bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Immunodominance of Adenovirus-Derived CD8
+
T Cell Epitopes Interferes with the Induction of Transgene-Specific Immunity in Adenovirus-Based Immunization
Authors: Schöne Dominik , Hrycak Camilla Patrizia , Windmann Sonja , Lapuente Dennis , Dittmer Ulf , Tenbusch Matthias , Bayer Wibke
Published: August 2017

Adenovirus (Ad)-based immunization is a popular approach in vaccine development, and Ad-based vectors are renowned for their potential to induce strong CD8
+
T cell responses to the encoded transgene. Surprisingly, we previously found in the mouse Friend retrovirus (FV) model that Ad-based immunization did not induce CD8
+
T cell responses to the FV Leader-Gag-derived immunodominant epitope GagL
85–93
. We show now that induction of GagL
85–93
-specific CD8
+
T cells was highly effective when leader-Gag was delivered by plasmid DNA immunization, implying a role for Ad-derived epitopes in mediating unresponsiveness. By immunizing with DNA constructs encoding strings of GagL
85–93
and the two Ad-derived epitopes DNA-binding protein
418–426
(DBP
418–426
) and hexon
486–494
, we confirmed that Ad epitopes prevent induction of GagL
85–93
-specific CD8
+
T cells. Interestingly, while DBP
418–426
did not interfere with GagL
85–93
-specific CD8
+
T cell induction, the H-2D
d
-restricted hexon
486–494
suppressed the CD8
+
T cell response to the H-2D
b
-restricted GagL
85–93
strongly in H-2
b/d
mice but not in H-2
b/b
mice. This finding indicates that competition occurs at the level of responding CD8
+
T cells, and we could indeed demonstrate that coimmunization with an interleukin 2 (IL-2)-encoding plasmid restored GagL
85–93
-specific CD8
+
T cell responses to epitope strings in the presence of hexon
486–494
. IL-2 codelivery did not restore GagL
85–93
responsiveness in Ad-based immunization, however, likely due to the presence of further epitopes in the Ad vector. Our findings show that seemingly immunodominant transgene epitopes can be dominated by Ad-derived epitopes. These findings underline the importance of thorough characterization of vaccine vectors, and modifications of vectors or immunogens may be required to prevent impaired transgene-specific immune responses.

IMPORTANCE
Ad-based vectors are widely used in experimental preclinical and clinical immunization studies against numerous infectious agents, such as human immunodeficiency virus, Ebola virus,
Plasmodium falciparum
, or
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
. Preexisting immunity to Ad-based vectors is widely recognized as a hindrance to the widespread use of Ad-based vectors for immunizations in humans; however, our data show that an immune response to Ad-derived T cell epitopes can also result in loss or impairment of transgene-specific immune responses in prenaive vaccinees due to immune competition. Our results highlight that seemingly immunodominant epitopes may be affected by dominance of vector-derived epitopes, and modifications of the vector design or the immunogens employed in immunization may lead to more effective vaccines.
RIP-Seq Suggests Translational Regulation by L7Ae in
Archaea
Authors: Daume Michael , Uhl Michael , Backofen Rolf , Randau Lennart
Published: August 2017

L7Ae is a universal archaeal protein that recognizes and stabilizes kink-turn (k-turn) motifs in RNA substrates. These structural motifs are widespread in nature and are found in many functional RNA species, including ribosomal RNAs. Synthetic biology approaches utilize L7Ae/k-turn interactions to control gene expression in eukaryotes. Here, we present results of comprehensive RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (RIP-Seq) analysis of genomically tagged L7Ae from the hyperthermophilic archaeon
Sulfolobus acidocaldarius
. A large set of interacting noncoding RNAs was identified. In addition, several mRNAs, including the
l7ae
transcript, were found to contain k-turn motifs that facilitate L7Ae binding.
In vivo
studies showed that L7Ae autoregulates the translation of its mRNA by binding to a k-turn motif present in the 5′ untranslated region (UTR). A green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter system was established in
Escherichia coli
and verified conservation of L7Ae-mediated feedback regulation in
Archaea
. Mobility shift assays confirmed binding to a k-turn in the transcript of
nop5-fibrillarin
, suggesting that the expression of all C/D box sRNP core proteins is regulated by L7Ae. These studies revealed that L7Ae-mediated gene regulation evolved in archaeal organisms, generating new tools for the modulation of synthetic gene circuits in bacteria.

IMPORTANCE
L7Ae is an essential archaeal protein that is known to structure ribosomal RNAs and small RNAs (sRNAs) by binding to their kink-turn motifs. Here, we utilized RIP-Seq methodology to achieve a first global analysis of RNA substrates for L7Ae. Several novel interactions with noncoding RNA molecules (e.g., with the universal signal recognition particle RNA) were discovered. In addition, L7Ae was found to bind to mRNAs, including its own transcript’s 5′ untranslated region. This feedback-loop control is conserved in most archaea and was incorporated into a reporter system that was utilized to control gene expression in bacteria. These results demonstrate that L7Ae-mediated gene regulation evolved originally in archaeal organisms. The feedback-controlled reporter gene system can easily be adapted for synthetic biology approaches that require strict gene expression control.
Self-medication complicating pseudo membranous conjunctivitis
Authors: Singh Prabhakar , Bhalerao Sushank , Rani Padmaja Kumari
Published: August 2017

We aim to highlight the prevalence of using local medications for curing eye ailments in a rural population and the harmful consequence of resultant disease, ranging from something as mild as conjunctivitis to sight-threatening conditions. This case report will address one such incidence where in a local village, the doctor known as a registered medical practitioner) in the rural community, uses local remedies for his conjunctivitis and ends up in a condition where he cannot see anything beyond perceiving light. The membrane removal and treatment with topical antibiotic cured his infection, restoring complete recovery of vision. This incidence inspired the local village doctor to become an eye health educator. He was motivated to spread awareness about the ill effects of self-medication on eye health. He is also determined to bring all blind people and others who need eye care from his remote village to our centre.
Paget-Schroetter syndrome complicated by an incidental pulmonary embolism
Authors: Kaczynski Jakub , Sathiananthan Joseph
Published: August 2017

A young man presented with the severe right upper limb swelling following a heavy weight lifting that was thought to be caused by a biceps tendon rupture. However, subsequent investigations confirmed the diagnosis of Paget-Schroetter syndrome that was associated with an incidental pulmonary embolism. The patient underwent a successful thrombolysis followed by a surgical thoracic outlet decompression. Overall, the patient has made a good recovery.
Insurance status, inhospital mortality and length of stay in hospitalised patients in Shanxi, China: a cross-sectional study
Authors: Lin Xiaojun , Cai Miao , Tao Hongbing , Liu Echu , Cheng Zhaohui , Xu Chang , Wang Manli , Xia Shuxu , Jiang Tianyu
Published: August 2017

Objectives

To determine insurance-related disparities in hospital care for patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure (HF) and pneumonia.

Setting and participants

A total of 22 392 patients with AMI, 8056 patients with HF and 17 161 patients with pneumonia were selected from 31 tertiary hospitals in Shanxi, China, from 2014 to 2015 using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision codes. Patients were stratified by health insurance status, namely, urban employee-based basic medical insurance (UEBMI), urban resident-based basic medical insurance (URBMI), new cooperative medical scheme (NCMS) and self-payment.

Outcome measures

Inhospital mortality and length of stay (LOS).

Results

The highest unadjusted inhospital mortality rate was detected in NCMS patients independent of medical conditions (4.7%, 4.4% and 11.1% for AMI, HF and pneumonia, respectively). The lowest unadjusted inhospital mortality rate and the longest LOS were observed in UEBMI patients. After controlling patient-level and hospital-level covariates, the adjusted inhospital mortality was significantly higher for NCMS and self-payment among patients with AMI, for NCMS among patients with HF and for URBMI, NCMS and self-payment among patients with pneumonia compared with UEBMI. The LOS of the URBMI, NCMS and self-payment groups was significantly shorter than that of the UEBMI group.

Conclusion

Insurance-related disparities in hospital care for patients with three common medical conditions were observed in this study. NCMS patients had significantly higher adjusted inhospital mortality and shorter LOS compared with UEBMI patients. Policies on minimising the disparities among different insurance schemes should be established by the government.
Medical school selection criteria as predictors of medical student empathy: a cross-sectional study of medical students, Ireland
Authors: O’Sullivan Donnchadh M , Moran Joseph , Corcoran Paul , O’Flynn Siun , O’Tuathaigh Colm , O’Sullivan Aoife M
Published: August 2017

Objectives

To determine whether performance in any of the Health Professions Admissions Test (HPAT) sections, most specifically the interpersonal understanding section, correlates with self-reported empathy levels in medical students.

Setting

The study was conducted in University College Cork, Ireland.

Participants

290 students participated in the study. Matching HPAT scores were available for 263 students. All male and female undergraduate students were invited to participate. Postgraduate and international students were excluded.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

Primary measures: HPAT-Ireland and Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSE) scores were compared including subsection analysis. Secondary measures: comparisons were made between groups such as gender and year of programme.

Results

A total of 290 students participated. Males scored significantly higher than females for total HPAT-Ireland (U=7329, z=−2.04, p<0.05), HPAT-Ireland section 1 (U=5382, z=−5.21, p<0.001) and section 3 scores (U=6833, z=−2.85, p<0.01). In contrast, females scored significantly higher than males on HPAT-Ireland section 2 (U=5844, z=−4.46, p<0.001). Females demonstrated significantly higher total JSE scores relative to males (mean score ± SEM: 113.33±1.05vs109.21±0.95; U=8450, z=−2.83, p<0.01). No significant association was observed between JSE scores and any of the HPAT-Ireland measures (all p>0.05). There was no effect of programme year on JSE scores (all p>0.05).

Conclusion

The introduction of the HPAT-Ireland test was partly designed to identify students with strong interpersonal skills. A significant finding of this study is that JSE values did not correlate with HPAT-Ireland scores. This study suggests no clear link between scores on a selection test, the HPAT-Ireland, which is designed to assess several skill domains including interpersonal skills, and scores on a psychometric measure of empathy, at any point during medical education.
A systematic review to identify and assess the effectiveness of alternatives for people over the age of 65 who are at risk of potentially avoidable hospital admission
Authors: Huntley Alyson L , Chalder Melanie , Shaw Ali R G , Hollingworth William , Metcalfe Chris , Benger Jonathan Richard , Purdy Sarah
Published: August 2017

Background/objectives

There are some older patients who are ‘at the decision margin’ of admission. This systematic review sought to explore this issue with the following objective: what admission alternatives are there for older patients and are they safe, effective and cost-effective? A secondary objective was to identify the characteristics of those older patients for whom the decision to admit to hospital may be unclear.

Design

Systematic review of controlled studies (April 2005–December 2016) with searches in Medline, Embase, Cinahl and CENTRAL databases. The protocol is registered at PROSPERO (CRD42015020371). Studies were assessed using Cochrane risk of bias criteria, and relevant reviews were assessed with the AMSTAR tool. The results are presented narratively and discussed.

Setting

Primary and secondary healthcare interface.

Participants

People aged over 65 years at risk of an unplanned admission.

Interventions

Any community-based intervention offered as an alternative to admission to an acute hospital.

Primary and secondary outcomes measures

Reduction in secondary care use, patient-related outcomes, safety and costs.

Results

Nineteen studies and seven systematic reviews were identified. These recruited patients with both specific conditions and mixed chronic and acute conditions. The interventions involved paramedic/emergency care practitioners (n=3), emergency department-based interventions (n=3), community hospitals (n=2) and hospital-at-home services (n=11). Data suggest that alternatives to admission appear safe with potential to reduce secondary care use and length of time receiving care. There is a lack of patient-related outcomes and cost data. The important features of older patients for whom the decision to admit is uncertain are: age over 75 years, comorbidities/multi-morbidities, dementia, home situation, social support and individual coping abilities.

Conclusions

This systematic review describes and assesses evidence on alternatives to acute care for older patients and shows that many of the options available are safe and appear to reduce resource use. However, cost analyses and patient preference data are lacking.
The use of feasibility studies for stepped-wedge cluster randomised trials: protocol for a review of impact and scope
Authors: Kristunas Caroline A , Hemming Karla , Eborall Helen C , Gray Laura J
Published: August 2017

Introduction

The stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial (SW-CRT) is a complex design, for which many decisions about key design parameters must be made during the planning. These include the number of steps and the duration of time needed to embed the intervention. Feasibility studies are likely to be useful for informing these decisions and increasing the likelihood of the main trial's success. However, the number of feasibility studies being conducted for SW-CRTs is currently unknown. This review aims to establish the number of feasibility studies being conducted for SW-CRTs and determine which feasibility issues are commonly investigated.

Methods and analysis

Fully published feasibility studies for SW-CRTs will be identified, according to predefined inclusion criteria, from searches conducted in Ovid MEDLINE, Scopus, Embase and PsycINFO. To also identify and gain information on unpublished feasibility studies the following will be contacted: authors of published SW-CRTs (identified from the most recent systematic reviews); contacts for registered SW-CRTs (identified from clinical trials registries); lead statisticians of UK registered clinical trials units and researchers known to work in the area of SW-CRTs.

Data extraction will be conducted independently by two reviewers. For the fully published feasibility studies, data will be extracted on the study characteristics, the rationale for the study, the process for determining progression to a main trial, how the study informed the main trial and whether the main trial went ahead. The researchers involved in the unpublished feasibility studies will be contacted to elicit the same information.

A narrative synthesis will be conducted and provided alongside a descriptive analysis of the study characteristics.

Ethics and dissemination

This review does not require ethical approval, as no individual patient data will be used. The results of this review will be published in an open-access peer-reviewed journal.
Quantum emitter dipole–dipole interactions in nanoplasmonic systems
Authors: Nečada Marek , Martikainen Jani-Petri , Törmä Päivi
Published: August 2017

We introduce a generalized Dicke-like model to describe two-level systems coupled with a single bosonic mode. In addition, the two-level systems mutually interact via direct dipole–dipole interaction. We apply the model to an ensemble of dye molecules coupled to a plasmonic excitation in a metallic nanoparticle and study how the dipole–dipole interaction and configurational randomness introduced to the system affect the energy spectra. Comparing the system eigenenergies obtained by our model with the light spectra from a multiple-scattering simulation, we suggest a way to identify dark modes in our model. Finally, we perform a parameter sweep in order to determine the scaling properties of the system and to classify the regions of the parameter space where the dipole–dipole interactions can have significant effects.
Relationship research between meteorological disasters and stock markets based on a multifractal detrending moving average algorithm
Authors: Li Qingchen , Cao Guangxi , Xu Wei
Published: August 2017

Based on a multifractal detrending moving average algorithm (MFDMA), this study uses the fractionally autoregressive integrated moving average process (ARFIMA) to demonstrate the effectiveness of MFDMA in the detection of auto-correlation at different sample lengths and to simulate some artificial time series with the same length as the actual sample interval. We analyze the effect of predictable and unpredictable meteorological disasters on the US and Chinese stock markets and the degree of long memory in different sectors. Furthermore, we conduct a preliminary investigation to determine whether the fluctuations of financial markets caused by meteorological disasters are derived from the normal evolution of the financial system itself or not. We also propose several reasonable recommendations.
Theoretical Approach to Performance Evaluation of Supercomputers
Authors: Ryabko Boris , Rakitskiy Anton
Published: August 2017

In this paper, we extend an information-theoretic approach of computer performance evaluation to supercomputers. This approach is based on the notion of computer Capacity which can be estimated relying solely on the description of computer architecture. We describe the method of calculating Computer Capacity for supercomputers including the influence of the architecture of communication network. The suggested approach is applied to estimate the performance of three of the top 10 supercomputers (according to TOP500 June-2016 list) which are based on Haswell processors. For greater objectivity of results, we compared them relatively to values of another supercomputer which is based an Ivy Bridge processors (this microarchitecture differs from Haswell). The obtained results are compared with values of TOP500 LINPACK benchmark and theoretical peak and we arrive at conclusions about the applicability of the presented theoretical approach (nonexperimental) for performance evaluation of real supercomputers. In particular, it means that the estimations of the computer capacity can be used at the design stage of the development of supercomputers.
SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ZnS THIN FILMS PREPARED BY RESISTIVE HEATING TECHNIQUE
Authors: NIMRAH S. , HONEY S. , BHATTI M. T. , KHAN A. F. , NASEEM S. , MAAZA M. , AHMAD I.
Published: August 2017

In the present work, Zinc Sulphide (ZnS) thin films deposited by resistive heating technique on BK-7 glass substrate. Optical and structural characterizations of ZnS films have been carried out along with the post-deposition annealing at different temperatures. The thickness of the film is monitored by quartz crystal monitor and found to be 500[Formula: see text]nm. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy provides the qualitative analysis of ZnS film before and after annealing at different temperatures. The optical investigation shows that the as-deposited and annealed ZnS film display the high optical transmittance of (64–68%) in the visible/near infrared region. The optical energy gaps of present as-deposited and annealed ZnS film vary in the range of 3.32–3.18[Formula: see text]eV with the change in annealing temperature.
Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Generator Temperature on the Performance of Solution Transportation Absorption Chiller
Authors: Enoki Koji , Watanabe Fumi , Akisawa Atsushi , Takei Toshitaka
Published: August 2017

It is effective to recover waste heat to reduce primary energy consumption. From this point of view, we proposed and examined a new idea of heat transportation using ammonia–water as the working fluid in the system named the Solution Transportation Absorption chiller (STA). As waste heat sources are not necessarily located close to areas of heat demand, conventionally, absorption chillers are located on heat source side and produce chilled water that is transported to heat demand side through pipelines with an insulation. In contrast, the proposed system STA divides an absorption chiller into two parts. The generator and the condenser are located on heat source side while the evaporator and the absorber are on heat demand side. Both the conventional system and STA system satisfy the same boundary condition of heat recovery and heat supply to the demand side, STA can work for transferring thermal energy as the conventional system does even though the temperature of the media is ambient without an insulation. Our previous studies of the STA were based on the experimental investigation with the STA facility where the cooling power was 90[Formula: see text]kW (25.6 refrigeration ton) at the generator temperature 120[Formula: see text]C from 0[Formula: see text]m (normal absorption chiller) to 1000[Formula: see text]m. Thus, the Coefficient of Performance (COP) of STA was found to have almost the same value of 0.65 with conventional absorption chillers without depending on the transportation distances. The objective of this study is to examine the effect of generator temperature from 100[Formula: see text]C to 120[Formula: see text]C on the performance of solution transportation of ammonia–water solution, because the generator temperature is directly linked to the waste heat temperature, so its effect needs to be investigated. The experimental facility tested the performance with 0[Formula: see text]m (normal absorption chiller), 200[Formula: see text]m and 500[Formula: see text]m distance. The results indicate that the effect of the generator temperature and solution transportation distances showed no significant on the COP.
Dielectric studies of binary mixtures of ethylene glycol mono phenyl ether with 1-butanol at different temperatures
Authors: Chaube H. A. , Rana V. A.
Published: August 2017

Static permittivity ([Formula: see text]), refractive index ([Formula: see text]) and density ([Formula: see text]) of binary mixtures of ethylene glycol mono phenyl ether (EGMPE) with 1-butanol (1-BuOH) over the entire range of mole fraction and at temperatures ([Formula: see text], 313.15 and 323.15[Formula: see text]K) have been measured. From the experimental data, parameters such as excess static permittivity ([Formula: see text]), excess permittivity at optical frequency ([Formula: see text]), effective Kirkwood correlation factor ([Formula: see text]), corrective Kirkwood correlation factor ([Formula: see text]) and Bruggeman factor ([Formula: see text]) have been calculated to obtain qualitative and quantitative information about the complex formation through H-bond in binary system. In order to predict the static permittivity of polar–polar binary mixtures six mixing rules were applied and for refractive index five mixing rule were applied. Experimental results of permittivity ([Formula: see text]) and refractive index (n) are compared with those obtained from theoretical calculations. Excess parameters were fitted to the Redlich–Kister type polynomial equation.
Aggressive Formation Flying of Fixed-Wing UAVs with Differential Geometric Guidance
Authors: Kalra Arti , Anavatti Sreenatha , Padhi Radhakant
Published: August 2017

A nonlinear differential geometric guidance scheme is presented in this paper for aggressive autonomous formation flying of fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the leader-follower framework. It is assumed that the desired location of the followers are known in the velocity frame of the leader. It is also assumed that the followers can also access the position, velocity and acceleration parameters of the leader as necessary auxiliary information. By utilizing this information and manipulating their own dynamics, the proposed logic autonomously guides the followers to their respective desired positions. Depending on the leader’s velocity and acceleration information as well as the intended relative location, the formulation also ensures an appropriate direction of the velocity vectors of the followers at the desired relative locations, including its rate of change if any. This leads to minimal transient effects while maintaining the formation even under maneuvering conditions. Usage of quaternions and other innovations ensure that the formulation is singularity-free and hence formation flying is ensured even under aggressive maneuvers of the leader without any restriction on its velocity vector direction. The desired thrust, angle of attack and bank angle are generated using a nonlinear point mass model of a vehicle. The generated guidance commands are then realized using a nonlinear six-DOF model, making the formulation practically more relevant. Extensive simulation studies demonstrate that the proposed approach is capable of bringing the UAVs from arbitrary initial locations to the desired formation and then maintaining the formation even under highly agile motion of the leader.
ParTejas
Authors: Malhotra Geetika , Kalayappan Rajshekar , Goel Seep , Aggarwal Pooja , Sagar Abhishek , Sarangi Smruti R.
Published: August 2017

In this article, we present the design of a novel parallel architecture simulator called
ParTejas
.
ParTejas
is a timing simulation engine that gets its execution traces from instrumented binaries using a fast shared-memory-based mechanism. Subsequently, the waiting threads simulate the execution of multiple pipelines and an elaborate memory system with support for multilevel coherent caches.
ParTejas
is written in Java and primarily derives its speedups from the use of novel data structures. Specifically, it uses lock-free slot schedulers to design an entity called a
parallel port
that effectively models the contention at shared resources in the CPU and memory system. Parallel ports remove the need for fine-grained synchronization and allow each thread to use its local clock. Unlike conventional simulators that use barriers for synchronization at epoch boundaries, we use a sophisticated type of barrier, known as a phaser. A
phaser
allows threads to perform additional work without waiting for other threads to arrive at the barrier. Additionally, we use a host of Java-specific optimizations and use profiling to effectively schedule the threads. With all our optimizations, we demonstrate a speedup of 11.8× for a multi-issue in-order pipeline and 10.9× for an out-of-order pipeline with 64 threads, for a suite of seven Splash2 and Parsec benchmarks. The simulation error is limited to 2% to 4% as compared to strictly sequential simulation
Report on the Workshop on Social Media for Personalization And Search (SoMePeAS)
Authors: Boratto Ludovico , Kaltenbrunner Andreas , Stilo Giovanni
Published: August 2017

The 1st Workshop on Social Media for Personalization And Search was held on April 9, 2017 in conjuction with the 39th European Conference on Information Retrieval (ECIR 2017). The scientific program included paper presentations, posters, and a final discussion. The keynote was delivered by Dr. Fabrizio Silvestri, who provided an overview of how recent advances in the use of embeddings can be effectively employed in advertisement and recommendation.
Report on the Second Workshop on Supporting Complex Search Tasks
Authors: Koolen Marijn , Kamps Jaap , Bogers Toine , Belkin Nicholas , Kelly Diane , Yilmaz Emine
Published: August 2017

There is broad consensus in the field of IR that search is complex in many use cases and applications, both on the Web and in domain-specific collections, and both in our professional and in our daily life. Yet our understanding of complex search tasks, in comparison to simple look up tasks, is fragmented at best. The workshop addressed many open research questions: What are the obvious use cases and applications of complex search? What are essential features of work tasks and search tasks to take into account? And how do these evolve over time? With a multitude of information, varying from introductory to specialized, and from authoritative to speculative or opinionated, when should which sources of information be shown? How does the information seeking process evolve and what are relevant differences between different stages? With complex task and search process management, blending searching, browsing, and recommendations, and supporting exploratory search to sensemaking and analytics, UI and UX design pose an overconstrained challenge. How do we know that our approach is any good? Supporting complex search tasks requires new collaborations across the whole field of IR, and the proposed workshop brought together a diverse group of researchers to work together on one of the greatest challenges of our field. The workshop featured three main elements. First, two keynotes, one on the complexity of meaningful interactive IR evaluation by Mark Hall and one on the types of search complexity encountered in real-world applications by Jussi Karlgren. Second, a lively boaster and poster session in which seven contributed papers were presented. Third, three breakout groups discussed concrete ideas on: (1) search context and tasks, (2) search process, and (3) evaluation of complex search tasks. There was an general feeling that the discussion made progress, and built new connections between related strands of research in IR
Searching Distributed Collections With Inference Networks
Authors: Callan James P. , Lu Zhihong , Croft W. Bruce
Published: August 2017

The use of information retrieval systems in networked environments raises a new set of issues that have received little attention. These issues include ranking document collections for relevance to a query, selecting the best set of collections from a ranked list, and merging the document rankings that are returned from a set of collections. This paper describes methods of addressing each issue in the inference network model, discusses their implementation in the INQUERY system, and presents experimental results demonstrating their effectiveness.
Information Retrieval as Statistical Translation
Authors: Berger Adam , Lafferty John
Published: August 2017

We propose a new probabilistic approach to information retrieval based upon the ideas and methods of statistical machine translation. The central ingredient in this approach is a statistical model of how a user might distill or "translate" a given document into a query. To assess the relevance of a document to a user's query, we estimate the probability that the query would have been generated as a translation of the document, and factor in the user's general preferences in the form of a prior distribution over documents. We propose a simple, well motivated model of the document-to-query translation process, and describe an algorithm for learning the parameters of this model in an unsupervised manner from a collection of documents. As we show, one can view this approach as a generalization and justification of the "language modeling" strategy recently proposed by Ponte and Croft. In a series of experiments on TREC data, a simple translation-based retrieval system performs well in comparison to conventional retrieval techniques. This prototype system only begins to tap the full potential of translation-based retrieval.
Quantitative Spatial Economics
Authors: Redding Stephen J. , Rossi-Hansberg Esteban
Published: August 2017

The observed uneven distribution of economic activity across space is influenced by variation in exogenous geographical characteristics and endogenous interactions between agents in goods and factor markets. Until the past decade, the theoretical literature on economic geography had focused on stylized settings that could not easily be taken to the data. This article reviews more recent research that has developed quantitative models of economic geography. These models are rich enough to speak to first-order features of the data, such as many heterogeneous locations and gravity equation relationships for trade and commuting. At the same time, these models are sufficiently tractable to undertake realistic counterfactual exercises to study the effect of changes in amenities, productivity, and public policy interventions such as transport infrastructure investments. We provide an extensive taxonomy of the different building blocks of these quantitative spatial models and discuss their main properties and quantification.
Cross-sex testosterone therapy in ovariectomized mice: addition of low-dose estrogen preserves bone architecture
Authors: Goetz Teddy G. , Mamillapalli Ramanaiah , Devlin Maureen J. , Robbins Amy E. , Majidi-Zolbin Masoumeh , Taylor Hugh S.
Published: August 2017

Cross-sex hormone therapy (XHT) is widely used by transgender people to alter secondary sex characteristics to match their desired gender presentation. Here, we investigate the long-term effects of XHT on bone health using a murine model. Female mice underwent ovariectomy at either 6 or 10 wk and began weekly testosterone or vehicle injections. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) was performed (20 wk) to measure bone mineral density (BMD), and microcomputed tomography was performed to compare femoral cortical and trabecular bone architecture. The 6-wk testosterone group had comparable BMD with controls by DXA but reduced bone volume fraction, trabecular number, and cortical area fraction and increased trabecular separation by microcomputed tomography. Ten-week ovariectomy/XHT maintained microarchitecture, suggesting that estrogen is critical for bone acquisition during adolescence and that late, but not early, estrogen loss can be sufficiently replaced by testosterone alone. Given these findings, we then compared effects of testosterone with effects of weekly estrogen or combined testosterone/low-dose estrogen treatment after a 6-wk ovariectomy. Estrogen treatment increased spine BMD and microarchitecture, including bone volume fraction, trabecular number, trabecular thickness, and connectivity density, and decreased trabecular separation. Combined testosterone-estrogen therapy caused similar increases in femur and spine BMD and improved architecture (increased bone volume fraction, trabecular number, trabecular thickness, and connectivity density) to estrogen therapy and were superior compared with mice treated with testosterone only. These results demonstrate estradiol is critical for bone acquisition and suggest a new cross-sex hormone therapy adding estrogens to testosterone treatments with potential future clinical implications for treating transgender youth or men with estrogen deficiency.
Elucidating the role of leptin in systemic inflammation: a study targeting physiological leptin levels in rats and their macrophages
Authors: Flatow Elizabeth A. , Komegae Evilin N. , Fonseca Monique T. , Brito Camila F. , Musteata Florin M. , Antunes-Rodrigues José , Steiner Alexandre A.
Published: August 2017

To elucidate the role of leptin in acute systemic inflammation, we investigated how its infusion at low, physiologically relevant doses affects the responses to bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in rats subjected to 24 h of food deprivation. Leptin was infused subcutaneously (0–20 μg·kg−1·h−1) or intracerebroventricularly (0–1 μg·kg−1·h−1). Using hypothermia and hypotension as biomarkers of systemic inflammation, we identified the phase extending from 90 to 240 min post-LPS as the most susceptible to modulation by leptin. In this phase, leptin suppressed the rise in plasma TNF-α and accelerated the recoveries from hypothermia and hypotension. Suppression of TNF-α was not accompanied by changes in other cytokines or prostaglandins. Leptin suppressed TNF-α when infused peripherally but not when infused into the brain. Importantly, the leptin dose that suppressed TNF-α corresponded to the lowest dose that limited food consumption; this dose elevated plasma leptin within the physiological range (to 5.9 ng/ml). We then conducted in vitro experiments to investigate whether an action of leptin on macrophages could parallel our in vivo observations. The results revealed that, when sensitized by food deprivation, LPS-stimulated peritoneal macrophages can be inhibited by leptin at concentrations that are lower than those reported to promote cytokine release. It is concluded that physiological levels of leptin do not exert a proinflammatory effect but rather an anti-inflammatory effect involving selective suppression of TNF-α via an action outside the brain. The mechanism of this effect might involve a previously unrecognized, suppressive action of leptin on macrophage subpopulations sensitized by food deprivation, but future studies are warranted.
AQUACEL® Ag Surgical Dressing Reduces Surgical Site Infection and Improves Patient Satisfaction in Minimally Invasive Total Knee Arthroplasty: A Prospective, Randomized, Controlled Study
Authors: Kuo Feng-Chih , Chen Bradley , Lee Mel S. , Yen Shih-Hsiang , Wang Jun-Wen
Published: August 2017

The use of modern surgical dressings to prevent wound complications and surgical site infection (SSI) after minimally invasive total knee arthroplasty (MIS-TKA) is lacking. In a prospective, randomized, controlled study, 240 patients were randomized to receive either AQUACEL Ag Surgical dressing (study group) or a standard dressing (control group) after MIS-TKA. The primary outcome was wound complication (SSI and blister). The secondary outcomes were wear time and number of dressing changes in the hospital and patient satisfaction (pain, comfort, and ease of use). In the intention-to-treat analysis, there was a significant reduction in the incidence of superficial SSI (0.8%, 95% CI∶ 0.00–2.48) in the study group compared to 8.3% (95% CI∶ 3.32–13.3) in the control group (p=0.01). There were no differences in blister and deep/organ-space SSIs between the two groups. Multivariate analysis revealed that AQUACEL Ag Surgical dressing was an independent risk factor for reduction of SSI (odds ratio: 0.07, 95% CI: 0.01–0.58, p=0.01). The study group had longer wear time (5.2±0.7 versus 1.7±0.4 days, p<0.0001) and lower number of dressing changes (1.0±0.2 versus 3.6±1.3 times, p<0.0001). Increased patient satisfaction (p<0.0001) was also noted in the study group. AQUACEL Ag Surgical dressing is an ideal dressing to provide wound care efficacy, patient satisfaction, reduction of SSI, and cost-effectiveness following MIS-TKA.
Effect of Emodin on Preventing Postoperative Intra‐Abdominal Adhesion Formation
Authors: Wei Guangbing , Wu Yunhua , Gao Qi , Zhou Cancan , Wang Kai , Shen Cong , Wang Guanghui , Wang Kang , Sun Xuejun , Li Xuqi
Published: August 2017

Background. Postoperative intra‐abdominal adhesions are a major complication after abdominal surgery. Although various methods have been used to prevent and treat adhesions, the effects have not been satisfactory. Emodin, a naturally occurring anthraquinone derivative and an active ingredient in traditional Chinese herbs, exhibits a variety of pharmacological effects. In our study, we demonstrated the effect of emodin treatment on preventing postoperative adhesion formation. Materials and Methods. A total of 48 rats were divided into six groups. Abdominal adhesions were created by abrasion of the cecum and its opposite abdominal wall. In the experimental groups, the rats were administered daily oral doses of emodin. On the seventh day after operation, the rats were euthanized, and blood and pathological specimens were collected. Abdominal adhesion formation was evaluated by necropsy, pathology, immunohistochemistry, Western blot, and enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay analyses. Results. Abdominal adhesions were markedly reduced by emodin treatment. Compared with the control group, collagen deposition was reduced and the peritoneal mesothelial completeness rate was higher in the emodin‐treated groups. Emodin had anti‐inflammatory effects, reduced oxidative stress, and promoted the movement of the intestinal tract (P < 0.05). Conclusion. Emodin significantly reduced intra‐abdominal adhesion formation in a rat model.
Adaptive PVD Steganography Using Horizontal, Vertical, and Diagonal Edges in Six-Pixel Blocks
Authors: Pradhan Anita , Sekhar K. Raja , Swain Gandharba
Published: August 2017

The traditional pixel value differencing (PVD) steganographical schemes are easily detected by pixel difference histogram (PDH) analysis. This problem could be addressed by adding two tricks: (i) utilizing horizontal, vertical, and diagonal edges and (ii) using adaptive quantization ranges. This paper presents an adaptive PVD technique using 6-pixel blocks. There are two variants. The proposed adaptive PVD for 2×3-pixel blocks is known as variant 1, and the proposed adaptive PVD for 3×2-pixel blocks is known as variant 2. For every block in variant 1, the four corner pixels are used to hide data bits using the middle column pixels for detecting the horizontal and diagonal edges. Similarly, for every block in variant 2, the four corner pixels are used to hide data bits using the middle row pixels for detecting the vertical and diagonal edges. The quantization ranges are adaptive and are calculated using the correlation of the two middle column/row pixels with the four corner pixels. The technique performs better as compared to the existing adaptive PVD techniques by possessing higher hiding capacity and lesser distortion. Furthermore, it has been proven that the PDH steganalysis and RS steganalysis cannot detect this proposed technique.
A New Network-Based Strategy for Predicting the Potential miRNA-mRNA Interactions in Tumorigenesis
Authors: Xue Jiwei , Xie Fanfan , Xu Junmei , Liu Yuan , Liang Yu , Wen Zhining , Li Menglong
Published: August 2017

MicroRNA (miRNA) plays an important role in the degradation and inhibition of mRNAs and is a kind of essential drug targets for cancer therapy. To facilitate the clinical cancer research, we proposed a network-based strategy to identify the cancer-related miRNAs and to predict their targeted genes based on the gene expression profiles. The strategy was validated by using the data sets of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), breast invasive carcinoma (BRCA), and kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC). The results showed that in the top 20 miRNAs ranked by their degrees, 90.0% (18/20), 70.0% (14/20), and 70.0% (14/20) miRNAs were found to be associated with the cancers for AML, BRCA, and KIRC, respectively. The KEGG pathways and GO terms enriched with the genes that were predicted as the targets of the cancer-related miRNAs were significantly associated with the biological processes of cancers. In addition, several genes, which were predicted to be regulated by more than three miRNAs, were identified to be the potential drug targets annotated by using the human protein atlas database. Our results demonstrated that the proposed strategy can be helpful for predicting the miRNA-mRNA interactions in tumorigenesis and identifying the cancer-related miRNAs as the potential drug targets.
A New Nonlinear Chaotic Complex Model and Its Complex Antilag Synchronization
Authors: Mahmoud Emad E. , Abood Fatimah S.
Published: August 2017

Another chaotic nonlinear Lü model with complex factors is covered here. We can build this riotous complex system when we add a complex nonlinear term to the third condition of the complex Lü system and think of it as if every one of the factors is mind boggling or complex. This system in real adaptation is a 6-dimensional continuous autonomous chaotic system. Different types of chaotic complex Lü system are developed. Also, another sort of synchronization is presented by us which is simple for anybody to ponder for the chaotic complex nonlinear system. This sort might be called a complex antilag synchronization (CALS). There are irregular properties for CALS and they do not exist in the literature; for example, (i) the CALS contains or fused two sorts of synchronizations (antilag synchronization ALS and lag synchronization LS); (ii) in CALS the attractors of the main and slave systems are moving opposite or similar to each other with time lag; (iii) the state variable of the main system synchronizes with a different state variable of the slave system. A scheme is intended to accomplish CALS of chaotic complex systems in light of Lyapunov function. The acquired outcomes and effectiveness can be represented by a simulation case for our new model.
In Vitro Antibacterial and Antibiofilm Activity ofLippia albaEssential Oil, Citral, and Carvone againstStaphylococcus aureus
Authors: Porfírio Emanuela Mesquita , Melo Hider Machado , Pereira Antônio Matheus Gomes , Cavalcante Theodora Thays Arruda , Gomes Geovany Amorim , Carvalho Mário Geraldo de , Costa Renata Albuquerque , Júnior Francisco Eduardo Aragão Catunda
Published: August 2017

In vitro antimicrobial and antibiofilm activities of theLippia albaessential oil and its major components (citral and carvone) againstStaphylococcus aureuswere investigated. Essential oils (LA1EO, LA2EO, and LA3EO) were extracted from the aerial parts of threeL. albaspecimens by hydrodistillation and analyzed by gas chromatography coupled to a mass spectrometer. Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations (MIC) and Minimum Bacterial Concentration (MBC) were determined by the microdilution method. For the antibiofilm assays, the biomass formation in the biofilm was evaluated by the microtiter-plate technique with the crystal violet (CV) assay and the viability of the bacterial cells was analyzed. All oils and their major components presented antibacterial activity, and the lowest MIC and MBC values were 0.5 mg mL−1when LA1EO and citral were used. Potential inhibition (100%) ofS. aureusbiofilm formation at the concentration of 0.5 mg mL−1of all EOs was observed. However, the elimination of biofilm cells was confirmed at concentrations of 1 mg mL−1, 2 mg mL−1, 2 mg mL−1, and 0.5 mg mL−1for LA1EO, LA2EO, LA3EO, and citral, respectively. The results obtained in the present research point to the promising antibacterial and antibiofilm potential ofL. albaEOs againstS. aureus, a species of recognized clinical interest.
Elevated Foxp3/CD8 Ratio in Lung Adenocarcinoma Metastatic Lymph Nodes Resected by Transcervical Extended Mediastinal Lymphadenectomy
Authors: Domagala-Kulawik Joanna , Kwiecien Iwona , Pankowski Juliusz , Pasieka-Lis Monika , Wolosz Dominika , Zielinski Marcin
Published: August 2017

A balance between tumor invasion and immune defence system is widely investigated.Objective. The aim of this study was to evaluate lymphocyte phenotype in lymph nodes (LNs) of patients with lung cancer in relation to the presence of metastases.Methods. We investigated 364 LNs resected by transcervical extended mediastinal lymphadenectomy (TEMLA) of 49 patients with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) or adenocarcinoma (AD) with (A) and without metastases (B). Expression of CD4, CD8, CD25, CTLA-4, and Foxp3 was assessed by immunohistochemical staining.Results. We observed a strong nuclear staining for Foxp3 in lymphocytes and cancer cells and strong membranous/cytoplasmatic reaction for CD4 and CD8, but low for CD25 and CTLA-4. There were significantly higher proportions of CD8+ cells in AD (B) versus AD (A) LNs (80% versus 52.5%,p<0.05). The Foxp3/CD8 ratio was higher in AD (A) versus AD (B) LNs (0.4 versus 0.25,p<0.05). No significant differences in the cell markers expression in SCC LNs were found.Conclusion. Significant differences in lymphocyte phenotype in AD may indicate an exceptional biology of this type of lung cancer. TEMLA resected LNs may serve as valuable samples for evaluation of immune status in lung cancer patients.