bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Bayesian Optimal Design of Experiments for Inferring the Statistical Expectation of Expensive Black-Box Functions
Authors: Pandita Piyush , Bilionis Ilias , Panchal Jitesh
Published: June 2019

Bayesian optimal design of experiments (BODEs) have been successful in acquiring information about a quantity of interest (QoI) which depends on a black-box function. BODE is characterized by sequentially querying the function at specific designs selected by an infill-sampling criterion. However, most current BODE methods operate in specific contexts like optimization, or learning a universal representation of the black-box function. The objective of this paper is to design a BODE for estimating the statistical expectation of a physical response surface. This QoI is omnipresent in uncertainty propagation and design under uncertainty problems. Our hypothesis is that an optimal BODE should be maximizing the expected information gain in the QoI. We represent the information gain from a hypothetical experiment as the Kullback–Liebler (KL) divergence between the prior and the posterior probability distributions of the QoI. The prior distribution of the QoI is conditioned on the observed data, and the posterior distribution of the QoI is conditioned on the observed data and a hypothetical experiment. The main contribution of this paper is the derivation of a semi-analytic mathematical formula for the expected information gain about the statistical expectation of a physical response. The developed BODE is validated on synthetic functions with varying number of input-dimensions. We demonstrate the performance of the methodology on a steel wire manufacturing problem.
Isomorphism Detection of Planar Kinematic Chains With Multiple Joints Using Information Theory
Authors: Rai Rajneesh Kumar , Punjabi Sunil
Published: June 2019

Isomorphism (structural similarity) of kinematic chains (KCs) of mechanisms is an important issue in the structural synthesis, which must be identified to avoid the duplicate structures. Duplication causes incorrect family size, i.e., distinct KCs with a given number of links (n) and degree of freedom (dof). Besides simple joints kinematic chains (SJKCs), multiple joints kinematic chains (MJKCs) are also widely used because of their compact size and the methods dealing with such KCs are few. The proposed method deals with two different structural invariants, i.e., primary structural invariants (provide only the necessary condition of isomorphism), such as link connectivity number (LCN) of all the links, link connectivity number of chain (CCN), joint connectivity number (JCN) of all the joints, and joint connectivity number of chain (JCNC), and secondary structural invariants (provide the sufficient condition of isomorphism), such as power transmission (P) and transmission efficiency (Te). Primary structural invariants are calculated using a new link–link connectivity matrix (LLCM), whereas secondary structural invariants are calculated using the concept of entropy of information theory. The method has been successfully tested for 10 and 11 links MJKCs (illustrative examples taken in the paper) and for the families of 18 MJKCs with 8 links, 2 MJs, 1-dof, and 3 independent loops; 22 MJKCs with 8 links, 1 MJ, 1-dof, and 3 independent loops; and 83 MJKCs with 9 links, 1 MJ, 2-dof, and 3 independent loops.
Numerical Investigation Into the Influence on Hydrofoil Vibrations of Water Tunnel Test Section Acoustic Modes
Authors: Wang Wei , Zhou Lingjiu , Wang Zhengwei , Escaler Xavier , De La Torre Oscar
Published: June 2019

High-speed water tunnels are typically used to investigate the single-phase and two-phase flows around hydrofoils for hydraulic machinery applications but their dynamic behavior is not usually evaluated. The modal analysis of an NACA0009 hydrofoil inside the test section was calculated with a coupled acoustic fluid–structure model, which shows a good agreement with the experimental results. This numerical model has been used to study the influence on the hydrofoil modes of vibration of the acoustic properties of the surrounding fluid and of the tunnel test section dimensions. It has been found that the natural frequencies of the acoustic domain are inversely proportional to the test section dimensions. Moreover, these acoustic frequencies decrease linearly with the reduction of the speed of sound in the fluid medium. However, the hydrofoil frequencies are not affected by the change of the speed of sound except when they match an acoustic frequency. If both mode shapes are similar, a strong coupling occurs and the hydrofoil vibration follows the linear reduction of natural frequency induced by the acoustic mode. If both mode shapes are dissimilar, a new mode appears whose frequency decreases linearly with speed of sound while keeping the acoustic mode of vibration. This new fluid–structure mode of vibration appears in between two hydrofoil structure modes and its evolution with sound speed reduction has been called “mode transition.” Overall, these findings reinforce the idea that fluid–structure interaction effects must be taken into account when studying the induced vibrations on hydrofoils inside water tunnels.
Exploring Stereotypes of Athletes With a Disability: A Behaviors From Intergroup Affect and Stereotypes Map Comparison
Authors: Stone Rachael C. , Sweet Shane N. , Perrier Marie-Josée , MacDonald Tara , Martin Ginis Kathleen A. , Latimer-Cheung Amy E.
Published: June 2019

Identifying as a regular exerciser has been found to effectively alter stereotypes related to warmth and competence for adults with a physical disability; however, it remains unclear how sport participation can influence this trend. Therefore, this study aimed to examine warmth and competence perceptions of adults with a physical disability portrayed as elite and nonelite athletes relative to other athletic and nonathletic subgroups of adults with and without a physical disability in the context of the stereotype content model. Using survey data from able-bodied participants (N = 302), cluster analyses were applied to a behaviors from intergroup affect and stereotypes map for displaying the intersection of warmth and competence perceptions. The results demonstrated that adults with a physical disability who are described as elite athletes (i.e., Paralympians) are clustered with high warmth and high competence, similar to their able-bodied athletic counterparts (i.e., Olympians). The findings suggest that perceiving athletic and elite sport statuses for adults with a physical disability may counter the stereotypes commonly applied to this group.
Peste des Petits Ruminants Virus Nucleocapsid Protein Inhibits Beta Interferon Production by Interacting with IRF3 To Block Its Activation
Authors: Zhu Zixiang , Li Pengfei , Yang Fan , Cao Weijun , Zhang Xiangle , Dang Wen , Ma Xusheng , Tian Hong , Zhang Keshan , Zhang Miaotao , Xue Qinghong , Liu Xiangtao , Zheng Haixue
Published: June 2019

Peste des petits ruminants is a highly contagious animal disease affecting small ruminants, which threatens both small livestock and endangered susceptible wildlife populations in many countries. The causative agent, peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV), often causes acute immunosuppression in its natural hosts during infection. Here, for the first time, we demonstrate that N protein, the most abundant protein of PPRV, plays an extremely important role in suppression of interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) function and type I interferon (IFN) production by interfering with the formation of the TBK1-IRF3 complex. This study explored a novel antagonistic mechanism of PPRV.
Programmed −2/−1 Ribosomal Frameshifting in Simarteriviruses: an Evolutionarily Conserved Mechanism
Authors: Li Yanhua , Firth Andrew E. , Brierley Ian , Cai Yingyun , Napthine Sawsan , Wang Tao , Yan Xingyu , Kuhn Jens H. , Fang Ying
Published: June 2019

Simarteriviruses are a group of arteriviruses infecting nonhuman primates, and a number of new species have been established in recent years. Although these arteriviruses are widely distributed among African nonhuman primates of different species, and some of them cause lethal hemorrhagic fever disease, this group of viruses has been undercharacterized. Since wild nonhuman primates are historically important sources or reservoirs of human pathogens, there is concern that simarteriviruses may be preemergent zoonotic pathogens. Thus, molecular characterization of simarteriviruses is becoming a priority in arterivirology. In this study, we demonstrated that an evolutionarily conserved ribosomal frameshifting mechanism is used by simarteriviruses and other distantly related arteriviruses for the expression of additional viral proteins. This mechanism is unprecedented in eukaryotic systems. Given the crucial role of ribosome function in all living systems, the potential impact of the in-depth characterization of this novel mechanism reaches beyond the field of virology.
Regulatory Mechanism of Nicotine Degradation in
Pseudomonas putida
Authors: Hu Haiyang , Wang Lijuan , Wang Weiwei , Wu Geng , Tao Fei , Xu Ping , Deng Zixin , Tang Hongzhi
Published: June 2019

We report the entire process underlying the NicR2 regulatory mechanism from association between free NicR2 and two promoters to dissociation of the NicR2-promoter complex. NicR2 can bind to another promoter,
Pspm
, which controls expression of nicotine-degrading genes that are not controlled by the
Phsp
promoter. We identified specific nucleotides of the
Pspm
promoter responsible for NicR2 binding. HSP was further demonstrated as an antagonist, which prevents the binding of NicR2 to the
Pspm
and
Phsp
promoters, by locking NicR2 in the derepression conformation. The competition between NicR2 and RNA polymerase is essential to initiate transcription of nicotine-degrading genes. This study extends our understanding of molecular mechanisms in biodegradation of environmental pollutants and toxicants.
Stress-Induced Changes in the Lipid Microenvironment of β-(1,3)-
d
-Glucan Synthase Cause Clinically Important Echinocandin Resistance in Aspergillus fumigatus
Authors: Satish Shruthi , Jiménez-Ortigosa Cristina , Zhao Yanan , Lee Min Hee , Dolgov Enriko , Krüger Thomas , Park Steven , Denning David W. , Kniemeyer Olaf , Brakhage Axel A. , Perlin David S.
Published: June 2019

Resistance to first-line triazole antifungal agents among
Aspergillus
species has prompted the use of second-line therapy with echinocandins. As the number of
Aspergillus
-infected patients treated with echinocandins is rising, clinical observations of drug resistance are also increasing, indicating an emerging global health threat. Our knowledge regarding the development of clinical echinocandin resistance is largely derived from
Candida
spp., while little is known about resistance in
Aspergillus.
Therefore, it is important to understand the specific cellular responses raised by
A. fumigatus
against echinocandins. We discovered a new mechanism of resistance in
A. fumigatus
that is independent of the well-characterized
FKS
mutation mechanism observed in
Candida
. This study identified an off-target effect of CAS, i.e., ROS production, and integrated oxidative stress and sphingolipid alterations into a novel mechanism of resistance. This stress-induced response has implications for drug resistance and/or tolerance mechanisms in other fungal pathogens.
Australian mental health caregiver burden: a smallest space analysis
Authors: Morrison Paul , Stomski Norman Jay
Published: June 2019

Objectives

To explore Australian mental health carers’ prioritisation of key elements of caregiving and establish the extent to which particular issues contribute to carer burden.

Design

Cross-sectional survey.

Setting

All Australian States and Territories.

Participants

Responses were received from 231 Australian mental health caregivers.

Main outcome measures

The Involvement Evaluation Questionnaire was used to assess caregiver burden.

Results

Smallest space analysis identified three distinct regions, which we conceptualise as: 1) promoting the safety and health of mental health consumers; 2) impact of caring on caregivers’ personal lives and 3) enabling daily living functional recovery of mental health consumers. The analysis demonstrates that carers are most concerned with enabling daily living functional recovery, for which the mean value was considerably higher than the personal impact and promoting safety and health regions. In terms of the individual questionnaire items, the issues of most importance are assisting with self-care, worrying about consumers’ future, finances and general health, encouraging consumer involvement in activities and concerns over the treatment consumers are receiving.

Conclusion

Caregiving often came at significant personal cost. The burden that results from caring for mental health consumers could perhaps be alleviated through the expansion of psychiatric disability services, increasing government financial support and providing tailored psychosocial interventions that meet the needs of families.
Child Housing Assessment for a Safe Environment (CHASE): a new tool for injury prevention inside the home
Authors: Shields Wendy C , Gielen Andrea C , Frattaroli Shannon , Musci Rashelle J , McDonald Eileen M , Van Beeck E F , Bishai David M
Published: June 2019

Objective

To develop a tool to assess the safety of the home environment that could produce valid measures of a child’s risk of suffering an injury.

Methods

Tool development: A four-step process was used to develop the CHASE (Child Housing Assessment for a Safe Environment) tool, including (1) a literature scan, (2) reviewing of existing housing inspection tools, (3) key informants interviews, and (4) reviewing the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System to determine the leading housing elements associated with paediatric injury. Retrospective case–control study to validate the CHASE tool: Recruitment included case (injured) and control (sick but not injured) children and their families from a large, urban paediatric emergency department in Baltimore, Maryland in 2012. Trained inspectors applied both the well-known Home Quality Standard (HQS) and the CHASE tool to each enrollee’s home, and we compared scores on individual and summary items between cases and controls.

Results

Twenty-five items organised around 12 subdomains were included on the CHASE tool. 71 matched pairs were enrolled and included in the analytic sample. Comparisons between cases and controls revealed statistically significant differences in scores on individual items of the CHASE tool as well as on the overall score, with the cases systematically having worse scores. No differences were found between groups on the HQS measures.

Conclusion

Programmes conducting housing inspections in the homes of children should consider including the CHASE tool as part of their inspection measures. Future study of the CHASE inspection tool in a prospective trial would help assess its efficacy in preventing injuries and reducing medical costs.
Ischaemic stroke etiological classification system: the agreement analysis of CISS, SPARKLE and TOAST
Authors: Zhang Haojie , Li Zixiao , Dai Yunyi , Guo Enhui , Zhang Changqing , Wang Yongjun
Published: June 2019

Background and purpose

The ideal stroke classification system needs to have validity, high reliability and applicability among different stroke research settings. The Chinese Ischemic Stroke Subclassification (CISS) and the Subtypes of Ischemic Stroke Classification System (SPARKLE) have emerged recently but have not been tested using agreement analysis. As a result, the objective of this study is to investigate the level of agreement among stroke subtype classifications using CISS, SPARKLE and Trial of Org 10172 in Acute Stroke Treatment (TOAST). We also analyse the inter-rater reliability of CISS.

Methods

The data include 623 inpatients who have had an ischaemic stroke, accrued from Beijing Tiantan Hospital between 1 October 2015 and 19 April 2016. According to the diagnostic standards of the three subtype classification systems, 299 inpatients who satisfied the requirements of our study were independently classified with etiological subtypes, and we compared the three subclassifications.

Results

There was substantial overall agreement among the three classification systems: CISS versus SPARKLE (kappa value=0.684, p<0.001), CISS versus TOAST (kappa value=0.615, p<0.001) and SPARKLE versus TOAST (kappa value=0.675, p<0.001). The inter-rater reliability of CISS was excellent (kappa value=0.857, p<0.001). Furthermore, among the three subtype classification systems, the variance analysis results of the etiological subtypes were not uniform.

Conclusion

There were generally substantial agreements among three ischaemic stroke etiological classification systems. CISS is a valid and reliable classification system, with which different stroke research centres can apply and compare data.
Effects of a trauma center on early mortality after trauma in a regional city in Japan: a population-based study
Authors: Takahashi Yuji , Sato Shuntaro , Yamashita Kazunori , Matsumoto Naoya , Nozaki Yoshihiro , Hirao Tomohito , Tajima Goro , Inokuma Takamitsu , Yamano Shuhei , Takahashi Kensuke , Miyamoto Takashi , Inoue Kenichiro , Osaki Makoto , Tasaki Osamu
Published: June 2019

Background

Although the effects of the trauma center(TC) were researched in several studies, there have been few studies on changes in the regional mortality due to the implementation of a TC. An emergency medical center (EMC) and TC were implemented at Nagasaki University Hospital (NUH) for the first time in the Nagasaki medical region of Japan in April 2010 and October 2011, respectively, and they have cooperated with each other in treating trauma patients. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects on the early mortality at population level of a TC working in cooperation with an EMC.

Methods

This is a retrospective study using standardized regional data (ambulance service record) in Nagasaki medical region from April 2007 through March 2017. We included 19,045 trauma patients directly transported from the scene. The outcome measures were prognosis for one week. To examine the association between the implementation of the EMC and TC and mortality at a region, we fit adjusted logistic regression models.

Results

The number of patients of each fiscal year increased from 1492 in 2007 to 2101 in 2016. The number of all patients transported to NUH decreased until 2009 to 70, but increased after implementation of the EMC and TC. Overall mortality of all patients in the region improved from 2.3% in 2007 to 1.0% in 2016.In multivariate logistic regression model, odds ratio of death was significantly smaller at 2013 and thereafter if the data from 2007 to 2011 was taken as reference.

Conclusions

Implementation of the EMC and TC was associated with early mortality in trauma patients directly transported from the scene by ambulance. Our analysis suggested that the implementation of EMC and TC contributed to the improvement of the early mortality at a regional city with 500000 populations.

Level of evidence

Level III.
Rabies‐like neuronal inclusions in a dog with meningoencephalomyelitis and neuritis of unknown origin
Authors: Hawkins Ian Keith , Rissi Daniel R , Armién Anibal G , Wilkes Rebecca Penrose , Anis Eman
Published: June 2019

A four‐year‐old intact female pointer dog from a hunting plantation in South Georgia, USA, developed acute neurological signs. The referring veterinarian suspected rabies or pseudorabies; the dog was euthanased and submitted to the Tifton Veterinary Diagnostic and Investigational Laboratory for necropsy. No gross anatomical changes were present. Portions of brain were submitted for rabies virus fluorescent antibody test with a negative result. Histopathology revealed a marked lymphoplasmacytic meningoencephalitis with numerous intracytoplasmic eosinophilic inclusions within neurons, still raising concerns for rabies meningoencephalitis. Rabies immunohistochemistry was then performed on the brain, yielding a negative result. Brain samples were also negative for canine distemper virus and herpesvirus (pan‐herpesvirus primers) PCR. Electron microscopy did not reveal viral particles within the inclusions. Similar intraneuronal pseudoinclusions have been previously reported in non‐rabid dogs and cats. Such inclusions are a diagnostic challenge, especially in animals with central neurological signs and/or meningoencephalitis.
Blood arsenic concentrations in felids
Authors: Buchweitz John P , Drankhan Holly R , Lehner Andreas F
Published: June 2019

The presence of measurable quantities of arsenic in the blood of most terrestrial species signifies an exposure that often warrants further investigation regarding source and potential veterinary intervention and treatment. However, some species, such as felids, have a genetic predisposition to retain arsenic in their blood; circulating concentrations of the heavy metal, albeit abnormal for most species, may actually present as a normal or expected finding. To make sense of this disparity, the authors queried a veterinary diagnostic laboratory database over a time period of 10 years (2008–2018) to discern the range of arsenic concentrations observed in various felids. All felid whole blood samples tested for heavy metals contained measurable concentrations of arsenic; this contrasts with other companion animals such as dogs which generally had arsenic concentrations below detectability. From these data, the authors present a working reference interval for whole blood arsenic in both domestic and captive‐raised big cats. Veterinary diagnostic reference intervals are important parameters for the clinical management of animal health. Reference intervals for enzymes, hormones, minerals, vitamins and therapeutic drugs specific to organ function and health are becoming increasingly well defined for most companion and production animal species, and often dictate the clinician's decisions regarding therapeutic approaches. A conundrum arises, however, when the presence or detection of a heavy metal that is otherwise deemed potentially ‘toxic’ to most species is an ‘expected’, or ‘normal’, finding in another. Such is the case with whole blood heavy metal screens for the feline patient. The presence of blood arsenic is a common finding in both domestic and big cats raised in captivity. If not placed into the context of a range of known results, the finding may be erroneously interpreted as evidence for acute heavy metal intoxication. The current study reviews feline whole blood heavy metal submissions for arsenic concentrations to the Michigan State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory between 2008 and 2018.
Real-time safety inspection and planning: A first application of the Fagan nomogram
Authors: Ma Zhangming , Chong Heap-Yih , Liao Pin-Chao
Published: June 2019

The Fagan nomogram is a graphical tool used for clinical diagnosis and treatment. Considering the similarities between safety inspections and disease diagnosis, this study set out to apply the Fagan nomogram to construction sites with a goal of improving real-time safety inspection and planning. First, the basic principle of the Fagan nomogram was analyzed to determine its applicability. Then, the quantitative relationships between related risks were calculated using the Fagan nomogram. Subsequently, the results were compared with those obtained by Bayesian parameter estimation. A case study was then undertaken to enhance the understanding of its usage and the results were validated through a focus group interview. As a result, the Fagan nomogram was proven to be an effective method for quantifying the causal relationships and risk probability for safety risks, making it a new, simple, and accurate graphical approach for future real-time safety inspections and planning on a construction site.
Construction project proposal evaluation under uncertainty: A fuzzy-based approach
Authors: Singh Pushpinder , Ruparathna Rajeev
Published: June 2019

Construction project proposal evaluations received much attention during the recent years due to increased awareness of sustainability, value for money, and transparency. The bid evaluation matrix is the commonly used method in the construction industry for project proposal evaluation. The subjective judgments used for evaluation criteria are associated with significant uncertainty. Moreover, the transformation of qualitative evaluations raises significant data uncertainty. Attempts have been made by previous researchers to incorporate uncertainties associated with project bid evaluations, but the ability of those methods to account for “true uncertainty” is questionable. The objective of this paper is to develop a fuzzy logic-based evaluation framework for project proposal evaluation. This use of type-2 fuzzy numbers sets the proposed approach apart from the current body of knowledge. An algorithm using type-2 fuzzy numbers was developed to define input uncertainty and parameter weights. The developed method was demonstrated using a building construction project case study. The proposed approach enables quantifying qualitative evaluations more comprehensively from a scientific basis, forming a generic proposal evaluation method applicable to various industry sectors.
THE PECULIARITY OF THE COOPERATIVE AND MUTUAL MODEL: EVIDENCE FROM THE EUROPEAN BANKING SECTOR
Authors: PACELLI VINCENZO , PAMPURINI FRANCESCA , LABINI STEFANIA SYLOS
Published: June 2019

The crucial role of mutual banks in promoting local development is highlighted by an extensive theoretical and empirical literature. The historical success of mutual banks derives not only from their specific business model, but also from their peculiar and distinguishing corporate governance with member ownership. According to a copious literature, these features have probably allowed mutual banks to better withstand financial crisis. This work compares the cost efficiency of European mutual banks by analyzing a sample which consists of the universe of all the banks operating in Italy, Germany, France and Spain over the period 2011–2016, by employing a stochastic approach (Stochastic Frontier Analysis-SFA) to determine the effects of the recent financial crisis on the efficiency level of this particular kind of bank. The analysis aims to point out the determinants of efficiency in order to understand if the mutual model reveals to be still attractive in the modern banking system. The main contribution of the paper to previous literature consists in comparing different impacts of financial crisis on efficiency of mutual banks in main European countries. Furthermore, the results enrich the recent debate about the cooperative and mutual banking system and its raison d’être. Our results show that the European mutual banks reveal a higher degree of efficiency with respect to commercial banks. Cost efficiency appears to be significantly and negatively related to the level of regulatory capital, the level of credit risk, the level of leverage and the cost-income ratio. On the other hand, it is significantly and positively related to the profitability of the traditional lending activity, to the level of prudence in terms of provisions against credit risk and to the amount of liquidity as a buffer against unexpected troubles.
Bandits and Experts in Metric Spaces
Authors: Kleinberg Robert , Slivkins Aleksandrs , Upfal Eli
Published: June 2019

In a multi-armed bandit problem, an online algorithm chooses from a set of strategies in a sequence of trials to maximize the total payoff of the chosen strategies. While the performance of bandit algorithms with a small finite strategy set is well understood, bandit problems with large strategy sets are still a topic of active investigation, motivated by practical applications, such as online auctions and web advertisement. The goal of such research is to identify broad and natural classes of strategy sets and payoff functions that enable the design of efficient solutions.

In this work, we study a general setting for the multi-armed bandit problem, in which the strategies form a metric space, and the payoff function satisfies a Lipschitz condition with respect to the metric. We refer to this problem as the
Lipschitz MAB problem
. We present a solution for the multi-armed bandit problem in this setting. That is, for every metric space, we define an isometry invariant that bounds from below the performance of Lipschitz MAB algorithms for this metric space, and we present an algorithm that comes arbitrarily close to meeting this bound. Furthermore, our technique gives even better results for benign payoff functions. We also address the full-feedback (“best expert”) version of the problem, where after every round the payoffs from all arms are revealed.
Hardware-Software Co-design to Accelerate Neural Network Applications
Authors: Imani Mohsen , Garcia Ricardo , Gupta Saransh , Rosing Tajana
Published: June 2019

Many applications, such as machine learning and data sensing, are statistical in nature and can tolerate some level of inaccuracy in their computation. A variety of designs have been put forward exploiting the statistical nature of machine learning through approximate computing. With approximate multipliers being the main focus due to their high usage in machine-learning designs. In this article, we propose a novel approximate floating point multiplier, called CMUL, which significantly reduces energy and improves performance of multiplication while allowing for a controllable amount of error. Our design approximately models multiplication by replacing the most costly step of the operation with a lower energy alternative. To tune the level of approximation, CMUL dynamically identifies the inputs that produces the largest approximation error and processes them in precise mode. To use CMUL for deep neural network (DNN) acceleration, we propose a framework that modifies the trained DNN model to make it suitable for approximate hardware. Our framework adjusts the DNN weights to a set of “
potential weights
” that are suitable for approximate hardware. Then, it compensates the possible quality loss by iteratively retraining the network. Our evaluation with four DNN applications shows that, CMUL can achieve 60.3% energy efficiency improvement and 3.2× energy-delay product (EDP) improvement as compared to the baseline GPU, while ensuring less than 0.2% quality loss. These results are 38.7% and 2.0× higher than energy efficiency and EDP improvement of the CMUL without using the proposed framework.
Enact
Authors: Leiva Germán , Maudet Nolwenn , Mackay Wendy , Beaudouin-Lafon Michel
Published: June 2019

Professional designers and developers often struggle when transitioning between the design and implementation of an interactive system. We conducted three studies that focused on the design of custom interactions to understand the mismatches between their processes, tools, and representations. We found that current practices induce unnecessary rework and cause discrepancies between design and implementation. We identified three recurring types of breakdowns: omitting critical details, ignoring edge cases, and disregarding technical limitations.

We propose four design principles to create tools that mitigate these problems:
Provide multiple viewpoints
,
maintain a single source of truth
,
reveal the invisible,
and
support design by enaction
. We applied these principles to create E
NACT
, a live environment for prototyping touch-based interactions. We conducted two studies to assess E
NACT
and to compare designer–developer collaboration with E
NACT
versus current tools. Results suggest that E
NACT
helps participants detect more edge cases, increases designers’ participation and provides new opportunities for co-creation.
From Genesis to Creole Language
Authors: Wang Hongmin , Yang Jie , Zhang Yue
Published: June 2019

Singlish can be interesting to the computational linguistics community both linguistically, as a major low-resource creole based on English, and computationally, for information extraction and sentiment analysis of regional social media. In our conference paper, Wang et al. (2017), we investigated part-of-speech (POS) tagging and dependency parsing for Singlish by constructing a treebank under the Universal Dependencies scheme and successfully used neural stacking models to integrate English syntactic knowledge for boosting Singlish POS tagging and dependency parsing, achieving the state-of-the-art accuracies of 89.50% and 84.47% for Singlish POS tagging and dependency, respectively. In this work, we substantially extend Wang et al. (2017) by enlarging the Singlish treebank to more than triple the size and with much more diversity in topics, as well as further exploring neural multi-task models for integrating English syntactic knowledge. Results show that the enlarged treebank has achieved significant relative error reduction of 45.8% and 15.5% on the base model, 27% and 10% on the neural multi-task model, and 21% and 15% on the neural stacking model for POS tagging and dependency parsing, respectively. Moreover, the state-of-the-art Singlish POS tagging and dependency parsing accuracies have been improved to 91.16% and 85.57%, respectively. We make our treebanks and models available for further research.
Towards Burmese (Myanmar) Morphological Analysis
Authors: Ding Chenchen , Aye Hnin Thu Zar , Pa Win Pa , Nwet Khin Thandar , Soe Khin Mar , Utiyama Masao , Sumita Eiichiro
Published: June 2019

This article presents a comprehensive study on two primary tasks in Burmese (Myanmar) morphological analysis: tokenization and part-of-speech (POS) tagging. Twenty thousand Burmese sentences of newswire are annotated with two-layer tokenization and POS-tagging information, as one component of the Asian Language Treebank Project. The annotated corpus has been released under a CC BY-NC-SA license, and it is the largest open-access database of annotated Burmese when this manuscript was prepared in 2017. Detailed descriptions of the preparation, refinement, and features of the annotated corpus are provided in the first half of the article. Facilitated by the annotated corpus, experiment-based investigations are presented in the second half of the article, wherein the standard sequence-labeling approach of conditional random fields and a long short-term memory (LSTM)-based recurrent neural network (RNN) are applied and discussed. We obtained several general conclusions, covering the effect of joint tokenization and POS-tagging and importance of ensemble from the viewpoint of stabilizing the performance of LSTM-based RNN. This study provides a solid basis for further studies on Burmese processing.
A Generalized Cubic Exponential B‐Spline Scheme with Shape Control
Authors: Zhang Baoxing , Zheng Hongchan , Pan Lulu
Published: June 2019

In this paper, a generalized cubic exponential B‐spline scheme is presented, which can generate different kinds of curves, including the conics. Such a scheme is obtained by generalizing the cubic exponential B‐spline scheme based on an iteration from the generation of exponential polynomials and a suitable function with two parameters μ and ν. By changing the values of μ and ν, the sensitivity of the shape of the subdivision curve to the initial control value v0 can be changed and different kinds of curves can then be obtained by adjusting the value of v0. For this new scheme, we show that, with any admissible choice of μ and ν, it owns the same smoothness order and support as the cubic exponential B‐spline scheme. Besides, based on a different iteration and another suitable function, we construct a similar nonstationary scheme to generate more curves with different shapes and show the role of iterations and suitably chosen functions in the construction and analysis of such schemes. Several examples are given to illustrate the performance of our new schemes.
Adaptive Electromagnetic Field Optimization Algorithm for the Solar Cell Parameter Identification Problem
Authors: Kucukoglu Ilker
Published: June 2019

Solar cell parameter identification problem (SCPIP) is one of the most studied optimization problems in the field of renewable energy since accurate estimation of model parameters plays an important role to increase their efficiency. The SCPIP is aimed at optimizing the performance of solar cells by estimating the best parameter values of the solar cells that produce an accurate approximation between the current vs. voltage (I−V) measurements. To solve the SCPIP efficiently, this paper introduces an adaptive variant of the electromagnetic field optimization (EFO) algorithm, named adaptive EFO (AEFO). The EFO simulates the attraction-repulsion mechanism between particles of electromagnets having different polarities. The main idea behind the EFO is to guide electromagnetic particles towards global optimum by the attraction-repulsion forces and the golden ratio. Distinct from the EFO, the AEFO searches the solution space with an adaptive search procedure. In the adaptive search strategy, the selection probability of a better solution is increased adaptively whereas the selection probability of worse solutions is reduced throughout the search progress. By employing the adaptive strategy, the AEFO is able to maintain the balance between exploration and exploitation more efficiently. Further, new boundary control and randomization procedures for the candidate electromagnets are presented. To identify the performance of the proposed algorithm, two different benchmark problems are taken into account in the computational studies. First, the AEFO is performed on global optimization benchmark functions and compared to the EFO. The efficiency of the AEFO is identified by statistical significance tests. Then, the AEFO is implemented on a well-known SCPIP benchmark problem set formed as a result of real-life physical experiments based on single- and double-diode models. To validate the performance of the AEFO on the SCPIP, extensive experiments are carried out, where the AEFO is tested against the original EFO, AEFO variants, and novel metaheuristic algorithms. Results of the computational studies reveal that the AEFO exhibits superior performance and outperforms other competitor algorithms.
Prognostic Value of Pretreatment Serum Transthyretin Level in Patients with Gastrointestinal Cancers
Authors: Luo Hongliang , Huang Jun , Zhu Zhengming , Zhu Peiqian
Published: June 2019

Background. Many studies have shown the link between the pretreatment serum transthyretin and prognosis in gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. However, based on the conclusion, the initial findings were inconsistent. Hence, this meta-analysis was performed to identify the prognostic values of the pretreatment serum transthyretin in GI cancers.Methods. Previous studies published before November 2018 were collected from a comprehensive literature search of several databases. The pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were applied in the assessment of the intensity of associations. Also, the publication bias and the robustness of merged data were assessed. All statistical analyses were undertaken using STATA/SE 14.1.Results. The combined data indicated that the pretreatment serum transthyretin level was related to the prognosis in GI cancers. The group with reduced pretreatment transthyretin had a significantly worse overall survival (OS) (HR=1.71, 95% CI: 1.37-2.05). The subgroup analysis for OS further showed the predictive value of transthyretin. In addition, the low serum transthyretin level could be an unfavorable factor for recurrence-free survival (RFS) or progression-free survival (PFS) (HR=1.66, 95% CI: 1.14-2.18) in GI cancers.Conclusion. The low pretreatment serum transthyretin level implies an unfavorable prognosis for patients with GI cancers. The monitoring of pretreatment transthyretin level could contribute to the risk stratification and individualized therapy in GI cancers.
The Impact of Pulsatile Flow on Suspension Force for Hydrodynamically Levitated Blood Pump
Authors: Fu Yang , Hu Yimin , Huang Feng , Zhou Maoying
Published: June 2019

Hydrodynamically levitated rotary blood pumps (RBPs) with noncontact bearing are effective to enhance the blood compatibility. The spiral groove bearing (SGB) is one of the key components which offer the suspension force to the RBP. Current studies focus on the suspension performance of the SGB under continuous flow condition. However, the RBP shows pulsatile characteristics in the actual clinical application, which may affect the suspension performance of the SGB. In this paper, the impact of pulsatile flow upon the suspension force from the SGB is studied. A model of the SGB with a groove formed of wedge-shaped spirals is built. Then, the CFD calculation of the hydrodynamic force offered by designed SGB under simulated pulsatile flow is introduced to obtain the pulsatile performance of the suspension force. The proposed method was validated by experiments measuring the hydrodynamic force with different bearing gaps. The results show that the suspension force of the SGB under pulsate flow is the same as under steady flow with equivalent effective pressure. This paper provides a method for suspension performance test of the SGB.
New Insights on Properties and Spatial Distributions of Skeletal Stem Cells
Authors: Liu Jun-qi , Li Qi-wen , Tan Zhen
Published: June 2019

Skeletal stem cells (SSCs) are postnatal self-renewing, multipotent, and skeletal lineage-committed progenitors that are capable of giving rise to cartilage, bone, and bone marrow stroma including marrow adipocytes and stromal cells in vitro and in an exogenous environment after transplantation in vivo. Identifying and isolating defined SSCs as well as illuminating their spatiotemporal properties contribute to our understating of skeletal biology and pathology. In this review, we revisit skeletal stem cells identified most recently and systematically discuss their origin and distributions.
Effects of Mobilization Time on Occurrence of New Fractures after Vertebroplasty
Authors: Akpolat Ahmet Onur , Karaca Sinan
Published: June 2019

Introduction. Osteoporotic vertebral fracture treatment options include vertebroplasty, in which development of new fractures is among the possible complications which may develop during the postoperative period. We aim to evaluate whether or not postoperative mobilization time has effect on occurrence of new fractures.Materials and Methods. A total of 126 patients, consisting of 30 (39.7%) males and 96 (60.3%) females, who underwent sedation-assisted vertebroplasty under local anesthesia between January 2014 and June 2017 were retrospectively evaluated. Preoperative and postoperative visual analogue scores (VASs) and mobilization time (hours) were assessed. Day of new fracture occurrence during follow-up was assessed.Results. The mean follow-up period was 9 months (7–13 months). The most common fracture segment was the L1 vertebra (15.9%). The preoperative VAS was 8.29 ± 0.95, and the postoperative VAS was 2.33 ± 0.91. The change in VAS was statistically significant (p=0.01,p<0.05). Of all the patients, 21 (16.66%) had developed new fractures. No statistical difference was observed between mobilization time (hours) and formation of new fractures (p=0.48,p>0.05).Conclusion. We came to the conclusion that mobilization time (hours) was not a risk factor in the development of new fractures. In addition, there is no relationship between mobilization time and localization of new fractures.
Pulling RANK on Cancer: Blocking Aire-Mediated Central Tolerance to Enhance Immunotherapy
Authors: Su Maureen A. , Anderson Mark S.
Published: June 2019

A major breakthrough in cancer treatment occurred with the development of strategies that overcome T-cell tolerance toward tumor cells. These approaches enhance antitumor immunity by overcoming mechanisms that are normally in place to prevent autoimmunity but simultaneously prevent rejection of tumor cells. Although tolerance mechanisms that restrict antitumor immunity take place both in the thymus and periphery, only immunotherapies that target peripheral tolerance mechanisms occurring outside of the thymus are currently available. We review here recent gains in our understanding of how thymic tolerance mediated by the autoimmune regulator (Aire) impedes antitumor immunity. It is now clear that transient depletion of Aire-expressing cells in the thymus can be achieved with RANKL blockade. Finally, we discuss key findings that support the repurposing of anti-RANKL as a cancer immunotherapy with a unique mechanism of action.
Aberrant Meiotic Configurations Cause Sterility in Clone-Origin Triploid and Inter-Group Hybrid Males of the Dojo Loach, Misgurnus anguillicaudatus
Authors: Kuroda Masamichi , Fujimoto Takafumi , Murakami Masaru , Yamaha Etsuro , Arai Katsutoshi
Published: June 2019

Gonochoristic wild-type dojo loaches (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus) are diploid (2n = 50) and reproduce bisexually. However, sympatric clonal diploids generate unreduced diploid isogenic eggs that develop gynogenetically. Clone-origin triploidy arises following the incorporation of a haploid wild-type sperm nucleus into the diploid egg. Triploid females produce fertile haploid eggs by meiotic hybridogenesis, while triploid males are sterile. Clonal loaches arose from past hybridization event(s) between genetically diverse groups, A and B. Artificial hybrid females between the 2 groups produce unreduced and/or aneuploid eggs, but the hybrid males are sterile. In this study using FISH, we analyzed chromosome pairing in meiotic cells of clone-origin triploid and inter-group hybrid males to clarify the cytogenetic mechanisms underlying the male-specific sterility. We used a repetitive sequence probe to identify group B-derived chromosomes and a 5.8S + 28S rDNA probe to identify pairs of homologous chromosomes. We found that asynapsis and irregular synapsis occur in triploid and hybrid males containing 2 different genomes and that this may cause the formation of sterile germ cells. These results will help us to understand hybrid sterility from the viewpoint of synapsis behavior.
Karyotype Evolution and Distinct Evolutionary History of the W Chromosomes in Swallows (Aves, Passeriformes)
Authors: Barcellos Suziane A. , Kretschmer Rafael , de Souza Marcelo S. , Costa Alice L. , Degrandi Tiago M. , dos Santos Michelly S. , de Oliveira Edivaldo H.C. , Cioffi Marcelo B. , Gunski Ricardo J. , Garnero Analía D.V.
Published: June 2019

As in many other bird groups, data on karyotype organization and distribution of repetitive sequences are also lacking in species belonging to the family Hirundinidae. Thus, in the present study, we analyzed the karyotypes of 3 swallow species (Progne tapera, Progne chalybea, and Pygochelidon cyanoleuca) by Giemsa and AgNOR staining, C-banding, and FISH with 11 microsatellite sequences. The diploid chromosome number was 2n = 76 in all 3 species, and NORs were observed in 2 chromosome pairs each. The microsatellite distribution pattern was similar in both Progne species, whereas P. cyanoleuca presented a distinct organization. These repetitive DNA sequences were found in the centromeric, pericentromeric, and telomeric regions of the macrochromosomes, as well as in 2 interstitial blocks in the W chromosome. Most microchromosomes had mainly telomeric signals. The Z chromosome displayed 1 hybridization signal in P. tapera but none in the other species. In contrast, the W chromosome showed an accumulation of different microsatellite sequences. The swallow W chromosome is larger than that of most Passeriformes. The observed enlargement in chromosome size might be explained by these high amounts of repetitive sequences. In sum, our data highlight the significant role that microsatellite sequences may play in sex chromosome differentiation.