyhound.

Study design

Case report

Methods

The dog presented with a 6‐week history of mild left foreleg lameness. Moderate pain was noted by palpation over the proximolateral ulna and distolateral humerus and by maximal elbow flexion. A laminar periosteal reaction on the caudodistal humerus was present on radiographs. At ultrasonic examination, disorganization of anconeus muscle fibers, and focal mixed echogenicity were noted. Precontrast and postcontrast computed tomography (CT) revealed a thin rim of periosteal new bone on the caudodistal humerus as well as heterogeneous contrast enhancement of soft tissue immediately caudal to the distal humerus. An unrelated greyhound cadaver dissection confirmed only the anconeus muscle attached to the site of noted periosteal reaction. A partial tear of the anconeus muscle was diagnosed. Treatment consisted of 4 weeks of oral meloxicam. Confinement space and exercise were incrementally increased over 14 weeks.

Results

Muscle healing was confirmed by ultrasonography and CT. The dog was able to have a successful racing career spanning 2 years with no lameness attributable to the previous anconeus muscle injury and retired for unrelated reasons.

Conclusion

Radiography and ultrasonography helped diagnose anconeal muscle injury, and conservative management led to full return to function.

Clinical significance

Clinicians should include anconeus muscle injury as a differential diagnosis in dogs with lameness and pain over the proximolateral ulna or distolateral humerus or on elbow flexion.
Diagnostic accuracy of optical coherence tomography for assessing surgical margins of canine soft tissue sarcomas in observers of different specialties
Authors: Dornbusch Josephine A. , Selmic Laura E. , Huang Pin‐Chieh , Samuelson Jonathan P. , McLaughlin Eric M. , Wavreille Vincent A. , Ogden Jessica A. , Abrams Brittany , Kalamaras Alex , Green Eric , Hostnik Eric T. , Every Lincoln , Fuerst Jason A. , Jennings Ryan , Premanandan Christopher , Lorbach Joshua N. , Linn Sarah C. , Alex Aneesh , Sorrells Janet E. , Yang Lingxiao , Boppart Stephen A.
Published: September 2020

Objective

To determine the diagnostic accuracy of optical coherence tomography (OCT) to assess surgical margins of canine soft tissue sarcoma (STS) and determine the influence of observer specialty and training.

Study design

Blinded clinical prospective study.

Animals

Twenty‐five dogs undergoing surgical excision of STS.

Methods

In vivo and ex vivo surgical margins were imaged with OCT after tumor resection. Representative images and videos were used to generate a training presentation and data sets. These were completed by 16 observers of four specialties (surgery, radiology, pathology, and OCT researchers). Images and videos from data sets were classified as cancerous or noncancerous.

Results

The overall sensitivity and specificity were 88.2% and 92.8%, respectively, for in vivo tissues and 82.5% and 93.3%, respectively, for ex vivo specimens. The overall accurate classification for all specimens was 91.4% in vivo and 89.5% ex vivo. There was no difference in accuracy of interpretation of OCT imaging by observers of different specialties or experience levels.

Conclusion

Use of OCT to accurately assess surgical margins after STS excision was associated with a high sensitivity and specificity among various specialties. Personnel of all specialties and experience levels could effectively be trained to interpret OCT imaging.

Clinical significance

Optical coherence tomography can be used by personnel of different specialty experience levels and from various specialties to accurately identify canine STS in vivo and ex vivo after a short training session. These encouraging results provide evidence to justify further research to assess the ability of OCT to provide real‐time assessments of surgical margins and its applicability to other neoplasms.
REVIEW ON STRUCTURAL PROPERTIES METRICS IN SOA DESIGN
Authors: Nik Daud Nik Marsyahariani , Wan Kadir Wan Mohd Nasir
Published: September 2020

The application of metrics for the purpose of measuring qualities of software has been widely practice within software engineering industry. Though in the beginning most measurement involves artifacts such as source code, quality measurement from the beginning of software lifecycle is slowly gathering attention. Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a new paradigm that introduces way to develop software in a faster way by adopting available services. SOA application is better comprehended using its composition design. Thus in earlier researches, many metrics had been proposed in relation to SOA design. This paper focuses on proposed metrics from earlier research works specifically one that measure the structural properties of SOA application. The structural properties metrics selected are analyzed from both static and dynamic perspectives. Around seventeen papers are selected during the data collection process. The proposed metrics are then separated into its respective properties type and are further analyzed to find required characteristics for each discussed property. The result from the analysis is list of construction characteristics for each structural property that can be used as guidelines for future researchers that incline on proposing new metrics. The metrics classification also indicates on research gap within the area of structural properties metrics in SOA domain.
EVALUATION OF THE VISITOR PATTERN TO PROMOTE SOFTWARE DESIGN SIMPLICITY
Authors: Nanthaamornphong Aziz , Wetprasit Rattana
Published: September 2020

Design patterns, which have been widely used by software engineering communities, have been claimed to improve software design in previous studies. However, there is little empirical evidence to support such a claim. Additionally, the benefits of design patterns in software design have not been studied in sufficient detail to date. As a result, in this study, we used empirical methods to evaluate whether design patterns help developers improve the simplicity of software design. In particular, we analyzed how easily a given software design was understood. We chose the well-known Visitor pattern as the design pattern for this study. The results suggest that the Visitor pattern could help developers improve software design simplicity. Specifically, a class diagram with the Visitor pattern was found to be easier to understand than a class diagram without the design pattern.
A QUALITATIVE EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF CONTRIBUTING SUCCESS FACTORS FOR SOFTWARE TESTING OUTSOURCING PROJECTS
Authors: Ismail Fatin Filzahti , Razali Rozilawati
Published: September 2020

Software testing outsourcing is becoming attractive among organisations that desire to gain high quality products within reasonable cost while allowing testing experts to assure its quality. Despite these promising advantages however, organisations have yet to learn the factors that contribute to such projects’ success. The necessary planning and actions could not thus be taken towards the effort. Consequently, software testing outsourcing projects still fail. This study aimed to address this concern by collating the factors from previous research. The investigation continued by confirming the factors besides discovering other relevant factors from software testing practitioners. This study adopted qualitative approach where it employed semi-structured interviews involving five practitioners, who represented both client and vendor. The data were analysed using content analysis. The results show that there are two aspects to be considered, namely Process and People. The former contains nine factors and the latter comprises four factors. Each factor has specific elements, which delineates the characteristics or roles that it owns. The findings provide practitioners with understanding of conducting software testing outsourcing projects effectively.
NON FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS (NFRS) TRACEABILITY METAMODEL FOR AGILE DEVELOPMENT
Authors: Firdaus Adila , Ghani Imran , Abg Jawawi Dayang Norhayati , Wan Kadir Wan Mohd Nasir
Published: September 2020

Agile methodologies are well known for early and frequent releases. Besides, these methodologies also handle requirement changes well without causing delays. However, it has been noticed that the functional requirements changes can affect the non-functional requirements (NFRs) such as security and performance. It is also possible that the agile team is not even aware of these effects causing dysfunctional system. This issue could be addressed by offering traceability mechanism that helps to trace the effect of functional requirement changes on the non-functional requirements. Unfortunately, a few researchers have conducted studies regarding this issue. Thus, this study attempts to present a Traceability Process Model (TPM) to tackle the issue of tracing NFR especially security and performance. However, to materialize a full scale TPM, a metamodel is necessary. Therefore in this paper, we present a metamodel by integrating two existing metamodels. Then we validate the newly built metamodel with precision and recall methods. Lastly, we also develop a traceability tool that is based on the proposed metamodel.
APPLICABILITY AND USABILITY OF PREDEFINED NATURAL LANGUAGE BOILERPLATES IN DOCUMENTING REQUIREMENTS
Authors: Ibrahim Noraini , Wan Kadir Wan M. N. , Deris Safaai , Abd Halim Shahliza
Published: September 2020

Natural language is frequently applied to document the stakeholders’ statements during requirement elicitation activities. Nevertheless, the use of generic natural language has potential for the issues of unclear and inconsistent requirements. These issues may result from the diverse interpretations by the stakeholders or other various sources of documents and artefacts. The main objective of this paper was to discuss the definition and application of predefined boilerplates to specify the requirements in the form of natural language statements. The proposed boilerplates were defined and classified based on two main types of requirements, namely functional and non-functional (performance, constraints, and specific quality). Two methods have been applied to evaluate the research results; the applicability of the predefined boilerplates was demonstrated using two different case studies, and the usability aspect is evaluated through synthetic environment experimentation using human respondents.  As a summary, the predefined boilerplates were found helpful, especially among novice requirement engineers to express and specify their requirements in a consistent manner and a standardized way, relatively able to improve the quality of the natural language statements.
IMPROVING THE RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF TEST DATA ADEQUACY IN PROGRAMMING ASSESSMENTS
Authors: Romli Rohaida , Sulaiman Shahida , Zamli Kamal Zuhairi
Published: September 2020

Automatic Programming Assessment (or APA) has recently become a notable method in assisting educators of programming courses to automatically assess and grade students’ programming exercises as its counterpart; the typical manual tasks are prone to errors and lead to inconsistency. Practically, this method also provides an alternative means of reducing the educators’ workload effectively. By default, test data generation process plays an important role to perform a dynamic testing on students’ programs. Dynamic testing involves the execution of a program against different inputs or test data and the comparison of the results with the expected output, which must conform to the program specifications. In the software testing field, there have been diverse automated methods for test data generation. Unfortunately, APA rarely adopts these methods. Limited studies have attempted to integrate APA and test data generation to include more useful features and to provide a precise and thorough quality program testing. Thus, we propose a framework of test data generation known as FaSt-Gen covering both the functional and structural testing of a program for APA. Functional testing is a testing that relies on specified functional requirements and focuses the output generated in response to the selected test data and execution, Meanwhile, structural testing looks at the specific program logic to verify how it works. Overall, FaSt-Gen contributes as a means to educators of programming courses to furnish an adequate set of test data to assess students’ programming solutions regardless of having the optimal expertise in the particular knowledge of test cases design. FaSt-Gen integrates the positive and negative testing criteria or so-called reliable and valid test adequacy criteria to derive desired test data and test set schema. As for the functional testing, the integration of specification-derived test and simplified boundary value analysis techniques covering both the criteria. Path coverage criterion guides the test data selection for structural testing. The findings from the conducted controlled experiment and comparative study evaluation show that FaSt-Gen improves the reliability and validity of test data adequacy in programming assessments.
ENHANCING A HYBRID PRE-PROCESSING AND TRANSFORMATION PROCESS FOR CODE CLONE DETECTION IN .NET APPLICATION
Authors: Mubarak-Ali Al-Fahim , Sulaiman Shahida
Published: September 2020

Pre-processing and transformation are the first two common processes that occur in a code clone detection process. The purpose of these two processes is to transform the source codes into a more representable form that can be used later on as input for code clone detection. Main issue arises in both of these processes is the application of the pre-processing and transformation rules might cause loss of critical information thus affecting the code clone detection results. Therefore, this work proposes a combination pre-processing and transformation process that can produce a better source unit representation of .Net platform source code which is C#. Net and VB.Net by enhancing an existing work that was done on Java language without affecting the critical information in the source code. The proposed enhancement was tested and the result showed that the proposed work was able to produce the expected source unit for the .Net platform languages together.
PEOPLE’S PPRESENCE EFFECT ON WLAN-BASED IPS’ ACCURACY
Authors: H Alshami Iyad , Ahmad Noor Azurati , Sahibuddin Shamsul
Published: September 2020

In order to enable Location Based Service (LBS) closed environment, many technologies have been investigated to replace the Global Positioning System (GPS) in the localization process in indoor environments. WLAN is considered as the most suitable and powerful technology for Indoor Positioning System (IPS) due to its widespread coverage and low cost. Although WLAN Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSS) fingerprinting can be considered as the most accurate IPS method, this accuracy can be weakened due to WLAN RSS fluctuation. WLAN RSS fluctuates due to the multipath being influenced by obstacles presence. People presence under WLAN coverage can be considered as one of the main obstacles which can affect the WLAN-IPS accuracy. This research presents experimental results demonstrating that people’s presence between access point (AP) and mobile device (MD) reduces the received signal strength by -2dBm to -5dBm. This reduction in RSS can lead to distance error greater than or equal to 2m. Hence, any accurate IPS must consider the presence of people in the indoor environment.
A WEAKLY HARD SCHEDULING APPROACH OF PARTITIONED SCHEDULING ON MULTIPROCESSOR SYSTEMS
Authors: Ismail Habibah , N. A. Jawawi Dayang
Published: September 2020

Real-time systems or tasks can be classified into three categories, based on the “seriousness” of deadline misses – hard, soft and weakly hard real-time tasks. The consequences of a deadline miss of a hard real-time task can be prohibitively expensive because all the tasks must meet their deadlines whereas soft real-time tasks tolerate “some” deadline misses. Meanwhile, in a weakly hard real-time task, the distribution of its met and missed deadlines is stated and specified precisely.  As real-time application systems increasingly come to be implemented upon multiprocessor environments, thus, this study applies multiprocessor scheduling approach for verification of weakly hard real-time tasks and to guaranteeing the timing requirements of the tasks. In fact, within the multiprocessor, the task allocation problem seem even harder than in uniprocessor case; thus, in order to cater that problem, the sufficient and efficient scheduling algorithm supported by accurate schedulability analysis technique is present to provide weakly hard real-time guarantees. In this paper, a weakly hard scheduling approach has been proposed and schedulability analysis of proposed approach consists of the partitioned multiprocessor scheduling techniques with solutions for the bin-packing problem, called R-BOUND-MP-NFRNS (R-BOUND-MP with next-fit-ring noscaling) combining with the exact analysis, named hyperperiod analysis and deadline models; weakly hard constraints and µ-pattern under static priority scheduling. Then, Matlab simulation tool is used in order to validate the result of analysis. From the evaluation results, it can be proven that the proposed approach outperforms the existing approaches in terms of satisfaction of the tasks deadlines.
Cyclic di-GMP-Mediated Regulation of Extracellular Mannuronan C-5 Epimerases Is Essential for Cyst Formation in Azotobacter vinelandii
Authors: Martínez-Ortiz Iliana C. , Ahumada-Manuel Carlos L. , Hsueh Brian Y. , Guzmán Josefina , Moreno Soledad , Cocotl-Yañez Miguel , Waters Christopher M. , Zamorano-Sánchez David , Espín Guadalupe , Núñez Cinthia
Published: September 2020

A. vinelandii
has served as an experimental model for the study of the differentiation processes to form metabolically dormant cells in Gram-negative bacteria. This work identifies c-di-GMP as a critical regulator for the production of alginates with specific contents of guluronic residues that are able to structure the rigid laminated layers of the cyst envelope. Although allosteric activation of the alginate polymerase complex Alg8-Alg44 by c-di-GMP has long been recognized, our results show a previously unidentified role during the polymer modification step, controlling the expression of extracellular alginate epimerases. Our results also highlight the importance of c-di-GMP in the control of the physical properties of alginate, which ultimately determine the desiccation resistance of the differentiated cell.
Host Retromer Protein Sorting Nexin 2 Interacts with Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus Structural Proteins and is Required for Efficient Viral Production
Authors: Cardoso Ricardo S. , Tavares Lucas Alves , Jesus Bruna Lais S. , Criado Miria F. , de Carvalho Andreia Nogueira , Souza Juliano de Paula , Bedi Sukhmani , de Souza Marcos Michel , Silva Maria Lucia , Lanfredi Guilherme Pauperio , Vitti Brenda Cristina , Scudero Orlando Bonito , Faça Vitor Marcel , Ono Akira , Ventura Armando M. , daSilva Luis Lamberti P. , Arruda Eurico
Published: September 2020

The present study contributes new knowledge to understand HRSV assembly by providing evidence that nonglycosylated structural proteins M and N interact with elements of the secretory pathway, shedding light on their intracellular traffic. To the best of our knowledge, the present contribution is important given the scarcity of studies about the traffic of HRSV nonglycosylated proteins, especially by pointing to the involvement of SNX2, a retromer component, in the HRSV assembly process.
Human Cytomegalovirus Envelope Protein gpUL132 Regulates Infectious Virus Production through Formation of the Viral Assembly Compartment
Authors: Wu Hui , Kropff Barbara , Mach Michael , Britt William J.
Published: September 2020

Following infection of permissive cells, human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) induces the reorganization of intracellular membranes resulting in the formation of a distinctive membranous compartment in the cytoplasm of infected cells. This compartment has been designated the viral assembly compartment (AC) and is thought to be a site for cytoplasmic virion assembly and envelopment. In this study, we have demonstrated that a single virion envelope glycoprotein is essential for AC formation in infected cells, and in its absence, there is a significant decrease in the production of infectious virions. These findings are consistent with those from other studies that have demonstrated the importance of host cell proteins in the formation of the AC and demonstrate a critical role of a single virion protein in AC formation and the efficient assembly of infectious virus.
SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence among a Southern U.S. Population Indicates Limited Asymptomatic Spread under Physical Distancing Measures
Authors: Barzin Amir , Schmitz John L. , Rosin Samuel , Sirpal Rameet , Almond Martha , Robinette Carole , Wells Samantha , Hudgens Michael , Olshan Andrew , Deen Stephanie , Krejci Patrick , Quackenbush Eugenia , Chronowski Kevin , Cornaby Caleb , Goins Janette , Butler Linda , Aucoin Julia , Boyer Kim , Faulk Janet , Alston-Johnson Devena , Page Cristen , Zhou Yijun , Fiscus Lynne , Damania Blossom , Dittmer Dirk P. , Peden David B.
Published: September 2020

This study suggests limited but accelerating asymptomatic spread of SARS-CoV-2. Asymptomatic infections, like symptomatic infections, disproportionately affected vulnerable communities in this population, and seroprevalence was higher in African American participants than in White participants. The low, overall prevalence may reflect the success of shelter-in-place mandates at the time this study was performed and of maintaining effective physical distancing practices among suburban populations. Under these public health measures and aggressive case finding, outbreak clusters did not spread into the general population.
Candida albicans Double Mutants Lacking both
EFG1
and
WOR1
Can Still Switch to Opaque
Authors: Park Yang-Nim , Pujol Claude , Wessels Deborah J. , Soll David R.
Published: September 2020

The switch from white to opaque in
Candida albicans
was discovered 33 years ago, but it is still unclear how it is regulated. A regulatory paradigm has emerged in which two transacting factors, Efg1 and Wor1, play central roles, Efg1 as a repressor of
WOR1
, which encodes an activator of the transition to the opaque phenotype. However, we show here that if both
EFG1
and
WOR1
are deleted simultaneously, bona fide opaque cells can still be induced
en masse
. These results are not compatible with the simple paradigm, suggesting that an alternative opaque pathway (AOP) exists, which can activate expression of opaque and, like
WOR1
, is repressed by
EFG1
.
Clade-Specific Sterol Metabolites in Dinoflagellate Endosymbionts Are Associated with Coral Bleaching in Response to Environmental Cues
Authors: Lu Yandu , Jiang Jiaoyun , Zhao Hongwei , Han Xiao , Xiang Yun , Zhou Wenxu
Published: September 2020

These results indicate that sterol metabolites in Symbiodiniaceae are clade specific, that their biosynthetic pathways share architectural and substrate specificity features with those of animals and plants, and that environmental stress-specific perturbation of sterol biosynthesis in dinoflagellates can impair a key mutualistic partnership for healthy reefs.
Strain-Level Analysis of
Bifidobacterium
spp. from Gut Microbiomes of Adults with Differing Lactase Persistence Genotypes
Authors: Schmidt Victor , Enav Hagay , Spector Timothy D. , Youngblut Nicholas D. , Ley Ruth E.
Published: September 2020

When humans domesticated animals, some adapted genetically to digest milk into adulthood (lactase persistence). The gut microbiomes of people with lactase-persistent genotypes (AA or AG) differ from those with lactase-nonpersistent genotypes (GG) by containing fewer bacteria belonging to the bifidobacteria, a group which contains beneficial species. Here, we asked if the gut microbiomes of adults with GG and AA/AG genotypes differ in the species of bifidobacteria present. In particular, we used a novel technique which allowed us to compare bifidobacteria in adults at the strain level, without the traditional need for culturing. Our results show that the GG genotype enhances the abundance of bifidobacteria regardless of species. We also noted that a person’s specific strains are recoverable several years later, and twins can share the same ones. Given that bifidobacteria are inherited from mother to child, strain stability over time in adulthood suggests long-term, multigenerational inheritance.
Cornea thinning in two cases of ICE syndrome
Authors: Harvey Morgan M , Schmitz Joseph W
Published: September 2020

We present two patients with a new finding of symmetrical corneal thinning early in the clinical course of iridocorneal endothelial syndrome. Patient 1 was evaluated for uncontrolled angle closure glaucoma of the left eye (OS) status post laser peripheral iridotomy (LPI). After placement of an Ahmed glaucomatous valve and trabeculectomy with mitomycin C were performed, the patient was diagnosed with Chandler syndrome. The patient’s pachymetry at the time of diagnosis revealed stable central corneal thickness (CCT) of 481 µm of the right eye (OD) (baseline 494 µm) and central cornea thinning with CCT of 407 µm OS (baseline 486 µm). Patient 2 was evaluated for ocular hypertension and Chandler syndrome OS was diagnosed. The patient had a good short-term response to LPI and ocular hypotensive medications. This patient was also found to have thinning of his affected cornea with CCT 523 µm OD and 476 µm OS.
Effect of a vacuum gradient on the consolidation of dredged slurry by vacuum preloading
Authors: Wang Jun , Cai Yuanqiang , Liu Feiyu , Li Zhe , Yuan Guohui , Hu Xiuqing
Published: September 2020

In this paper, a large-scale indoor model test was carried out to reinforce the dredged slurry by vacuum preloading, and the effect of the vacuum gradient on the reinforcement effect was studied. The vacuum pressure, volume of extracted water, average ground settlement and pore water pressure were monitored during the test. After the test, the water content and vane shear strength were measured, and a particle analysis test and a scanning electron microscopy test were carried out. The results indicated that a small vacuum gradient could improve the consolidation degree and strength of the soil, and the smaller the vacuum gradient is, the better the reinforcement of the soil is. In addition, reducing the vacuum gradient could decrease the differential settlement of the soil surface and alleviate the migration of fine particles to the prefabricated drainage plates; therefore, the small vacuum gradient improved the clogging of the prefabricated drainage plates and the uniformity of soil consolidation. However, reducing the vacuum gradient also extended the test period, and a vacuum gradient of 20 kPa obtained the fastest consolidation rate of the soil.
Magnetic field effects on natural convection and entropy generation of non-Newtonian fluids using multiple-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann method
Authors: Rahman Aimon , Nag Preetom , Molla Md. Mamun , Hassan Sheikh
Published: September 2020

The magnetic field effect on natural convection flow of power-law (PL) non-Newtonian fluid has been studied numerically using the multiple-relaxation-time (MRT) lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). A two-dimensional rectangular enclosure with differentially heated at two vertical sides has been considered for the computational domain. Numerical simulations have been conducted for different pertinent parameters such as Hartmann number, [Formula: see text], Rayleigh number, [Formula: see text], PL indices, [Formula: see text]–1.4, Prandtl number, [Formula: see text], to study the flow physics and heat transfer phenomena inside the rectangular enclosure of aspect-ratio [Formula: see text]. Numerical results show that the heat transfer rate, quantified by the average Nusselt number, is attenuated with increasing the magnetic field, i.e. the Hartmann number (Ha). However, the average Nusselt number is increased by increasing the Rayleigh number, [Formula: see text] and decreasing the PL index, [Formula: see text]. Besides, the generation of entropy for non-Newtonian fluid flow under the magnetic field effect has been investigated in this study. Results show that in the absence of a magnetic field, [Formula: see text], fluid friction and heat transfer irreversibilities, the total entropy generation decreases and increases with increasing [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], respectively. In the presence of the magnetic field, [Formula: see text], the fluid friction irreversibility tends to decrease with increasing both the shear-thinning and shear thickening effect. It is noteworthy that strengthening the magnetic field leads to pulling down the total entropy generation and its corresponding components. All simulations have been performed on the Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) using NVIDIA CUDA and employing the High-Performance Computing (HPC) facility.
Predicting Domain Specific Personal Attitudes and Sentiment
Authors: Haque Md Enamul , Ling Eddie C. , Islam Aminul , Tozal Mehmet Engin
Published: September 2020

Microblog activity logs are useful to determine user’s interest and sentiment towards specific and broader category of events such as natural disaster and national election. In this paper, we present a corpus model to show how personal attitudes can be predicted from social media or microblog activities for a specific domain of events such as natural disasters. More specifically, given a user’s tweet and an event, the model is used to predict whether the user will be willing to help or show a positive attitude towards that event or similar events in the future. We present a new dataset related to a specific natural disaster event, i.e. Hurricane Harvey, that distinguishes user’s tweets into positive and non-positive attitudes. We build Term Embeddings for Tweet (TEmT) to generate features to model personal attitudes for arbitrary user’s tweets. In addition, we present sentiment analysis on the same disaster event dataset using enhanced feature learning on TEmT generated features by applying Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). Finally, we evaluate the effectiveness of our method by employing multiple classification techniques and comparative methods on the newly created dataset.
Towards Programming in Natural Language: Learning New Functions from Spoken Utterances
Authors: Weigelt Sebastian , Steurer Vanessa , Hey Tobias , Tichy Walter F.
Published: September 2020

Systems with conversational interfaces are rather popular nowadays. However, their full potential is not yet exploited. For the time being, users are restricted to calling predefined functions. Soon, users will expect to customize systems to their needs and create own functions using nothing but spoken instructions. Thus, future systems must understand how laypersons teach new functionality to intelligent systems. The understanding of natural language teaching sequences is a first step toward comprehensive end-user programming in natural language. We propose to analyze the semantics of spoken teaching sequences with a hierarchical classification approach. First, we classify whether an utterance constitutes an effort to teach a new function or not. Afterward, a second classifier locates the distinct semantic parts of teaching efforts: declaration of a new function, specification of intermediate steps, and superfluous information. For both tasks we implement a broad range of machine learning techniques: classical approaches, such as Naïve Bayes, and neural network configurations of various types and architectures, such as bidirectional LSTMs. Additionally, we introduce two heuristic-based adaptations that are tailored to the task of understanding teaching sequences. As data basis we use 3168 descriptions gathered in a user study. For the first task convolutional neural networks obtain the best results (accuracy: 96.6%); bidirectional LSTMs excel in the second (accuracy: 98.8%). The adaptations improve the first-level classification considerably (plus 2.2% points).
Transitive Topic Modeling with Conversational Structure Context: Discovering Topics that are Most Popular in Online Discussions
Authors: Sun Yingcheng , Kolacinski Richard , Loparo Kenneth
Published: September 2020

With the explosive growth of online discussions published everyday on social media platforms, comprehension and discovery of the most popular topics have become a challenging problem. Conventional topic models have had limited success in online discussions because the corpus is extremely sparse and noisy. To overcome their limitations, we use the discussion thread tree structure and propose a “popularity” metric to quantify the number of replies to a comment to extend the frequency of word occurrences, and the “transitivity” concept to characterize topic dependency among nodes in a nested discussion thread. We build a Conversational Structure Aware Topic Model (CSATM) based on popularity and transitivity to infer topics and their assignments to comments. Experiments on real forum datasets are used to demonstrate improved performance for topic extraction with six different measurements of coherence and impressive accuracy for topic assignments.
The intersection of geoethics and diversity in the geosciences
Authors: Mogk David W.
Published: September 2020

The geosciences (inclusive of geology, oceanography, atmospheric science and allied disciplines) have an ethical imperative to increase diversity in the profession. The diverse ways of exploring the Earth system, and the complexity of the grand challenges facing humanity living on Earth, require contributions of experience, skills, knowledge and motivations from diverse populations. Diversity increases creativity and problem-solving abilities in working groups, and ultimately is important for the long-term health of the geoscience discipline, for contributions that impact the health and security of society and for stewardship of the planet. Barriers and disincentives for people from underrepresented groups in the geosciences are identified, and interventions and remedies are recommended. Increasing diversity will take an all-discipline commitment by geoscientists and geoscience departments, companies and institutions. All people should have access and opportunity to pursue careers in the geosciences. Geoscientists have a responsibility to create work spaces that are welcoming, inclusive, safe and supportive.
A Survey on Bayesian Deep Learning
Authors: Wang Hao , Yeung Dit-Yan
Published: September 2020

A comprehensive artificial intelligence system needs to not only perceive the environment with different “senses” (e.g., seeing and hearing) but also infer the world’s conditional (or even causal) relations and corresponding uncertainty. The past decade has seen major advances in many perception tasks, such as visual object recognition and speech recognition, using deep learning models. For higher-level inference, however, probabilistic graphical models with their Bayesian nature are still more powerful and flexible. In recent years,
Bayesian deep learning
has emerged as a unified probabilistic framework to tightly integrate deep learning and Bayesian models.
1
In this general framework, the perception of text or images using deep learning can boost the performance of higher-level inference and, in turn, the feedback from the inference process is able to enhance the perception of text or images. This survey provides a comprehensive introduction to
Bayesian deep learning
and reviews its recent applications on recommender systems, topic models, control, and so on. We also discuss the relationship and differences between Bayesian deep learning and other related topics, such as Bayesian treatment of neural networks.
A ketogenic diet combined with exercise alters mitochondrial function in human skeletal muscle while improving metabolic health
Authors: Miller Vincent J. , LaFountain Richard A. , Barnhart Emily , Sapper Teryn S. , Short Jay , Arnold W. David , Hyde Parker N. , Crabtree Cristopher D. , Kackley Madison L. , Kraemer William J. , Villamena Frederick A. , Volek Jeff S.
Published: September 2020

Animal data indicate that ketogenic diets are associated with improved mitochondrial function, but human data are lacking. We aimed to characterize skeletal muscle mitochondrial changes in response to a ketogenic diet combined with exercise training in healthy individuals. Twenty-nine physically active adults completed a 12-wk supervised exercise program after self-selection into a ketogenic diet (KD, n = 15) group or maintenance of their habitual mixed diet (MD, n = 14). Measures of metabolic health and muscle biopsies (vastus lateralis) were obtained before and after the intervention. Mitochondria were isolated from muscle and studied after exposure to carbohydrate (pyruvate), fat (palmitoyl-l-carnitine), and ketone (β-hydroxybutyrate+acetoacetate) substrates. Compared with MD, the KD resulted in increased whole body resting fat oxidation ( P < 0.001) and decreased fasting insulin ( P = 0.019), insulin resistance [homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), P = 0.022], and visceral fat ( P < 0.001). The KD altered mitochondrial function as evidenced by increases in mitochondrial respiratory control ratio (19%, P = 0.009), ATP production (36%, P = 0.028), and ATP/H2O2(36%, P = 0.033) with the fat-based substrate. ATP production with the ketone-based substrate was four to eight times lower than with other substrates, indicating minimal oxidation. The KD resulted in a small decrease in muscle glycogen (14%, P = 0.035) and an increase in muscle triglyceride (81%, P = 0.006). These results expand our understanding of human adaptation to a ketogenic diet combined with exercise. In conjunction with weight loss, we observed altered skeletal muscle mitochondrial function and efficiency, an effect that may contribute to the therapeutic use of ketogenic diets in various clinical conditions, especially those associated with insulin resistance.