bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
E-books: A Tale of Digital Disruption
Authors: Gilbert Richard J.
Published: July 2015

E-book sales surged after Amazon introduced the Kindle e-reader at the end of 2007 and accounted for about one quarter of all trade book sales by the end of 2013. Amazon's aggressive (low) pricing of e-books led to allegations that e-books were bankrupting brick and mortar book booksellers. Amazon's commanding position as a bookseller also raises concerns about monopoly power, and publishers are concerned about Amazon's power to displace them in the book value chain. I find little evidence that e-books are primarily responsible for the decline of independent booksellers. I also conclude that entry barriers are not sufficient to allow Amazon to set monopoly prices. Publishers are at risk from Amazon's monopsony (buyer) power and so sought “agency” pricing in an effort to raise the price of ebooks, promote retail competition, and reduce Amazon's influence as an e-retailer. (In the agency pricing model, the publisher specifies the retail price with a commission for the retailer. In a traditional, “wholesale” pricing model, publishers sell a book to retailers at a wholesale price and retailers set the retail price.) Although agency pricing was challenged by the Department of Justice, it may yet prevail in some form as an equilibrium pricing model for e-book sales.
The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and Its Effects on American Indian Economic Development
Authors: Akee Randall K. Q. , Spilde Katherine A. , Taylor Jonathan B.
Published: July 2015

The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), passed by the US Congress in 1988, was a watershed in the history of policymaking directed toward reservation-resident American Indians. IGRA set the stage for tribal government-owned gaming facilities. It also shaped how this new industry would develop and how tribal governments would invest gaming revenues. Since then, Indian gaming has approached commercial, state-licensed gaming in total revenues. Gaming operations have had a far-reaching and transformative effect on American Indian reservations and their economies. Specifically, Indian gaming has allowed marked improvements in several important dimensions of reservation life. For the first time, some tribal governments have moved to fiscal independence. Native nations have invested gaming revenues in their economies and societies, often with dramatic effect.
Law, Regulation, and the Business Climate: The Nature and Influence of the World Bank Doing Business Project
Authors: Besley Timothy
Published: July 2015

The importance of a well-functioning legal and regulatory system in creating an effective market economy is now widely accepted. One flagship project that tries to measure the environment in which businesses operate in countries across the world is the World Bank's Doing Business project, which was launched in 2002. This project gathers quantitative data to compare regulations faced by small and medium-size enterprises across economies and over time. The centerpiece of the project is the annual Doing Business report. It was first published in 2003 with five sets of indicators for 133 economies, and currently includes 11 sets of indicators for 189 economies. The report includes a table that ranks each country in the world according to its scores across the indicators. The Doing Business project has become a major resource for academics, journalists, and policymakers. The project also enjoys a high public profile with close to ten million hits on its website each year. With such interest, it's no surprise that the Doing Business report has come under intense scrutiny. In 2012, following discussions by its board, the World Bank commissioned an independent review panel to evaluate the project, on which I served as a member. In this paper, I first describe how the Doing Business project works and illustrate with some of the key findings of the 2015 report. Next, I address what is valuable about the project, the criticisms of it, and some wider political economy issues illustrated by the report.
Seismic Isolators and their Types
Authors: Kamrava Alireza
Published: July 2015

In this paper I would like to describe about what seismic isolation is., seismic isolators, their types ,how do they work? ,their advantage and disadvantage. In seismic isolator types you will read about Elastomeric bearings, Natural and Synthetic Rubber Bearings , Lead Rubber Bearings , Friction pendulum bearing, Supplymetal Damping Devices like Buckling Restrained Brace, Fluid Dampers, Visco-Elastic Dampers,Friction Dampers, Hysteretic Dampers(Yeilding Dampers).In advantage and disadvantage part you will read some tips about using seismic isolators. In conclusion you will read a review about seismic isolation and using seismic isolators.
Reduction of Local Scour Around A Bridge Pier Using Triple Rectangular Plates
Authors: Arabani Alireza , Hajikandi Human
Published: July 2015

The performance of vertical triple plates as a new countermeasure in control of local scour around a cylindrical model pier is studied. Two ones of the plates are attached to the side wall one of the pier at one pier diameter distance, extending toward upstream distance and the third one is located in the middle, attached to the pier nose. All the three plates are parallel to flow direction. Experiments are conducted for five different depths of flow and two different lengths of the lateral plates, namely 8 and 14 cm. all the runs are performed under the clear water flow over uniform sediment. The results showed a maximum efficiency of 76% in scour reduction for 8 cm long side plates and 85% for 14 cm long ones.it is also found that the proposed setup act simultaneously as both the bed armoring and flow altering countermeasure.
Determination Discharge Capacity of Triangular Labyrinth Side Weir Using Multi-Layer Neural Network (ANN-MLP)
Authors: Karimi Sohrab , Bonakdari Hossein , Gholami Azadeh
Published: July 2015

statistic indexes have been used to assess the accuracy of the results. The results of the examinations indicate that using MLP model along with simultaneous use of dimensionless parameters for the purposes of estimating discharge coefficient: the ratio of water behind the weir to the channel width (h/b), ratio of weir crest length to weir height (L/W), relative Froude number (F=V/√(2Side weirs are used in open channels to control flood and the flow passing through it. Discharge capacity is one of the crucial hydraulic parameters of side weirs. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of the intended dimensionless parameters on predicting the discharge coefficient of triangular labyrinth side weir. MAPE, RMSE, and Rgy)) and vertex angle (ϴ), offered the best results (MAPE= 0.67, R2= 0.99, RMSE = 0.009) in comparison with other models.
Simulation as A Tool for Productivity Modeling of Precast Concrete Installation
Authors: Tiong Robert
Published: July 2015

Construction simulation is a technique that is mainly used to assess the productivity of repetitive construction operations. Therefore, this technique was applied in this study to evaluate the productivity of horizontal precast concrete (PC) installation. The installation of 70 PC panels (beams and slabs) were observed and a WEBCYCLONE model was developed. The analysis showed that the developed model was able to provide valid estimates of the actual installation times with acceptable percentage error (7.61 percent). Additionally, based on the results from resource utilization, construction managers and site supervisors can provide more efficient labor planning for daily activities.
Solidification of the Sense of Eminency by Distraction of Light and Shadow at Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque
Authors: Farsa Moeid , Jahri Mahdiye , Alirezai Mehdi
Published: July 2015

Architecture and light are to that extent dependent on each other which body and spirits are.One for living and the other for physical presence in this world needs the other and while light is flown on the body of the space both two perceptible worlds become “ existed “.Since long ago, bright and shimmering materials which remind something living in the mind of individual were respectable and adorable. Being aware of the process of exploitation of sunlight is of importance as much as the process of materials formation or different fundamental forms of construction in order to design.

Almost in all religions, light is the symbol of Devine wisdom and the Essene of all beneficence and purities and mobility from darkness to light, was considered as the main objective. Islamic Mosques which are ornamented with light are perfectly able to transmit this divine and moral sense.
In such spaces which are lighten up with a shimmering light and by observance of the imprecise shadows of substances and masses, individual starts to complete the pictures in his mind and by such an activity gets in to an ecstasy and as a result a feeling of getting close to the source of existence and reality wakens up inner inside him.
The present survey by depending on descriptive-analytic methods, studies light in Islamic and traditional architecture.
This paper by case study of Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, aims to find out whether the presence of light and specifically natural light in architecture might have further meaning rather than brightness, and whether accessing an accurate pattern of application of light is possible or there is basically no compulsion in it ?
Systemic Analyzing the Current Challenges in the Field of Public Health and Safety in Urban Construction- Case Study Mazandaran Province
Authors: Moghaddasi Seyed , Ala Morteza , Shaibaniasl Manuchehr
Published: July 2015

Accidents that occur during operation of building constructions are bitter and tragic incidents that kill and injure many individuals and cause considerable property damage and other consequences associated. Thus, the study of the causes of these accidents in order to adopt the necessary measures to prevent them is inevitable. In this research, study and analysis of accidents on building sites in different cities of West Mazandaran, was written based on the systemic vision, for the first time, to determine the causes of accidents at construction sites, indirect factors considered with an expert view and eventually classified into several subjects .In studying the Factors influencing the accident in the system vision, a range of factors ignored in the ordinary look, to be determined. Also, in this study, the issue has not been raised in the context of safety, and world`s new look, the health, safety and the environment (HSE) has been considered. Regarding the type of research conducted, the achieved results and solutions can be effective and useful in improving the health, safety and environmental protection in the construction sector, and involving the use of standard materials, strengthening the bonds of executive and management commitment to strengthen and increase the number of skilled workers and establish a comprehensive system construction as a single system in the country, according to the study seems necessary.
On the predicament of Africanist knowledge: Mudimbe, gnosis and the challenge of the colonial library
Authors: Wai Zubairu
Published: July 2015

One of the major conceptual apparatuses in Mudimbe’s critical repertoire is the concept of the ‘colonial library’, an abstraction that denotes the immense body of texts and systems of representation that for centuries has functioned to produce Africa as a paradigm of difference and alterity. A transdisciplinary space the huge knowledge capital of which constitutes and is constitutive of the epistemological locus of Africa’s invention, the colonial library, Mudimbe tells us, also incarnates a paradox: while its knowledge capital serves to justify monstrosities such as Atlantic slavery and colonialism, it has also been from within the foundations of its power knowledge regimes that Africans themselves have sought to interrogate western discourses on Africa, as well as produce their own notions of self-identity, discourses of Otherness and ideologies of alterity. What exactly is this library, and how does it structure knowledge on and about Africa? This article examines the colonial library and the problem it poses for Africanist knowledge. It asks whether discourse on and about Africa outside of the power-knowledge regimes of the library is possible, or, whether Africanist knowledge is always already doomed at its very moment of enunciation since it is always contaminated by the violence of its epistemological region of emergence. The article concludes by engaging with Achille Mbembe in order to illustrate the difficulty of escaping the vicious circle generated by the colonial library.

La ‘bibliothèque coloniale’ est un des principaux appareils conceptuels du répertoire critique mudimbéen. Ce concept est une abstraction censée représenter un immense corpus de textes et d’images qui, pendant des siècles, a alimenté l’idée selon laquelle l’Afrique serait le continent de la différence et de l’altérité. Espace transdisciplinaire dont l’énorme capital intellectuel constitue le locus épistémologique de l’invention de l’Afrique, la bibliothèque coloniale, ainsi que Mudimbe le remarque, incarne aussi un paradoxe. D’un côté, elle fut mobilisée pour justifier des monstruosités telles que la traite négrière atlantique et le colonialisme; d’un autre côté, c’est à partir du pouvoir-savoir qui la constituait que les Africains se sont employés à interroger les discours occidentaux sur l’Afrique ainsi qu’à produire leurs propres notions identitaires et, finalement, à élaborer leur singularité discursive et idéologique. En quoi consiste exactement cette bibliothèque et de quelles ressources tire-t-elle profit pour structurer le savoir africain? Cet article se penche en outre sur les défis que la bibliothèque coloniale pose à l’émergence d’un savoir africaniste. D’autres questions connexes seront abordées: peut-on concevoir une réflexion sur l’Afrique en dehors de la dualité pouvoir-savoir qui régit la bibliothèque? Doit-on plutôt se résigner à accepter que tout discours africaniste se trouve, dès le moment de son énonciation, irrémédiablement contaminé par son contexte épistémologique d’origine?
Ethiopia in Black Studies from W. E. B. Du Bois to Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Authors: Gebrekidan Fikru Negash
Published: July 2015

In his integration of the Ethiopian past into Nile-valley history, W. E. B. Du Bois popularized a perspective that ran contrary to conventional wisdom. Du Bois’s Afrocentric interpretation, briefly postulated in his 1915 publication, The Negro, was to shape the scholarship of a generation. Even among mainstream Ethiopianists, to whom Du Bois had long remained anathema, his insight has finally gained a foothold. This essay demonstrates how the Du Boisian thesis has persisted on the fringes of Ethiopian studies, at times ignored and neglected, but always serving as a foil to Semitic Orientalism.
Leveraging history for faster sampling of online social networks
Authors: Zhou Zhuojie , Zhang Nan , Das Gautam
Published: July 2015

With a vast amount of data available on online social networks, how to enable efficient analytics over such data has been an increasingly important research problem. Given the sheer size of such social networks, many existing studies resort to sampling techniques that draw random nodes from an online social network through its restrictive web/API interface. While these studies differ widely in analytics tasks supported and algorithmic design, almost all of them use the exact same underlying technique ofrandom walk- a Markov Chain Monte Carlo based method which iteratively transits from one node to its random neighbor.

Random walk fits naturally with this problem because, for most online social networks, the only query we can issue through the interface is to retrieve the neighbors of a given node (i.e., no access to the full graph topology). A problem with random walks, however, is the "burn-in" period which requires a large number of transitions/queries before the sampling distribution converges to a stationary value that enables the drawing of samples in a statistically valid manner.

In this paper, we consider a novel problem of speeding up the fundamental design of random walks (i.e., reducing the number of queries it requires)withoutchanging the stationary distribution it achieves - thereby enabling a more efficient "drop-in" replacement for existing sampling-based analytics techniques over online social networks. Technically, our main idea is to leverage the history of random walks to construct a higher-ordered Markov chain. We develop two algorithms,Circulated NeighborsandGroupby NeighborsRandom Walk (CNRW and GNRW) and rigidly prove that, no matter what the social network topology is, CNRW and GNRW offer better efficiency than baseline random walks while achieving the same stationary distribution. We demonstrate through extensive experiments on real-world social networks and synthetic graphs the superiority of our techniques over the existing ones.
Functional dependency discovery
Authors: Papenbrock Thorsten , Ehrlich Jens , Marten Jannik , Neubert Tommy , Rudolph Jan-Peer , Schönberg Martin , Zwiener Jakob , Naumann Felix
Published: July 2015

Functional dependencies are important metadata used for schema normalization, data cleansing and many other tasks. The efficient discovery of functional dependencies in tables is a well-known challenge in database research and has seen several approaches. Because no comprehensive comparison between these algorithms exist at the time, it is hard to choose the best algorithm for a given dataset. In this experimental paper, we describe, evaluate, and compare the seven most cited and most important algorithms, all solving this same problem.

First, we classify the algorithms into three different categories, explaining their commonalities. We then describe all algorithms with their main ideas. The descriptions provide additional details where the original papers were ambiguous or incomplete. Our evaluation of careful re-implementations of all algorithms spans a broad test space including synthetic and real-world data. We show that all functional dependency algorithms optimize for certain data characteristics and provide hints on when to choose which algorithm. In summary, however, all current approaches scale surprisingly poorly, showing potential for future research.
DPT
Authors: He Xi , Cormode Graham , Machanavajjhala Ashwin , Procopiuc Cecilia M. , Srivastava Divesh
Published: July 2015

GPS-enabled devices are now ubiquitous, from airplanes and cars to smartphones and wearable technology. This has resulted in a wealth of data about the movements of individuals and populations, which can be analyzed for useful information to aid in city and traffic planning, disaster preparedness and so on. However, the places that people go can disclose extremely sensitive information about them, and thus their use needs to be filtered through privacy preserving mechanisms. This turns out to be a highly challenging task: raw trajectories are highly detailed, and typically no pair is alike. Previous attempts fail either to provide adequate privacy protection, or to remain sufficiently faithful to the original behavior.

This paper presents DPT, a system to synthesize mobility data based on raw GPS trajectories of individuals while ensuring strong privacy protection in the form of ε-differential privacy. DPT makes a number of novel modeling and algorithmic contributions including (i) discretization of raw trajectories using hierarchical reference systems (at multiple resolutions) to capture individual movements at differing speeds, (ii) adaptive mechanisms to select a small set of reference systems and construct prefix tree counts privately, and (iii) use of direction-weighted sampling for improved utility. While there have been prior attempts to solve the subproblems required to generate synthetic trajectories, to the best of our knowledge, ours is the first system that provides an end-to-end solution. We show the efficacy of our synthetic trajectory generation system using an extensive empirical evaluation.
SnapToQuery
Authors: Jiang Lilong , Nandi Arnab
Published: July 2015

A critical challenge in the data exploration process is discovering and issuing the "right" query, especially when the space of possible queries is large. This problem of exploratory query specification is exacerbated by the use of interactive user interfaces driven by mouse, touch, or next-generation, three-dimensional, motion capture-based devices; which, are often imprecise due to jitter and sensitivity issues. In this paper, we propose
SnapToQuery
, a novel technique that guides users through the query space by providing interactive feedback during the query specification process by "snapping" to the user's likely intended queries. These intended queries can be derived from prior query logs, or from the data itself, using methods described in this paper. In order to provide interactive response times over large datasets, we propose two data reduction techniques when snapping to these queries. Performance experiments demonstrate that our algorithms help maintain an interactive experience while allowing for accurate guidance. User studies over three kinds of devices (mouse, touch, and motion capture) show that
SnapToQuery
can help users specify queries quicker and more accurately; resulting in a query specification time speedup of 1.4× for mouse and touch-based devices and 2.2× for motion capture-based devices.
Design of Compact Tri-Band Filter Based on Sir-Loaded Resonator with 0°Tapped-Feed Structure
Authors: Chen Jian-zhong , Shen Jie , Gao Ni , Zhang An-xue
Published: July 2015

In this paper, a novel compact tri-band filter based on SIR-loaded resonator is presented. By adding λ/4 resonators inside the SIR-loaded resonators, a compact tri-band filter is obtained. Three passbands are designed to operate at 1.85 GHz, 2.575 GHz and 3.05 GHz, respectively. The first and second passbands are established by utilizing resonator loaded with SIR, whose circuit size is much smaller than the legacy uniform impedance resonator (UIR). Then the λ/4 resonators are applied to generate the third passband. The three passbands can be adjusted to meet the requirements. The skew-symmetric (0-degree) tapped-feed structure is used to introduce a pair of transmission zeros, so the frequency selectivity is greatly improved. Due to the λ/4 resonators are embedded in the SIR-load resonators, the minimization of the tri-band filter is realized. A practical tri-band filter is fabricated and measured. The measured results show good agreement with the simulated ones.
The double mutation L109M and R448M of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase decreases fidelity of DNA synthesis by promoting mismatch elongation
Authors: Heyn Bianca , Pogodalla Nicole , Brakmann Susanne
Published: July 2015

Changes of Leu109 and Arg448 of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) reverse transcriptase (RT) have as yet not been associated with altered fitness. However, in a recent study, we described that the simultaneous substitution of L109 and R448 by methionine leads to an error-producing polymerase phenotype that is not observed for the isolated substitutions. The double mutant increased the error rate of DNA-dependent DNA synthesis 3.1-fold as compared to the wildtype enzyme and showed a mutational spectrum with a fraction of 28% frameshift mutations and 48% transitions. We show here that weaker binding of DNA:DNA primer-templates as indicated by an increased dissociation rate constant (koff) could account for the higher frameshift error rate. Furthermore, we were able to explain the prevalence of transition mutations with the finding that HIV-1 RT variant L109M/R448M preferred misincorporation of C opposite A and elongation of C:A mismatches.
Molecular diagnosis of maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) in Turkish children by using targeted next-generation sequencing
Authors: Anık Ahmet , Çatlı Gönül , Abacı Ayhan , Sarı Erkan , Yeşilkaya Ediz , Korkmaz Hüseyin Anıl , Demir Korcan , Altıncık Ayça , Tuhan Hale Ünver , Kızıldağ Sefa , Özkan Behzat , Ceylaner Serdar , Böber Ece
Published: July 2015

To perform molecular analysis of pediatric maturity onset diabetes of the young (MODY) patients by next-generation sequencing, which enables simultaneous analysis of multiple genes in a single test, to determine the genetic etiology of a group of Turkish children clinically diagnosed as MODY, and to assess genotype-phenotype relationship.

Forty-two children diagnosed with MODY and their parents were enrolled in the study. Clinical and laboratory characteristics of the patients at the time of diagnosis were obtained from hospital records. Molecular analyses of

A mutation in MODY genes was identified in 12 (29%) of the cases.

The results of this study showed that mutations in the
Efficacy and safety of sirolimus in a neonate with persistent hypoglycaemia following near-total pancreatectomy for hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia
Authors: Abraham Mary B. , Shetty Vinutha B. , Price Glynis , Smith Nicholas , Bock Martin de , Siafarikas Aris , Resnick Steven , Whan Elizabeth , Ellard Sian , Flanagan Sarah E. , Davis Elizabeth A. , Jones Timothy W. , Hussain Khalid , Choong Catherine S.
Published: July 2015

Hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia (HH) is characterised by inappropriate insulin secretion and is the most common cause for persistent neonatal hypoglycaemia. The only treatment available for medically unresponsive hypoglycaemia is a near-total pancreatectomy. A neonate with severe HH, due to a homozygous
The impact of uterine curettage postpartum on maternal sFlt-1 concentration
Authors: Ossada Victoria , Jank Alexander , Stepan Holger
Published: July 2015

Our purpose was to investigate the influence of a uterine curettage on the immediate maternal sFlt-1 concentration post partum. Forty-six patients booked for delivery via primary caesarean section were included in a prospective open, case control study. Eighteen of them achieved an intraoperative curettage and formed the treatment group, 28 patients without curettage were enrolled in the control group. Maternal sFlt-1 serum values were measured immediately before and 24 h after delivery. Patients who underwent a uterine curettage showed a relative decrease of 70% (median 3670±1110 pg/mL–1143±270 pg/mL) in comparison to the control group with 65% (median 3132±636 pg/mL–1098±611 pg/mL; P=0.558). Additionally, three patients with preeclampsia and curettage were included, who showed a relative decrease of 76%. A uterine curettage may slightly accelerate the fall of the postpartal sFlt-1 concentration. The previously described benefit of curettage in patients with preeclampsia regarding faster recovery or treatment of postpartum seizures may be partly explained as mediated by anti-angiogenic factors.
Node sampling for protein complex estimation in bait-prey graphs
Authors: Scholtens Denise M. , Spencer Bruce D.
Published: July 2015

In cellular biology, node-and-edge graph or “network” data collection often uses bait-prey technologies such as co-immunoprecipitation (CoIP). Bait-prey technologies assay relationships or “interactions” between protein pairs, with CoIP specifically measuring protein complex co-membership. Analyses of CoIP data frequently focus on estimating protein complex membership. Due to budgetary and other constraints, exhaustive assay of the entire network using CoIP is not always possible. We describe a stratified sampling scheme to select baits for CoIP experiments when protein complex estimation is the main goal. Expanding upon the classic framework in which nodes represent proteins and edges represent pairwise interactions, we define generalized nodes as sets of adjacent nodes with identical adjacency outside the set and use these as strata from which to select the next set of baits. Strata are redefined at each round of sampling to incorporate accumulating data. This scheme maintains user-specified quality thresholds for protein complex estimates and, relative to simple random sampling, leads to a marked increase in the number of correctly estimated complexes at each round of sampling. The R package seqSample contains all source code and is available at
Two new secondary metabolites from the fruits of mangrove Avicennia marina
Authors: Yan Dong-Mei , Gao Cheng-Hai , Yi Xiang-Xi , Xie Wen-Pei , Xu Ming-Ben , Huang Ri-Ming
Published: July 2015

Further chemical investigation of the fruit of the mangrove Avicennia marina led to the isolation of a new caffeic acid derivative, maricaffeolylide A (1), and a new megastigmane derivative, maricyclohexene A (2). The structures of the isolates were elucidated on the basis of extensive spectroscopic analysis. The antioxidant activity of 1 and 2 was also evaluated using a cellular antioxidant activity assay, and catechol 1 showed antioxidant activity with an EC50 value of 24 ± 0.3 μm.
Sensitive determination of impurities in samples of vodka by gas chromatography with flame-ionization detection
Authors: Baimatova Nassiba , Demyanenko Olga , Zia Ahmad
Published: July 2015

Vodka is one of the most popular alcoholic drinks around the world. Adulteration of vodkas lead to many negative consequences. A number of analytical methods covers a wide range of analytes and allows detection of adulterated alcoholic beverages, however, most of these methods are very labor and time consuming or require expensive analytical instrumentation. The simplest and thus most popular method is based on direct analysis by gas chromatography (GC) with flame-ionization detection (FID). The main drawback of this method for discovery of adulterated vodka samples is insufficient sensitivity. The aim of this study was to increase sensitivity of the method for determination of key vodka impurities. Optimized parameters included split ratio 10:1, inlet temperature >120 °C, initial oven temperature 60 °C, flow rates of make-up gas, air and hydrogen 50, 400 and 40 mL/min, respectively. Obtained calibration plots are linear in the concentration range between 1 and 1000 mg/L with approximation coefficients R2>0.99. Compared to a standard method, slope factors are about 4 times higher when optimized method is used proving its higher sensitivity.
Bayesian Nonparametric Inference of Population Size Changes from Sequential Genealogies
Authors: Palacios Julia A , Wakeley John , Ramachandran Sohini
Published: July 2015

Sophisticated inferential tools coupled with the coalescent model have recently emerged for estimating past population sizes from genomic data. Recent methods that model recombination require small sample sizes, make constraining assumptions about population size changes, and do not report measures of uncertainty for estimates. Here, we develop a Gaussian process-based Bayesian nonparametric method coupled with a sequentially Markov coalescent model that allows accurate inference of population sizes over time from a set of genealogies. In contrast to current methods, our approach considers a broad class of recombination events, including those that do not change local genealogies. We show that our method outperforms recent likelihood-based methods that rely on discretization of the parameter space. We illustrate the application of our method to multiple demographic histories, including population bottlenecks and exponential growth. In simulation, our Bayesian approach produces point estimates four times more accurate than maximum-likelihood estimation (based on the sum of absolute differences between the truth and the estimated values). Further, our method’s credible intervals for population size as a function of time cover 90% of true values across multiple demographic scenarios, enabling formal hypothesis testing about population size differences over time. Using genealogies estimated with ARGweaver, we apply our method to European and Yoruban samples from the 1000 Genomes Project and confirm key known aspects of population size history over the past 150,000 years.
Effects of melatonin and prolactin in reproduction: review of literature
Authors: Tenorio Fernanda das Chagas Angelo Mendes , Simões Manuel de Jesus , Teixeira Valéria Wanderley , Teixeira Álvaro Aguiar Coelho
Published: July 2015

Summary The pineal gland is responsible for producing a hormone called melatonin (MEL), and is accepted as the gland that regulates reproduction in mammals. Prolactin (PRL) also exhibits reproductive activity in animals in response to photoperiod. It is known that the concentrations of PRL are high in the summer and reduced during winter, the opposite of what is seen with melatonin in these seasons. In placental mammals, both prolactin and melatonin affect implantation, which is considered a critical point of pregnancy, since a successful pregnancy requires the development of a synchronous interaction between the endometrium and blastocyst for placental development. It is also known that PRL levels during pregnancy are essential for the maintenance of pregnancy, because this hormone induces the corpus luteum to produce progesterone, in addition to stimulating blastocyst implantation to maintain pregnancy and form the placenta. However, melatonin levels in plasma have also been shown to increase during pregnancy, peaking at the end of this period, which suggests that this hormone plays an important role in the maintenance of pregnancy. Thus, it is clear that treatment with prolactin or melatonin interferes with the processes responsible for the development and maintenance of pregnancy.
Performance evaluation of hospitals that provide care in the public health system, Brazil
Authors: Ramos Marcelo Cristiano de Azevedo , Cruz Lucila Pedroso da , Kishima Vanessa Chaer , Pollara Wilson Modesto , Lira Antônio Carlos Onofre de , Couttolenc Bernard François
Published: July 2015

OBJECTIVE

 To analyze if size, administrative level, legal status, type of unit and educational activity influence the hospital network performance in providing services to the Brazilian Unified Health System.

METHODS

 This cross-sectional study evaluated data from the Hospital Information System and the Cadastro Nacional de Estabelecimentos de Saúde (National Registry of Health Facilities), 2012, in Sao Paulo, Southeastern Brazil. We calculated performance indicators, such as: the ratio of hospital employees per bed; mean amount paid for admission; bed occupancy rate; average length of stay; bed turnover index and hospital mortality rate. Data were expressed as mean and standard deviation. The groups were compared using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Bonferroni correction.

RESULTS

 The hospital occupancy rate in small hospitals was lower than in medium, big and special-sized hospitals. Higher hospital occupancy rate and bed turnover index were observed in hospitals that include education in their activities. The hospital mortality rate was lower in specialized hospitals compared to general ones, despite their higher proportion of highly complex admissions. We found no differences between hospitals in the direct and indirect administration for most of the indicators analyzed.

CONCLUSIONS

 The study indicated the importance of the scale effect on efficiency, and larger hospitals had a higher performance. Hospitals that include education in their activities had a higher operating performance, albeit with associated importance of using human resources and highly complex structures. Specialized hospitals had a significantly lower rate of mortality than general hospitals, indicating the positive effect of the volume of procedures and technology used on clinical outcomes. The analysis related to the administrative level and legal status did not show any significant performance differences between the categories of public hospitals.
Problemas relacionados aos medicamentos em idosos fragilizados da Zona da Mata Mineira, Brasil
Authors: Silva Annelisa Farah da , Abreu Cassiano Rodrigues de Oliveira , Barbosa Elaine Maria Silva , Raposo Nádia Rezende Barbosa , Chicourel Elizabeth Lemos
Published: July 2015

OBJETIVO: Identificar os principais problemas de saúde, o perfil de utilização de medicamentos e os problemas relacionados aos medicamentos (PRMs) envolvidos no tratamento de idosos fragilizados da Zona da Mata Mineira. MÉTODOS: Foram avaliados prontuários de 260 idosos atendidos pelo Centro Mais Vida, Juiz de Fora-MG, entre agosto e setembro de 2010. As doenças foram agrupadas de acordo com a Classificação Internacional de Doenças - 10ª revisão, os medicamentos de acordo com o Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System e os PRMs de acordo com o Método Dáder. RESULTADOS: Observou-se que 73,8% dos idosos eram do sexo feminino e 42,7% possuíam entre 60 e 69 anos. Foram constatadas 1.300 doenças, sendo 31,07% do aparelho circulatório, 19,85% endócrinas, nutricionais e metabólicas e 13,46% do sistema osteomuscular e tecido conjuntivo. Dos 1.737 medicamentos, os mais prevalentes foram os do sistema cardiovascular (42,8%), seguidos pelos do trato alimentar e metabolismo (23,7%) e pelos do sistema nervoso (18,2%). Do total de medicamentos, 53,9% apresentaram algum PRM, sendo o PRM 1 (não utilização da medicação necessária) o mais frequente (37,4%). CONCLUSÃO: Os resultados evidenciam a necessidade da revisão dos esquemas terapêuticos dos idosos, visando o uso racional e efetivo dos medicamentos. Os dados apontam, ainda, a necessidade de aprofundar estudos de avaliação de riscos de PRM nessa população.
Perfil socioeconômico e demográfico e a capacidade funcional de idosos atendidos pela Estratégia Saúde da Família de Paranoá, Distrito Federal
Authors: Drummond Adriano , Alves Elioenai Dornelles
Published: July 2015

OBJETIVOS: Estabelecer o perfil socioeconômico, demográfico e funcional de idosos atendidos pela Estratégia Saúde da Família (ESF) em Paranoá, Distrito Federal, Brasil, e observar as possíveis associações entre os fatores encontrados com o nível de capacidade funcional desta população. MÉTODOS: Trata-se de pesquisa descritiva, com aplicação de questionário socioeconômico e demográfico, escala de Lawton e índice de Katz, para obtenção dos dados sobre funcionalidade em 93 idosos. Para a análise estatística, utilizaram-se o teste exato de Fisher e o qui-quadrado, adotando nível de significância de 0,05. RESULTADOS: Não houve associação entre os elementos de saúde (considerando a autopercepção da saúde, doenças como hipertensão arterial, diabetes, reumatismo, asma, bronquite, varizes, insônia, infarto agudo do miocárdio e acidente vascular encefálico), ou aspectos sociodemográficos e econômicos com funcionalidade, exceto para os fatores histórico de quedas e visita aos amigos (p<0,05). CONCLUSÃO: Houve manutenção principalmente das atividades básicas de vida diária, com pequeno percentual de comprometimento das atividades instrumentais de vida diária.
Força muscular e qualidade de vida em idosas
Authors: Mariano Eder Rodrigo , Navarro Francisco , Sauaia Bismarck Ascar , Oliveira Junior Mário Norberto Sevilio de , Marques Raphael Furtado
Published: July 2015

OBJETIVO: Verificar o efeito do treinamento físico sobre os níveis de força e a qualidade de vida, considerando capacidade funcional, limitações físicas, dor, estado geral de saúde, vitalidade e variáveis de relação social em idosas institucionalizadas. MÉTODOS: Participaram do estudo 36 idosas com 60 ou mais anos de idade, recrutadas no Serviço Social do Comércio (SESC), na cidade de São Luís-MA, compondo dois grupos: sedentário (n=16) e treinamento (n=20). Determinou-se a força muscular isométrica máxima dos extensores da coluna lombar e joelho, flexores de cotovelo e abdutores dos ombros, com o uso do dinamômetro NPRO2000. Aplicou-se questionário SF-36 para avaliação da qualidade de vida. O treinamento ocorreu em sessões, duas vezes por semana, de 60 minutos, por 12 semanas. A intensidade foi estabelecida pela zona de repetições máximas (três a quatro séries; 8 a 12 repetições) e a ordem dos exercícios foi modificada a cada quatro semanas. Estatisticamente, foi utilizado o teste t Student do programa SPSS 10.0. RESULTADOS: O grupo sedentário não alcançou valor significativo nas variáveis estudadas; o grupo treinamento atingiu escores significativos de ganho de força, nos extensores do joelho (p=0,0032; 30,23%) e extensores da coluna lombar (p=0,0207; 12,33%). A avaliação da qualidade de vida apresentou-se significativa, com aumento percentual nos domínios da capacidade funcional (p=0,0092; 11,05%), estado geral de saúde (p=0,0075; 14,17%), vitalidade (p=0,0015; 15,38%) e saúde mental (p=0,0154; 9,64%). CONCLUSÃO: O treinamento de força proposto promoveu aumento significativo na força muscular, repercutindo na melhoria da qualidade de vida nos domínios capacidade funcional, estado geral de saúde, vitalidade e saúde mental.
Civil engineering into defence: military engineering for force protection
Authors: Hambly John Gale , Williams Angus , Warren James , MacDonald Robert , Kerr Stephen
Published: July 2015

There is a long history of developments in civil engineering being tailored for and used by military engineers. This paper describes current UK research on protective structures and hardening of civil structures, its exploitation in current operations and future equipment and techniques. To deliver this research, an integrated team was created, with requirements definition and management being provided by military engineers and Ministry of Defence scientists. The research was conducted by consultants in civil engineering, defence, security and infrastructure together with academic teams from civil engineering and physics departments in UK universities. Major drivers were cross-fertilisation and pull-through from civil engineering, innovation and exploitation into current military operations and for future equipment. Maintaining a balance between the demands from the priorities of current operations and the need to maintain fundamental work to underpin longer term thinking has been a key feature. The programme structure, processes and lessons learned are described, together with some example work strands and their successful use in practice. Examples range from fast-running engineering models for use in operational theatres, retrofitting of hardening measures to existing buildings, modular structures through to high strain rate material characterisation and modelling of civil engineering materials.
A Margin Call Gone Wrong: Credit, Stock Prices, and Germany's Black Friday 1927
Authors: Gissler Stefan
Published: July 2015

Leverage is often seen as villain in financial crises. Sudden deleveraging may lead to fire sales and price pressure when asset demand is downward-sloping. This paper looks at the effects of changes in leverage on asset prices. It provides a historical case study where a large, well-identified shock to margin credit disrupted the German stock market. In May 1927, the German central bank forced banks to cut margin lending to their clients. However, this shock affected banks differentially; the magnitude of credit change differed across banks. Using the strong connections between banks and firms in interwar Germany, I show in a difference-in-differences framework that stocks affiliated with affected banks decreased over 12 percent during 4 weeks. Volatility of these stocks doubled. Relating directly bank balance sheet information to asset prices, this paper finds that a one standard deviation decrease in lending to investors increased an affected stock's volatility by 0.22 standard deviations. These results are robust to the problem that banks' lending decisions may be influenced by asset prices. The Reichsbank threatened banks to cut their short-run funding. Using the differences in exposure towards this threat, an instrumental variable strategy provide further evidence that a sharp decrease in leverage may lead to stock price fluctuations.
Estudio de tecnologías innovadoras para sistemas de propulsión en aeronaves.
Authors: Valencia Esteban A , Hidalgo Víctor H , Aguinaga Álvaro , Cando Edgar , Caldera Maricela
Published: July 2015

Ecuador es un país con una economía emergente, elcual está comenzando a establecer una plataforma deinvestigación en diferentes áreas de la tecnología. Eneste marco, la industria aeroespacial se ve como uncampo prometedor de investigación, debido a las nu-merosas ventajas para los servicios de vigilancia, trans-porte, infraestructura, comunicaciones, entre otros.Para mantener a la industria de la aviación en uncamino de desarrollo sostenible y favorecer el creci-miento de esta en diversas áreas, es necesario crearnuevos sistemas de propulsión los cuales presentenbeneficios en términos de consumo de combustible, re-ducción de emisiones y ruidos. En este ámbito, nuevastecnologías como PTeD, BLI y HTS exhiben ventajaspotenciales para mejorar el desempeño de las aero-naves. En el siguiente trabajo se utiliza un enfoqueparamétrico para presentar una revisión de estas tec-nologías y se examinan los beneficios que puedenbrindar en términos de consumo energético. Tambiénse resaltan los desafíos que se necesitan vencer para
poder implantar esta tecnología en aeronaves.
Notas Descriptivas sobre la Oferta y la Demanda de los Equipamientos Públicos para Actividades Físicas de Personas Mayores en la Ciudad de L'Hospitalet de Llobregat
Authors: Fortuño-Godes Jesús , Fanega-Macías Laureà , Burriel-Paloma Joan Carles , Guerra-Balic Myriam
Published: July 2015

The main aim of this paper is to quantify the supply and demand of Physical Activities for older adults in public facilities of the Sport System (SD) and Social System (SS) in the city of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat during the school year 2011-12. Persons in charge of the facilities filled a questionnaire reporting profile of users, type of practiced activities, and frequency of accesses in one week. For analysis of the demand, a users’ sample filled a questionnaire. Main results: The total number of elderly that do sport is 7,930. Of them, 62.88% is SD member, 18.33% is SS user, and 18.70% is user of self-organized activities in the SS. There are important differences between SD and SS. In the SS, female participation is higher (86.89%), the middle ages are major, users report a more solitary family situation, and have no studies in a higher percentage; their sport itinerary is more limited, and their willingness for sport expenses is lower.
Squamous Papilloma of the Tongue: A case report
Authors: Ottoman Bacem A.E.
Published: July 2015

Squamous cell papilloma is a very rare disease whose occurrence may represent a caveat of viral, veneral or precancerous condition. Though it is usually encountered in males, this paper reports a female affection of a non-syndromic squamous cell papilloma which was treated by surgical excision.
Possibility of using a bi-directional impulse turbine in a thermo-acoustic engine
Authors: Dovgjallo A. I. , Shimanov A. A.
Published: July 2015

The paper is devoted to one of engine types with external heating a thermoacoustic engine. Ways of transforming the energy of a shock wave of oscillating gas flow into electric energy are discussed. The authors suggest using a bidirectional impulse turbine as an energy converter. The distinctive feature of this kind of turbine is that the shock wave of oscillating gas flow passing through the turbine is reflected and passes through the turbine again in the opposite direction. The direction of turbine rotation does not change in the process. Different types of bidirectional impulse turbines for thermoacoustic engines are analyzed. The Wells turbine is the simplest and least efficient of them. A radial impulse turbine has more complicated design and is more efficient than the Wells turbine. The most appropriate type of impulse turbine was chosen. This type is an axial impulse turbine which has a simpler design than that of a radial turbine and similar efficiency. The peculiarities of the method of calculating an impulse turbine are discussed. They include changes in gas pressure and velocity as functions of time during the generation of gas oscillating flow shock waves in a thermoacoustic system.