bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Remote monitoring of implantable cardioverter defibrillators: Patient experiences and preferences for follow‐up
Authors: Timmermans Ivy , Meine Mathias , Szendey Istvan , Aring Johannes , Romero Roldán Javier , van Erven Lieselotte , Kahlert Philipp , Zitron Edgar , Mabo Philippe , Denollet Johan , Versteeg Henneke
Published: December 2018

Background

Patient satisfaction with remote patient monitoring (RPM) of implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) seems to be high, yet knowledge on long‐term patient experiences is limited. The European REMOTE‐CIED study explored patients' experiences with RPM, examined patient's preferences for ICD follow‐up, and identified determinants of patient's preferences in the first 2 years postimplantation.

Methods

European heart failure patients (N = 300; median age = 66 years [interquartile range (IQR) = 59‐73], and 22% female) with a first‐time ICD received a Boston Scientific LATITUDE RPM system (Marlborough, MA, USA) and had scheduled in‐clinic follow‐ups once a year. Patients completed questionnaires at 1‐2 weeks and also at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months postimplantation and clinical data were obtained from their medical records. Patient evaluation data were analyzed descriptively, and Student's t‐tests/Man‐Whitney U tests or Chi‐square tests/Fisher's exact tests were performed to examine determinants of patient preferences.

Results

At 2 years postimplantation, the median patient satisfaction score with the RPM system was 9 out of 10 (IQR = 8‐10), despite 53% of the patients experiencing issues (eg, failure to transmit data). Of the 221 patients who reported their follow‐up preferences, 43% preferred RPM and 19% preferred in‐clinic follow‐up. Patients with a preference for RPM were more likely to be higher educated (P = 0.04), employed (P = 0.04), and equipped with a new LATITUDE model (P = 0.04), but less likely to suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (P = 0.009).

Conclusion

In general, patients were highly satisfied with RPM, but a subgroup preferred in‐clinic follow‐up. Therefore, physicians should include patients’ concerns and preferences in the decision‐making process, to tailor device follow‐up to individual patients’ needs and preferences.
Kant, the Third Antinomy and Transcendental Arguments
Authors: Gava Gabriele
Published: December 2018

In this paper, I consider whether a reading of Kant's solution to the Third Antinomy can offer material for devising a new model of transcendental argument. The problem that this form of argument is meant to address is an antinomy between two apparently contradictory claims,qand ¬q, where we seem equally justified in holding both. The model has the following form:p;qis a necessary condition ofp; the only justification we have forqis that it is a necessary condition ofp;pis justified only in domainX(whereXis a domain of objects of cognition); therefore,qis justified only in domainX. Because the argument shows that our justification forqis valid only inX, it also establishes that there is conceptual space to hold ¬qoutside ofX.
An on‐site health home for homeless men in addiction recovery
Authors: Lashley Mary
Published: December 2018

Patients with comorbid substance abuse, mental health disorders, and chronic health conditions face difficult challenges when attempting to access health care. A large gospel rescue mission developed an onsite wellness center, based on an integrated, embedded practice health home model, to promote health care access among homeless men in addiction recovery. The center model integrated primary care with behavioral health, specialty care referrals, and wellness services to address the multifaceted needs of the population. Standardized health care performance measures and resident and staff feedback support the effectiveness of the model in promoting improved health care access and treatment adherence. Future directions for program expansion include infrastructure development, expanded community outreach, and evaluation of effectiveness of the onsite health home through systematic program evaluation and research.
Look at my pearly white teeth: Exploring adolescents' oral health behavior
Authors: Calderon Susana J. , Mallory Caroline
Published: December 2018

Informed by grounded theory, this study explored adolescent oral health behaviors to determine what factors influence them and to develop a substantive theory explaining the social process behind the behaviors identified. Multiple types of data were collected and analyzed simultaneously: demographic and oral health questionnaires, 16 individual interviews, eight small group discussions, field notes, and investigator memoing. Participants were 37 Midwestern adolescents aged 13–18, and most were White or African‐American females 14 years of age whose parents had at least a high school education. While more than half reported using mouthwash and brushing their teeth regularly, almost all participants described their behavior in terms of relationships, confidence, and attractiveness rather than health. Top motivators were habits learned as children and the desire to be attractive or “kissable.” To reflect teens' understanding of “healthy” as good‐looking, and their primary concern not with having healthy teeth but with being attractive to peers, our model of the basic social process of adolescent oral health behavior is called “Look at my Pearly White Teeth.” Understanding the actual motivations behind adolescent oral health behavior can help public health administrators develop more effective interventions, especially for teens who did not learn healthy habits as children.
Risk of skin cancer in psoriasis patients receiving long‐term narrowband ultraviolet phototherapy: Results from a Taiwanese population‐based cohort study
Authors: Lin Teng‐Li , Wu Chun‐Ying , Chang Yun‐Ting , Juan Chao‐Keui , Chen Chi‐Chiang , Yu Shi‐Hang , Chen Yi‐Ju
Published: December 2018

Background

Narrowband ultraviolet B (NB‐UVB) phototherapy is a widely used treatment for various dermatoses. The risk of skin cancer following long‐term NB‐UVB phototherapy has rarely been explored in skin phototypes III‐V.

Methods

We conducted a nationwide‐matched cohort study and identified a total of 22 891 psoriasis patients starting NB‐UVB phototherapy from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Database during the period 2000‐2013. Cumulative incidences of skin cancers were compared between subjects receiving less than 90 UVB treatments (S‐cohort, N = 13 260) and age‐ as well as propensity score‐matched subjects receiving more than or equal to 90 UVB treatments (L‐cohort, N = 3315).

Results

There were no significant differences in the overall cumulative incidences of skin cancers between the two cohorts (log‐rank t test, P = 0.691) during the follow‐up periods. The S‐cohort had a significantly lower prevalence of actinic keratosis when compared with the L‐cohort (0.54% vs 1.00%, P = 0.005).

Conclusion

Long‐term NB‐UVB phototherapy does not increase skin cancer risk compared with short‐term NB‐UVB phototherapy in psoriasis patients with skin phototypes III‐V.
Management and treatment of the HCV‐infected kidney transplant patient
Authors: Wong Tiffany , Bloom Roy D.
Published: December 2018

The prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection is increased in patients with end stage kidney disease compared to the general population and is an adverse outcome determinant. Direct‐acting antiviral therapy for hepatitis C virus is changing the management paradigm of infected kidney transplant candidates and recipients, with potential to reduce patient morbidity and mortality. This review describes the hepatic and nonhepatic manifestations of hepatitis C virus in kidney transplant patients as well as management and treatment strategies to optimize transplant outcomes, highlighting the importance of direct‐acting antivirals in this population.
Effects of Issue‐Specific Political Advertisements in the 2015 Parliamentary Elections of Switzerland
Authors: Zumofen Guillaume , Gerber Marlène
Published: December 2018

Our paper captures the influence of political advertisements on vote intentions in the framework of the 2015 parliamentary elections. We focus on the two winning parties, the FDP and SVP, and the promotion of their stances on immigration/asylum, relations to the EU and the economy. We make use of an extensive database on political advertisements collected in 50 important national and regional newspapers that we link to the Selects respondents. Our findings only hint at limited effects of issue‐specific advertisements with regard to the activation of latent preferences, suggesting that campaigns mattered more when they have managed to make a party's issue positions known to the electorate. The general reinforcement tendencies detected for migration ads of the SVP suggest that reinforcement effects might be particularly prone when highly contentious issues are at stake. Our results indicate that the SVP did not manage to mobilize new voters with their political advertisements.
Interest Group Support and Electoral Success in the Swiss Elections of 2015. A Candidate Survey Analysis
Authors: Lutz Georg , Mach André , Primavesi Riccardo
Published: December 2018

Politicians, parties and interest groups are strongly interlinked in Switzerland. Most studies focus on the interest group influence during parliamentary legislative processes. This article fills a gap by focusing on a question that was largely ignored so far: the impact of interest group support on electoral success of candidates. We collected information on the magnitude and nature of self‐reported relations between individual candidates and many interest groups in the 2015 Swiss national election. This new and unique data set allows us to explore the varying impact of specific interest group types on candidates electoral success. Being endorsed by many interest group and occupying leading positions are positively correlated with larger shares of preference votes, while financial contribution show no significant impact. There is, however, variation how endorsements by and leading positions at interest group matter for candidates from different parties depending on the type of interest group.
Toxoplasma gondiiseroprevalence in veterinarians in Finland: Older age, living in the countryside, tasting beef during cooking and not doing small animal practice associated with seropositivity
Authors: Siponen Anne‐Marika , Kinnunen Paula M. , Koort Joanna , Kallio‐Kokko Hannimari , Vapalahti Olli , Virtala Anna‐Maija , Jokelainen Pikka
Published: December 2018

Practising veterinary medicine has an inherent risk of exposure to zoonotic agents, including the protozoan parasiteToxoplasma gondii. We screened sera of veterinarians authorized to work in Finland for the presence of specific immunoglobulin G antibodies againstT. gondiiwith an enzyme‐linked fluorescent assay, and evaluated potential risk factors forT. gondiiseropositivity from extensive questionnaire data with almost 1,300 quantitative variables. We used a causal diagram approach to address the complexity of the life cycle of the parasite and its numerous possible transmission routes, and built a multivariable binomial logistic regression model to identify risk factors that are particularly relevant for veterinarians. The samples and questionnaire data were collected in 2009. Altogether, 294 veterinarians, almost 15% of the Finnish veterinary profession, were included in the study. The median age was 39 years, and the majority, 86%, were women. Altogether, 43 (14.6%; 95% confidence interval: 10.9–19.0) of the 294 veterinarians tested seropositive forT. gondii. According to the final model, veterinarians who were at least 40 years old had 2.4 times higher odds to be seropositive than younger veterinarians; veterinarians who lived in the countryside had 4.0 times higher odds to be seropositive than veterinarians who lived in towns; female veterinarians who tasted beef during cooking had 2.6 times higher odds to be seropositive than male veterinarians who did not taste beef during cooking; and veterinarians who did not do small animal practice had 2.3 times higher odds to be seropositive than those who did. The results illustrate the numerous transmission routes ofT. gondii.
Relação entre folga financeira e desempenho econômico em empresas cinquentenárias e não cinquentenárias
Authors: Da Silva Tarcísio Pedro , Rohenkohl Leonardo Bernardi , Bizatto Luana Sara
Published: December 2018

não cinquentenárias. O intuito é fomentar pesquisas que levem em consideração as diferenças entre empresas com distinto tempo de permanência no mercado, devido a que existe escassez de pesquisas que considerem a idade da empresa. Para a realização do estudo, foram consultadas empresas listadas nos indicadores Índice Brasil 100 (IBrx-100) e Índice de Governança Corporativa – Novo Mercado (IGC-NM), da Bolsa de Valores, Mercadorias e Futuros de São Paulo, com uma amostra de 78 empresas nãocinquentenárias e 34 empresas cinquentenárias. Por meio da estatística descritiva e da correlação canônica, concluiu-se que tanto em empresas cinquentenárias como em não cinquentenárias a folga financeira tem relação com o desempenho econômico. Assim, as empresas cinquentenárias possuem grau de relação mais forte entre os dois conjuntos de indicadores que as não cinquentenárias. Desta forma, é possível que as empresas devam considerar seu tempo de mercado, ou seja, o grau de estabilidade e maturidade quepossuem, para compreenderem o menor ou maior uso da folga financeira com intuito de elevarem seus desempenhos econômicos, uma vez que uma maior relação entre a folga financeira e o desempenho econômico é perceptível em empresas com mais de 50 anos.
Riesgos estratégicos. Un estudio de las medidas de tratamiento implementadas por las grandes empresas privadas de Antioquia, Colombia
Authors: Jaraba Isabel , Nuñez María Antonia , Villanueva Eduart
Published: December 2018

Los cambios que enfrentan las organizaciones pueden poner en riesgo su normal desarrollo y afectar el cumplimiento de objetivos y metas. Por eso, es de vital importancia que estas puedan administrar esos riesgos adecuadamente mediante un proceso de identificación, evaluación y tratamiento. El objetivo de esta investigación fue analizar cómo las medidas de tratamiento utilizadas por las grandes empresas privadas de Antioquia permiten desarrollar conocimiento que faculta a los directivos para tomar decisiones que aporten al crecimiento de las organizaciones. Para cumplir con este propósito se realizó un estudio de carácter cualitativo, en el cual se examinaron diferentes fuentes de información documental relacionadas con el tema, con el fin de obtener instrumentos y herramientas que permitieran la apropiación de conocimiento. Igualmente, se aplicaron entrevistas semiestructuradas a altos directivos de empresas que cuentan con una estructura de administración de riesgos estratégicos. Los resultados de esta investigación aportan conocimiento sobre las medidas de tratamiento de riesgos estratégicos.
Discovery of 16-Demethylrifamycins by Removing the Predominant Polyketide Biosynthesis Pathway in
Micromonospora
sp. Strain TP-A0468
Authors: Zhou Qiang , Luo Guang-Cai , Zhang Huizhan , Tang Gong-Li
Published: December 2018

Natural products are essential in the development of novel clinically used drugs. Discovering new natural products and modifying known compounds are still the two main ways to generate new candidates. Here, we have discovered several rifamycins with varied skeleton structures by redirecting the metabolic flux from the predominant polyketide biosynthetic pathway to the rifamycin pathway in the marine actinomycetes species
Micromonospora
sp. strain TP-A0468. Rifamycins are indispensable chemotherapeutics in the treatment of various diseases such as tuberculosis, leprosy, and AIDS-related mycobacterial infections. This study exemplifies a useful method for the discovery of cryptic natural products in genome-sequenced microbes. Moreover, the 16-demethylrifamycins and their genetically manipulable producer provide a new opportunity in the construction of novel rifamycin derivates to aid in the defense against the ever-growing drug resistance of
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
.
Strawberry Mottle Virus
(Family
Secoviridae
, Order
Picornavirales
) Encodes a Novel Glutamic Protease To Process the RNA2 Polyprotein at Two Cleavage Sites
Authors: Mann Krin S. , Chisholm Joan , Sanfaçon Hélène
Published: December 2018

Many viruses encode proteases to release mature proteins and intermediate polyproteins from viral polyproteins. Polyprotein processing allows regulation of the accumulation and activity of viral proteins. Many viral proteases also cleave host factors to facilitate virus infection. Thus, viral proteases are key virulence factors. To date, viruses with a positive-strand RNA genome are only known to encode cysteine or serine proteases, most of which are related to the cellular papain, trypsin, or chymotrypsin proteases. Here, we characterize the first glutamic protease encoded by a plant virus or by a positive-strand RNA virus. The novel glutamic protease is unique to a few members of the family
Secoviridae
, suggesting that it is a recent acquisition in the evolution of this family. The protease does not resemble known cellular proteases. Rather, it is predicted to share structural similarities with a family of fungal and bacterial glutamic proteases that adopt a lectin fold.
Increasing the Capping Efficiency of the Sindbis Virus nsP1 Protein Negatively Affects Viral Infection
Authors: LaPointe Autumn T. , Moreno-Contreras Joaquín , Sokoloski Kevin J.
Published: December 2018

Alphaviruses have been the cause of both localized outbreaks and large epidemics of severe disease. Currently, there are no strategies or vaccines which are either safe or effective for preventing alphaviral infection or treating alphaviral disease. This deficit of viable therapeutics highlights the need to better understand the mechanisms behind alphaviral infection in order to develop novel antiviral strategies for treatment of alphaviral disease. In particular, this report details a previously uncharacterized aspect of the alphaviral life cycle: the importance of noncapped genomic viral RNAs for alphaviral infection. This offers new insights into the mechanisms of alphaviral replication and the impact of the noncapped genomic RNAs on viral packaging.
Legionella
-Containing Vacuoles Capture PtdIns(4)
P
-Rich Vesicles Derived from the Golgi Apparatus
Authors: Weber Stephen , Steiner Bernhard , Welin Amanda , Hilbi Hubert
Published: December 2018

The environmental bacterium
Legionella pneumophila
causes a life-threatening pneumonia termed Legionnaires’ disease. The bacteria grow intracellularly in free-living amoebae as well as in respiratory tract macrophages. To this end,
L. pneumophila
forms a distinct membrane-bound compartment called the
Legionella
-containing vacuole (LCV). Phosphoinositide (PI) lipids are crucial regulators of the identity and dynamics of host cell organelles. The PI lipid PtdIns(4)
P
is a hallmark of the host cell secretory pathway, and decoration of LCVs with this PI is required for pathogen vacuole maturation. The source, dynamics, and mode of accumulation of PtdIns(4)
P
on LCVs are largely unknown. Using
Dictyostelium
amoebae producing different fluorescent probes as host cells, we show here that LCVs rapidly acquire PtdIns(4)
P
through the continuous interaction with PtdIns(4)
P
-positive host vesicles derived from the Golgi apparatus. Thus, the PI lipid pattern of the secretory pathway contributes to the formation of the replication-permissive pathogen compartment.
Valuing the impact of health and social care programmes using social return on investment analysis: how have academics advanced the methodology? A protocol for a systematic review of peer-reviewed literature
Authors: Hutchinson Claire Louise , Berndt Angela , Gilbert-Hunt Susan , George Stacey , Ratcliffe Julie
Published: December 2018

Introduction

Unlike other forms of evaluation, social return on investment (SROI) methodology offers a way of placing values on personal, social and community outcomes, not just economic outcomes. Developed in 2000, there have been calls for greater academic involvement in development of SROI, which to date has been more typically implemented in-house or by consultants. This protocol describes a systematic review of SROI analysis conducted on health and social care programmes which represent a significant sector of social enterprise internationally. The aims of the systematic review are to (1) identify the extent to which academics have adopted SROI methodology, (2) how academics have interpreted, used and developed SROI methodology and (3) to assess the quality of studies published under peer review.

Methods and analysis

The systematic review will include peer-reviewed studies since 2000 published in English. Search terms will be ‘social return on investment’ or ‘SROI’. Health and social care interventions will be identified in the initial screening given the proliferation of possible key words in these areas. Databases to be searched include Web of Science, Scopus, Medline, Social Care Online and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Two reviewers will independently conduct initial screening based on titles and abstracts against the inclusion criteria. Data extracted will include date of intervention, country, study design, aim of intervention/programme, participants and setting, health and social care measures used, and SROI ratio. The quality of studies will be assessed by two reviewers using a SROI quality framework designed for the purpose of this study.

Ethics and dissemination

The systematic review will review existing published academic literature; as such, ethics approval is not required for this study. A paper of the systematic review will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal.

PROSPERO registration number

CRD42018080195.
Breast cancer risk in neurofibromatosis type 1 is a function of the type of NF1 gene mutation: a new genotype-phenotype correlation
Authors: Frayling Ian M , Mautner Victor-Felix , van Minkelen Rick , Kallionpaa Roope A , Aktaş Safiye , Baralle Diana , Ben-Shachar Shay , Callaway Alison , Cox Harriet , Eccles Diana M , Ferkal Salah , LaDuca Holly , Lázaro Conxi , Rogers Mark T , Stuenkel Aaron J , Summerour Pia , Varan Ali , Yap Yoon Sim , Zehou Ouidad , Peltonen Juha , Evans D Gareth , Wolkenstein Pierre , Upadhyaya Meena
Published: December 2018

Background

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) predisposes to breast cancer (BC), but no genotype-phenotype correlations have been described.

Methods

Constitutional NF1 mutations in 78 patients with NF1 with BC (NF1-BC) were compared with the NF1 Leiden Open Variation Database (n=3432).

Results

No cases were observed with whole or partial gene deletions (HR 0.10; 95% CI 0.006 to 1.63; p=0.014, Fisher’s exact test). There were no gross relationships with mutation position. Forty-five (64.3%; HR 6.4–83) of the 70 different mutations were more frequent than expected (p<0.05), while 52 (74.3%; HR 5.3–83) were significant when adjusted for multiple comparisons (adjusted p≤0.125; Benjamini-Hochberg). Higher proportions of both nonsense and missense mutations were also observed (adjusted p=0.254; Benjamini-Hochberg). Ten of the 11 missense cases with known age of BC occurred at <50 years (p=0.041). Eighteen cases had BRCA1/2 testing, revealing one BRCA2 mutation.

Discussion

These data strongly support the hypothesis that certain constitutional mutation types, and indeed certain specific variants in NF1 confer different risks of BC. The lack of large deletions and excess of nonsenses and missenses is consistent with gain of function mutations conferring risk of BC, and also that neurofibromin may function as a dimer. The observation that somatic NF1 amplification can occur independently of ERBB2 amplification in sporadic BC supports this concept. A prospective clinical-molecular study of NF1-BC needs to be established to confirm and build on these findings, but regardless of NF1 mutation status patients with NF1-BC warrant testing of other BC-predisposing genes.
Temporising and respect for patient self-determination
Authors: Lindberg Jenny , Johansson Mats , Broström Linus
Published: December 2018

The principle of self-determination plays a crucial role in contemporary clinical ethics. Somewhat simplified, it states that it is ultimately the patient who should decide whether or not to accept suggested treatment or care. Although the principle is much discussed in the academic literature, one important aspect has been neglected, namely the fact that real-world decision making is temporally extended, in the sense that it generally takes some time from the point at which the physician (or other health care professional) determines that there is a decision to be made and that the patient is capable of making it, to the point at which the patient is actually asked for his or her view. This article asks under what circumstances, if any, temporising—waiting to pose a certain treatment question to a patient judged to have decision-making capacity—is compatible with the principle of self-determination.
Hospitalisation and life support in the year before and during heart transplantation: a French national study
Authors: Cantrelle Christelle , Dorent Richard , Legeai Camille , Damy Thibaud , Bastien Olivier , Tuppin Philippe
Published: December 2018

Objective

The objective of this study was to define the characteristics of hospital care use during the year prior to heart transplantation.

Methods

A retrospective cohort of heart transplant recipients registered on the national hospital discharge database between 2010 and 2015 was analysed.

Results

In this cohort of 2379 heart transplant recipients (mean age: 48 years, 74% men), 91% had been admitted at least once, for at least 1 day, to a short-stay hospital during the year before transplantation (mean: 4.3 days), and 84% had at least one cardiovascular diagnosis (heart failure and cardiogenic shock: 60%). At least one intensive care stay was reported for 61% of patients, a rehabilitation stay was reported for 30%, mechanical circulatory support was reported for 12%, and ventilatory support was reported for 15%. The median interval between admission and transplantation was 5 days (interquartile QI–Q3, 0–16). The hospital mortality was higher for patients not hospitalised before transplantation (18% vs 15%). Their transplantation hospitalisation diagnosis, compared with patients hospitalised before transplantation, was more frequently cardiomyopathy (31% vs 27%) or heart failure (28% vs 18%), and less frequently myocardial infarction (1% vs 12%).

Conclusion

This study demonstrates a high hospitalisation rate before heart transplantation and identifies three groups of patients: 1—patients with a high hospitalisation rate and terminal heart failure requiring circulatory support who experienced at least one intensive care unit stay; 2—patients with a history of hospitalisation, mainly for heart disease, without circulatory support requirement; and 3—patients with no pretransplantation overnight stay. These findings provide useful information to evaluate the medical benefits and needs for transplantation, and identify areas for improvement in heart transplantation listing criteria.
A fractional logistic approach for economic growth
Authors: Quezada-Téllez L. A. , Franco-Pérez L.
Published: December 2018

A discrete logistic model is proposed for the Gross Domestic Product of an economy and its parameters are adjusted for some specific countries, taken from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development databases. Although this model fits “adequately” for some countries analyzed in this work, others show that it could be enhanced. A Caputo like fractional discrete model as a fractional version of the logistic one is presented, with the parameters stated previously. It is shown, by using the mean squared error, that this fractional version fits better for an economy whose behavior shows over time an isolated and unexpected boom period in its economy growth followed by a crisis period. For this type of dynamics, the fractional-order logistic equation improves the modeling given by an integer order logistic equation.
Evolutionary vaccination dynamics in epidemic spreading process with public subsidy mechanism
Authors: Tang Guomei , Ma Weifang
Published: December 2018

This paper presents an internal public subsidy mechanism, in which the population themselves subsidize the vaccinated individuals, to study the evolutionary vaccination dynamics in the epidemic spreading process. By means of theoretical analysis and extensive computer simulations, we show that the mechanism can effectively enhance the vaccine coverage and significantly make many persons still choose vaccination when the vaccination cost is nearly or even more than the infection cost. In addition, we prove that there exists a lower bound of vaccine coverage controlled by our proposed mechanism. The overall results are robust to the typical synthetic and real-world networks.
An Instance Selection Algorithm Based on ReliefF
Authors: Abbasi Zeinab , Rahmani Mohsen
Published: December 2018

Due to the increasing growth of data, many methods are proposed to extract useful data and remove noisy data. Instance selection is one of these methods which selects some instances of a data set and removes others. This paper proposes a new instance selection algorithm based on ReliefF, which is a feature selection algorithm. In the proposed algorithm, based on the Jaccard index, the nearest instances of each class are found for each instance. Then, based on the nearest neighbor’s set, the weight of each instance is calculated. Finally, only instances with more weights are selected. This algorithm can reduce data at a specified rate and have the ability to run parallel on the instances. It can work on a variety of data sets with nominal and numeric data with missing values and is also suitable for working with imbalanced data sets. The proposed algorithm tests on three data sets. Results show that the proposed algorithm can reduce the volume of data, without a significant change in classification accuracy of these datasets.
Gröbner–Shirshov bases for Temperley–Lieb algebras of types B and D
Authors: Kim Sung Soon , Lee Dong-il
Published: December 2018

For Temperley–Lieb algebras of types [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], we construct their Gröbner-Shirshov bases and the corresponding standard monomials
Closure operations, continuous valuations on monoids and spectral spaces
Authors: Ray Samarpita
Published: December 2018

We present several naturally occurring classes of spectral spaces using commutative algebra on pointed monoids. For this purpose, our main tools are finite type closure operations and continuous valuations on monoids which we introduce in this work. In the process, we make a detailed study of different closure operations on monoids. We prove that the collection of continuous valuations on a topological monoid with topology determined by any finitely generated ideal is a spectral space.
A minimal ring extension of a large finite local prime ring is probably ramified
Authors: Dobbs David E.
Published: December 2018

Given any minimal ring extension [Formula: see text] of finite fields, several families of examples are constructed of a finite local (commutative unital) ring [Formula: see text] which is not a field, with a (necessarily finite) inert (minimal ring) extension [Formula: see text] (so that [Formula: see text] is a separable [Formula: see text]-algebra), such that [Formula: see text] is not a Galois extension and the residue field of [Formula: see text] (respectively, [Formula: see text]) is [Formula: see text] (respectively, [Formula: see text]). These results refute an assertion of G. Ganske and McDonald stating that if [Formula: see text] are finite local rings such that [Formula: see text] is a separable [Formula: see text]-algebra, then [Formula: see text] is a Galois ring extension. We identify the homological error in the published proof of that assertion. Let [Formula: see text] be a finite special principal ideal ring (SPIR), but not a field, such that [Formula: see text] has index of nilpotency [Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text]). Impose the uniform distribution on the (finite) set of ([Formula: see text]-algebra) isomorphism classes of the minimal ring extensions of [Formula: see text]. If [Formula: see text] (for instance, if [Formula: see text]), the probability that a random isomorphism class consists of ramified extensions of [Formula: see text] is at least [Formula: see text]; if [Formula: see text] (for instance, if [Formula: see text] for some odd prime [Formula: see text]), the corresponding probability is at least [Formula: see text]. Additional applications, examples and historical remarks are given.
When the Assignment Map Is Completely Positive
Authors: Sargolzahi Iman , Mirafzali Sayyed Yahya
Published: December 2018

Finding the general set of system-environment states {ρSE} for which the reduced dynamics of the system is completely positive (CP) is the subject of some recent works. An advance in this context appeared in [7], where the problem was solved for the case of CP assignment map. Here, we restate this result using the framework introduced in [8]. This, we think, clarifies the mentioned result better and so leads to a generalization of it, straightforwardly.
Does Universal Controllability of Physical Systems Prohibit Thermodynamic Cycles?
Authors: Janzing Dominik , Wocjan Paweł
Published: December 2018

Here we study the thermodynamic cost of computation and control using ‘physically universal’ cellular automata (CAs) or Hamiltonians. The latter were previously defined as systems that admit the implementation of any desired transformation on a finite target region by first initializing the state of the surrounding and then letting the system evolve according to its autonomous dynamics. This way, one obtains a model of control where each region can play both roles, the controller or the system to be controlled. In physically universal systems every degree of freedom is indirectly accessible by operating on the remaining degrees of freedom.

In a nutshell, the thermodynamic cost of an operation is then given by the size of the region around the target region that needs to be initialized. In the meantime, physically universal CAs have been constructed by Schaeffer (in two dimensions) and Salo & Törmä (in one dimension). Here we show that in Schaeffer’s CA the cost for implementing n operations grows linearly in n, while operating in a thermodynamic cycle requires sublinear growth to ensure zero cost per operation in the limit n → ∞. Although this particular result need not hold for general physically universal CAs, this strong notion of universality does imply a certain kind of instability of information, which could result in lower bounds on the cost of protecting information from its noisy environment.

The technical results of the paper are sparse and quite simple. The contribution of the paper is mainly conceptual and consists in illustrating the type of thermodynamic questions raised by models of control that rely on the concept of physical universality.
Facile Synthesis of Flower-Like AgI/BiOBr Z-Scheme Nanocomposite with Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity for Degradation of 17α-Estradiol (EE2)
Authors: Li Lingxin , Li Han , Long Yanju , Wang Shan , Chen Yu , Zhang Sifeng , Wang Lulu , Luo Lijun , Jiang Fengzhi
Published: December 2018

In the present work, a direct Z-scheme AgI/BiOBr heterojunction displaying improved photocatalytic activity was designed by a chemical bath deposition method. The obtained photocatalysts were systematically characterized through XRD, SEM, XPS, BET and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The synthesized AgI/BiOBr photocatalyst displayed superior photocatalytic performance in the case of 17[Formula: see text]-ethinylestradiol (EE2), where 97.0% compound has been removed within 9[Formula: see text]min of irradiation. The rate constant using AgI/BiOBr photo-catalyst was 16.0 and 138.7 times more than that of pure AgI and BiOBr, respectively. Furthermore, the photocatalytic mechanism was investigated. The results of this study indicated that AgI/BiOBr was a stable and efficient photocatalyst, with promising practical applications.
A much better replacement of the Michaelis–Menten equation and its application
Authors: Li Banghe , Li Bo , Shen Yuefeng
Published: December 2018

Michaelis–Menten equation is a basic equation of enzyme kinetics and gives acceptable approximations of real chemical reaction processes. Analyzing the derivation of this equation yields the fact that its good performance of approximating real reaction processes is due to Michaelis–Menten curve (8). This curve is derived from Quasi-Steady-State Assumption (QSSA), which has been proved always true and called Quasi-Steady-State Law by Banghe Li et al. [Quasi-steady state laws in enzyme kinetics, J. Phys. Chem. A 112(11) (2008) 2311–2321].

Here, we found a polynomial equation with total degree of four [Formula: see text] (14), which gives more accurate approximation of the reaction process in two aspects: during the quasi-steady-state of the reaction, Michaelis–Menten curve approximates the reaction well, while our equation [Formula: see text] gives better approximation; near the end of the reaction, our equation approaches the end of the reaction with a tangent line the same to that of the reaction process trajectory simulated by mass action, while Michaelis–Menten curve does not. In addition, our equation [Formula: see text] differs to Michaelis–Menten curve less than the order of [Formula: see text] as [Formula: see text] approaches [Formula: see text].

By considering the above merits of [Formula: see text], we suggest it as a replacement of Michaelis–Menten curve. Intuitively, this new equation is more complex and harder to understand. But, just because of its complexity, it provides more information about the rate constants than Michaelis–Menten curve does.

Finally, we get a better replacement of the Michaelis–Menten equation by combing [Formula: see text] and the equation [Formula: see text].
Dynamical behaviors of the generalized hematopoiesis model with discontinuous harvesting terms
Authors: Kong Fanchao
Published: December 2018

This paper is concerned with the generalized hematopoiesis model with discontinuous harvesting terms. Under the framework of Filippov solution, by means of the differential inclusions and the topological degree theory in set-valued analysis, we have established the existence of the bounded positive periodic solutions for the addressed models. After that, based on the nonsmooth analysis theory with Lyapunov-like approach, we employ a novel argument and derive some new criteria on the uniqueness, global exponential stability of the addressed models and convergence of the corresponding autonomous case of the addressed models. Our results extend previous works on hematopoiesis model to the discontinuous harvesting terms and some corresponding results in the literature can be enriched and extended. In addition, typical examples with numerical simulations are given to illustrate the feasibility and validity of obtained results.
Dielectric and energy storage properties of PVDF/Nd-BaTiO3@Al2O3 composite films
Authors: He Long , Wang Jing , Yang Zhong , Zhu Kongjun , Deng Chaoyong
Published: December 2018

Flexible Nd-doped BaTiO3@Al2O3/polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) composites have been successfully developed. With the reaction temperature of 70∘C, Nd-doped BaTiO3@Al2O3 particles display uniform core–shell structures and disperse well in the PVDF matrix. Due to the benign dielectric properties of Nd-doped BaTiO3 and great suppression of the Al2O3 coating on the leakage current and dielectric loss, the Nd-doped BaTiO3@Al2O3/PVDF composites with different Nd-doped BaTiO3@Al2O3 filling ratios (0–4[Formula: see text]vol.%) exhibit relatively good dielectric and energy storage performance. Among them, the maximum discharged energy density of 8.6[Formula: see text]J/cm3 was achieved in the composite with 1[Formula: see text]vol.% Nd-doped BaTiO3@Al2O3 loading.
Learning From Query-Answers
Authors: Meneghetti Niccolò , Kennedy Oliver , Gatterbauer Wolfgang
Published: December 2018

Tuple-independent and disjoint-independent probabilistic databases (TI- and DI-PDBs) represent uncertain data in a factorized form as a product of independent random variables that represent either tuples (TI-PDBs) or sets of tuples (DI-PDBs). When the user submits a query, the database derives the marginal probabilities of each output-tuple, exploiting the underlying assumptions of statistical independence. While query processing in TI- and DI-PDBs has been studied extensively, limited research has been dedicated to the problems of
updating or deriving the parameters from observations of query results
. Addressing this problem is the main focus of this article. We first introduce
Beta Probabilistic Databases
(B-PDBs), a generalization of TI-PDBs designed to support both (i)
belief updating
and (ii)
parameter learning
in a principled and scalable way. The key idea of B-PDBs is to treat each parameter as a latent, Beta-distributed random variable. We show how this simple expedient enables both belief updating and parameter learning in a principled way, without imposing any burden on regular query processing. Building on B-PDBs, we then introduce
Dirichlet Probabilistic Databases
(D-PDBs), a generalization of DI-PDBs with similar properties. We provide the following key contributions for both B- and D-PDBs: (i) We study the complexity of performing Bayesian belief updates and devise efficient algorithms for certain tractable classes of queries; (ii) we propose a soft-EM algorithm for computing maximum-likelihood estimates of the parameters; (iii) we present an algorithm for efficiently computing conditional probabilities, allowing us to efficiently implement B- and D-PDBs via a standard relational engine; and (iv) we support our conclusions with extensive experimental results.
Feedback Vertex Set Inspired Kernel for Chordal Vertex Deletion
Authors: Agrawal Akanksha , Lokshtanov Daniel , Misra Pranabendu , Saurabh Saket , Zehavi Meirav
Published: December 2018

Given a graph
G
and a parameter
k
, the C
hordal
V
ertex
D
eletion
(CVD) problem asks whether there exists a subset
U
⊆
V
(
G
) of size at most
k
that hits all induced cycles of size at least 4. The existence of a polynomial kernel for CVD was a well-known open problem in the field of Parameterized Complexity. Recently, Jansen and Pilipczuk resolved this question affirmatively by designing a polynomial kernel for CVD of size
O
(
k
161
log
58
k
) and asked whether one can design a kernel of size
O
(
k
10
) [Jansen an Pilipczuk, SODA 2017]. While we do not completely resolve this question, we design a significantly smaller kernel of size
O
(
k
12
log
10
k
), inspired by the
O
(
k
2
) -size kernel for F
eedback
V
ertex
S
et
[Thomassé, TALG 2010]. Furthermore, we introduce the notion of the independence degree of a vertex, which is our main conceptual contribution.
An Efficient UAV Hijacking Detection Method Using Onboard Inertial Measurement Unit
Authors: Feng Zhiwei , Guan Nan , Lv Mingsong , Liu Weichen , Deng Qingxu , Liu Xue , Yi Wang
Published: December 2018

With the fast growth of civil drones, their security problems meet significant challenges. A commercial drone may be hijacked by a GPS-spoofing attack for illegal activities, such as terrorist attacks. The target of this article is to develop a technique that only uses onboard gyroscopes to determine whether a drone has been hijacked.

Ideally, GPS data and the angular velocities measured by gyroscopes can be used to estimate the acceleration of a drone, which can be further compared with the measurement of the accelerometer to detect whether a drone has been hijacked. However, the detection results may not always be accurate due to some calculation and measurement errors, especially when no hijacking occurs in curve trajectory situations. To overcome this, in this article, we propose a novel and simple method to detect hijacking only based on gyroscopes’ measurements and GPS data, without using any accelerometer in the detection procedure. The computational complexity of our method is very low, which is suitable to be implemented in the drones with micro-controllers. On the other hand, the proposed method does not rely on any accelerometer to detect attacks, which means it receives less information in the detection procedure and may reduce the results accuracy in some special situations. While the previous method can compensate for this flaw, the high detection results also can be guaranteed by using the above two methods. Experiments with a quad-rotor drone are conducted to show the effectiveness of the proposed method and the combination method.
Bandwidth and Locality Aware Task-stealing for Manycore Architectures with Bandwidth-Asymmetric Memory
Authors: Zhao Han , Chen Quan , Qiu Yuxian , Wu Ming , Shen Yao , Leng Jingwen , Li Chao , Guo Minyi
Published: December 2018

Parallel computers now start to adopt Bandwidth-Asymmetric Memory architecture that consists of traditional DRAM memory and new High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) for high memory bandwidth. However, existing task schedulers suffer from low bandwidth usage and poor data locality problems in bandwidth-asymmetric memory architectures. To solve the two problems, we propose a Bandwidth and Locality Aware Task-stealing (BATS) system, which consists of an HBM-aware data allocator, a bandwidth-aware traffic balancer, and a hierarchical task-stealing scheduler. Leveraging compile-time code transformation and run-time data distribution, the data allocator enables HBM usage automatically without user interference. According to data access hotness, the traffic balancer migrates data to balance memory traffic across memory nodes proportional to their bandwidth. The hierarchical scheduler improves data locality at runtime without
a priori
program knowledge. Experiments on an Intel Knights Landing server that adopts bandwidth-asymmetric memory show that BATS reduces the execution time of memory-bound programs up to 83.5% compared with traditional task-stealing schedulers.
Prediction and bounds on shared cache demand from memory access interleaving
Authors: Brock Jacob , Ding Chen , Lavaee Rahman , Liu Fangzhou , Yuan Liang
Published: December 2018

Cache in multicore machines is often shared, and the cache performance depends on how memory accesses belonging to different programs interleave with one another. The full range of performance possibilities includes all possible interleavings, which are too numerous to be studied by experiments for any mix of non-trivial programs.

This paper presents a theory to characterize the effect of memory access interleaving due to parallel execution of non-data-sharing programs. The theory uses an established metric called the footprint (which can be used to calculate miss ratios in fully-associative LRU caches) to measure cache demand, and considers the full range of interleaving possibilities. The paper proves a lower bound for footprints of interleaved traces, and then formulates an upper bound in terms of the footprints of the constituent traces. It also shows the correctness of footprint composition used in a number of existing techniques, and places precise bounds on its accuracy.