bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
STATISTICALLY VALIDATED LEAD-LAG NETWORKS AND INVENTORY PREDICTION IN THE FOREIGN EXCHANGE MARKET
Authors: CHALLET DAMIEN , CHICHEPORTICHE RÉMY , LALLOUACHE MEHDI , KASSIBRAKIS SERGE
Published: September 2018

We introduce a method to infer lead-lag networks of agents’ actions in complex systems. These networks open the way to both microscopic and macroscopic states prediction in such systems. We apply this method to trader-resolved data in the foreign exchange market. We show that these networks are remarkably persistent, which explains why and how order flow prediction is possible from trader-resolved data. In addition, if traders’ actions depend on past prices, the evolution of the average price paid by traders may also be predictable. Using random forests, we verify that the predictability of both the sign of order flow and the direction of average transaction price is strong for retail investors at an hourly time scale, which is of great relevance to brokers and order matching engines. Finally, we argue that the existence of trader lead-lag networks explains in a self-referential way why a given trader becomes active, which is in line with the fact that most trading activity has an endogenous origin.
THE VOICE OF INFORMAL ENTREPRENEURS: RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES PERSPECTIVE
Authors: KHAN EIJAZ AHMED
Published: September 2018

Despite increased attention from scholars and policy makers, the growth of informal entrepreneurship and its challenges have been reported continuously and are growing frequently. However, there is an inadequate study on informal entrepreneurship growth in view of resources and capabilities. Thus, the objective of this paper is to propose a model of informal entrepreneurship in view of resources and capabilities by examining the existing literature and field study data in the context of a developing country. An exploratory field study was undertaken, where fourteen interviews were conducted. A content analysis technique was applied to identify the resources and capabilities factors with their associated variables and a research model was developed. Outcomes from field study recognized the resources and capabilities factors and variables, as well as their relationships. It vibrates well with the existing literature and establishes the proposed model. This study proposes a model for future informal entrepreneurship research and identifies theoretical and policy implications.
The Role of Uncertainty During the Ebola Pandemic in Western Africa (2014–2016)
Authors: Karlsen André , Kruke Bjørn Ivar
Published: September 2018

An Ebola outbreak in Western Africa escalated into a transboundary crisis in 2014. This escalation of a rather small outbreak, to unfold into an international health crisis, were caused by many socio-political factors, such as poverty, lack of resources, inaction by governments, the international community and the way the response systems for pandemics have been built. Drawing on literature reviews of reports and policy documents, this paper aims to study the influence of uncertainty as a facilitator for “non-decision-making” on actions which could have stopped the escalation of the outbreak. The responders faced uncertainty associated with the source, evolution and solutions to the pandemic — mainly because of inadequate understanding of the situation in Western Africa, inadequate information exchange from the field, and internal administrative structures within the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition, uncertainty was also deliberately spread due to fears of having the WHO impose a “Declaration of Public Health Emergency of International Concern” (PHEIC), which again could cause severe economic and political consequences.
SleepGuard
Authors: Chang Liqiong , Lu Jiaqi , Wang Ju , Chen Xiaojiang , Fang Dingyi , Tang Zhanyong , Nurmi Petteri , Wang Zheng
Published: September 2018

Sleep is an important part of our daily routine -- we spend about one-third of our time doing it. By tracking sleep-related events and activities, sleep monitoring provides decision support to help us understand sleep quality and causes of poor sleep. Wearable devices provide a new way for sleep monitoring, allowing us to monitor sleep from the comfort of our own home. However, existing solutions do not take full advantage of the rich sensor data provided by these devices. In this paper, we present the design and development of SleepGuard, a novel approach to track a wide range of sleep-related events using smartwatches. We show that using merely a single smartwatch, it is possible to capture a rich amount of information about sleep events and sleeping context, including body posture and movements, acoustic events, and illumination conditions. We demonstrate that through these events it is possible to estimate sleep quality and identify factors affecting it most. We evaluate our approach by conducting extensive experiments involved fifteen users across a 2-week period. Our experimental results show that our approach can track a richer set of sleep events, provide better decision support for evaluating sleep quality, and help to identify causes for sleep problems compared to prior work.
MultiCell
Authors: Fang Zhihan , Zhang Fan , Yin Ling , Zhang Desheng
Published: September 2018

Exploring cellphone network data has been proved to be a very effective way to understand urban populations because of the high penetration rate of cellphones. However, the state-of-the-art population models driven by cellphone data are typically built upon single cellphone networks, assuming the users in a particular cellphone network used are representative of all residents in the studied city with multiple cellphone networks. This assumption usually does not hold in the real world due to strategic spatial coverages and business concentrations of cellphone companies, which lead to data biases, and thus overfitting of resultant population models. To address this issue, we design a model called MultiCell to model real-time urban populations from multiple cellphone networks with two novel techniques: (i) a network realignment technique to integrate individual cell-tower spatial distributions from multiple cellphone networks for finer granular population modeling; (ii) a data fusion technique based on cross-network training to design a population model based on multiple network data. We implement MultiCell in the Chinese city Shenzhen based on three cellphone networks with 10 million active users and their daily data records at 11 thousand cell towers. We evaluate MultiCell by comparing it to the state-of-the-art models driven by single cellphone networks, and the evaluation results show that MultiCell outperforms them by 27% in terms of accuracy. Finally, we cross-validate MultiCell with three transportation systems with more than 8 million passengers to investigate its performances.
Experiencing Electrical Muscle Stimulation
Authors: Knibbe J. , Alsmith A. , Hornbæk K.
Published: September 2018

Electrical Muscle Stimulation (EMS) offers rich opportunities for interaction. By varying stimulation parameters (amplitudes, pulse widths and frequencies), EMS can be used to either trigger muscle contractions, and so convey object affordances or guide user movements, or provide rich haptic feedback. However, the way users' experience changes with these parameters, and EMS in general, is poorly understood. Using a phenomenologically inspired interview technique, the explicitation interview, we study fifteen users' experience of EMS across 48 combinations of stimulation parameters. We synthesize the descriptions of EMS and relate stimulation parameters to categories of experience, such as 'temperature', 'motion', and 'sensitivity'. From the interviews, we explore more general topics in body-based interfaces, including the experience of control, metaphors for having your body actuated, and the relation between EMS parameters and perceived depth and location of sensations. These findings provide a vocabulary of EMS experience, and an insight into the relationship between specific parameters and associated sensations. In turn, this can help designers consider the user experience of EMS when developing interfaces.
HMC
Authors: Maouche Mohamed , Ben Mokhtar Sonia , Bouchenak Sara
Published: September 2018

With the wide propagation of handheld devices, more and more mobile sensors are being used by end users on a daily basis. Those sensors could be leveraged to gather useful mobility data for city planners, business analysts and researches. However, gathering and exploiting mobility data raises many privacy threats. Sensitive information such as one's home or work place, hobbies, religious beliefs, political or sexual preferences can be inferred from the gathered data. In the last decade, Location Privacy Protection Mechanisms (LPPMs) have been proposed to protect user data privacy. However existing LPPMs fail at effectively protecting the users as most of them reason on local mobility features: micro-mobility (e.g., individual geographical coordinates) while ignoring higher level mobility features, which may allow attackers to discriminate between users. In this paper we propose HMC the first LPPM that reasons on the overall user mobility abstracted using heat maps. We evaluate HMC using four real mobility traces and multiple privacy and utility metrics. The results show that with HMC, across all the datasets 87% of mobile users are successfully protected against re-identification attacks, while others LPPMs only achieve a protection ranging from 43% to 79%. By considering only users protected with a high utility, the proportion of users stays high for HMC with 75%, while for others LPPMs it goes down to proportions between 4% and 43%.
Using Autoencoders to Automatically Extract Mobility Features for Predicting Depressive States
Authors: Mehrotra Abhinav , Musolesi Mirco
Published: September 2018

Recent studies have shown the potential of exploiting GPS data for passively inferring people's mental health conditions. However, feature extraction for characterizing human mobility remains a heuristic process that relies on the domain knowledge of the condition under consideration. Moreover, we do not have guarantees that these "hand-crafted" metrics are able to effectively capture mobility behavior of users. Indeed, informative emerging patterns in the data might not be characterized by them. This is also a complex and often time-consuming task, since it usually consists of a lengthy trial-and-error process.

In this paper, we investigate the potential of using autoencoders for automatically extracting features from the raw input data. Through a series of experiments we show the effectiveness of autoencoder-based features for predicting depressive states of individuals compared to "hand-crafted" ones. Our results show that automatically extracted features lead to an improvement of the performance of the prediction models, while, at the same time, reducing the complexity of the feature design task. Moreover, through an extensive experimental performance analysis, we demonstrate the optimal configuration of the key parameters at the basis of the proposed approach.
Unlock with Your Heart
Authors: Wang Lei , Huang Kang , Sun Ke , Wang Wei , Tian Chen , Xie Lei , Gu Qing
Published: September 2018

In this paper, we propose to use the vibration of the chest in response to the heartbeat as a biometric feature to authenticate the user on mobile devices. We use the built-in accelerometer to capture the heartbeat signals on commercial mobile phones. The user only needs to press the phone on his/her chest, and the system can identify the user within a few heartbeats. To reliably extract heartbeat features, we design a two-step alignment scheme that can handle the natural variability in human heart rates. We further use an adaptive template selection scheme to authenticate the user under different body postures and body states. Based on heartbeat signals collected on twenty users, the experimental results show that our method can achieve an authentication accuracy of 96.49% and the heartbeat features are stable over a period of three months.
Sensing Behavioral Change over Time
Authors: Wang Weichen , Harari Gabriella M. , Wang Rui , Müller Sandrine R. , Mirjafari Shayan , Masaba Kizito , Campbell Andrew T.
Published: September 2018

Personality traits describe individual differences in patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving ("between-person" variability). But individuals also show changes in their own patterns over time ("within-person" variability). Existing approaches to measuring within-person variability typically rely on self-report methods that do not account for fine-grained behavior change patterns (e.g., hour-by-hour). In this paper, we use passive sensing data from mobile phones to examine the extent to which within-person variability in behavioral patterns can predict self-reported personality traits. Data were collected from 646 college students who participated in a self-tracking assignment for 14 days. To measure variability in behavior, we focused on 5 sensed behaviors (ambient audio amplitude, exposure to human voice, physical activity, phone usage, and location data) and computed 4 within-person variability features (simple standard deviation, circadian rhythm, regularity index, and flexible regularity index). We identified a number of significant correlations between the within-person variability features and the self-reported personality traits. Finally, we designed a model to predict the personality traits from the within-person variability features. Our results show that we can predict personality traits with good accuracy. The resulting predictions correlate with self-reported personality traits in the range of r = 0.32, MAE = 0.45 (for Openness in iOS users) to r = 0.69, MAE = 0.55 (for Extraversion in Android users). Our results suggest that within-person variability features from smartphone data has potential for passive personality assessment.
SenseGAN
Authors: Yao Shuochao , Zhao Yiran , Shao Huajie , Zhang Chao , Zhang Aston , Hu Shaohan , Liu Dongxin , Liu Shengzhong , Su Lu , Abdelzaher Tarek
Published: September 2018

Recent proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices with enhanced computing and sensing capabilities has revolutionized our everyday life. The massive data from these ubiquitous devices motivate the creation of intelligent IoT systems that can collectively learn. However, labelling data for learning purposes is extremely time-consuming, which greatly hinders deployment. In this paper, we describe a semi-supervised deep learning framework, called SenseGAN, that can leverage abundant unlabelled sensing data thereby minimizing the need for labelling effort. SenseGAN jointly trains three components with an adversarial game: (i) a classifier for predicting labels of input sensing data; (ii) a generator for generating sensing data samples based on the input labels; and (iii) a discriminator for differentiating the joint data/label distribution between real samples and partially generated samples from either the classifier or the generator. The classifier and the generator try to generate fake data/labels that can fool the discriminator. The adversarial game among the three components can mutually boost their performance, which helps the classifier learn to predict correct labels with unlabelled data in return. SenseGAN can effectively handle multimodal sensing inputs and easily stabilize the adversarial training process, which helps improve the performance of the classifier. Experiments on three IoT applications demonstrate the substantial improvements in accuracy and F1 score under SenseGAN, compared with supervised counterparts trained only on the labelled portion of the data, as well as other supervised and semi-supervised baselines. For these three applications, SenseGAN requires only 10% of the originally labelled data, to attain nearly the same accuracy as a deep learning classifier trained on the fully labelled dataset.
Location Privacy-Preserving Data Recovery for Mobile Crowdsensing
Authors: Zhou Tongqing , Cai Zhiping , Xiao Bin , Wang Leye , Xu Ming , Chen Yueyue
Published: September 2018

Data recovery techniques such as compressive sensing are commonly used in mobile crowdsensing (MCS) applications to infer the information of unsensed regions based on data from nearby participants. However, the participants' locations are exposed when they report geo-tagged data to an application server. While there are considerable location protection approaches for MCS, they fail to maintain the correlation of sensory data, leading to the existence of unrecoverable data. None of the previous approaches can achieve both data recovery and data privacy preservation. We propose a novel location privacy-preserving data recovery method in this paper. Based on our discovery that the adjacency relations of non-zero elements are key to the missing data recovery in a crowdsensing data matrix, we design a correlation-preserving location obfuscation scheme to hide the participants' locations under effective camouflage. We also design an encrypted data recovery scheme based on the homomorphic encryption in order to avoid location privacy leakage from sensory data. Location obfuscation and data encryption preserve the participants' privacy, while the correlation-preserving and homomorphic properties of our method ensure data recovery accuracy. Evaluations of real-world datasets show that our privacy-preserving method can effectively obfuscate locations (e.g., yielding an average location distortion of 1.7km in a 2.4km x 4km area for successful location hiding), and it can efficiently achieve similar data recovery accuracy to compressive sensing (which has no privacy protection).
Mate Preferences and Their Behavioral Manifestations
Authors: Buss David M. , Schmitt David P.
Published: September 2018

Evolved mate preferences comprise a central causal process in Darwin's theory of sexual selection. Their powerful influences have been documented in all sexually reproducing species, including in sexual strategies in humans. This article reviews the science of human mate preferences and their myriad behavioral manifestations. We discuss sex differences and sex similarities in human sexual psychology, which vary according to short-term and long-term mating contexts. We review context-specific shifts in mating strategy depending on individual, social, and ecological qualities such as mate value, life history strategy, sex ratio, gender economic inequality, and cultural norms. We review the empirical evidence for the impact of mate preferences on actual mating decisions. Mate preferences also dramatically influence tactics of mate attraction, tactics of mate retention, patterns of deception, causes of sexual regret, attraction to cues to sexual exploitability, attraction to cues to fertility, attraction to cues to resources and protection, derogation of competitors, causes of breakups, and patterns of remarriage. We conclude by articulating unresolved issues and offer a future agenda for the science of human mating, including how humans invent novel cultural technologies to better implement ancient sexual strategies and how cultural evolution may be dramatically influencing our evolved mating psychology.
Urinary acrolein metabolite levels in severe acute alcoholic hepatitis patients
Authors: Vatsalya Vatsalya , Kong Maiying , Gobejishvili Leila , Chen Wei-Yang , Srivastava Sanjay , Barve Shirish , McClain Craig , Joshi-Barve Swati
Published: September 2018

Alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) remains a major health concern worldwide. Alcohol consumption gives rise to reactive/toxic acrolein, a pathogenic mediator of liver injury in experimental ALD. Elevated acrolein adducts and metabolites are detectable in blood and urine. This study evaluates the major urinary acrolein metabolite, 3-hydroxypropylmercapturic acid (HPMA), in patients with acute alcoholic hepatitis (AAH) and examines its association with disease severity and markers of hepatic inflammation and injury. Urine HPMA was significantly higher in patients with severe [model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) ≥ 20] AAH compared with nonsevere AAH (MELD ≤ 19) or non-alcohol-consuming controls, suggesting that urine HPMA is a novel noninvasive biomarker in severe AAH. The association between HPMA and MELD in patients with AAH was nonlinear. In patients with nonsevere AAH, there was a positive trend, although not significant, whereas in severe AAH the association was negative, indicative of extensive injury and glutathione depletion. Consistent with the multifactorial etiology of ALD, our data identified strong combined effects of HPMA and proinflammatory cytokines on hepatocyte cell death, thereby supporting the pathogenic role of acrolein in liver injury. HPMA, together with IL-1β, showed robust associations with cytokeratin 18 caspase-cleaved fragment (CK18-M30; adjusted R2 = 0.812, P = 0.016) and cytokeratin 18 full-length protein (CK18-M65; adjusted R2 = 0.670, P = 0.048); similarly, HPMA, with IL-8, correlated with CK18-M30 (adjusted R2 = 0.875, P = 0.007) and CK18-M65 (adjusted R2 = 0.831, P = 0.013). The apoptosis index (CK18-M30:CK18-M65 ratio) strongly correlated with HPMA, together with IL-1β (adjusted R2 = 0.777, P = 0.022) or tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα; adjusted R2 = 0.677, P = 0.046). In patients with severe AAH, IL-1β, IL-8, and TNFα are the predominant proinflammatory cytokines that interact with HPMA and play important mediating roles in influencing the extent/pattern of liver cell death.

NEW & NOTEWORTHY This is the first study to examine the urinary acrolein metabolite 3-hydroxypropylmercapturic acid (HPMA) in alcoholic liver disease. HPMA was higher in patients with severe acute alcoholic hepatitis (AAH) compared with controls or nonsevere AAH and may be a novel selective, noninvasive biomarker for severe AAH. Consistent with the multifactorial etiology of alcohol-associated liver disease, we identified strong combined effects of HPMA and proinflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-8, and TNFα) on the extent/pattern of liver cell death, thereby supporting the pathogenic role of acrolein.
Hypoxia inhibits adenylyl cyclase catalytic activity in a porcine model of persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn
Authors: Sikarwar A. S. , Hinton M. , Santhosh K. T. , Dhanaraj P. , Talabis M. , Chelikani P. , Dakshinamurti S.
Published: September 2018

Persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN) features hypoxemia, pulmonary vasoconstriction, and impaired cardiac inotropy. We previously reported low basal and stimulated cAMP in hypoxic pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs). We now examine pulmonary arterial adenylyl cyclase (AC) activity and regulation in hypoxic PPHN. PPHN was induced in newborn swine by normobaric hypoxia (fraction of inspired oxygen 0.10) for 72 h and compared with age-matched normoxic controls. We studied relaxation of pulmonary arterial (PA) rings to AC activator forskolin and cGMP activator sodium nitroprusside (SNP) by isometric myography, ATP content, phosphodiesterase activity, AC content, isoform expression, and catalytic activity in presence or absence of Gαs-coupled receptor agonists, forskolin, or transnitrosylating agents in human and neonatal porcine PASMCs and HEK293T stably expressing AC isoform 6, after 72 h hypoxia (10% O2) or normoxia (21% O2). Relaxation to forskolin and SNP were equally impaired in PPHN PA. AC-specific activity decreased in hypoxia. PASMC from PPHN swine had reduced AC activity despite exposure to normoxia in culture; transient hypoxia in vitro further decreased AC activity. Prostacyclin receptor ligand affinity decreased, but its association with Gαs increased in hypoxia. Total AC content was unchanged by hypoxia, but AC6 increased in hypoxic cells and PPHN pulmonary arteries. Impairment of AC6 activity in hypoxia was associated with nitrosylation. PPHN PA relaxation is impaired because of loss of AC activity. Hypoxic AC is inhibited because of S-nitrosylation; inhibition persists after removal from hypoxia. Downregulation of AC-mediated relaxation in hypoxic PA has implications for utility of Gαs-coupled receptor agonists in PPHN treatment.
Habitual aerobic exercise and circulating proteomic patterns in healthy adults: relation to indicators of healthspan
Authors: Santos-Parker Jessica R. , Santos-Parker Keli S. , McQueen Matthew B. , Martens Christopher R. , Seals Douglas R.
Published: September 2018

Habitual aerobic exercise enhances physiological function and reduces risk of morbidity and mortality throughout life, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are largely unknown. The circulating proteome reflects the intricate network of physiological processes maintaining homeostasis and may provide insight into the molecular transducers of the health benefits of physical activity. In this exploratory study, we assessed the plasma proteome (SOMAscan proteomic assay; 1,129 proteins) of healthy sedentary or aerobic exercise-trained young women and young and older men ( n = 47). Using weighted correlation network analysis to identify clusters of highly co-expressed proteins, we characterized 10 distinct plasma proteomic modules (patterns). In healthy young (24 ± 1 yr) men and women, 4 modules were associated with aerobic exercise status and 1 with participant sex. In healthy young and older (64 ± 2 yr) men, 5 modules differed with age, but 2 of these were partially preserved at young adult levels in older men who exercised; among all men, 4 modules were associated with exercise status, including 3 of the 4 identified in young adults. Exercise-linked proteomic patterns were related to pathways involved in wound healing, regulation of apoptosis, glucose-insulin and cellular stress signaling, and inflammation/immune responses. Importantly, several of the exercise-related modules were associated with physiological and clinical indicators of healthspan, including diastolic blood pressure, insulin resistance, maximal aerobic capacity, and vascular endothelial function. Overall, these findings provide initial insight into circulating proteomic patterns modulated by habitual aerobic exercise in healthy young and older adults, the biological processes involved, and their relation to indicators of healthspan.

NEW & NOTEWORTHY This is the first study to assess the relation between plasma proteomic patterns and aerobic exercise status in healthy adults. Weighted correlation network analysis identified 10 distinct proteomic modules, including 5 patterns specific for exercise status. Additionally, 5 modules differed with aging in men, two of which were preserved in older exercising men. Exercise-associated modules included proteins related to inflammation, stress pathways, and immune function and correlated with clinical and physiological indicators of healthspan.
Attenuation of human hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction by acetazolamide and methazolamide
Authors: Boulet Lindsey M. , Teppema Luc J. , Hackett Heather K. , Dominelli Paolo B. , Cheyne William S. , Dominelli Giulio S. , Irwin David C. , Buehler Paul W. , Baek Jin Hyen , Swenson Erik R. , Foster Glen E.
Published: September 2018

Acetazolamide (AZ), a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor used for preventing altitude illness attenuates hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction (HPV) while improving oxygenation. Methazolamide (MZ), an analog of acetazolamide, is more lipophilic, has a longer half-life, and activates a major antioxidant transcription factor. However, its influence on the hypoxic pulmonary response in humans is unknown. The aim of this study was to determine whether a clinically relevant dosing of MZ improves oxygenation, attenuates HPV, and augments plasma antioxidant capacity in men exposed to hypoxia compared with an established dosing of AZ known to suppress HPV. In this double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial, 11 participants were randomized to treatments with MZ (100 mg 2× daily) and AZ (250 mg 3× daily) for 2 days before 60 min of hypoxia (FIO2 ≈0.12). Pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP), alveolar ventilation (V̇A), blood gases, and markers of redox status were measured. Pulmonary vascular sensitivity to hypoxia was determined by indexing PASP to alveolar PO2. AZ caused greater metabolic acidosis than MZ, but the augmented V̇A and improved oxygenation with hypoxia were similar. The rise in PASP with hypoxia was lower with MZ (9.0 ± 0.9 mmHg) and AZ (8.0 ± 0.7 mmHg) vs. placebo (14.1 ± 1.3 mmHg, P < 0.05). Pulmonary vascular sensitivity to hypoxia (ΔPASP/ΔPAO2) was reduced equally by both drugs. Only AZ improved the nonenzymatic plasma antioxidant capacity. Although AZ had only plasma antioxidant properties, MZ led to similar improvements in oxygenation and reduction in HPV at a dose causing less metabolic acidosis than AZ in humans.

NEW & NOTEWORTHY Both acetazolamide and methazolamide are effective in the prevention of acute mountain sickness by inducing an increase in ventilation and oxygenation. Acetazolamide attenuates hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction; however, it was previously unknown whether methazolamide has the same effect in humans. This study shows that a dosing of methazolamide causing less metabolic acidosis improves oxygenation while attenuating hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction and pulmonary vascular sensitivity to hypoxia. Acetazolamide improved plasma antioxidant capacity better than methazolamide.
Age-related differences in binaural masking level differences: behavioral and electrophysiological evidence
Authors: Anderson Samira , Ellis Robert , Mehta Julie , Goupell Matthew J.
Published: September 2018

The effects of aging and stimulus configuration on binaural masking level differences (BMLDs) were measured behaviorally and electrophysiologically, using the frequency-following response (FFR) to target brainstem/midbrain encoding. The tests were performed in 15 younger normal-hearing (<30 yr) and 15 older normal-hearing (>60 yr) participants. The stimuli consisted of a 500-Hz target tone embedded in a narrowband (50-Hz bandwidth) or wideband (1,500-Hz bandwidth) noise masker. The interaural phase conditions included NoSo (tone and noise presented interaurally in-phase), NoSπ (noise presented interaurally in-phase and tone presented out-of-phase), and NπSo (noise presented interaurally out-of-phase and tone presented in-phase) configurations. In the behavioral experiment, aging reduced the magnitude of the BMLD. The magnitude of the BMLD was smaller for the NoSo–NπSo threshold difference compared with the NoSo–NoSπ threshold difference, and it was also smaller in narrowband compared with wideband conditions, consistent with previous measurements. In the electrophysiology experiment, older participants had reduced FFR magnitudes and smaller differences between configurations. There were significant changes in FFR magnitude between the NoSo to NoSπ configurations but not between the NoSo to NπSo configurations. The age-related reduction in FFR magnitudes suggests a temporal processing deficit, but no correlation was found between FFR magnitudes and behavioral BMLDs. Therefore, independent mechanisms may be contributing to the behavioral and neural deficits. Specifically, older participants had higher behavioral thresholds than younger participants for the NoSπ and NπSo configurations but had equivalent thresholds for the NoSo configuration. However, FFR magnitudes were reduced in older participants across all configurations.

NEW & NOTEWORTHY Behavioral and electrophysiological testing reveal an aging effect for stimuli presented in wideband and narrowband noise conditions, such that behavioral binaural masking level differences and subcortical spectral magnitudes are reduced in older compared with younger participants. These deficits in binaural processing may limit the older participant's ability to use spatial cues to understand speech in environments containing competing sound sources.
The Application of a Desktop NMR Spectrometer in Drug Analysis
Authors: Zhong Yonghong , Huang Kejian , Luo Qiulian , Yao Suzhi , Liu Xiaofeng , Yang Ning , Lin Cuiwu , Luo Xuan
Published: September 2018

A desktop NMR spectrometer was used to qualitatively analyze samples in drug-related cases in order to enhance the accuracy of the results and identify new drugs. Twelve known drugs and their derivatives were used to establish the parameters, conditions, and procedures for the methods and validate the feasibility and reliability of the methods. First, 1-D and 2-D NMR data for these 12 drugs and their derivatives were obtained in detail using a 600-MHz NMR spectrometer to create a data library. Next, some of these 12 drugs were analyzed using a Picospin 80 MHz desktop NMR spectrometer to set up the analytical procedure and method. With the procedure and method established, real case samples were analyzed and the data were compared to those obtained by a standard method. The results indicate that the desktop NMR spectrometer is a reliable and promising approach that can be used in criminology to quickly identify whether or not samples contain illegal drugs.
Classical Polymerization of the Schwarzschild Metric
Authors: Vakili Babak
Published: September 2018

We study a spherically symmetric setup consisting of a Schwarzschild metric as the background geometry in the framework of classical polymerization. This process is an extension of the polymeric representation of quantum mechanics in such a way that a transformation maps classical variables to their polymeric counterpart. We show that the usual Schwarzschild metric can be extracted from a Hamiltonian function which in turn gets modifications due to the classical polymerization. Then, the polymer corrected Schwarzschild metric may be obtained by solving the polymer-Hamiltonian equations of motion. It is shown that while the conventional Schwarzschild space-time is a vacuum solution of the Einstein equations, its polymer-corrected version corresponds to an energy-momentum tensor that exhibits the features of dark energy. We also use the resulting metric to investigate some thermodynamical quantities associated with the Schwarzschild black hole, and in comparison with the standard Schwarzschild metric the similarities and differences are discussed.
Continuous Fuzzy Kano Model and Fuzzy AHP Model for Aesthetic Product Design: Case Study of an Electric Scooter
Authors: Wu Yixiang , Cheng Jianxin
Published: September 2018

The fuzzy Kano model (FKM) adopts a linear scoring system that cannot accurately reflect the relationship between users’ needs and satisfaction and may underestimate the importance of users’ evaluation and needs. In this paper, we propose a preference-based evaluation-fuzzy-quantification method to determine the priority of the development of attractive factors of an electric scooter. In the evaluation analysis stage, the evaluation grid diagrams of all the interviewees are systemized. In the fuzzy computing stage, the continuous fuzzy Kano model (C-FKM) combined with the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) is developed to determine the priority of the development of attractive factors. By processing the ambiguity of users’ needs, the C-FKM can obtain a more accurate representation of users’ needs than the FKM. The opinions of 20 experts are integrated using the similarity aggregation method (SAM); then the FAHP is applied to calculate the weight of each evaluation criterion. Lastly, we use quantitative analysis to discover the important and specific characteristics that influence the attractiveness of an electric scooter. Research shows that Kansei images with attractive qualities are reliable and may be the first choice for satisfying the perceptual demands of consumers and can provide reference for the related research.
Photochemical Treatment of Drosophila APCs Can Eliminate Associated Viruses and Maintain the APC Function for Generating Antigen-Specific CTLs Ex Vivo
Authors: Ye Jun , Yang Chunxia , Cai Zeling , Shi Weixing , Yu Hong
Published: September 2018

Drosophila cells transfected with MHC class I and a number of costimulation molecules including B7.1, ICAM, LFA-3, and CD70 are potent antigen-presenting cells (APCs) for the generation of antigen-specific cytotoxic T cells (CTLs) in vitro. Using Drosophila APCs, CTLs specific for melanoma antigens have been generated in vitro and adoptively transferred to melanoma patients. However, the recent discovery that Drosophila cells can carry insect viruses raises the potential risk of Drosophila APCs transmitting xenogenic viruses to patient CTLs. In this study, we have investigated photoreactive methods to inactivate insect viruses in APC. A clinical grade psoralen compound, 8-MOP (UVADEX) in combination with UVA treatment (5 joules/cm2) can be used to inactivate Drosophila cell viruses. UVADEX treatment is sufficient to inactivate insect viruses but does not affect the expression of MHC class I molecules and costimulation molecules on Drosophila APCs. In fact, UVADEX treatment prevents Drosophila APC growth while maintaining APC function. Furthermore, UVADEX-treated Drosophila APCs maintain or have enhanced APC function as determined by enhanced T cell activation, proliferation, and CTL generation. Thus, the use of UVADEX-treated Drosophila APCs may provide a valuable tool for immunotherapy to generate tumor antigen-specific CTLs.
Determination of Cyclability of Li/FeS2 Batteries Based on Measurement of Coulombic Efficiency
Authors: Maldonado Nogales Paul , Song Hee-Youb , Jeong Soon-Ki
Published: September 2018

The electrochemical performance of negative electrodes based on different FeS2 samples was investigated. The study demonstrated a correlation between the coulombic efficiency obtained over 60 cycles and the capacity loss rate evaluated over 15 cycles. The accuracy of the coulombic efficiency and capacity loss rate measurements was advantageous for predicting the aging behavior of half-cells over a short-term test. A suggested classification of the coulombic efficiency and verification via a numerical analysis were proposed to determine the fading rate of batteries during the galvanostatic test.
Neurophysiological Profile of Antismoking Campaigns
Authors: Modica Enrica , Rossi Dario , Cartocci Giulia , Perrotta Davide , Di Feo Paolo , Mancini Marco , Aricò Pietro , Inguscio Bianca M. S. , Babiloni Fabio
Published: September 2018

Over the past few decades, antismoking public service announcements (PSAs) have been used by governments to promote healthy behaviours in citizens, for instance, against drinking before the drive and against smoke. Effectiveness of such PSAs has been suggested especially for young persons. By now, PSAs efficacy is still mainly assessed through traditional methods (questionnaires and metrics) and could be performed only after the PSAs broadcasting, leading to waste of economic resources and time in the case of Ineffective PSAs. One possible countermeasure to such ineffective use of PSAs could be promoted by the evaluation of the cerebral reaction to the PSA of particular segments of population (e.g., old, young, and heavy smokers). In addition, it is crucial to gather such cerebral activity in front of PSAs that have been assessed to be effective against smoke (Effective PSAs), comparing results to the cerebral reactions to PSAs that have been certified to be not effective (Ineffective PSAs). The eventual differences between the cerebral responses toward the two PSA groups will provide crucial information about the possible outcome of new PSAs before to its broadcasting. This study focused on adult population, by investigating the cerebral reaction to the vision of different PSA images, which have already been shown to be Effective and Ineffective for the promotion of an antismoking behaviour. Results showed how variables as gender and smoking habits can influence the perception of PSA images, and how different communication styles of the antismoking campaigns could facilitate the comprehension of PSA’s message and then enhance the related impact.
ST8SIA1 Regulates Tumor Growth and Metastasis in TNBC by Activating the FAK–AKT–mTOR Signaling Pathway
Authors: Nguyen Khoa , Yan Yuanqing , Yuan Bin , Dasgupta Abhishek , Sun Jeffrey , Mu Hong , Do Kim-Anh , Ueno Naoto T. , Andreeff Michael , Battula V. Lokesh
Published: September 2018

Breast cancer stem-like cells (BCSC) are implicated in cancer recurrence and metastasis of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). We have recently discovered that ganglioside GD2 expression defines BCSCs and that ST8SIA1 regulates GD2 expression and BCSC function. In this report, we show that ST8SIA1 is highly expressed in primary TNBC; its expression is positively correlated with the expression of several BCSC-associated genes such as BCL11A, FOXC1, CXCR4, PDGFRβ, SOX2, and mutations in p53. CRISPR knockout of ST8SIA1 completely inhibited BCSC functions, including in vitro tumorigenesis and mammosphere formation. Mechanistic studies discovered activation of the FAK–AKT–mTOR signaling pathway in GD2+ BCSCs, and its tight regulation by ST8SIA1. Finally, knockout of ST8SIA1 completely blocked in vivo tumor growth and metastasis by TNBC cells. In summary, these data demonstrate the mechanism by which ST8SIA1 regulates tumor growth and metastasis in TNBC and identifies it as a novel therapeutic target.
The Pathogenic Involvement of Neutrophils in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome and Transfusion-Related Acute Lung Injury
Authors: Rebetz Johan , Semple John W. , Kapur Rick
Published: September 2018

The acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a serious and common complication of multiple medical and surgical interventions, with sepsis, pneumonia, and aspiration of gastric contents being common risk factors. ARDS develops within 1 week of a known clinical insult or presents with new/worsening respiratory symptoms if the clinical insult is unknown. Approximately 40% of the ARDS cases have a fatal outcome. Transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI), on the other hand, is characterized by the occurrence of respiratory distress and acute lung injury, which presents within 6 h after administration of a blood transfusion. In contrast to ARDS, acute lung injury in TRALI is not attributable to another risk factor for acute lung injury. ‘Possible TRALI', however, may have a clear temporal relationship to an alternative risk factor for acute lung injury. Risk factors for TRALI include chronic alcohol abuse and systemic inflammation. TRALI is the leading cause of transfusion-related fatalities. There are no specific therapies available for ARDS or TRALI as both have a complex and incompletely understood pathogenesis. Neutrophils (polymorphonuclear leukocytes; PMNs) have been suggested to be key effector cells in the pathogenesis of both syndromes. In the present paper, we summarize the literature with regard to PMN involvement in the pathogenesis of both ARDS and TRALI based on both human data as well as on animal models. The evidence generally supports a strong role for PMNs in both ARDS and TRALI. More research is required to shed light on the pathogenesis of these respiratory syndromes and to more thoroughly establish the nature of the PMN involvement, especially considering the heterogeneous etiologies of ARDS.
Da liberdade e da necessidade, ou das ações voluntárias em Hume
Authors: Cappello Maria Adriana Camargo
Published: September 2018

O texto examina a concepção humiana de vontade no quadro da teoria das paixões delineada na segunda parte do Tratado da natureza humana, com o objetivo de mostrar como ela responde às exigências da doutrina da liberdade e necessidade tal comos se encontra na Investigação sobre o entendimento humano.
Abaixo de zero: psicanálise, política e o “deficit de negatividade” em Axel Honneth
Authors: Safatle Vladimir
Published: September 2018

Trata-se de discutir a natureza dos recursos à psicanálise (em especial Donald Winnicott e Hans Loewald) feitos por Axel Honneth na construção de sua teoria do reconhecimento. Espera-se mostrar como tais recursos trazem consequências políticas claras por permitir a definição de um dos eixos fundamentais das lutas sociais como sendo a afirmação das condições para o desenvolvimento da individualidade. Durante o artigo, veremos como o recurso a outra matriz psicanalítica (fornecida por Jacques Lacan) poderia abrir o caminho para consequências políticas alternativas.
Um comentário sobre “as regras para se julgar sobre causas e feitos” de David Hume
Authors: Cass Mark Julian Richter
Published: September 2018

O texto examina o modo como Hume, no Tratado da natureza humana, propõe uma nova concepção das regras que permitem ao entendimento humano julgar das relações de causa e efeito a respeito de suas próprias ideias.
Literatura e formação moral em Jane Austen e David Hume
Authors: Balieiro Marcos Ribeiro
Published: September 2018

Trata-se de mostrar as afinidades, certamente não fortuitas, entre a literatura de Jane Austen e a filosofia de David Hume, pelo prisma do tema da formação ou educação moral. Analisa-se para tanto o papel, em ambos autores, das noções de sociabilidade e de conversação.
Voltaire sobre Shakespeare e Newton ou o gênio e o gosto nas artes e ciências
Authors: Brandão Rodrigo
Published: September 2018

A partir do contraste oferecido por Voltaire entre dois gigantes ingleses, Newton e Shakespeare, o artigo mostra como o filósofo francês concebe as relações, as incompatibilidades e as complementariedade entre gênio e gosto nas artes e ciências, e, indiretamente, na filosofia.
O século das Luzes e o medo do escuro – a fantasia na Antropologia de Kant
Authors: Nascimento Luís Fernandes dos Santos
Published: September 2018

O artigo tem por objetivo mostrar como o tema, caro ao Século das Luzes, da escuridão e do medo que ela engendra no homem, leva, em Kant, a uma concepção do papel da fantasia como faculdade relevante para a razão humana em sua dimensão antropológica.
Proêmio à Filosofia prática universal, de Immanuel Kant
Authors: Hulshof Monique
Published: September 2018

--
Filosofia como atividade não doutrinal em Nietzsche e Wittgenstein
Authors: Barros Roberto A. P.
Published: September 2018

O presente texto propõe uma reflexão acerca da relação entre filosofia e normatividade ética na contemporaneidade e se volta para a consideração de determinados pressupostos mobilizada pelas filosofias de Nietzsche e do primeiro Wittgenstein. Esta aproximação é justificável por vários motivos, mas dois merecerão aqui maior ênfase. Primeiramente a importância da critica a pressupostos tradicionais do discurso filosófico referente a questões morais e éticas efetuada pelos dois autores. Em segundo lugar, pela recusa de ambos em delimitar a questão da normatividade ética a uma reflexão unicamente conceitual, a partir de suas análises da prática linguística da filosofia.
Códice Boaçava
Authors: Kossovitch Leon
Published: September 2018

Texto que compõe o Códice Boaçava, composto no ano de 2015, queganhou uma edição artística e artesanal limitada a poucos exemplarescontendo o texto de Leon Kossovitch e as linoleogravuras de Sérgio deMoraes aqui reproduzidas.
Meu Ceticismo
Authors: Pereira Oswaldo Porchat
Published: September 2018

--
Deleuze, Bergson e o inconsciente
Authors: Coelho Bruna Martins
Published: September 2018

O objetivo do artigo é expor a noção de inconsciente na filosofia de Deleuze, explorando, para tanto, a posição do filósofo em relação a Bergson. Buscar-se-á mostrar como, por meio de uma aliança estratégica com Bergson, Deleuze poderá atacar a noção psicanalítica de inconsciente.
Fenômeno e objeto na Fenomenologia de Merleau-Ponty
Authors: Neves José Luís
Published: September 2018

Procuro analisar o destino do conceito de objeto intencional ao ser transplantado do idealismo transcendental para o contexto do Lebenswelt como interpretado por Merleau-Ponty na Fenomenologia da percepção. Para isso, afasto tanto uma interpretação segundo a qual o idealismo husserliano cederia lugar ao realismo empírico quanto aquela para a qual Merleau-Ponty confundiria objeto qua intencional e objeto puro e simples. Busco mostrar que, na medida em que o Lebenswelt tem sua legalidade nas sínteses passivas do tempo, o objeto será concebido como Zeitobjekt cuja “indeterminação positiva” o situa tão distante do X vazio do idealismo quanto da coisa para além do fenômeno do realismo.