bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Multimedia News Summarization in Search
Authors: Li Zechao , Tang Jinhui , Wang Xueming , Liu Jing , Lu Hanqing
Published: February 2016

It is a necessary but challenging task to relieve users from the proliferative news information and allow them to quickly and comprehensively master the information of the whats and hows that are happening in the world every day. In this article, we develop a novel approach of multimedia news summarization for searching results on the Internet, which uncovers the underlying topics among query-related news information and threads the news events within each topic to generate a query-related brief overview. First, the hierarchical latent Dirichlet allocation (hLDA) model is introduced to discover the hierarchical topic structure from query-related news documents, and a new approach based on the weighted aggregation and max pooling is proposed to identify one representative news article for each topic. One representative image is also selected to visualize each topic as a complement to the text information. Given the representative documents selected for each topic, a time-bias maximum spanning tree (MST) algorithm is proposed to thread them into a coherent and compact summary of their parent topic. Finally, we design a friendly interface to present users with the hierarchical summarization of their required news information. Extensive experiments conducted on a large-scale news dataset collected from multiple news Web sites demonstrate the encouraging performance of the proposed solution for news summarization in news retrieval.
PAM
Authors: Dzwinel Witold , Wcisło Rafal , Yuen David A. , Miller Shea
Published: February 2016

Serious problems with bridging multiple scales in the scope of a single numerical model make computer simulations too demanding computationally and highly unreliable. We present a new concept of modeling framework that integrates the particle method with graph dynamical systems, called the
particle automata model
(PAM). We assume that the mechanical response of a macroscopic system on internal or external stimuli can be simulated by the spatiotemporal dynamics of a graph of interacting particles representing fine-grained components of biological tissue, such as cells, cell clusters, or microtissue fragments. Meanwhile, the dynamics of microscopic processes can be represented by evolution of internal particle states represented by vectors of finite-state automata. To demonstrate the broad scope of application of PAM, we present three models of very different biological phenomena: blood clotting, tumor proliferation, and fungal wheat infection. We conclude that the generic and flexible modeling framework provided by PAM may contribute to more intuitive and faster development of computational models of complex multiscale biological processes.
Methodological Framework for the Design and Development of Applications for Reactivation of Cultural Heritage
Authors: Hincapie Mauricio , Diaz Christian , Zapata Maria , Mesias Camilo
Published: February 2016

The need to preserve and live in cities with value and care for cultural heritage makes information technologies a tool to locate, document, describe, and visualize important urban contexts. With technology resources and the convergence of media such as text, data, maps, charts, pictures, and virtual models, among others, cultural heritage can be celebrated, contemplated, and admired more easily. However, creating an application for reactivation of cultural heritage by citizens remains a challenge because there is no clear methodology to be followed for its development. As far as we know, no one has proposed a methodological framework for applications in this field to determine which aspects should be considered and which tools should be used to successfully develop a cultural heritage application. This article proposes a methodological framework that allows a developer to categorize the type of cultural heritage application to develop and determine which types and quality of resources should be used in the application to provide good usability while fitting project requirements. The methodology is applied for the reactivation of Cisneros marketplace at Medellin, in Colombia, as a case study for testing the framework proposed. This article is part of a project called Reactivation of Cultural Heritage in Colombia using Information and Communication Technologies.
Intelligent Evacuation Management Systems
Authors: Ibrahim Azhar Mohd , Venkat Ibrahim , Subramanian K. G. , Khader Ahamad Tajudin , Wilde Philippe De
Published: February 2016

Crowd and evacuation management have been active areas of research and study in the recent past. Various developments continue to take place in the process of efficient evacuation of crowds in mass gatherings. This article is intended to provide a review of intelligent evacuation management systems covering the aspects of crowd monitoring, crowd disaster prediction, evacuation modelling, and evacuation path guidelines. Soft computing approaches play a vital role in the design and deployment of intelligent evacuation applications pertaining to crowd control management. While the review deals with video and nonvideo based aspects of crowd monitoring and crowd disaster prediction, evacuation techniques are reviewed via the theme of soft computing, along with a brief review on the evacuation navigation path. We believe that this review will assist researchers in developing reliable automated evacuation systems that will help in ensuring the safety of the evacuees especially during emergency evacuation scenarios.
Faster Random Walks by Rewiring Online Social Networks On-the-Fly
Authors: Zhou Zhuojie , Zhang Nan , Gong Zhiguo , Das Gautam
Published: February 2016

Many online social networks feature restrictive web interfaces that only allow the query of a user’s local neighborhood. To enable analytics over such an online social network through its web interface, many recent efforts use Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods such as random walks to sample users in the social network and thereby support analytics based on the samples. The problem with such an approach, however, is the large amount of queries often required for a random walk to converge to a desired (stationary) sampling distribution. In this article, we consider a novel problem of enabling a faster random walk over online social networks by “rewiring” the social network on-the-fly. Specifically, we develop a Modified TOpology Sampling (MTO-Sampling) scheme that, by using only information exposed by the restrictive web interface, constructs a “virtual” random-walk-friendly overlay topology of the social network while performing a random walk and ensures that the random walk follows the modified overlay topology rather than the original one. We describe in this article instantiations of MTO-Sampling for various types of random walks, such as Simple Random Walk (MTO-SRW), Metropolis-Hastings Random Walk (MTO-MHRW), and General Random Walk (MTO-GRW). We not only rigidly prove that MTO-Sampling improves the efficiency of sampling, but we also demonstrate the significance of such improvement through experiments on real-world online social networks such as Google Plus, Epinion, Facebook, etc.
A Branch-Price-and-Cut Algorithm for Packing Cuts in Undirected Graphs
Authors: Bergner Martin , LÜbbecke Marco E. , Witt Jonas T.
Published: February 2016

The cut packing problem in an undirected graph is to find a largest cardinality collection of pairwise edge-disjoint cuts. We provide the first experimental study of this NP-hard problem that is interesting from a pure theorist’s viewpoint as well as from the standpoint of scientific applications (e.g., in bioinformatics and network reliability). So far it could not be solved exactly. We propose a branch-price-and-cut algorithm to optimally solve instances from various graph classes, random and from the literature, with up to several hundred vertices. In particular, we investigate how complexity results match computational experience and how combinatorial properties help improve the algorithm’s performance.
Experimental Evaluation of a Branch-and-Bound Algorithm for Computing Pathwidth and Directed Pathwidth
Authors: Coudert David , Mazauric Dorian , Nisse Nicolas
Published: February 2016

Path decompositions
of graphs are an important ingredient of dynamic programming algorithms for solving efficiently many NP-hard problems. Therefore, computing the pathwidth and associated path decomposition of graphs has both a theoretical and practical interest. In this article, we design a branch-and-bound algorithm that computes the exact pathwidth of graphs and a corresponding path decomposition. Our main contribution consists of several nontrivial techniques to reduce the size of the input graph (preprocessing) and to cut the exploration space during the search phase of the algorithm. We evaluate experimentally our algorithm by comparing it to existing algorithms of the literature. It appears from the simulations that our algorithm offers a significant gain with respect to previous work. In particular, it is able to compute the exact pathwidth of any graph with less than 60 nodes in a reasonable running time (≤ 10min on a standard laptop). Moreover, our algorithm achieves good performance when used as a heuristic (i.e., when returning best result found within bounded time limit). Our algorithm is not restricted to undirected graphs since it actually computes the directed pathwidth that generalizes the notion of pathwidth to digraphs.
Leveraging Hardware Message Passing for Efficient Thread Synchronization
Authors: Petrović Darko , Ropars Thomas , Schiper André
Published: February 2016

As the level of parallelism in manycore processors keeps increasing, providing efficient mechanisms for thread synchronization in concurrent programs is becoming a major concern. On cache-coherent shared-memory processors, synchronization efficiency is ultimately limited by the performance of the underlying cache coherence protocol. This article studies how hardware support for message passing can improve synchronization performance. Considering the ubiquitous problem of mutual exclusion, we devise novel algorithms for (i) classic locking, where application threads obtain exclusive access to a shared resource prior to executing their critical sections (CSes), and (ii) delegation, where CSes are executed by special threads. For classic locking, our
HybLock
algorithm uses a mix of shared memory and hardware message passing, which introduces the idea of hybrid synchronization algorithms. For delegation, we propose
mp-server
and
HybComb
: the former is a straightforward adaptation of the server approach to hardware message passing, whereas the latter is a novel hybrid combining algorithm. Evaluation on Tilera's TILE-Gx processor shows that
HybLock
outperforms the best known classic locks. Furthermore,
mp-server
can execute contended CSes with unprecedented throughput, as stalls related to cache coherence are removed from the critical path.
HybComb
can achieve comparable performance while avoiding the need to dedicate server cores. Consequently, our queue and stack implementations, based on the new synchronization algorithms, largely outperform their most efficient shared-memory-only counterparts.
Controlling physical memory fragmentation in mobile systems
Authors: Kim Sang-Hoon , Kwon Sejun , Kim Jin-Soo , Jeong Jinkyu
Published: February 2016

Since the adoption of hardware-accelerated features (e.g., hardware codec) improves the performance and quality of mobile devices, it revives the need for contiguous memory allocation. However, physical memory in mobile systems is highly fragmented due to the frequent spawn and exit of processes and the lack of proactive anti-fragmentation scheme. As a result, the memory allocation for large and contiguous I/O buffers suffer from the highly fragmented memory, thereby incurring high CPU usage and power consumption. This paper presents a proactive anti-fragmentation approach that groups pages with the same lifetime, and stores them contiguously in fixed-size contiguous regions. When a process is killed to secure free memory, a set of contiguous regions are freed and subsequent contiguous memory allocations can be easily satisfied without incurring additional overhead. Our prototype implementation on a Nexus 10 tablet with the Android kernel shows that the proposed scheme greatly alleviates fragmentation, thereby reducing the I/O buffer allocation time, associated CPU usage, and energy consumption.
Memento mori: dynamic allocation-site-based optimizations
Authors: Clifford Daniel , Payer Hannes , Stanton Michael , Titzer Ben L.
Published: February 2016

Languages that lack static typing are ubiquitous in the world of mobile and web applications. The rapid rise of larger applications like interactive web GUIs, games, and cryptography presents a new range of implementation challenges for modern virtual machines to close the performance gap between typed and untyped languages. While all languages can benefit from efficient automatic memory management, languages like JavaScript present extra thrill with innocent-looking but difficult features like dynamically-sized arrays, deletable properties, and prototypes. Optimizing such languages requires complex dynamic techniques with more radical object layout strategies such as dynamically evolving representations for arrays. This paper presents a general approach for gathering temporal allocation site feedback that tackles both the general problem of object lifetime estimation and improves optimization of these problematic language features. We introduce a new implementation technique where allocation mementos processed by the garbage collector and runtime system efficiently tie objects back to allocation sites in the program and dynamically estimate object lifetime, representation, and size to inform three optimizations: pretenuring, pretransitioning, and presizing. Unlike previous work on pretenuring, our system utilizes allocation mementos to achieve fully dynamic allocation-site-based pretenuring in a production system. We implement all of our techniques in V8, a high performance virtual machine for JavaScript, and demonstrate solid performance improvements across a range of benchmarks.
Reducing pause times with clustered collection
Authors: Cutler Cody , Morris Robert
Published: February 2016

Each full garbage collection in a program with millions of objects can pause the program for multiple seconds. Much of this work is typically repeated, as the collector re-traces parts of the object graph that have not changed since the last collection. Clustered Collection reduces full collection pause times by eliminating much of this repeated work. Clustered Collection identifies clusters: regions of the object graph that are reachable from a single "head" object, so that reachability of the head implies reachability of the whole cluster. As long as it is not written, a cluster need not be re-traced by successive full collections. The main design challenge is coping with program writes to clusters while ensuring safe, complete, and fast collections. In some cases program writes require clusters to be dissolved, but in most cases Clustered Collection can handle writes without having to re-trace the affected cluster. Clustered Collection chooses clusters likely to suffer few writes and to yield high savings from re-trace avoidance. Clustered Collection is implemented as modifications to the Racket collector. Measurements of the code and data from the Hacker News web site (which suffers from significant garbage collection pauses) and a Twitter-like application show that Clustered Collection decreases full collection pause times by a factor of three and six respectively. This improvement is possible because both applications have gigabytes of live data, modify only a small fraction of it, and usually write in ways that do not result in cluster dissolution. Identifying clusters takes more time than a full collection, but happens much less frequently than full collection.
Improving implicit parallelism
Authors: Trilla José Manuel Calderón , Runciman Colin
Published: February 2016

Using static analysis techniques compilers for lazy functional languages can be used to identify parts of a program that can be legitimately evaluated in parallel and ensure that those expressions are executed concurrently with the main thread of execution. These techniques can produce improvements in the runtime performance of a program, but are limited by the static analyses’ poor prediction of runtime performance. This paper outlines the development of a system that uses iterative profile-directed improvement in addition to well-studied static analysis techniques. This allows us to achieve higher performance gains than through static analysis alone.
Embedding a full linear Lambda calculus in Haskell
Authors: Polakow Jeff
Published: February 2016

We present an encoding of full linear lambda calculus in Haskell using higher order abstract syntax. By making use of promoted data kinds, multi-parameter type classes and functional dependencies, the encoding allows Haskell to do both linear type checking and linear type inference.
Functional pearl: getting a quick fix on comonads
Authors: Foner Kenneth
Published: February 2016

A piece of functional programming folklore due to Piponi provides Löb's theorem from modal provability logic with a computational interpretation as an unusual fixed point. Interpreting modal necessity as an arbitrary Functor in Haskell, the "type" of Löb's theorem is inhabited by a fixed point function allowing each part of a structure to refer to the whole. However, Functor's logical interpretation may be used to prove Löb's theorem only by relying on its implicit functorial strength, an axiom not available in the provability modality. As a result, the well known loeb fixed point "cheats" by using functorial strength to implement its recursion. Rather than Functor, a closer Curry analogue to modal logic's Howard inspiration is a closed (semi-)comonad, of which Haskell's ComonadApply typeclass provides analogous structure. Its computational interpretation permits the definition of a novel fixed point function allowing each part of a structure to refer to its own context within the whole. This construction further guarantees maximal sharing and asymptotic efficiency superior to loeb for locally contextual computations upon a large class of structures. With the addition of a distributive law, closed comonads may be composed into spaces of arbitrary dimensionality while preserving the performance guarantees of this new fixed point. From these elements, we construct a small embedded domain-specific language to elegantly express and evaluate multidimensional "spreadsheet-like" recurrences for a variety of cellular automata.
The remote monad design pattern
Authors: Gill Andy , Sculthorpe Neil , Dawson Justin , Eskilson Aleksander , Farmer Andrew , Grebe Mark , Rosenbluth Jeffrey , Scott Ryan , Stanton James
Published: February 2016

Remote Procedure Calls are expensive. This paper demonstrates how to reduce the cost of calling remote procedures from Haskell by using the remote monad design pattern, which amortizes the cost of remote calls. This gives the Haskell community access to remote capabilities that are not directly supported, at a surprisingly inexpensive cost. We explore the remote monad design pattern through six models of remote execution patterns, using a simulated Internet of Things toaster as a running example. We consider the expressiveness and optimizations enabled by each remote execution model, and assess the feasibility of our approach. We then present a full-scale case study: a Haskell library that provides a Foreign Function Interface to the JavaScript Canvas API. Finally, we discuss existing instances of the remote monad design pattern found in Haskell libraries.
Type-safe runtime code generation: accelerate to LLVM
Authors: McDonell Trevor L. , Chakravarty Manuel M. T. , Grover Vinod , Newton Ryan R.
Published: February 2016

Embedded languages are often compiled at application runtime; thus, embedded compile-time errors become application runtime errors. We argue that advanced type system features, such as GADTs and type families, play a crucial role in minimising such runtime errors. Specifically, a rigorous type discipline reduces runtime errors due to bugs in both embedded language applications and the implementation of the embedded language compiler itself. In this paper, we focus on the safety guarantees achieved by type preserving compilation. We discuss the compilation pipeline of Accelerate, a high-performance array language targeting both multicore CPUs and GPUs, where we are able to preserve types from the source language down to a low-level register language in SSA form. Specifically, we demonstrate the practicability of our approach by creating a new type-safe interface to the industrial-strength LLVM compiler infrastructure, which we used to build two new Accelerate backends that show competitive runtimes on a set of benchmarks across both CPUs and GPUs.
Freer monads, more extensible effects
Authors: Kiselyov Oleg , Ishii Hiromi
Published: February 2016

We present a rational reconstruction of extensible effects, the recently proposed alternative to monad transformers, as the confluence of efforts to make effectful computations compose. Free monads and then extensible effects emerge from the straightforward term representation of an effectful computation, as more and more boilerplate is abstracted away. The generalization process further leads to freer monads, constructed without the Functor constraint. The continuation exposed in freer monads can then be represented as an efficient type-aligned data structure. The end result is the algorithmically efficient extensible effects library, which is not only more comprehensible but also faster than earlier implementations. As an illustration of the new library, we show three surprisingly simple applications: non-determinism with committed choice (LogicT), catching IO exceptions in the presence of other effects, and the semi-automatic management of file handles and other resources through monadic regions. We extensively use and promote the new sort of `laziness', which underlies the left Kan extension: instead of performing an operation, keep its operands and pretend it is done.
Stuff I've Seen
Authors: Dumais Susan , Cutrell Edward , Cadiz J. J. , Jancke Gavin , Sarin Raman , Robbins Daniel C.
Published: February 2016

Most information retrieval technologies are designed to facilitate information discovery. However, much knowledge work involves finding and re-using previously seen information. We describe the design and evaluation of a system, called Stuff I've Seen (SIS), that facilitates information re-use. This is accomplished in two ways. First, the system provides a unified index of information that a person has seen, whether it was seen as email, web page, document, appointment, etc. Second, because the information has been seen before, rich contextual cues can be used in the search interface. The system has been used internally by more than 230 employees. We report on both qualitative and quantitative aspects of system use. Initial findings show that time and people are important retrieval cues. Users find information more easily using SIS, and use other search tools less frequently after installation.
NeuroIR 2015
Authors: Gwizdka Jacek , Mostafa Javed
Published: February 2016

The first international workshop on Neuro- Physiological (NP) Methods in Information Retrieval Research took place at SIGIR 2015 in Santiago, Chile on August 13, 2015. The workshop included a mixture of short introductions to selected NP methods, paper presentations and a panel discussion by invited scholars. Each session included significant time allotted to open discussions among the participants. The high attendance and the lively discussions demonstrated significant interest in the use of NP methods in information retrieval research. The panel and discussions pointed out many advantages of using these methods as a data source complementary to traditional measures but also potentially offering deeper insights into humans interacting with information. Significant challenges, such as the lack of baseline data and reference tasks, and a need to collaborate with neuroscientists, were also noted. Overall, the NP-methods were found to be very promising and worth continued research efforts.
Report on the SIGIR 2015 Workshop on Reproducibility, Inexplicability, and Generalizability of Results (RIGOR)
Authors: Arguello Jaime , Crane Matt , Diaz Fernando , Lin Jimmy , Trotman Andrew
Published: February 2016

The SIGIR 2015 Workshop on Reproducibility, Inexplicability, and Generalizability of Results (RIGOR) took place on Thursday, August 13, 2015 in Santiago, Chile. The goal of the workshop was two fold. The first to provide a venue for the publication and presentation of negative results. The second was to provide a venue through which the authors of open source search engines could compare performance of indexing and searching on the same collections and on the same machines - encouraging the sharing of ideas and discoveries in a like-to-like environment. In total three papers were presented and seven systems participated.
Report on RecSys 2015 Workshop on New Trends in Content-Based Recommender Systems
Authors: Bogers Toine , Koolen Marijn
Published: February 2016

This article reports on the CBRecSys 2015 workshop, the second edition of the workshop on new trends in content-based recommender systems, co-located with RecSys 2015 in Vienna, Austria. Content-based recommendation has been applied successfully in many different domains, but it has not seen the same level of attention as collaborative filtering techniques have. Nevertheless, there are many recommendation domains and applications where content and metadata play a key role, either in addition to or instead of ratings and implicit usage data. The CBRecSys workshop series provides a dedicated venue for work dedicated to all aspects of content-based recommender systems.
Facile Method for Preparation of Silica Coated Monodisperse Superparamagnetic Microspheres
Authors: Pham Xuan-Hung , Kyeong San , Jang Jaein , Kim Hyung-Mo , Kim Jaehi , Jung Seunho , Lee Yoon-Sik , Jun Bong-Hyun , Chung Woo-Jae
Published: February 2016

This paper presents a facile method for preparation of silica coated monodisperse superparamagnetic microsphere. Herein, monodisperse porous polystyrene-divinylbenzene microbeads were prepared by seeded emulsion polymerization and subsequently sulfonated with acetic acid/H2SO4. The as-prepared sulfonated macroporous beads were magnetized in presence of Fe2+/Fe3+under alkaline condition and were subjected to silica coating by sol-gel process, providing water compatibility, easily modifiable surface form, and chemical stability. FE-SEM, TEM, FT-IR, and TGA were employed to characterize the silica coated monodisperse magnetic beads (~7.5 μm). The proposed monodisperse magnetic beads can be used as mobile solid phase particles candidate for protein and DNA separation.
Foreign Bodies Ingestion in Children: Experience of 61 Cases in a Pediatric Gastroenterology Unit from Romania
Authors: Diaconescu Smaranda , Gimiga Nicoleta , Sarbu Ioan , Stefanescu Gabriela , Olaru Claudia , Ioniuc Ileana , Ciongradi Iulia , Burlea Marin
Published: February 2016

The ingestion of foreign bodies is a worldwide pediatric pathology. We assessed the clinical, endoscopic, and therapeutic aspects of this condition in a pediatric gastroenterology unit. We reviewed 61 patients (median age of 3.25 ± 4.7 years). The most frequently ingested objects were coins (26.23%), unidentified metal objects (13.11%), bones (8.19%), batteries, and buttons (6.55%). The clinical features we encountered included abdominal pain (55.73%), vomiting (34.42%), and asymptomatic children (29.5%). Routine X-ray examination enabled finding the foreign body in 42 of the cases. An esophagogastroduodenoscopy was performed within 24–72 hours. 25 cases resulted in a negative endoscopy (40.98%), 19 objects (31.14%) were removed using a polypectomy snare, and extraction failure occurred in 17 patients (27.86%). 28 foreign bodies were passed without incidents; in 14 cases, the swallowed objects were never found. In one case, a battery was stuck in the esophageal folds and led to tracheal-esophageal fistula and bronchopneumonia and later to esophageal stenosis. We report a large proportion of foreign bodies that could not be identified or removed due to lack of early endoscopy and poor technical settings. Batteries and sharp objects lead to severe complications and preschool-age children are at high risk for such events.
Robust Synchronization Controller Design for a Class of Uncertain Fractional Order Chaotic Systems
Authors: Wang Lin , Yang Chunzhi
Published: February 2016

Synchronization problem for a class of uncertain fractional order chaotic systems is studied. Some fundamental lemmas are given to show the boundedness of a complicated infinite series which is produced by differentiating a quadratic Lyapunov function with fractional order. By using the fractional order extension of the Lyapunov stability criterion and the proposed lemma, stability of the closed-loop system is analyzed, and two sufficient conditions, which can enable the synchronization error to converge to zero asymptotically, are driven. Finally, an illustrative example is presented to confirm the proposed theoretical results.
Evolutionary Spectral Analyses of a Powerful Typhoon at the Sutong Bridge Site Based on the HHT
Authors: Ma Lin , Zhou Da-jun , Yuan Ai-min , Wang Hao
Published: February 2016

To investigate the nonstationary characteristics of strong typhoons, this paper considers the evolutionary spectral characteristics of strong typhoons based on the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT). Discrete expressions are determined for the evolutionary spectral analysis based on the HHT. The study indicates that the classic empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method fails to extract all of the high-frequency fluctuations from wind velocity data, and the time-averaged power spectrum obtained directly using the HHT cannot provide the true wind velocity spectrum. The degrees of nonstationarity of different-order IMF components are analysed and a synthesized method of analysing the evolutionary spectrum and time-averaged power spectrum of a strong typhoon is proposed. To avoid the energy leakage problem that exists in HHT spectral analyses, the Gram-Schmidt method is used to orthogonalize the intrinsic mode function (IMF) components. The study indicates that when the orthogonalization is implemented in accordance with the sequence from high-order IMF components to low-order ones, the orthogonalized components retain the same good Hilbert property as that of the IMFs. The synthesized method proposed yields a time-averaged power spectrum that is consistent with the Fourier spectrum in value and can produce the energy distributions of a typhoon in the time and frequency domains simultaneously.
Isolated Cranial Nerve-III Palsy Secondary to Perimesencephalic Subarachnoid Hemorrhage
Authors: Abbatemarco Justin R. , Yacoub Hussam A.
Published: February 2016

We describe isolated cranial nerve-III palsy as a rare clinical finding in a patient with perimesencephalic subarachnoid hemorrhage. In this unusual case, the patient presented with complete cranial nerve-III palsy including ptosis and pupillary involvement. Initial studies revealed subarachnoid hemorrhage in the perimesencephalic, prepontine, and interpeduncular cisterns. Angiographic studies were negative for an intracranial aneurysm. The patient’s neurological deficits improved with no residual deficits on follow-up several months after initial presentation. Our case report supports the notion that patients with perimesencephalic subarachnoid hemorrhage have an excellent prognosis. Our report further adds a case of isolated cranial nerve-III palsy as a rare initial presentation of this type of bleeding, adding to the limited body of the literature.
Engineering Software Solution for Thermal Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication Using Multiphysics Software
Authors: Lohner Thomas , Ziegltrum Andreas , Stemplinger Johann-Paul , Stahl Karsten
Published: February 2016

The complexity of thermal elastohydrodynamic lubrication (TEHL) problems has led to a variety of specialised numerical approaches ranging from finite difference based direct and inverse iterative methods such as Multilevel Multi-Integration solvers, via differential deflection methods, to finite element based full-system approaches. Hence, not only knowledge of the physical and technical relationships but also knowledge of the numerical procedures and solvers is necessary to perform TEHL simulations. Considering the state of the art of multiphysics software, the authors note the absence of a commercial software package for solving TEHL problems embedded in larger multiphysics software. By providing guidelines on how to implement a TEHL simulation model in commercial multiphysics software, the authors want to stimulate the research in computational tribology, so that, hopefully, the research focus can be shifted even more on physical modelling instead of numerical modelling. Validations, as well as result examples of the suggested TEHL model by means of simulated coefficients of friction, coated surfaces, and nonsmooth surfaces, highlight the flexibility and simplicity of the presented approach.
The Effect of Electromagnetic Field Treatment on Recovery from Ischemic Stroke in a Rat Stroke Model: Clinical, Imaging, and Pathological Findings
Authors: Segal Y. , Segal L. , Blumenfeld-Katzir T. , Sasson E. , Poliansky V. , Loeb E. , Levy A. , Alter A. , Bregman N.
Published: February 2016

Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability. Effects of stroke include significant deficits in sensory-motor skills and cognitive abilities. At present, there are limited effective interventions for postacute stroke patients. In this preliminary research we studied a new noninvasive, very low intensity, low frequency, electromagnetic field treatment (VLIFE), targeting a neural network, on an in vivo stroke rat model. Eighteen rats were divided into three groups: sham (M1) and two treatment groups which were exposed to VLIFE treatment for 4 weeks, one using theta waves (M2) and another using beta waves (M3); all groups were followed up for an additional month. Results indicate that the M2 and M3 treated groups showed recovery of sensorimotor functional deficits, as demonstrated by Modified Neurological Severity Score and forelimb placement tests. Brain MRI imaging results show a decrease in perilesional edema and lateral ventricle widening in the treated groups. Fiber tracts’ imaging, following VLIFE treatment, showed a higher white matter integrity compared to control. Histological findings support neural regeneration processes. Our data suggest that VLIFE treatment, targeting a specific functional neural network by frequency rather than location, promotes neuronal plasticity after stroke and, as a result, improves clinical recovery. Further studies will investigate the full potential of the treatment.
Circulating Long Noncoding RNA UCA1 as a Novel Biomarker of Acute Myocardial Infarction
Authors: Yan Youyou , Zhang Bin , Liu Ning , Qi Chao , Xiao Yanlong , Tian Xin , Li Tianyi , Liu Bin
Published: February 2016

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is the most serious cardiovascular disease with high morbidity and mortality. Recent studies have showed that long noncoding RNAs (lnc RNA) play important roles in pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases, but the investigations are still in their infancy. An lnc RNA named urothelial carcinoma-associated 1 (UCA1) is found in tumors such as bladder cancers and lung cancer. And the UCA1 could be as a predictive biomarker for bladder cancer in urine samples or lung cancer in plasma, respectively. In normal states, UCA1 is specifically expressed in heart of adult, indicating that UCA1 might be as a biomarker for heart diseases such as AMI. To test the speculation, we detect the level of UCA1 in plasma of AMI patients and health control using quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). In addition, we also test the level of miR-1 as it is reported to regulate the expression of UCA1. The results show that the level of plasma UCA1 is decreased at the early state of AMI patients and increased at day 3 after AMI. In addition, the UCA1 alteration is inversely associated with the expression of miR-1. These findings indicate that the circulating UCA1 could be used as a promising novel biomarker for the diagnosis and/or prognosis of AMI.
Maximum Temperature in Dry Surface Grinding for High Peclet Number and Arbitrary Heat Flux Profile
Authors: González-Santander J. L.
Published: February 2016

Regarding heat transfer in dry surface grinding, simple asymptotic expressions of the maximum temperature for large Peclet numbers are derived. For this purpose, we consider the most common heat flux profiles reported in the literature, such as constant, linear, triangular, and parabolic. In the constant case, we provide a refinement of the expression given in the literature. In the linear case, we derive the same expression found in the literature, being the latter fitted by using a linear regression. The expressions for the triangular and parabolic cases are novel.
Progression of Infection after Surgical CT Navigation-Assisted Aspiration Biopsy of a Vertebral Abscess
Authors: Spyropoulou Vasiliki , Valaikaite Raimunda , Dhouib Amira , Dayer Romain , Ceroni Dimitri
Published: February 2016

Background Context. Computed tomography- (CT-) guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy of the vertebral body is an important tool in the diagnostic evaluation of vertebral osteomyelitis. The procedure is considered simple to perform and it is considered a safe procedure with few complications.Purpose. The purpose of this study was to describe an unusual complication due to a CT-guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy of the vertebral body of L3, to better understand the relationship between surgical procedure and complication, and to reflect on how to avoid it.Study Design/Setting. Case report and literature review.Methods. The medical records, laboratory findings, and radiographic imaging studies of an 11-year-old boy, with an unusual complication due to a CT-guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy of the vertebral body of L3, were reviewed.Results. We report a case of vertebral osteomyelitis of L3 caused by methicillin-sensitiveStaphylococcus aureus (MSSA). Following a computed tomography-guided aspiration biopsy of the vertebral body of L3, vertebral osteomyelitis rapidly progressed into the vertebral body of L4 as well as the L3-L4 disk.Conclusions. Based on the present case, one should consider that a CT-guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy of the vertebral body may be complicated by a progression of a vertebral osteomyelitis into both the intervertebral disk and also the adjacent vertebral body.
Interaction ofXRCC1Arg399Gln Polymorphism and Alcohol Consumption Influences Susceptibility of Esophageal Cancer
Authors: Li Man , Yu Xia , Zhang Zhi-yan , Wu Chun-long , Xu Hai-long
Published: February 2016

Background. To explore the correlation between the Arg399Gln polymorphism and susceptibility to esophageal cancer in Korean and Han Chinese individuals in Harbin, China, and its potential interaction with alcohol consumption.Methods. This prospective study included 203 patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma; 88 were of Korean descent and 115 were of Han Chinese descent. A group of healthy controls included 105 participants of Korean descent and 105 of Han Chinese descent. Genotyping of the Arg399Gln locus ofXRCC1was performed by PCR-RFLP.Results. The allelic and genotypic frequencies were not significantly different between individuals with esophageal cancer and controls or between individuals of Korean and Han Chinese descent (P>0.05). However, when individuals with the wild-type Arg/Arg genotype also consumed alcohol, the risk of esophageal cancer was lower (OR = 3.539; 95% CI = 2.039–6.142;P<0.05).Conclusions. TheXRCC1Arg399Gln polymorphism does not appear to be associated with esophageal cancer in individuals of Korean or Han Chinese descent in Harbin, China. However, alcohol consumption may decrease the risk of esophageal cancer in persons with the wild-type genotype.
Alcohol Drinking Mediates the Association between Polymorphisms of ADH1B and ALDH2 and Hepatitis B–Related Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Authors: Liu Jessica , Yang Hwai-I , Lee Mei-Hsuan , Jen Chin-Lan , Hu Hui-Han , Lu Sheng-Nan , Wang Li-Yu , You San-Lin , Huang Yen-Tsung , Chen Chien-Jen
Published: February 2016

Background: The role of polymorphisms on ADH1B and ALDH2 in patients with chronic hepatitis B is unclear. This study aims to examine whether alcohol drinking mediates the association between two ADH1B and ALDH2 polymorphisms and the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma among chronic hepatitis B patients.

Methods: A total of 3,824 individuals were enrolled in this study. Two SNPs, rs1229984 (ADH1B) and rs671 (ALDH2), were genotyped using the Affymetrix Axiom Genome-Wide CHB1 Array (Affymetrix, Inc). Multivariate unconditional logistic regression and mediation analyses were used, comparing CT or TT with CC for rs1229984 and GA and AA with GG for rs671.

Results: There were 602 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma and 3,222 controls. Frequencies of the rs1229984 (ADH1B) T allele and rs671 (ALDH2) A allele were 72.9% and 28.8%, respectively. Individuals who carried at least one deficient allele for both SNPs were significantly less likely to become habitual alcohol drinkers, with an OR and 95% confidence interval (CI) of 0.24 (0.15–0.40). Alleles for rs1229984 (ADH1B) and rs671 (ALDH2) were not associated with hepatocellular carcinoma in multivariate analyses. However, mediation analyses showed that the rs1229984 T allele, rs671 A allele, and two SNPs combined were significantly associated with decreased hepatocellular carcinoma risk, mediated through alcohol drinking, with an OR (95% CI) of 0.87 (0.79–0.96), 0.70 (0.61–0.82), and 0.73 (0.58–0.88), respectively.

Conclusions: Polymorphisms on ADH1B and ALDH2 had significant indirect effects on hepatocellular carcinoma risk, mediated through alcohol drinking.

Impact: Future genetic studies of chronic hepatitis B and hepatocellular carcinoma must take mediation effects into consideration. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 25(4); 693–9. ©2016 AACR.
Chikungunya Virus Infection Alters Expression of MicroRNAs Involved in Cellular Proliferation, Immune Response and Apoptosis
Authors: Sharma Anuj , Balakathiresan Nagaraja S. , Maheshwari Radha K.
Published: February 2016

Objective(s): Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a reemerging virus of significant importance that has caused large-scale outbreaks in the countries with a temperate climate. CHIKV causes debilitating arthralgia which can persist for weeks and up to a year. Fibroblast cells are the main target of CHIKV infection. In this study, we analyzed microRNA (miRNA) modulation in the fibroblast cells infected with CHIKV at an early stage of infection. Methods: 760 miRNAs were analyzed for modulation following infection with CHIKV at 6 h after infection. Bioinformatic analysis was done to identify the signaling pathway that may be targeted by the significantly modulated miRNAs. Validation of the miRNAs was done using a singleplex miRNA assay and protein target validation of modulated miRNAs was done by Western blot analysis. Results: Computational analysis of the significantly modulated miRNAs indicated their involvement in signaling pathways such as Toll-like receptor, mTOR, JAK-STAT and Pi3-Akt pathways, which have been shown to play important roles during CHIKV infection. Topoisomerase IIβ, a target of two of the modulated miRNAs, was downregulated upon CHIKV infection. Conclusion(s): We identified several miRNAs that may play important roles in early events after CHIKV infection and can be potential therapeutic targets against CHIKV infection.
Comparison of Histopathological Effects of Thymoquinone and Local Nasal Corticosteroids in Allergic Rhinitis in a Rabbit Model
Authors: Yurttaş Veysel , Şereflican Murat , Erkoçoğlu Mustafa , Dagli Muharrem , Terzi Elçin Hakan , Fırat Tülin , Seyhan Sinan
Published: February 2016

Background/Aims: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the histopathological effects of thymoquinone treatment of the nasal mucosa in a rabbit model of allergic rhinitis, and we compared its effects with those of nasal mometasone furoate. Methods: A total of 24 male New Zealand rabbits were used. The animals were randomly assigned to one of four groups. Group 1 received no treatment, while group 2 underwent ovalbumin (OVA) sensitization only. Group 3 was the study group; after OVA sensitization, the rabbits were treated with intranasal thymoquinone. The group 4 rabbits received mometasone furoate for 7 days after OVA sensitization. Mucosal structures were stained with hematoxylin and eosin, while toluidine blue was used to stain mast cells. Apoptosis was evaluated using a TUNEL assay. Results: In the positive control groups, including the thymoquinone and intranasal mometasone furoate groups, intraepithelial and submucosal inflammation and goblet cell hypertrophy were significantly decreased compared to group 2 (p < 0.001). The cilial structure was normal, as was the chondrocyte structure in both treatment groups. Conclusion: This is the first study to evaluate the histopathological effects of thymoquinone in an allergic rhinitis model. Thymoquinone reduced allergic inflammation and may be valuable for treating allergic rhinitis. However, additional studies are needed.
Chest Pain after Aortic Valve Replacement: Rupture of Right Sinus of Valsalva Presenting as Myocardial Infarction
Authors: She Jianqing , Hu Zhan , Deng Yangyang , Liu Fuqiang , Yuan Zuyi
Published: February 2016

Background: A 47-year-old male presented with retrosternal chest pain, which had started 4 days previously and had become excruciating for the past 6 h. He had undergone mechanical aortic valve replacement surgery 4 months previously. Investigation: Electrocardiography, echocardiography, computed tomography-angiography of the aorta. Diagnosis: Rupture of the right sinus of Valsalva and right coronary artery dissection. Management: The defect in the right coronary sinus was closed, and the dissection at the root of the right coronary artery was resected and the right coronary artery bypassed to the root of the aorta.
Neonatal Marfan Syndrome: Report of a Case with an Inherited Splicing Mutation outside the Neonatal Domain
Authors: Le Gloan Laurianne , Hauet Quentin , David Albert , Hanna Nadine , Arfeuille Chloé , Arnaud Pauline , Boileau Catherine , Romefort Bénédicte , Benbrik Nadir , Gournay Véronique , Joram Nicolas , Baron Olivier , Isidor Bertrand
Published: February 2016

We report a child and her mother affected by Marfan syndrome. The child presented with a phenotype of neonatal Marfan syndrome, revealed by acute and refractory heart failure, finally leading to death within the first 4 months of life. Her mother had a common clinical presentation. Genetic analysis revealed an inherited FBN1 mutation. This intronic mutation (c.6163+3_6163+6del), undescribed to date, leads to exon 49 skipping, corresponding to in-frame deletion of 42 amino acids (p.Ile2014_Asp2055del). FBN1 next-generation sequencing did not show any argument for mosaicism. Association in the same family of severe neonatal and classical Marfan syndrome illustrates the intrafamilial phenotype variability.