bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Development of Hot Gas Cleaning Systems for Advanced, Coal Based Gas Turbine Cycles
Authors: Lippert Thomas E. , Newby Richard A. , Alvin Mary Anne , Bachovchin Dennis M. , Bruck Gerald J. , Smeltzer Eugene E.
Published: March 2015

Westinghouse is developing hot gas cleaning systems for advanced, coal based gas turbine cycles. This paper summarizes the Westinghouse hot gas filter concept and reports on recent in-house and field test programs supporting its design and development. Basic materials issues related to ceramic material stability and hot metals structures are reviewed. Results of recent filter system testing are presented comparing candle and cross flow designs operating in both “simulated” and actual coal derived gas streams. Laboratory tests and analysis are reported relating to integrating sulfur and alkali control with the particle filter function.
Accuracy and Efficiency Assessments for a Weak Statement CFD Algorithm for High-Speed Aerodynamics
Authors: Iannelli G. S. , Baker A. J.
Published: March 2015

A bilinear finite element, implicit Runge-Kutta space-time discretization has been established for an aerodynamics weak statement CFD algorithm. The algorithm admits real-gas effects simulation, for reliable hypersonic flow characterization, via an equilibrium reacting air model. The terminal algebraic system is solved using an efficient block-tridiagonal quasi-Newton linear algebra procedure that employs tensor matrix product factorizations within a lexicographic mesh-sweeping protocol. A block solution-adaptive remeshing, for totally arbitrary convex elements, is also utilized to facilitate accurate shock and/or boundary layer flow resolution. Numerical validations are presented for representative benchmark supersonic-hypersonic aerodynamics problem statements.
Ankle Dorsiflexion Displacement During Landing is Associated With Initial Contact Kinematics but not Joint Displacement
Authors: Begalle Rebecca L. , Walsh Meghan C. , McGrath Melanie L. , Boling Michelle C. , Blackburn J. Troy , Padua Darin A.
Published: March 2015

The ankle, knee, and hip joints work together in the sagittal plane to absorb landing forces. Reduced sagittal plane motion at the ankle may alter landing strategies at the knee and hip, potentially increasing injury risk; however, no studies have examined the kinematic relationships between the joints during jump landings. Healthy adults (N = 30; 15 male, 15 female) performed jump landings onto a force plate while three-dimensional kinematic data were collected. Joint displacement values were calculated during the loading phase as the difference between peak and initial contact angles. No relationship existed between ankle dorsiflexion displacement during landing and three-dimensional knee and hip displacements. However, less ankle dorsiflexion displacement was associated with landing at initial ground contact with larger hip flexion, hip internal rotation, knee flexion, knee varus, and smaller plantar flexion angles. Findings of the current study suggest that restrictions in ankle motion during landing may contribute to contacting the ground in a more flexed position but continuing through little additional motion to absorb the landing. Transverse plane hip and frontal plane knee positioning may also occur, which are known to increase the risk of lower extremity injury.
Focus Issue: Inflammatory mechanisms
Authors: Foley John F.
Published: March 2015

Delineating both pro- and anti-inflammatory mechanisms is important to developing effective anti-inflammatory therapies.
Epigenetics of addiction
Authors: VanHook Annalisa M.
Published: March 2015

Chronic opiate use represses expression of
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor
through changes in histone modifications.
Statins and Voriconazole Induce Programmed Cell Death in Acanthamoeba castellanii
Authors: Martín-Navarro Carmen M. , López-Arencibia Atteneri , Sifaoui Ines , Reyes-Batlle María , Valladares Basilio , Martínez-Carretero Enrique , Piñero José E. , Maciver Sutherland K. , Lorenzo-Morales Jacob
Published: March 2015

Members of the genus
Acanthamoeba
are facultative pathogens of humans, causing a sight-threatening keratitis and a life-threatening encephalitis. In order to treat those infections properly, it is necessary to target the treatment not only to the trophozoite but also to the cyst. Furthermore, it may be advantageous to avoid parasite killing by necrosis, which may induce local inflammation. We must also avoid toxicity of host tissue. Many drugs which target eukaryotes are known to induce programmed cell death (PCD), but this process is poorly characterized in
Acanthamoeba
. Here, we study the processes of programmed cell death in
Acanthamoeba
, induced by several drugs, such as statins and voriconazole. We tested atorvastatin, fluvastatin, simvastatin, and voriconazole at the 50% inhibitory concentrations (IC
50
s) and IC
90
s that we have previously established. In order to evaluate this phenomenon, we investigated the DNA fragmentation, one of the main characteristics of PCD, with quantitative and qualitative techniques. Also, the changes related to phosphatidylserine exposure on the external cell membrane and cell permeability were studied. Finally, because caspases are key to PCD pathways, caspase activity was evaluated in
Acanthamoeba
. All the drugs assayed in this study induced PCD in
Acanthamoeba
. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study where PCD induced by drugs is described quantitatively and qualitatively in
Acanthamoeba
.
Development of a Microarray-Based Tool To Characterize Vaginal Bacterial Fluctuations and Application to a Novel Antibiotic Treatment for Bacterial Vaginosis
Authors: Cruciani Federica , Biagi Elena , Severgnini Marco , Consolandi Clarissa , Calanni Fiorella , Donders Gilbert , Brigidi Patrizia , Vitali Beatrice
Published: March 2015

The healthy vaginal microbiota is generally dominated by lactobacilli that confer antimicrobial protection and play a crucial role in health. Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is the most prevalent lower genital tract infection in women in reproductive age and is characterized by a shift in the relative abundances of
Lactobacillus
spp. to a greater abundance of strictly anaerobic bacteria. In this study, we designed a new phylogenetic microarray-based tool (VaginArray) that includes 17 probe sets specific for the most representative bacterial groups of the human vaginal ecosystem. This tool was implemented using the ligase detection reaction-universal array (LDR-UA) approach. The entire probe set properly recognized the specific targets and showed an overall sensitivity of 6 to 12 ng per probe. The VaginArray was applied to assess the efficacy of rifaximin vaginal tablets for the treatment of BV, analyzing the vaginal bacterial communities of 22 BV-affected women treated with rifaximin vaginal tablets at a dosage of 25 mg/day for 5 days. Our results showed the ability of rifaximin to reduce the growth of various BV-related bacteria (
Atopobium vaginae
,
Prevotella
,
Megasphaera
,
Mobiluncus
, and
Sneathia
spp.), with the highest antibiotic susceptibility for
A. vaginae
and
Sneathia
spp. Moreover, we observed an increase of
Lactobacillus crispatus
levels in the subset of women who maintained remission after 1 month of therapy, opening new perspectives for the treatment of BV.
Influence of Inflammation on Voriconazole Metabolism
Authors: Encalada Ventura M. A. , Span L. F. R. , van den Heuvel E. R. , Groothuis G. M. M. , Alffenaar J.-W. C.
Published: March 2015

Voriconazole pharmacokinetics shows a large inter- and intrapatient variability. Inflammation is associated with changes in the expression of CYP isoenzymes. Here, we evaluated the influence of inflammation, marked by C-reactive protein (CRP) levels in blood, on the metabolism of voriconazole. Observational data showed an association between CRP level and the ratio of voriconazole
N
-oxide to voriconazole.
Vaccination of Cattle with the N Terminus of LppQ of Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. mycoides Results in Type III Immune Complex Disease upon Experimental Infection
Authors: Mulongo Musa , Frey Joachim , Smith Ken , Schnier Christian , Wesonga Hezron , Naessens Jan , McKeever Declan
Published: March 2015

Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) is a serious respiratory disease of cattle caused byMycoplasma mycoidessubsp.mycoides.Current vaccines against CBPP induce short-lived immunity and can cause severe postvaccine reactions. Previous studies have identified the N terminus of the transmembrane lipoprotein Q (LppQ-N′) ofM. mycoidessubsp.mycoidesas the major antigen and a possible virulence factor. We therefore immunized cattle with purified recombinant LppQ-N′ formulated in Freund's adjuvant and challenged them withM. mycoidessubsp.mycoides. Vaccinated animals showed a strong seroconversion to LppQ, but they exhibited significantly enhanced postchallenge glomerulonephritis compared to the placebo group (P= 0.021). Glomerulonephritis was characterized by features that suggested the development of antigen-antibody immune complexes. Clinical signs and gross pathological scores did not significantly differ between vaccinated and placebo groups. These findings reveal for the first time the pathogenesis of enhanced disease as a result of antibodies against LppQ during challenge and also argue against inclusion of LppQ-N′ in a future subunit vaccine for CBPP.
PD-1 Deficiency Enhances Humoral Immunity of Malaria Infection Treatment Vaccine
Authors: Liu Taiping , Lu Xiao , Zhao Chenghao , Fu Xiaolan , Zhao Tingting , Xu Wenyue
Published: March 2015

Malaria infection treatment vaccine (ITV) is a promising strategy to induce homologous and heterologous protective immunity against the blood stage of the parasite. However, the underlying mechanism of protection remains largely unknown. Here, we found that a malaria-specific antibody (Ab) could mediate the protective immunity of ITV-immunized mice. Interestingly, PD-1 deficiency greatly elevated the levels of both malaria-specific total IgG and subclass IgG2a and enhanced the protective efficacy of ITV-immunized mice against the blood-stage challenge. A serum adoptive-transfer assay demonstrated that the increased Ab level contributed to the enhanced protective efficacy of the immunized PD-1-deficient mice. Further study showed that PD-1 deficiency could also promote the expansion of germinal center (GC) B cells and malaria parasite-specific T
FH
cells in the spleens of ITV-immunized mice. These results suggest that PD-1 deficiency improves the protective efficacy of ITV-immunized mice by promoting the generation of malaria parasite-specific Ab and the expansion of GC B cells. The results of this study provide new evidence to support the negative function of PD-1 on humoral immunity and will guide the design of a more effective malaria vaccine.
Surgical management of subcutaneousColletotrichum gloeosporioides
Authors: Allton David R , Parvez Najma , Ranganath Sangeetha , Jinadatha Chetan
Published: March 2015

A 52-year-old male patient with a history of sarcoidosis and over 10 years of chronic low-dose glucocorticoid use, cirrhosis and type 2 diabetes mellitus presented with two painful, enlarging subcutaneous nodules ultimately identified asColletotrichum gloeosporioides. Two attempts at needle aspiration of the larger nodule resulted in rapid reaccumulation. Complete surgical excision of both nodules resulted in complete resolution without the use of any concomitant antifungals. Patient had no recurrence at 2 years of follow-up.
Undescended parathyroid adenoma
Authors: Kanack Melissa D , Maawy Ali A , Oh Deborah K , Bouvet Michael
Published: March 2015

Undescended parathyroid adenomas are rare, representing 0.08% of all parathyroid adenomas; however, they make up 7% of the underlying cause of failed cervical exploration in patients with persistent primary hyperparathyroidism. A 43-year-old woman with no significant medical or family history presented with fatigue and was diagnosed with primary hyperparathyroidism; however, preoperative imaging including sestamibi scan and ultrasound was unable to identify the hyperfunctioning gland. She underwent a neck exploration and hemithyroidectomy and partial parathyroidectomy with failure of resolution of her disease. Subsequent work up including a CT of the neck demonstrated a 1.9 cm mass adjacent to the left submandibular gland. This was removed with postoperative normalisation of the patient's serum calcium and parathyroid hormone levels.
Physical examination tests for hip dysfunction and injury
Authors: Reiman Michael P , Mather Richard C , Cook Chad E
Published: March 2015

Background

Physical examination tests for hip dysfunction and injury of the strongest diagnostic accuracy were identified in a recent systematic review with meta-analysis inBJSM. These tests are described in this article.

Discussion

A detailed description of the various different tests is given, with photographs for each test procedure. Diagnostic interpretation of each test requires careful consideration, with special attention to specific variables such as test performance and patient population.
Efficient statistical estimators and sampling strategies for estimating the age composition of fish
Authors: Aanes Sondre , Vølstad Jon Helge
Published: March 2015

Estimates of age compositions of fish populations or catches that are fundamental inputs to analytical stock assessment models are generally obtained from sample surveys, and multistage cluster sampling of fish is the norm. We use simulations and extensive empirical survey data for Northeast Arctic cod (Gadus morhua) to compare the efficiency of estimators that use age–length keys (ALKs) with design-based estimators for estimating age compositions of fish. The design-based weighted ratio estimator produces the most accurate estimates for cluster-correlated data, and an alternative estimator based on a weighted ALK is equivalent under certain constraints. Using simulations to evaluate subsampling strategies, we show that otolith collections from a length-stratified subsample of one fish per 5 cm length bin (∼10 fish total) per haul or trip is sufficient and nearly as efficient as a random subsample of 20 fish. Our study also indicates that the common practice of applying fixed ALKs to length composition data can severely underestimate the variance in estimates of age compositions and that “borrowing” of ALKs developed for other gears, areas, or time periods can cause serious bias.
Large-eddy simulation of the Richtmyer–Meshkov instability
Authors: Wang T. , Li P. , Bai J.S. , Tao G. , Wang B. , Zou L.Y.
Published: March 2015

The subgrid-scale (SGS) terms of turbulence transport are modelled by the stretched-vortex SGS stress model, and a large-eddy simulation code multi-viscous fluid and turbulence (MVFT) is developed to investigate the MVFT problems. Then one AWE shock tube experiment of interface instability is simulated numerically by MVFT code, which reproduces the development process of the interface. The obtained numerical images of interface evolution and wave structures in flow field are consistent with the experimental results. The evolution of perturbed interface and propagation of shock waves in flow field and their interactions are analyzed in detail. The statistics features of turbulence mixing in the form of finer quantities, such as the turbulent kinetic energy, enstrophy, density variance, and turbulent mass flux are investigated, which also proves that the SGS model has a key role in large-eddy simulation. The turbulent kinetic energy and enstrophy decay with time as a power law.
Spontaneous liver fibrosis induced by long term dietary vitamin D deficiency in adult mice is related to chronic inflammation and enhanced apoptosis
Authors: Zhu Longdong , Kong Ming , Han Yuan-Ping , Bai Li , Zhang Xiaohui , Chen Yu , Zheng Sujun , Yuan Hong , Duan Zhongping
Published: March 2015

Epidemiological studies have revealed an association between vitamin D deficiency and various chronic liver diseases. However, it is not known whether lack of vitamin D can induce spontaneous liver fibrosis in an animal model. To study this, mice were fed either a control diet or a vitamin D deficient diet (VDD diet). For the positive control, liver fibrosis was induced with carbon tetrachloride. Here we show, for the first time, that liver fibrosis spontaneously developed in mice fed the VDD diet. Long-term administration of a VDD diet resulted in necro-inflammation and liver fibrosis. Inflammatory mediators including tumor necrosis factor-α, interleulin-1, interleukin-6, Toll-like-receptor 4, and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 were up-regulated in the livers of the mice fed the VDD diet. Conversely, the expression of Th2/M2 markers such as IL-10, IL-13, arginase 1, and heme oxygenase-1 were down-regulated in the livers of mice fed the VDD diet. Transforming growth factor-β1 and matrix metalloproteinase 13, which are important for fibrosis, were induced in the livers of mice fed the VDD diet. Moreover, the VDD diet triggered apoptosis in the parenchymal cells, in agreement with the increased levels of Fas and FasL, and decreased Bcl2 and Bclx. Thus, long-term vitamin D deficiency can provoke chronic inflammation that can induce liver apoptosis, which consequently activates hepatic stellate cells to initiate liver fibrosis.
Building up a Bio-Inspired Visual Attention Model by Integrating Top-Down Shape Bias and Improved Mean Shift Adaptive Segmentation
Authors: Xu Jiawei , Yue Shigang
Published: March 2015

The driver-assistance system (DAS) becomes quite necessary in-vehicle equipment nowadays due to the large number of road traffic accidents worldwide. An efficient DAS detecting hazardous situations robustly is key to reduce road accidents. The core of a DAS is to identify salient regions or regions of interest relevant to visual attended objects in real visual scenes for further process. In order to achieve this goal, we present a method to locate regions of interest automatically based on a novel adaptive mean shift segmentation algorithm to obtain saliency objects. In the proposed mean shift algorithm, we use adaptive Bayesian bandwidth to find the convergence of all data points by iterations and the k-nearest neighborhood queries. Experiments showed that the proposed algorithm is efficient, and yields better visual salient regions comparing with ground-truth benchmark. The proposed algorithm continuously outperformed other known visual saliency methods, generated higher precision and better recall rates, when challenged with natural scenes collected locally and one of the largest publicly available data sets. The proposed algorithm can also be extended naturally to detect moving vehicles in dynamic scenes once integrated with top-down shape biased cues, as demonstrated in our experiments.
Unification of inflation and dark energyà laquintessential inflation
Authors: Hossain Md. Wali , Myrzakulov R. , Sami M. , Saridakis Emmanuel N.
Published: March 2015

This pedagogical review is devoted to quintessential inflation, which refers to unification of inflation and dark energy using a single scalar field. We present a brief but concise description of the concepts needed to join the two ends, which include discussion on scalar field dynamic, conformal coupling, instant preheating and relic gravitational waves. Models of quintessential inflation broadly fall into two classes, depending upon the early and late time behavior of the field potential. In the first type we include models in which the field potential is steep for most of the history of the universe but turn shallow at late times, whereas in the second type the potential is shallow at early times followed by a steep behavior thereafter. In models of the first category inflation can be realized by invoking high-energy brane-induced damping, which is needed to facilitate slow roll along a steep potential. In models of second type one may invoke a nonminimal coupling of the scalar field with massive neutrino matter, which might induce a minimum in the potential at late times as neutrinos turn nonrelativistic. In this category we review a class of models with noncanonical kinetic term in the Lagrangian, which can comply with recent B mode polarization measurements. The scenario under consideration is distinguished by the presence of a kinetic phase, which precedes the radiative regime, giving rise to blue spectrum of gravity waves generated during inflation. We highlight the generic features of quintessential inflation and also discuss on issues related to Lyth bound.
LG Display's First Module Plant in Europe
Authors: Kim Bowon , Kim Hanyoung , Sim Jeong Eun , Shin Chanshik
Published: March 2015

As of 2012, LG Display was one of the largest LCD manufacturers in the world. Headquartered in Seoul, Korea, LGD had one R&D center, twelve LCD panel plants, and nine LCD module plants in Korea, China, and Poland. As the head of his company's Strategy and Marketing Center, Senior VP Champ Shin was evaluating one of the most important long-term strategic choices he had helped LGD to undertake in 2004. It was the company's decision to build its first module plant in Europe. In fact, it was the first plant LGD had ever built outside Korea and China. Now he had to assess the performance of the module plant in Europe for the last 5 years since it had started manufacturing in 2007 and report the overall evaluation result to the company's executive committee. Mr. Shin was preparing the report in two parts, one about the decision-making processes in 2004 his team had gone through to decide to build the European plant in Poland and the other about the plant's performance since its construction completed in 2007. In the report, he planned to describe the detailed steps taken by his team when making the decision and the plant's various performance outcomes. Shin thought he and his team had made a good choice, which was evidenced by the excellent performance observed from the module plant in Poland. Believing that his experience in making LGD's first European operations successful would be a valuable lesson for the entire company, Shin already started to chart out the company's next strategy.
Direct Growth of Bismuth Oxyhalides Nanosheet Arrays on Carbon Cloth for Recycled Photocatalytic Degradation of Dye and 4-Nitrophenol
Authors: Li Lu , Zhang Mingyi , Liu Ying , Zhang Xitian
Published: March 2015

BiOX  ( X = Cl , Br , I ) nanosheet arrays have been grown on the surface of carbon cloth as recycled photocatalysts. Photocatalytic tests display that the BiOCl /carbon cloth heterostructures possess a much higher degradation rate compared with BiOCl grown on a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) planar substrate. The photocatalytic experimental results indicate that BiOCl /carbon cloth heterostructures show excellent cyclic properties.
Chapter 13 Geology of Mesoproterozoic Chhattisgarh Basin, central India: current status and future goals
Authors: Chakraborty Partha Pratim , Saha Subhojit , Das Priyabrata
Published: March 2015

In the last two decades multiproxy studies involving process-based sedimentology, geochronology of interbedded tuff units from different stratigraphic levels, sediment geochemistry including stable isotope signatures and documentation of structural grains within selective stratigraphic intervals from the Chhattisgarh Basin, central India have resulted in a perception change on various aspects of the basin fill including its time frame, stratigraphic framework and depositional architecture in the space–time domain. In addition to establishing a Mesoproterozoic (
c.
1450–1000 Ma) time frame for the basin on a strong foothold, these studies also proposed revision of its stratigraphy by introducing new stratigraphic units at ‘formation’ and ‘group’ level. From collation of available data, their critical evaluation and presentation of new data, the present work proposes a four-tier lithostratigraphy for the Chhattisgarh Supergroup, namely, Singhora Group, Chadarpur Group, Raipur Group and Kharsiya Group. Further, application of sequence stratigraphic rationale allowed the basin succession to be subdivided into four and three nonconformity/unconformity-bound depositional sequences in its eastern and western parts, respectively. The present chapter also highlights the potential of the basin for carrying out studies related to Mesoproterozoic ocean oxygenation and outlines the necessity of well-planned geophysical transects to resolve issues related to tectonic setup of the basin.
Chapter 15 Evolution of
c.
3.5–2.5 Ga basins of the Dharwar Craton
Authors: Sunder Raju P. V. , Eriksson P. G.
Published: March 2015

The geology and basin evolutionary history of the Dharwar Craton is discussed. The Dharwar Craton comprises western (WDC) and eastern (EDC) subdivisions (possibly separated by the Closepet granite), predicated on lithological contrasts and inferred metamorphic and magmatic evolution. A postulated genesis of the WDC comprises early,
c.
3.5 Ga protocrust, which possibly formed as basement to the
c.
3.35–3.2 Ga Sargur Group greenstone belts. The latter are thought to have formed through accretion of plume-related ocean plateaux. The approximately coeval Peninsular Gneiss Complex possibly originated from beneath plateau remnants, leading to metamorphism of Sargur Group belts at
c.
3.13–2.96 Ga. At
c.
2.9–2.6 Ga, the Dharwar Supergroup, comprising lower Bababudan (mainly braided fluvial, glaciomarine and subaerial volcanic strata) and upper Chitradurga (marine clastic, chemical sedimentary and subaqueous volcanic rocks) groups developed. This supergroup formed younger greenstone belts characterized by two distinct magmatic events, at 2.7–2.6 and 2.58–2.54 Ga; the latter was approximately coeval with
c.
2.6–2.5 Ga granitic magmatism, which marked final cratonization of the WDC. The EDC consists of 2.7–2.55 Ga tonalite–trondhjemite–granodiorite gneisses and migmatites, essentially coeval greenstone belts (mainly volcanic lithologies), with minor inferred remnants of an older,
c.
3.38–3.0 Ga crust, and voluminous 2.56–2.5 Ga granitoids (including the Closepet). An east–west accretion of EDC island arcs (or possibly of an assembled arc-granitic terrane) on to the WDC is postulated, and the Closepet granite perhaps accreted earlier on to the WDC to form a ‘central Dharwar’ terrane. A final voluminous granitic cratonization event affected the assembled Dharwar Craton at
c.
2.5 Ga.
Chapter 16 Tectonics of the Cuddapah Basin and a model of its evolution: a review
Authors: Matin Abdul
Published: March 2015

The Proterozoic Cuddapah Basin of south India is one of the most important Purana basins of Peninsular India. It hosts the Cuddapah Supergroup and the Kurnool Group of rocks. The structure of the Cuddapah Basin reveals that it forms the frontal part of a larger fold–thrust belt, named the Cuddapah fold–thrust belt (CFTB). The CFTB formed in response to the amalgamation of the Prince Charles Mountains–Rayner Complex of Antarctica with the Krishna province of India during the formation of the Rodinia Supercontinent. The CFTB, bounded by the Nellore–Khammam schist belt and Eastern Ghats terrane in the east and Peninsular Gneissic complex of the Dharwar Craton to the west, includes two frontal thrusts and foreland of an orogen. The frontal Nallamalai thrust structurally separates the basin into two blocks – the eastern Nallamalai fold belt and the western foreland. A model of evolution of the CFTB has been proposed. The CFTB, forming the front-most segment of a larger orogen associated with the intercratonic deformation related to the formation of the Rodinia Supercontinent, is the result of fault-propagation folding, forming an overturned anticline–syncline pair at the tip of the propagating Velikonda thrust which later cuts through the common limb of the fold pair.
Chapter 18 Tectonostratigraphic evolution of the Nellore schist belt, southern India, since the Neoarchaean
Authors: Saha Dilip , Sain Arnab , Nandi Parijat , Mazumder Rajat , Kar Rajib
Published: March 2015

Tectonostratigraphic development of the
c.
300 km-long Nellore schist belt (NSB) of southern India is described in relation to the post-Neoarchaean growth of the Dharwar cratonic nucleus. Lying along the eastern margin of the Dharwar cratonic nucleus, the NSB comprises several geologically and geochemically distinct tracts of deformed Palaeoproterozoic to Mesoproterozoic volcanosedimentary successions: the Vinjamuru Group, the Kandra ophiolite complex (KOC), the Kanigiri ophiolitic melange (KOM) and the Udaigiri Group, arranged in relative order of younging. The high-grade Eastern Ghats belt occurs further to the east of the NSB with a tectonic contact. Thrust-transported oceanic crust remnants occur in the 1.9 Ga KOC, 1.34 Ga KOM, and the Vinjamuru Group, which show multiple deformation, amphibolite facies metamorphism and granitic intrusions. The available geological, geochemical and geochronological data have been examined to tentatively constrain the relative age of the different tectonostratigraphic units of the NSB, tectonic juxtaposition and implications in relation to global events in the Proterozoic. Subduction-related ocean closures outboard and east of the Dharwar Craton, evidenced by the KOC and KOM, possibly had links with the assembly of Columbia and its final dispersal, respectively.
Chapter 19 Geological history of the Kaladgi–Badami and Bhima basins, south India: sedimentation in a Proterozoic intracratonic setup
Authors: Dey Sukanta
Published: March 2015

The Proterozoic Kaladgi–Badami and Bhima basins are intracratonic basins occurring over the Archaean Dharwar craton. The Kaladgi–Badami Basin contains arenites, shales and carbonates with minor cherts and conglomerates deposited in continental, transitional and shallow-marine environments presumably during the late Palaeoproterozoic/Mesoproterozoic to Neoproterozoic. The lower part of the succession (Bagalkot Group) is deformed into east–west-trending elongated doubly plunging synclines and anticlines. The upper part of the succession (Badami Group) is undeformed and unconformably overlies the lower part. The evolution of the Kaladgi–Badami Basin was controlled by movements along east–west-trending normal faults under an extensional stress regime. The Bhima Basin hosts mainly limestones with subordinate arenites and shales deposited in fluvial, deltaic and tidal flat environments possibly during the Neoproterozoic. These sediments are undeformed except along faults with significant strike-slip components. The basin is exposed in narrow strips arranged in an en echelon pattern and appears to be a pull-apart basin. Inadequate data exist on the age of the basin fills, the deep basinal architecture, subsidence history and tectonic controls for both of the basins. Future research may be directed towards these aspects which will have wide implications for understanding intracratonic basin formation, reconstructing Proterozoic supercontinents and studying the evolution of the atmosphere and primitive life forms.
Chapter 21 Mineral potential of Proterozoic intracratonic basins in India
Authors: Deb M. , Pal T.
Published: March 2015

There are three large intracratonic basins (Vindhyan, Cuddapah and Chattisgarh) and several smaller basins (Kaladgi, Bhima, Pakhal, Penganga, Indravati, Khariar, Sabari and Kolhan) covering a large part of peninsular India. They are not known to host any significant metallic resource – except for a substantial uranium resource and Pb–Zn sulphide mineralization in the Cuddapah Basin, uranium in Bhima and Kaladgi basins and manganese in the Penganga sequence – but are nevertheless the repository of vast resources of industrial rocks (limestone, dolomite, phosphorite, aluminous laterite, building materials) and minerals (including pyrite, barite and diamond) in the country. The temporal distribution of these resources indicates a Mesoproterozoic age for all the deposits and occurrences except the uranium deposits in the Vempalle dolostones in the southwestern fringe of the Cuddapah Basin, which are Palaeoproterozoic in age. The Cuddapah Basin is the most intensely mineralized Proterozoic basin, with the Cumbum Formation in the Nallamalai belt hosting stratabound base metals and barite, dated
c.
1.6 Ga, all the way from north to south. Potential mineralization, still undiscovered in the basin, is a large SEDEX-type Pb–Zn orebody in the vicinity of the Mangampet barite deposit and unconformity-proximal U deposits in the Kurnool Group, similar to those of the Bhima Basin.
Chapter 8 Archaean sedimentation on the Singhbhum Craton: depositional environments of conglomerates in Jharkhand (east India)
Authors: Van Loon A. J. , De S.
Published: March 2015

Archaean to Palaeoproterozoic metasediments overlie the Archaean granitoid pluton of the Singhbhum Craton in east India. Relatively little is known about the Archaean metasediments, but they comprise several conglomerates in the state of Jharkhand. Their age is most probably Mesoarchaean, possibly earliest Neoarchaean. They occur at separate localities and their exposures commonly consist of scattered patches with a limited extent. Their interrelationships are consequently poorly known. Sedimentological analysis of their structure, architecture and clast composition suggests that most of them represent individual occurrences that partly have been largely eroded away. Other occurrences must have had a limited extent from the very beginning. The various conglomerates were deposited in different environments. Some represent braided or meandering fluvial environments, whereas others seem to have been deposited by mass flows with different degrees of viscosity, possibly mainly on alluvial fans.
Chapter 9 Palaeoarchaean–Mesoproterozoic sedimentation and tectonics along the west-northwestern margin of the Singhbhum Granite body, eastern India: a synthesis
Authors: Ghosh Gautam , Ghosh Bhaskar , Mukhopadhyay Joydip
Published: March 2015

The Singhbhum Craton preserves large low-grade tracts of an extensive stratigraphic period in the Precambrian and therefore is of prime importance for studying the Earth's early evolutionary processes. An early (
c.
3.1 Ga) crustal stabilization followed by a long period (
c.
500 Ma) of high freeboard conditions has been postulated from the terrane in recent times. Tectonostratigraphic analyses of the supracrustal successions, carried out in the present study, from the west-northwestern margin of the Singhbhum Granite body in the craton identify a hitherto undetected Mesoarchaean shelf sequence among these supracrustal successions. In contrast to current thinking, the observations imply immediate development of a passive margin setting following the craton's early stabilization. The cratonic margin later succumbed to a major compression, resulting in successive emplacement of thrust sheets from the northern hinterland side that produced an intermingling of thrust slices of basement rocks and the deformed shelf and rift sequences. This later compressive episode not only involved a part of the Mesoproterozoic Kolhan Basin, but its effects are also manifest as a second deformation throughout the western Iron Ore Group belt. Involvement of the Kolhan Group in the deformation milieu constrains the timing of this orogeny to the Grenvillian (
c.
1.0 Ga).
The Unique Games Conjecture, Integrality Gap for Cut Problems and Embeddability of Negative-Type Metrics into ℓ
1
Authors: Khot Subhash A. , Vishnoi Nisheeth K.
Published: March 2015

In this article, we disprove a conjecture of Goemans and Linial; namely, that every negative type metric embeds into ℓ
1
with constant distortion. We show that for an arbitrarily small constant δ > 0, for all large enough
n
, there is an
n
-point negative type metric which requires distortion at least (log log
n
)
1/6-δ
to embed into ℓ
1
. Surprisingly, our construction is inspired by the Unique Games Conjecture (UGC), establishing a previously unsuspected connection between probabilistically checkable proof systems (PCPs) and the theory of metric embeddings. We first prove that the UGC implies a super-constant hardness result for the (nonuniform) S
PARSEST
C
UT
problem. Though this hardness result relies on the UGC, we demonstrate, nevertheless, that the corresponding PCP reduction can be used to construct an “integrality gap instance” for S
PARSEST
C
UT
. Towards this, we first construct an integrality gap instance for a natural SDP relaxation of U
NIQUE
G
AMES
. Then we “simulate” the PCP reduction and “translate” the integrality gap instance of U
NIQUE
G
AMES
to an integrality gap instance of S
PARSEST
C
UT
. This enables us to prove a (log log
n
)
1/6-δ
integrality gap for S
PARSEST
C
UT
, which is known to be equivalent to the metric embedding lower bound.
Mont’e Scan
Authors: Bettio Fabio , Pintus Ruggero , Villanueva Alberto Jaspe , Merella Emilio , Marton Fabio , Gobbetti Enrico
Published: March 2015

We propose an approach for improving the digitization of shape and color of 3D artworks in a cluttered environment using 3D laser scanning and flash photography. To separate clutter from acquired material, semiautomated methods are employed to generate masks used to segment the range maps and the color photographs. This approach allows the removal of unwanted 3D and color data prior to the integration of acquired data in a 3D model. Sharp shadows generated by flash acquisition are easily handled by this masking process, and color deviations introduced by the flash light are corrected at the color blending step by taking into account the geometry of the object. The approach has been evaluated in a large-scale acquisition campaign of the Mont’e Prama complex. This site contains an extraordinary collection of stone fragments from the Nuragic era, which depict small models of prehistoric nuraghe (cone-shaped stone towers), as well as larger-than-life archers, warriors, and boxers. The acquisition campaign has covered 37 statues mounted on metallic supports. Color and shape were acquired at a resolution of 0.25mm, which resulted in more than 6,200 range maps (about 1.3G valid samples) and 3,817 photographs.
A Light Transport Framework for Lenslet Light Field Cameras
Authors: Liang Chia-Kai , Ramamoorthi Ravi
Published: March 2015

Light field cameras capture full spatio-angular information of the light field, and enable many novel photographic and scientific applications. It is often stated that there is a fundamental trade-off between spatial and angular resolution, but there has been limited understanding of this trade-off theoretically or numerically. Moreover, it is very difficult to evaluate thedesignof a light field camera because a new design is usually reported with its prototype and rendering algorithm, both of which affect resolution.

In this article, we develop a light transport framework for understanding the fundamental limits of light field camera resolution. We first derive the prefiltering model of lenslet-based light field cameras. The main novelty of our model is in considering the full space-angle sensitivity profile of the photosensor—in particular, real pixels have nonuniformangular sensitivity, responding more to light along the optical axis rather than at grazing angles. We show that the full sensor profile plays an important role in defining the performance of a light field camera. The proposed method can model all existing lenslet-based light field cameras and allows to compare them in a unified way in simulation, independent of the practical differences between particular prototypes. We further extend our framework to analyze the performance of two rendering methods: the simple projection-based method and the inverse light transport process. We validate our framework with both flatland simulation and real data from the Lytro light field camera.
From Scratch to “Real” Programming
Authors: Armoni Michal , Meerbaum-Salant Orni , Ben-Ari Mordechai
Published: March 2015

Computer science (CS) activities for young students are widely used, particularly visual programming environments. We investigated the use of the Scratch environment for teaching CS concepts to middle school students. In a previous article [Meerbaum-Salant et al. 2013], we reported on the extent to which the CS concepts were successfully learned. In this article, we look at the transition from studying CS with the visual Scratch environment in middle school to studying CS with a professional textual programming language (C# or Java) in secondary school. We found that the programming knowledge and experience of students who had learned Scratch greatly facilitated learning the more advanced material in secondary school: less time was needed to learn new topics, there were fewer learning difficulties, and they achieved higher cognitive levels of understanding of most concepts (although at the end of the teaching process, there were no significant differences in achievements compared to students who had not studied Scratch). Furthermore, there was increased enrollment in CS classes, and students were observed to display higher levels of motivation and self-efficacy. This research justifies teaching CS in general and visual programming in particular in middle schools.
A Fault-Aware Toolchain Approach for FPGA Fault Tolerance
Authors: Gupte Adwait , Vyas Sudhanshu , Jones Phillip H.
Published: March 2015

As the size and density of silicon chips continue to increase, maintaining acceptable manufacturing yields has become increasingly difficult. Recent works suggest that lithography techniques are reaching their limits with respect to enabling high yield fabrication of small-scale devices, thus there is an increasing need for techniques that can tolerate fabrication time defects. One candidate technology to help combat these defects is reconfigurable hardware. The flexible nature of reconfigurable devices, such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), makes it possible for them to route around defective areas of a chip after the device has been packaged and deployed into the field.

This work presents a technique that aims to increase the effective yield of FPGA manufacturing by re-claiming a portion of chips that would be ordinarily classified as unusable. In brief, we propose a modification to existing commercial toolchain flows to make them fault aware. A phase is added to identify faults within the chip. The locations of these faults are then used by the toolchain to avoid faults during the placement and routing phase.

Specifically, we have applied our approach to the Xilinx commercial toolchain flow and evaluated its tolerance to both logic and routing resource faults. Our findings show that, at a cost of 5--10% in device frequency performance, the modified toolchain flow can tolerate up to 30% of logic resources being faulty and, depending on the nature of the target application, can tolerate 1--30% of the device's routing resources being faulty. These results provide strong evidence that commercial toolchains not designed for the purpose of tolerating faults can still be greatly leveraged in the presence of faults to place and route circuits in an efficient manner.
Not Every Bit Counts
Authors: Hsieh Hung-Yun , Chang Chih-Hua , Liao Wei-Chih
Published: March 2015

Many applications involving machine-to-machine (M2M) communications are characterized by the large amount of data to transport. To support these M2M applications, we argue in this article that instead of focusing on serving individual machines with better quality, one should focus on solutions that can better serve the data itself. To substantiate, we consider the application of data gathering from a set of machines that communicate directly to an aggregator. Since the aggregator has limited radio resources, the problem arises as to how the resource can be effectively utilized for supporting such an application. We investigate “data-centric” resource allocation that aims to maximize information entropy of data collected through selecting the subset of machines to transmit, determining the amount of resources to allocate, and scheduling the sequence of transmissions. We present two instantiations of the problems when machines can perform distributed source coding or dependent source coding based on the data overheard from neighboring machines and then propose algorithms for solving the joint optimization problems. Evaluation results show that compared to conventional “machine-centric” resource allocation that aims to maximize the aggregate data rates or number of supported machines, “data-centric” resource allocation exhibits significant performance gain in terms of the quality of data that can be collected for the given amount of radio resources.
Interaction design meets architectural thinking
Authors: Wiberg Mikael
Published: March 2015

Interaction design is increasingly about embedding interactive technologies in our built environment; architecture is increasingly about the use of interactive technologies to reimagine and dynamically repurpose our built environment. This forum focuses on this intersection of interaction and architecture. ---
Mikael Wiberg, Editor
A network-state management service
Authors: Sun Peng , Mahajan Ratul , Rexford Jennifer , Yuan Lihua , Zhang Ming , Arefin Ahsan
Published: March 2015

We present Statesman, a network-state management service that allows multiple network management applications to operate independently, while maintaining network-wide safety and performance invariants. Network state captures various aspects of the network such as which links are alive and how switches are forwarding traffic. Statesman uses three views of the network state. In observed state, it maintains an up-to-date view of the actual network state. Applications read this state and propose state changes based on their individual goals. Using a model of dependencies among state variables, Statesman merges these proposed states into a target state that is guaranteed to maintain the safety and performance invariants. It then updates the network to the target state. Statesman has been deployed in ten Microsoft Azure datacenters for several months, and three distinct applications have been built on it. We use the experience from this deployment to demonstrate how Statesman enables each application to meet its goals, while maintaining network-wide invariants.
Friends, not foes
Authors: Munir Ali , Baig Ghufran , Irteza Syed M. , Qazi Ihsan A. , Liu Alex X. , Dogar Fahad R.
Published: March 2015

Many data center transports have been proposed in recent times (e.g., DCTCP, PDQ, pFabric, etc). Contrary to the common perception that they are competitors (i.e., protocol A vs. protocol B), we claim that the underlying strategies used in these protocols are, in fact, complementary. Based on this insight, we design PASE, a transport framework that synthesizes existing transport strategies, namely, self-adjusting endpoints (used in TCP style protocols), innetwork prioritization (used in pFabric), and arbitration (used in PDQ). PASE is deployment friendly: it does not require any changes to the network fabric; yet, its performance is comparable to, or better than, the state-of-the-art protocols that require changes to network elements (e.g., pFabric). We evaluate PASE using simulations and testbed experiments. Our results show that PASE performs well for a wide range of application workloads and network settings.