bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
SWITCHING TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN MID CAREER: A SINGAPOREAN PERSPECTIVE
Authors: SAY PUI-YEN ALISON , PATRICKSON MARGARET
Published: October 2012

The phenomena of an aging population, changing social and economic circumstances, as well as the existential necessity of mid-life changes form the background to this investigation. Though statistics indicate that there are only a few who have considered entrepreneurship as a desirable and feasible career option in mid life, the option is becoming more attractive as the possibility of lifetime employment with a single employer becomes increasingly remote. The focus of this article is to understand what has motivated first time entrepreneurs in mid-career to consider this choice and how they have made sense of their mid-life situations to successfully discover and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities. This study has demonstrated that it requires the optimal interaction of four key elements to increase the likelihood of a positive outcome of entrepreneurial pursuits — knowledge, networks, rewards and risks.
ARE THE BRIC ECONOMIES ENTREPRENEUR-FRIENDLY? AN INSTITUTIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Authors: EUNNI RANGAMOHAN V. , MANOLOVA TATIANA S.
Published: October 2012

How conducive are the institutional environments in the BRIC countries to support entrepreneurship? We employ the Busentiz et al. (2000) survey instrument on a sample of 490 business students from Brazil, Russia, India and China to compare the perceived favorability of their regulatory, cognitive, and normative environments to entrepreneurship. We find no significant differences in the perceived favorability of the regulatory environment, but significant differences in the perceived favorability of the cognitive and normative environments. While the cognitive dimension of the institutional environment in Russia and China is perceived as more conducive to entrepreneurship compared to Brazil and India, the normative dimension in China, India, and Brazil is perceived as more favorable compared to Russia. These differences reflect the wide divergence in the BRIC countries' cultural norms and values, traditions, and institutional heritage and have important implications for future research, managerial practice, and public policy.
CREATING AN INDEPENDENT MUSIC BUSINESS IN CANADA: A CASE STUDY
Authors: PETTIPAS CORA , JAGODA KALINGA
Published: October 2012

The goal of this research is to contribute to a pragmatic knowledge of building a Canadian small business for an independent music artist who does not know where to start in creating a business. It is meant to be an initial guide for musicians planning to consider this form of business development, as opposed to signing with a label, or as a way to increase the likelihood of becoming noticed by a label. This research paper is initial and exploratory in nature.
PYRENE EMISSION FROM MONOLAYERS "CLICKED" ONTO QUARTZ
Authors: SONG HONGYAN , GORELIK SERGEY , HOBLEY JONATHAN , LI JIEXUN , BOUDHAR AÏCHA , LEAR MARTIN J.
Published: October 2012

A series of quartz surfaces were modified with a series of crosslinkers and functional groups in order to obtain an azide-terminated monolayer, which was then used to immobilize pyrene onto the surface via alkyne-azide "click" chemistry. During the course of the immobilization, different ratios of tert-butyl diphenyl chlorosilane were used to control the distribution and hence the photophysical properties of the pyrene on the surface. The preparative surface reactions and photophysical properties were investigated with contact angle, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV-visible absorption and emission spectroscopy. High surface coverage was achieved of just under 1molecule per nm2. At this coverage all emission from the pyrene was in the form of excimer emission. Excimer emission dominated at all surface coverages greater than 0.45 molecules per nm2. Below this coverage the monomer emission could also be observed. The conclusions that can be drawn are important for understanding the interactions of neighboring molecules in molecular monolayers. Our results suggest that at high surface coverage a substantial number of the pyrene molecules are already close enough to their neighbors that pairs of them can be directly excited to form excimer with no requirement for diffusion. This can be stated because the long wavelength end of the pyrene absorption and excitation spectra show a broad tail that is assigned to a charge transfer band resulting from an electron being directly transferred from a ground state pyrene to a neighboring pyrene molecule. Furthermore, absorption spectra shifts also indicate that the pyrene molecules undergo some interactions on the surface when they are closely packed.
Peer to patent needs your expertise
Authors: Oram Andy
Published: October 2012

You can help ensure that computer-related patents are properly reviewed and stop the worthless ones from being granted.
Sharing knowledge
Authors: Marks Peter , Polak Peter , McCoy Scott , Galletta Dennis
Published: October 2012

How managerial prompting, group identification, and social value orientation affect knowledge-sharing behavior.
Municipal broadband wireless networks
Authors: Mandviwalla Munir , Jain Abhijit , Fesenmaier Julie , Smith Jeff , Weinberg Paul , Meyers Greg
Published: October 2012

"...people lack many things: jobs, shelter, food, health care and drinkable water. Today, being cut off from basic telecommunications services is a hardship almost as acute as these other deprivations, and may indeed reduce the chances of finding remedies to them."
---UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, in a keynote address to the International Telecommunication Union, Oct. 9, 1999.
Aérgia
Authors: Das Reetuparna , Mutlu Onur , Moscibroda Thomas , Das Chita R.
Published: October 2012

Traditional Network-on-Chips (NoCs) employ simple arbitration strategies, such as round-robin or oldest-first, to decide which packets should be prioritized in the network. This is counter-intuitive since different packets can have very different effects on system performance due to, e.g., different level of memory-level parallelism (MLP) of applications. Certain packets may be performance-critical because they cause the processor to stall, whereas others may be delayed for a number of cycles with no effect on application-level performance as their latencies are hidden by other outstanding packets'latencies. In this paper, we define slack as a key measure that characterizes the relative importance of a packet. Specifically, the slack of a packet is the number of cycles the packet can be delayed in the network with no effect on execution time. This paper proposes new router prioritization policies that exploit the available slack of interfering packets in order to accelerate performance-critical packets and thus improve overall system performance. When two packets interfere with each other in a router, the packet with the lower slack value is prioritized. We describe mechanisms to estimate slack, prevent starvation, and combine slack-based prioritization with other recently proposed application-aware prioritization mechanisms.

We evaluate slack-based prioritization policies on a 64-core CMP with an 8x8 mesh NoC using a suite of 35 diverse applications. For a representative set of case studies, our proposed policy increases average system throughput by 21.0% over the commonlyused round-robin policy. Averaged over 56 randomly-generated multiprogrammed workload mixes, the proposed policy improves system throughput by 10.3%, while also reducing application-level unfairness by 30.8%.
Silicon-photonic network architectures for scalable, power-efficient multi-chip systems
Authors: Koka Pranay , McCracken Michael O. , Schwetman Herb , Zheng Xuezhe , Ho Ron , Krishnamoorthy Ashok V.
Published: October 2012

Scaling trends of logic, memories, and interconnect networks lead towards dense many-core chips. Unfortunately, process yields and reticle sizes limit the scalability of large single-chip systems. Multi-chip systems break free of these areal limits, but in turn require enormous chip-to-chip bandwidth. The "macrochip" concept presented here integrates multiple many-core processor chips in a single package with silicon-photonic interconnects. This design enables a multi-chip system to approach the performance of a single large die.

In this paper we propose three silicon-photonic network designs that provide low-power, high-bandwidth inter-die communication: a static wavelength-routed point-to-point network, a "two-phase" arbitrated network, and a limited-connectivity point-to-point network. We also adapt two existing intra-chip silicon-photonic interconnects: a token-ring-based crossbar and a circuit-switched torus.

We simulate a 64-die, 512-core cache-coherent macrochip using all of the above networks with synthetic kernels, and kernels from Splash-2 and PARSEC. We evaluate the networks on performance, optical power and complexity. Despite a narrow data-path width compared to the token-ring or torus, the point-to-point performs 3.3x and 3.9x better respectively. We show that the point-to-point is over 10x more power-efficient than the other networks. We also show that, contrary to electronic network designs, a point-to-point network has the lowest design complexity for an inter-chip silicon-photonic network.
Conflict exceptions
Authors: Lucia Brandon , Ceze Luis , Strauss Karin , Qadeer Shaz , Boehm Hans-J.
Published: October 2012

We argue in this paper that concurrency errors should be treated as exceptions,
i.e.
, have fail-stop behavior and precise semantics. We propose an exception model based on conflict of synchronization free regions, which precisely detects a broad class of data-races. We show that our exceptions provide enough guarantees to simplify high-level programming language semantics and debugging, but are significantly cheaper to enforce than traditional data-race detection. To make the performance cost of enforcement negligible, we propose architecture support for accurately detecting and precisely delivering these exceptions. We evaluate the suitability of our model as well as the behavior of our architectural mechanisms using the PARSEC benchmark suite and commercial applications. Our results show that the exception model largely reflects how programmers are already writing code and that the main memory, traffic and performance overheads of the enforcement mechanisms we propose are very low.
Resistive computation
Authors: Guo Xiaochen , Ipek Engin , Soyata Tolga
Published: October 2012

As CMOS scales beyond the 45nm technology node, leakage concerns are starting to limit microprocessor performance growth. To keep dynamic power constant across process generations, traditional MOSFET scaling theory prescribes reducing supply and threshold voltages in proportion to device dimensions, a practice that induces an exponential increase in subthreshold leakage. As a result, leakage power has become comparable to dynamic power in current-generation processes, and will soon exceed it in magnitude if voltages are scaled down any further. Beyond this inflection point, multicore processors will not be able to afford keeping more than a small fraction of all cores active at any given moment. Multicore scaling will soon hit a power wall.

This paper presents resistive computation, a new technique that aims at avoiding the power wall by migrating most of the functionality of a modern microprocessor from CMOS to spin-torque transfer magnetoresistive RAM (STT-MRAM)---a CMOS-compatible, leakage-resistant, non-volatile resistive memory technology. By implementing much of the on-chip storage and combinational logic using leakage-resistant, scalable RAM blocks and lookup tables, and by carefully re-architecting the pipeline, an STT-MRAM based implementation of an eight-core Sun Niagara-like CMT processor reduces chip-wide power dissipation by 1.7× and leakage power by 2.1× at the 32nm technology node, while maintaining 93% of the system throughput of a CMOS-based design.
Cohesion
Authors: Kelm John H. , Johnson Daniel R. , Tuohy William , Lumetta Steven S. , Patel Sanjay J.
Published: October 2012

Two broad classes of memory models are available today: models with hardware cache coherence, used in conventional chip multiprocessors, and models that rely upon software to manage coherence, found in compute accelerators. In some systems, both types of models are supported using disjoint address spaces and/or physical memories. In this paper we present Cohesion, a hybrid memory model that enables fine-grained temporal reassignment of data between hardware-managed and software-managed coherence domains, allowing a system to support both. Cohesion can be used to dynamically adapt to the sharing needs of both applications and runtimes. Cohesion requires neither copy operations nor multiple address spaces.

Cohesion offers the benefits of reduced message traffic and on-die directory overhead when software-managed coherence can be used and the advantages of hardware coherence for cases in which software-managed coherence is impractical. We demonstrate our protocol using a hierarchical, cached 1024-core processor with a single address space that supports both software-enforced coherence and a directory-based hardware coherence protocol. Relative to an optimistic, hardware-coherent baseline, a realizable Cohesion design achieves competitive performance with a 2× reduction in message traffic, 2.1× reduction in directory utilization, and greater robustness to on-die directory capacity.
Data marshaling for multi-core architectures
Authors: Suleman M. Aater , Mutlu Onur , Joao José A. , Khubaib  , Patt Yale N.
Published: October 2012

Previous research has shown that Staged Execution (SE), i.e., dividing a program into segments and executing each segment at the core that has the data and/or functionality to best run that segment, can improve performance and save power. However, SE's benefit is limited because most segments access
inter-segment data
, i.e., data generated by the previous segment. When consecutive segments run on different cores, accesses to inter-segment data incur cache misses, thereby reducing performance. This paper proposes
Data Marshaling (DM)
, a new technique to eliminate cache misses to inter-segment data. DM uses profiling to identify instructions that generate inter-segment data, and adds only 96 bytes/core of storage overhead. We show that DM significantly improves the performance of two promising Staged Execution models, Accelerated Critical Sections and producer-consumer pipeline parallelism, on both homogeneous and heterogeneous multi-core systems. In both models, DM can achieve almost all of the potential of ideally eliminating cache misses to inter-segment data. DM's performance benefit increases with the number of cores.
Leveraging the core-level complementary effects of PVT variations to reduce timing emergencies in multi-core processors
Authors: Yan Guihai , Liang Xiaoyao , Han Yinhe , Li Xiaowei
Published: October 2012

Process, Voltage, and Temperature (PVT) variations can significantly degrade the performance benefits expected from next nanoscale technology. The primary circuit implication of the PVT variations is the resultant timing emergencies. In a multi-core processor running multiple programs, variations create spatial and temporal unbalance across the processing cores. Most prior schemes are dedicated to tolerating PVT variations individually for a single core, but ignore the opportunity of leveraging the complementary effects between variations and the intrinsic variation unbalance among individual cores. We find that the notorious delay impacts from different variations are not necessary aggregated. Cores with mild variations can share the violent workload from cores suffering large variations. If operated correctly, variations on different cores can help mitigating each other and result in a variation-mild environment. In this paper, we propose Timing Emergency Aware Thread Migration (TEA-TM), a delay sensor-based scheme to reduce system timing emergencies under PVT variations. Fourier transform and frequency domain analysis are conducted to provide the insights and the potential of the PVT co-optimization scheme. Experimental results show on average TEA-TM can help save up to 24% throughput loss, at the same time improve the system fairness by 85%.
Relax
Authors: de Kruijf Marc , Nomura Shuou , Sankaralingam Karthikeyan
Published: October 2012

As technology scales ever further, device unreliability is creating excessive complexity for hardware to maintain the illusion of perfect operation. In this paper, we consider whether exposing hardware fault information to software and allowing software to control fault recovery simplifies hardware design and helps technology scaling.

The combination of emerging applications and emerging many-core architectures makes software recovery a viable alternative to hardware-based fault recovery. Emerging applications tend to have
few I/O and memory side-effects
, which limits the amount of information that needs checkpointing, and they allow
discarding individual sub-computations
with small qualitative impact. Software recovery can harness these properties in ways that hardware recovery cannot.

We describe Relax, an architectural framework for software recovery of hardware faults. Relax includes three core components: (1) an ISA extension that allows software to mark regions of code for software recovery, (2) a hardware organization that simplifies reliability considerations and provides energy efficiency with hardware recovery support removed, and (3) software support for compilers and programmers to utilize the Relax ISA. Applying Relax to counter the effects of process variation, our results show a 20% energy efficiency improvement for PARSEC applications with only minimal source code changes and simpler hardware.
Posit
Authors: Eriksson Brian , Barford Paul , Maggs Bruce , Nowak Robert
Published: October 2012

Location-specific Internet services are predicated on the ability to identify the geographic position of IP hosts accurately. Fundamental to current state-of-the-art geolocation techniques is reliance on heavyweight traceroute-like probes that put a significant traffic load on networks. In this paper, we introduce a new lightweight approach to IP geolocation that we call Posit. This methodology requires only a small number of delay measurements conducted to end host targets in conjunction with a computationally-efficient statistical embedding technique. We demonstrate that Posit performs better than all existing geolocation tools across a wide spectrum of measurement infrastructures with varying geographic densities. Specifically, Posit is shown to geolocate hosts with median error improvements of over 55% with respect to all current measurement-based IP geolocation methodologies.
Game theoretic analysis of collusions in nonneutral networks
Authors: Hanawal Manjesh K. , Altman Eitan , Sundaresan Rajesh
Published: October 2012

This paper studies the impact of exclusive contracts between a content provider (CP) and an internet service provider (ISP) in a nonneutral network. We consider a simple linear demand function for the CPs. We studywhen an exclusive contract is benefcial to the colluding pair and evaluate its impact on the noncolluding players at equilibrium. For the case of two CPs and one ISP we show that collusion may not always be benefcial. We derive an explicit condition in terms of the advertisement revenues of the CPs that tells when a collusion is proftable to the colluding entities.
Second Messenger Regulation of Biofilm Formation: Breakthroughs in Understanding c-di-GMP Effector Systems
Authors: Boyd Chelsea D. , O'Toole George A.
Published: October 2012

The second messenger bis-(3′–5′)-cyclic dimeric guanosine monophosphate (c-di-GMP) has emerged as a broadly conserved intracellular signaling molecule. This soluble molecule is important for controlling biofilm formation, adhesion, motility, virulence, and cell morphogenesis in diverse bacterial species. But how is the typical bacterial cell able to coordinate the actions of upward of 50 proteins involved in synthesizing, degrading, and binding c-di-GMP? Understanding the specificity of c-di-GMP signaling in the context of so many enzymes involved in making, breaking, and binding the second messenger will be possible only through mechanistic studies of its output systems. Here we discuss three newly characterized c-di-GMP effector systems that are best understood in terms of molecular and structural detail. As they are conserved across many bacterial species, they likely will serve as central paradigms for c-di-GMP output systems and contribute to our understanding of how bacteria control critical aspects of their biology.
Chronic AICAR-induced AMP-kinase activation regulates adipocyte lipolysis in a time-dependent and fat depot-specific manner in rats
Authors: Gaidhu Mandeep P. , Bikopoulos George , Ceddia Rolando B.
Published: October 2012

This study investigated the effects of chronic in vivo AMP-kinase activation with 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide-1-β-d-ribofuranoside (AICAR) on lipolysis in subcutaneous inguinal, epididymal, and retroperitoneal fat pads. Male Wistar rats received daily single intraperitoneal injections of either saline or AICAR (0.7 g/kg body wt) for a period of 8 wk. The fat pads were used either to isolate adipocytes and measure basal and catecholamine-stimulated lipolysis or to assess signaling steps of lipolysis after 4 and 8 wk of AICAR treatment. Blood was sampled weekly to measure nonesterified fatty acids (NEFAs). AICAR treatment reduced basal and catecholamine-stimulated lipolysis at week 4 in adipocytes from all fat depots. However, at week 8, catecholamine-induced lipolysis significantly increased in inguinal and retroperitoneal adipocytes. Interestingly, plasma levels of NEFAs were also decreased and subsequently increased at 4 and 8 wk, respectively. The lipolytic cascade of the inguinal fat pad was the most drastically affected by the treatment, since the phosphorylation and content of most proteins involved in lipolysis were consistently undetected in this tissue after 4 and 8 wk of AICAR treatment. The enhancement of catecholamine-induced lipolysis in inguinal and retroperitoneal adipocytes after 8 wk of AICAR treatment was accompanied by increased contents of adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL) and perilipin A in these fat depots. In summary, despite depot-specific regulation of the lipolytic cascade, catecholamine-induced lipolysis in isolated adipocytes correlated well with plasma NEFA concentrations in the course of chronic AICAR-induced AMPK activation. The mechanisms underlying these effects also involved time-dependent and depot-specific regulation of hormone-sensitive lipase, ATGL, and perilipin.
Cell type-specific regulation of inhibition via cannabinoid type 1 receptors in rat neocortex
Authors: De-May Claire L. , Ali Afia B.
Published: October 2012

Endogenous cannabinoid type 1 (CB1) receptors demonstrate a cell type-specific expression and are potent modulators of synaptic transmission within the central nervous system. We aimed to investigate whether two classes of multipolar interneuron in the neocortex displayed a form of short-term synaptic plasticity, depolarization-induced suppression of inhibition (DSI), and whether the DSI was mediated by a common receptor. Paired whole cell recordings combined with biocytin labeling were performed between pyramidal cells and either multipolar adapting or multipolar nonadapting interneurons in layers II–IV of male Wistar rat (postnatal day 17–22) somatosensory cortex. Inhibitory postsynaptic potentials elicited by multipolar adapting interneurons were sensitive to DSI, which was blocked by the CB1 receptor antagonist AM-251 (8 μM), indicating that the suppression of inhibition was mediated by CB1 receptors. Two subpopulations of multipolar nonadapting interneuron-to-pyramidal cell connections were discovered on the basis of their susceptibility to DSI. Whereas 50% were insensitive to DSI, the remaining half were sensitive to DSI, which could not be prevented by AM-251. DSI at these connections was also insensitive to the group I (mGluRIa) and III metabotropic glutamate receptor antagonists ( RS)-1-aminoindan-1,5-dicarboxylic acid (100 μM) and ( RS)-α-cyclopropyl-4-phosphonophenylglycine (100 μM) and the group III agonist l-2-amino-4-phosphonobutanoate (50 μM). However, multipolar nonadapting interneuron-to-pyramidal cell connections were sensitive to the endocannabinoid anandamide (9 μM), mimicking the effects of DSI, which also could not be prevented by AM-251, implying a CB1 receptor-independent suppression of inhibition. These results reveal an interneuron type-specific modulation of synaptic transmission via CB receptors in the neocortex.
Environmental Life-Cycle Analysis of Hybrid Solar Photovoltaic/Thermal Systems for Use in Hong Kong
Authors: Chow Tin-Tai , Ji Jie
Published: October 2012

While sheet-and-tube absorber is generally recommended for flat-plate photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) collector design because of the simplicity and promising performance, the use of rectangular-channel absorber is also tested to be a good alternative. Before a new energy technology, like PV/T, is fully implemented, its environmental superiority over the competing options should be assessed, for instance, by evaluating its consumption levels throughout its production and service life. Although there have been a plenty of environmental life-cycle assessments on the domestic solar hot water systems and PV systems, the related works on hybrid solar PV/T systems have been very few. So far there is no reported work on the assessment of PV/T collector with channel-type absorber design. This paper reports an evaluation of the energy payback time and the greenhouse gas payback time of free-standing and building-integrated PV/T systems in Hong Kong. This is based on two case studies of PV/T collectors with modular channel-type aluminium absorbers. The results confirm the long-term environmental benefits of PV/T applications.
Aqueous Nanofluid as a Two-Phase Coolant for PWR
Authors: Alekseev Pavel N. , Semchenkov Yury M. , Shimkevich Alexander L.
Published: October 2012

Density fluctuations in liquid water consist of two topological kinds of instant molecular clusters. The dense ones have helical hydrogen bonds and the nondense ones are tetrahedral clusters with ice-like hydrogen bonds of water molecules. Helical ordering of protons in the dense water clusters can participate in coherent vibrations. The ramified interface of such incompatible structural elements induces clustering impurities in any aqueous solution. These additives can enhance a heat transfer of water as a two-phase coolant for PWR due to natural forming of nanoparticles with a thermal conductivity higher than water. The aqueous nanofluid as a new condensed matter has a great potential for cooling applications. It is a mixture of liquid water and dispersed phase of extremely fine quasi-solid particles usually less than 50 nm in size with the high thermal conductivity. An alternative approach is the formation of gaseous (oxygen or hydrogen) nanoparticles in density fluctuations of water. It is possible to obtain stable nanobubbles that can considerably exceed the molecular solubility of oxygen (hydrogen) in water. Such a nanofluid can convert the liquid water in the nonstoichiometric state and change its reduction-oxidation (RedOx) potential similarly to adding oxidants (or antioxidants) for applying 2D water chemistry to aqueous coolant.
Elevated Angiopoietin-1 Serum Levels in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease
Authors: Schreitmüller Brigitte , Leyhe Thomas , Stransky Elke , Köhler Niklas , Laske Christoph
Published: October 2012

Background. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly. AD is characterized by the accumulation of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles and by massive neuronal loss in the brain. There is epidemiologic and pathologic evidence that AD is associated with vascular risk factors and vascular diseases, contributing to cerebral hypoperfusion with consecutive stimulation of angiogenesis and upregulation of proangiogenic factors such as Angiopoietin-1 (Ang-1).Methods. In the present study, we measured Ang-1 serum levels in 42 patients with AD, 20 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and in 40 healthy elderly controls by ELISA.Results. We found significantly increased Ang-1 serum levels in patients with AD compared to control subjects(P=0.003). There was no significant difference between MCI patients and healthy controls(P=0.553)or between AD and MCI patients(P=0.054). The degree of cognitive impairment as measured by the mini-mental status examination (MMSE) score was significantly correlated with the Ang-1 serum levels in all patients and healthy controls.Conclusions. We found significantly increased Ang-1 serum levels in AD patients. We could also show an association between Ang-1 serum levels and the cognitive status in all patients and healthy controls. Thus, serum Ang-1 could be a potential candidate for a biomarker panel for AD diagnosis.
Cooperative Group Localization Based on Factor Graph for Next-Generation Networks
Authors: Zhang Xuefei , Cui Qimei , Shi Yulong , Tao Xiaofeng
Published: October 2012

In ill-conditioned communication environment, multiple target localization is of important practical significance. The cooperative group localization (CGL) model was firstly put forward, which has verified the effectiveness of localization performance gain and simultaneous multiple target localization in ill conditions. However, there exist two inherent difficulties: the strict demand for CGL topology and the high complexity. By the rational use of information to relax restrictions on topology and by dividing the complex problem into some simple local ones, the factor graph (FG) together with the sum-product algorithm is a perfect candidate for the problems above. In order to solve the two problems, we propose the weighted FG-based CGL (WFG-CGL) algorithm which incorporates the optimal weights based on the information reliability. In order to further reduce the complexity, we propose the low-complexity FG-based CGL (LCFG-CGL) algorithm. The Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) of the localization error in CGL is first derived. Theoretical analysis and numerical results indicate that the proposed algorithms not only perform better in relaxing CGL topology requirement, but also enjoy high localization accuracy under low complexity in comparison with the existing CGL algorithm.
High Rates of Hepatitis B and C and HIV Infections among Blood Donors in Cameroon: A Proposed Blood Screening Algorithm for Blood Donors in Resource-Limited Settings
Authors: Fouelifack Ymele Florent , Keugoung Basile , Fouedjio Jeanne Hortense , Kouam Nadege , Mendibi Sandrine , Dongtsa Mabou Jacqueline
Published: October 2012

Background. Infections with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B (HBV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV) are currently major public health problems. Methods. A retrospective study was conducted from January to June 2008 at the Blood Bank of the Central Hospital, Yaoundé (Cameroon). The objective was to study the prevalence of HIV, HBV, and HCV and their coinfections among blood donors. Results. A total of 4650 donors were identified, and the sex ratio (male/female) was 14/1. The median age of donors was 28 years (range: 16 to 69 years). Among blood donors, HBV, HIV, and HCV infection prevalences were 12.14%  (n=565)
, 4.44%  (n=206), and 1.44%  (n=67),
respectively. Coinfection with HIV and HBV was observed among 0.77% donors, followed by hepatitis B and C co-infection (0.21%) and HIV and HCV coinfection (0.06%). Co-infection with HIV-HBV-HCV was encountered in 2 donors. The HIV, HBV, and HCV infections lead to a destruction of one out of six sets of blood collected. Conclusion. There is a need to review policies for blood collection from donors, by modifying the algorithm of blood donors testing. Pretesting potential donors using rapid tests could help to avoid collection and destruction of (infected) blood.
The Regularized Trace Formula of the Spectrum of a Dirichlet Boundary Value Problem with Turning Point
Authors: El-Raheem Zaki F. A. , Nasser A. H.
Published: October 2012

We calculate the regularized trace formula of the infinite sequence of eigenvalues for some version of a Dirichlet boundary value problem with turning points.
Effect of Aqueous Extract ofCrocus sativusL. on Morphine-Induced Memory Impairment
Authors: Naghibi Sayede Maryam , Hosseini Mahmoud , Khani Fatemeh , Rahimi Motahare , Vafaee Farzaneh , Rakhshandeh Hassan , Aghaie Azita
Published: October 2012

In the present study, the effect of aqueous extracts of saffron on morphine-induced memory impairment was investigated. On the training trial, the mice received an electric shock when the animals were entered into the dark compartment. Twenty-four and forty-eight hours later, the time latency for entering the dark compartment was recorded and defined as the retention trial. The mice were divided into (1) control, (2) morphine which received morphine before the training in the passive avoidance test, (3–5) three groups treated by 50, 150 and 450 mg/kg of saffron extract before the training trial, and (6 and 7) the two other groups received 150 and 450 mg/kg of saffron extract before the retention trial. The time latency in morphine-treated group was lower than control (P< 0.01). Treatment of the animals by 150 and 450 mg/kg of saffron extract before the training trial increased the time latency at 24 and 48 hours after the training trial (P< 0.05 andP< 0.01). Administration of both 150 and 450 mg/kg doses of the extract before retention trials also increased the time latency (P< 0.01). The results revealed that the saffron extract attenuated morphine-induced memory impairment.
Utilization of and Attitudes towards Traditional Chinese Medicine Therapies in a Chinese Cancer Hospital: A Survey of Patients and Physicians
Authors: McQuade Jennifer L. , Meng ZhiQiang , Chen Zhen , Wei Qi , Zhang Ying , Bei WenYing , Palmer J. Lynn , Cohen Lorenzo
Published: October 2012

Background. In China, the use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is very popular, but little is known about how it is integrated with conventional cancer care. We conducted parallel surveys of patients and physicians on TCM utilization.Methods. Two hundred forty-five patients and 72 allopathic physicians at the Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center completed questions on their use of and attitude towards TCM.Results. Patient mean age was 51, with 60% female. Eighty-three percent of patients had used TCM. Use was greatest for Chinese herbal medicine (CHM; 55.8%). Only 1.3% of patients used acupuncture and 6.8% Qi Gong or Tai Qi. Sixty-three percent of patients notified their oncologist about TCM use. The most common reason for use was to improve immune function. CHM was often used with a goal of treating cancer (66.4%), a use that 57% of physicians agreed with. Physicians were most concerned with interference with treatment, lack of evidence, and safety. Ninety percent of physicians have prescribed herbs and 87.5% have used TCM themselves.Conclusion. The use of TCM by Chinese cancer patients is exceptionally high, and physicians are generally well informed and supportive of patients’ use. Botanical agents are much more commonly used than acupuncture or movement-based therapies.
Simultaneous EUS-FNA Diagnosis and TNM Staging of a Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumor in a Patient with an Unrecognized MEN Type 1
Authors: Ferrara Francesco , Luigiano Carmelo , Maimone Antonella , Bassi Marco , Polifemo Anna Maria , Baccarini Paola , Cennamo Vincenzo , Cremonini Nadia , Fabbri Carlo
Published: October 2012

We report the case of a woman who, during oncological followup for bronchial carcinoid (diagnosed in 2005), papillary thyroid carcinoma, and bilateral parathyroid adenoma (simultaneously diagnosed in 2007), performed a pancreatic endoscopic ultrasonography with fine needle agobiopsy (EUS-FNA) for a positron emission tomography (PET) suspicion of pancreatic and hepatic lesions; during the procedure, the pancreatic and liver lesions were confirmed, and a peripancreatic lymph node involvement was found, allowing a complete pTNM staging during the same procedure.
Effectiveness of Electroconvulsive Therapy for Depression and Cotard’s Syndrome in a Patient with Frontotemporal Lobe Dementia
Authors: Kobayashi Toshiyuki , Inoue Koju , Shioda Katsutoshi , Kato Satoshi
Published: October 2012

In the field of psychogeriatrics, the differential diagnosis of depression and dementia, as well as the treatment of depression and comorbid dementia, is an important issue. In this paper, the authors present the case of a 72-year-old woman with Cotard’s syndrome and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) who was admitted to a psychiatric hospital with delusions of negation accompanied by depressive symptoms. Pharmacotherapy over a 2-year hospitalization was unsuccessful, and she was subsequently transferred to our university hospital. A total of 18 sessions of electroconvulsive therapy released her from psychomotor inhibition, appetite loss, and Cotard’s delusions. The indication for electroconvulsive therapy in patients with dementia is discussed.
Microbiology and Management of Pediatric Liver Abscesses: Two Cases Caused byStreptococcus anginosusGroup
Authors: Cellucci Michael , Simon Erin , Eppes Stephen
Published: October 2012

Pyogenic liver abscesses in the pediatric population are rare occurrences in the developed world. We present two cases of previously healthy males presenting with fever and abdominal pain found to have liver abscesses due to organisms in theStreptococcus anginosusgroup. The microbiology ofS. anginosusalong with the management and recommended treatment in children with liver abscesses is discussed.
Symbolic Computation and the Extended Hyperbolic Function Method for Constructing Exact Traveling Solutions of Nonlinear PDEs
Authors: Yong Huang , Yadong Shang , Wenjun Yuan
Published: October 2012

On the basis of the computer symbolic system Maple and the extended hyperbolic function method, we develop a more mathematically rigorous and systematic procedure for constructing exact solitary wave solutions and exact periodic traveling wave solutions in triangle form of various nonlinear partial differential equations that are with physical backgrounds. Compared with the existing methods, the proposed method gives new and more general solutions. More importantly, the method provides a straightforward and effective algorithm to obtain abundant explicit and exact particular solutions for large nonlinear mathematical physics equations. We apply the presented method to two variant Boussinesq equations and give a series of exact explicit traveling wave solutions that have some more general forms. So consequently, the efficiency and the generality of the proposed method are demonstrated.
Strong Convergence Theorems for a Finite Family of λi‐Strict Pseudocontractions in 2‐Uniformly Smooth Banach Spaces by Metric Projections
Authors: Liu Xin-dong , Chang Shih-sen , Wang Xiong-rui
Published: October 2012

A new hybrid projection algorithm is considered for a finite family of λi‐strict
pseudocontractions. Using the metric projection, some strong convergence theorems of common
elements are obtained in a uniformly convex and 2‐uniformly smooth Banach space. The results
presented in this paper improve and extend the corresponding results of Matsushita and Takahshi, 2008, Kang and Wang, 2011, and many others.
Nanobiosensors Based on Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance for Biomarker Detection
Authors: Hong Yoochan , Huh Yong-Min , Yoon Dae Sung , Yang Jaemoon
Published: October 2012

Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) is induced by incident light when it interacts with noble metal nanoparticles that have smaller sizes than the wavelength of the incident light. Recently, LSPR‐based nanobiosensors were developed as tools for highly sensitive, label‐free, and flexible sensing techniques for the detection of biomolecular interactions. In this paper, we describe the basic principles of LSPR‐based nanobiosensing techniques and LSPR sensor system for biomolecule sensing. We also discuss the challenges using LSPR nanobiosensors for detection of biomolecules as a biomarker.
Raman Spectroscopy of Isotactic Polypropylene‐Halloysite Nanocomposites
Authors: Ibrahim Elamin E. , Chipara Dorina Magdalena , Thapa Ram , Lozano Karen , Chipara Mircea
Published: October 2012

Raman spectroscopy investigations on nanocomposites obtained by dispersing halloysite within isotactic polypropylene are reported. A detailed analysis of the modifications of the regularity band associated to the polymeric matrix is presented. The Raman lines assigned to the polymeric matrix are broadened and weakened as the loading with halloysite is increased. The analysis of Raman lines indicates that the polymeric matrix becomes less crystalline upon the loading with halloysite and that the nanofiller is experiencing a weak dehydration upon dispersion within the polymeric matrix, probably due to the related thermal processing used to achieve the dispersion of halloysite.
Spatially Explicit Estimation of Clay and Organic Carbon Content in Agricultural Soils Using Multi-Annual Imaging Spectroscopy Data
Authors: Gerighausen Heike , Menz Gunter , Kaufmann Hermann
Published: October 2012

Information on soil clay and organic carbon content on a regional to local scale is vital for a multitude of reasons such as soil conservation, precision agriculture, and possibly also in the context of global environmental change. The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of multi-annual hyperspectral images acquired with the HyMap sensor (450–2480 nm) during three flight campaigns in 2004, 2005, and 2008 for the prediction of clay and organic carbon content on croplands by means of partial least squares regression (PLSR). Supplementary, laboratory reflectance measurements were acquired under standardized conditions. Laboratory spectroscopy yielded prediction errors between 19.48 and 35.55 g kg−1for clay and 1.92 and 2.46 g kg−1for organic carbon. Estimation errors with HyMap image spectra ranged from 15.99 to 23.39 g kg−1for clay and 1.61 to 2.13 g kg−1for organic carbon. A comparison of parameter predictions from different years confirmed the predictive ability of the models. BRDF effects increased model errors in the overlap of neighboring flight strips up to 3 times, but an appropriated preprocessing method can mitigate these negative influences. Using multi-annual image data, soil parameter maps could be successively complemented. They are exemplarily shown providing field specific information on prediction accuracy and image data source.
A Modified Halpern′s Iterative Scheme for Solving Split Feasibility Problems
Authors: Deepho Jitsupa , Kumam Poom
Published: October 2012

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and study a modified Halpern’s iterative scheme for solving the split feasibility problem (SFP) in the setting of infinite‐dimensional Hilbert spaces. Under suitable conditions a strong convergence theorem is established. The main result presented in this paper improves and extends some recent results done by Xu (Iterative methods for the split feasibility problem in infinite‐dimensional Hilbert space, Inverse Problem 26 (2010) 105018) and some others.
Analyzing the Symmetry Properties of a Distribution in the Focal Plane for a Focusing Element with Periodic Angle Dependence of Phase
Authors: Khonina Svetlana N. , Ustinov Andrey V.
Published: October 2012

We analyze the symmetry properties of the focal plane distribution when light is focused with an element characterized by a periodic angular dependent phase, sin (mφ) or cos (mφ). The majority of wave aberrations can be described using the said phase function. The focal distribution is analytically shown to be a real function at odd values of m, which provides a simple technique for generating designed wave aberrations by means of binary diffractive optical elements. Such a possibility may prove useful in tight focusing, as the presence of definite wave aberrations allows the focal spot size to be decreased.
The analytical computations are illustrated by the numerical simulation, which shows that by varying the radial parameters the focal spot configuration can be varied, whereas the central part symmetry is mainly determined by the parity of m: for even the symmetry order is 2m and for odd is m.
Fenton Oxidation of Methyl Violet in Aqueous Solution
Authors: Hashemian Saeedeh , Tabatabaee Masoumah , Gafari Margan
Published: October 2012

In this study, oxidative discoloration of methyl violet (MV) dye in aqueous solution has been studied using Fenton (Fe2+/H2O2) process. The parameters such as concentration of Fe2+, H2O2, MV, temperature, and Cl− and ions that affected of discoloration in Fenton process were investigated. The rate of degradation is dependent on initial concentration of Fe2+ ion, initial concentration of H2O2, and pH of media. Discoloration of MV was increased by increasing the temperature of reaction. Optimized condition was determined and it was found that the obtained efficiency was about 95.5% after 15 minutes of reaction at pH 3. TOC of dye sample, before and after the oxidation process, was determined. TOC removal indicates partial and significant mineralization of MV dye. The results of experiments showed that degradation of MV dye in Fenton oxidation can be described with a pseudo‐irst‐order kinetic model. The thermodynamic constants of the Fenton oxidation process were evaluated. The results implied that the oxidation process was feasible, spontaneous, and endothermic.
Removal of Methylene Blue from Aqueous Solution by Activated Carbon Prepared from Pea Shells (Pisum sativum)
Authors: Geçgel Ünal , Özcan Gülce , Gürpınar Gizem Çağla
Published: October 2012

An activated carbon was prepared from pea shells and used for the removal of methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solutions. The influence of various factors such as adsorbent concentration, initial dye concentration, temperature, contact time, pH, and surfactant was studied. The experimental data were analyzed by the Langmuir and Freundlich models of adsorption. The adsorption isotherm was found to follow the Langmuir model. The monolayer sorption capacity of activated carbon prepared from pea shell for MB was found to be 246.91 mg g−1 at 25 ∘C. Two simplified kinetic models including pseudo‐first‐order and pseudo‐second‐order equation were selected to follow the adsorption processes. Kinetic studies showed that the adsorption followed pseudo‐second‐order kinetic model. Various thermodynamic parameters such as ΔH∘, ΔS∘, and ΔG∘ were evaluated. The results in this study indicated that activated carbon prepared from pea shell could be employed as an adsorbent for the removal of MB from aqueous solutions.