bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Acoustic Target Strength Measurements for Biomass Estimation of Aquaculture Fish, Redlip Mullet (Chelon haematocheilus)
Authors: Kim Hansoo , Kang Donhyug , Cho Sungho , Kim Mira , Park Jisung , Kim Kiseon
Published: September 2018

Redlip mullet (Chelon haematocheilus) is distributed in coastal waters of the North-Western Pacific Ocean and is a cultured fish in Korea. A hydroacoustic technique constitutes a useful method to assess the biomass and spatial distribution of mullet in sea cages or in coastal waters, and acoustic target strength (TS) information of the target fish is an essential parameter in using this method. In this study, ex situ TS measurements of 16 live mullets were made in an aquaculture sea cage in Korea. The split-beam scientific echo-sounder used for measurements was comprised of 38, 120, 200, and 420 kHz frequencies. An underwater video camera was simultaneously used to observe the mullets’ behavior during the TS measurements. The mullet TS data was analyzed from a wide range of total fish length (FL: 14.3–40.3 cm). As results for all frequencies, the frequency dependence of the mean TS values were relatively low, and the difference in mean TS was within 2.5 dB. When the slope of the least-squares regression line was forced to 20 into the TS equation, the resulting value for the constant term (b20) at each frequency was −67.0 dB, −68.3 dB, −66.3 dB, and −68.5 dB, respectively. The data tended to be frequency dependent. Additionally, the maximum TS appeared between tilt angles of 0° and 10°. These results indicate that TS measurements can be applied to estimate the biomass of the mullet in sea cages or in coastal waters.
Electromagnetic Field Analysis of Signal Transmission Path and Electrode Contact Conditions in Human Body Communication
Authors: Yamamoto Kentaro , Nishida Yoshifumi , Sasaki Ken , Muramatsu Dairoku , Koshiji Fukuro
Published: September 2018

Human body communication (HBC) is a wireless communication method that uses the human body as part of the transmission medium. Electrodes are used instead of antennas, and the signal is transmitted by the electric current through the human body and by the capacitive coupling outside the human body. In this study, direction of electric field lines and direction of electric current through the human body were analyzed by the finite-difference time-domain method to clarify the signal path, which is not readily apparent from electric field strength distribution. Signal transmission from a transmitter on the subject’s wrist to an off-body receiver touched by the subject was analyzed for two types of transmitter electrode settings. When both the signal and ground electrodes were put in contact with the human body, the major return path consisted of capacitive coupling between the receiver ground and the human body, and the electric current through the human body that flowed back to the ground electrode of the transmitter. When the ground electrode was floating, the only return path was through the capacitive coupling of the floating ground. These results contribute to the better understanding of signal transmission mechanism of HBC and will be useful for developing HBC applications.
Mini Glider Design and Implementation with Wing-Folding Mechanism
Authors: Demircali Ali Anil , Uvet Huseyin
Published: September 2018

This paper describes a mini unmanned glider’s design, simulation, and manufacturing with a novel wing-folding mechanism. The mini-glider is designed for CanSat competition, which has a theme of a Mars glider concept with atmosphere data acquisition. The aim is to facilitate the transportation of the glider and to land it on the destination point by following strict rules. Having a light and compact design is important since it uses power for the transmission of sensory data only. Dimensions of the glider is produced with a wingspan that is 440 mm and a length of 304 mm. The wings can be stowed in a fixed size container that has a diameter of 125 mm and a height of 310 mm. Its weight is only 144 g and it can increase up to 500 g maximum with a payload. The mechanism, which includes springs and neodymium N48 grade magnets for a wing-folding system, is capable of being ready in 98 ms for gliding after separating from its container. The mini-glider is capable of telemetering, communicating, and conducting other sensory operations autonomously during the flight.
Halo-Free Multi-Exposure Image Fusion Based on Sparse Representation of Gradient Features
Authors: Shao Hua , Jiang Gangyi , Yu Mei , Song Yang , Jiang Hao , Peng Zongju , Chen Feng
Published: September 2018

Due to sharp changes in local brightness in high dynamic range scenes, fused images obtained by the traditional multi-exposure fusion methods usually have an unnatural appearance resulting from halo artifacts. In this paper, we propose a halo-free multi-exposure fusion method based on sparse representation of gradient features for high dynamic range imaging. First, we analyze the cause of halo artifacts. Since the range of local brightness changes in high dynamic scenes may be far wider than the dynamic range of an ordinary camera, there are some invalid, large-amplitude gradients in the multi-exposure source images, so halo artifacts are produced in the fused image. Subsequently, by analyzing the significance of the local sparse coefficient in a luminance gradient map, we construct a local gradient sparse descriptor to extract local details of source images. Then, as an activity level measurement in the fusion method, the local gradient sparse descriptor is used to extract image features and remove halo artifacts when the source images have sharp local changes in brightness. Experimental results show that the proposed method obtains state-of-the-art performance in subjective and objective evaluation, particularly in terms of effectively eliminating halo artifacts.
Practical Guide to Ultrasound Beam Forming: Beam Pattern and Image Reconstruction Analysis
Authors: Demi Libertario
Published: September 2018

Starting from key ultrasound imaging features such as spatial and temporal resolution, contrast, penetration depth, array aperture, and field-of-view (FOV) size, the reader will be guided through the pros and cons of the main ultrasound beam-forming techniques. The technicalities and the rationality behind the different driving schemes and reconstruction modalities will be reviewed, highlighting the requirements for their implementation and their suitability for specific applications. Techniques such as multi-line acquisition (MLA), multi-line transmission (MLT), plane and diverging wave imaging, and synthetic aperture will be discussed, as well as more recent beam-forming modalities.
Another View on the Middle East Conflict Analysis
Authors: Rehman Noor , Shah Syed Inayat Ali , Ali Abbas , Jang Sun Young , Park Choonkil
Published: September 2018

Decision making is a cognitive process for evaluating data with certain attributes to come up with the best option, in terms of the preferences of decision makers. Conflicts and disagreements occur in most real world problems and involve the applications of mathematical tools dealing with uncertainty, such as rough set theory in decision making and conflict analysis processes. Afterwards, the Pawlak conflict analysis model based on rough set theory was established. Subsequently, Deja put forward some questions that are not answered by the Pawlak conflict analysis model and Sun’s model. In the present paper, using the notions of soft preference relation, soft dominance relation, and their roughness, we analyzed the Middle East conflict and answered the questions posed by Deja in a good manner.
A Dynamic Scheduling Method for Carrier Aircraft Support Operation under Uncertain Conditions Based on Rolling Horizon Strategy
Authors: Yuan Peilong , Han Wei , Su Xichao , Liu Jie , Song Jingyu
Published: September 2018

The efficient scheduling of carrier aircraft support operations in the flight deck is important for battle performances. The supporting operations and maintenance processes involve multiple support resources, complex scheduling process, and multiple constraints; the efficient coordination of these processes can be considered a multi-resource constrained multi-project scheduling problem (MRCMPSP), which is a complex non-deterministic polynomial-time hard (NP-hard) problem. The renewable resources include the operational crews, resource stations, and operational spaces, and the non-renewable resources include oil, gas, weapons, and electric power. An integer programming mathematical model is established to solve this problem. A periodic and event-driven rolling horizon (RH) scheduling strategy inspired by the RH optimization method from predictive control technology is presented for the dynamic scheduling environment. The periodic horizon scheduling strategy can track the changes of the carrier aircraft supporting system, and the improved event-driven mechanism can avoid unnecessary scheduling with effective resource allocation under uncertain conditions. The dual population genetic algorithm (DPGA) is designed to solve the large-scale scheduling problem. The activity list encoding method is proposed, and a new adaptive crossover and mutation strategy is designed to improve the global exploration ability. The double schedule for leftward and rightward populations is integrated into the genetic process of alternating iterations to improve the convergence speed and decrease the computation amount. The computational results show that our approach is effective at solving the scheduling problem in the dynamic environment, as well as making better decisions regarding disruption on a real-time basis.
Theoretical Study of Nanoporous Graphene Membranes for Natural Gas Purification
Authors: Tronci Giovanni , Raffone Federico , Cicero Giancarlo
Published: September 2018

Gas filtration by means of membranes is becoming increasingly important for industrial processes due to its low cost. In particular, membranes can be applied to separate methane in natural gas from pollutants such as hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide. The recent advent of nanoporous graphene as material for membranes helped to overcome the current problems of polymeric membranes, namely the permeability/selectivity tradeoff. However, the factors that determine gas filtration through nanoporous graphene are not completely clear yet. In this work, we show that pore size, shape and functionalization severely affect the selectivity of the membrane toward CO 2 and H 2 S with respect to CH 4 . We identified that the critical diameter of circular pore for the separation of contaminants from methane with graphene membranes is 5.90 Å. An elliptical pore is discovered to select gas species having similar sizes on the basis of their shape. The more elongated CO 2 is allowed to pass though the pore while the more spherical H 2 S and CH 4 are rejected. Finally, the gas-membrane interactions are found to decisively affect the filtration performances. Functionalization with hydroxyl groups led to a higher permeability of the gas species with polar bonds while keeping an excellent selectivity.
Symmetry of Energy Divergence Anomalies Associated with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation
Authors: Kutta Evan , Hubbart Jason A. , Eichler Timothy P. , Lupo Anthony R.
Published: September 2018

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a dominant source of global climate variability. The effects of this phenomenon alter the flow of heat from tropical to polar latitudes, resulting in weather and climate anomalies that are difficult to forecast. The current work quantified two components of the vertically integrated equation for the total energy content of an atmospheric column, to show the anomalous horizontal redistribution of surface heat flux anomalies. Symmetric and asymmetric components of the vertically integrated latent and sensible heat flux divergence were quantified using ERA-Interim atmospheric reanalysis output on 30 model layers between 1979 and 2016. Results indicate that asymmetry is a fundamental component of ENSO-induced weather and climate anomalies at the global scale, challenging the common assumption that each phase of ENSO is equal and opposite. In particular, a substantial asymmetric component was identified in the relationship between ENSO and patterns of extratropical climate variability that may be proportional to differences in sea surface temperature anomalies during each phase of ENSO. This work advances our understanding of the global distributions of source and sink regions, which may improve future predictions of ENSO-induced precipitation and surface temperature anomalies. Future studies should apply these methods to advance understanding and to validate predictions of ENSO-induced weather and climate anomalies.
Efficient Implementation of ADER Discontinuous Galerkin Schemes for a Scalable Hyperbolic PDE Engine
Authors: Dumbser Michael , Fambri Francesco , Tavelli Maurizio , Bader Michael , Weinzierl Tobias
Published: September 2018

In this paper we discuss a new and very efficient implementation of high order accurate arbitrary high order schemes using derivatives discontinuous Galerkin (ADER-DG) finite element schemes on modern massively parallel supercomputers. The numerical methods apply to a very broad class of nonlinear systems of hyperbolic partial differential equations. ADER-DG schemes are by construction communication-avoiding and cache-blocking, and are furthermore very well-suited for vectorization, and so they appear to be a good candidate for the future generation of exascale supercomputers. We introduce the numerical algorithm and show some applications to a set of hyperbolic equations with increasing levels of complexity, ranging from the compressible Euler equations over the equations of linear elasticity and the unified Godunov-Peshkov-Romenski (GPR) model of continuum mechanics to general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) and the Einstein field equations of general relativity. We present strong scaling results of the new ADER-DG schemes up to 180,000 CPU cores. To our knowledge, these are the largest runs ever carried out with high order ADER-DG schemes for nonlinear hyperbolic PDE systems. We also provide a detailed performance comparison with traditional Runge-Kutta DG schemes.
Relations between the Complex Neutrosophic Sets with Their Applications in Decision Making
Authors: Al-Quran Ashraf , Alkhazaleh Shawkat
Published: September 2018

The basic aim of soft computing is to trade precision for a tractableness and reduction in solution cost by pushing the limits of tolerance for imprecision and uncertainty. This paper introduces a novel soft computing technique called complex neutrosophic relation (CNR) to evaluate the degree of interaction between two complex neutrosophic sets (CNSs). CNSs are used to represent two-dimensional information that are imprecise, uncertain, incomplete and indeterminate. The Cartesian product of CNSs and subsequently the complex neutrosophic relation is formally defined. This relation is generalised from a conventional single valued neutrosophic relation (SVNR), based on CNSs, where the ranges of values of CNR are extended to the unit circle in complex plane for its membership functions instead of [0, 1] as in the conventional SVNR. A new algorithm is created using a comparison matrix of the SVNR after mapping the complex membership functions from complex space to the real space. This algorithm is then applied to scrutinise the impact of some teaching strategies on the student performance and the time frame(phase) of the interaction between these two variables. The notion of inverse, complement and composition of CNRs along with some related theorems and properties are introduced. The performance and utility of the composition concept in real-life situations is also demonstrated. Then, we define the concepts of projection and cylindric extension for CNRs along with illustrative examples. Some interesting properties are also obtained. Finally, a comparison between different existing relations and CNR to show the ascendancy of our proposed CNR is provided.
Interior Regularity Estimates for a Degenerate Elliptic Equation with Mixed Boundary Conditions
Authors: Djida Jean-Daniel , Fernandez Arran
Published: September 2018

The Marchaud fractional derivative can be obtained as a Dirichlet-to–Neumann map via an extension problem to the upper half space. In this paper we prove interior Schauder regularity estimates for a degenerate elliptic equation with mixed Dirichlet–Neumann boundary conditions. The degenerate elliptic equation arises from the Bernardis–Reyes–Stinga–Torrea extension of the Dirichlet problem for the Marchaud fractional derivative.
Bioactivity of Fucoidan as an Antimicrobial Agent in a New Functional Beverage
Authors: Poveda-Castillo Gabriela del Carmen , Rodrigo Dolores , Martínez Antonio , Pina-Pérez Maria Consuelo
Published: September 2018

Seaweeds are a sustainable source of novel functional ingredients with applicability in pharmaceutics, biotechnology, and food science. The bioactivity of most of these marine compounds has scarcely been studied. The present study overviews the bioactivity of the polysaccharide fucoidan derived from Fucus vesiculosus brown algae as an antimicrobial agent against Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. The results obtained in vitro in reference medium reveal a bacteriostatic and bactericidal effect of fucoidan against both pathogens, this bioactivity being significantly dependent (p-value ≤ 0.05) on the concentration, 5–1000 μg/mL, temperature, 8–37 °C, and exposure time, 0–12 days. The results were validated in the formulation of a new functional pasteurized apple beverage to be commercialized under refrigeration. Fucoidan added at 25–100 μg/mL was highly effective against both pathogens. These results increase knowledge for the future formulation of new functional beverages that include marine compounds (high content in fibre, high content in protein; prebiotic and antioxidant properties), additionally revealing antimicrobial potential.
Preparation and Characterization of Plasters with Photodegradative Action
Authors: De Luca Pierantonio , De Luca Pasquale , Candamano Sebastiano , Macario Anastasia , Crea Fortunato , Nagy Jànos B.
Published: September 2018

The aim of this project is to investigate the behaviour of several special types plasters specifically designed to degrade the most common pollutants which are present in the atmosphere. In particular, specific additives have been added to these plasters, in order to obtain a broad spectrum of active and synergic response, each of which have peculiar functions: - microporous materials, such as clinoptilolite, a natural zeolite, that promotes the adsorption of air pollutants thanks to its porous nature; - nano-fillers, such as carbon nanotubes, that behave both as reinforcing agents as well as adsorbent materials; - photochemical agents, such as titanium oxide, that degrade air pollutants, previously adsorbed on carbon nanotubes and zeolites, thanks to the action of light that activates photodegradation reactions. All the samples were also characterized in terms of mechanical properties, adhesion to supports and water absorption. Furthermore, photodegradation tests were carried out by exposing plaster surfaces, wetted with a Rodamine solution, to Ultraviolet rays (UV) for different times. Plasters photodegradative capacity was evaluated and the results highlighted the fact that the designed admixtures showed an important photodegradative action, strictly dependent on the types and specific ratios of the selected additives.
The p53 Pathway in Glioblastoma
Authors: Zhang Ying , Dube Collin , Gibert Myron , Cruickshanks Nichola , Wang Baomin , Coughlan Maeve , Yang Yanzhi , Setiady Initha , Deveau Ciana , Saoud Karim , Grello Cassandra , Oxford Madison , Yuan Fang , Abounader Roger
Published: September 2018

The tumor suppressor and transcription factor p53 plays critical roles in tumor prevention by orchestrating a wide variety of cellular responses, including damaged cell apoptosis, maintenance of genomic stability, inhibition of angiogenesis, and regulation of cell metabolism and tumor microenvironment. TP53 is one of the most commonly deregulated genes in cancer. The p53-ARF-MDM2 pathway is deregulated in 84% of glioblastoma (GBM) patients and 94% of GBM cell lines. Deregulated p53 pathway components have been implicated in GBM cell invasion, migration, proliferation, evasion of apoptosis, and cancer cell stemness. These pathway components are also regulated by various microRNAs and long non-coding RNAs. TP53 mutations in GBM are mostly point mutations that lead to a high expression of a gain of function (GOF) oncogenic variants of the p53 protein. These relatively understudied GOF p53 mutants promote GBM malignancy, possibly by acting as transcription factors on a set of genes other than those regulated by wild type p53. Their expression correlates with worse prognosis, highlighting their potential importance as markers and targets for GBM therapy. Understanding mutant p53 functions led to the development of novel approaches to restore p53 activity or promote mutant p53 degradation for future GBM therapies.
HIV-1 Envelope Protein gp120 Promotes Proliferation and the Activation of Glycolysis in Glioma Cell
Authors: Valentín-Guillama Gabriel , López Sheila , Kucheryavykh Yuriy V. , Chorna Nataliya E. , Pérez Jose , Ortiz-Rivera Jescelica , Inyushin Michael , Makarov Vladimir , Valentín-Acevedo Aníbal , Quinones-Hinojosa Alfredo , Boukli Nawal , Kucheryavykh Lilia Y.
Published: September 2018

Patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are more prone to developing cancers, including glioblastomas (GBMs). The median survival for HIV positive GBM patients is significantly shorter than for those who are uninfected, despite the fact that they receive the same treatments. The nature of the GBM–HIV association remains poorly understood. In this study, we analyzed the effect of the HIV envelope glycoprotein gp120 on GBM cell proliferation. Specifically, we performed cell cycle, western blot, protein synthesis and metabolomics analysis as well as ATP production and oxygen consumption assays to evaluate proliferation and metabolic pathways in primary human glioma cell line, U87, A172 cells and in the HIVgp120tg/GL261 mouse model. Glioma cells treated with gp120 (100 ng/mL for 7–10 days) showed higher proliferation rates and upregulation in the expression of enolase 2, hexokinase and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase when compared to untreated cells. Furthermore, we detected an increase in the activity of pyruvate kinase and a higher glycolytic index in gp120 treated cells. Gp120 treated GBM cells also showed heightened lipid and protein synthesis. Overall, we demonstrate that in glioma cells, the HIV envelope glycoprotein promotes proliferation and activation of glycolysis resulting in increased protein and lipid synthesis.
Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles Sensitize Pancreatic Cancer to Radiation Therapy through Oxidative Activation of the JNK Apoptotic Pathway
Authors: Wason Melissa S. , Lu Heng , Yu Lin , Lahiri Satadru K. , Mukherjee Debarati , Shen Chao , Das Soumen , Seal Sudipta , Zhao Jihe
Published: September 2018

Side effects of radiation therapy (RT) remain the most challenging issue for pancreatic cancer treatment. Cerium oxide nanoparticles (CONPs) are currently being tested in pre-clinical trials as an adjuvant to sensitize pancreatic cancer cells to RT and protect normal tissues from the harmful side effects. CONPs were not able to significantly affect RT-induced DNA damage in cancer cells, thereby ruling out sensitization through increased mitotic catastrophe. However, activation of c-Jun terminal kinase (JNK), a key driver of RT-induced apoptosis, was significantly enhanced by co-treatment with CONPs and RT in pancreatic cancer cells in vitro and human pancreatic tumors in nude mice in vivo compared to CONPs or RT treatment alone. Further, CONP-driven increase in RT-induced JNK activity was associated with a marked increase in Caspase 3/7 activation, indicative of apoptosis. We have previously shown that CONPs increase reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in cancer cells. ROS has been shown to drive the oxidation of thioredoxin 1 (TRX1) which results in the activation of apoptosis signaling kinase 1 (ASK1). The increase in ASK1 activation following the co-treatment with CONPs followed by RT suggests that the increased JNK activation is the result of increased TRX1 oxidation. The ability of CONPs to sensitize pancreatic cancer cells to RT was mitigated when the TRX1 oxidation was prevented by mutagenesis of a cysteine residue or when the JNK activation was blocked by an inhibitor. Taken together, these data demonstrate an important mechanism for CONPs in specifically killing cancer cells and provide novel insights into the utilization of CONPs as a radiosensitizer and therapeutic agent for pancreatic cancer.
Peroxiredoxin II Regulates Cancer Stem Cells and Stemness-Associated Properties of Cancers
Authors: Chandimali Nisansala , Jeong Dong Kee , Kwon Taeho
Published: September 2018

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) represent a sub-population of cancer cells with the ability to regulate stemness-associated properties which are specifically responsible for unlimited growth of cancers, generation of diverse cancer cells in differentiated state and resistance to existing chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Even though, current therapies destroy majority of cancer cells, it is believed to leave CSCs without eradicating which may be the conceptualization for chemoresistance and radio-resistance. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) maintain stem cells and regulate the stemness-associated properties of cancers. Beyond the maximum limit, ROS can damage cellular functions of cancers by subjecting them to oxidative stress. Thus, maintenance of ROS level plays an important role in cancers to regulate stemness-associated properties. Peroxiredoxin II (Prx II) is a member of peroxiredoxin antioxidant enzyme family which considers as a regulator of ROS in cellular environments by modulating redox status to maintain CSC phenotype and stemness properties. Prx II has cell type-dependent expression in various types of cancer cells and overexpression or silenced expression of Prx II in cancers is associated with stem cell phenotype and stemness-associated properties via activation or deactivation of various signaling pathways. In this review, we summarized available studies on Prx II expression in cancers and the mechanisms by which Prx II takes parts to regulate CSCs and stemness-associated properties. We further discussed the potential therapeutic effects of altering Prx II expression in cancers for better anticancer strategies by sensitizing cancer cells and stem cells to oxidative stress and inhibiting stemness-associated properties.
HDAC Inhibition Counteracts Metastatic Re-Activation of Prostate Cancer Cells Induced by Chronic mTOR Suppression
Authors: Makarević Jasmina , Rutz Jochen , Juengel Eva , Maxeiner Sebastian , Mani Jens , Vallo Stefan , Tsaur Igor , Roos Frederik , Chun Felix K.-H. , Blaheta Roman A.
Published: September 2018

This study was designed to investigate whether epigenetic modulation by histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibition might circumvent resistance towards the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor temsirolimus in a prostate cancer cell model. Parental (par) and temsirolimus-resistant (res) PC3 prostate cancer cells were exposed to the HDAC inhibitor valproic acid (VPA), and tumor cell adhesion, chemotaxis, migration, and invasion were evaluated. Temsirolimus resistance was characterized by reduced binding of PC3res cells to endothelium, immobilized collagen, and fibronectin, but increased adhesion to laminin, as compared to the parental cells. Chemotaxis, migration, and invasion of PC3res cells were enhanced following temsirolimus re-treatment. Integrin α and β receptors were significantly altered in PC3res compared to PC3par cells. VPA significantly counteracted temsirolimus resistance by down-regulating tumor cell–matrix interaction, chemotaxis, and migration. Evaluation of integrin expression in the presence of VPA revealed a significant down-regulation of integrin α5 in PC3res cells. Blocking studies demonstrated a close association between α5 expression on PC3res and chemotaxis. In this in vitro model, temsirolimus resistance drove prostate cancer cells to become highly motile, while HDAC inhibition reversed the metastatic activity. The VPA-induced inhibition of metastatic activity was accompanied by a lowered integrin α5 surface level on the tumor cells.
Changes in Parent Psychological Flexibility after a One-Time Mindfulness-Based Intervention for Parents of Adolescents with Persistent Pain Conditions
Authors: Ruskin Danielle , Campbell Lauren , Stinson Jennifer , Ahola Kohut Sara
Published: September 2018

Parenting a child with chronic pain can be stressful and impact parent functioning in a variety of areas. Several studies have examined mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) for parents of children with different health and mental health conditions. However, no studies to date have examined MBIs for parents of children with pain conditions. This study aimed to: (1) determine the feasibility and acceptability of a one-time MBI workshop for parents (n = 34) of adolescents with painful conditions (chronic pain and inflammatory bowel disease) who were participating in a concurrent mindfulness group for adolescents with pain, and (2) examine changes in parent mindfulness and psychological flexibility following the intervention. A mixed-method design was used. In terms of feasibility and acceptability, high recruitment and retention rates were observed, and parents reported high satisfaction scores with the workshop. Changes pre to post intervention showed that dimensions of parent psychological flexibility, but not parent mindfulness, improved following participation in the workshop. Qualitative analyses based on parent responses on a questionnaire uncovered seven themes of parent “takeaways” following participation in the workshop: Mindfulness Skills, Not Alone, Psychological Flexibility, Parent–Child Interactions, Self-Efficacy, Optimism/Positivity/Hope, and Awareness of Values. Taken together, these findings suggest that a one-time MBI workshop offered to parents whose teen was participating in a concurrent mindfulness group for pain is a feasible and promising intervention for parents of children with pain conditions.
Dominant Modes of Upper Ocean Heat Content in the North Indian Ocean
Authors: Ali Meer Mohammed , Singh Neetu , Kumar Manchikanti Suresh , Zheng Yangxing , Bourassa Mark , Kishtawal Chandra Mohan , Rao Chandu Venkateswara
Published: September 2018

The thermal energy needed for the development of hurricanes and monsoons as well as any prolonged marine weather event comes from layers in the upper oceans, not just from the thin layer represented by sea surface temperature alone. Ocean layers have different modes of thermal energy variability because of the different time scales of ocean–atmosphere interaction. Although many previous studies have focused on the influence of upper ocean heat content (OHC) on tropical cyclones and monsoons, no study thus far—particularly in the North Indian Ocean (NIO)—has specifically concluded the types of dominant modes in different layers of the ocean. In this study, we examined the dominant modes of variability of OHC of seven layers in the NIO during 1998–2014. We conclude that the thermal variability in the top 50 m of the ocean had statistically significant semiannual and annual modes of variability, while the deeper layers had the annual mode alone. Time series of OHC for the top four layers were analyzed separately for the NIO, Arabian Sea, and Bay of Bengal. For the surface to 50 m layer, the lowest and the highest values of OHC were present in January and May every year, respectively, which was mainly caused by the solar radiation cycle.
Osteonecrosis of the Jaw in Myeloma Patients Receiving Denosumab or Zoledronic Acid. Comment on Pivotal Trial by Raje et al. Published on Lancet Oncology
Authors: Fusco Vittorio , Campisi Giuseppina , De Boissieu Paul , Monaco Federico , Baraldi Anna , Numico Gianmauro , Bedogni Alberto
Published: September 2018

The recent randomized trial, published by Raje et al., on Lancet Oncology is potentially practice changing. It proposes that denosumab is a valid alternative to zoledronic acid in the treatment of myeloma patients. However, several points need further data and more details, such as information on incidence, diagnosis, and follow-up of osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) cases, observed among treated patients. Adopted definition to adjudicate ONJ cases, type of registration of potential ONJ cases, length of observation are possible causes of potential underestimation of ONJ incidence in their study. Future updated evaluations with longer follow-up, and including actuarial estimation, are required for final judgment on ONJ risk in myeloma patients receiving denosumab, and comparison with ONJ risk by zoledronic acid.
Restoration Strategies of Endodontically Treated Teeth among Dental Practitioners in Saudi Arabia. A Nationwide Pilot Survey
Authors: Alenzi Abdulrahman , Samran Abdulaziz , Samran Ahlam , Nassani Mohammad Zakaria , Naseem Mustafa , Khurshid Zohaib , Özcan Mutlu
Published: September 2018

The purpose of this study was to determine dental practitioners’ opinions, techniques, and materials used for the restoration of endodontically treated teeth (ETT) in Saudi Arabia. A comprehensive nationwide survey regarding treatment strategies of ETT, on the post types and material used for core foundations were distributed either by email or by hard copies to general dentists in different parts of Saudi Arabia (North, South, West, East, and Center). Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the responses to the questions. A total of 164 participants were included in the survey: 72.6% of them were male, and 27.4% were female. 42.1% of the participants were Saudi dental practitioners, whereas 57.9% were non-Saudi dental practitioners. Out of the surveyed dentists, 52% consider post placement for almost every post-endodontic restoration of ETT. The majority of the dentists (54%) believe that a post strengthens ETT. Cast posts and cores were used by 55% of all the dentists, whereas 34% used prefabricated posts exclusively. Screw posts were the most popular prefabricated post type (47%). Composite resin (51%) was preferred for the core foundation, followed by glass ionomer cements (GICs) (26%). Amalgam was seldom used (0.5%). Posts were placed primarily with zinc phosphate cement (51%), followed by GIC (38%). Within the limitations of this survey-based investigation among dental practitioners in Saudi Arabia, it was concluded that the treatment strategies of ETT are in accordance with the current state of evidence-based knowledge.
Influence of the EndoActivator Irrigation System on Dentinal Tubule Penetration of a Novel Tricalcium Silicate-Based Sealer
Authors: El Hachem Roula , Le Brun Guy , Le Jeune Bernard , Pellen Fabrice , Khalil Issam , Abboud Marie
Published: September 2018

This study compared the effects of a conventional endodontic needle with an agitation system on a novel tricalcium silicate-based sealer (NTS) in terms of dentinal tubule penetration and interfacial adaptation to a root canal. Fifty single-rooted, recently-extracted human maxillary central incisors were randomly distributed into two homogeneous groups characterized by two different final cleansing systems: Conventional endodontic needle, or EndoActivator®. After instrumentation, all the teeth were filled with the gutta-percha single cone technique in conjunction with the novel tricalcium silicate-based sealer. Teeth were horizontally sectioned at 1 and 5 mm from the apex and were observed under a confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) at five magnifications. The maximum, mean, and the circumferential percentage of the sealer penetration inside the tubules were measured. Moreover, the gap width was evaluated using Image J software (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD). EndoActivator® did not result in a significantly higher circumferential percentage of sealer penetration than conventional irrigation (p > 0.05). However, the gap width was significantly lower with EndoActivator®, compared to conventional needles at both 1 mm (p = 0.035) and 5 mm (p = 0.038). The EndoActivator® irrigation system did not significantly improve the NTS penetration, as compared to the conventional endodontic needle irrigation. Activation of the irrigation reduced the gap width significantly.
The Relationship between the US Economy’s Information Processing and Absorption Ratios: Systematic vs Systemic Risk
Authors: Parker Edgar
Published: September 2018

After the 2008 financial collapse, the now popular measure of implied systemic risk called the absorption ratio was introduced. This statistic measures how closely the economy’s markets are coupled. The more closely financial markets are coupled the more susceptible they are to systemic collapse. A new alternative measure of financial market health, the implied information processing ratio or entropic efficiency of the economy, was derived using concepts from information theory. This new entropic measure can also be useful in predicting economic downturns and measuring systematic risk. In the current work, the relationship between these two ratios and types of risks are explored. Potential methods of the joint use of these different measures to optimally reduce systemic and systematic risk are introduced.
A Synoptic and Theoretical Account of Character (Digits and Capital Letters) Reversal in Writings by Typically Developing Children
Authors: Fischer Jean-Paul , Luxembourger Christophe
Published: September 2018

Reversing characters (digits and letters) when writing, and complete mirror writing, raise one of the oldest and most mysterious questions in developmental and educational psychology: Why do five-year-old children write symbols (e.g., ꓱ for E) they have neither learnt nor seen? Attempts to draw up a complete explanatory theory of character reversal in writings by typically developing children were long hindered by the existence of a seemingly satisfactory explanation (left-hand writing), the failure to bring together research in neuropsychology and educational psychology, and the failure to consider the shape and structure of the characters. The present paper remedies this situation by describing a new, comprehensive theory based on recent neuropsychological findings and extensive empirical observations. The theory assumes that a character’s orientation, detected in the early visual processing area, is deleted (or made inaccessible) by the mirror generalization process during transfer to memory. Consequently, there is a period, usually around age five, during which children have representations of the characters’ shapes but not their orientations. Hence, when asked to write a character, children have to improvise its orientation, and the orientation they choose (implicitly, non-consciously) is often derived from the writing direction in their culture.
Access Adaptive and Thread-Aware Cache Partitioning in Multicore Systems
Authors: Huang Kai , Wang Ke , Zheng Dandan , Zhang Xiaoxu , Yan Xiaolang
Published: September 2018

Cache partitioning is a successful technique for saving energy for a shared cache and all the existing studies focus on multi-program workloads running in multicore systems. In this paper, we are motivated by the fact that a multi-thread application generally executes faster than its single-thread counterpart and its cache accessing behavior is quite different. Based on this observation, we study applications running in multi-thread mode and classify data of the multi-thread applications into shared and private categories, which helps reduce the interferences among shared and private data and contributes to constructing a more efficient cache partitioning scheme. We also propose a hardware structure to support these operations. Then, an access adaptive and thread-aware cache partitioning (ATCP) scheme is proposed, which assigns separate cache portions to shared and private data to avoid the evictions caused by the conflicts from the data of different categories in the shared cache. The proposed ATCP achieves a lower energy consumption, meanwhile improving the performance of applications compared with the least recently used (LRU) managed, core-based evenly partitioning (EVEN) and utility-based cache partitioning (UCP) schemes. The experimental results show that ATCP can achieve 29.6% and 19.9% average energy savings compared with LRU and UCP schemes in a quad-core system. Moreover, the average speedup of multi-thread ATCP with respect to single-thread LRU is at 1.89.
Partial Feedback Linearizing Model Predictive Controllers for Multiple Photovoltaic Units Connected to Grids through a Point of Common Coupling
Authors: Orchi Tahsin Fahima , Mahmud Md Apel , Oo Amanullah Maung Than
Published: September 2018

In this paper, partial feedback linearizing model predictive controllers are designed for grid-connected systems comprising multiple photovoltaic (PV) units where these units are connected through a point of common coupling (PCC). The proposed controllers are designed for voltage source inverters (VSIs) based on comprehensive dynamical models of grid-connected PV systems with the proposed topology. The proposed partial feedback linearization scheme decouples multiple PV units in the forms of several reduced-order subsystems and enables linear controller design through the linear continuous-time receding horizon model predictive control scheme. The proposed partial feedback linearization scheme also considers dynamic interactions among multiple PV units as external noises or disturbances and decouples these noises. This paper includes the noise decoupling capability of the partial feedback linearization for grid-connected PV systems with multiple PV units which are connected through a PCC. Simulation results clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme under different operating conditions as compared to an existing proportional integral controller.
Investigation of the Effect of Winding Clamping Structure on Frequency Response Signature of 11 kV Distribution Transformer
Authors: Srikanta Murthy Avinash , Azis Norhafiz , Al-Ameri Salem , Mohd Yousof Mohd Fairouz , Jasni Jasronita , Talib Mohd Aizam
Published: September 2018

This paper presents an investigation on the sensitivity of frequency response of a 500 kVA, 11/0.433 kV distribution transformer with and without the presence of a winding clamping structure. Frequency response analysis (FRA) measurements of multiple test configurations were carried out with and without the presence of a winding clamping structure. Statistical analyses based on Pearson’s correlation coefficient (PCC), Spearman’s correlation coefficient (SCC), Kendall’s correlation coefficient (KCC), cross-correlation coefficient (CCF), root mean square error (RMSE), absolute sum of logarithmic error (ASLE), hypothesis test (F-test) and relative factor (RF) were applied to determine the effect of the winding clamping structure. It was found that the removal of the winding clamping structure has an impact on the frequency response signature at the frequency less than 2 kHz during offline measurement. It was found that ASLE and F-test are suitable methods that can be used to indicate the variation of frequency response caused by clamping structure removal of the distribution transformer under study.
Forecasting the Low-Voltage Line Damage Caused by Typhoons in China Based on the Factor Analysis Method and an Improved Gravitational Search Algorithm-Extreme Learning Machine
Authors: Wang Weijun , Peng Weisong , Tan Xin , Wang Haoyue , Sun Chenjun
Published: September 2018

The frequency of typhoons in China has gradually increased, resulting in serious damage to low-voltage power grid lines. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the influencing factors and predict the amount of damage, which contributes to enhancing wind resistance and improving the efficiency of repairs. In this paper, 18 influencing factors with a correlation degree higher than 0.75 are selected by grey correlation analysis, and then converted into six common factors by factor analysis. Additionally, an extreme learning machine optimized by an improved gravitational search algorithm, hereafter referred to as IGSA-ELM, is established to predict the damage caused to the low-voltage lines by typhoons and verify the effectiveness of the factor analysis. The results reveal that the six common factors generated by factor analysis can effectively improve the prediction accuracy and the fitting effect of IGSA-ELM is better than those of the extreme learning machine (ELM) and the extreme learning machine based on particle swarm optimization (PSO-ELM). Finally, this article proposes valid policy recommendations to improve the anti-typhoon capacity and repair efficiency of the low-voltage lines in Guangdong Province.
Drought Impact and Adaptation Strategies in the Mid-Hill Farming System of Western Nepal
Authors: Adhikari Shankar
Published: September 2018

Climate-induced drought hazard has been emerging as one of the major challenges in the mid-hill farming system and rural livelihood in Nepal. Drought stress, in combination with century-long socio-political issues such as unequal social structure, gender discrimination, and marginalization of poor and disadvantaged groups have made smallholders more vulnerable in society. Climate changes are exacerbating issues within an already vulnerable society. Therefore, a review study on the impact of drought on the rain-fed hill farming system, and the potential adaptation measures, was carried out in the mid-hill region of western Nepal. Both agricultural impacts such as depletion of traditional varieties of crops, crop-specific diseases, low production, lack of water for irrigation; and non-agricultural impacts such as changing rural livelihood patterns, and social conflict due to agriculture and water issues were identified as major impacts. Some of the agricultural adaptation measures viz. the promotion of climate smart agriculture practices, crop diversification, and agroforestry practices seem to have been more effective in the region. At the same time, small-scale structural water harvesting measures, for instance, rainwater harvesting, conservation ponds, and irrigation channels, drip water irrigation, and an early warning system for drought events could also be an advantage in this context. Nonetheless, there are several adaptation barriers including ecological and physical constraints, human and information resource-shortages, and social barriers to adaptation. Therefore, local site-specific adaptation measures should be developed, and implemented, to increase the adaptive capacity of smallholders, and enhance the farming system in the face of the climate-induced drought scenario.