bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Turkey in Turbulence: Heterodoxy or a New Chapter in Neoliberal Peripheral Development?
Authors: Orhangazi Özgür , Erinç Yeldan A.
Published: September 2023

While global monetary tightening by central banks, led by the US Federal Reserve, has heightened concerns about a slowdown in the world's economy and an increased likelihood of debt crises across developing countries, Turkey has attracted attention for doing the opposite. Indeed, the country's economic policy makers have intensified monetary easing towards credit expansion at the risk of increased exchange rate instability. This article analyses the Turkish case and makes four contributions. First, it establishes a framework through which we can understand and interpret the policy choices of the government. Second, it shows the binding effects of the trilemma in the context of an economy fully integrated in the global economy and discusses how the government tried to tackle these effects through a series of ad hoc policy measures. Third, the article discloses the distributional consequences of such policy manoeuvres and argues that the burden of adjustment fell on the shoulders of wage labour, while various competing rentier interests benefited from these policies. Fourth, the authors analyse these policies from a broader perspective of whether they can be interpreted as a courageous attempt by a peripheral developing economy to claim some policy space, or whether these policy choices in essence only amount to a deepening of neoliberal peripheralization.
The Price (and Costs) of Macroeconomic Stability in Peru: Some Lessons on the Implications of FDI‐driven Growth
Authors: Bibi Samuele , Valdecantos Sebastian
Published: September 2023

In the period 2000–2019, Peru enjoyed sustained GDP growth and a long period of macroeconomic stability; as a result, poverty was reduced markedly in comparison to the 1980s and early 1990s, when the country faced severe recessions and hyperinflation. This positive economic performance coincided with the implementation of a mainstream macroeconomic framework which, alongside favourable external conditions, allowed for continuous external financing of current account deficits, mainly through foreign direct investment (FDI). Against the background of current debates regarding the resurgence of debt crises and the advocacy of FDI as a way to avoid such crises, this article uses balance of payments and international investment position statistics to assess whether Peru's acquired macroeconomic stability can be deemed sustainable. Drawing on the contributions of the Latin American structuralist school and more recent analyses that have raised concerns, the article shows that Peru's external position has taken on a Ponzi profile, casting doubt on the idea that FDI is a superior way of external financing compared to external debt. It concludes with a discussion of the social and environmental implications of Peru's widely praised macroeconomic framework, highlighting the limits that peripheral economies face when their growth relies excessively on external financing.
Assessing the venous system: Correlation of mean systemic filling pressure with the venous excess ultrasound grading system in cardiac surgery
Authors: Utrilla‐Alvarez Jose Daniel , Gopar‐Nieto Rodrigo , García‐Cruz Edgar , Lazcano‐Díaz Emmanuel , Jiménez‐Rodrìguez Gian Manuel , Rojas‐Velasco Gustavo , Manzur‐Sandoval Daniel
Published: September 2023

Background

Evaluation of the venous system has long been underestimated as an important component of the circulatory system. As systemic venous pressure increases, the perfusion pressure to the tissues is compromised. During initial resuscitation in cardiac surgery, excessive fluid administration is associated with increased morbidity and mortality.

Methods

We conducted a cross‐sectional study of 60 consecutive adult patients who underwent cardiac surgery and in whom it was possible to obtain the venous excess ultrasound (VExUS) grading system and mean systemic filling pressure (Pmsf) in the postoperative period upon admission, at 24 and 48 h. We then determined the correlation between VExUS grading and Pmsf.

Results

On admission, patients with VExUS grading 0 predominated, with a progressive increase in venous congestion and an increase in Pmsf over the course of the first 48 h. There was a strong positive correlation between VExUS grading and the invasive measurement of Pmsf at 24 and 48 h after arrival. The presence of grade 2 or grade 3 venous congestion in the postoperative period poses an increased risk of developing acute kidney injury.

Conclusion

The VExUS grading system indicates a high degree of systemic venous congestion in the first 48 h of the postoperative period after cardiac surgery and correlates with the Pmsf, which is the best surrogate of stressed circulatory volume.
Smolting in post‐sexually mature male Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) parr in the wild
Authors: Lothian Angus J. , Rodger Jessica , Wilkie Lorna , Walters Marcus , Miller Richard , Conroy Chris , Marshall Shona , MacKenzie Morven , Adams Colin E.
Published: September 2023

Conflicts can arise in developmental pathways that prevent an individual entering different developmental life stages that result in the expression of different phenotypes within a specific time period. In salmonids, theory suggests that sexual maturation may inhibit subsequent smolting within the same 12‐month period and that this is partly the result of the time and the apparently conflicting physiological changes for these processes to occur, and partly because of the energy requirements for these physiologically taxing processes. This study tested whether sexually mature male Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) parr, caught in the autumn, would subsequently smolt the following spring. Through individual identification using PIT telemetry, minimum estimates of 3.0% (n = 6/203) and 5.9% (n = 1/17) of Atlantic salmon parr that were sexually mature in two river catchments during the autumn were subsequently identified as smolts in the following spring. We therefore suggest that, in line with previous studies on domesticated Atlantic salmon and laboratory‐based experiments, there is no developmental conflict but that life‐history expression is mediated by environmental and genetic processes.
The good, the bad, and the future: Systematic review identifies best use of biomass to meet air quality and climate policies in California
Authors: Freer‐Smith Peter , Bailey‐Bale Jack H. , Donnison Caspar L. , Taylor Gail
Published: September 2023

California has large and diverse biomass resources and provides a pertinent example of how biomass use is changing and needs to change, in the face of climate mitigation policies. As in other areas of the world, California needs to optimize its use of biomass and waste to meet environmental and socioeconomic objectives. We used a systematic review to assess biomass use pathways in California and the associated impacts on climate and air quality. Biomass uses included the production of renewable fuels, electricity, biochar, compost, and other marketable products. For those biomass use pathways recently developed, information is available on the effects—usually beneficial—on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and there is some, but less, published information on the effects on criteria pollutants. Our review identifies 34 biomass use pathways with beneficial impacts on either GHG or pollutant emissions, or both—the “good.” These included combustion of forest biomass for power and conversion of livestock‐associated biomass to biogas by anaerobic digestion. The review identified 13 biomass use pathways with adverse impacts on GHG emissions, criteria pollutant emissions, or both—the “bad.” Wildfires are an example of one out of eight pathways which were found to be bad for both climate and air quality, while only two biomass use pathways reduced GHG emissions relative to an identified counterfactual but had adverse air quality impacts. Issues of high interest for the “future” included land management to reduce fire risk, future policies for the dairy industries, and full life‐cycle analysis of biomass production and use.
Comparison between the effects of virtual supervision and minimal supervision in a 12‐week home‐based physical exercise program on mental health and quality of life of older adults: Secondary analysis from a randomized clinical trial
Authors: Daniele de Araújo Silva Juliana , Cândido Mendes Maranhão Diógenes , Machado Ferreira Tenório de Oliveira Luciano , Luiz Torres Pirauá André
Published: September 2023

Aim

The objective of this study was to compare the effects of virtual supervision and minimal supervision in a 12‐week home‐based physical exercise program on the mental health and quality of life of community‐dwelling older adults.

Methods

This study presents a secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial conducted during the COVID‐19 pandemic. The sample comprised 38 elderly men and women (81.6% women, mean age 68 ± 6.4 years; mean weight 69.8 ± 12.1 km) without physical and/or cognitive impairments. The volunteers were divided into two groups: one group received virtual supervision (monitored via videoconference), while the other group received minimal supervision (monitored through weekly text messages). Both groups followed the same home‐based physical exercise program, consisting of three sessions per week, differing only in the supervision strategy. Mental health was assessed using the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS‐21) in conjunction with the POMS questionnaire, which evaluates mood, and quality of life was assessed using the WHOQOL‐OLD questionnaire.

Results

Our findings demonstrated statistically significant superiority of virtual supervision compared with minimal supervision in relation to depression (−2.92, 95% confidence interval = −5.22 to −0.63). Conversely, minimal supervision exhibited superiority over virtual supervision regarding quality of life (−6.70, 95% confidence interval = −11.66 to −1.73).

Conclusions

Virtual supervision yielded better outcomes for the depression indicator, while minimal supervision favored the quality of life of older adults at the conclusion of the 12‐week home‐based physical exercise program. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2023; 23: 864–870.
Relationships between frailty and exercise capacity in patients undergoing hemodialysis: A cross‐sectional study
Authors: Kojima Sho , Usui Naoto , Uehata Akimi , Hisadome Hideki , Inatsu Akihito , Tsuchiya Takahiko , Mawatari Takayuki , Tsubaki Atsuhiro
Published: September 2023

Aim

Hemodialysis (HD) patients have a high prevalence of frailty. The association between frailty and exercise capacity in HD patients has not been established. This study aimed to clarify the relationships between frailty and exercise capacity in HD patients.

Methods

This two‐center cross‐sectional study included HD patients who performed cardiopulmonary exercise testing. Participants were divided by frailty phenotype into robust, pre‐frail, and frail using the revised Japanese version of the Cardiovascular Health Study criteria. Peak oxygen uptake (peakVO2) measured by cardiopulmonary exercise testing was compared with each frailty phenotype. The association between peakVO2 and frailty phenotype was analyzed using multivariate linear regression analysis adjusted for age, sex, body mass index diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, cancer, history of fracture, hemoglobin, left ventricle ejection fraction, and percentage of heart rate reserve.

Results

The study included 136 patients (median age, 71.0 years; female, 23.5%), with 15.4%, 44.9%, and 39.7% with frailty phenotypes robust, pre‐frail, and frail, respectively. PeakVO2 decreased with deterioration of the frailty phenotype (robust, median 15.1 [13.7–18.3] mL/min/kg; pre‐frail, median 12.2 [10.5–14.4] mL/min/kg; frail, median 10.6 [9.2–12.5] mL/min/kg, P < 0.05). PeakVO2 decline was significantly associated with frail (B = −2.19, P = 0.004). Modeling individual frailty components showed a significant association between peakVO2, usual gait speed (B = 2.38, P = 0.04), and low physical activity (B = −1.44, P = 0.004).

Conclusion

Frailty in HD patients was associated with a decline in exercise capacity. HD patients with frailty need to improve exercise capacity, gait speed, and physical activity. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2023; 23: 795–802.
A mutualistic symbiosis‐like system: double‐layer nanofiber film incorporated Lactiplantibacillus plantarum for Mongolian cheese preservation
Authors: Hao Yu , Dong Xinchen , Wu Lingling , Saldaña Marleny D.A. , Wang Yiduo , Sun Wenxiu
Published: September 2023

Hererin, the biopreservation (Lactiplantibacillus plantarum) was embedded into double‐layer nanofiber film (BDNF) composed of poly‐L‐lactic acid and polyethylene oxide via electrospinning process. Results showed that the embedded L. plantarum cells could manage to survive and maintain a high viability for about 15 days at 4 °C in the absence of external nutrients. The immobilisation of L. plantarum cells had no negative effect on their antibacterial activity. The application of BDNF on Mongolian cheese (MC) was constructed as a mutualistic symbiosis‐like system (MSS). Within BDNF‐MC‐MSS, nutritious matrix endowed L. plantarum a continuous antibacterial effect against undesirable microorganisms. Furthermore, the Mongolian cheese in MSS exhibited better quality because the packaging could strongly preserve them by inhibiting the growth of moulds and yeasts, reducing water loss, slowing fat precipitation, and improving texture characteristics during the storage period. The results suggested the feasibility of BDNF‐MC‐MSS as a novel way for Mongolian cheese preservation.
Strategies to improve customer service in delivery time slot management
Authors: Peixoto Armando , Martins Sara , Amorim Pedro , Holzapfel Andreas
Published: September 2023

In several online retail contexts, such as grocery retailing, customers have to be present at the moment of delivery, that is, an attended home delivery service is in place. This requirement adds new challenges to this channel, often leading to narrow profitability. From an operations perspective, this service is performed with the retailer offering multiple time slots for the customer to choose from. Retailers target a cost‐efficient delivery process that also accounts for customers' preferences by properly managing the options to show to customers, that is, time slot management. This study analyzes a dynamic slotting problem, that is, choosing the best slots to show for each customer, which is close to many practical cases pursuing a customer service orientation. We study two new strategies to improve customer service while satisfying cost‐efficiency goals: (i) enforcing a constraint on the minimum number or percentage of slots to show to customers and (ii) integrating multiple days when tackling this challenging problem. Our results show under which conditions these proposed strategies can lead to win‐win situations for both customer service and profit.
Improving neighborhood exploration into MOEA/D framework to solve a bi‐objective routing problem
Authors: Legrand Clément , Cattaruzza Diego , Jourdan Laetitia , Kessaci Marie‐Eléonore
Published: September 2023

Local search (LS) algorithms are efficient metaheuristics to solve combinatorial problems. The performance of LS highly depends on the neighborhood exploration of solutions. Many methods have been developed over the years to improve the efficiency of LS on different problems of operations research. In particular, the exploration strategy of the neighborhood and the exclusion of irrelevant neighboring solutions are design mechanisms that have to be carefully considered when tackling NP‐hard optimization problems. An MOEA/D framework including an LS‐based mutation and knowledge discovery mechanisms is the core algorithm used to solve a bi‐objective vehicle routing problem with time windows (bVRPTW) where the total traveling cost and the total waiting time of drivers have to be minimized. We enhance the classical LS exploration strategy of the neighborhood from the literature of scheduling and propose new metrics based on customer distances and waiting times to reduce the neighborhood size. We conduct a deep analysis of the parameters to give a fine tuning of the MOEA/D framework adapted to the LS variants and to the bVRPTW. Experiments show that the proposed neighborhood strategies lead to better performance on both Solomon's and Gehring and Homberger's benchmarks.
Organic selenium and vitamin E for gilts and sows bred in equatorial climate
Authors: Andrade Tiago Silva , Watanabe Pedro Henrique , de Mendonça Ingrid Barbosa , Vieira Eloisa Helena Mendes , de Alcântara Araújo Gabriel Gobira , Vasconcelos Deborah Marrocos Sampaio , Urach Bruno , Silva Bruno Alexander Nunes , Freitas Ednardo Rodrigues
Published: September 2023

The aim of this study was to evaluate the dietary supplementation of organic selenium (Se) and vitamin E for sows from 1st and 2nd parity order, without adiabatic cooling on physiological parameters, reproductive performance, milk composition, litter performance and blood concentrations of antioxidant enzymes. A total of 96 sows were allotted in a 4 × 2 completely factorial design, with 4 experimental groups and 2 parity orders (1st and 2nd). The experimental groups consisted of: ACCon—sows receiving adiabatic cooling and no dietary supplementation of organic Se and vitamin E; WACCon—sows without adiabatic cooling and no dietary supplementation of organic Se and vitamin E; WACSe—sows without adiabatic cooling with dietary supplementation of 0.3 mg/kg organic Se; WACSeE—sows without adiabatic cooling with dietary supplementation of 0.3 mg/kg organic Se and 90 UI of vitamin E. ACCon Sows had lower respiratory rate, rectal temperature and body surface temperature when compared to the others sows (p < 0.05). Sows without evaporative cooling had lower daily milk production and weaned litters with lower weight and average daily gain when compared to the other groups (p < 0.05). ACCon sows presented higher weaned piglets to WACSeE sows. WACSeE Sows had higher concentrations of GSH‐Px when compared to other experimental groups and higher levels of SOD than sows from ACCon and WACSe. Piglets of sows from WACSeE group presented higher levels of GSH‐Px and SOD when compared to the other experimental groups. ACCon sows have higher milk yield and higher litter weight than others groups. Under equatorial climate conditions, dietary supplementation of organic Se and vitamin E from first and second parity order sows does not respond efficiently on thermoregulatory physiology and performance compared to adiabatic cooling, but modulates the enzymatic antioxidant balance of sows and piglets.
Evaluation of the effect of botulinum toxin injection in aggravating or improving seborrheic dermatitis symptoms: A prospective, single‐arm clinical trial
Authors: Bazargan Afsaneh Sadeghzadeh , Tabavar Anahita , Roohaninasab Masoumeh , Ali Zahra Naeimaei , Tavana Zeynab , Montazeri Seyede Saba Mostafavi , Jafarzadeh Alireza
Published: September 2023

Introduction

Considering the proven therapeutic effect of botulinum toxin and the pathophysiology of seborrheic dermatitis, conflicting hypotheses have been put forward regarding the effect of injection of this toxin on the improvement or exacerbation of seborrheic dermatitis. Because of the lack of consistent studies investigating this relationship, we decided to conduct this study to investigate the effect of local botulinum toxin injection on sebum production and improvement or worsening of seborrheic dermatitis lesions.

Method

This study was a prospective, single‐arm clinical trial that involved the injection of botulinum toxin into 20 patients with complaints of skin wrinkles and simultaneous symptoms of seborrheic dermatitis. The trial was conducted at a dermatology clinic between March 2019 and March 2021. Two important characteristics of these patients were seborrheic dermatitis on the face or scalp and a referral for botulinum toxin injection to remove facial wrinkles. The Seborrheic Dermatitis Area and Severity Index (SDASI) was used to determine the severity of symptoms.

Results

In study of 20 patients with an average age of 40 years, despite the decrease in the average scores of all examined criteria of seborrheic dermatitis symptoms in study, 1 month after botulinum toxin injection, no significant effect of using this toxin was seen on the improvement of patients’ symptoms (p value >0.05).

Conclusion

Despite the emphasis of many studies on the effectiveness of botulinum toxin in reducing the activity of sebaceous glands, the use of botulinum toxin as a therapeutic modality for control the symptoms of seborrheic dermatitis is not suggested by this study. Conducting studies in which the location and technique of injection and the follow‐up intervals of patients in them are based on the standard of other studies, are the suggestions made by comparing the results and method of the current study with other studies.
Cerebral blood flow and cerebrovascular reactivity are modified by maturational stage and exercise training status during youth
Authors: Talbot Jack S. , Perkins Dean R. , Tallon Christine M. , Dawkins Tony G. , Douglas Andrew J. M. , Beckerleg Ryan , Crofts Andrew , Wright Melissa E. , Davies Saajan , Steventon Jessica J. , Murphy Kevin , Lord Rachel N. , Pugh Christopher J. A. , Oliver Jon L. , Lloyd Rhodri S. , Ainslie Philip N. , McManus Ali M. , Stembridge Mike
Published: September 2023

Global cerebral blood flow (gCBF) and cerebrovascular reactivity to hypercapnia () are modulated by gonadal hormone activity, while insulin‐like growth factor 1 facilitates exercise‐mediated cerebral angiogenesis in adults. Whether critical periods of heightened hormonal and neural development during puberty represent an opportunity to further enhance gCBF and is currently unknown. Therefore, we used duplex ultrasound to assess gCBF and in n = 128 adolescents characterised as endurance‐exercise trained (males: n = 30, females: n = 36) or untrained (males: n = 29, females: n = 33). Participants were further categorised as pre‐ (males: n = 35, females: n = 33) or post‐ (males: n = 24, females: n = 36) peak height velocity (PHV) to determine pubertal or ‘maturity’ status. Three‐factor ANOVA was used to identify main and interaction effects of maturity status, biological sex and training status on gCBF and . Data are reported as group means (SD). Pre‐PHV youth demonstrated elevated gCBF and slower mean response times than post‐PHV counterparts (both: P ≤ 0.001). gCBF was only elevated in post‐PHV trained males when compared to untrained counterparts (634 (43) vs. 578 (46) ml min−1; P = 0.007). However, mean response time was faster in pre‐ (72 (20) vs. 95 (29) s; P ≤ 0.001), but not post‐PHV (P = 0.721) trained youth when compared to untrained counterparts. Cardiorespiratory fitness was associated with gCBF in post‐PHV youth (r2 = 0.19; P ≤ 0.001) and mean response time in pre‐PHV youth (r2 = 0.13; P = 0.014). Higher cardiorespiratory fitness during adolescence can elevate gCBF while exercise training during childhood primes the development of cerebrovascular function, highlighting the importance of exercise training during the early stages of life in shaping the cerebrovascular phenotype.
Contributions of carotid bodies, retrotrapezoid nucleus neurons and preBötzinger complex astrocytes to the CO2‐sensitive drive for breathing
Authors: SheikhBahaei Shahriar , Marina Nephtali , Rajani Vishaal , Kasparov Sergey , Funk Gregory D. , Smith Jeffrey C. , Gourine Alexander V.
Published: September 2023

Current models of respiratory CO2 chemosensitivity are centred around the function of a specific population of neurons residing in the medullary retrotrapezoid nucleus (RTN). However, there is significant evidence suggesting that chemosensitive neurons exist in other brainstem areas, including the rhythm‐generating region of the medulla oblongata – the preBötzinger complex (preBötC). There is also evidence that astrocytes, non‐neuronal brain cells, contribute to central CO2 chemosensitivity. In this study, we reevaluated the relative contributions of the RTN neurons, the preBötC astrocytes, and the carotid body chemoreceptors in mediating the respiratory responses to CO2 in experimental animals (adult laboratory rats). To block astroglial signalling via exocytotic release of transmitters, preBötC astrocytes were targeted to express the tetanus toxin light chain (TeLC). Bilateral expression of TeLC in preBötC astrocytes was associated with ∼20% and ∼30% reduction of the respiratory response to CO2 in conscious and anaesthetized animals, respectively. Carotid body denervation reduced the CO2 respiratory response by ∼25%. Bilateral inhibition of RTN neurons transduced to express Gi‐coupled designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drug (DREADDGi) by application of clozapine‐N‐oxide reduced the CO2 response by ∼20% and ∼40% in conscious and anaesthetized rats, respectively. Combined blockade of astroglial signalling in the preBötC, inhibition of RTN neurons and carotid body denervation reduced the CO2‐induced respiratory response by ∼70%. These data further support the hypothesis that the CO2‐sensitive drive to breathe requires inputs from the peripheral chemoreceptors and several central chemoreceptor sites. At the preBötC level, astrocytes modulate the activity of the respiratory network in response to CO2, either by relaying chemosensory information (i.e. they act as CO2 sensors) or by enhancing the preBötC network excitability to chemosensory inputs.

image

Key points

This study reevaluated the roles played by the carotid bodies, neurons of the retrotrapezoid nucleus (RTN) and astrocytes of the preBötC in mediating the CO2‐sensitive drive to breathe.

The data obtained show that disruption of preBötC astroglial signalling, blockade of inputs from the peripheral chemoreceptors or inhibition of RTN neurons similarly reduce the respiratory response to hypercapnia.

These data provide further support for the hypothesis that the CO2‐sensitive drive to breathe is mediated by the inputs from the peripheral chemoreceptors and several central chemoreceptor sites.
Age‐related changes of skeletal muscle metabolic response to contraction are also sex‐dependent
Authors: Campbell Matthew D. , Djukovic Danijel , Raftery Daniel , Marcinek David J.
Published: September 2023

Mitochondria adapt to increased energy demands during muscle contraction by acutely altering metabolite fluxes and substrate oxidation. With age, an impaired mitochondrial metabolic response may contribute to reduced exercise tolerance and decreased skeletal muscle mass, specific force, increased overall fatty depositions in the skeletal muscle, frailty and depressed energy maintenance. We hypothesized that elevated energy stress in mitochondria with age alters the capacity of mitochondria to utilize different substrates following muscle contraction. To test this hypothesis, we used in vivo electrical stimulation to simulate high‐intensity intervals (HII) or low intensity steady‐state (LISS) exercise in young (5–7 months) and aged (27–29 months) male and female mice to characterize effects of age and sex on mitochondrial substrate utilization in skeletal muscle following contraction. Mitochondrial respiration using glutamate decreased in aged males following HII and glutamate oxidation was inhibited following HII in both the contracted and non‐stimulated muscle of aged female muscle. Analyses of the muscle metabolome of female mice indicated that changes in metabolic pathways induced by HII and LISS contractions in young muscle are absent in aged muscle. To test improved mitochondrial function on substrate utilization following HII, we treated aged females with elamipretide (ELAM), a mitochondrially‐targeted peptide shown to improve mitochondrial bioenergetics and restore redox status in aged muscle. ELAM removed inhibition of glutamate oxidation and showed increased metabolic pathway changes following HII, suggesting rescuing redox status and improving bioenergetic function in mitochondria from aged muscle increases glutamate utilization and enhances the metabolic response to muscle contraction in aged muscle.

image

Key points

Acute local contraction of gastrocnemius can systemically alter mitochondrial respiration in non‐stimulated muscle.

Age‐related changes in mitochondrial respiration using glutamate or palmitoyl carnitine following contraction are sex‐dependent.

Respiration using glutamate after high‐intensity contraction is inhibited in aged female muscle.

Metabolite level and pathway changes following muscle contraction decrease with age in female mice.

Treatment with the mitochondrially‐targeted peptide elamipretide can partially rescue metabolite response to muscle contraction.
Impact of Added Passive Compliance on the Performance of Tip-Actuated Flexible Manipulators
Authors: S. Barat , Surve Sushrut , Rana Rwik , Vadali Madhu , Palanthandalam-Madapusi Harish J.
Published: September 2023

With their inherent compliance, flexible manipulator systems (FMSs) are increasingly finding new applications, such as robotic surgeries requiring safe interaction with the environment. While force-controlled FMSs are desirable, an added passive, compliant element can enhance safety while preserving performance. This paper explores the effects of added compliance on tip-actuated FMSs. A detailed analysis compares the impacts of additional compliance, and comparisons are made with a baseline no-compliance case. It is observed that the series compliance provides added safety but with some compromise on performance and stability. In contrast, parallel compliance improves stability and performance without compromising safety in interaction. While similar insights have been well-understood in the context of rigid-link robots, it is interesting to observe that additional series compliance in tip-actuated flexible manipulators is undesirable, unlike for rigid-link robots.
Research on Data Generation Based on the Combination of Growing-Pruning Gan and Intelligent Parameter Optimization
Authors: Xiao Zeqing , Ou Hui
Published: September 2023

The amount of voltage fault data collection is limited to signal acquisition instruments and simulation software. Generative adversarial networks (GAN) have been successfully applied to the data generation tasks. However, there is no theoretical basis for the selection of the network structure and parameters of generators and discriminators in these GANs. It is difficult to achieve the optimal selection basically by experience or repeated attempts, resulting in high cost and time-consuming deployment of GAN computing in practical applications. The existing methods of neural network optimization are mainly used to compress and accelerate the deep neural network in classification tasks. Due to different goals and training processes, they cannot be directly applied to the data generation task of GAN. In the three-generation scenario, the hidden layer filter nodes of the initial GAN generator and discriminator are growing firstly, then the GAN parameters after the structure adjustment are optimized by particle swarm optimization (PSO), and then the node sensitivity is analyzed. The nodes with small contribution to the output are pruned, and then the GAN parameters after the structure adjustment are optimized using PSO algorithm to obtain the GAN with optimal structure and parameters (GP-PSO-GAN). The results show that GP-PSO-GAN has good performance. For example, the simulation results of generating unidirectional fault data show that the generated error of GP-PSO-GAN is reduced by 70.4% and 15.2% compared with parameters optimization only based on PSO (PSO-GAN) and pruning- PSO-GAN (P-PSO-GAN), respectively. The convergence curve shows that GP-PSO-GAN has good convergence.
Social Cost Analysis of Shared/Buy-in Computing Systems
Authors: Shi Zhenpeng , Starobinski David , Orda Ariel
Published: September 2023

Shared/buy-in computing systems offer users the option to select between buy-in and shared services. In such systems, idle buy-in resources are made available to other users for sharing. With strategic users, resource purchase and allocation in such systems can be cast as a non-cooperative game, whose corresponding Nash equilibrium does not necessarily result in the optimal social cost. In this study, we first derive the optimal social cost of the game in closed form, by casting it as a convex optimization problem and establishing related properties. Next, we derive a closed-form expression for the social cost at the Nash equilibrium, and show that it can be computed in linear time. We further show that the strategy profiles of users at the optimum and the Nash equilibrium are directly proportional. We measure the inefficiency of the Nash equilibrium through the price of anarchy, and show that it can be quite large in certain cases, e.g., when the operating expense ratio is low or when the distribution of user workloads is relatively homogeneous. To improve the efficiency of the system, we propose and analyze two subsidy policies, which are shown to converge using best-response dynamics.
3D Face Reconstruction: The Road to Forensics
Authors: La Cava Simone Maurizio , Orrù Giulia , Drahansky Martin , Marcialis Gian Luca , Roli Fabio
Published: September 2023

3D face reconstruction algorithms from images and videos are applied to many fields, from plastic surgery to the entertainment sector, thanks to their advantageous features. However, when looking at forensic applications, 3D face reconstruction must observe strict requirements that still make its possible role in bringing evidence to a lawsuit unclear. An extensive investigation of the constraints, potential, and limits of its application in forensics is still missing. Shedding some light on this matter is the goal of the present survey, which starts by clarifying the relation between forensic applications and biometrics, with a focus on face recognition. Therefore, it provides an analysis of the achievements of 3D face reconstruction algorithms from surveillance videos and mugshot images and discusses the current obstacles that separate 3D face reconstruction from an active role in forensic applications. Finally, it examines the underlying datasets, with their advantages and limitations, while proposing alternatives that could substitute or complement them.
A Joint Study of the Challenges, Opportunities, and Roadmap of MLOps and AIOps: A Systematic Survey
Authors: Diaz-de-Arcaya Josu , Torre-Bastida Ana I. , Zárate Gorka , Miñón Raúl , Almeida Aitor
Published: September 2023

Data science projects represent a greater challenge than software engineering for organizations pursuing their adoption. The diverse stakeholders involved emphasize the need for a collaborative culture in organizations. This article aims to offer joint insights into the role of MLOps and AIOps methodologies for raising the success of data science projects in various fields, ranging from pure research to more traditional industries. We analyze the open issues, opportunities, and future trends organizations face when implementing MLOps and AIOps. Then, the frameworks and architectures that promote these paradigms are presented, as are the different fields in which they are being utilized. This systematic review was conducted using an automated procedure that identified 44,903 records, which were filtered down to 93 studies. These articles are meant to better clarify the problem at hand and highlight the future areas in both research and industry in which MLOPs and AIOps are thriving. Our findings indicate that AIOps flourish in challenging circumstances like those presented by 5G and 6G technologies, whereas MLOps is more prevalent in traditional industrial environments. The use of AIOps in certain stages of the ML lifecycle, such as deployment, remains underrepresented in scientific literature.
DoubleCheck: Designing Community-based Assessability for Historical Person Identification
Authors: Mohanty Vikram , Luther Kurt
Published: September 2023

Historical photos are valuable for their cultural and economic significance, but can be difficult to identify accurately due to various challenges such as low-quality images, lack of corroborating evidence, and limited research resources. Misidentified photos can have significant negative consequences, including lost economic value, incorrect historical records, and the spread of misinformation that can lead to perpetuating conspiracy theories. To accurately assess the credibility of a photo identification (ID), it may be necessary to conduct investigative research, use domain knowledge, and consult experts. In this article, we introduce DoubleCheck, a quality assessment framework for verifying historical photo IDs on Civil War Photo Sleuth (CWPS), a popular online platform for identifying American Civil War-era photos using facial recognition and crowdsourcing. DoubleCheck focuses on improving CWPS’s user experience and system architecture to display information useful for assessing the quality of historical photo IDs on CWPS. In a mixed-methods evaluation of DoubleCheck, we found that users contributed a wide diversity of sources for photo IDs, which helped facilitate the community’s assessment of these IDs through DoubleCheck’s provenance visualizations. Further, DoubleCheck’s quality assessment badges and visualizations supported users in making accurate assessments of photo IDs, even in cases involving ID conflicts.
Efficient IoT Traffic Inference: From Multi-view Classification to Progressive Monitoring
Authors: Pashamokhtari Arman , Batista Gustavo , Gharakheili Hassan Habibi
Published: September 2023

Machine learning-based techniques have proven to be effective in Internet-of-Things (IoT) network behavioral inference. Existing works developed data-driven models based on features from network packets and/or flows, but mainly in a static and ad-hoc manner, without adequately quantifying their gains versus costs. In this article, we develop a generic architecture that comprises two distinct inference modules in tandem, which begins with IoT network behavior classification followed by continuous monitoring. In contrast to prior relevant works, our generic architecture flexibly accounts for various traffic features, modeling algorithms, and inference strategies. We argue quantitative metrics are required to systematically compare and efficiently select various traffic features for IoT traffic inference.

This article

1

makes three contributions: (1) For IoT behavior classification, we identify four metrics, namely, cost, accuracy, availability, and frequency, that allow us to characterize and quantify the efficacy of seven sets of packet-based and flow-based traffic features, each resulting in a specialized model. By experimenting with traffic traces of 25 IoT devices collected from our testbed, we demonstrate that specialized-view models can be superior to a single combined-view model trained on a plurality of features by accuracy and cost. We also develop an optimization problem that selects the best set of specialized models for a multi-view classification. (2) For monitoring the expected IoT behaviors, we develop a progressive system consisting of one-class clustering models (per IoT class) at three levels of granularity. We develop an outlier detection technique on top of the convex hull algorithm to form custom-shape boundaries for the one-class models. We show how progression helps with computing costs and the explainability of detecting anomalies. (3) We evaluate the efficacy of our optimally selected classifiers versus the superset of specialized classifiers by applying them to our IoT traffic traces. We demonstrate how the optimal set can reduce the processing cost by a factor of six with insignificant impacts on the classification accuracy. Also, we apply our monitoring models to a public IoT dataset of benign and attack traces and show they yield an average true-positive rate of 94% and a false-positive rate of 5%. Finally, we publicly release our data (training and testing instances of classification and monitoring tasks) and code for convex hull-based one-class models.
Milestones on the Quantum Utility Highway: Quantum Annealing Case Study
Authors: McGeoch Catherine C. , Farré Pau
Published: September 2023

We introduce
quantum utility
, a new approach to evaluating quantum performance that aims to capture the user experience by considering the overhead costs associated with a quantum computation. A demonstration of quantum utility by the quantum processing unit (QPU) shows that the QPU can outperform classical solvers at some tasks of interest to practitioners, when considering the costs of computational overheads. A milestone is a test of quantum utility that is restricted to a specific subset of overhead costs and input types.

We illustrate this approach with a benchmark study of a D-Wave annealing-based QPU versus seven classical solvers for a variety of problems in heuristic optimization. We consider overhead costs that arise in standalone use of the D-Wave QPU (as opposed to a hybrid computation). We define three early milestones on the path to broad-scale quantum utility. Milestone 0 is the purely quantum computation with no overhead costs and is demonstrated implicitly by positive results on other milestones. We evaluate the performance of a D-Wave Advantage QPU with respect to milestones 1 and 2: For milestone 1, the QPU outperformed all classical solvers in 99% of our tests. For milestone 2, the QPU outperformed all classical solvers in 19% of our tests, and the scenarios in which the QPU found success correspond to cases where classical solvers most frequently failed.

This approach of isolating subsets of overheads for separate analysis reveals distinct mechanisms in quantum versus classical performance, which explain the observed differences in patterns of success and failure. We present evidence-based arguments that these distinctions bode well for annealing quantum processors to support demonstrations of quantum utility on ever-expanding classes of inputs and with more challenging milestones in the very near future.
On
p
-Group Isomorphism: Search-to-Decision, Counting-to-Decision, and Nilpotency Class Reductions via Tensors
Authors: Grochow Joshua A. , Qiao Youming
Published: September 2023

In this article, we study some classical complexity-theoretic questions regarding
Group Isomorphism
(
GpI
). We focus on
p
-groups (groups of prime power order) with odd
p
, which are believed to be a bottleneckcase for
GpI
, and work in the model of matrix groups over finite fields. Our main results are as follows:

•

Although search-to-decision and counting-to-decision reductions have been known for more than four decades for
Graph Isomorphism
, they had remained open for
GpI
, explicitly asked by Arvind and Torán (
EATCS Bull.
, 2005). Extending methods from
Tensor Isomorphism
(TI) (Grochow and Qiao, ITCS 2021), we show moderately exponential-time such reductions within
p
-groups of class 2 and exponent
p
.

•

Despite the widely held belief that
p
-groups of class 2 and exponent
p
are the hardest cases of
GpI
, there was no reduction to these groups from
any
larger class of groups. Again using methods from TI (ibid.), we show the first such reduction, namely from isomorphismtesting of
p
-groups of “small” class and exponent
p
to those of class
two
and exponent
p
.

For the first results, our main innovation is to develop linear-algebraic analogues of classical graph coloring gadgets, a key technique in studying the structural complexity of
Graph Isomorphism
. Unlike the graph coloring gadgets, which support restricting to various subgroups of the symmetric group, the problems we study require restricting to various subgroups of the general linear group, which entails significantly different and more complicated gadgets. The analysis of one of our gadgets relies on a classical result from group theory regarding random generation of classical groups (Kantor and Lubotzky,
Geom. Dedicata
, 1990). For the nilpotency class reduction, we combine a runtime analysis of the Lazard correspondence with TI-completeness results (Grochow and Qiao, ibid.).
Cost-based Data Prefetching and Scheduling in Big Data Platforms over Tiered Storage Systems
Authors: Herodotou Herodotos , Kakoulli Elena
Published: September 2023

The use of storage tiering is becoming popular in data-intensive compute clusters due to the recent advancements in storage technologies. The Hadoop Distributed File System, for example, now supports storing data in memory, SSDs, and HDDs, while OctopusFS and hatS offer fine-grained storage tiering solutions. However, current big data platforms (such as Hadoop and Spark) are not exploiting the presence of storage tiers and the opportunities they present for performance optimizations. Specifically, schedulers and prefetchers will make decisions only based on data locality information and completely ignore the fact that local data are now stored on a variety of storage media with different performance characteristics. This article presents Trident, a scheduling and prefetching framework that is designed to make task assignment, resource scheduling, and prefetching decisions based on both locality and storage tier information. Trident formulates task scheduling as a minimum cost maximum matching problem in a bipartite graph and utilizes two novel pruning algorithms for bounding the size of the graph, while still guaranteeing optimality. In addition, Trident extends YARN’s resource request model and proposes a new storage-tier-aware resource scheduling algorithm. Finally, Trident includes a cost-based data prefetching approach that coordinates with the schedulers for optimizing prefetching operations. Trident is implemented in both Spark and Hadoop and evaluated extensively using a realistic workload derived from Facebook traces as well as an industry-validated benchmark, demonstrating significant benefits in terms of application performance and cluster efficiency.
ProActive DeepFake Detection using GAN-based Visible Watermarking
Authors: Nadimpalli Aakash Varma , Rattani Ajita
Published: September 2023

With the advances in generative adversarial networks (GAN), facial manipulations called DeepFakes have caused major security risks and raised severe societal concerns. However, the popular DeepFake passive detection is an ex-post forensics countermeasure and fails in blocking the disinformation spread in advance. Alternatively, precautions such as adding perturbations to the real data for unnatural distorted DeepFake output easily spotted by the human eyes are introduced as proactive defenses. Recent studies suggest that these existing proactive defenses can be easily bypassed by employing simple image transformation and reconstruction techniques when applied to the perturbed real data and the distorted output, respectively. The aim of this article is to propose a novel proactive DeepFake detection technique using GAN-based visible watermarking. To this front, we propose a reconstructive regularization added to the GAN’s loss function that embeds a unique watermark to the assigned location of the generated fake image. Thorough experiments on multiple datasets confirm the viability of the proposed approach as a proactive defense mechanism against DeepFakes from the perspective of detection by human eyes. Thus, our proposed watermark-based GANs prevent the abuse of the pretrained GANs and smartphone apps, available via online repositories, for DeepFake creation for malicious purposes. Further, the watermarked DeepFakes can also be detected by the SOTA DeepFake detectors. This is critical for applications where automatic DeepFake detectors are used for mass audits due to the huge cost associated with human observers examining a large amount of data manually.