bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Metabolic surgery and iron homeostasis
Authors: Benotti Peter N. , Wood G Craig , Still Christopher D. , Gerhard Glenn S. , Rolston David D. , Bistrian Bruce R.
Published: December 2018

Iron deficiency and anaemia after metabolic surgery, potentially modifiable nutritional complications, are becoming an increasing cause for concern as prevalence increases with time and there is limited evidence supporting the effectiveness of the current guidelines for prophylactic oral iron supplementation and treatment for deficiency. Abnormalities in iron nutrition predisposing to deficiency are common in severely obese patients, and the low‐grade systemic inflammation, also common to these patients, reduces the effectiveness of oral iron supplementation. The surgical procedures result in alterations of foregut anatomy and physiology, which limit iron absorptive capacity and daily food intake. These alterations and the limited effects of oral iron supplementation explain the high prevalence of postoperative iron deficiency and anaemia. This review outlines current mechanisms concerning the pathogenesis of disordered iron nutrition in patients with severe obesity, current gaps in knowledge, and opportunities for quality improvement.
Cryotherapy for the management of a lip lymphangioma – a case report and literature review
Authors: Matharu J. , Patel V.
Published: December 2018

Lymphangiomas or lymphatic malformations have a diverse presentation within the head and neck. This case report explores the use of cryotherapy as an alternative treatment strategy for such oral lesions with a review of literature. A 12 year‐old female presented with an uncommon lower lip lymphangioma. Due to aesthetic concerns she was treated with one session of cryotherapy as a relatively potential novel treatment. Clinically the patient had some reduction in size of the lesion with no significant post‐operative complications. The use of cryotherapy could be considered as a treatment option in small oral cavity lymphangiomas within the aesthetic zone but may not always provide complete resolution or success.
Validity and Reliability of Identifying Presidential Positions on Roll‐Call Votes in the Age of Trump
Authors: Bond Jon R.
Published: December 2018

Presidency scholars have interpreted Congressional Quarterly’s (CQ) studies of how often members of Congress support the president’s position on roll‐call votes and how often he prevails as valid and reliable measures of presidential support and success. This interpretation assumes that the president’s position‐taking behavior is honest and consistent and that he contributed to and understands the policies he purports to support. Trump’s behavior belies these assumptions. His erratic behavior highlights the fundamental importance of reliably observing this aspect of presidential behavior. This article assesses the validity and reliability of CQ’s Presidential Support studies and compares CQ’s list of presidential position votes in 2017 to the list identified by FiveThirtyEight. The analysis finds a number of inconsistencies in how CQ identified presidential positions over time and that only about 50 percent of votes identified in the two studies are on both lists. These results raise questions about whether presidential support scores and success rates in recent years are comparable to those in previous decades.
Biased Altruism: Islamophobia and Donor Support for Global Humanitarian Organizations
Authors: Tremblay‐Boire Joannie , Prakash Aseem
Published: December 2018

Providing humanitarian assistance to displaced individuals is a critical policy challenge. Many refugee camps are run by charities supported by Western donors. If refugees are predominantly Muslim, might Islamophobia suppress donations to these charities? Using a survey experiment conducted in the United States, the authors examine whether donors' willingness to support a charity is influenced by the dominant religion of the refugees, the regions in which refugee camps are located, and/or the religious affiliation of the charity. The authors find modest support for Islamophobia: while willingness to donate is not affected by the location of camps or the predominance of Muslim refugees, it declines significantly for Islamic charities. Respondents overall tend to be especially willing to donate to a charity that serves Christian refugees in the Middle East. Among self‐identifying Christians, respondents are more willing to donate to a charity serving Christian refugees than one serving Muslim refugees.
Effects of abusive supervision on employees’ innovative behavior: The role of job insecurity and locus of control
Authors: Wang Dawei , Li Xiaowen , Zhou Mengmeng , Maguire Phil , Zong Zhaobiao , Hu Yixin
Published: December 2018

Drawing on the Conservation of Resources Theory by Hobfoll, we examined the relationships between abusive supervision, job insecurity, locus of control, and employees’ innovative behavior. Using self‐reported data collected from employees among four enterprises in China (N = 641), we found that abusive supervision was positively correlated with job insecurity. In contrast, both job insecurity and abusive supervision were negatively correlated with employees’ innovative behavior, with the impact of abusive supervision on innovative behavior being mediated by its effect on job insecurity. Having an external locus of control that served as a buffering factor for employees, mitigating the relationship between abusive supervision and job insecurity. These findings complement the existing research on the impacts of abusive leadership, providing practical information for enterprises on how to enhance levels of innovation and vitality among employees.
A review of research on affect of elementary prospective teachers in university mathematics content courses 1990–2016
Authors: Hart Lynn C. , Auslander Susan S. , Venuto Nicole , Jacobs Tiffany , Carothers Jody , Chestnutt Cliff
Published: December 2018

The purpose of this study was to review the existing research on affect (beliefs, attitudes, and emotions) of elementary prospective teachers (EPTs) in university mathematics content courses. We use as our time period from publication in the United States of the Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for Schools Mathematics through 2016. A search of a combination of electronic databases and targeted international journals resulted in a total of 11 studies that looked at some aspect of affect with EPTs in all or some part of a university mathematics course over the 27‐year time period. Nine of the 11 studies occurred in the context of a course or courses categorized as involving an alternative pedagogy that was student‐centered. Overall we found that a student‐centered approach to instruction supported changes in EPTs’ affect that align with pedagogical recommendations in reform documents such as the NCTM Standards. However, shifts were sometimes difficult to come by and encountered resistance from EPTs. Implications for course learning experiences are offered and conflicting results between studies suggest directions for future research.
Engineering design and the development of knowledge for teaching among preservice science teachers
Authors: Kim Eunjeong , Oliver J. Steve , Kim Young Ae
Published: December 2018

The goal of this article is to inform professional understanding regarding preservice science teachers’ knowledge of engineering and the engineering design process. Originating as a conceptual study of the appropriateness of “knowledge as design” as a framework for conducting science teacher education to support learning related to engineering design, the findings are informed by an ongoing research project. Perkins’s theory encapsulates knowledge as design within four complementary components of the nature of design. When using the structure of Perkins’s theory as a framework for analysis of data gathered from preservice teachers conducting engineering activities within an instructional methods course for secondary science, a concurrence between teacher knowledge development and the theory emerged. Initially, the individuals, who were participants in the research, were unfamiliar with engineering as a component of science teaching and expressed a lack of knowledge of engineering. The emergence of connections between Perkins’s theory of knowledge as design and knowledge development for teaching were found when examining preservice teachers’ development of creative and systematic thinking skills within the context of engineering design activities as well as examination of their knowledge of the application of science to problem‐solving situations.
Turn the Bull Loose: A Test of the Moderating Effect of Economic Liberalization on the Link Between Financialization and Income Inequality in Developed Economies*
Authors: Kwon Roy
Published: December 2018

Objective

A burgeoning field of research shows that financialization is positively associated with income inequality. However, while it is widely recognized that the recent growth of financial activity increases in tandem with the reduction of state controls in national economies, scholars often struggle to find a straightforward connection between economic liberalization and income inequality. In light of this confusion, this study presents the argument that liberalization does not share a direct connection to the distribution of national income. Rather, economic liberalization is a moderating variable that conditions the connection between financialization and income inequality.

Methods

These contentions are tested by way of interaction effects using a panel data set of 14 developed economies for the years 1995–2010.

Results

The results confirm the main arguments of this study as the positive link between financialization and the income share of the top 1 percent is higher at increasing levels of financial liberalization.

Conclusions

This research indicates that cross‐national variations of income inequality are partially attributable to state policy decisions on financial activity.
Impact of one‐time testing for Trypanosoma cruzi antibodies among blood donors in the United States
Authors: Dodd Roger Y. , Groves Jamel A. , Townsend Rebecca L. , Notari Edward P. , Foster Gregory A. , Custer Brian , Busch Michael P. , Stramer Susan L.
Published: December 2018

BACKGROUND

US blood donors are tested for Trypanosoma cruzi antibodies only at their first presentation, based on studies, reviewed here, demonstrating the absence of incident infections. Reports of autochthonous human transmissions of the parasite in Texas have raised concern about the safety of one‐time testing.

METHODS

Positive donation frequencies were evaluated among first‐time blood donations from 2007 to 2015. Rates and their temporal changes were evaluated in an area of high T. cruzi infection and compared with rates elsewhere. Donors with positive results were surveyed for risk factors and relevant demographic characteristics.

RESULTS

Data from 9.1 million first‐time donations were analyzed; 585 (1:15,544) were confirmed positive by radioimmunoprecipitation assay (RIPA) or concordantly positive with a second screening test/licensed assay. Seroprevalence in first‐time donors in Southern California (an area of high endemicity) was 1:2,747, or 5.7‐fold higher than the overall rate. Rates did not change over time nationally but showed a nonsignificant consistent downward trend in Southern California. The majority (92%) of donors who responded to a questionnaire had one or more T. cruzi endemic‐area risk factors. Five donors with likely autochthonous infection were identified (2007–2013); nine additional donors had RIPA false positivity.

CONCLUSION

T. cruzi seroprevalence among donors nationally and in an area of high enzootic infection were stable or declining. Almost all interviewed seropositive donors had known risk factors indicating likely infection years earlier while residing in T. cruzi–endemic areas. In the United States, there was no evidence of increased T. cruzi prevalence among first‐time donors.
Evaluation of urinary and serum level of chemokine (C‐C motif) ligand 2 as a potential biomarker in canine urothelial tumours
Authors: Shimizu N. , Hamaide A. , Dourcy M. , Noël S. , Clercx C. , Teske E.
Published: December 2018

Chemokine (C‐C motif) ligand 2 (CCL2) is a chemotactic cytokine recruiting monocytes, releasing growth factors and promoting adhesion in vascular endothelium. Elevated serum and urinary CCL2 levels and expression of its receptor (CCR2) have been associated with tumorigenesis in human urinary malignancies. CCL2 implication has not been investigated in canine urothelial carcinoma. The aim of this study was to evaluate CCL2 serum and urine levels (measured by ELISA) in dogs with urothelial carcinoma or non‐neoplastic urinary tract disease. CCL2 serum and urine levels were significantly higher in diseased dogs compared with healthy dogs (P < 0.001). Dogs with carcinoma had significantly higher serum and urine CCL2 levels (P = 0.001) than healthy dogs. Dogs with metastases showed significantly lower serum and urine CCL2 levels compared with the non‐metastasised tumour group (P = 0.007). CCL2 as a diagnostic marker for urothelial carcinoma held a sensitivity of 95.2% and a specificity of 38.2% in the urine. As a staging marker, sensitivity was 85.7% and specificity was 57.1% with a positive predictive value of 75.7% and a negative predictive value of 71.9%. Further investigation is needed to define the role of CCL2 as a prognostic marker in canine urothelial carcinoma.
Effect of prophylactic treatment with levetiracetam on the incidence of postattenuation seizures in dogs undergoing surgical management of single congenital extrahepatic portosystemic shunts
Authors: Mullins Ronan A. , Sanchez Villamil Carlos , de Rooster Hilde , Kummeling Anne , White Robert N. , Thieman Mankin Kelley M. , Tivers Michael S. , Yool Donald A. , Anderson Davina M. , Pratschke Kathryn M. , Gordo Ines , Brissot Herve , Singh Ameet , Olive Melanie , Billet Jean Phillipe , Selmic Laura E. , Kirby Barbara M.
Published: December 2018

Objective

To report the incidence of postattenuation seizures (PAS) in dogs that underwent single congenital extrahepatic portosystemic shunt (cEHPSS) attenuation and to compare incidence of PAS in dogs that either did or did not receive prophylactic treatment with levetiracetam (LEV).

Study design

Multi‐institutional retrospective study.

Population

Nine hundred forty dogs.

Methods

Medical records were reviewed to identify dogs that underwent surgical attenuation of a single cEHPSS from January 2005 through July 2017 and developed PAS within 7 days postoperatively. Dogs were divided into 3 groups: no LEV (LEV−); LEV at ≥15 mg/kg every 8 hours for ≥24 hours preoperatively or a 60 mg/kg intravenous loading dose perioperatively, followed by ≥15 mg/kg every 8 hours postoperatively (LEV1); and LEV at <15 mg/kg every 8 hours, for <24 hours preoperatively, or continued at <15 mg/kg every 8 hours postoperatively (LEV2).

Results

Seventy‐five (8.0%) dogs developed PAS. Incidence of PAS was 35 of 523 (6.7%), 21 of 188 (11.2%), and 19 of 228 (8.3%) in groups LEV‐, LEV1, and LEV2, respectively. This difference was not statistically significant (P = .14). No differences between groups of dogs that seized with respect to investigated variables were identified.

Conclusion

The overall incidence of PAS was low (8%). Prophylactic treatment with LEV according to the protocols that were investigated in our study was not associated with a reduced incidence of PAS.

Clinical significance

Prophylactic treatment with LEV does not afford protection against development of PAS. Surgically treated dogs should continue to be monitored closely during the first 7 days postoperatively for seizures.
Predictive value of plasma and peritoneal creatine kinase in horses with strangulating intestinal lesions
Authors: Kilcoyne Isabelle , Nieto Jorge E. , Dechant Julie E.
Published: December 2018

Objective

To determine the ability of plasma and peritoneal creatine kinase (CK) to predict the presence of a strangulating lesion in horses presented for colic.

Study design

Prospective clinical study.

Animals

Ten healthy control horses and 61 clinical colic cases.

Methods

Creatine kinase activity was measured in peritoneal fluid and plasma of 10 healthy horses and 61 horses presenting for colic (40 horses with nonstrangulating lesions and 21 horses with strangulating lesions). Information on other blood and peritoneal fluid variables, signalment, results from the physical examination, outcome, requirement for surgery, and lesion location and type were retrieved from the medical records of horses presenting for colic.

Results

A peritoneal CK cutoff level of 16 IU/L yielded a sensitivity of 95.2% and a specificity of 84.6% (positive predictive value [PPV] = 76.9% and negative predictive value [NPV] = 97%, respectively) for predicting a strangulating lesion. A peritoneal lactate cutoff level of 3.75 mmol/L yielded a sensitivity of 81% and a specificity of 92% (PPV = 85% and NPV = 90%, respectively) for predicting a strangulating lesion.

Conclusion

Peritoneal CK concentration was a sensitive indicator of the presence of a strangulating lesion in horses presenting with colic, whereas peritoneal lactate concentration was a more specific indicator.

Clinical significance

Measuring CK in peritoneal fluid may be a useful adjunct to clinical case presentation to accelerate the diagnosis and definitive treatment of horses presenting with strangulating intestinal lesions, thereby improving their outcome.
Sensitivity of the human ventilatory response to muscle metaboreflex activation during concurrent mild hypercapnia
Authors: Alghaith Jassim M. , Balanos George M. , Eves Francis F. , White Michael J.
Published: December 2018

New Findings

What is the central question of this study?

What is the relationship between the level of systemic hypercapnia and the magnitude of the additional hyperpnoea produced in response to a standardized level of muscle metaboreflex activation?

What is the main finding and its importance?

When a standardized activation of the muscle metaboreflex was combined with exposure to increasing levels of hypercapnia, the hyperpnoea this caused increased linearly. The concept of a synergistic interaction between the muscle metaboreflex and the central chemoreflex in humans is supported by this finding.

Ventilation increases during muscle metaboreflex activation when postexercise circulatory occlusion (PECO) traps metabolites in resting human muscle, but only in conditions of concurrent systemic hypercapnia. We hypothesize that a linear relationship exists between the level of hypercapnia and the magnitude of the additional hyperpnoea produced in response to a standardized level of muscle metaboreflex activation. Fifteen male subjects performed four trials, in which the end‐tidal partial pressure of carbon dioxide () was elevated by 1, 3, 7 or 10 mmHg above resting values using a dynamic end‐tidal forcing system. In each trial, subjects were seated in an isometric dynamometer designed to measure ankle plantar flexor force. Rest for 2 min in room air was followed by 15 min of exposure to one of the four levels of hypercapnia, at which 5 min further rest was followed by 2 min of sustained isometric calf muscle contraction at 50% of predetermined maximal voluntary strength. Immediately before cessation of exercise, a cuff around the upper leg was inflated to a suprasystolic pressure to cause PECO for 3 min, before its deflation and a further 5 min of rest, concluding exposure to hypercapnia. The PECO consistently elevated mean arterial blood pressure by ∼10 mmHg in all trials, indicating similar levels of metaboreflex activation. Increased ventilation during PECO was related to as described by the following linear regression equation: Change in minute ventilation (l min−1) = 0.85 ×  (mmHg) + 0.80 (l min−1). This finding supports our hypothesis and furthers the idea of a synergistic interaction between muscle metaboreflex activation and central chemoreflex stimulation.
Ray-based blind deconvolution of shipping sources using multiple beams separated by alternating projection
Authors: Byun Sung-Hoon , Byun Gihoon , Sabra Karim G.
Published: December 2018

This article presents a method for improving the performance of the ray-based blind deconvolution (RBD) algorithm, which was first proposed by Sabra, Song, and Dowling [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 127(2), EL42–EL47 (2010)]. In order to retrieve the channel impulse response (CIR), the original RBD algorithm uses the source signal phase from a selected single beam output. However, when the impinging multipath signals have low coherence, the channel estimate from a selected beam may not show all paths correctly. In this research, the maximum likelihood estimator, which is called the alternating projection, is applied to separate multipath signals. Then the multiple CIRs obtained from those separated signals are coherently combined. This results in more robust detection of existing multipaths. The performance of the proposed method is verified using Noise09 sea experiment data, where the proposed method better resolves the multipath arrival structure.
Cryotherapy or gradual reloading exercises in acute presentations of rotator cuff tendinopathy: a randomised controlled trial
Authors: Dupuis Frédérique , Barrett Eva , Dubé Marc-Olivier , McCreesh Karen M , Lewis Jeremy S , Roy Jean-Sébastien
Published: December 2018

Objectives

Rotator cuff tendinopathies are the most common shoulder disorders. As persistent symptoms lasting more than 3 months have been shown to be a strong indicator of poor outcomes, it is important to have successful interventions in the acute stage. However, there is no evidence yet to guide clinical interventions in an acute pain context. The objective of this study was to compare the short-term effect of a 2-week gradual reloading exercises programme with the use of cryotherapy on symptoms and function for acute rotator cuff tendinopathy.

Methods

This simple-blind, randomised controlled trial included 44 participants with acute rotator cuff tendinopathy who were randomly allocated to either the exercises or cryotherapy group. Symptoms and functional limitations were evaluated at weeks 0, 2 and 6 using self-reported questionnaires (Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand, Western Ontario Rotator Cuff, and Brief Pain Inventory), while acromiohumeral distance, shoulder strength and active range of motion were evaluated at weeks 0 and 2.

Results

Following interventions, both groups showed statistically significant improvements on symptoms and function at week 2 and week 6 compared with baseline. However, there was no significant group × time interaction. There was no time effect on acromiohumeral distance, shoulder strength and active range of motion, as well as no time × group interaction.

Conclusion

The results showed a statistically significant improvement in symptoms and function in both groups, but there was no difference between the short-term effect of a cryotherapy based-approach and a gradual reloading exercises programme.

Trial registration number

NCT02813304.
m-Bonsai: A Practical Compact Dynamic Trie
Authors: Poyias Andreas , Puglisi Simon J. , Raman Rajeev
Published: December 2018

We consider the problem of implementing a space-efficient dynamic trie, with an emphasis on good practical performance. For a trie with [Formula: see text] nodes with an alphabet of size [Formula: see text], the information-theoretic space lower bound is [Formula: see text] bits. The Bonsai data structure is a compact trie proposed by Darragh et al. (Softw. Pract. Exper. 23(3) (1993) 277–291). Its disadvantages include the user having to specify an upper bound [Formula: see text] on the trie size in advance (which cannot be changed easily after initalization), a space usage of [Formula: see text] (which is asymptotically non-optimal for smaller [Formula: see text] or if [Formula: see text]) and a lack of support for deletions. It supports traversal and update operations in [Formula: see text] expected time (based on assumptions about the behaviour of hash functions), where [Formula: see text] and has excellent speed performance in practice. We propose an alternative, m-Bonsai, that addresses the above problems, obtaining a trie that uses [Formula: see text] bits in expectation, and supports traversal and update operations in [Formula: see text] expected time and [Formula: see text] amortized expected time, for any user-specified parameter [Formula: see text] (again based on assumptions about the behaviour of hash functions). We give an implementation of m-Bonsai which uses considerably less memory and is slightly faster than the original Bonsai.
Fast Average-Case Pattern Matching on Weighted Sequences
Authors: Barton Carl , Liu Chang , Pissis Solon P.
Published: December 2018

A weighted string is a string in which a set of letters may occur at each position with respective occurrence probabilities. Weighted strings, also known as position weight matrices, weighted sequences or uncertain sequences, naturally arise in many contexts. In this paper, we study the problem of weighted string matching with a special focus on average-case analysis. Given a weighted pattern string [Formula: see text] of length [Formula: see text], a text string [Formula: see text] of length [Formula: see text], both on a constant-sized alphabet of size [Formula: see text], and a cumulative weight threshold [Formula: see text], defined as the minimal probability of occurrence of factors in a weighted string, we present an on-line algorithm requiring average-case search time [Formula: see text] for pattern matching for weight ratio [Formula: see text]. For a pattern string [Formula: see text] of length [Formula: see text], a weighted text string [Formula: see text] of length [Formula: see text], both on a constant-sized alphabet, and a cumulative weight threshold [Formula: see text], we present an on-line algorithm requiring average-case search time [Formula: see text] for the same weight ratio. The importance of these algorithms lies on the fact that, for these ratios, they can work in sublinear search time in the size of the input text, and in linear preprocessing costs in the size of the pattern.
Microstructure and mechanical properties of Ti/Al dissimilar joints produced by laser-MIG welding–brazing
Authors: Wang Wei , Zhu Zongtao , Xue Junliang
Published: December 2018

We butt-welded AA6061 aluminum alloy to Ti6Al4V titanium alloy, dissimilar light metals, by using laser-MIG hybrid welding–brazing without grooves. The parameters of the laser and arc were optimized to produce sound joints with good formation and mechanical properties. The microstructure of the layer of intermetallic compounds (IMCs) was investigated by scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy. We also tested the tensile strength of the joints with and without reinforcement. The morphology and thickness of the IMCs varied throughout the joints. A continuous thin layer of TiAl3 appeared on the top surface of the Ti6Al4V, on which some rod-like IMCs grew toward the fusion zone. In the upper region of the butt plane, because more heat accumulated there from the high-power laser coupled with the MIG arc, double-layer IMCs with a thickness of [Formula: see text]10.0 [Formula: see text]m formed, composed of TiAl (near the Ti alloy) and TiAl3 (near the fusion zone). In the lower region of the butt plane, the double-layer IMCs became continuous and uniform, the serrated morphology disappeared, and the thickness of the IMC layer decreased to 4.0 [Formula: see text]m. On the backside of the joint, the thickness of the compound layer (TiAl3) was about 1.0 [Formula: see text]m. The average tensile strengths of the reinforced and unreinforced joints were 226 MPa and 210 MPa, respectively, which are up to 88% and 81% of the AA6061 tensile strength, respectively.
Criminal Event Ontology Population and Enrichment using Patterns Recognition from Text
Authors: Reyes-Ortiz José A.
Published: December 2018

Thousands of criminal events are reported in newspapers and social networks every day. They describe violent acts that include actors, places, times, causes and any information concerning them. Verbal and nominal phrases are used to characterize and expose criminal events, which employ an important variety of natural language structures in the newspapers. In addition, causes, times and spaces of criminal events, use linguistic phrases to represent them in text. All of them need to be extracted as a pattern recognition process in order to extract criminal events from text and the information that concerns them. The extracted events, as a knowledge base, are very useful for information retrieval tasks. Therefore, this paper presents an approach based on pattern recognition in order to extract criminal events from Spanish text, by populating and enriching an ontology model. Ontology population and enrichment involve the instantiation of criminal events and their cause relationships. An evaluation process is carried out with a set of manually tagged newspapers with categories of specific events, and shows promising results.
Inflation driven by scalar field and solid matter
Authors: Mészáros Peter
Published: December 2018

Solid inflation is a cosmological model where inflation is driven by fields which enter the Lagrangian in the same way as body coordinates of a solid matter enter the equation of state, spontaneously breaking spatial translational and rotational symmetry. We construct a simple generalization of this model by adding a scalar field with standard kinetic term to the action. In our model, the scalar power spectrum and the tensor-to-scalar ratio do not differ from the ones predicted by the solid inflation qualitatively, if the scalar field does not dominate the solid matter. The same applies also for the size of the scalar bispectrum measured by the nonlinearity parameter, although our model allows it to have different shapes. The tensor bispectra predicted by the two models do not differ from each other in the leading order of the slow-roll approximation. In the case when contribution of the solid matter to the stress-energy tensor is much smaller than the contribution from the scalar field, the tensor-to-scalar ratio and the nonlinearity parameter are amplified by factors [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], respectively.
Time in quantum theory, the Wheeler–DeWitt equation and the Born–Oppenheimer approximation
Authors: Kamenshchik Alexander Yu. , Tronconi Alessandro , Vardanyan Tereza , Venturi Giovanni
Published: December 2018

We compare two different approaches to the treatment of the Wheeler–DeWitt (WDW) equation and the introduction of time in quantum cosmology. One approach is based on the gauge-fixing procedure in theories with first-class constraints and the construction of the corresponding Hilbert space of quantum states. The other approach uses the Born–Oppenheimer (BO) method, based on the existence of two energy scales in the model under consideration. We apply both to a very simple cosmological model, including a massless scalar field filling a flat Friedmann universe, and observe that they give similar predictions. We also discuss the problem of time in nonrelativistic quantum mechanics and some questions concerning the correspondence between classical and quantum theories.
Nuclear transition matrix elements for neutrinoless double-β decay within mechanisms involving light Majorana neutrino mass and right-handed current
Authors: Singh Yash Kaur , Chandra R. , Chaturvedi K. , Avasthi Tripti , Rath P. K. , Raina P. K.
Published: December 2018

Employing the projected-Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (PHFB) model in conjunction with four different parametrizations of pairing plus multipolar effective two-body interaction and three different parametrizations of Jastrow short-range correlations, nuclear transition matrix elements for the neutrinoless double-[Formula: see text] decay of [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] isotopes are calculated within mechanisms involving light Majorana neutrino mass and right-handed current. Statistically, model specific uncertainties in sets of twelve nuclear transition matrix elements are estimated by calculating the averages along with the standard deviations. For the considered nuclei, the most stringent extracted on-axis limits on the effective light Majorana neutrino mass [Formula: see text], the effective weak coupling of right-handed leptonic current with right-handed hadronic current [Formula: see text], and the effective weak coupling of right-handed leptonic current with left-handed hadronic current [Formula: see text] from the observed limit on half-life [Formula: see text] of [Formula: see text] isotope are [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]eV, [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], respectively.
R&D COLLABORATION BETWEEN FIRMS: HARD AND SOFT ANTECEDENTS OF SUPPLIER KNOWLEDGE SHARING
Authors: HELM ROLAND , KLOYER MARTIN , AUST CHRISTIN
Published: December 2018

Manufacturing firms that collaborate with external R&D partners are inevitably confronted with the danger of R&D suppliers deliberately with holding knowledge. Empirical analyses on a set of 104 supplier firms provide results concerning the impact of “soft” determinants of knowledge sharing that have not been investigated to date. In particular, they show that intrinsic motivation and organisational culture are more important than better examined “hard” determinants such as behaviour monitoring and the collaboration perspective. Additionally, we detect a theoretically surprising effect of knowledge sharing on the supplier firm’s success.
Evaluation of Environmental Noise Generated by Household Waste Collection Trucks
Authors: Zannin Paulo Henrique Trombetta , Quadros Ferdinado , De Oliveira Felipe Luz , Nascimento Eriberto Oliveira Do
Published: December 2018

This paper discusses a specific source of noise, which is generated by household waste collection trucks. Two areas in the city of Curitiba were chosen for evaluation, one of them a densely populated residential neighborhood and the other in downtown Curitiba. A noise map was created for each area. The evaluation, which was carried out in the daytime in the residential area and at night in the downtown area, revealed noise levels exceeding the limits established by Curitiba Municipal Law No. 10625. The regular use of utility vehicles that generate high noise levels, such as garbage trucks, during nighttime hours in residential areas is thus not sustainable from the standpoint of noise protection laws. Nighttime hours in Curitiba are 10[Formula: see text]pm to 7[Formula: see text]am, but nighttime garbage collection begins at 7[Formula: see text]pm and goes on until 4[Formula: see text]am. Therefore, changes in this schedule are advisable, given the noise impact caused by garbage collection trucks.
One-Pot Synthesis of Magnetic Cationic Adsorbent Modified with PDDA for Organic Phosphonates Removal
Authors: Chen Junjie , Ju Yonggan , Chen Hongling
Published: December 2018

Fe3O4nanoparticles coating with poly dimethyl diallyl ammonium chloride (Fe3O4/PDDA) as novel magnetic adsorbents were synthesized with chemical co-precipitation method to study the removal capacity of organic phosphonates from aqueous solution. The as-prepared magnetic absorbents were characterized for the morphology, material structure and surface properties by SEM, TEM, FT-IR, XRD, TGA and BET. HEDP was employed as a common organic phosphonate to investigate the adsorption performance. Substantial quaternary ammonium groups existing on the surface of Fe3O4/PDDA could enhance the absorption of HEDP with electrostatic attraction. In the optimum condition (4[Formula: see text]mg adsorbent dosage, 11.0 pH, 36[Formula: see text]mg/L HEDP solution and 120[Formula: see text]min adsorption time), the maximum adsorption capacity ([Formula: see text]) for HEDP could reach 254.86[Formula: see text]mg/g. The kinetic study revealed that the adsorption process followed the pseudo-second-order model. The adsorption isotherm fitted closely to the Freundlich model. The as-prepared magnetic adsorbents exhibited notable reusability in some cycles and were easily separated from the solution with the external magnetic field. These as-prepared Fe3O4/PDDA nanoparticles have the potential as an environmental-friendly adsorbent for organic phosphonates removal from waste-water.
Asymptotic analysis of a mathematical model of the atherosclerosis development
Authors: Mel’nyk Taras
Published: December 2018

A mathematical model, which takes into account new experimental results about diverse roles of macrophages in the atherosclerosis development, is proposed. Using technic of upper and lower solutions, the existence and uniqueness of its positive solution are justified. After the nondimensionalization, small parameters are found and the multiscale analysis of the corresponding perturbed problem is performed when those parameters tend to zero. In particular, the limit two-dimensional problem, which is a coupled system of reaction–diffusion equations and ordinary differential equations, is derived; the asymptotic approximation is constructed; the uniform pointwise estimate for the difference between the solution of the original problem and the solution of the limit problem as well as the respective [Formula: see text]-estimates for the fluxes are proved.
Real-time co-registered photoacoustic and ultrasonic imaging for early endometrial cancer detection driven by cylindrical diffuser
Authors: Lin Yongping , Andreae Peter , Li Zhifang , Cai Jianyong , Li Hui
Published: December 2018

In illuminating tissues, a cylindrical diffuser (CD) has an advantage over regular laser sources due to its ability to illuminate a larger volume of the target tissue. This paper presents a co-registered large volume photoacoustic (PA) and ultrasonic (US) imaging for early endometrial cancer (EEC) detection using CD. It has the advantage that the US imaging system is outside the body and only the PA excitation device is inside the body, which makes the system more efficient and less invasive for EEC detection. The paper reports on two sets of experiments. The first set produced real-time PA images of blood vessel phantom. The second set demonstrated the imaging of pig uterus ex vivo. The results show that the system has the potential for imaging and characterizing of EEC.
Identification and analysis of serum samples by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy combined with characteristic ratio method and PCA for gastric cancer detection
Authors: Guo Liu , Li Yuanpeng , Huang Furong , Dong Jia , Li Fucui , Yang Xinhao , Zhu Siqi , Yang Maoxun
Published: December 2018

This study aimed to explore the application of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) in the rapid diagnosis of gastric cancer. The SERS spectra of 68 serum samples from gastric cancer patients and healthy volunteers were acquired. The characteristic ratio method (CRM) and principal component analysis (PCA) were used to differentiate gastric cancer serum from normal serum. Compared with healthy volunteers, the serum SERS intensity of gastric cancer patients was relatively high at 722[Formula: see text]cm[Formula: see text], while it was relatively low at 588, 644, 861, 1008, 1235, 1397, 1445 and 1586[Formula: see text]cm[Formula: see text]. These results indicated that the relative content of nucleic acids in the serum of gastric cancer patients rises while the relative content of amino acids and carbohydrates decreases. In PCA, the sensitivity and specificity of discriminating gastric cancer were 94.1% and 94.1%, respectively, with the accuracy of 94.1%. Based on the intensity ratios of four characteristic peaks at 722, 861, 1008 and 1397[Formula: see text]cm[Formula: see text], CRM presented the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of 100% and 97.4%, respectively, and the accuracy of 98.5%. Therefore, the three peak intensity ratios of I[Formula: see text]/I[Formula: see text], I[Formula: see text]/I[Formula: see text] and I[Formula: see text]/I[Formula: see text] can be considered as biological fingerprint information for gastric cancer diagnosis and can rapidly and directly reflect the physiological and pathological changes associated with gastric cancer development. This study provides an important basis and standards for the early diagnosis of gastric cancer.
Optimization method to suppress background for imaging multiple planes
Authors: Le Vannhu
Published: December 2018

3D live imaging is important for better understanding of biological processes. To obtain biological dynamic process, high imaging speed is required. In order to improve speed in 3D live imaging, simultaneous imaging of multiple planes throughout a 3D volume has been proposed. However, a main disadvantage of this method is the cross-talk from neighboring imaging planes. In this paper, we propose an optimization method to suppress background from neighboring imaging planes. A D-aperture is used to generate multiple light sheets. An optimization method to suppress background is presented. The simulation results demonstrated that the proposed method can be used to suppress the effectiveness of background from neighboring light sheets.
Investigation of the in situ calcination of aerosol co-deposited NiO-Mn2O3 films
Authors: Schubert Michaela , Kita Jaroslaw , Münch Christian , Moos Ralf
Published: December 2018

An in situ calcination of an aerosol co-deposited (AcD) NiO-Mn2O3 film for the production of a single-phase cubic NiMn2O4 spinel film was investigated. Characterizations of the AcD film were performed before, during, and after calcination using SEM, XRD and electrical measurements. It could be shown that in situ calcination to mechanically stable films with single-phase cubic spinel structure is possible. Furthermore, changes in the crystal structure and the NTCR parameters [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] during calcination could be shown. After in situ calcination, the electrical properties are similar to those of conventional bulk ceramics.
bi-Byte correcting non-binary perfect codes
Authors: Tyagi Vinod , Lata Tarun
Published: December 2018

Etzion [T. Etzion, Perfect byte correcting codes, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory 44 (1998) 3140–3146.] has classified byte error correcting binary codes into five different categories with respect to the size of the byte. If a code is partitioned into [Formula: see text] equal byte of size say [Formula: see text] then [Formula: see text] or the size of bytes is [Formula: see text]. Alternatively if bytes are of different size say, [Formula: see text] then [Formula: see text]. The result was further modified by Tyagi and Sethi [V. Tyagi and A. Sethi, [Formula: see text]-Byte correcting perfect codes, Asian-Eur. J. Math. 7(1) (2014) 1–8.] and the classification of bytes was given with respect to size of the byte as well as length of the burst. We call such codes as [Formula: see text]-byte correcting perfect codes. Our aim in this paper is to find the possibilities for the existence of [Formula: see text]-byte correcting non-binary perfect codes.
Performance Characterization of Deep Learning Models for Breathing-based Authentication on Resource-Constrained Devices
Authors: Chauhan Jagmohan , Rajasegaran Jathushan , Seneviratne Suranga , Misra Archan , Seneviratne Aruna , Lee Youngki
Published: December 2018

Providing secure access to smart devices such as smartphones, wearables and various other IoT devices is becoming increasingly important, especially as these devices store a range of sensitive personal information. Breathing acoustics-based authentication offers a highly usable and possibly a secondary authentication mechanism for secure access. Executing sophisticated machine learning pipelines for such authentication on such devices remains an open problem, given their resource limitations in terms of storage, memory and computational power. To investigate this challenge, we compare the performance of an end-to-end system for both user identification and user verification tasks based on breathing acoustics on three type of smart devices: smartphone, smartwatch and Raspberry Pi using both shallow classifiers (i.e., SVM, GMM, Logistic Regression) and deep learning based classifiers (e.g., LSTM, MLP). Via detailed analysis, we conclude that LSTM models for acoustic classification are the smallest in size, have the lowest inference time and are more accurate than all other compared classifiers. An uncompressed LSTM model provides an average f-score of 80%-94% while requiring only 50--180 KB of storage (depending on the breathing gesture). The resulting inference can be done on smartphones and smartwatches within approximately 7--10 ms and 18--66 ms respectively, thereby making them suitable for resource-constrained devices. Further memory and computational savings can be achieved using model compression methods such as weight quantization and fully connected layer factorization: in particular, a combination of quantization and factorization achieves 25%--55% reduction in LSTM model size, with almost no loss in performance. We also compare the performance on GPUs and show that the use of GPU can reduce the inference time of LSTM models by a factor of 300%. These results provide a practical way to deploy breathing based biometrics, and more broadly LSTM-based classifiers, in future ubiquitous computing applications.
Why Are They Collecting My Data?
Authors: Jin Haojian , Liu Minyi , Dodhia Kevan , Li Yuanchun , Srivastava Gaurav , Fredrikson Matthew , Agarwal Yuvraj , Hong Jason I.
Published: December 2018

Many smartphone apps collect potentially sensitive personal data and send it to cloud servers. However, most mobile users have a poor understanding of why their data is being collected. We present MobiPurpose, a novel technique that can take a network request made by an Android app and then classify the data collection purposes, as one step towards making it possible to explain to non-experts the data disclosure contexts. Our purpose inference works by leveraging two observations: 1) developer naming conventions (e.g., URL paths) of ten offer hints as to data collection purposes, and 2) external knowledge, such as app metadata and information about the domain name, are meaningful cues that can be used to infer the behavior of different traffic requests. MobiPurpose parses each traffic request body into key-value pairs, and infers the data type and data collection purpose of each key-value pair using a combination of supervised learning and text pattern bootstrapping. We evaluated MobiPurpose's effectiveness using a dataset cross-labeled by ten human experts. Our results show that MobiPurpose can predict the data collection purpose with an average precision of 84% (among 19 unique categories).
FarSight
Authors: Nambi Akshay Uttama , Virmani Adtiya , Padmanabhan Venkata N.
Published: December 2018

Maintaining an adequate separation from the vehicle in front is key to safe driving. While LIDAR and RADAR sensors could be used for ranging, cost considerations and the huge installed base of vehicles that lack these sensors, especially in developing regions, call for a low-cost yet robust alternative. To this end, we present FarSight, a system that performs vehicle ranging using a smartphone mounted on the windshield or the dashboard. FarSight uses the smartphone's camera to identify and draw a bounding box around vehicles in front, based on which ranging is performed. Unlike prior smartphone-based work, FarSight does not depend on any infrastructure support such as standard-width lane markers and works with a heterogeneous mix of vehicles, both of which are characteristics of developing regions. We develop a novel hybrid approach for vehicle detection and tracking, which balances accuracy and speed by combining deep neural network based vehicle detection with vision-based object tracking in a pipelined manner. We also devise data augmentation techniques to improve the effectiveness of vehicle detection, thereby increasing the ranging distance.

We show that FarSight can range accurately in both daytime and nighttime conditions and up to distances of 90 m. We have implemented FarSight as an Android-app and tested it across various phones. Further, we present two ranging-based applications built on FarSight.