bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Melanopsin and the Non‐visual Photochemistry in the Inner Retina of Vertebrates
Authors: Díaz Nicolás M. , Morera Luis P. , Guido Mario E.
Published: October 2015

Melanopsin (Opn4), a member of the G‐protein‐coupled receptor family, is a vitamin A‐based opsin in the vertebrate retina that has been shown to be involved in the synchronization of circadian rhythms, pupillary light reflexes, melatonin suppression and other light‐regulated tasks. In nonmammalian vertebrates there are two Opn4 genes, Opn4m and Opn4x, the mammalian and Xenopus orthologs respectively. Opn4x is only expressed in nonmammalian vertebrates including reptiles, fish and birds, while Opn4m is found in a subset of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), the intrinsically photosensitive (ip) RGCs of the inner retina of both mammals and nonmammalian vertebrates. All opsins described utilize retinaldehyde as chromophore, photoisomerized from 11‐cis‐ to all‐trans‐retinal upon light exposure. Visual retinal photoreceptor cones and rods, responsible for day and night vision respectively, recycle retinoids through a process called the visual cycle that involves the retinal pigment epithelium or glial Müller cells. Although Opn4 has been characterized as a bistable photopigment, little is known about the mechanism/s involved in its chromophore regeneration. In this review, we will attempt to shed light on the visual cycle taking place in the inner retina and discuss the state of the art in the nonvisual photochemistry of vertebrates.
Different combinations of morpho‐physiological traits are responsible for tolerance to drought in wild tomatoes Solanum chilense and Solanum peruvianum
Authors: Tapia G. , Méndez J. , Inostroza L.
Published: October 2015

Herbaceous species can modify leaf structure during the growing season in response to drought stress and water loss. Evolution can select combinations of traits in plants for efficient water use in restricted environments. We investigated plant traits that mediate adaptation and acclimation to water stress in two herbaceous drought‐tolerant species. Anatomical, morphological and physiological traits related to stems and leaves were examined under optimal watering (OW) and a long period of restricted watering (RW) in 11 accessions from three Solanaceae species (Solanum chilense, S. peruvianum and S. lycopersicum). The relationships between these traits were tested using linear regression and PCA. There were significant differences in anatomical traits between the species under both OW and RW, where leaf area correlated with stem diameter. Proline and total carbohydrates accumulated highly in S. chilense and S. peruvianum, respectively, and these osmolytes were strongly correlated with increased osmotic potential. Stomatal density varied between species but not between acclimation treatments, while stomatal rate was significantly higher in wild tomatoes. There was a strong positive relationship between stem growth rate and a group of traits together expressed as total stomatal number. Total stomata is described by integration of leaf area, stomatal density, height and internode length. It is proposed that constitutive adaptations and modifications through acclimation that mediate RW play an important role in tolerance to drought stress in herbaceous plants. The capacity for growth under drought stress was not associated with any single combination of traits in wild tomatoes, since the two species differed in relative levels of expression of various phenotypic traits.
Electromyographic adjustments during continuous and intermittent incremental fatiguing cycling
Authors: Martinez‐Valdes E. , Guzman‐Venegas R. A. , Silvestre R. A. , Macdonald J. H. , Falla D. , Araneda O. F. , Haichelis D.
Published: October 2015

We studied the sensitivity of electromyographic (EMG) variables to load and muscle fatigue during continuous and intermittent incremental cycling. Fifteen men attended three laboratory sessions. Visit 1: lactate threshold, peak power output, and VO2max. Visits 2 and 3: Continuous (more fatiguing) and intermittent (less fatiguing) incremental cycling protocols [20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% of peak power output (PPO)]. During both protocols, multichannel EMG signals were recorded from vastus lateralis: muscle fiber conduction velocity (MFCV), instantaneous mean frequency (iMNF), and absolute and normalized root mean square (RMS) were analyzed. MFCV differed between protocols (P < 0.001), and only increased consistently with power output during intermittent cycling. RMS parameters were similar between protocols, and increased linearly with power output. However, only normalized RMS was higher during the more fatiguing 100% PPO stage of the continuous protocol [continuous–intermittent mean difference (95% CI): 45.1 (8.5% to 81.7%)]. On the contrary, iMNF was insensitive to load changes and muscle fatigue (P = 0.14). Despite similar power outputs, continuous and intermittent cycling influenced MFCV and normalized RMS differently. Only normalized RMS was sensitive to both increases in power output (in both protocols) and muscle fatigue, and thus is the most suitable EMG parameter to monitor changes in muscle activation during cycling.
A Spatial Data Infrastructure Approach for the Characterization of New Zealand's Groundwater Systems
Authors: Kmoch Alexander , Klug Hermann , Ritchie Alistair B. H. , Schmidt Jochen , White Paul A.
Published: October 2015

The future information needs of stakeholders for hydrogeological and hydro‐climate data management and assessment in New Zealand may be met with an Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards‐compliant publicly accessible web services framework which aims to provide integrated use of groundwater information and environmental observation data in general. The stages of the framework development described in this article are search and discovery as well as data collection and access with (meta)data services, which are developed in a community process. The concept and prototype implementation of OGC‐compliant web services for groundwater and hydro‐climate data include demonstration data services that present multiple distributed datasets of environmental observations. The results also iterate over the stakeholder community process and the refined profile of OGC services for environmental observation data sharing within the New Zealand Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) landscape, including datasets from the National Groundwater Monitoring Program and the New Zealand Climate Database along with datasets from affiliated regional councils at regional‐ and sub‐regional scales. With the definition of the New Zealand observation data profile we show that current state‐of‐the‐art standards do not necessarily need to be improved, but that the community has to agree upon how to use these standards in an iterative process.
Inhibitory respiratory responses to progesterone and allopregnanolone in newborn rats chronically treated with caffeine
Authors: Uppari NagaPraveena , Joseph Vincent , Bairam Aida
Published: October 2015

Key points

In premature newborns, recurrent apnoea is systematically treated with caffeine to prevent long‐term neurocognitive disorders, but a substantial percentage of apnoea persists particularly in neonates born before 28 weeks of gestation.

Progesterone has been proposed as a respiratory stimulant potentially suitable for the treatment of newborn apnoea persistent to caffeine. Accordingly we asked whether acute progesterone administration reduces apnoea frequency in newborn rats treated with caffeine.

Surprisingly our results show that in newborn rats treated with caffeine, administration of progesterone inhibits breathing and increases apnoea frequency.

Additional experiments showed an enhanced GABAergic inhibitory drive on breathing after caffeine treatment, and that progesterone is converted to allopregnanolone (an allosteric modulator of GABAA receptors) to inhibit breathing.

We conclude that combining progesterone and chronic caffeine is not an option in preterm neonates, unless the effects of allopregnanolone can be counteracted.

Caffeine is the main treatment for apnoea in preterm neonates, but its interactions with other respiratory stimulants like progesterone are unknown. We tested the hypothesis that the addition of progesterone to caffeine treatments further stimulates ventilation. Newborn rats were treated with water (control) or caffeine (15 mg kg−1) by daily gavage between postnatal day (P)3 and P12. At P4 and P12, we measured apnoea frequency, ventilatory responses and metabolic parameters under both normoxia and hypoxia (12% O2, 20 min) following an acute administration of either saline or progesterone (4 mg kg−1; i.p.). Progesterone injection increased the serum levels of both progesterone and its neuroactive metabolite allopregnanolone. Progesterone had no effect on ventilation in control rats under normoxia. Progesterone depressed ventilation in P12 caffeine‐treated rats under normoxia and hypoxia and increased apnoea frequency in both P4 and P12 rats. Because allopregnanolone is an allosteric modulator of GABAA receptors and caffeine may enhance GABAergic inhibition in newborns, we studied the effects of the GABAA receptor antagonist bicuculline at 0, 1, 2 and 3 mg kg−1 doses and allopregnanolone (10 mg kg−1 dose) in P12 rats. In caffeine‐treated rats, bicuculline enhanced ventilation, while allopregnanolone decreased ventilation and increased total apnoea time. Progesterone had no effect on ventilation and apnoea frequency in caffeine‐treated rats injected with finasteride, which blocks the conversion of progesterone to allopregnanolone. We conclude that combining progesterone and chronic caffeine therapy is not an option for the treatment of persistent apnoea in preterm neonates, unless the effects of allopregnanolone can be counteracted.
Influences of word predictability and type of masker noise on intelligibility of sung text in live concerts
Authors: Heinrich Antje , Knight Sarah , Hawkins Sarah
Published: October 2015

Vocal music is often intended to convey meaning, but how effectively this is achieved is poorly understood. This study systematically assessed the influence of three non-phonetic factors on the intelligibility of sung words in six public concerts in different venues: word predictability from sentence context, type of masker noise (spoken babble, sung vowels, [∫w]), and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Stimuli were sung live by a professional a cappella ensemble with one male singing target sentences and five others (two female) producing the masker sounds. The concert audiences (N = 319) reported the final word of each sentence using a handheld voting device, from four phonetically- and semantically-controlled written alternatives projected onto a screen after the sentence was sung. Although overall accuracy differed between performances, intelligibility patterns were robust across concerts. They included predicted main effects of masker noise type ([∫w] masking least disruptive, babble most), SNR (high > low), semantic predictability (high > low), listener age (young > old), and listener language status (native > non-native), and some strong interactions. These results suggest that, despite acoustic differences between sung and spoken words and the unusual and varied experimental venues, key findings from traditional speech research apply to sung words, given appropriate musical composition.
Source level estimates for sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis) vocalizations off the Azores
Authors: Romagosa Miriam , Boisseau Oliver , Cucknell Anna-Christina , Moscrop Anna , McLanaghan Richard
Published: October 2015

Sei whale calls have been documented on very few occasions and never in the Azores Archipelago, an area transited by this species during their migration to northern latitudes in spring and early summer. Using a combination of video range tracking (VRT) and acoustic methods, vocalizations are described from an encounter with two sei whales in April 2012 off Pico Island, Azores. Recordings analyzed post-survey revealed 53 low frequency downsweep calls with average maximum frequencies of 100 Hz [standard deviation (SD = 14 Hz)] down to 37 Hz (SD = 8 Hz) over 1.21 s (SD = 0.33 s). Apparent source levels of 177 dB (SD = 5 dB) root-mean-square (rms) re 1 μPa were recorded. Vocalizations were attributed to the pair of sei whales encountered using a combination of the VRT data and differences in arrival time of calls at the hydrophones. These calls are similar to those reported from sei whales off New England and similar to those recorded off Hawaii. The growing body of acoustic data on sei whale vocalizations may contribute to the understanding of this species' distribution and population identity; key information is needed to guide future conservation efforts for this species.
Reproduction of nearby sources by imposing true interaural differences on a sound field control approach
Authors: Badajoz Javier , Chang Ji-Ho , Agerkvist Finn T.
Published: October 2015

In anechoic conditions, the Interaural Level Difference (ILD) is the most significant auditory cue to judge the distance to a sound source located within 1 m of the listener's head. This is due to the unique characteristics of a point source in its near field, which result in exceptionally high, distance dependent ILDs. When reproducing the sound field of sources located near the head with line or circular arrays of loudspeakers, the reproduced ILDs are generally lower than expected, due to physical limitations. This study presents an approach that combines a sound field reproduction method, known as Pressure Matching (PM), and a binaural control technique. While PM aims at reproducing the incident sound field, the objective of the binaural control technique is to ensure a correct reproduction of interaural differences. The combination of these two approaches gives rise to the following features: (i) an accurate reproduction of ILDs is achieved at the head positions considered by the method, (ii) the ILD variations in the vicinity of those positions are smoothed, thus lowering the ILD error, and (iii) the true wavefront is preserved. Given the properties of the presented method, intended distance and directional perception is expected.
Identification and Resolution of Microdiversity through Metagenomic Sequencing of Parallel Consortia
Authors: Nelson William C. , Maezato Yukari , Wu Yu-Wei , Romine Margaret F. , Lindemann Stephen R.
Published: October 2015

To gain a predictive understanding of the interspecies interactions within microbial communities that govern community function, the genomic complement of every member population must be determined. Although metagenomic sequencing has enabled the
de novo
reconstruction of some microbial genomes from environmental communities, microdiversity confounds current genome reconstruction techniques. To overcome this issue, we performed short-read metagenomic sequencing on parallel consortia, defined as consortia cultivated under the same conditions from the same natural community with overlapping species composition. The differences in species abundance between the two consortia allowed reconstruction of near-complete (at an estimated >85% of gene complement) genome sequences for 17 of the 20 detected member species. Two
Halomonas
spp. indistinguishable by amplicon analysis were found to be present within the community. In addition, comparison of metagenomic reads against the consensus scaffolds revealed within-species variation for one of the
Halomonas
populations, one of the
Rhodobacteraceae
populations, and the
Rhizobiales
population. Genomic comparison of these representative instances of inter- and intraspecies microdiversity suggests differences in functional potential that may result in the expression of distinct roles in the community. In addition, isolation and complete genome sequence determination of six member species allowed an investigation into the sensitivity and specificity of genome reconstruction processes, demonstrating robustness across a wide range of sequence coverage (9× to 2,700×) within the metagenomic data set.
A Dual Microscopy-Based Assay To Assess Listeria monocytogenes Cellular Entry and Vacuolar Escape
Authors: Quereda Juan J. , Pizarro-Cerdá Javier , Balestrino Damien , Bobard Alexandre , Danckaert Anne , Aulner Nathalie , Shorte Spencer , Enninga Jost , Cossart Pascale
Published: October 2015

Listeria monocytogenes
is a Gram-positive bacterium and a facultative intracellular pathogen that invades mammalian cells, disrupts its internalization vacuole, and proliferates in the host cell cytoplasm. Here, we describe a novel image-based microscopy assay that allows discrimination between cellular entry and vacuolar escape, enabling high-content screening to identify factors specifically involved in these two steps. We first generated
L. monocytogenes
and
Listeria innocua
strains expressing a β-lactamase covalently attached to the bacterial cell wall. These strains were then incubated with HeLa cells containing the Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) probe CCF4 in their cytoplasm. The CCF4 probe was cleaved by the bacterial surface β-lactamase only in cells inoculated with
L. monocytogenes
but not those inoculated with
L. innocua
, thereby demonstrating bacterial access to the host cytoplasm. Subsequently, we performed differential immunofluorescence staining to distinguish extracellular versus total bacterial populations in samples that were also analyzed by the FRET-based assay. With this two-step analysis, bacterial entry can be distinguished from vacuolar rupture in a single experiment. Our novel approach represents a powerful tool for identifying factors that determine the intracellular niche of
L. monocytogenes
.
Sporulation Temperature Reveals a Requirement for CotE in the Assembly of both the Coat and Exosporium Layers of Bacillus cereus Spores
Authors: Bressuire-Isoard Christelle , Bornard Isabelle , Henriques Adriano O. , Carlin Frédéric , Broussolle Véronique
Published: October 2015

The
Bacillus cereus
spore surface layers consist of a coat surrounded by an exosporium. We investigated the interplay between the sporulation temperature and the CotE morphogenetic protein in the assembly of the surface layers of
B. cereus
ATCC 14579 spores and on the resulting spore properties. The
cotE
deletion affects the coat and exosporium composition of the spores formed both at the suboptimal temperature of 20°C and at the optimal growth temperature of 37°C. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that Δ
cotE
spores had a fragmented and detached exosporium when formed at 37°C. However, when produced at 20°C, Δ
cotE
spores showed defects in both coat and exosporium attachment and were susceptible to lysozyme and mutanolysin. Thus, CotE has a role in the assembly of both the coat and exosporium, which is more important during sporulation at 20°C. CotE was more represented in extracts from spores formed at 20°C than at 37°C, suggesting that increased synthesis of the protein is required to maintain proper assembly of spore surface layers at the former temperature. Δ
cotE
spores formed at either sporulation temperature were impaired in inosine-triggered germination and resistance to UV-C and H
2
O
2
and were less hydrophobic than wild-type (WT) spores but had a higher resistance to wet heat. While underscoring the role of CotE in the assembly of
B. cereus
spore surface layers, our study also suggests a contribution of the protein to functional properties of additional spore structures. Moreover, it also suggests a complex relationship between the function of a spore morphogenetic protein and environmental factors such as the temperature during spore formation.
Solar Disinfection of Viruses in Polyethylene Terephthalate Bottles
Authors: Carratalà Anna , Dionisio Calado Alex , Mattle Michael J. , Meierhofer Regula , Luzi Samuel , Kohn Tamar
Published: October 2015

Solar disinfection (SODIS) of drinking water in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles is a simple, efficient point-of-use technique for the inactivation of many bacterial pathogens. In contrast, the efficiency of SODIS against viruses is not well known. In this work, we studied the inactivation of bacteriophages (MS2 and ϕX174) and human viruses (echovirus 11 and adenovirus type 2) by SODIS. We conducted experiments in PET bottles exposed to (simulated) sunlight at different temperatures (15, 22, 26, and 40°C) and in water sources of diverse compositions and origins (India and Switzerland). Good inactivation of MS2 (>6-log inactivation after exposure to a total fluence of 1.34 kJ/cm
2
) was achieved in Swiss tap water at 22°C, while less-efficient inactivation was observed in Indian waters and for echovirus (1.5-log inactivation at the same fluence). The DNA viruses studied, ϕX174 and adenovirus, were resistant to SODIS, and the inactivation observed was equivalent to that occurring in the dark. High temperatures enhanced MS2 inactivation substantially; at 40°C, 3-log inactivation was achieved in Swiss tap water after exposure to a fluence of only 0.18 kJ/cm
2
. Overall, our findings demonstrate that SODIS may reduce the load of single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) viruses, such as echoviruses, particularly at high temperatures and in photoreactive matrices. In contrast, complementary measures may be needed to ensure efficient inactivation during SODIS of DNA viruses resistant to oxidation.
Bacillus cereus NVH 0500/00 Can Adhere to Mucin but Cannot Produce Enterotoxins during Gastrointestinal Simulation
Authors: Tsilia Varvara , Kerckhof Frederiek-Maarten , Rajkovic Andreja , Heyndrickx Marc , Van de Wiele Tom
Published: October 2015

Adhesion to the intestinal epithelium could constitute an essential mechanism of
Bacillus cereus
pathogenesis. However, the enterocytes are protected by mucus, a secretion composed mainly of mucin glycoproteins. These may serve as nutrients and sites of adhesion for intestinal bacteria. In this study, the food poisoning bacterium
B. cereus
NVH 0500/00 was exposed
in vitro
to gastrointestinal hurdles prior to evaluation of its attachment to mucin microcosms and its ability to produce nonhemolytic enterotoxin (Nhe). The persistence of mucin-adherent
B. cereus
after simulated gut emptying was determined using a mucin adhesion assay. The stability of Nhe toward bile and pancreatin (intestinal components) in the presence of mucin agar was also investigated.
B. cereus
could grow and simultaneously adhere to mucin during
in vitro
ileal incubation, despite the adverse effect of prior exposure to a low pH or intestinal components. The final concentration of
B. cereus
in the simulated lumen at 8 h of incubation was 6.62 ± 0.87 log CFU ml
−1
. At that point, the percentage of adhesion was approximately 6%. No enterotoxin was detected in the ileum, due to either insufficient bacterial concentrations or Nhe degradation. Nevertheless, mucin appears to retain
B. cereus
and to supply it to the small intestine after simulated gut emptying. Additionally, mucin may play a role in the protection of enterotoxins from degradation by intestinal components.
Development and validation of the Comprehensive Quality of Life Outcome (CoQoLo) inventory for patients with advanced cancer
Authors: Miyashita Mitsunori , Wada Makoto , Morita Tatsuya , Ishida Mayumi , Onishi Hideki , Tsuneto Satoru , Shima Yasuo
Published: October 2015

Background

The purpose of this study was to develop a scale capable of measuring comprehensive quality of life (QOL) outcomes based on the concept of a good death for patients with advanced cancer.

Methods

We conducted an anonymous cross-sectional questionnaire survey on inpatients being treated at the Oncology Clinic in Saitama Medical University International Medical Center and seven palliative units throughout Japan.

Results

A total of 405 patients with cancer participated in this study. Factor analysis of scores on the Comprehensive Quality of Life Outcome (CoQoLo) inventory revealed 28 items and the following 10 subscales: physical and psychological comfort; staying in a favourite place; maintaining hope and pleasure; good relationships with medical staff; not being a burden to others; good relationships with family; independence; environmental comfort; being respected as an individual; and having a fulfilling life. The total CoQoLo score was moderately correlated with satisfaction (r=0.34) and overall QOL (r=0.34), and moderately correlated with feelings of support and security regarding cancer care (r=0.44). Cronbach's α and the intraclass correlation coefficient of the total score were 0.90 and 0.79, respectively. No significant correlation was found between the total CoQoLo score and self-reported Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (r=−0.01).

Conclusions

These results suggest that the CoQoLo has sufficient reliability and validity and therefore provides an accurate measure of QOL outcomes independent of the general physical condition of the patient.
FrequentBRAFmutation in early-onset colorectal cancer in Taiwan: association with distinct clinicopathological and molecular features and poor clinical outcome
Authors: Tsai Jia-Huei , Liau Jau-Yu , Lin Yu-Lin , Tseng Li-Hui , Lin Liang-In , Yeh Kun-Huei , Jeng Yung-Ming
Published: October 2015

Background

Occurrence of early-onset colorectal cancer (EOCRC) under the age of 30 is very rare and the molecular characteristics are poorly understood. A lowBRAFmutation rate has been noted in several studies of EOCRC from Western countries.

Aims

To determine the clinicopathological and molecular features of EOCRCs in Taiwan.

Methods

KRAS/BRAFgene mutation, mismatch repair protein immunohistochemistry, microsatellite instability and CpG island methylation phenotype analyses were examined to determine the molecular characteristics of EOCRC.

Results

Sixty-six patients with EOCRC at our hospital between 2000 and 2012 were studied.BRAFmutation was detected in 11 of the 59 tumours analysed (19%) and the rate was significantly higher than the overallBRAFmutation rate of colorectal cancer in patients older than 30 years (p<0.001). Clinically, 9 of 11 patients withBRAF-mutated tumours presented with advanced-stage diseases and they presented significantly more frequently with stage IV disease than those withBRAFwild-type tumours (p=0.042). Histologically,BRAFmutation was associated with a poorly differentiated histology, a serrated precursor polyp and focal signet ring cell differentiation (p=0.042, 0.008 and 0.008, respectively). None of theBRAF-mutated tumours was mismatch repair protein-deficient and/or microsatellite instability-high. Overall survival of patients withBRAF-mutated tumours was significantly worse than that of patients withBRAFwild-type tumours, despite adjustment for the disease stages and tumour differentiation.

Conclusions

BRAFmutation was frequent in EOCRCs in Taiwan and was associated with distinct clinicopathological and molecular features.
Examining the link between women's exposure to stressful life events prior to conception and infant and toddler health: the role of birth weight
Authors: Cheng Erika R , Park Hyojun , Wisk Lauren E , Mandell Kara C , Wakeel Fathima , Litzelman Kristin , Chatterjee Debanjana , Witt Whitney P
Published: October 2015

Background

The life course perspective suggests a pathway may exist among maternal exposure to stressful life events prior to conception (PSLEs), infant birth weight and subsequent offspring health, whereby PSLEs are part of a ‘chains-of-risk’ that set children on a certain health pathway. No prior study has examined the link between PSLEs and offspring health in a nationally representative sample of US mothers and their children. We used longitudinal, nationally representative data to evaluate the relation between maternal exposure to PSLEs and subsequent measures of infant and toddler health, taking both maternal and obstetric characteristics into account.

Methods

We examined 6900 mother-child dyads participating in 2 waves of the nationally representativeEarly Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort(n=6900). Infant and toddler health outcomes assessed at 9 and 24 months included overall health status, special healthcare needs and severe health conditions. Adjusted path analyses examined associations between PSLEs, birth weight and child health outcomes.

Results

In adjusted analyses, PSLEs increased the risk for very low birth weight (VLBW, <1500 g), which, in turn, predicted poor health at both 9 and 24 months of age. Path analyses demonstrated that PSLEs had small indirect effects on children's subsequent health that operated through VLBW.

Conclusions

Our analysis suggests a chains-of-risk model in which women's exposure to PSLEs increases the risk for giving birth to a VLBW infant, which, in turn, adversely affects infant and toddler health. Addressing women's preconception health may have important downstream benefits for their children, although more research is needed to replicate these findings.
Prediction of soil type and standard penetration test (SPT) value in Khulna City, Bangladesh using general regression neural network
Authors: Sarkar Grytan , Siddiqua Sumi , Banik Rajib , Rokonuzzaman Md.
Published: October 2015

In this study, a general regression neural network (GRNN) is developed for predicting soil type and standard penetration test (SPT)
N
(standard penetration resistance) values based on SPT test results. It focuses on soils mainly in Khulna City, Bangladesh that comprise fine-grained alluvium deposits of mostly silt and clay with some organic content and sand. A detailed geological and geotechnical investigation of the city and its surroundings was conducted to generalize the subsoil condition of the study area based on soil type and SPT values. The investigation results showed that the city is divided into four geological units and three geotechnical zones. To develop the GRNN model, more than 2326 field SPT values (
N
) have been collected from 42 clusters containing 143 boreholes spread over an area of 37 km
2
. Two trained models were developed: initially the borehole locations were trained with the soil types and after that the borehole location-soil types were trained with the
N
c
values. The model prediction was compared with the borehole data and the results showed that the GRNN model predicts well compared with the actual site investigation data. Therefore, this model can be used for future planning and expansion of the city.
Inductive programming meets the real world
Authors: Gulwani Sumit , Hernández-Orallo José , Kitzelmann Emanuel , Muggleton Stephen H. , Schmid Ute , Zorn Benjamin
Published: October 2015

Inductive programming can liberate users from performing tedious and repetitive tasks.
Runtime Monitoring of Cyber-Physical Systems Under Timing and Memory Constraints
Authors: Medhat Ramy , Bonakdarpour Borzoo , Kumar Deepak , Fischmeister Sebastian
Published: October 2015

The goal of
runtime monitoring
is to inspect the well-being of a system by employing a
monitor process
that reads the state of the system during execution and evaluates a set of properties expressed in some specification language. The main challenge in runtime monitoring is dealing with the costs imposed in terms of resource utilization. In the context of cyber-physical systems, it is crucial for a software monitoring solution to be
time predictable
to improve scheduling, as well as support composition of monitoring solutions with an overall predictable behavior. Moreover, a small memory footprint is often required in components of cyber-physical systems, especially in deeply embedded systems. In this article, we propose a novel control-theoretic software monitoring solution for coordinating time predictability and memory utilization in runtime monitoring of systems that interact with the physical world. The controllers attempt to reduce monitoring jitter and maximize memory utilization while simultaneously ensuring the soundness of evaluation of properties. For systems where multiple properties are required to be monitored simultaneously, we construct a buffer sharing mechanism in which controllers dynamically share the memory space to negate the effect of bursts of environment actions, thus reducing jitter due to transient high loads.

To validate our design choices, we present three case studies: (1) a Bluetooth mobile payment system, which shows a sporadic rate of events during peak hours; (2) a laser beam stabilizer for target tracking, and (3) a monitoring system for air/fuel ratio in a car engine exhaust and the CAM inlet position in the engine’s cylinders. The experimental results of the case studies demonstrate up to 40% improvement in time predictability of the monitoring solution when compared to a basic event-triggered approach. Moreover, memory utilization reaches an average of 90% when using our dynamic buffer resizing mechanism.
Perception of Emotion and Personality through Full-Body Movement Qualities
Authors: Giraud Tom , Focone Florian , Demulier Virginie , Martin Jean Claude , Isableu Brice
Published: October 2015

Virtual sport coaches guide users through their physical activity and provide motivational support. Users’ motivation can rapidly decay if the movements of the virtual coach are too stereotyped. Kinematic patterns generated while performing a predefined fitness movement can elicit and help to prolong users’ interaction and interest in training. Human body kinematics has been shown to convey various social attributes such as gender, identity, and acted emotions. To date, no study provides information regarding how spontaneous emotions and personality traits together are perceived from full-body movements. In this article, we study how people make reliable inferences regarding spontaneous emotional dimensions and personality traits of human coaches from kinematic patterns they produced when performing a fitness sequence. Movements were presented to participants via a virtual mannequin to isolate the influence of kinematics on perception. Kinematic patterns of biological movement were analyzed in terms of movement qualities according to the effort-shape [Dell 1977] notation proposed by Laban [1950]. Three studies were performed to provide an analysis of the process leading to perception: from coaches’ states and traits through bodily movements to observers’ social perception. Thirty-two participants (i.e., observers) were asked to rate the movements of the virtual mannequin in terms of conveyed emotion dimensions, personality traits (five-factor model of personality), and perceived movement qualities (effort-shape) from 56 fitness movement sequences. The results showed high reliability for most of the evaluated dimensions, confirming interobserver agreement from kinematics at zero acquaintance. A large expressive halo merging emotional (e.g., perceived intensity) and personality aspects (e.g., extraversion) was found, driven by perceived kinematic impulsivity and energy. Observers’ perceptions were partially accurate for emotion dimensions and were not accurate for personality traits. Together, these results contribute to both the understanding of dimensions of social perception through movement and the design of expressive virtual sport coaches.
Accessing Tape Music Documents on Mobile Devices
Authors: Canazza Sergio , Fantozzi Carlo , Pretto Niccolò
Published: October 2015

The aim of this article is to present and discuss an innovative methodology aimed at accessing digitized copies of historical
tape music
audio documents; the methodology leverages on the multimedia and multisensory capabilities of
mobile devices
to provide an unprecedented level of fruition. In addition to the methodology, and stemming from it, we present an actual software application for Android tablet devices. This novel piece of software was designed and developed in a multidisciplinary team involving engineers as well as musicians, composers, and archivists. The strongest element in our work is the fact that it follows a rigorous process and it is based on the principles of
philological awareness
; thus, it also takes into consideration the critical points in the musicologist's domain such as (i) the definition of preservation (i.e., master) copy, (ii) the importance of secondary information, (iii) the history of production and transmission of audio documents.
Smartening Up the Student Learning Experience with Ubiquitous Media
Authors: Bental Diana S. , Papadopoulou Eliza , Taylor Nicholas K. , Williams M. Howard , Blackmun Fraser R. , Ibrahim Idris S. , Lim Mei Yii , Mimtsoudis Ioannis , Whyte Stuart W. , Jennings Edel
Published: October 2015

This article describes how an experimental platform for social, mobile and ubiquitous computing has been used in a wide-ranging longitudinal “in the wild” case study of the platform with a set of third-party services. The article outlines some of the relevant aspects of the platform, including built-in support for community formation, for context sensitivity, automated learning and adaptation to the user, and for management of privacy and trust relationships. The platform architecture is based on the notion of Cooperating Smart Spaces (CSSs), where a CSS is a partition of the platform corresponding to a single user and distributed over the devices belonging to that user. Three of the case study services were intended for use in a physical environment specifically created to support ubiquitous intelligence; they were highly interactive and used shared screens, voice input and gestural interaction. Another three ubiquitous services were available throughout the university environment as mobile and desktop services. The case study exploited this architecture's ability to integrate multiple novel applications and interface devices and to deliver them flexibly in these different environments. The platform proved to be stable and reliable and the study shows that treating a provider of services and resources (the University) as a CSS is instrumental in enabling the platform to provide this range of services across differing environments.
Correspondence Autoencoders for Cross-Modal Retrieval
Authors: Feng Fangxiang , Wang Xiaojie , Li Ruifan , Ahmad Ibrar
Published: October 2015

This article considers the problem of cross-modal retrieval, such as using a text query to search for images and vice-versa. Based on different autoencoders, several novel models are proposed here for solving this problem. These models are constructed by correlating hidden representations of a pair of autoencoders. A novel optimal objective, which minimizes a linear combination of the representation learning errors for each modality and the correlation learning error between hidden representations of two modalities, is used to train the model as a whole. Minimizing the correlation learning error forces the model to learn hidden representations with only common information in different modalities, while minimizing the representation learning error makes hidden representations good enough to reconstruct inputs of each modality. To balance the two kind of errors induced by representation learning and correlation learning, we set a specific parameter in our models. Furthermore, according to the modalities the models attempt to reconstruct they are divided into two groups. One group including three models is named multimodal reconstruction correspondence autoencoder since it reconstructs both modalities. The other group including two models is named unimodal reconstruction correspondence autoencoder since it reconstructs a single modality. The proposed models are evaluated on three publicly available datasets. And our experiments demonstrate that our proposed correspondence autoencoders perform significantly better than three canonical correlation analysis based models and two popular multimodal deep models on cross-modal retrieval tasks.
Fail at scale
Authors: Maurer Ben
Published: October 2015

Reliability in the face of rapid change
It probably works
Authors: Mcmullen Tyler
Published: October 2015

Probabilistic algorithms are all around us. Not only are they acceptable, some programmers actually seek out chances to use them.
Componentizing the web
Authors: Savage Taylor
Published: October 2015

We may be on the cusp of a new revolution in Web development.
Optimal Location Queries in Road Networks
Authors: Chen Zitong , Liu Yubao , Wong Raymond Chi-Wing , Xiong Jiamin , Mai Ganglin , Long Cheng
Published: October 2015

In this article, we study an optimal location query based on a road network. Specifically, given a road network containing clients and servers, an optimal location query finds a location on the road network such that when a new server is set up at this location, a certain cost function computed based on the clients and servers (including the new server) is optimized. Two types of cost functions, namely, MinMax and MaxSum, have been used for this query. The optimal location query problem with MinMax as the cost function is called the MinMax query, which finds a location for setting up a new server such that the maximum cost of a client being served by his/her closest server is minimized. The optimal location query problem with MaxSum as the cost function is called the MaxSum query, which finds a location for setting up a new server such that the sum of the weights of clients attracted by the new server is maximized. The MinMax query and the MaxSum query correspond to two types of optimal location query with the objectives defined from the clients' perspective and from the new server's perspective, respectively. Unfortunately, the existing solutions for the optimal query problem are not efficient. In this article, we propose an efficient algorithm, namely,
MinMax-Alg
(
MaxSum-Alg
), for the MinMax (MaxSum) query, which is based on a novel idea of
nearest location component
. We also discuss two extensions of the optimal location query, namely, the optimal multiple-location query and the optimal location query on a 3D road network. Extensive experiments were conducted, showing that our algorithms are faster than the state of the art by at least an order of magnitude on large real benchmark datasets. For example, in our largest real datasets, the state of the art ran for more than 10 (12) hours while our algorithm ran within 3 (2) minutes only for the MinMax (MaxSum) query, that is, our algorithm ran at least 200 (600) times faster than the state of the art.
SCANRAW
Authors: Cheng Yu , Rusu Florin
Published: October 2015

Traditional databases incur a significant
data-to-query
delay due to the requirement to
load data
inside the system before querying. Since this is not acceptable in many domains generating massive amounts of raw data (e.g., genomics), databases are entirely discarded.
External tables
, on the other hand, provide instant SQL querying over raw files. Their performance across a query workload is limited though by the speed of repeated full scans, tokenizing, and parsing of the entire file.

In this article, we propose SCANRAW, a novel database meta-operator for in-situ processing over raw files that integrates data loading and external tables seamlessly, while preserving their advantages: optimal performance across a query workload and zero time-to-query. We decompose loading and external table processing into atomic stages in order to identify common functionality. We analyze alternative implementations and discuss possible optimizations for each stage. Our major contribution is a
parallel superscalar pipeline implementation
that allows SCANRAW to take advantage of the current many- and multicore processors by overlapping the execution of independent stages. Moreover, SCANRAW overlaps query processing with loading by speculatively using the additional I/O bandwidth arising during the conversion process for storing data into the database, such that subsequent queries execute faster. As a result, SCANRAW makes intelligent use of the available system resources—CPU cycles and I/O bandwidth—by switching dynamically between tasks to ensure that optimal performance is achieved. We implement SCANRAW in a state-of-the-art database system and evaluate its performance across a variety of synthetic and real-world datasets. Our results show that SCANRAW with speculative loading achieves the best-possible performance for a query sequence at any point in the processing. Moreover, SCANRAW maximizes resource utilization for the entire workload execution while speculatively loading data and without interfering with normal query processing.
Scalable Object Retrieval with Compact Image Representation from Generic Object Regions
Authors: Sun Shaoyan , Zhou Wengang , Tian Qi , Li Houqiang
Published: October 2015

In content-based visual object retrieval, image representation is one of the fundamental issues in improving retrieval performance. Existing works adopt either local SIFT-like features or holistic features, and may suffer sensitivity to noise or poor discrimination power. In this article, we propose a compact representation for scalable object retrieval from few generic object regions. The regions are identified with a general object detector and are described with a fusion of learning-based features and aggregated SIFT features. Further, we compress feature representation in large-scale image retrieval scenarios. We evaluate the performance of the proposed method on two public ground-truth datasets, with promising results. Experimental results on a million-scale image database demonstrate superior retrieval accuracy with efficiency gain in both computation and memory usage.
From 3D Sensing to Printing
Authors: Zhang Longyu , Dong Haiwei , Saddik Abdulmotaleb El
Published: October 2015

Three-dimensional (3D) sensing and printing technologies have reshaped our world in recent years. In this article, a comprehensive overview of techniques related to the pipeline from 3D sensing to printing is provided. We compare the latest 3D sensors and 3D printers and introduce several sensing, postprocessing, and printing techniques available from both commercial deployments and published research. In addition, we demonstrate several devices, software, and experimental results of our related projects to further elaborate details of this process. A case study is conducted to further illustrate the possible tradeoffs during the process of this pipeline. Current progress, future research trends, and potential risks of 3D technologies are also discussed.
Companies proactively seek out internal threats
Authors: Shein Esther
Published: October 2015

Organizations must balance their concerns with the protection of employee privacy.
Brain science helps computers separate speakers in a crowded room
Authors: Edwards Chris
Published: October 2015

People can listen to a single voice amid the hubbub of a cocktail party; algorithms can help computers do it, too.
Discovery in the Internet of Things
Authors: Zaslavsky Arkady , Jayaraman Prem Prakash
Published: October 2015

How to find a "thing" in the Internet of Things (IoT) haystack? The answer to this question will be the key challenge that IoT users and developers are facing now and will face in the future. Current models for IoT are focused heavily on developing vertical solutions limited by hardware and software platforms and support. With the estimated explosion of IoT in the coming years as predicted by Cisco, IBM and Gartner, there is a need to rethink how IoT can deliver value to the end-user. A paradigm shift is required in the underlying fundamentals of current IoT developments to enable a wider notion of "thing" discovery as well as discovery of relevant data and context on the IoT. Discovery will allow users to build IoT apps, services and applications using "smart things" without the need for a priori knowledge of things. In this article, we look at the current state of IoT and argue for paradigm shift addressing why and how discovery can make a significant impact for the future of IoT and moreover, become a necessary component for IoT success story.