bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Heterozygous mutations affecting the protein kinase domain of CDK13 cause a syndromic form of developmental delay and intellectual disability
Authors: Hamilton Mark J , Caswell Richard C , Canham Natalie , Cole Trevor , Firth Helen V , Foulds Nicola , Heimdal Ketil , Hobson Emma , Houge Gunnar , Joss Shelagh , Kumar Dhavendra , Lampe Anne Katrin , Maystadt Isabelle , McKay Victoria , Metcalfe Kay , Newbury-Ecob Ruth , Park Soo-Mi , Robert Leema , Rustad Cecilie F , Wakeling Emma , Wilkie Andrew O M , Study The Deciphering Developmental Disor , Twigg Stephen R F , Suri Mohnish
Published: October 2017

Introduction

Recent evidence has emerged linking mutations in CDK13 to syndromic congenital heart disease. We present here genetic and phenotypic data pertaining to 16 individuals with CDK13 mutations.

Methods

Patients were investigated by exome sequencing, having presented with developmental delay and additional features suggestive of a syndromic cause.

Results

Our cohort comprised 16 individuals aged 4–16 years. All had developmental delay, including six with autism spectrum disorder. Common findings included feeding difficulties (15/16), structural cardiac anomalies (9/16), seizures (4/16) and abnormalities of the corpus callosum (4/11 patients who had undergone MRI). All had craniofacial dysmorphism, with common features including short, upslanting palpebral fissures, hypertelorism or telecanthus, medial epicanthic folds, low-set, posteriorly rotated ears and a small mouth with thin upper lip vermilion. Fifteen patients had predicted missense mutations, including five identical p.(Asn842Ser) substitutions and two p.(Gly717Arg) substitutions. One patient had a canonical splice acceptor site variant (c.2898–1G>A). All mutations were located within the protein kinase domain of CDK13. The affected amino acids are highly conserved, and in silico analyses including comparative protein modelling predict that they will interfere with protein function. The location of the missense mutations in a key catalytic domain suggests that they are likely to cause loss of catalytic activity but retention of cyclin K binding, resulting in a dominant negative mode of action. Although the splice-site mutation was predicted to produce a stable internally deleted protein, this was not supported by expression studies in lymphoblastoid cells. A loss of function contribution to the underlying pathological mechanism therefore cannot be excluded, and the clinical significance of this variant remains uncertain.

Conclusions

These patients demonstrate that heterozygous, likely dominant negative mutations affecting the protein kinase domain of the CDK13 gene result in a recognisable, syndromic form of intellectual disability, with or without congenital heart disease.
Recurrence risk factors in detachable balloon embolization of traumatic direct carotid cavernous fistulas in 188 patients
Authors: Gao Bu-Lang , Wang Zi-Liang , Li Tian-Xiao , Xu Bin
Published: October 2017

Purpose

To investigate the effects of detachable balloons in embolizing traumatic carotid cavernous fistulas (TCCFs) and the risk factors for recurrence after balloon embolization.

Materials and methods

188 patients with TCCFs were enrolled, and clinical, treatment, and follow-up data were analyzed for possible risk factors for recurrence after embolization.

Results

Among 188 patients, 182 (96.8%) had successful balloon embolization; 6 patients failed. One balloon was used in 94 cases and multiple (two or more) balloons were used in 62 patients. 26 patients had occlusion of the parent artery whereas the remainder had parent artery preservation. Periprocedural complications occurred in 3 patients (1.6%) including cerebral embolism in 1 and abducent nerve paralysis in the other 2. Immediately following embolization, headache appeared in 92 patients and was relieved after 3–5 days with medications. A total of 165 patients (87.8%) had follow-up (6 months to 16 years, mean 5 years). 23 (13.9%) patients with internal carotid artery preservation had recurrence 1–33 days (mean 11 days) after the first embolization and were retreated to complete occlusion. Factors affecting recurrence were multiple balloons and residual fistula (p<0.05). Logistic regression confirmed the independent factors affecting recurrence were multiple balloons (≥2 balloons, OR 7.80, 95% CI 2.28 to 26.73; p=0.001) and residual fistula immediately following embolization (OR 10.46, 95% CI 2.99 to 36.5; p=0.000).

Conclusion

The recurrence rate is high in the first month after embolization with detachable balloons, and multiple balloons and residual fistula are two independent factors affecting recurrence following balloon embolization.
Whole genome sequencing of Neisseria gonorrhoeae reveals transmission clusters involving patients of mixed HIV serostatus
Authors: Peters Joanna , Cresswell Fiona , Amor Lauren , Cole Kevin , Dean Gillian , Didelot Xavier , De Silva Dilrini , Eyre David W , Paul John
Published: October 2017

Objectives

Prevention and control of gonorrhoea depends on understanding the nature of sexual networks and risk factors for infection. We aimed to use high-resolution typing (whole genome sequencing (WGS)) of Neisseria gonorrhoeae isolates plus patient questionnaire data to gain insights into transmission patterns in a high prevalence setting.

Methods

During a 9-month period (July 2014–March 2015), patients diagnosed with gonorrhoea attending sexual health service in Brighton, UK, were invited to provide anonymised detailed information by questionnaire about risk factors for infection. Questionnaire data plus WGS data from cultured isolates were analysed to yield information about sexual networks and risk factors for infection.

Results

104/149 individuals who consented to participate in the study were culture positive. 97/104 (93%) were male. 80 self-reported to be men who have sex with men (MSM). 35/104 (34%) of patients were HIV positive. 51/104 (49%) individuals reported using geosocial networking applications to facilitate contact. Sex under the influence of drugs was reported by 16/34 (46%) of HIV-positive MSM, 17/41 (41%) of HIV-negative MSM and 5/15 (31%) of heterosexuals. WGS data were available for 100 isolates from 83 patients. 55 isolates (66%) belonged to genetically related subtypes involving one or more patients, who could be plausibly linked through recent direct or indirect transmission. Four transmission clusters containing 3–12 individuals were composed of MSM of mixed HIV serostatus.

Conclusions

We show that data obtained from WGS of N. gonorrhoeae and enhanced epidemiological data obtained from patient questionnaires are mutually supportive and reveal insights into sexual networks. Our findings suggest that serosorting may have declined as a practice and indicate the importance of designing public health interventions that target infection risks associated with recreational drug use and contact made using geosocial networking applications.
Stable isotopes as tracers in aquatic ecosystems
Authors: Sánchez-Carrillo Salvador , Álvarez-Cobelas Miguel
Published: October 2017

The addition of stable isotopes (SI) of13C and15N has been used to study several aquatic processes, thus avoiding environmental disturbance by the observer. This approach, employed for the last three decades, has contributed to expanding our knowledge of food-web ecology and nutrient dynamics in aquatic systems. Currently, SI addition is considered a powerful complementary tool for studying several ecological and biogeochemical processes at the whole-aquatic-ecosystem scale, which could not be addressed otherwise. However, their contributions have not been considered jointly nor have they been evaluated with a view to assessing the reliability and scope of their results from an ecosystem perspective. We intend to bridge this gap by providing a comprehensive review (78 scientific publications reporting in situ13C/15N additions at the whole-aquatic-ecosystem scale) addressing the main results arising from their use as tracers. Specifically, we focus on: (i) reasons for SI additions at the whole-ecosystem scale to study ecological processes, (ii) the paradigms resulting from its use and the insights achieved, (iii) uncertainties and drawbacks arising from these SI addition experiments, and (iv) the potential of this approach for tackling new paradigms. SI tracer addition at the ecosystem scale has provided new functional insights into numerous ecological processes in aquatic sciences (importance of subsidies in lakes; heterotrophy dominance in benthic food webs in lakes, wetlands and estuaries; the decrease in N removal efficiency in most aquatic ecosystems due to anthropogenic alteration; the recognition of hyporheic zones and floodplains as hot spots for stream denitrification; and high rates of internal N recycling in tidal freshwater marshes). However, certain constraints such as the high cost of isotopes, the maintenance of the new isotopic steady state, and avoidance of biomass changes in any compartment or pool during tracer addition bear witness to the difficulties of applying this approach to all fields of aquatic ecology and ecosystems. The future development of this approach, rather than expanding to larger and complex aquatic ecosystems, should include other stable isotopes such as phosphorus (P18O4).
Unusual cranial and postcranial anatomy in the archetypal ankylosaur Ankylosaurus magniventris
Authors: Arbour Victoria M. , Mallon Jordan C.
Published: October 2017

Ankylosaurus magniventris is an iconic dinosaur species often depicted in popular media. It is known from relatively fragmentary remains compared with its earlier and smaller relatives such as Euoplocephalus and Anodontosaurus. Nevertheless, the known fossils of Ankylosaurus indicate that it had diverged significantly in cranial and postcranial anatomy compared with other Laramidian ankylosaurines. In particular, the dentition, narial region, tail club, and overall body size differ substantially from other Campanian–Maastrichtian ankylosaurines. We review the anatomy of this unusual ankylosaur using data from historic and newly identified material and discuss its palaeoecological implications.
Convergent Time-Varying Regression Models for Data Streams: Tracking Concept Drift by the Recursive Parzen-Based Generalized Regression Neural Networks
Authors: Duda Piotr , Jaworski Maciej , Rutkowski Leszek
Published: October 2017

One of the greatest challenges in data mining is related to processing and analysis of massive data streams. Contrary to traditional static data mining problems, data streams require that each element is processed only once, the amount of allocated memory is constant and the models incorporate changes of investigated streams. A vast majority of available methods have been developed for data stream classification and only a few of them attempted to solve regression problems, using various heuristic approaches. In this paper, we develop mathematically justified regression models working in a time-varying environment. More specifically, we study incremental versions of generalized regression neural networks, called IGRNNs, and we prove their tracking properties — weak (in probability) and strong (with probability one) convergence assuming various concept drift scenarios. First, we present the IGRNNs, based on the Parzen kernels, for modeling stationary systems under nonstationary noise. Next, we extend our approach to modeling time-varying systems under nonstationary noise. We present several types of concept drifts to be handled by our approach in such a way that weak and strong convergence holds under certain conditions. Finally, in the series of simulations, we compare our method with commonly used heuristic approaches, based on forgetting mechanism or sliding windows, to deal with concept drift. Finally, we apply our concept in a real life scenario solving the problem of currency exchange rates prediction.
Double Modular Redundancy (DMR) Based Fault Tolerance Technique for Combinational Circuits
Authors: Sheikh Ahmad T. , El-Maleh Aiman H.
Published: October 2017

Due to the continuous scaling of digital systems and the increased demand on low power devices, design of effective soft error tolerance techniques is of high importance to cope with the increased susceptibility of systems to soft errors and to enhance system reliability. In this work, we propose a double modular redundancy (DMR) technique that aims to achieve high reliability with reduced area overhead. Furthermore, we propose an improved application of DMR based on the use of C-element (DMR-CEL). The proposed technique is compared with Triple Modular Redundancy (TMR) technique and DMR-CEL. Simulations performed for LGSynth’91 benchmark circuits demonstrate that applying the proposed DMR technique achieves improved reliability with significantly lower area overhead than TMR without voter protection. Furthermore, improved reliability with lower area overhead is achieved by the proposed DMR technique in comparison to DMR-CEL without C-element protection. In addition, applying a recently proposed transistor sizing technique on our proposed DMR technique achieves comparable reliability to that achieved by TMR with voter protection and DMR-CEL with C-element protection with lower area overhead than TMR.
Stability Analysis on Sparsely Encoded Associative Memory with Short-Term Synaptic Dynamics
Authors: Xu Muyuan , Katori Yuichi , Aihara Kazuyuki
Published: October 2017

This study investigates the stability of sparsely encoded associative memory in a network composed of stochastic neurons. The incorporation of short-term synaptic dynamics significantly changes the stability with respect to synaptic properties. Various states including static and oscillatory states are found in the network dynamics. Specifically, the sparseness of memory patterns raises the problem of spurious states. A mean field model is used to analyze the detailed structure in the stability and show that the performance of memory retrieval is recovered by appropriate feedback.
MODELING AND SIMULATION OF SKELETAL MUSCLE BASED ON COMBINED EXPONENTIAL AND POLYNOMIAL MODEL
Authors: WANG MONAN , AN XIANJUN , YANG NING
Published: October 2017

With the aim to build an accurate skeletal muscle simulation model, the biomechanical modeling and solution method of skeletal muscle were developed. First, the Mooney–Rivlin model, polynomial model, exponential model, logarithmic model, combined exponential and polynomial model were compared. The biomechanical model of skeletal muscle was built by combining the exponential and polynomial models. Second, the geometric non-linearity problem and material non-linearity problem of the biomechanical model were solved by using the finite element method. The program for this solution was implemented using Visual Studio 2012. Finally, the simulation results were compared to the experimental results. The maximum error between the simulation curve and the experiment stress–strain curve was 0.00149[Formula: see text]MPa. Finite element simulation for the lateral femoral muscle was conducted using the program developed in this study.
ACM SIGAI activity report
Authors: Koenig Sven , Das Sanmay , Paradis Rosemary , Eaton Eric , Gil Yolanda , Guo Katherine , Huang Bojun , Jiang Albert , Kuipers Benjamin , Mattei Nicholas , McGovern Amy , Medsker Larry , Neller Todd , Petrov Plamen , Rovatsos Michael , Stork David
Published: October 2017

We are happy to present the annual activity report of ACM SIGAI, covering the period from July 2016 to June 2017.

The scope of ACM SIGAI consists of the study of intelligence and its realization in computer systems (see also its website at sigai.acm.org). This includes areas such as

autonomous agents, cognitive modeling, computer vision, constraint programming, human language technologies, intelligent user interfaces, knowledge discovery, knowledge representation and reasoning, machine learning, planning and search, problem solving and robotics.

Members of ACM SIGAI come from academia, industry and government agencies worldwide. ACM SIGAI is proud of the fact that many AI researchers in the past year received ACM honors, including becoming ACM fellows as well as receiving other awards.

ACM SIGAI is committed to increase its activities in order to support its members even better. In order to do so, ACM SIGAI has created several new appointed officer positions, namely an industry liaison officer, an award officer and two ethics officers.

In the course of the last year, ACM SIGAI has been responsive to specific events and circumstances as well as continued to support and expand a range of regular activities.
AI education
Authors: Neller Todd W.
Published: October 2017

In this column, we focus on resources for learning and teaching deep neural network learning. Many exciting advances have been made in this area of late, and so many resources have become available online that the flood of relevant concepts and techniques can be overwhelming. Here, we hope to provide a sampling of high-quality resources to guide the newcomer into this booming field.
Truth in the 'killer robots' angle?
Authors: Rahtz Matthew
Published: October 2017

I had no idea, getting interested in AI two years ago, that being involved in the field would involve such a persistent sense of unease. I started out unequivocally excited, perhaps a little naive; but over the years, the concerned voices of economists, philosophers, and the mass media have gradually seeped into me, leaving me with an ill-defined feeling of hesitation about what we're heading towards.
Toward mining user movement behaviors in indoor environments
Authors: Teng Shan-Yun , Ku Wei-Shinn , Chuang Kun-Ta
Published: October 2017

In this paper, we explore a new mining paradigm, called User Visited Patterns (abbreviated as UVP), to discover user visited behavior in the mall-like indoor environment. It is a highly challenging issue, in the indoor environment, to retrieve the frequent UVP, especially when the concern of user privacy is highlighted nowadays. The mining of UVP will face the critical challenge from spatial uncertainty. In this paper, the proposed system framework utilizes the probabilistic mining to identify top-k UVP over uncertain dataset collected from the RFID-based sensing result. Moreover, we redesign the indoor symbolic model to enhance the accuracy and efficiency. Our experimental studies show that the proposed system framework can overcome the impact from location uncertainty and efficiently discover high-quality UVP, to provide insightful observation for marketing collaborations.
East coast copmuter algebra day 2017
Authors: Lichtblau Daniel
Published: October 2017

The East Coast Computer Algebra Day 2017 (ECCAD 2017) was hosted byWolfram Research on Saturday, April 29, 2017.
Wen-Tsun Wu: His Life and Legacy
Authors: Gao Xiao-Shan
Published: October 2017

Professor Wen-Tsun Wu passed away on May 7, 2017, a few days ahead of his 98th birthday. Wu is one of the most influential Chinese mathematicians and computer scientists. In his early years, he made fundamental contributions to algebraic topology. In the late 1970s, Wu proposed the Wu's method of geometric theorem proving and founded the school of Mathematics Mechanization. His study on the ancient Chinese mathematics opened a new era in the field of history of Chinese mathematics. He also made contributions in the area of algebraic geometry, invariant theory, complex geometry, and game theory. His legacy consists not only of his academic work but also of several generations of scientists who learned from him the joy and enthusiasm of scientific research and the way to go about it.
Strongly Polynomial Algorithms for Transient and Average-Cost MDPs
Authors: Feinberg Eugene A. , Huang Jefferson
Published: October 2017

This paper considers transient total-cost MDPs with transition rates whose values may be greater than one, and average-cost MDPs satisfying the condition that the expected time to hit a certain state from any initial state and under any stationary policy is bounded above by a constant. Linear programming formulations for such MDPs are provided that are solvable in strongly polynomial time.
When is Anarchy Beneficial?
Authors: Maxey Tyler , Chung Hakjin , Ahn Hyun-Soo , Righter Rhonda
Published: October 2017

In many service systems, customers acting to maximize their individual utility (selfish customers) will result in a policy that does not maximize their overall utility; this effect is known as the Price of Anarchy (PoA). More specifically, the PoA, defined to be the ratio of selfish utility (the overall average utility for selfish customers) to collective utility (the overall average utility if customers act to maximize their overall average utility) is generally less than one. Of course, when the environment is fixed, the best case PoA is one, by definition of the maximization problem. However, we show that in systems with feedback, where the environment may change depending on customer behavior, there can be a Benefit of Anarchy, i.e., we can have a PoA that is strictly larger than one. We give an example based on a Stackelberg game between a service provider and customers in a singleserver queue.
Thinking Fast and Slow
Authors: Goel Gautam , Chen Niangjun , Wierman Adam
Published: October 2017

Many real-world control systems, such as the smart grid and software defined networks, have decentralized components that react quickly using local information and centralized components that react slowly using a more global view. This work seeks to provide a theoretical framework for how to design controllers that are decomposed across timescales in this way. The framework is analogous to how the network utility maximization framework uses optimization decomposition to distribute a global control problem across independent controllers, each of which solves a local problem; except our goal is to decompose a global problem temporally, extracting a timescale separation. Our results highlight that decomposition of a multi-timescale controller into a fast timescale, reactive controller and a slow timescale, predictive controller can be near-optimal in a strong sense. In particular, we exhibit such a design, named Multi-timescale Reflexive Predictive Control (MRPC), which maintains a per-timestep cost within a constant factor of the offline optimal in an adversarial setting.
Optimally Scheduling Jobs with Multiple Tasks
Authors: Scully Ziv , Blelloch Guy , Harchol-Balter Mor , Scheller-Wolf Alan
Published: October 2017

We consider optimal job scheduling where each job consists of multiple tasks, each of unknown duration, with precedence constraints between tasks. A job is not considered complete until all of its tasks are complete. Traditional heuristics, such as favoring the job of shortest expected remaining processing time, are suboptimal in this setting. Furthermore, even if we know which job to run, it is not obvious which task within that job to serve. In this paper, we characterize the optimal policy for a class of such scheduling problems and show that the policy is simple to compute.
Summary of Recent Results
Authors: Hajiesmaili Mohammad H. , Chen Minghua , Mallada Enrique , Chau Chi-Kin
Published: October 2017

This paper studies the problem of utilizing energy storage systems to perform demand-response in microgrids. The objective is to minimize the operational cost while balancing the supply-and-demand mismatch. The design space is to select and schedule a subset of heterogeneous storage devices that arrive online with different availabilities. Designing a performance-optimized solution is challenging due to the existence of mixed packing and covering constraints in a combinatorial problem, and the essential need for online design. We devise an online algorithm and show that it achieves logarithmic bi-criteria competitive ratio. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm.
Optimal Energy Procurement for Geo-distributed Data Centers in Multi-timescale Electricity Markets
Authors: Le Tan N. , Liang Jie , Liu Zhenhua , Sitaraman Ramesh K. , Nair Jayakrishnan , Choi Bong Jun
Published: October 2017

Heavy power consumers, such as cloud providers and data center operators, can significantly benefit from multi-timescale electricity markets by purchasing some of the needed electricity ahead of time at cheaper rates. However, the energy procurement strategy for data centers in multi-timescale markets becomes a challenging problem when real world dynamics, such as the spatial diversity of data centers and the uncertainty of renewable energy, IT workload, and electricity price, are taken into account. In this paper, we develop energy procurement algorithms for geo-distributed data centers that utilize multi-timescale markets to minimize the electricity procurement cost. We propose two algorithms. The first algorithm provides provably optimal cost minimization while the other achieves near-optimal cost at a much lower computational cost. We empirically evaluate our energy procurement algorithms using real-world traces of renewable energy, electricity prices, and the workload demand. Our empirical evaluations show that our proposed energy procurement algorithms save up to 44% of the total cost compared to traditional algorithms that do not use multi-timescale electricity markets or geographical load balancing.
Black-box Solar Performance Modeling
Authors: Chen Dong , Irwin David
Published: October 2017

The increasing penetration of solar power in the grid has motivated a strong interest in developing real-time performance models that estimate solar output based on a deployment's unique location, physical characteristics, and weather conditions. Solar models are useful for a variety of solar energy analytics, including indirect monitoring, forecasting, disaggregation, anonymous localization, and fault detection. Significant recent work focuses on learning "black box" models, primarily for forecasting, using machine learning (ML) techniques, which leverage only historical energy and weather data for training. Interestingly, these ML techniques are often "off the shelf" and do not incorporate well-known physical models of solar generation based on fundamental properties. Instead, prior work on physical modeling generally takes a "white box" approach that assumes detailed knowledge of a deployment. In this paper, we survey existing work on solar modeling, and then compare black-box solar modeling using ML versus physical approaches. We then i) present a configurable hybrid approach that combines the benefits of both by enabling users to select the parameters they physically model versus learn via ML, and ii) show that it significantly improves model accuracy across 6 deployments.
Interdependency analysis of junctions for congestion mitigation in Transportation Infrastructures
Authors: Stergiopoulos George , Valvis Evangelos , Anagnou-Misyris Foivos , Bozovic Nick , Gritzalis Dimitris
Published: October 2017

The resilience of the Transportation road infrastructure network is of major importance, since failures such as prolonged road congestion in specific parts of the infrastructure often initiate major cascading effects that block transportation and/or disrupt services of other infrastructures over wide areas. Existing traffic flow analysis methods lack the ability to understand cascading effect of congestions and how to improve overall resilience in greater areas. Dependency risk graphs have been proposed as a tool for analyzing such cascading failures using infrastructure dependency chains. In this paper, we propose a risk-based interdependency analysis methodology capable to detect large-scale traffic congestions between interconnected junctions of the road network and provide mitigation solutions to increase traffic flow resilience. Dependency risk chains of junctions provide important information about which junctions are affected when other major junctions are congested in the road transportation network. Targeted mitigation mechanisms for traffic congestion can be proposed and the causes of bottlenecks can be analyzed to introduce road constructions or reparations with the best possible results in relieving traffic. We applied the proposed methodology on data collected by the UK government using cyber-physical traffic sensors over the course of 6 years. Our tool analyzed the UK major/A road transportation network, detected n-order junction dependencies and automatically proposed specific mitigation solutions to increase the overall resilience of the road infrastructure network. Simulation results indicate that detected mitigation options, if applied, can increase overall congestion resilience in wider areas of the network up to 12% by lowering likelihood of congestion.
CPS-based Threat Modeling for Critical Infrastructure Protection
Authors: Ding Jianguo , Atif Yacine , Andler Sten F. , Lindström Birgitta , Jeusfeld Manfred
Published: October 2017

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) are augmenting traditional Critical Infrastructures (CIs) with data-rich operations. This integration creates complex interdependencies that expose CIs and their components to new threats. A systematic approach to threat modeling is necessary to assess CIs' vulnerability to cyber, physical, or social attacks. We suggest a new threat modeling approach to systematically synthesize knowledge about the safety management of complex CIs and situational awareness that helps understanding the nature of a threat and its potential cascading-effects implications.
Ion channels of the lung and their role in disease pathogenesis
Authors: Bartoszewski Rafal , Matalon Sadis , Collawn James F.
Published: October 2017

Maintenance of normal epithelial ion and water transport in the lungs includes providing a thin layer of surface liquid that coats the conducting airways. This airway surface liquid is critical for normal lung function in a number of ways but, perhaps most importantly, is required for normal mucociliary clearance and bacterial removal. Preservation of the appropriate level of hydration, pH, and viscosity for the airway surface liquid requires the proper regulation and function of a battery of different types of ion channels and transporters. Here we discuss how alterations in ion channel/transporter function often lead to lung pathologies.
Diffuse Subcutaneous Emphysema, Pneumomediastinum, and Pneumothorax following Robotic Assisted Laparoscopic Hysterectomy
Authors: Patti Laryssa , Haussner William , Wei Grant
Published: October 2017

Robotic assisted laparoscopic surgery is becoming more widely available, but despite its multiple benefits, it is not without risk. This case is of a 62-year-old female who presented to the emergency department for dyspnea two days after robotic assisted laparoscopic hysterectomy. Physical exam revealed diffuse facial, neck, upper extremity, torso, and lower extremity crepitus, which was diagnosed as diffuse subcutaneous air on computed tomography (CT). Imaging also revealed right apical pneumothorax and pneumomediastinum. The patient progressively improved over one month, with resolution of symptoms.
Effect of Microstructure on Hydrogen Diffusion in Weld and API X52 Pipeline Steel Base Metals under Cathodic Protection
Authors: Souza R. C. , Pereira L. R. , Starling L. M. , Pereira J. N. , Simões T. A. , Gomes J. A. C. P. , Bueno A. H. S.
Published: October 2017

The aim of this research was to evaluate the influence of microstructure on hydrogen permeation of weld and API X52 base metal under cathodic protection. The microstructures analyzed were of the API X52, as received, quenched, and annealed, and the welded zone. The test was performed in base metal (BM), quenched base metal (QBM), annealed base metal (ABM), and weld metal (WM). Hydrogen permeation flows were evaluated using electrochemical tests in a Devanathan cell. The potentiodynamic polarization curves were carried out to evaluate the corrosion resistance of each microstructure. All tests were carried out in synthetic soil solutions NS4 and NS4 + sodium thiosulfate at 25°C. The sodium thiosulfate was used to simulate sulfate reduction bacteria (SRB). Through polarization, assays established that the microstructure does not influence the corrosion resistance. The permeation tests showed that weld metal had lower hydrogen flow than base metal as received, quenched, and annealed.
Novel Nanomaterials Enable Biomimetic Models of the Tumor Microenvironment
Authors: Joyce Marshall Hunter , Allen Shane , Suggs Laura , Brock Amy
Published: October 2017

In the complex tumor microenvironment, chemical and mechanical signals from tumor cells, stromal cells, and the surrounding extracellular matrix influence all aspects of disease progression and response to treatment. Modeling the physical properties of the tumor microenvironment has been a significant effort in the biomaterials field. One challenge has been the difficulty in altering the mechanical properties of the extracellular matrix without simultaneously impacting other factors that influence cell behavior. The development of novel materials based on nanotechnology has enabled recent innovations in tumor cell culture models. Here, we review the various approaches by which the tumor cell microenvironment has been engineered using natural and synthetic gels. We describe new studies that rely on the unique temporal and spatial control afforded by nanomaterials to produce culture platforms that mimic dynamic changes in tumor matrix mechanics. In addition, we look at the frontier of nanomaterial-hydrogel composites to review new approaches for perturbation of mechanochemical control in the tumor microenvironment.
Mineralization Process of Biocemented Sand and Impact of Bacteria and Calcium Ions Concentrations on Crystal Morphology
Authors: Xu Guobin , Tang Yang , Lian Jijian , Yan Yue , Fu Dengfeng
Published: October 2017

Microbial-induced calcite precipitation (MICP) is a sustainable technique used to improve sandy soil. Analysis of the mineralization process, as well as different bacterial suspensions and calcium concentrations on the crystal morphology, revealed that the mineralization process included four stages: self-organised hydrolysis of microorganisms, molecular recognition and interface interaction, growth modulation, and epitaxial growth. By increasing bacterial suspensions and calcium concentrations, the crystal morphology changed from hexahedron to oblique polyhedron to ellipsoid; the best crystal structure occurs at OD600 = 1.0 and [Ca2+] = 0.75 mol/l. It should be noted that interfacial hydrogen bonding is the main force that binds the loose sand particles. These results will help in understanding the mechanism of MICP.
Routine Drainage of Colorectal Anastomoses: An Evidence-Based Review of the Current Literature
Authors: Emile Sameh Hany , Abd El-Hamed Tito M.
Published: October 2017

Background. The use of prophylactic drainage after colorectal anastomoses has been long debated. This report aimed to review the current literature discussing routine drainage of colorectal anastomoses highlighting two opposite perspectives (prodrainage and antidrainage) to demonstrate the clinical utility of prophylactic drainage and its proper indications.Methods. An organized literature search was conducted querying electronic databases and Google Scholar. Articles evaluating the role of routine prophylactic drainage after colorectal anastomosis were included and divided into two categories: articles supporting the use of drains (prodrainage) and articles disputing routine drainage (antidrainage).Results. There were seven systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses, one Cochrane review, one randomized controlled trial, and six prospective or retrospective cohort studies. Six studies supported prophylactic drainage of colorectal anastomoses; the quality of these studies ranged between grade II and IV. Nine studies recommended against the use of prophylactic drainage, six studies were grade I, one was grade II, and two were grade IV.Conclusion. Since level I evidence studies including well-designed randomized trials and meta-analyses recommended against the use of pelvic drainage as a routine practice after colorectal anastomoses, we conclude no significant impact of routine drainage on the risk of anastomotic leakage after colorectal anastomoses.
Challenges with Surveillance of Healthcare-Associated Infections in Intensive Care Units in South Africa
Authors: Mahomed Saajida , Mahomed Ozayr , Sturm A. Willem , Knight Stephen , Moodley Prashini
Published: October 2017

Background. The incidence of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in the public health sector in South Africa is not known due to the lack of a surveillance system. We report on the challenges experienced in the implementation of a surveillance system for HAIs in intensive care units (ICUs). Methods. A passive, paper-based surveillance system was piloted in eight ICUs to measure the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia, catheter-associated urinary tract infection, and central line-associated bloodstream infection. Extensive consultation with the ICU clinical and nursing managers informed the development of the surveillance system. The Plan-Do-Study-Act method was utilized to guide the implementation of the surveillance. Results. The intended outputs of the surveillance system were not fully realized due to incomplete data. The organizational culture did not promote the collection of surveillance data. Nurses felt that the surveillance form added to their workload, and the infection control practitioners were unable to adequately supervise the process due to competing work demands. Conclusions. A manual system that adds to the administrative workload of nurses is not an effective method of measuring the burden of HAIs. Change management is required to promote an organizational culture that supports accurate data collection for HAIs.
Antioxidant and Antiradical Properties of Selected Flavonoids and Phenolic Compounds
Authors: Huyut Zübeyir , Beydemir Şükrü , Gülçin İlhami
Published: October 2017

Phenolic compounds and flavonoids are known by their antioxidant properties and one of the most important sources for humans is the diet. Due to the harmful effects of synthetic antioxidants such as BHA and BHT, natural novel antioxidants have become the focus of attention for protecting foods and beverages and reducing oxidative stressin vivo. In the current study, we investigated the total antioxidant, metal chelating, Fe3+and Cu2+reduction, and free radical scavenging activities of some phenolic and flavonoid compounds including malvin, oenin, ID-8, silychristin, callistephin, pelargonin, 3,4-dihydroxy-5-methoxybenzoic acid, 2,4,6-trihydroxybenzaldehyde, and arachidonoyl dopamine. The antioxidant properties of these compounds at different concentrations (10–30 μg/mL) were compared with those of reference antioxidants such as BHA, BHT,α-tocopherol, and trolox. Each substance showed dose-dependent antioxidant activity. Furthermore, oenin, malvin, arachidonoyl dopamine, callistephin, silychristin, and 3,4-dihydroxy-5-methoxybenzoic acid exhibited more effective antioxidant activity than that observed for the reference antioxidants. These results suggest that these novel compounds may function to protect foods and medicines and to reduce oxidative stressin vivo.
MVDR Algorithm Based on Estimated Diagonal Loading for Beamforming
Authors: Xiao Yuteng , Yin Jihang , Qi Honggang , Yin Hongsheng , Hua Gang
Published: October 2017

Beamforming algorithm is widely used in many signal processing fields. At present, the typical beamforming algorithm is MVDR (Minimum Variance Distortionless Response). However, the performance of MVDR algorithm relies on the accurate covariance matrix. The MVDR algorithm declines dramatically with the inaccurate covariance matrix. To solve the problem, studying the beamforming array signal model and beamforming MVDR algorithm, we improve MVDR algorithm based on estimated diagonal loading for beamforming. MVDR optimization model based on diagonal loading compensation is established and the interval of the diagonal loading compensation value is deduced on the basis of the matrix theory. The optimal diagonal loading value in the interval is also determined through the experimental method. The experimental results show that the algorithm compared with existing algorithms is practical and effective.
Distinct Angiogenic Changes during Carcinogenesis Defined by Novel Label-Free Dark-Field Imaging in a Hamster Cheek Pouch Model
Authors: Hu Fangyao , Martin Hannah , Martinez Amy , Everitt Jeffrey , Erkanli Alaattin , Lee Walter T. , Dewhirst Mark , Ramanujam Nimmi
Published: October 2017

There remain gaps in knowledge concerning how vascular morphology evolves during carcinogenesis. In this study, we imaged neovascularization by label-free dark-field microscopy of a 7,12-Dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA)-induced hamster cheek pouch model of oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Wavelength-dependent imaging revealed distinct vascular features at different imaging depths and vessel sizes. Vascular tortuosity increased significantly in high-risk lesions, whereas diameter decreased significantly in hyperplastic and SCC lesions. Large vessels preserved the same trends seen in the original images, whereas small vessels displayed different trends, with length and diameter increasing during carcinogenesis. On the basis of these data, we developed and validated a classification algorithm incorporating vascular features from different vessel masks. Receiver operator curves generated from the classification results demonstrated high accuracies in discriminating normal and hyperplasia from high-grade lesions (AUC > 0.94). Overall, these results provided automated imaging of vasculature in the earliest stages of carcinogenesis from which one can extract robust endpoints. The optical toolbox described here is simple, low-cost and portable, and can be used in a variety of health care and research settings for cancer prevention and pharmacology research. Cancer Res; 77(24); 7109–19. ©2017 AACR.
Paxillin Binding to the Cytoplasmic Domain of CD103 Promotes Cell Adhesion and Effector Functions for CD8+ Resident Memory T Cells in Tumors
Authors: Gauthier Ludiane , Corgnac Stéphanie , Boutet Marie , Gros Gwendoline , Validire Pierre , Bismuth Georges , Mami-Chouaib Fathia
Published: October 2017

CD8+/CD103+ tissue-resident memory T cells (TRM cells) accumulate in several human solid tumors, where they have been associated with a favorable prognosis. However, the role of CD103, the α subunit of the integrin αEβ7 (also known as CD103), in the retention and functions of these TRM is undefined. In this report, we investigated the role of CD103 cytoplasmic domain and the focal adhesion-associated protein paxillin (Pxn) in downstream signaling and functional activities triggered through αE/CD103 chain. Binding to immobilized recombinant (r)E-cadherin-Fc of CD103 integrin expressed on tumor-specific CTL clones promotes phosphorylation of Pxn and Pyk2 and binding of Pxn to the αE/CD103 subunit tail. Inhibition of Pxn phosphorylation by the Src inhibitor saracatinib or its knockdown via shRNA dramatically altered adhesion and spreading of freshly isolated CD8+/CD103+ lung tumor–infiltrating lymphocytes and CD103+ tumor-specific CTL clones. Inhibition of Pxn phosphorylation with saracatinib in these CTL clones also severely compromised their functional activities toward autologous tumor cells. Using Jurkat T cells as a model to study CD103 integrin activation, we demonstrated a key role of serine residue S1163 of the αE chain intracellular domain in polarization of CD103 and recruitment of lysosomes and Pxn at the contact zone of T lymphocytes with rE-cadherin-Fc–coated beads. Overall, our results show how Pxn binding to the CD103 cytoplasmic tail triggers αEβ7 integrin outside-in signaling that promotes CD8+ T-cell migratory behavior and effector functions. These results also explain the more favorable prognosis associated with retention of TRM cells in the tumor microenvironment. Cancer Res; 77(24); 7072–82. ©2017 AACR.
Surgical Treatment of Small Intestinal Neuroendocrine Tumors G1/G2
Authors: Selberherr Andreas , Niederle Martin B. , Niederle Bruno
Published: October 2017

Although the majority of neuroendocrine tumors of the small intestine (siNETs) classified as low-grade G1 or G2 show slow local growth, they are frequently diagnosed at an advanced stage of metastatic disease. The surgical treatment is curative in stages I-III or palliative in stage IV in an attempt to avoid local complications of bowel obstruction and ischemia of the small bowel by unremoved lymph node metastases. Individualized surgical procedures performed by experienced surgeons considering tumor multifocality and the primary extent of lymph node metastases along the mesenteric vessels are recommended to remove as much tumor volume as possible, while avoiding major complications intraoperatively and small bowel syndrome postoperatively.
The Impact of Theoretical Orientation and Training on Preference for Diagnostic Models of Personality Pathology
Authors: Paggeot Amy , Nelson Sharon , Huprich Steven
Published: October 2017

The role of theoretical orientation in determining preference for different methods of diagnosis has been largely unexplored. The goal of the present study was to explore ratings of the usefulness of 4 diagnostic methods after applying them to a patient: prototype ratings derived from the SWAP-II, the DSM-5 Section III specific personality disorders, the DSM-5 Section III trait model, and prototype ratings derived from the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM). Three hundred and twenty-nine trainees in APA-accredited doctoral programs and internships rated one of their current patients with each of the 4 diagnostic methods. Individuals who classified their theoretical orientation as “cognitive- behavioral” displayed a significantly greater preference for the proposed DSM-5 personality disorder prototypes when compared to individuals who classified their orientation as “psychodynamic/psychoanalytic,” while individuals who considered themselves psychodynamic or psychoanalytic rated the PDM as significantly more useful than those who considered themselves cognitive-behavioral. Individuals who classified their graduate program as a PsyD program were also more likely to rate the DSM-5 Section III and PDM models as more useful diagnostic methods than individuals who classified their graduate program as a PhD program. Implications and future directions will be discussed.