bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Generation of wind power time series to fit time‐domain characteristics
Authors: Li Jinghua , Wen Jinyu , Li Jiaming , Cheng Shijie , Yu Peng , Luo Weihua
Published: October 2014

The generation of wind power time series is important for electric power system planning and decision making. A method to generate a synthetic series of wind power outputs is proposed, considering the state transition, the duration time and the variation features of wind power. The simulation results using the proposed method for 25 wind farms at six different locations in different countries show that the wind power time series generated by the proposed method are able to reflect more comprehensive wind power characteristics than that generated by the conventional Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method.
Front‐end ΔC/C0 capacitive interface based on negative impedance converter
Authors: Michal V.
Published: October 2014

A simple design methodology of the capacitive front‐end readout electronics, based on the negative impedance converter, is presented. The concept uses a parallel connection of positive and inverted‐negative value capacitors, that allows removing the constant part C0 from the sensor gain transfer function. The circuit enables integration of an accurate and very sensitive capacitance‐to‐voltage converter with ordinary discrete operational amplifiers. This is required in experimental scientific instrumentation as well as in the integrated CMOS interface of capacitive microelectromechanical systems (MEMSs) and touchscreens. Circuit description, noise considerations and measured results are presented.
Efficient weak manoeuvring target detection method for DSSS signal
Authors: Cui Wei , Wu Shuang , Tian Jing , Shao Shenghui , Wu Siliang
Published: October 2014

A novel efficient detection method is proposed for radar transmitting direct sequences spread spectrum (DSSS) signals with high dynamics in the low signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) scenario. The core idea of the proposed method is first to eliminate the linear code phase drift via keystone transform (KT), then the derived modified Radon‐Fourier transform (MRFT) is employed to accumulate the energy of the target effectively to achieve target detection and parameter estimation. Compared with the generalised RFT (GRFT) method, the proposed method has a similar detection performance, but requires much lower computational burden. Simulation results verify the validity of the proposed method.
Person re‐identification based on efficient multi‐channel spatial histogram
Authors: Zeng Mingyong , Tian Chang , Wu Zemin , Liu Xi
Published: October 2014

A novel spatiogram‐based person descriptor is well constructed for person re‐identification. The spatiograms are first accumulated on multiple image regions among multiple colour channels. Then the devised feature fuses multi‐channel colour histograms with the first‐ and the second‐order spatial information of the image's vertical axis. A simple but efficient metric is adopted to combine the feature's three distinctive components. The proposed method is compared with other feature‐based methods on a benchmark dataset, achieving significant performance.
High‐frequency reverse‐time chaos generation using digital chaotic maps
Authors: Bailey J.P. , Beal A.N. , Dean R.N. , Hamilton M.C. , Tugnait J.K.
Published: October 2014

Reverse‐time chaos can be used to realise hardware chaotic systems that can operate at speeds equivalent to existing state‐of‐the‐art while requiring significantly less complex circuitry. Unlike traditional chaotic systems, which require significant analogue hardware that is difficult to realise at high speed, the reverse‐time system can be realised with a field programmable gate array calculating a digital iterated map. The resulting output forgoes the need for digital‐to‐analogue conversion by directly driving a series RLC filter. Since the dynamics of this system are determined by an iterated map, precise control of this system is possible by adjusting the map's initial condition. Hardware results for the controllable reverse‐time system demonstrate chaotic behaviour at an operating frequency of 1.8 MHz and show promise for extension to higher frequencies.
Uplink channel estimation for massive MIMO systems exploring joint channel sparsity
Authors: Qi Chenhao , Wu Lenan
Published: October 2014

The joint sparsity of uplink channels in massive multi‐input–multi‐output (MIMO) systems is explored and a block sparse model is proposed for joint channel estimation. The block coherence of this model is analysed. It is indicated that as the number of antennas at the base station grows to be infinity, the block coherence will be zero. Then a block optimised orthogonal matching pursuit (BOOMP) algorithm is proposed. Simulation results verify the analysis and show that the joint estimation using the BOOMP algorithm can significantly improve the channel estimation performance.
Broadband circularly polarised antenna with asymmetric ground and L‐shaped strips
Authors: Zhang Huan , Jiao Yong‐Chang , Ni Tao , Liang Wei‐Long
Published: October 2014

A novel broadband circularly polarised antenna fed by a coplanar waveguide (CPW) is proposed. Two L‐shaped grounded strips and an asymmetrical ground are utilised to achieve the broadband circular polarisation (CP) feature. The measured results show that the 10 dB impedance bandwidth of the antenna is 2.01 GHz (69.4%, 1.89–3.9 GHz) and the 3 dB axial ratio (AR) bandwidth is 2.1 GHz (72.4%, 1.85–3.95 GHz). The experimental results agree well with the simulated results.
Wide‐locking range class‐C injection‐locked frequency divider
Authors: Jang Sheng‐Lyang , Lin Chih‐Yuan
Published: October 2014

A novel wide‐locking range divide‐by‐3 injection‐locked frequency divider (ILFD) is designed and fabricated in a standard 0.18 μm CMOS process. The CMOS ILFD uses a class‐C capacitive cross‐coupled oscillator as the core. It has been found that the locking range of the ILFD is enhanced when the DC‐gate bias is smaller than the drain bias in the cross‐coupled pair. At the supply voltage of 1.8 V, the core power consumption of the ILFD core is 10.7 mW. At the incident power of 0 dBm, the maximum locking range is 3.3 GHz (24.17%), from the incident frequency 12–15.3 GHz. At the incident power of 0 dBm, the operation range is 4.8 GHz (37.2%), from the incident frequency 10.5–15.3 GHz.
Analytical relationship between subthreshold swing of thermionic and tunnelling currents
Authors: Hiblot G. , Rafhay Q. , Boeuf F. , Ghibaudo G.
Published: October 2014

An analytical relationship between the subthreshold swing of the thermionic current and the tunnelling current is derived for double‐gate metal–oxide semiconductor field‐effect transistors (MOSFETs), based on the Wentzel‐Kramers‐Brillouin approximation. This formula allows predicting the behaviour of an ultimately scaled MOSFET in the subthreshold regime, as well as the performance of III–V devices.
Cascaded trisection substrate‐integrated waveguide filter with high selectivity
Authors: Zhang Ping‐Juan , Li Min‐Quan
Published: October 2014

A cascaded trisection substrate‐integrated waveguide bandpass filter with better frequency selectivity is presented. The proposed coupling scheme can be divided into two trisection topologies. By changing the signs of coupling coefficients between cascaded resonators, two transmission zeros can be simultaneously placed at the higher or lower stopband, or one can be located below and the other above the passband. A filter sample is designed and fabricated with standard single‐layer printed circuit board technology. The measured S‐parameters agree well with the simulated counterparts, and good performance of the filter is predicted.
Trust‐region reflective adaptive controller for time varying systems
Authors: Moubarak Paul M.
Published: October 2014

The new algorithm presented in this study, called TRAC (trust‐region reflective adaptive controller), performs online adaptive control of time‐varying linear or linearisable systems subject to parametric disturbances. The process of accomplishing such adaptive control consists of feeding the measured output signal back to TRAC – which occupies the outer loop of a control scheme – as well as the reference signal. Knowing the order of the closed‐loop system in the inner loop, a parametric model of the time‐varying output is derived as a function of the system's variables, such as damping and natural frequencies. Using trust‐region optimisation, these parameters are estimated in real‐time by recursively fitting the actual output into the parametric model. This allows for the location of the actual poles to be estimated in the s ‐domain after the poles have been shifted by the disturbance. Accordingly, the gains are re‐tuned in order to return the actual poles to their desired location and absorb the disturbance. The primary advantage of TRAC relative to the state‐of‐the‐art is its computational simplicity which is owed to search space restriction and heuristic approximations with trust‐region search. A video of a sample application describing real‐time TRAC‐based control can be found on the IET's Digital Library.
Shunt active power filter with enhanced dynamic performance using novel control strategy
Authors: Xiao Zhenfeng , Deng Xiangtian , Yuan Rongxiang , Guo Pilong , Chen Qijuan
Published: October 2014

To realise the accurate and real‐time compensation of the harmonics of a power system, this study proposes a novel control strategy for shunt active power filter (SAPF), adopting the composite strategy of neural network proportional‐integral (PI) control and dual‐repetitive controller (DRC). In DRC, one repetitive controller is used to ensure current tracking accuracy and the other one is used to enhance dynamic response. The neural network PI control is adopted to improve response speed by turning the PI parameters adaptively and setting optimisation parameters online. Through the optimisation of this approach and the rational configuration of the hardware and software systems, the SAPF could achieve rapid dynamic response with high tracking accuracy and excellent compensation performance. A 100 kVA industrial prototype active power filter has been developed by using this control strategy. System compensation could effectively reduce the total harmonic distortion values from 26 to 27.7%, 27.6 to 4.25% and 4.57 to 4.35% for each phase of the current. The full response time of the system is < 10 ms.
Coupled‐inductor boost integrated flyback converter with high‐voltage gain and ripple‐free input current
Authors: Chen Zhangyong , Zhou Qun , Xu Jianping
Published: October 2014

DC–DC converters with high‐voltage gain and low‐input current ripple have attracted much attention in photovoltaic, fuel cells and other renewable energy system applications. Conventional boost–flyback converter can achieve high‐voltage set‐up ratio; however, its input current is pulsing and the voltage stress across output diode of flyback‐cell is high. In this study, by incorporating coupled‐inductor into the boost‐cell of boost–flyback converter, the voltage stress across the output diode is effectively reduced. Passive snubber circuit is utilised to suppress the voltage spike across power switch, low‐voltage‐rated metal–oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) with low Rds_on can thus be used to reduce the conduction loss of power MOSFET. In addition, ripple‐free input current can be achieved, which makes the design of electromagnetic interference filter easy. Steady‐state characteristics of the proposed converter are analysed, and experimental results are given to verify the analysis results.
A Case Series of Rapid Prototyping and Intraoperative Imaging in Orbital Reconstruction
Authors: Lim Christopher G.T. , Campbell Duncan I. , Cook Nicholas , Erasmus Jason
Published: November 2014

In Christchurch Hospital, rapid prototyping (RP) and intraoperative imaging are the standard of care in orbital trauma and has been used since February 2013. RP allows the fabrication of an anatomical model to visualize complex anatomical structures which is dimensionally accurate and cost effective. This assists diagnosis, planning, and preoperative implant adaptation for orbital reconstruction. Intraoperative imaging involves a computed tomography scan during surgery to evaluate surgical implants and restored anatomy and allows the clinician to correct errors in implant positioning that may occur during the same procedure. This article aims to demonstrate the potential clinical and cost saving benefits when both these technologies are used in orbital reconstruction which minimize the need for revision surgery.
Analytical modeling of localized surface plasmon resonance in heterostructure copper sulfide nanocrystals
Authors: Caldwell Andrew H. , Ha Don-Hyung , Ding Xiaoyue , Robinson Richard D.
Published: October 2014

Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) in semiconductor nanocrystals is a relatively new field of investigation that promises greater tunability of plasmonic properties compared to metal nanoparticles. A novel process by which the LSPR in semiconductor nanocrystals can be altered is through heterostructure formation arising from solution-based cation exchange. Herein, we describe the development of an analytical model of LSPR in heterostructure copper sulfide-zinc sulfide nanocrystals synthesized via a cation exchange reaction between copper sulfide (Cu1.81S) nanocrystals and Zn ions. The cation exchange reaction produces dual-interface, heterostructure nanocrystals in which the geometry of the copper sulfide phase can be tuned from a sphere to a thin disk separating symmetrically-grown sulfide (ZnS) grains. Drude model electronic conduction and Mie-Gans theory are applied to describe how the LSPR wavelength changes during cation exchange, taking into account the morphology evolution and changes to the local permittivity. The results of the modeling indicate that the presence of the ZnS grains has a significant effect on the out-of-plane LSPR mode. By comparing the results of the model to previous studies on solid-solid phase transformations of copper sulfide in these nanocrystals during cation exchange, we show that the carrier concentration is independent of the copper vacancy concentration dictated by its atomic phase. The evolution of the effective carrier concentration calculated from the model suggests that the out-of-plane resonance mode is dominant. The classical model was compared to a simplified quantum mechanical model which suggested that quantum mechanical effects become significant when the characteristic size is less than ∼8 nm. Overall, we find that the analytical models are not accurate for these heterostructured semiconductor nanocrystals, indicating the need for new model development for this emerging field.
Effect of argon addition on plasma parameters and dust charging in hydrogen plasma
Authors: Kakati B. , Kausik S. S. , Bandyopadhyay M. , Saikia B. K. , Saxena Y. C.
Published: October 2014

Experimental results on effect of adding argon gas to hydrogen plasma in a multi-cusp dusty plasma device are reported. Addition of argon modifies plasma density, electron temperature, degree of hydrogen dissociation, dust current as well as dust charge. From the dust charging profile, it is observed that the dust current and dust charge decrease significantly up to 40% addition of argon flow rate in hydrogen plasma. But beyond 40% of argon flow rate, the changes in dust current and dust charge are insignificant. Results show that the addition of argon to hydrogen plasma in a dusty plasma device can be used as a tool to control the dust charging in a low pressure dusty plasma.
Chemoradiotherapeutic wrinkled mesoporous silica nanoparticles for use in cancer therapy
Authors: Munaweera Imalka , Koneru Bhuvaneswari , Shi Yi , Di Pasqua Anthony J. , Balkus, Jr. Kenneth J.
Published: October 2014

Over the last decade, the development and application of nanotechnology in cancer detection, diagnosis, and therapy have been widely reported. Engineering of vehicles for the simultaneous delivery of chemo- and radiotherapeutics increases the effectiveness of the therapy and reduces the dosage of each individual drug required to produce an observable therapeutic response. We here developed a novel chemoradiotherapeutic 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine lipid coated/uncoated platinum drug loaded, holmium-containing, wrinkled mesoporous silica nanoparticle. The materials were characterized with TEM, FTIR, 1H NMR, energy dispersive x-ray, inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, and zeta potential measurements. In vitro platinum drug release from both lipid coated and uncoated chemoradiotherapeutic wrinkled mesoporous silica are reported. Various kinetic models were used to analyze the release kinetics. The radioactivity of the chemoradiotherapeutic nanocarriers was measured after neutron-activation.
The influence of water on protein properties
Authors: Mallamace Francesco , Baglioni Piero , Corsaro Carmelo , Chen Sow-Hsin , Mallamace Domenico , Vasi Cirino , Stanley H. Eugene
Published: November 2014

The “dynamic” or “glass” transition in biomolecules is as important to their functioning as the folding process. This transition occurs in the low temperature regime and has been related to the onset of biochemical activity that is dependent on the hydration level. This protein transition is believed to be triggered by the strong hydrogen bond coupling in the hydration water. We study the vibrational bending mode and measure it using Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy. We demonstrate that at the molecular level the hydration water bending mode bonds the C=O and N–H peptide groups, and find that the temperature of the “dynamic” protein transition is the same as the fragile-to-strong dynamic transition in confined water. The fragile-to-strong dynamic transition in water governs the nature of the H bonds between water and peptides and appears to be universal in supercooled glass-forming liquids.
Modification of near-wall coherent structures by inertial particles
Authors: Richter David H. , Sullivan Peter P.
Published: October 2014

Direct numerical simulations are combined with two-way coupled Lagrangian point particles to study the effect of Reynolds number on particle-turbulence interaction. Turbulent planar Couette flow is simulated at a constant dispersed phase mass loading of ϕm = 0.25 for particle Stokes numbers of StK = [O(1), O(10), O(100)] (based on the Stokes time scale of the particle and the Kolmogorov time scale of the flow) and bulk Reynolds numbers of Reb = [8100, 24000, 72000] (based on the plate velocity difference and separation distance). Statistics of swirling strength |λci| are used to evaluate the impact of particles on near-wall motions which are responsible for turbulent, wall-normal momentum transport. Instantaneously, the number of high-strength swirling motions near the wall decreases significantly in the presence of particles, and this trend is enhanced with increasing Reb. Conditional averages are computed using linear stochastic estimation, providing the average structures responsible for ejection events near the wall. These conditional eddies are weakened substantially by the presence of the dispersed phase, and this effect is again enhanced with increasing Reb. We propose a mechanism where particles, by interfering with the hairpin regeneration process near the wall, can influence turbulent fluxes in a way that increases with Reb despite only having direct interaction with scales on the same order as their small physical size. At the same time, turbulent momentum flux concentrated at higher wavenumbers with increasing Reb allows small particles to be effective agents for altering turbulent transport.
Magnetocaloric properties and critical behavior of high relative cooling power FeNiB nanoparticles
Authors: Chaudhary V. , Maheswar Repaka D. V. , Chaturvedi A. , Sridhar I. , Ramanujan R. V.
Published: November 2014

Low cost magnetocaloric nanomaterials have attracted considerable attention for energy efficient applications. We report a very high relative cooling power (RCP) in a study of the magnetocaloric effect in quenched FeNiB nanoparticles. RCP increases from 89.8 to 640 J kg−1 for a field change of 1 and 5 T, respectively, these values are the largest for rare earth free iron based magnetocaloric nanomaterials. To investigate the magnetocaloric behavior around the Curie temperature (TC), the critical behavior of these quenched nanoparticles was studied. Detailed analysis of the magnetic phase transition using the modified Arrott plot, Kouvel-Fisher method, and critical isotherm plots yields critical exponents of β = 0.364, γ = 1.319, δ = 4.623, and α = −0.055, which are close to the theoretical exponents obtained from the 3D-Heisenberg model. Our results indicate that these FeNiB nanoparticles are potential candidates for magnetocaloric fluid based heat pumps and low grade waste heat recovery.
Laser stimulation can activate autophagy in HeLa cells
Authors: Wang Yisen , Lan Bei , He Hao , Hu Minglie , Cao Youjia , Wang Chingyue
Published: October 2014

For decades, lasers have been a daily tool in most biological research for fluorescent excitation by confocal or multiphoton microscopy. More than 20 years ago, cell photodamage caused by intense laser stimulation was noticed by generating reactive oxygen species, which was then thought as the main damage effect by photons. In this study, we show that laser stimulation can induce autophagy, an important cell lysosomal pathway responding to immune stimulation and starvation, without any biochemical treatment. Two different types of laser stimulations are found to be capable of activating autophagy: continuous scanning by continuous-wave visible lasers and a short-time flash of femtosecond laser irradiation. The autophagy generation is independent from wavelength, power, and scanning duration of the visible lasers. In contrast, the power of femtosecond laser is very critical to autophagy because the multiphoton excited Ca2+ dominates autophagy signaling. In general, we show here the different mechanisms of autophagy generation by such laser stimulation, which correspond to confocal microscopy and cell surgery, respectively. Those results can help further understanding of photodamage and autophagy signaling.
Enhancement of thermoelectric properties by Se substitution in layered bismuth-chalcogenide LaOBiS2-xSex
Authors: Mizuguchi Yoshikazu , Omachi Atsushi , Goto Yosuke , Kamihara Yoichi , Matoba Masanori , Hiroi Takafumi , Kajitani Joe , Miura Osuke
Published: November 2014

We have investigated the thermoelectric properties of the novel layered bismuth chalcogenides LaOBiS2-xSex. The partial substitution of S by Se produced the enhancement of electrical conductivity (metallic characteristics) in LaOBiS2-xSex. The power factor largely increased with increasing Se concentration. The highest power factor was 4.5 μW/cmK2 at around 470 °C for LaOBiS1.2Se0.8. The obtained dimensionless figure-of-merit (ZT) was 0.17 at around 470 °C in LaOBiS1.2Se0.8.
Thin silicon foils produced by epoxy-induced spalling of silicon for high efficiency solar cells
Authors: Martini R. , Kepa J. , Debucquoy M. , Depauw V. , Gonzalez M. , Gordon I. , Stesmans A. , Poortmans J.
Published: October 2014

We report on the drastic improvement of the quality of thin silicon foils produced by epoxy-induced spalling. In the past, researchers have proposed to fabricate silicon foils by spalling silicon substrates with different stress-inducing materials to manufacture thin silicon solar cells. However, the reported values of effective minority carrier lifetime of the fabricated foils remained always limited to ∼100 μs or below. In this work, we investigate epoxy-induced exfoliated foils by electron spin resonance to analyze the limiting factors of the minority carrier lifetime. These measurements highlight the presence of disordered dangling bonds and dislocation-like defects generated by the exfoliation process. A solution to remove these defects compatible with the process flow to fabricate solar cells is proposed. After etching off less than 1 μm of material, the lifetime of the foil increases by more than a factor of 4.5, reaching a value of 461 μs. This corresponds to a lower limit of the diffusion length of more than 7 times the foil thickness. Regions with different lifetime correlate well with the roughness of the crack surface which suggests that the lifetime is now limited by the quality of the passivation of rough surfaces. The reported values of the minority carrier lifetime show a potential for high efficiency (>22%) thin silicon solar cells.
Nanoconstriction-based spin-Hall nano-oscillator
Authors: Demidov V. E. , Urazhdin S. , Zholud A. , Sadovnikov A. V. , Demokritov S. O.
Published: November 2014

We experimentally demonstrate magnetic nano-oscillators driven by pure spin current produced by the spin Hall effect in a bow tie-shaped nanoconstriction. These devices exhibit single-mode auto-oscillation and generate highly-coherent electronic microwave signals with a significant power and the spectral linewidth as low as 6.2 MHz at room temperature. The proposed simple and flexible device geometry is amenable to straightforward implementation of advanced spintronic structures such as chains of mutually coupled spin-Hall nano-oscillators.
Band-offset non-commutativity of GaAs/AlGaAs interfaces probed by internal photoemission spectroscopy
Authors: Lao Yan-Feng , Unil Perera A. G. , Zhang Y. H. , Wang T. M.
Published: October 2014

The GaAs/AlGaAs material system is believed to have a band offset without remarkable influence from the interface. We report here probing a slightly higher (5–10 meV) valence-band offset at the GaAs-on-Al0.57Ga0.43As interface compared to that of the Al0.57Ga0.43As-on-GaAs interface, by using internal photoemission spectroscopy. This indicates the non-commutativity of band offset for GaAs/AlGaAs, i.e., the dependence on the order of the growth of the layers. This result is consistently confirmed by observations at various experimental conditions including different applied biases and temperatures.
Current characteristic signals of aqueous solution transferring through microfluidic channel under non-continuous DC electric field
Authors: Ma HongWei , Wang KaiGe , Gao ZeYang , Wang HaiQing , Wang Shuang , Zhang Chen , Wang GuiRen , Bai JinTao
Published: November 2014

The surface effect is becoming apparently significant as the miniaturization of fluidic devices. In the micro/nanochannel fluidics, the electrode surface effects have the same important influence on the current signals as the channel surface effects. In this paper, when aqueous solution are driven with non-continuous DC electric field force, the characteristics of current signals of the fluid transferring through microfluidic channel are systematically studied. Six modes of current signal are summarized, and some new significant phenomena are found, e.g. there exists a critical voltage at which the steady current value equals to zero; the absolute value of the steady current decreases at first, however, it increases with the external voltage greater than the critical voltage as the electrode area ratio of cathode and anode is 10 and 20; the critical voltage increases with the enhancing of electrode area ratio of cathode and anode and solution pH, while it decreases with the raising of ion concentration. Finally, the microscopic mechanism of the electrode surface charge effects is discussed preliminarily. The rules will be helpful for detecting and manipulating single biomolecules in the micro/nanofluidic chips and biosensors.
Physicists offer a different approach to cancer research
Authors: Kramer David
Published: November 2014

Quantitative methods and modeling complement the work of biologists and oncologists. But US money for innovative centers supporting that research has run out.
Evaluation of predictive equations developed to assess body composition of F1 Nellore × Angus bulls and steers
Authors: Fonseca M. A. , Filho S. C. Valadares , Tedeschi L. O. , Chizzotti M. L. , Machado M. G. , Abreu D. C.
Published: October 2014

We evaluated and compared empirical equations used for assessing beef cattle body composition, developed in 2010 (M10), 2012 (M12), 2006 (V06) and 1946 (HH46). Forty-eight F1 Nellore × Angus bulls and steers, aged 12.5 ± 0.51 months old, with initial shrunk bodyweight of 233 ± 23.5 kg and 238 ± 24.6 kg, respectively, were used in this experiment. The trial was a randomised factorial arrangement of treatments (two genders and five slaughter weights). The animals were randomly assigned to five slaughter-weight-based groups: baseline, maintenance, and 380, 440 and 500 kg. The diet comprised maize silage and concentrate (60 : 40). After slaughter, the 9th–11th rib section cut was dissected into muscle, fat and bone. The remaining carcass was similarly dissected. Other variables evaluated as partial predictors of body composition included empty bodyweight, dressing percentage, visceral fat percentage, and organ and viscera percentage. The values estimated with predictive equations were compared with observed values. For the physically separable carcass composition, only the M12 equation estimated precisely and accurately the amount of muscle (r2 = 0.98, root-mean-square error (RMSE) = 5.64 kg, concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) = 0.96) and fat (r2 = 0.94, RMSE = 4.91 kg, CCC = 0.96) tissue present in the carcass. The V06 and M10 equations estimated precisely and accurately the amount of carcass chemical components; HH46 could explain only the amount of crude protein (r2 = 0.84, RMSE = 4.71 kg, CCC = 0.90) content in the carcass. The equations used to predict empty body chemical composition failed to estimate correctly the amount of chemical contents present in the empty bodyweight. However, V06 can be used to estimate the crude protein (r2 = 0.91, RMSE = 5.97 kg, CCC = 0.93) content in the empty bodyweight. Furthermore, M10 could be used to estimate ether extract (r2 = 0.94, RMSE = 8.13 kg, CCC = 0.84) content, although this had to be analysed by gender, because such variables (i.e. ether extract) presented a pronounced effect, especially for steers, on total chemical fat.
Looking for form-meaning motivation in new L2 words
Authors: Deconinck Julie , Boers Frank , Eyckmans June
Published: October 2014

In a previous, effect-of-instruction study (Deconinck et al. 2010), we reported on the benefits for word learning of an intervention which prompts learners to evaluate the extent to which a novel word’s meaning is congruent with its form. However, that study did not explore the nature of the thought patterns provoked by this evaluation activity. The present article reports a think-aloud experiment designed to gain insight into these thought patterns. Thirty learners of English as a foreign language were asked to verbalize their thoughts as they performed the task of rating the degree to which they felt the meaning of novel English words was congruent with their form. The participants were found to resort to a variety of associations in order to carry out this task, associations that make use – but also go beyond – traditional notions of prior lexical knowledge, including sound symbolism. Keywords: Second Language Acquisition; vocabulary learning; Cognitive Linguistics; language transfer; sound symbolism
The Basel Model for paragraph segmentation
Authors: Ferrari Angela
Published: October 2014

This paper sets out to present a model for the segmentation of written text, known in Switzerland and Italy under the name of the Basel Model. The language of application is Italian.

The first section deals, in a general and epistemological manner, with what I conceive as ‘text’ (as opposed to ‘discourse’) and its structuring principle. I shall proceed by defining the nature of the contribution made by language (vocabulary, morphology, syntax, punctuation) to the identification of text structures. In successive sections, I shall focus on the problem of the segmentation of the paragraph into its constituent units. I shall firstly define the key units of its constitution, the Communicative Units; and then subsequently the structuring units of the Communicative Units, i.e. the Information Units. These two types of units will be precisely defined from the point of view of their semantico-pragmatic substance and their linguistic manifestation.

A special place will be reserved — in response to previous criticism — for a confrontation between the conception of the information structure of the utterance as proposed by the Basel Model and the theory advanced by Edoardo Lomabardi Vallauri, who is also contributing to this volume.
The topologic hypothesis of prominence as a cue to information structure in Italian
Authors: Lombardi Vallauri Edoardo
Published: October 2014

The article proposes a strictly structural hypothesis on the marking of information structure (IS) by means of prosodic prominence, based on experimental data from spoken Italian. Main prominence can be conceived of in a “topological” way, where its location effects demarcation between different units, rather than their identification and culmination. This may suffice to explain much of the process by which speakers interpret the IS of utterances in discourse. In addition, actual utterances do not always express the distribution of Topic and Focus clearly. Acoustically, many remain underspecified in this respect. This is especially true for the distinction between Topic-Focus and Broad Focus, which often allows a certain degree of ambiguity.
Initiating a discourse unit in spoken French
Authors: Degand Liesbeth , Simon Anne-Catherine , Tanguy Noalig , Van Damme Thomas
Published: October 2014

This chapter presents an empirical study of the left periphery of Basic Discourse Units, viz. the linguistic segments that speakers and hearers use to interpret the discourse they are engaged in. A Basic Discourse Unit is bound by the mapping of a syntactic (dependency) structure and a major intonation unit, giving rise to different types of discourse units (congruent, syntax-bound, intonation-bound, regulatory). Focusing on the discourse units’ Left Peripheral Elements, which are again defined in syntactic and prosodic terms, we show that they fulfil different discourse structuring roles.
Term extraction and management based on event templates
Authors: Peruzzo Katia
Published: October 2014

The paper examines the possible usage of event templates derived from Frame-Based Terminology (Faber et al. 2005, 2006, 2007) as an aid to the extraction and management of legal terminology embedded in the multi-level legal system of the European Union. The method proposed here, which combines semi-automatic term extraction and a simplified event template containing six categories, is applied to an English corpus of EU texts focusing on victims of crime and their rights. Such a combination allows for the extraction of category-relevant terminological units and additional information, which can then be used for populating a terminological knowledge base organised on the basis of the same event template, but which also employs additional classification criteria to account for the multidimensionality encountered in the corpus.
Semantic characterization of terms as a trace of terminological dependency
Authors: Sánchez Ibáñez Miguel , García Palacios Joaquín
Published: October 2014

Over the past decades, English has become the predominant language for the transfer of specialized knowledge, which conditions the creation of new lexical units in other codes. This conditioning can result in terminological dependency, a linguistic phenomenon arising from a unidirectional transfer of specialized denominations between two languages. Terminological neology in potentially dependent codes such as Spanish reflects the way the importation of units from English involves a set of linguistic asymmetries that affects the conceptual configuration of specialized domains by the importing community of scientists. In this article, we propose a three-step analysis in order to detect and measure the terminological dependency of Spanish on English in the domain of Alzheimer’s Disease, based on the semantic characterization of a set of specialized neologisms related to this domain. After analysing the semantic features of these units in English, we found a significant, though not exact, correlation between the uniformity of certain semantic aspects and the degree of terminological dependency observed in their equivalents in Spanish.
HypoTerm
Authors: Lefever Els , Van de Kauter Marjan , Hoste Véronique
Published: October 2014

HypoTerm is a data-driven semantic relation finder that starts from a list of automatically extracted domain- and user-specific terms from technical corpora, and generates a list of relations between these terms. This research study focused on the detection of hypernym relations between relevant terms and named entities. In order to detect all relevant hypernym relations in technical texts, we combined a lexico-syntactic pattern-based approach and a morpho-syntactic analyzer. To evaluate our relation finder, we constructed and manually annotated gold standard data for the dredging and financial domain in Dutch and English. The experimental results show that the HypoTerm system achieves high precision and recall figures for technical texts when starting from valid domain-specific terms and named entities. Thanks to this data-driven approach, it is possible to take an important step from terminology to concept extraction without using any external lexico-semantic resources.
The sortal resemblance problem
Authors: Kim Joongol
Published: November 2014

Is it possible to characterize the sortal essence of Fs for a sortal concept F solely in terms of a criterion of identity C for F? That is, can the question ‘What sort of thing are Fs?’ be answered by saying that Fs are essentially those things whose identity can be assessed in terms of C? This paper presents a case study supporting a negative answer to these questions by critically examining the neo-Fregean suggestion that cardinal numbers can be fully characterized as those things whose identity can be assessed in terms of one-one correspondence between concepts.
Antibacterial Mouthwash Blunts Oral Nitrate Reduction and Increases Blood Pressure in Treated Hypertensive Men and Women
Authors: Bondonno Catherine P. , Liu Alex H. , Croft Kevin D. , Considine Michael J. , Puddey Ian B. , Woodman Richard J. , Hodgson Jonathan M.
Published: October 2014

BACKGROUND

Endothelial nitric oxide (NO) is fundamental to cardiovascular health. Dietary nitrate and nitrate from endothelial derived NO metabolism provides a significant contribution to the circulating NO pool through the nitrate–nitrite–NO pathway. A critical step in this pathway is the reduction of nitrate to nitrite by the oral microbiota. We aimed to assess the effects of antibacterial mouthwash use on markers of nitrate–nitrite–NO metabolism and blood pressure in treated hypertensive men and women.

METHODS

Fifteen treated hypertensive men and women (mean age 65 years) were recruited to a randomized controlled cross-over trial. The effects of 3-day use of antibacterial mouthwash on oral nitrate to nitrite reduction, salivary and plasma nitrate and nitrite, plasma cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) and systolic and diastolic blood pressure were compared to control (water).

RESULTS

Relative to control, 3-day antibacterial mouthwash use resulted in decreased oral nitrate to nitrite reduction (P = 0.02), decreased salivary nitrite (P = 0.01) and increased salivary nitrate (P < 0.001), and there was a trend toward a decrease in plasma nitrite concentration (P = 0.09). Use of antibacterial mouthwash over 3 days also resulted in higher systolic blood pressure (2.3mm Hg; 95% CI: 0.5, 4.0; P = 0.01), but not diastolic blood pressure (P = 0.4) or plasma cGMP (P = 0.7), relative to control.

CONCLUSIONS

Interruption of the nitrate–nitrite–NO pathway through the use of antibacterial mouthwash was paralleled by a small elevation of systolic blood pressure in treated hypertensive men and women.
TIPP: taxonomic identification and phylogenetic profiling
Authors: Nguyen Nam-phuong , Mirarab Siavash , Liu Bo , Pop Mihai , Warnow Tandy
Published: October 2014

Motivation: Abundance profiling (also called ‘phylogenetic profiling’) is a crucial step in understanding the diversity of a metagenomic sample, and one of the basic techniques used for this is taxonomic identification of the metagenomic reads.

Results: We present taxon identification and phylogenetic profiling (TIPP), a new marker-based taxon identification and abundance profiling method. TIPP combines SAT\'e-enabled phylogenetic placement a phylogenetic placement method, with statistical techniques to control the classification precision and recall, and results in improved abundance profiles. TIPP is highly accurate even in the presence of high indel errors and novel genomes, and matches or improves on previous approaches, including NBC, mOTU, PhymmBL, MetaPhyler and MetaPhlAn.

Availability and implementation: Software and supplementary materials are available at http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/phylo/software/sepp/tipp-submission/ .

Contact:  warnow@illinois.edu

Supplementary information:  Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Neurological history and examination
Authors: Manji Hadi , Connolly Seán , Kitchen Neil , Lambery Christian , Mehta Amrish
Published: October 2014

Abstracts and keywords to be supplied.
Clinical skills
Authors: Denniston Alastair K.O. , Murray Philip I.
Published: October 2014

‘Clinical Skills’ introduces the reader to all the core examination techniques required for a comprehensive ophthalmic examination. Using a patient centred practical approach it takes the reader through ophthalmic history taking, assessment of vision (adults and children), refraction, slit-lamp biomicroscopy and examination of the eye and adnexae in both structure and function.
Investigations and their interpretation
Authors: Denniston Alastair K.O. , Murray Philip I.
Published: October 2014

‘Investigations and their interpretation’ introduces the reader to both standard and emerging technologies that enable assessment of the structure or function of the eye and visual system. Starting with visual field testing, the chapter covers automated and Goldmann perimetry, novel protocols and progression analysis. Anterior segment imaging covers keratometry, topography and OCT. Posterior segment imaging includes angiographic techniques, novel blood flow quantification methods, OCT, and adaptive optics. Electrodiagnostic tests are introduced including multifocal techniques. Finally ophthalmic ultrasonography and radiology are supported by clinical strategies and examples to support the practice and interpretation of these techniques.
Ophthalmic surgery: theatre notes
Authors: Denniston Alastair K.O. , Murray Philip I.
Published: October 2014

‘Ophthalmic surgery: theatre notes’ introduces a number of key concepts to prepare the trainee for an ophthalmic theatre. These areas include suture materials and needle types, common surgical instruments (with illustrations) and important supportive issues such as sterilisation services and hand hygiene.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Authors: Jacquette Dale
Published: October 2014

Arthur Schopenhauer (b. 1788–d. 1860) was a private scholar and philosopher. Although Schopenhauer was largely ignored by the professional academic philosophical community during his lifetime, he exerted increasing influence on German and international philosophy, literature, and the arts later in life and more profoundly after his death. Schopenhauer’s philosophy can be explained as a distinctly original synthesis of Kant, Plato, and Eastern thought, especially Hinduism and Buddhism. Schopenhauer understands his philosophy as the true heir of Kant’s critical idealism, on some parts of which Schopenhauer develops his own brand of post-Kantian transcendental idealism. The world for Schopenhauer has two aspects: the phenomenal world we experience in sensation and perception, and a transcendental world of Kantian Thing-in-itself, which Schopenhauer identifies with Will. The world as Will is pure willing, for Schopenhauer, in the sense that it is uncaused, undirected, unmotivated blind urging. The Will is willing without willing anything in particular, or for any particular reason, and even without any cause, while lacking all logical and mathematical properties. The world as Will, lacking any specific object, is inevitably objectified in the world as representation in conflict, strife, competition, opposition, and suffering. The world in reality, identified by Schopenhauer as Will, because it must be objectified in conflict, is seen by Schopenhauer philosophically, for this reason, from a technically pessimistic perspective. The Kantian distinction between the mind’s experiential world (Vorstellung) and Thing-in-itself, the world as it is in itself and independently of thought (Ding an sich), interpreted by Schopenhauer not as Kantian noumenon but knowable intuitively and supported by metaphysical reasoning as pure willing (der Wille), links together all the several parts of Schopenhauer’s philosophical system, like spokes from a wheel’s hub. Beginning with his epistemology and metaphysics, and proceeding systematically to his philosophy of science, logic and mathematics; philosophy of religion; philosophy of art; ethics, moral, and political philosophy, Schopenhauer encourages the image of a flower opening when he describes developing the several related parts of his philosophy as the progressive unfolding of a single idea.
Contemporary Brazilian Cinema
Authors: Suppia Alfredo Luiz
Published: October 2014

At first glance, contemporary Brazilian cinema seems to be the byproduct of a mid-1990s renaissance in national film production. Accordingly, to better understand contemporary Brazilian cinema, it is advisable to recall the Brazilian film industry’s situation in the 1980s. An unsteady period followed by a major decline in national film production in the late-1980s and early-1990s, these were years illustrated by the dismantling of Embrafilme (Empresa Brasileira de Filmes), culminating in the complete eradication of the state-run film production and distribution company in March 1990. Around 1993–1994, however, a renaissance of Brazilian cinema occurred, in terms of film production and ticket sales, which has been called “Cinema da Retomada.” A cinematic phenomenon, fundamentally fueled by the industry’s access to new sources of state funding, the Retomada was predominately brought about by fiscal exemptions allowed by the Audiovisual Law (Lei do Audiovisual), as well as by grants such as the “Prêmio Resgate do Cinema Brasileiro,” coming from the Ministry of Culture. Later, the Rouanet Law (Lei Rouanet) strengthened the funding not only for film, but for cultural projects and events as a whole. Likewise, municipal and state laws promoting fiscal exemptions also had a fundamental role in the recovery of film production in the country. All these laws allowed the private initiative to redirect funds from taxes to film production. This article will provide a basic bibliography of the aforementioned topics, addressing the economic, sociological, and aesthetic issues related to contemporary Brazilian cinema.