bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Patient‐reported outcomes in bariatric surgery: a systematic review of standards of reporting
Authors: Coulman K. D. , Abdelrahman T. , Owen‐Smith A. , Andrews R. C. , Welbourn R. , Blazeby J. M.
Published: May 2013

Bariatric surgery is increasingly being used to treat severe obesity, but little is known about its impact on patient‐reported outcomes (PROs). For PRO data to influence practice, well‐designed and reported studies are required. A systematic review identified prospective bariatric surgery studies that used validated PRO measures. Risk of bias in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was assessed, and papers were examined for reporting of (i) who completed PRO measures; (ii) missing PRO data and (iii) clinical interpretation of PRO data. Studies meeting all criteria were classified as robust. Eighty‐six studies were identified. Of the eight RCTs, risk of bias was high in one and unclear in seven. Sixty‐eight different PRO measures were identified, with the Short Form (SF)‐36 questionnaire most commonly used. Forty‐one (48%) studies explicitly stated measures were completed by patients, 63 (73%) documented missing PRO data and 50 (58%) interpreted PRO data clinically. Twenty‐six (30%) met all criteria. Although many bariatric surgery studies assess PROs, study design and reporting is often poor, limiting data interpretation and synthesis. Well‐designed studies that include agreed PRO measures are needed with reporting to include integration with clinical outcomes to inform practice.
The effect of strabismus on object detection in the ring scotoma of a monocular bioptic telescope
Authors: Doherty Amy L , Bowers Alex R , Luo Gang , Peli Eli
Published: May 2013

Purpose

People with reduced visual acuity are permitted to drive with the aid of bioptic telescopes in the USA, the Netherlands, and Canada. When viewing through a monocular bioptic telescope, suppression of the deviating eye in strabismus may reduce the ability of the non‐telescope eye to detect objects whose images fall in the ring scotoma area of the telescope eye, which could impair detection of traffic‐relevant events. This ability to detect stimuli in the ring scotoma area was compared for strabismic and non‐strabismic patients.

Methods

Ten strabismic and six non‐strabismic patients with bilaterally reduced visual acuity (0.30–1.0 logMAR, 6/12 to 6/60) participated. A dichoptic perimeter presented stimuli to the fellow (non telescope) eye in the area of the ring scotoma under binocular viewing. Fellow‐eye detection rates were determined with and without a bioptic, on uniform and patterned backgrounds, while performing passive (viewing a cross) and active (reading letters) fixation tasks.

Results

All strabismic patients were found to have anomalous retinal correspondence. Both non‐strabismic and strabismic patients had lower fellow‐eye detection rates on patterned than on uniform backgrounds, and while performing the active task. In addition, strabismic patients had lower detection with than without the bioptic on the patterned background. They also had a larger decrease in detection from the uniform to the patterned background than non‐strabismic patients (26% vs 8%). Depending on the angle and direction of the deviation relative to the stimulus side, strabismus either increased or decreased fellow‐eye stimulus eccentricity on the retina. Larger detection rate reductions between the uniform and patterned backgrounds were associated with more eccentric stimulus locations (ρ = 0.61, p = 0.013).

Conclusions

Both strabismic patients and non‐strabismic patients were able to detect stimuli with the fellow eye in the ring scotoma area, demonstrating successful bi‐ocular multiplexing. However, strabismic patients generally had a greater reduction in detection performance from the uniform to the patterned background than non‐strabismic patients, which was accounted for in part by differences in stimulus eccentricities on the retina (that varied with the angle and direction of the strabismus). However, a study with a larger sample, including participants with strabismus and normal retinal correspondence, is needed before our findings can be generalized.
Moderate water stress causes different stomatal and non‐stomatal changes in the photosynthetic functioning of Phaseolus vulgaris L. genotypes
Authors: Ramalho J. C. , Zlatev Z. S. , Leitão A. E. , Pais I. P. , Fortunato A. S. , Lidon F. C.
Published: May 2013

The impact of moderate water deficit on the photosynthetic apparatus of three Phaseolus vulgaris L. cultivars, Plovdiv 10 (P10), Dobrudjanski Ran (DR) and Prelom (Prel), was investigated. Water shortage had less impact on leaf hydration, RWC (predawn and midday) and predawn water potential in Prel. RWC and Ψp were more reduced in P10, while there was no osmotic adjustment in any cultivar. Although drought drastically reduced stomatal opening in P10 and DR, reduced Amax indicated non‐stomatal limitations that contributed to the negligible Pn. These limitations were on potential thylakoid electron transport rates of PSI and II, pointing to photosystem functioning as a major limiting step in photosynthesis. This agrees with decreases in actual photochemical efficiency of PSII (Fv′/Fm′), quantum yield of photosynthetic non‐cyclic electron transport (ϕe) and energy‐driven photochemical events (qP), although the impact on these parameters would also include down‐regulation processes. When compared to DR, Prel retained a higher functional state of the photosynthetic machinery, justifying reduced need for photoprotective mechanisms (non‐photochemical quenching, zeaxanthin, lutein, β‐carotene) and maintenance of the balance between energy capture and dissipative pigments. The highest increases in fructose, glucose, arabinose and sorbitol in Prel might be related to tolerance to a lower oxidative state. All cultivars had reduced Amax due to daytime stomatal closure in well‐watered conditions. Under moderate drought, Prel had highest tolerance, higher leaf hydration and maintenance of important photochemical use of energy. However, water shortage caused appreciable non‐stomatal limitations to photosynthesis linked to regulation/imbalance at the metabolic level (and growth) in all cultivars. This included damage, as reflected in decreased potential photosystem functioning, pointing to higher sensitivity of photosynthesis to drought than is commonly assumed.
Copper toxicity in Chinese cabbage is not influenced by plant sulphur status, but affects sulphur metabolism‐related gene expression and the suggested regulatory metabolites
Authors: Shahbaz M. , Stuiver C. E. E. , Posthumus F. S. , Parmar S. , Hawkesford M. J. , De Kok L. J.
Published: May 2013

The toxicity of high copper (Cu) concentrations in the root environment of Chinese cabbage (Brassica pekinensis) was little influenced by the sulphur nutritional status of the plant. However, Cu toxicity removed the correlation between sulphur metabolism‐related gene expression and the suggested regulatory metabolites. At high tissue Cu levels, there was no relation between sulphur metabolite levels viz. total sulphur, sulphate and water‐soluble non‐protein thiols, and the expression and activity of sulphate transporters and expression of APS reductase under sulphate‐sufficient or‐deprived conditions, in the presence or absence of H2S. This indicated that the regulatory signal transduction pathway of sulphate transporters was overruled or by‐passed upon exposure to elevated Cu concentrations.
Inequality of Opportunity in Brazil: A Corrigendum
Authors: Bourguignon François , Ferreira Francisco H. G. , Menéndez Marta
Published: May 2013

This note acknowledges and corrects a programming error in our paper “Inequality of Opportunity in Brazil” (Review of Income and Wealth, 53(4), 585–618, 2007). Once the error is corrected, our bounds approach to the identification of individual model parameters in the presence of omitted variable biases is much less useful than indicated in the original paper. In the specific context of the measurement of inequality of opportunity, this implies that the decomposition of overall inequality of opportunity into direct and indirect effects is not reliable. However, the parametric approach introduced in our paper remains useful for obtaining a lower‐bound estimate of overall ex‐ante inequality of opportunity, as proposed by Ferreira and Gignoux (2011).
Location Based Social Networks – Definition, Current State of the Art and Research Agenda
Authors: Roick Oliver , Heuser Susanne
Published: May 2013

The growing penetration of GPS equipped smartphones allowing users to constantly share geographic information on their current whereabouts has led the way to an augmentation of existing Social Network Sites with location‐based features or the creation of new ones exclusively around geographic information. Within these Location Based Social Networks vast amounts of geographic information are allocated, which attracted the attention of researchers with various scientific backgrounds. This article presents a comprehensive definition of this special type of Social Network Site and an overview of research activities, which are currently conducted using the data. Finally, a research agenda for GIScience is drawn from existing research directions.
Pictures That Save, Pictures That Soothe: Photographs at the Grassroots Memorials to the Victims of theMarch 11, 2004MadridBombings
Authors: Ortiz Carmen
Published: May 2013

This article examines the various roles played by photographers and photographic images in the grassroots memorials to the victims of the March 11, 2004Madrid bombings, as spontaneously displayed by anonymous citizens in public spaces. For purposes of comparison, parallels are drawn with similar memorials to the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks inNewYork. Although photographic depictions of the pain and suffering caused by the massacres seem to predominate in both cases, photographs served another—and at least in local terms—socially significant purpose, as this article will try to show, through its material anchoring in collective remembrance photographs contributed to the public memorialization of the events.
Growth factor release from platelet concentrates: analytic quantification and characterization for clinical applications
Authors: Durante C. , Agostini F. , Abbruzzese L. , T. Toffola R. , Zanolin S. , Suine C. , Mazzucato M.
Published: May 2013

Background and Objectives

Clinical use of plasma rich in growth factors requires biochemical product control. We aimed to measure and modulate concentrations of growth factors in solutions deriving from platelet apheresis or whole blood.

Materials and Methods

Growth factor concentrations were measured 5’, 10’, 20’, 30’, 60’ after CaCl2 was added at 40°C to platelet‐apheresis products (n = 39) or after 60’ in platelet concentrates from whole blood (n = 13). Growth factor release was also obtained in platelet apheresis a) by incubation at 22°C or 40°C for 10’ or 30’ (n = 4); b) by repeated freeze–thaw (n = 9).

Results

Fibroblast growth factor (FGF), platelet‐derived growth factor (PDGF) isoforms AA and AB and transforming growth factor beta (TGF‐β) concentrations (pg/109 plt) were 25–60% higher in growth factors solutions from whole blood compared to platelet apheresis. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), TGF‐β and PDGF isoforms were released early (5–10’) during incubation: TGF‐β concentration increased also at 30’. FGF and epidermal growth factor (EGF) were released only after 30’. Incubation at 40°C/10’ increased VEGF (+70%) and decreased EGF (−30%) and PDGF‐BB (−50%) versus 22°C/30’. Shock significantly increased TGF‐β (1·6‐fold), EGF (1·5‐fold), FGF (4·5‐fold) and lowered PDGF isoforms (0·2‐ to 0·5‐fold) versus prolonged incubation at 40°C.

Conclusion

Platelets from platelet apheresis and whole‐blood release all investigated growth factors. The release can be regulated controlling incubation time and/or temperature and performing cell lysis.
Nuclear imaging of the breast: Translating achievements in instrumentation into clinical use
Authors: Hruska Carrie B. , O'Connor Michael K.
Published: May 2013

Approaches to imaging the breast with nuclear medicine and/or molecular imaging methods have been under investigation since the late 1980s when a technique called scintimammography was first introduced. This review charts the progress of nuclear imaging of the breast over the last 20 years, covering the development of newer techniques such as breast specific gamma imaging, molecular breast imaging, and positron emission mammography. Key issues critical to the adoption of these technologies in the clinical environment are discussed, including the current status of clinical studies, the efforts at reducing the radiation dose from procedures associated with these technologies, and the relevant radiopharmaceuticals that are available or under development. The necessary steps required to move these technologies from bench to bedside are also discussed.
An Airborne Transmissible Avian Influenza H5 Hemagglutinin Seen at the Atomic Level
Authors: Zhang Wei , Shi Yi , Lu Xishan , Shu Yuelong , Qi Jianxun , Gao George F.
Published: May 2013

Influencing Influenza

Currently, there is anxiety that the avian H5N1 influenza virus will reassort with the highly transmissible and epidemic H1N1 subtype to trigger a virulent human pandemic.

Y. Zhang
et al.

(p.
1459
, published online 2 May) used reverse genetics to make all possible reassortants between a virulent bird H5N1 with genes from a human pandemic H1N1. Virulence was tested in mice and transmissibility was tested between guinea pigs, which have both avian- and human-like airway influenza virus receptors. To assess what is happening to the receptor-ligand interactions as a result of these mutations,

W. Zhang
et al.

(p.
1463
, published online 2 May) probed the structure of both wild-type and mutant hemagglutinin of H5 in complex with analogs of the avian and human receptor types. Certain mutations in the receptor-binding site changed binding affinity.
Divergent Picornavirus from a Turkey with Gastrointestinal Disease
Authors: Ng Terry Fei Fan , Cheung Andrew K. , Wong Walt , Lager Kelly M. , Kondov Nikola O. , Cha Yunhee , Murphy Duane A. , Pogranichniy Roman M. , Delwart Eric
Published: May 2013

A novel picornavirus, turkey avisivirus (TuASV), was identified from the feces of turkeys (
Meleagris gallopavo
) with gastrointestinal disease from a farm in Indiana. Its genome organization is as follows: 5′ untranslated region (UTR)
IRES-II
[VP0, VP3, VP1, 2A, 2B, 2C, 3A, 3B, 3C
pro
, 3D
pol
] 3′ UTR-poly(A). TuASV shares only 34% (P1), 36% (P2), and 35% (P3) amino acid identities with avihepatoviruses, indicating that it potentially represents a novel picornavirus genus.
Genome Sequences of Two Klebsiella pneumoniae Isolates from Different Geographical Regions, Argentina (Strain JHCK1) and the United States (Strain VA360)
Authors: Xie Gary , Ramirez Maria S. , Marshall Steven H. , Hujer Kristine M. , Lo Chien-Chi , Johnson Shannon , Li Po-E , Davenport Karen , Endimiani Andrea , Bonomo Robert A. , Tolmasky Marcelo E. , Chain Patrick S. G.
Published: May 2013

We report the sequences of two
Klebsiella pneumoniae
clinical isolates, strains JHCK1 and VA360, from a newborn with meningitis in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and from a tertiary care medical center in Cleveland, OH, respectively. Both isolates contain one chromosome and at least five plasmids; isolate VA360 contains the
Klebsiella pneumoniae
carbapenemase (KPC) gene.
Complete Genome Sequence of a Chinese Strain of “
Candidatus
Liberibacter asiaticus”
Authors: Lin Hong , Han Cliff S. , Liu Binghao , Lou Binghai , Bai Xianjin , Deng Chongling , Civerolo Edwin L. , Gupta Goutam
Published: May 2013

We report here the complete genome sequence of “
Candidatus
Liberibacter asiaticus” (strain Guangxi-1). The 1,268,237-bp genome with a 36.5% G+C content comprises 1,141 open reading frames, 44 tRNAs, and 3 complete rRNAs in a circular chromosome.
Genome Sequence of Halanaerobium saccharolyticum subsp.
saccharolyticum
Strain DSM 6643
T
, a Halophilic Hydrogen-Producing Bacterium
Authors: Kivistö Anniina , Larjo Antti , Ciranna Alessandro , Santala Ville , Roos Christophe , Karp Matti
Published: May 2013

Halanaerobium saccharolyticum
is a halophilic anaerobic fermentative bacterium capable of producing hydrogen, a potential future energy carrier molecule. The high-quality draft genome of
H. saccharolyticum
subsp.
saccharolyticum
strain DSM 6643
T
consists of 24 contigs for 2,873,865 bp with a G+C content of 32.3%.
Complete Genome Sequence of the Probiotic Bifidobacterium thermophilum Strain RBL67
Authors: Jans Christoph , Lacroix Christophe , Follador Rainer , Stevens Marc J. A.
Published: May 2013

Bifidobacterium thermophilum
RBL67, an isolate from infant feces, exhibits bacteriocin-like antimicrobial activity against
Listeria
spp. and
Salmonella
spp. and protects HT29-MTX cells against
Salmonella
infection. Here, the complete genome sequence of the probiotic
B. thermophilum
strain RBL67 is presented.
Draft Genome Sequence of Bacillus stratosphericus LAMA 585, Isolated from the Atlantic Deep Sea
Authors: Lima André Oliveira de Souza , Cabral Alencar , Andreote Fernando Dini , Cavalett Angélica , Pessatti Marcos Luiz , Dini-Andreote Francisco , da Silva Marcus Adonai Castro
Published: May 2013

Bacillus stratosphericus
LAMA 585 was isolated from the Mid-Atlantic-Ridge seafloor (5,500-m depth). This bacterium presents the capacity for cellulase, xylanase, and lipase production when growing aerobically in marine-broth media. Genes involved in the tolerance of oligotrophic and extreme conditions and prospection of biotechnological products were annotated in the draft genome (3.7 Mb).
Haemophilus influenzaetype f meningitis in a previously healthy boy
Authors: Ronit Andreas , Berg Ronan M G , Bruunsgaard Helle , Plovsing Ronni R
Published: May 2013

Non-serotype b strains ofHaemophilus influenzaeare extremely rare causes of acute bacterial meningitis in immunocompetent individuals. We report a case of acute bacterial meningitis in a 14-year-old boy, who was previously healthy and had been immunised againstH influenzaeserotype b (Hib). The causative pathogen was identified asH influenzaeserotype f (Hif), and was successfully treated with ceftriaxone. An immunological evaluation revealed transient low levels of immunoglobulins but no apparent immunodeficiency was found 2 years after the clinical insult.
Desmoplastic ameloblastoma: a rare odontogenic neoplasm with unusual radiographic and histomorphological presentation
Authors: Belgaumi U I , Sundaresh K J , Varma Siddhartha , Mallikarjuna Rachappa
Published: May 2013

Desmoplastic ameloblastoma (DA) is a newly recognised, rare odontogenic neoplasm that is a histological variant of ameloblastoma. In this type, the islands of ameloblastoma are surrounded and often compressed by a dense and sometimes hyalinised fibrous connective tissue. Although ameloblastomas are usually located in the mandible, this variant often occurs in the anterior maxilla. In view of the paucity of DA case series and only limited understanding of its biological behaviour and prognosis, proper treatment strategies for DA are not entirely defined so far. The purpose of this paper was to review the literature and to demonstrate a rare case for an improved understanding of the behaviour and prognosis of DA.
Delayed presentation of severe ocular injury from a button battery
Authors: Ratnarajan G , Calladine D , Bird K J , Watson S L
Published: May 2013

A 2-year-old girl presented to the emergency department at 3:00 h with severe pain in her right eye and a rust coloured, blood stained frothy discharge that had woken her. An examination of her eye revealed a shiny metallic looking foreign body, which was immediately removed by the on-call ophthalmologist. That morning the patient underwent ocular examination under anaesthesia and was found to have severe tissue necrosis resulting from an electrochemical burn. She was treated with daily rodding for 3 days and betamethasone ointment four times a day, which was gradually tapered. At 3 months her only eye pathology was a mild symblepharon between the bulbar and tarsal conjunctiva. This is the first case of delayed symptoms after placement of a button battery into the conjunctival fornix. This case highlights the serious nature of button battery injuries to the eye and the potential to miss the diagnosis owing to a delayed onset of symptoms.
Masseter muscle cysticercosis: a common disease with uncommon presentation
Authors: Chaurasia Rameshwar Nath , Jaiswal Shalini , Gautam Deepak , Mishra Vijay Nath
Published: May 2013

Cysticercosis in humans is caused byTaenia soliumlarvae infestation. Oral cysticercosis is a rare condition and is challenging to diagnose. We present a case of masseter cysticercosis in a young woman who presented with painful recurrent cheek swelling. Diagnosis confirmed it after neuroimaging and histopathological examination of the excised lesion from masseter muscle.
A rheumatoid nodule in an unusual location: mediastinal lymph node
Authors: Yachoui Ralph , Ward Celine , Kreidy Mazen
Published: May 2013

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a multisystem inflammatory disease characterised by destructive synovitis and varied extra-articular involvement. Rheumatoid lung nodules are the most common pulmonary manifestations of RA. Rheumatoid nodules in mediastinal lymph nodes are extremely uncommon. We describe a male patient with long-standing RA and subcutaneous rheumatoid nodules presenting with multiple lung nodules and mediastinal lymphadenopathies. Definite histopathology of a lymph node was consistent with necrobiotic granuloma due to RA. Clinicians should be aware of rheumatoid nodules as a potential cause of mediastinal lymphadenopathies, mainly in advanced rheumatoid arthritis.
An intracerebral mass: tuberculosis or sarcoidosis?
Authors: Tuna Tibel , Ozkaya Sevket , Dirican Adem , Erkan Levent
Published: May 2013

Sarcoidosis is an idiopathic, chronic granulomatous disease and it can affect almost any organ. In autopsy series, it has been reported that the central nervous system involvement has occurred in 5–16% of the patients with sarcoidosis, while the neurological symptoms have occurred only in 3–9% of them. A 40-year-old female patient was admitted to the hospital with complaints of aphasia, balance disorder and drowsiness. An intracerebral mass was detected on cranial CT scans and neurosarcoidosis was diagnosed with clinical, radiological and histopathological findings.
Mononeuritis multiplex and painful ulcers as the initial manifestation of hepatitis B infection
Authors: Verma Rajesh , Lalla Rakesh , Babu Suresh
Published: May 2013

Hepatitis B virus infection leads to multisystem manifestations owing to involvement of kidney, skin, vasculature, haematopoietic and nervous system. The hepatitis B infection can cause neuropathy either to vasculitis associated with polyarteritis nodosa or immune-mediated neural damage. In this submission, we report a young woman, who presented with mononeuritis multiplex and painful ulcerations as the first manifestation of chronic hepatitis B virus infection. The antiviral therapy along with steroids led to remarkable recovery. The clinical settings of hepatitis B virus infection should not be ignored in the presentation of mononeuritis multiplex with ulcers, although the commonest cause is leprosy in the Indian sub-continent.
Modelling discrete soil reinforcement in numerical limit analysis
Authors: Clarke Samuel D. , Smith Colin C. , Gilbert Matthew
Published: May 2013

Soil reinforcement is widely used in geotechnical engineering. While there are various means of accounting for the presence of soil reinforcement in limit analysis and limit equilibrium type calculations, these are often highly problem-specific. In this paper, a general means of incorporating soil reinforcement within numerical limit analysis calculations is presented. A key feature of this implementation is that the reinforcement is modelled “in parallel” with the soil model, which allows the soil to flow past the reinforcement as might occur in soil nailing. To illustrate this, the “discontinuity layout optimization” (DLO) numerical limit analysis procedure is used, and the efficacy of the approach is evaluated via application to reinforced slope problems involving rigid soil nails under plane strain conditions. The analyses are calibrated against a two-part wedge analysis method, as presented in British Standard BS 8006:1995 or AASHTO’s LRFD bridge design specifications. It is shown that the DLO-based procedure produces identical results only when the two-part wedge collapse mechanism is prescribed in advance (achieved by artificially strengthening the soil except along pre-defined failure planes). A more critical mechanism is otherwise predicted, with the soil strength at collapse required to be approximately 10% higher than predicted by the two-part wedge method (or alternatively, soil nail lengths required to be approximately 20% greater).
CORE-HOLE EFFECT IN THE Ce L3 X-RAY ABSORPTION SPECTRA OF CeO2 AND CeFe2: NEW EXAMINATION BY USING RESONANT X-RAY EMISSION SPECTROSCOPY
Authors: KOTANI A.
Published: May 2013

We consider two different resonant X-ray emission spectra for Ce compounds: Ce 3d to 2p X-ray emission (denoted by 3d-RXES) and valence to 2p X-ray emission (v-RXES), both of which follow the Ce 2p to 5d resonant excitation. We propose that the comparison of the 3d- and v-RXES spectra is a new powerful method of directly detecting the core-hole effect in the final state of Ce L 3 X-ray absorption spectra (XAS). We applied this method to recent experimental RXES spectra for CeO 2 and CeFe 2, and showed unambiguously that the core-hole effect should be essential in the XAS of both materials. This result is confirmed by theoretical calculations, which reproduce well the experimental RXES and XAS spectra. We conclude that the ground state of CeO 2 is in the mixed state of 4f0 and [Formula: see text] configurations, where [Formula: see text] is a ligand hole, instead of a pure 4f0 configuration which was proposed recently by first-principles energy band calculations. Also, we conclude that the double peaks observed in L 3 XAS of CeFe 2 are caused by the 4f0 and 4f1 configurations, which are mixed in the ground state but separated in energy by the large core-hole potential in the final state of XAS.
EFFECTS OF SUBSTRATE AND EXPERIMENTAL CONDITIONS ON THE FABRICATION OF WELL-ORDERED SILICA PARTICULATE LANGMUIR–BLODGETT FILMS
Authors: GUO YUDI , TANG DONGYAN , GU SHUO
Published: May 2013

The dependence of particulate Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) monolayer quality on the surface nature of the substrate was investigated by pretreating the substrates with different methods, and the optimal withdrawal speed was determined by detecting the quality of particulate monolayers deposited at different withdrawal speeds. Furthermore, the effects of stearic acid (SA) concentration on the quality of particulate monolayers were discussed. Results indicated that surface amination would favor the transfer of the floating particulate monolayer from the interface to the substrate, which would be attributed to the formation of chemical bonds between the – NH 2 groups on the substrate surface and the functional groups of – COOH and Si – OH groups on surfaces of particles floating at the interface. And the withdrawal speed of 1 mm ⋅ min-1 was appropriate for the fabrication of high-quality particulate LB monolayer because low withdrawal speed can offer sufficient time to form chemical bonds and expel the subphase from the substrate. Additionally, SEM images illustrated that the SA concentration of 0.40 mg ⋅ mL-1 was suitable for the fabrication of well-ordered particulate LB monolayers composed by the particles of 380 nm.
FEW MORE RESULTS IN DOMATICALLY CO-CRITICAL GRAPHS
Authors: WALIKAR H. B. , SUDERSHAN REDDY L. , BASAPUR S. B.
Published: May 2013

A graph G is said to be domatically co-critical, if d(G + uv) > d(G), for any two nonadjacent vertices u, v in G. In this paper, we present few more newly found results and list some more open problems for further research.
GATHERING RADIO MESSAGES IN THE PATH
Authors: BERMOND JEAN-CLAUDE , KLASING RALF , MORALES NELSON , PÉRENNES STÉPHANE , REYES PATRICIO
Published: May 2013

In this paper, we address the problem of gathering information in one node (sink) of a radio network where interference constraints are present: when a node transmits, it produces interference in an area bigger than the area in which its message can actually be received. The network is modeled by a graph; a node is able to transmit one unit of information to the set of vertices at distance at most dT in the graph, but when doing so it generates interferences that do not allow nodes at distance up to dI(dI ≥ dT) to listen to other transmissions. We are interested in finding a gathering protocol, that is an ordered sequence of rounds (each round consists of noninterfering simultaneous transmissions) such that w(u) messages are transmitted from any node u to a fixed node called the sink. Our aim is to find a gathering protocol with the minimum number of rounds (called gathering time). In this article, we focus on the specific case where the network is a path with the sink at an end vertex of the path and where the traffic is unitary (w(u) = 1 for all u); indeed this simple case appears to be already very difficult. We first give a new lower bound and a protocol with a gathering time that differ only by a constant independent of the length of the path. Then we present a method to construct incremental protocols. An incremental protocol for the path on n + 1 vertices is obtained from a protocol for n vertices by adding new rounds and new calls to some rounds but without changing the calls of the original rounds. We show that some of these incremental protocols are optimal for many values of dT and dI (in particular when dT is prime). We conjecture that this incremental construction always gives optimal protocols. Finally, we derive an approximation algorithm when the sink is placed in an arbitrary vertex in the path.
ZERO-DIVISOR GRAPH OF AN IDEAL OF A NEAR-RING
Authors: TAMIZH CHELVAM T. , NITHYA S.
Published: May 2013

In this paper, we associate the graph ΓI(N) to an ideal I of a near-ring N. We exhibit some properties and structure of ΓI(N). For a commutative ring R, Beck conjectured that both chromatic number and clique number of the zero-divisor graph Γ(R) of R are equal. We prove that Beck's conjecture is true for ΓI(N). Moreover, we characterize all right permutable near-rings N for which the graph ΓI(N) is finitely colorable.
VISUALIZATION OF TURBULENT REACTIVE JET BY USING DIRECT NUMERICAL SIMULATION
Authors: WATANABE TOMOAKI , SAKAI YASUHIKO , NAGATA KOUJI , TERASHIMA OSAMU , SUZUKI HIROKI , HAYASE TOSHIYUKI , ITO YASUMASA
Published: May 2013

Direct numerical simulation (DNS) of turbulent planar jet with a second-order chemical reaction (A + B → R) is performed to investigate the processes of mixing and chemical reactions in spatially developing turbulent free shear flows. Reactant A is premixed into the jet flow, and reactant B is premixed into the ambient flow. DNS is performed at three different Damköhler numbers (Da = 0.1,1, and 10). Damköhler number is a ratio of a time scale of a flow to that of chemical reactions, and in this study, the large Da means a fast chemical reaction, and the small Da means a slow chemical reaction. The visualization of velocity field shows that the jet flow is developed by entraining the ambient fluid. The visualization of concentration of reactant A shows that concentration of reactant A for Da = 1 and 10 becomes very small in the downstream region because the chemical reaction consumes the reactants and reactant A is diffused with the jet development. By comparison of the profiles of chemical reaction rate and concentration of product R, it is found that product R for Da = 10 is produced by the chemical reaction at the interface between the jet and the ambient fluids and is diffused into the jet flow, whereas product R for Da = 0.1 is produced in the jet flow after reactants A and B are well mixed.
A VASUALIZATION FOR THE DYNAMIC BEHAVIORS OF THE MIXTURE OF WATER MASS FOR NORTHWESTERN PACIFIC NEAR JAPAN
Authors: ZHAO KUN , NAKADA SATOSHI , SAKAMOTO NAOHISA , KOYAMADA KOJI , BAJAJ CHANDRAJIT , ISHIKAWA YOICHI , AWAJI TOSHIYUKI , IN TEIJI , SAITOH SEI-ICHI
Published: May 2013

Recent studies are focusing on the distribution of water mass because the mixture region of water mass is highly related to the rich fishing grounds [Yasuda I., Watanabe Y., Fish. Oceanogr.3(3):172–181, 1994]. Due to the large data size and time-varying property, efficient exploration and visualization of the ocean data is always extremely challenging. To extract the dynamic behaviors of the water mass and its mixture from a large-scale simulated ocean dataset, we developed an efficient visualization system by applying our volume compression method and our volume rendering method. This system allows us to investigate the time-varying distributions of ocean physical properties, additionally from the user's perspective and requirements. In the experiments, we show the generality and expressiveness by applying our system for single- and multi-property visualizations to find some significant ocean water mass. Consequently, we could obtain a clear visualization result to show the dynamic behaviors of the mixture of water mass for simulation data regarding a location in the northwestern Pacific near Japan.
Interactive albedo editing in path-traced volumetric materials
Authors: Hašan Milovš , Ramamoorthi Ravi
Published: May 2013

Materials such as clothing or carpets, or complex assemblies of small leaves, flower petals, or mosses, do not fit well into either BRDF or BSSRDF models. Their appearance is a complex combination of reflection, transmission, scattering, shadowing, and inter-reflection. This complexity can be handled by simulating the full volumetric light transport within these materials by Monte Carlo algorithms, but there is no easy way to construct the necessary distributions of local material properties thatwould lead to the desired global appearance. In this article, we consider one way to alleviate the problem: an editing algorithm that enables a material designer to set the local (singlescattering) albedo coefficients interactively, and see an immediate update of the emergent appearance in the image. This is a difficult problem, since the function from materials to pixel values is neither linear nor low-order polynomial. We combine the following two ideas to achieve high-dimensional heterogeneous edits: precomputing the homogeneous mapping of albedo to intensity, and a large Jacobian matrix, which encodes the derivatives of each image pixel with respect to each albedo coefficient. Combining these two datasets leads to an interactive editing algorithm with a very good visual match to a fully path-traced ground truth.
A gradient-based implicit blend
Authors: Gourmel Olivier , Barthe Loic , Cani Marie-Paule , Wyvill Brian , Bernhardt Adrien , Paulin Mathias , Grasberger Herbert
Published: May 2013

We introduce a new family of binary composition operators that solves four major problems of constructive implicit modeling: suppressing bulges when two shapes merge, avoiding unwanted blending at a distance, ensuring that the resulting shape keeps the topology of the union, and enabling sharp details to be added without being blown up. The key idea is that field functions should not only be combined based on their values, but also on their
gradients
. We implement this idea through a family of
C
∞
composition operators evaluated on the GPU for efficiency, and illustrate it by applications to constructive modeling and animation.
Adaptive progressive photon mapping
Authors: Kaplanyan Anton S. , Dachsbacher Carsten
Published: May 2013

This article introduces a novellocally adaptiveprogressive photon mapping technique which optimally balances noise and bias in rendered images to minimize the overall error. It is the result of an analysis of the radiance estimation in progressive photon mapping. As a first step, we establish a connection to the field of recursive estimation and regression in statistics and derive the optimal estimation parameters for the asymptotic convergence of existing approaches. Next, we show how to reformulate photon mapping as a spatial regression in the measurement equation of light transport. This reformulation allows us to derive a novel data-driven bandwidth selection technique for estimating a pixel's measurement. The proposed technique possesses attractive convergence properties with finite numbers of samples, which is important for progressive rendering, and it also provides better results for quasi-converged images. Our results show the practical benefits of using our adaptive method.
Gloss perception in painterly and cartoon rendering
Authors: Bousseau Adrien , O'shea James P. , Durand Frédo , Ramamoorthi Ravi , Agrawala Maneesh
Published: May 2013

Depictions with traditional media such as painting and drawing represent scene content in a stylized manner. It is unclear, however, how well stylized images depict scene properties like shape, material, and lighting. In this article, we describe the first study of material perception in stylized images (specifically painting and cartoon) and use nonphotorealistic rendering algorithms to evaluate how such stylization alters the perception of gloss. Our study reveals a compression of the range of representable gloss in stylized images so that shiny materials appear more diffuse in painterly rendering, while diffuse materials appear shinier in cartoon images. From our measurements we estimate the function that maps realistic gloss parameters to their perception in a stylized rendering. This mapping allows users of NPR algorithms to predict the perception of gloss in their images. The inverse of this function exaggerates gloss properties to make the contrast between materials in a stylized image more faithful. We have conducted our experiment both in a lab and on a crowdsourcing Web site. While crowdsourcing allows us to quickly design our pilot study, a lab experiment provides more control on how subjects perform the task. We provide a detailed comparison of the results obtained with the two approaches and discuss their advantages and drawbacks for studies like ours.
Wave-based sound propagation in large open scenes using an equivalent source formulation
Authors: Mehra Ravish , Raghuvanshi Nikunj , Antani Lakulish , Chandak Anish , Curtis Sean , Manocha Dinesh
Published: May 2013

We present a novel approach for wave-based sound propagation suitable for large, open spaces spanning hundreds of meters, with a small memory footprint. The scene is decomposed into disjoint rigid objects. The free-field acoustic behavior of each object is captured by a compact per-object transfer function relating the amplitudes of a set of incoming equivalent sources to outgoing equivalent sources. Pairwise acoustic interactions between objects are computed analytically to yield compact inter-object transfer functions. The global sound field accounting for all orders of interaction is computed using these transfer functions. The runtime system uses fast summation over the outgoing equivalent source amplitudes for all objects to auralize the sound field for a moving listener in real time. We demonstrate realistic acoustic effects such as diffraction, low-passed sound behind obstructions, focusing, scattering, high-order reflections, and echoes on a variety of scenes.
A benchmark for surface reconstruction
Authors: Berger Matthew , Levine Joshua A. , Nonato Luis Gustavo , Taubin Gabriel , Silva Claudio T.
Published: May 2013

We present a benchmark for the evaluation and comparison of algorithms which reconstruct a surface from point cloud data. Although a substantial amount of effort has been dedicated to the problem of surface reconstruction, a comprehensive means of evaluating this class of algorithms is noticeably absent. We propose a simple pipeline for measuring surface reconstruction algorithms, consisting of three main phases: surface modeling, sampling, and evaluation. We use implicit surfaces for modeling shapes which are capable of representing details of varying size and sharp features. From these implicit surfaces, we produce point clouds by synthetically generating range scans which resemble realistic scan data produced by an optical triangulation scanner. We validate our synthetic sampling scheme by comparing against scan data produced by a commercial optical laser scanner, where we scan a 3D-printed version of the original surface. Last, we perform evaluation by comparing the output reconstructed surface to a dense uniformly distributed sampling of the implicit surface. We decompose our benchmark into two distinct sets of experiments. The first set of experiments measures reconstruction against point clouds of complex shapes sampled under a wide variety of conditions. Although these experiments are quite useful for comparison, they lack a fine-grain analysis. To complement this, the second set of experiments measures specific properties of surface reconstruction, in terms of sampling characteristics and surface features. Together, these experiments depict a detailed examination of the state of surface reconstruction algorithms.
Hardware-Assisted Cooperative Integration of Wear-Leveling and Salvaging for Phase Change Memory
Authors: Jiang Lei , Du Yu , Zhao Bo , Zhang Youtao , Childers Bruce R. , Yang Jun
Published: May 2013

Phase Change Memory (PCM) has recently emerged as a promising memory technology. However, PCM’s limited write endurance restricts its immediate use as a replacement for DRAM. To extend the lifetime of PCM chips, wear-leveling and salvaging techniques have been proposed. Wear-leveling balances write operations across different PCM regions while salvaging extends the duty cycle and provides graceful degradation for a nonnegligible number of failures.

Current wear-leveling and salvaging schemes have not been designed and integrated to work cooperatively to achieve the best PCM device lifetime. In particular, a noncontiguous PCM space generated from salvaging complicates wear-leveling and incurs large overhead. In this article, we propose LLS, a Line-Level mapping and Salvaging design. By allocating a dynamic portion of total space in a PCM device as backup space, and mapping failed lines to backup PCM, LLS constructs a contiguous PCM space and masks lower-level failures from the OS and applications. LLS integrates wear-leveling and salvaging and copes well with modern OSes. Our experimental results show that LLS achieves 31% longer lifetime than the state-of-the-art. It has negligible hardware cost and performance overhead.
MP-Tomasulo
Authors: Wang Chao , Li Xi , Zhang Junneng , Zhou Xuehai , Nie Xiaoning
Published: May 2013

This article presents MP-Tomasulo, a dependency-aware automatic parallel task execution engine for sequential programs. Applying the instruction-level Tomasulo algorithm to MPSoC environments, MP-Tomasulo detects and eliminates Write-After-Write (WAW) and Write-After-Read (WAR) inter-task dependencies in the dataflow execution, therefore to operate out-of-order task execution on heterogeneous units. We implemented the prototype system within a single FPGA. Experimental results on EEMBC applications demonstrate that MP-Tomasulo can execute the tasks out-of-order to achieve as high as 93.6% to 97.6% of ideal peak speedup. A comparative study against a state-of-the-art dataflow execution scheme is illustrated with a classic JPEG application. The promising results show MP-Tomasulo enables programmers to uncover more task-level parallelism on heterogeneous systems, as well as to ease the burden of programmers.
Scaling big data mining infrastructure
Authors: Lin Jimmy , Ryaboy Dmitriy
Published: May 2013

The analytics platform at Twitter has experienced tremendous growth over the past few years in terms of size, complexity, number of users, and variety of use cases. In this paper, we discuss the evolution of our infrastructure and the development of capabilities for data mining on "big data". One important lesson is that successful big data mining in practice is about much more than what most academics would consider data mining: life "in the trenches" is occupied by much preparatory work that precedes the application of data mining algorithms and followed by substantial effort to turn preliminary models into robust solutions. In this context, we discuss two topics: First, schemas play an important role in helping data scientists understand petabyte-scale data stores, but they're insufficient to provide an overall "big picture" of the data available to generate insights. Second, we observe that a major challenge in building data analytics platforms stems from the heterogeneity of the various components that must be integrated together into production workflows---we refer to this as "plumbing". This paper has two goals: For practitioners, we hope to share our experiences to flatten bumps in the road for those who come after us. For academic researchers, we hope to provide a broader context for data mining in production environments, pointing out opportunities for future work.
Intel "big data" science and technology center vision and execution plan
Authors: Stonebraker Michael , Madden Sam , Dubey Pradeep
Published: May 2013

Intel has moved to a collaboration model with universities consisting of "Science and Technology Centers" (ISTCs). These are located at a "hub" university with participation from other universities, contain embedded Intel personnel, and are focused on some research theme. Intel held a national competition for a 5th Science and Technology center in 2012 and selected a proposal from M.I.T. with a theme of "Big Data". This paper presents the big data vision of this technology center and the execution plan for the first few years.
Unraveling the Heater: New Insights into the Structure of the Alternative Oxidase
Authors: Moore Anthony L. , Shiba Tomoo , Young Luke , Harada Shigeharu , Kita Kiyoshi , Ito Kikukatsu
Published: May 2013

The alternative oxidase is a membrane-bound ubiquinol oxidase found in the majority of plants as well as many fungi and protists, including pathogenic organisms such as Trypanosoma brucei. It catalyzes a cyanide- and antimycin-A-resistant oxidation of ubiquinol and the reduction of oxygen to water, short-circuiting the mitochondrial electron-transport chain prior to proton translocation by complexes III and IV, thereby dramatically reducing ATP formation. In plants, it plays a key role in cellular metabolism, thermogenesis, and energy homeostasis and is generally considered to be a major stress-induced protein. We describe recent advances in our understanding of this protein's structure following the recent successful crystallization of the alternative oxidase from T. brucei. We focus on the nature of the active site and ubiquinol-binding channels and propose a mechanism for the reduction of oxygen to water based on these structural insights. We also consider the regulation of activity at the posttranslational and retrograde levels and highlight challenges for future research.