bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Two-Phase Analysis on the Conjugate Heat Transfer Performance of Microchannel With Cu, Al, SWCNT, and Hybrid Nanofluids
Authors: Nimmagadda Rajesh , Venkatasubbaiah K.
Published: May 2017

This numerical study has been carried out by developing two-phase mixture model with conjugate heat transfer. Pure and hybrid nanofluids (HyNF) with particle as well as base fluid hybridization are used in analyzing the performance of microchannel under forced convection laminar flow. The flow as well as heat transfer characteristics of pure water, copper (Cu), aluminum (Al), single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT), and hybrid (Cu + Al, water + methanol) nanofluids with various nanoparticle volume concentrations at different Reynolds numbers are reported. Sphericity-based effective thermal conductivity evaluation is considered in the case of SWCNT nanofluids by using volume and surface area of nanotubes. A significant enhancement in the average Nusselt number is observed numerically for both pure and hybrid nanofluids. Pure nanofluids such as Al, Cu, and SWCNT with 3 vol % nanoparticle concentration enhanced the average Nusselt number by 21.09%, 32.46%, and 71.25% in comparison with pure water at Re = 600. Whereas, in the case of hybrid nanofluids such as 3 vol % HyNF (0.6% Cu + 2.4% Al) and 3 vol % SWCNT (20% Me + 80% PW), the enhancement in average Nusselt number is observed to be 23.38% and 46.43% in comparison with pure water at Re = 600. The study presents three equivalent combinations of nanofluids (1 vol % Cu and 0.5 vol % SWCNT), (2 vol % Cu, 1 vol % SWCNT and 3 vol % HyNF (0.6% Cu + 2.4% Al)) as well as (2 vol % SWCNT and 3 vol % SWCNT (20% Me + 80% PW)) that provides a better switching option in choosing efficient working fluid with minimum cost based on cooling requirement. The study also shows that by dispersing SWCNT nanoparticles, one can enhance the heat transfer characteristics of base fluid containing methanol as antifreeze. The conduction phenomena of solid region cause the interface temperature between solid as well as fluid regions to increase along the length of the microchannel. The developed numerical model is validated with the numerical and experimental results available in the literature.
A Fundamental Study on the Chemical Stability of La1−xSrxCo0.2Fe0.8O3−δ Cathodes for Intermediate Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells
Authors: Qiu Yufeng , Pu Jian , Li Jian , Liu Yihui , Hua Bin
Published: May 2017

The chemical stability of La1−xSrxCo0.2Fe0.8O3−δ (x = 0, 0.4, 0.6, and 1) oxides before and after annealing at 750 °C in air is investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), and environmental transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Results indicate that Sr surface segregation has initially occurred at the sintering stage, and then, the secondary-phase particles are formed with increasing the heat-treatment time at 750 °C in air. Increasing Sr content accelerates Sr segregation on the surface, because of two driving forces including interaction forces in the crystal lattice and thermal activation. AES and XPS results reveal that Sr and Co segregations toward the surface have great contributions to the chemical instability of La1−xSrxCo1−yFeyO3−δ (LSCF) during annealing.
Green’s Function Iterative Approach for Solving Strongly Nonlinear Oscillators
Authors: Abukhaled Marwan
Published: May 2017

In this paper, a Green’s function based iterative algorithm is proposed to solve strong nonlinear oscillators. The method’s essential part is based on finding an appropriate Green’s function that will be incorporated into a linear integral operator. An application of fixed point iteration schemes such as Picard’s or Mann’s will generate an iterative formula that gives reliable approximations to the true periodic solutions that characterize these kinds of equations. The applicability and stability of the method will be tested through numerical examples. Since exact solutions to these equations usually do not exist, the proposed method will be tested against other popular numerical methods such as the modified homotopy perturbation, the modified differential transformation, and the fourth-order Runge–Kutta methods.
Ingestion of Sodium Bicarbonate (NaHCO3) Following a Fatiguing Bout of Exercise Accelerates Postexercise Acid-Base Balance Recovery and Improves Subsequent High-Intensity Cycling Time to Exhaustion
Authors: Gough Lewis A. , Rimmer Steven , Osler Callum J. , Higgins Matthew F.
Published: May 2017

This study evaluated the ingestion of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) on postexercise acid-base balance recovery kinetics and subsequent high-intensity cycling time to exhaustion. In a counterbalanced, crossover design, nine healthy and active males (age: 23 ± 2 years, height: 179 ± 5 cm, body mass: 74 ± 9 kg, peak mean minute power (Wpeak) 256 ± 45 W, peak oxygen uptake (V̇O2peak) 46 ± 8 ml.kg-1.min-1) performed a graded incremental exercise test, two familiarization and two experimental trials. Experimental trials consisted of cycling to volitional exhaustion (TLIM1) at 100% WPEAK on two occasions (TLIM1 and TLIM2) interspersed by a 90 min passive recovery period. Using a double-blind approach, 30 min into a 90 min recovery period participants ingested either 0.3 g.kg-1 body mass sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) or a placebo (PLA) containing 0.1 g.kg-1 body mass sodium chloride (NaCl) mixed with 4 ml.kg-1 tap water and 1 ml.kg-1 orange squash. The mean differences between TLIM2 and TLIM1 was larger for PLA compared with NaHCO3 (-53 ± 53 vs. -20 ± 48 s; p = .008, d = 0.7, CI =-0.3, 1.6), indicating superior subsequent exercise time to exhaustion following NaHCO3. Blood lactate [Bla-] was similar between treatments post TLIM1, but greater for NaHCO3 post TLIM2 and 5 min post TLIM2. Ingestion of NaHCO3 induced marked increases (p < .01) in both blood pH (+0.07 ± 0.02, d = 2.6, CI = 1.2, 3.7) and bicarbonate ion concentration [HCO3-] (+6.8 ± 1.6 mmo.l-1, d = 3.4, CI = 1.8, 4.7) compared with the PLA treatment, before TLIM2. It is likely both the acceleration of recovery, and the marked increases of acid-base after TLIM1 contributed to greater TLIM2 performance compared with the PLA condition.
Validity of a Linear Velocity Transducer for Testing Maximum Vertical Jumps
Authors: Pérez-Castilla Alejandro , Feriche Belén , Jaric Slobodan , Padial Paulino , García-Ramos Amador
Published: May 2017

This study aimed to examine the validity of mechanical variables obtained by a linear velocity transducer from the unconstrained and constrained squat jump (SJ). Twenty-three men were tested on the unconstrained SJ and the SJ constrained by a Smith machine. Maximum values of force, velocity, and power were simultaneously recorded both by a linear velocity transducer attached to a bar of mass of 17, 30, 45, 60, and 75 kg and by a force plate. Linear velocity transducer generally overestimated the outcomes measured as compared to the force plate, particularly in unconstrained SJ. Bland-Altman plots revealed that heteroscedasticity of errors was mainly observed for velocity variables (r
2 = .26–.58) where the differences were negatively associated with the load magnitude. However, exceptionally high correlations were observed between the same outcomes recorded with the 2 methods in both unconstrained (median r = .89 [.71–.95]) and constrained SJ (r = .90 [.65–.95]). Although the systematic and proportional bias needs to be acknowledged, the high correlations between the variables obtained by 2 methods suggest that the linear velocity transducer could provide valid values of the force, velocity, and power outputs from both unconstrained and constrained SJ.
A Comparison of Self-Selected Walking Speeds and Walking Speed Variability When Data Are Collected During Repeated Discrete Trials and During Continuous Walking
Authors: Brown Marcus J. , Hutchinson Laura A. , Rainbow Michael J. , Deluzio Kevin J. , De Asha Alan R.
Published: May 2017

A typical gait analysis data collection consists of a series of discrete trials, where a participant initiates gait, walks through a motion capture volume, and then terminates gait. This is not a normal ‘everyday’ gait pattern, yet measurements are considered representative of normal walking. However, walking speed, a global descriptor of gait quality that can affect joint kinematics and kinetics, may be different during discrete trials, compared to continuous walking. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of continuous walking versus discrete trials on walking speed and walking speed variability. Data were collected for 25 healthy young adults performing 2 walking tasks. The first task represented a typical gait data collection session, where subjects completed repeated trials, beginning from a standstill and walking along a 12-m walkway. The second task was continuous walking along a “figure-of-8” circuit, with 1 section containing the same 12-m walkway. Walking speed was significantly higher during the discrete trials compared to the continuous trials (p < .001), but there were no significant differences in walking speed variability between the conditions. The results suggest that choice of gait protocol may affect results where variables are sensitive to walking speed.
Reliability and Validity of an Acromion Marker Cluster for Recording Scapula Posture at End Range Clavicle Protraction, Retraction, Elevation, and Depression
Authors: Bet-Or Yaheli , van den Hoorn Wolbert , Johnston Venerina , O’Leary Shaun
Published: May 2017

Acromion marker cluster (AMC) methods have been shown to accurately track scapula motion during humeral elevation below 90°, however, their accuracy has not been assessed in shoulder girdle motion such as clavicle protraction, retraction, elevation, and depression independent of humeral movement. The aim of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of the AMC method to record scapula orientation at end range clavicle protraction, retraction, elevation, and depression. The right scapulae of 22 female and 20 male asymptomatic volunteers were assessed with an AMC and scapula locator (SL) method during end range clavicle protraction, retraction, elevation, and depression (without humeral elevation) using an 8-camera 3D movement registration system. Measurements recorded from the AMC and SL measures showed fair to excellent agreement (ICC 0.4–0.92). While the AMC method overestimated and underestimated scapular motion in some planes compared to the SL, root mean square error between methods were low for scapular internal/external rotation (2.3–3.7°), upward/downward rotation (4.5–6.6°), and anterior/posterior tilt (3.2–5.1°), across all conditions. The AMC method was shown to be a reliable and valid measurement of scapula orientation at end range clavicle movements independent of humeral movement.
Differences in Function and Fracture Risk in Postmenopausal Women With and Without a Recent Distal Radius Fracture
Authors: Crockett Katie , Kontulainen Saija A. , Farthing Jonathan P. , Chilibeck Philip D. , Bath Brenna , Baxter-Jones Adam D.G. , Arnold Catherine M.
Published: May 2017

A distal radius fracture (DRF) is commonly the first fracture to occur in early postmenopausal women. The reasons for sustaining a DRF may be related to fall risk, bone fragility, or both. The objective of this study was to compare functional and fracture risk status in postmenopausal women with and without a recent DRF and explore the relationships between function, grip strength, and fracture risk status. Seventy-seven women a ges 50–78 with (n = 32) and without (n = 45) a history of DRF in the past 2 years participated. Balance, timed up and go (TUG), gait velocity, balance confidence, sit to stand, grip strength, and fracture risk were assessed. There was a significant group difference after controlling for physical activity level (Pillai’s Trace, p < .05) where women with DRF had poorer outcomes on sit to stand, gait velocity, TUG, and fracture risk status. Grip strength was associated with functional tests, particularly in women with DRF. Women with a recent DRF demonstrated lower functional status and higher fracture risk compared to women without. Grip strength was associated with measures of function and fracture risk, and may complement screening tools for this population.
A Longitudinal Study of Motor and Cognitive Development in Infants With Congenital Idiopathic Clubfoot
Authors: Dillmann Julia , Peterlein Christian-Dominik , Schwarzer Gudrun
Published: May 2017

It was the aim of this study to examine the motor and cognitive development of infants with congenital idiopathic clubfoot, compared with typically developing infants. We repeatedly tested the gross motor, fine motor, and cognitive abilities of 12 infants with clubfoot and 12 typically developing infants at the ages of 4, 6, 9, and 12 months with the Bayley-III Scales. All infants with clubfoot were treated with the Ponseti method, which led to a restriction of normal movements of the lower extremities in the first months of life. They showed a great delay in gross motor development but not in fine motor or cognitive development. However, in the clubfoot group, we found some slight deficits in specific cognitive tasks, including problem solving and spatial memory. In addition, our results revealed significant correlations between gross and fine motor performance and cognitive performance in the control group but only between fine motor and cognitive performance in infants with clubfoot, indicating that both, fine and gross motor skills, are related to cognitive processes and can mutually replace each other to a certain degree. Further research is needed to gain a deeper understanding of clubfoot infants’ development and to clarify the need for mobility training.
Measuring Prospective Motor Control in Action Development
Authors: Gottwald Janna M.
Published: May 2017

This article critically reviews kinematic measures of prospective motor control. Prospective motor control, the ability to anticipatorily adjust movements with respect to task demands and action goals, is an important process involved in action planning. In manual object manipulation tasks, prospective motor control has been studied in various ways, mainly using motion tracking. For this matter, it is crucial to pinpoint the early part of the movement that purely reflects prospective (feed-forward) processes, but not feedback influences from the unfolding movement. One way of defining this period is to rely on a fixed time criterion; another is to base it flexibly on the inherent structure of each movement itself. Velocity—as one key characteristic of human movement—offers such a possibility and describes the structure of movements in a meaningful way. Here, I argue for the latter way of investigating prospective motor control by applying the measure of peak velocity of the first movement unit. I further discuss movement units and their significance in motor development of infants and contrast the introduced measure with other measures related to peak velocity and duration.
Functional Recovery After Rotator Cuff Repair: The Role of Biceps Surgery
Authors: Gialanella Bernardo , Grossetti Francesco , Mazza Marina , Danna Laura , Comini Laura
Published: May 2017

Context:Surgical cuff repair is recommended in a full-thickness rotator cuff tear when nonoperative treatment fails.Surgical cuff repair can include surgery of the long head of the biceps when concomitant biceps pathology is present. However, the studies executed up till now have not yet clearly defined if additional biceps surgery affects the shoulder functionality in patients who underwent rotator cuff repair.Objective:To verify if the concomitant biceps surgery prejudices shoulder functionality during the short-term period in rotator cuff repair patients.Design:Prospective and observational study.Setting:Outpatient service for rehabilitation.Patients:Ninety-three consecutive patients who had undergone surgery for full-thickness symptomatic rotator cuff tear were enrolled for rehabilitation; 25 underwent rotator cuff repair and tendon biceps surgery (ABS), while 68 underwent rotator cuff repair only (RCR).Interventions:Motor rehabilitation after surgical treatment of rotator cuff repair.Measures:Final Constant score was used as primary outcome measure, and efficiency and effectiveness in Constant score were evaluated both at the end of the last cycle of rehabilitation and 6 mo postsurgery.Results:Patients with rotator cuff repair and tendon biceps surgery had lower final scores (36.5 ± 12.0 vs 49.3 ± 13.0,P < .001), effectiveness (40.6 ± 18.0 vs 60.3 ± 20.0,P < .001), and efficiency (0.80 ± 0.5 vs 1.19 ± 0.6,P = .010) in Constant score than those with rotator cuff repair only at the end of rehabilitation. Moreover, they had a lower final score (53.3 ± 14.0 vs 64.5 ± 10.0,P < .001) and effectiveness (66.9 ± 21.0 vs 84.0 ± 16,P < .001) in Constant score 6 mo postsurgery. Gender was a determinant of final score, efficiency, and effectiveness in Constant score at the end of the rehabilitation period, while tendon biceps surgery was a determinant of final score and effectiveness in Constant score at the end of the rehabilitation period and at 6 mo postsurgery.Conclusions:This study highlights that concomitant tendon biceps surgery negatively affects functional outcome of patients who underwent rotator cuff repair and is an important determinant of shoulder functionality in the first 6 mo postsurgery.
Self-Reported Physical Activity and Exercise Patterns in Children With Sickle Cell Disease
Authors: Omwanghe Osarhiemen A. , Muntz Devin S. , Kwon Soyang , Montgomery Simone , Kemiki Opeyemi , Hsu Lewis L. , Thompson Alexis A. , Liem Robert I.
Published: May 2017

Purpose:

Sickle cell disease (SCD) significantly affects physical functioning. We examined physical activity (PA) patterns in children with SCD versus a national sample and factors associated with PA and participation in physical education and organized sports.

Method:

One hundred children with SCD completed a 58-item survey with questions from the 2009–2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) Physical Activity Questionnaire and others on physical education and sports, disease impact, and physical functioning.

Results:

Compared with NHANES participants, more children with SCD (67 vs 42%, p < .01) reported doing at least 10 min of moderate-to-vigorous intensity PA (MVPA)/week. Children with SCD also reported spending more days in MVPA (2.3 vs. 1.4 days/week, p < .01). However, fewer reported spending ³ 60 min/day in either vigorous PA (VPA) (24 vs. 43%, p = .01) or MVPA (17 vs 23%, p < .01). In addition, 90% and 48% of children with SCD participated in physical education and sports, respectively. Greater disease impact on PA and physical functioning were associated with lower participation.

Conclusion:

Children with SCD are active at moderate to vigorous intensity for shorter durations. Negative personal beliefs about disease impact and poor physical functioning represent barriers to PA in SCD.
Hamiltonicity of the Torus Network Under the Conditional Fault Model
Authors: Li Jing , Yang Yuxing , Gao Xiaohui
Published: May 2017

Low-dimensional Tori are regularly used as interconnection networks in distributed-memory parallel computers. This paper investigates the fault-Hamiltonicity of two-dimensional Tori. A sufficient condition is derived for the graph Row-Torus(m, 2n + 1) with two faulty edges to have a Hamiltonian cycle, where m ≥ 3 and n ≥ 1. By applying the fault-Hamiltonicity of Row-Torus to a two-dimensional torus, we show that Torus(m, n), m, n ≥ 5, with at most four faulty edges is Hamiltonian if the following two conditions are satisfied: (1) the degree of every vertex is at least two, and (2) there do not exist a pair of nonadjacent vertices in a 4-cycle whose degrees are both two after faulty edges are removed.
On chirality of toroidal embeddings of polyhedral graphs
Authors: Barthel Senja
Published: May 2017

We investigate properties of spatial graphs on the standard torus. It is known that nontrivial embeddings of planar graphs in the torus contain a nontrivial knot or a nonsplit link due to [2, 3]. Building on this and using the chirality of torus knots and links [9, 10], we prove that the nontrivial embeddings of simple 3-connected planar graphs in the standard torus are chiral. For the case that the spatial graph contains a nontrivial knot, the statement was shown by Castle et al. [5]. We give an alternative proof using minors instead of the Euler characteristic. To prove the case in which the graph embedding contains a nonsplit link, we show the chirality of Hopf ladders with at least three rungs, thus generalizing a theorem of Simon [12].
Rough Set Theory and Fuzzy Logic Based Warehousing of Heterogeneous Clinical Databases
Authors: Saravana Kumar R. , Tholkappia Arasu G.
Published: May 2017

Large amounts of data about the patients with their medical conditions are presented in the Medical databases. Analyzing all these databases is one of the difficult tasks in the medical environment. In order to warehouse all these databases and to analyze the patient’s condition, we need an efficient data mining technique. In this paper, an efficient data mining technique for warehousing clinical databases using Rough Set Theory (RST) and Fuzzy Logic is proposed. Our proposed methodology contains two phases – (i) Clustering and (ii) Classification. In the first phase, Rough Set Theory is used for clustering. Clustering is one of the data mining techniques for warehousing the heterogeneous data bases. Clustering technique is used to group data that have similar characteristics in the same cluster and also to group the data that have dissimilar characteristics with other clusters. After clustering the data, similar objects will be clustered in one cluster and the dissimilar objects will be clustered under another cluster. The RST can be reduced the complexity. Then in the second phase, these clusters are classified using Fuzzy Logic. Normally, Classification with Fuzzy Logic is generated more number of rules. Since the RST is utilized in our work, the classification using Fuzzy can be done with less amount of complexity. The proposed approach is evaluated using various clinical related databases from heart disease datasets – Cleveland, Switzerland and Hungarian. The performance analysis is based on Sensitivity, Specificity and Accuracy with different cluster numbers. The experimentation results show that our proposed methodology provides better accuracy result.
Design of Analog Fuzzy Controller for Autonomous Mobile Robot
Authors: Kapse Vinod , Jharia Bhavana , Thakur S. S. , Gupta C. P.
Published: May 2017

The analog fuzzy intelligent controllers for autonomous mobile robot to avoid static and dynamic obstacles in its local environment are presented. The controller designed for the robot is reconfigurable in nature in terms of number of rules in database i.e. flexibility for online rule change as per the frequency of obstacle in the local environment. The controller is proposed with adjustable membership function in terms of shape and degree of overlapping with dynamic rule base. New accurate MAX and MIN circuits are introduced. The controller is simulated using Tanner® tool. The two-input single-output fuzzy controller with 25 rules is implemented in 0.25µm CMOS technology. The maximum delay was found to be 9.915ns for the processing of 25 rules and the value of FLIPS was found to be 100.85 MFLIPS.
Interval Methods in Knowledge Representation
Authors: Kreinovich Vladik
Published: May 2017

Please send your abstracts (or copies of papers that you want to see reviewed here) to vladik@utep.edu, or by regular mail to Vladik Kreinovich, Department of Computer Science, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968, USA.
Parallel High-Level Synthesis Design Space Exploration for Behavioral IPs of Exact Latencies
Authors: Schafer Benjamin Carrion
Published: May 2017

This works presents a Design Space Exploration (DSE) method for Behavioral IPs (BIPs) given in ANSI-C or SystemC to find the smallest micro-architecture for a specific target latency. Previous work on High-Level Synthesis (HLS) DSE mainly focused on finding a tradeoff curve with Pareto-optimal designs. HLS is, however, a single process (component) synthesis method. Very often, the latency of the components requires a specific fixed latency when inserted within a larger system. This work presents a fast multi-threaded method to find the smallest micro-architecture for a given BIP and target latency by discriminating between all different exploration
knobs
and exploring these concurrently. Experimental results show that our proposed method is very effective and comprehensive results compare the quality of results vs. the speedup of your proposed explorer.
Approximate Energy-Efficient Encoding for Serial Interfaces
Authors: Pagliari Daniele Jahier , Macii Enrico , Poncino Massimo
Published: May 2017

Serial buses are ubiquitous interconnections in embedded computing systems that are used to interface processing elements with peripherals, such as sensors, actuators, and I/O controllers. Despite their limited wiring, as off-chip connections they can account for a significant amount of the total power consumption of a system-on-chip device. Encoding the information sent on these buses is the most intuitive and affordable way to reduce their power contribution; moreover, the encoding can be made even more effective by exploiting the fact that many embedded applications can tolerate intermediate approximations without a significant impact on the final quality of results, thus trading off accuracy for power consumption. We propose a simple yet very effective approximate encoding for reducing dynamic energy in serial buses. Our approach uses differential encoding as a baseline scheme and extends it with bounded approximations to overcome the intrinsic limitations of differential encoding for data with low temporal correlation. We show that the proposed scheme, in addition to yielding extremely compact codecs, is superior to all state-of-the-art approximate serial encodings over a wide set of traces representing data received or sent from/to sensor or actuators.
Design Methodology of Fault-Tolerant Custom 3D Network-on-Chip
Authors: Li Katherine Shu-Min , Wang Sying-Jyan
Published: May 2017

A systematic design methodology is presented for custom Network-on-Chip (NoC) in three-dimensional integrated circuits (3D-ICs). In addition, fault tolerance is supported in the NoC if extra links are included in the NoC topology. In the proposed method, processors and the communication architecture are synthesized simultaneously in the 3D floorplanning process. 3D-IC technology enables ICs to be implemented in smaller size with higher performance; on the flip side, 3D-ICs suffer yield loss due to multiple dies in a 3D stack and lower manufacturing yield of through-silicon vias (TSVs). To alleviate this problem, a known-good-dies (KGD) test can be applied to ensure every die to be packaged into a 3D-IC is fault-free. However, faulty TSVs cannot be tested in the KGD test. In this article, the proposed method deals with the problem by providing fault tolerance in the NoC topology. The efficiency of the proposed method is evaluated using several benchmark circuits, and the experimental results show that the proposed method produces 3D NoCs with comparable performance than previous methods when fault-tolerant features are not realized. With fault tolerance in NoCs, higher yield can be achieved at the cost of performance penalty and elevated power level.
Scalable Bandwidth Shaping Scheme via Adaptively Managed Parallel Heaps in Manycore-Based Network Processors
Authors: Kim Taehyun , Lim Jongbum , Kim Jinku , Cho Woo-Cheol , Chung Eui-Young , Lee Hyuk-Jun
Published: May 2017

Scalability of network processor-based routers heavily depends on limitations imposed by memory accesses and associated power consumption. Bandwidth shaping of a flow is a key function, which requires a token bucket per output queue and abuses memory bandwidth. As the number of output queues increases, managing token buckets becomes prohibitively expensive and limits scalability. In this work, we propose a scalable software-based token bucket management scheme that can reduce memory accesses and power consumption significantly. To satisfy real-time and low-cost constraints, we propose novel parallel heap data structures running on a manycore-based network processor. By using cache locking, the performance of heap processing is enhanced significantly and is more predictable. In addition, we quantitatively analyze the performance and memory footprint of the proposed software scheme using stochastic modeling and the Lyapunov central limit theorem. Finally, the proposed scheme provides an adaptive method to limit the size of heaps in the case of oversubscribed queues, which can successfully isolate the queues showing unideal behavior. The proposed scheme reduces memory accesses by up to three orders of magnitude for one million queues sharing a 100Gbps interface of the router while maintaining stability under stressful scenarios.
Understanding I/O Performance Behaviors of Cloud Storage from a Client’s Perspective
Authors: Hou Binbing , Chen Feng , Ou Zhonghong , Wang Ren , Mesnier Michael
Published: May 2017

Cloud storage has gained increasing popularity in the past few years. In cloud storage, data is stored in the service provider’s data centers, and users access data via the network. For such a new storage model, our prior wisdom about conventional storage may not remain valid nor applicable to the emerging cloud storage. In this article, we present a comprehensive study to gain insight into the unique characteristics of cloud storage and optimize user experiences with cloud storage from a client’s perspective. Unlike prior measurement work that mostly aims to characterize cloud storage providers or specific client applications, we focus on analyzing the effects of various client-side factors on the user-experienced performance. Through extensive experiments and quantitative analysis, we have obtained several important findings. For example, we find that (1) a proper combination of parallelism and request size can achieve optimized bandwidths, (2) a client’s capabilities and geographical location play an important role in determining the end-to-end user-perceivable performance, and (3) the interference among mixed cloud storage requests may cause performance degradation. Based on our findings, we showcase a sampling- and inference-based method to determine a proper combination for different optimization goals. We further present a set of case studies on client-side chunking and parallelization for typical cloud-based applications. Our studies show that specific attention should be paid to fully exploiting the capabilities of clients and the great potential of cloud storage services.
The Niemann-Pick C1 gene interacts with a high-fat diet to promote weight gain through differential regulation of central energy metabolism pathways
Authors: Castillo Joseph J. , Jelinek David , Wei Hao , Gannon Nicholas P. , Vaughan Roger A. , Horwood L. John , Meaney F. John , Garcia-Smith Randi , Trujillo Kristina A. , Heidenreich Randall A. , Meyre David , Orlando Robert A. , LeBoeuf Renee C. , Garver William S.
Published: May 2017

A genome-wide association study (GWAS) reported that common variation in the human Niemann-Pick C1 gene ( NPC1) is associated with morbid adult obesity. This study was confirmed using our BALB/cJ Npc1 mouse model, whereby heterozygous mice ( Npc1+/−) with decreased gene dosage were susceptible to weight gain when fed a high-fat diet (HFD) compared with homozygous normal mice ( Npc1+/+) fed the same diet. The objective for our current study was to validate this Npc1 gene-diet interaction using statistical modeling with fitted growth trajectories, conduct body weight analyses for different measures, and define the physiological basis responsible for weight gain. Metabolic phenotype analysis indicated no significant difference between Npc1+/+and Npc1+/−mice fed a HFD for food and water intake, oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production, locomotor activity, adaptive thermogenesis, and intestinal lipid absorption. However, the livers from Npc1+/−mice had significantly increased amounts of mature sterol regulatory element-binding protein-1 (SREBP-1) and increased expression of SREBP-1 target genes that regulate glycolysis and lipogenesis with an accumulation of triacylglycerol and cholesterol. Moreover, white adipose tissue from Npc1+/−mice had significantly decreased amounts of phosphorylated hormone-sensitive lipase with decreased triacylglycerol lipolysis. Consistent with these results, cellular energy metabolism studies indicated that Npc1+/−fibroblasts had significantly increased glycolysis and lipogenesis, in addition to significantly decreased substrate (glucose and endogenous fatty acid) oxidative metabolism with an accumulation of triacylglycerol and cholesterol. In conclusion, these studies demonstrate that the Npc1 gene interacts with a HFD to promote weight gain through differential regulation of central energy metabolism pathways.
4D Applications of GIS in Construction Management
Authors: Kumar A. Chaitanya , Reshma T.
Published: May 2017

Construction industries broadly involve different set of construction activities which are to be executed as per schedule and the major software used for scheduling is PRIMAVERA and Microsoft Project (MSP). But the software still lacks a feature of providing spatial aspects of information in construction schedule. Recently, advanced technology like 4D GIS plays a major role in overcoming the limitation of the software. 4D GIS technology includes integration of 2D drawings from AutoCAD and schedules prepared in PRIMAVERA software. In the present study, a multistair residential building has been selected. ARCMAP 10.2 is used for interlinking of schedules as well as drawings and ARCSCENE has been used for developing 4D view. This linkage between scheduled activities and respective drawings in GIS helps in identifying construction sequences and also in detecting logical errors that occur in project schedules. The developed 4D view provides better visualization of construction progress of a project.
Aneurysm of the Pulmonary Artery in Fallot’s Tetralogy
Authors: Afrikh Kawtar , Hattach Loua , Fellat Nadia , El Bakkali Mustapha , Benjelloun Halima
Published: May 2017

Introduction. Pulmonary artery aneurysms are a rare entity. Etiologies of these findings are multiple, but they are exceptionally associated with Fallot’s Tetralogy. In this study, we present an unusual case of an important aneurysm of the left pulmonary artery associated with Fallot’s Tetralogy disease. Case Presentation. A 30-year-old woman has been admitted for dyspnea and cyanosis. The data which had been obtained from echocardiography, cardiac catheterization, and angio-magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) suggested the existence of an important aneurysm of the left pulmonary artery associated with a regular Fallot’s disease with a pulmonic stenosis. We have noticed the presence of a small restrictive patent ductus arteriosus (PDA). Therefore, the patient was referred to surgical correction. Conclusion. Pulmonary artery aneurysms associated with Fallot’s Tetralogy are rarely reported. The natural history of these rare arterial aneurysms has to be clarified.
Epidural Anesthesia for Cesarean Section in a Pregnant Woman with Marfan Syndrome and Dural Ectasia
Authors: Pepe Franco , Stracquadanio Mariagrazia , De Luca Francesco , Privitera Agata , Sanalitro Elisabetta , Scarpinati Puccio
Published: May 2017

Marfan syndrome (MFS) is a genetic disorder of connective tissue, characterized by variable clinical features and multisystem complications. The anesthetic management during delivery is debated. Regional anesthesia has been used with success during cesarean delivery, but in some MFS patients there is a probability of erratic and inadequate spread of intrathecal local anesthetics as a result of dural ectasia. In these cases, epidural anesthesia may be a particularly useful technique during cesarean delivery because it allows an adequate spread and action of local anesthetic with a controlled onset of anesthesia, analgesia, and sympathetic block and a low risk of perioperative complications. We report the perioperative management of a patient with MFS and dural ectasia who successfully underwent cesarean section using epidural technique anesthesia. The previous pregnancy of this woman ended with cesarean section with a failed spinal anesthesia that was converted to general anesthesia due to unknown dural ectasia at that time.
Perception of Community Pharmacists towards Dispensing Errors in Community Pharmacy Setting in Gondar Town, Northwest Ethiopia
Authors: Asmelashe Gelayee Dessalegn , Binega Mekonnen Gashaw
Published: May 2017

Background. Dispensing errors are inevitable occurrences in community pharmacies across the world. Objective. This study aimed to identify the community pharmacists’ perception towards dispensing errors in the community pharmacies in Gondar town, Northwest Ethiopia. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 47 community pharmacists selected through convenience sampling. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. Descriptive statistics, Mann–Whitney U test, and Pearson’s Chi-square test of independence were conducted with P≤0.05 considered statistically significant. Result. The majority of respondents were in the 23–28-year age group (N=26, 55.3%) and with at least B.Pharm degree (N=25, 53.2%). Poor prescription handwriting and similar/confusing names were perceived to be the main contributing factors while all the strategies and types of dispensing errors were highly acknowledged by the respondents. Group differences (P<0.05) in opinions were largely due to educational level and age. Conclusion. Dispensing errors were associated with prescribing quality and design of dispensary as well as dispensing procedures. Opinion differences relate to age and educational status of the respondents.
Adaptive Countering Technique for Angle Deception Based on Dual Polarization Radar Seeker
Authors: Zhang Qiang , Pan Weijun
Published: May 2017

Angle deception jamming makes the monopulse radar seeker track to itself but not the real target, which is catastrophic for the guidance radar. In this paper, an adaptive technique based on dual polarization radar is presented to counter it. How angle deception jamming acts on the monopulse tracking radar is first investigated. An angle estimation technique of the real target is then derived from the conventional monopulse method, although it is being interfered with by angle deception jamming. Meanwhile, the polarization ratio characteristic of the angle deception jamming could be adaptively estimated in current practical scene. Furthermore, the similar characteristic of Jones vectors is defined as the rule to judge whether the target is being interfered with by jamming. It can make the radar seeker select different techniques for angle estimation adaptively. Finally, two major factors of angle estimation accuracy are analyzed by simulation and the effectiveness of the proposed technique is proved through experiments.
The Potential of a Brown Microalga Cultivated in High Salt Medium for the Production of High-Value Compounds
Authors: Boukhris Saoussan , Athmouni Khaled , Hamza-Mnif Ibtissem , Siala-Elleuch Rayda , Ayadi Habib , Nasri Moncef , Sellami-Kamoun Alya
Published: May 2017

Amphora sp. was isolated from the Sfax Solar Saltern and cultivated under hypersaline conditions. It contains moderate rates of proteins, lipids, sugars, and minerals and a prominent content of bioactive compounds: polyphenols, chlorophyll a, carotenoids, and fatty acids. The analysis of fatty acids with GC/MS showed that the C16 series accounted for about 75% of Amphora sp. lipids. Saturated fatty acids whose palmitic acid was the most important (27.41%) represented 41.31%. Amphora sp. was found to be rich in monounsaturated fatty acids with dominance of palmitoleic acid. It also contains a significant percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acids with a high amount of eicosapentaenoic acid (2.36%). Among the various solvents used, ethanol at 80% extracted the highest amounts of phenols and flavonoids that were 38.27 mg gallic acid equivalent and 17.69 mg catechin equivalent g−1 of dried extract, respectively. Using various in vitro assays including DPPH and ABTS radicals methods, reducing power assay, and β-carotene bleaching assay, the 80% ethanolic extract showed high antioxidant activity. A strong antibacterial activity was checked against Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus and Micrococcus luteus) and Gram-negative bacteria (Klebsiella pneumoniae and Salmonella enterica). These results are in favor of Amphora sp. valorization in aquaculture and food and pharmaceutical industries.
Vestibular Derangement and Motion Intolerance in VATER Association
Authors: Samuel Orit , Shupak Avi , Eran Ayelet , Tal Dror
Published: May 2017

VATER association is a nonrandom occurrence of congenital malformations: vertebral defects, anal atresia, tracheoesophageal fistula, renal defects, and radial bone anomalies. We report the case of a 19-year-old man with a childhood diagnosis of VATER association, who presented to the motion sickness clinic with severe seasickness. We discuss the clinical and laboratory diagnosis of vestibular pathophysiology, which was confirmed by MRI of lateral semicircular canal and vestibule dysplasia. We suggest the possibility of vestibular involvement as part of the developmental field defect associated with VATER syndrome, which hitherto has rarely been reported.
Genetics and Molecular Biology of Epstein-Barr Virus-Encoded BART MicroRNA: A Paradigm for Viral Modulation of Host Immune Response Genes and Genome Stability
Authors: Dreyfus David H.
Published: May 2017

Epstein-Barr virus, a ubiquitous human herpesvirus, is associated through epidemiologic evidence with common autoimmune syndromes and cancers. However, specific genetic mechanisms of pathogenesis have been difficult to identify. In this review, the author summarizes evidence that recently discovered noncoding RNAs termed microRNA encoded by Epstein-Barr virus BARF (BamHI A right frame) termed BART (BamHI A right transcripts) are modulators of human immune response genes and genome stability in infected and bystander cells. BART expression is apparently regulated by complex feedback loops with the host immune response regulatory NF-κB transcription factors. EBV-encoded BZLF-1 (ZEBRA) protein could also regulate BART since ZEBRA contains a terminal region similar to ankyrin proteins such as IκBαthat regulate host NF-κB. BALF-2 (BamHI A left frame transcript), a viral homologue of the immunoglobulin and T cell receptor gene recombinase RAG-1 (recombination-activating gene-1), may also be coregulated with BART since BALF-2 regulatory sequences are located near the BART locus. Viral-encoded microRNA and viral mRNA transferred to bystander cells through vesicles, defective viral particles, or other mechanisms suggest a new paradigm in which bystander or hit-and-run mechanisms enable the virus to transiently or chronically alter human immune response genes as well as the stability of the human genome.
Incorporating Topic Assignment Constraint and Topic Correlation Limitation into Clinical Goal Discovering for Clinical Pathway Mining
Authors: Xu Xiao , Jin Tao , Wei Zhijie , Wang Jianmin
Published: May 2017

Clinical pathways are widely used around the world for providing quality medical treatment and controlling healthcare cost. However, the expert-designed clinical pathways can hardly deal with the variances among hospitals and patients. It calls for more dynamic and adaptive process, which is derived from various clinical data. Topic-based clinical pathway mining is an effective approach to discover a concise process model. Through this approach, the latent topics found by latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) represent the clinical goals. And process mining methods are used to extract the temporal relations between these topics. However, the topic quality is usually not desirable due to the low performance of the LDA in clinical data. In this paper, we incorporate topic assignment constraint and topic correlation limitation into the LDA to enhance the ability of discovering high-quality topics. Two real-world datasets are used to evaluate the proposed method. The results show that the topics discovered by our method are with higher coherence, informativeness, and coverage than the original LDA. These quality topics are suitable to represent the clinical goals. Also, we illustrate that our method is effective in generating a comprehensive topic-based clinical pathway model.
A Hierarchical Allometric Scaling Analysis of Chinese Cities: 1991–2014
Authors: Chen Yanguang , Feng Jian
Published: May 2017

The law of allometric scaling based on Zipf distributions can be employed to research hierarchies of cities in a geographical region. However, the allometric patterns are easily influenced by random disturbance from the noises in observational data. In theory, both the allometric growth law and Zipf’s law are related to the hierarchical scaling laws associated with fractal structure. In this paper, the scaling laws of hierarchies with cascade structure are used to study Chinese cities, and the method of R/S analysis is applied to analyzing the change trend of the allometric scaling exponents. The results show that the hierarchical scaling relations of Chinese cities became clearer and clearer from 1991 to 2014 year; the global allometric scaling exponent values fluctuated around 0.85, and the local scaling exponent approached 0.85. The Hurst exponent of the allometric parameter change is greater than 0.5, indicating persistence and a long-term memory of urban evolution. The main conclusions can be reached as follows: the allometric scaling law of cities represents an evolutionary order rather than an invariable rule, which emerges from self-organized process of urbanization, and the ideas from allometry and fractals can be combined to optimize spatial and hierarchical structure of urban systems in future city planning.
Antimicrobial Activity of Quinazolin Derivatives of 1,2-Di(quinazolin-4-yl)diselane against Mycobacteria
Authors: Tang Bikui , Wei Meili , Niu Qun , Huang Yinjiu , Ru Shuo , Liu Xiaofen , Shen Lin , Fang Qiang
Published: May 2017

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. Currently, the emergence of drug resistance has an urgent need for new drugs. In previous study, we found that 1,2-di(quinazolin-4-yl)diselane (DQYD), a quinazoline derivative, has anticancer activities against many cancers. However, whether DQYD has the activity of antimycobacterium is still little known. Here our results show that DQYD has a similar value of the minimum inhibitory concentration with clinical drugs against mycobacteria and also has the ability of bacteriostatic activity with dose-dependent and time-dependent manner. Furthermore, the activities of DQYD against M. tuberculosis are associated with intracellular ATP homeostasis. Meanwhile, mycobacterium DNA damage level was increased after DQYD treatment. But there was no correlation between survival of mycobacteria in the presence of DQYD and intercellular reactive oxygen species. This study enlightens the possible benefits of quinazoline derivatives as potential antimycobacterium compounds and furtherly suggests a new strategy to develop new methods for searching antituberculosis drugs.