bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A revised depositional setting for Halton sediments in the Oak Ridges Moraine area, Ontario
Authors: Sharpe D.R. , Russell H.A.J.
Published: February 2016

Outcrop and continuous core descriptions, high-resolution seismic profiling, and downhole geophysical data are integrated with detailed mapping to update sedimentary and stratigraphic frameworks for Halton sediment, a complex mud-rich lithofacies succession. Halton sediment has a gradational transition from underlying Oak Ridges Moraine (ORM) sediment and can abruptly overlie Newmarket Till. Halton strata thin and fine upwards from ORM sand and gravel to graded sand, silt, and clay rhythmites, with muddy diamicton and sand and gravel interbeds. These strata fill basin lows and drape ORM sediment lobes and Newmarket Till drumlins. These distinct sedimentary units are here informally referred to as Halton formation. Formal Halton Till is a proposed subunit of Halton formation, a clay-rich diamicton mapped from Niagara Peninsula to ORM and eastward. Halton Till has traditionally been inferred to represent a late, climatically induced readvance of grounded ice from Lake Ontario basin, which deposited drumlinized till. Halton sedimentary architecture and facies are interpreted as deposition in an ice-marginal or subglacial lake bounded by Niagara Escarpment, ORM, and grounding line oscillation of a semi-buoyant ice shelf or ice lid over Lake Ontario. Large volumes of transported mud are distal equivalents of ORM high-energy gravelly sand deposits to the east. Glaciolacustrine sedimentation is indicated by mud-rich texture and laminations. Clay–silt rhythmites, diamicton interbeds, and intraclasts indicate ponding, debris flow, and periodic ice loading. Halton depositional model may apply to other muddy diamictons in Great Lakes basins. Halton formation facies are not compatible with proposed grounded ice stream events in Lake Ontario basin.
Yoichiro Nambu and the origin of mass
Authors: Kibble Tom W. B.
Published: February 2016

This note summarises and celebrates the important contributions of Yoichiro Nambu to the tricky question of the origin of particle masses.
Relating lepton mixing angles with lepton mass hierarchy
Authors: Borah Debasish
Published: February 2016

We revisit the possibility of relating lepton mixing angles with lepton mass hierarchies in a model-independent way. Guided by the existence of such relations in the quark sector, we first consider all the mixing angles, both in charged lepton and neutrino sectors to be related to the respective mass ratios. This allows us to calculate the leptonic mixing angles observed in neutrino oscillations as functions of the lightest neutrino mass. We show that for both normal and inverted hierarchical neutrino masses, this scenario does not give rise to correct leptonic mixing angles. We then show that correct leptonic mixing angles can be generated with normal hierarchical neutrino masses if the relation between mixing angle and mass ratio is restricted to 1–2 and 1–3 mixing in both charged lepton and neutrino sectors leaving the 2–3 mixing angles as free parameters. We then restrict the lightest neutrino mass as well as the difference between 2–3 mixing angles in charged lepton and neutrino sectors from the requirement of producing correct leptonic mixing angles. We constrain the lightest neutrino mass to be around 0.002 eV and leptonic Dirac CP phase [Formula: see text] such that [Formula: see text]. We also construct the leptonic mass matrices in terms of 2–3 mixing angles and lightest neutrino mass and briefly comment on the possibility of realizing texture zeros in the neutrino mass matrix.
Vibrational, mechanical and thermodynamical properties of indium thiospinelsMIn2S4(M= Cd, Zn and Mg)
Authors: Kushwaha A. K. , Khenata R. , Bin Omran S.
Published: February 2016

In this paper, interatomic interactions, zone-center phonon frequencies, mechanical properties, sound velocities and Debye temperature of indium thiospinels MIn2S4(M = Cd, Zn and Mg) have been calculated using rigid-ion model. We found that the first neighbor interaction is stronger than the second neighbor interaction. We have compared our calculated results with the available experimental and theoretical data and find good agreement with the experimental results.
Exciton effects in strained armchair graphene nanoribbons
Authors: Jia Yonglei , Liu Junlin
Published: February 2016

The exciton effects in 1-nm-wide armchair graphene nanoribbons (AGNRs) under the uniaxial strain were studied within the nonorthogonal tight-binding (TB) model, supplemented by the long-range Coulomb interactions. The obtained results show that both the excitation energy and exciton binding energy are modulated by the uniaxial strain. The variation of these energies depends on the ribbon family. In addition, the results show that the variation of the exciton binding energy is much weaker than the variation of excitation energy. Our results provide new guidance for the design of optomechanical systems based on graphene nanoribbons.
Polarization and sizes variation immune optical absorbers
Authors: Zhang Li , Fu Yongqi , Yu Weixing
Published: February 2016

In this paper, a novel optical absorber that is flexible in size for fabrication and unique properties is studied numerically by aid of finite difference in time domain (FDTD) algorithm. The structure consists of three layers based on the metal–dielectric–metal design scheme. The middle layer is a dielectric in which the electronic and magnetic resonance energy dissipates. The bottom side is a metallic plane and the top layer is a hexagonal prism array. We also investigate the influence of the structure parameters on the absorbance and the absorption wavelength. The results show that a perfect absorber can be designed, and the number of the absorption peaks varies from two to three for the different radius of circumcircle of the hexagonal prism ranging from 280 nm to 400 nm. Meanwhile, position of the first absorption peak is nearly unchanged. This unique feature may be a significant advantage and possesses great potential applications such as biosensing and photovoltaic. Additionally, position and amplitude of the first absorption peak is constant for broad incident angles. The absorption is insensitive to the polarization of the incident beam due to the highly symmetric structure.
Energy evolution in many-particle quantum hydrodynamics of spinning plasmas
Authors: Trukhanova Mariya Iv.
Published: February 2016

In this paper, we develop a quantum hydrodynamics (QHD) method for the research of the quantum evolution of a system of spinning particles. We derived the fundamental equation for charged and neutral spinning particles — the energy evolution equation from the many-particle microscopic Schrödinger equation with a spin–spin and Coulomb modified Hamiltonian. We derive the spin contributions to the energy evolution equation, thermal energy and thermal energy current.
Refractive index sensing performance analysis of photonic crystal containing graphene based on optical Tamm state
Authors: Chen Ying , Dong Jing , Liu Teng , Zhu Qiguang , Chen Weidong
Published: February 2016

A photonic crystal’s refractive index sensor is proposed based on the photonic crystal (PC) optical properties and the surface wave resonance principle. The optical Tamm state existing at the interface between one-dimensional (1D) PCs and the metal layer can overcome the disadvantage of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor in which the incident light can only be TM polarized light. The resonant wavelength can be changed by adjusting the optical parameters of the PC. Through coating the metal surface with graphene, the resolution and sensitivity of the sensor can be improved obviously. The relationship model between the graphene parameters and the reflectivity is established by analyzing the reflective properties of the graphene. In the numerical simulation, the graphene layer is optimized to improve the refractive index sensing properties. The numerical simulation results show that the quality factor ([Formula: see text] value) can attain to 1418.2 and the sensitivity is about 1178.6 nm RIU[Formula: see text], which can demonstrate the effectiveness of the senor structure and provide some theoretical references for the design of the refractive index sensors with high [Formula: see text] value and sensitivity.
Skin-depth lattice strain, core-level trap depression and valence charge polarization of Al surfaces
Authors: Wang Yan , Bo Maolin , Liu Yonghui , Guo Yongling , Wang Haibin , Yue Jian , Huang Yongli
Published: February 2016

Clarifying the origin for surface core-level shift (SCLS) and gaining quantitative information regarding the coordination-resolved local strain, binding energy (BE) shift and cohesive energy change have been a challenge. Here, we show that a combination of the bond order–length–strength (BOLS) premise, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and the ab initio density functional theory (DFT) calculations of aluminum (Al) [Formula: see text] energy shift of Al surfaces has enabled us to derive such information, namely, (i) the [Formula: see text] energy of an isolated Al atom [Formula: see text] and its bulk shift (0.499 eV); (ii) the skin lattice contracts by up to 12.5% and the BE density increases by 70%; and (iii) the cohesive energy drops up to 38%. It is affirmed that the shorter and stronger bonds between under-coordinated atoms provide a perturbation to the Hamiltonian and hence lead to the local strain, quantum entrapment and valence charge polarization. Findings should help in understanding the phenomena of surface pre-melting and skin-high elasticity, in general.
Effects of neutron flux on the nano silica particles: ESR study
Authors: Huseynov Elchin , Garibov Adil , Mehdiyeva Ravan , Huseynova Efsane
Published: February 2016

In this paper, we have comparatively studied the “electron spin resonance” (ESR) of SiO2 nanoparticles before and after neutron irradiation. From the comparative analysis of samples at the full sweep (sweep 5000 G at center field of 3300 G) in the same system, amount of defects were found to increase. At the field line around 3350 G, we found the free electron [Formula: see text] species [Formula: see text] and determined that this situation is more sustainable than the other observed cases (the cases existing in values 2.5–3 and 3–5 of [Formula: see text]-factor). Moreover, expanded section near [Formula: see text] repeated with a sweep of 100 G and at two power due to microwave saturation effects has been studied.
Ground states of a mixture of pseudospin-1 2 Bose gases with interspecies spin exchange
Authors: Wu Rukuan , Shi Yu
Published: February 2016

In this paper, we analytically find the ground states of a mixture of two species of pseudospin-[Formula: see text] Bose gases with interspecies spin exchange in quite generic parameter regimes. In the most interesting phase, the ground state is strongly entangled between the two species in a very wide parameter regime, and is an entangled Bose-Einstein condensate. The phase diagram and elementary excitations are studied.
Low energy greybody factors for fermions emitted by a Schwarzschild-de Sitter black hole
Authors: Sporea Ciprian A. , Borowiec Andrzej
Published: February 2016

In this paper, we are discussing the problem of low energy greybody factors for fermions emitted by a Schwarzschild-de Sitter (SdS) black hole. In our study, we are using the analytical methods proposed by Unruh some time ago for determining the greybody factors. We have found that at low energies the greybody factors are constant for a given total angular momentum (similar to what happens in the case of scalar particles reported before in the literature). Also, our results are indicating an enhancement in the energy spectrum if one is increasing the value of the cosmological constant. These results are consistent with numerical calculations performed by S. F. Wu et al., Phys. Rev. D 78 (1998) 084010.
A MISSED DIAGNOSIS OF ASYMPTOMATIC SIMULTANEOUS BILATERAL FRACTURE NECK FEMUR DUE TO VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY TREATED AS SEVERE BILATERAL OSTEOARTHRITIS KNEE: HOW TO PREVENT IT?
Authors: Menon Prem Haridas , Salunke Abhijeet Ashok , Murphy Diarmuid Paul , Roy Shivendu Prosad , Manoj M. K. , Nambi G. I. , Raval Pradyumna , Dhanwate Anant
Published: February 2016

Simultaneous bilateral neck of femur fracture is a rare injury and poses a diagnostic challenge. This uncommon pattern of injury has been associated with high-energy trauma and seizure disorders. Proper clinical examination of both hip and knee joint should be performed in patients presenting with bilateral knee pain. Clinical suspicion and detailed radiologic evaluation of both hip and knee joint is essential for diagnosis of uncommon injury around hip joint. A battery of metabolic tests to assess vitamin D deficiency and histology study of the specimen should be performed. Patients with simultaneous bilateral fracture neck femur can be treated well and perform activities of daily living with good outcomes with prompt surgical intervention and medical treatment. We report the case of asymptomatic simultaneous bilateral neck of femur fracture following vitamin D deficiency which was missed and was misdiagnosed and treated for severe bilateral osteoarthritis knee.
Osscillating Binding Energy of a Donor Impurity Confined Within CdS-SiO2Constant Total Effective Radius Multi-Shells Quantum Dots
Authors: Solaimani M.
Published: February 2016

In this paper, we have studied the effect of a number of wells and quantum dot thickness on binding energy of a single donor impurity confined within a CdS-SiO2constant total effective radius multi-shells quantum dot (CTER-MSQD) system. We have shown that impurity binding energy versus number of wells in a quantum dot with fixed outer radius oscillates when amplitude increases. By using well number variation, adding impurity and changing quantum dot radius as three tuning tools, localization of wave-functions in each part of the quantum dot along the radius has been now made possible. Finally, adding the impurity leads to more probability of finding the electrons in the wells near the center of the quantum dot.
Microwave-assisted synthesis of fluorine substituted porphyrins and kinetics of formation of zinc porphyrin complexes in acetic acid
Authors: Gao Yi , Pan Ji Gang , Huang Yue Jun , Ding Shuang Yan , Wang Meng Liang
Published: February 2016

Three mono-fluorine substituted porphyrin compouds were synthesized under microwave irradiation. The effects of catalysts and oxidants on the yields of mono-fluorine substituted porphyrins also were investigated. The yields of 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-fluorophenyl)porphyrin, 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(3-fluorophenyl)porphyrin, 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(2-fluorophenyl)porphyrin in a use of nitrobenzene in propionic acid were 36%, 30% and 28%, respectively. In addition, the zinc(II) ion incorporation reactions into porphyrins to form the zinc porphyrin complexes have been kinetically investigated in acetic acid.
Linkage between corporate governance and corporate social responsibility in banking sector of Bangladesh
Authors: Moudud-Ul-Huq Syed
Published: February 2016

This paper has been made to analyze the linkage between corporate governance and corporate social responsibility. From analysis, it is found that Eastern Bank Ltd. (EBL) performs better than other selected banks but not enough in practicing corporate social responsibility. While, conventional banks are more imperative than Islamic banks as all the indicators cover its benchmark apart from return on total assets. It has proved that there is a significant relationship among return on equity, earnings per share, corporate governance and corporate social responsibility but corporate social responsibility has shown little impact on corporate performance.
FNM
Authors: Wang Jun , Dong Zhenjiang , Yalamanchili Sudhakar , Riley George
Published: February 2016

As multicore computer systems become increasingly complex, parallel simulation is becoming an important tool for exploring design space and evaluating design tradeoffs. The key to the success of parallel simulation is the ability to maintain a high degree of parallelism under synchronization constraints. In this article, an enhanced Null-message algorithm called FNM is presented that uses domain-specific knowledge to improve the performance of the basic Null-message algorithm. Based on their runtime states, the components of the simulation model can make a conservative forecast of future interprocess events. The forecast information is carried in the enhanced Null-messages, and, by combining the forecast from both sides of an interprocess link, FNM can achieve a dynamic system lookahead that is much greater than what the static system structure provides. This improved lookahead allows better exploitation of the simulation model's inherent parallelism and leads to better performance. Compared with the basic Null-message algorithm, FNM greatly reduces the amount of Null-messages and improves parallel simulation performance as a result, while at the same time it guarantees simulation correctness as the basic Null-message algorithm does. In tests on cycle-level models with up to 128 cores, FNM shows good scalability and proves to be an effective method.
Auxiliary Variables in Temporal Specifications
Authors: Pierre Laurence
Published: February 2016

Assertion-based verification (ABV) for IP blocks given as synchronous RTL (register transfer level) descriptions has now widely gained acceptance. The challenge addressed here is ABV for
systems on chip
(SoC) modeled at the system level in SystemC TLM (Transactional Level Modeling). Requirements to be verified at this level of abstraction usually express temporal constraints on the interactions and communications in the SoC. We use the IEEE standard language PSL to formalize these temporal assertions which represent properties on communication actions and their parameters.
Auxiliary variables
are often indispensable for this formalization, but their use may induce semantic issues. This article discusses this matter, analyzes various existing approaches and proposes a summary of their advantages and shortcomings. They are also compared to our syntactic and semantic framework, implemented in a verification tool. The proposed operational semantics has the advantages of being simple and intuitive while supporting both global and local auxiliary variables. Experimental results on industrial case studies illustrate its applicability.
Combining User Reputation and Provenance Analysis for Trust Assessment
Authors: Ceolin Davide , Groth Paul , Maccatrozzo Valentina , Fokkink Wan , Hage Willem Robert Van , Nottamkandath Archana
Published: February 2016

Trust is a broad concept that in many systems is often reduced to user reputation alone. However, user reputation is just one way to determine trust. The estimation of trust can be tackled from other perspectives as well, including by looking at provenance.

Here, we present a complete pipeline for estimating the trustworthiness of artifacts given their provenance and a set of sample evaluations. The pipeline is composed of a series of algorithms for (1) extracting relevant provenance features, (2) generating stereotypes of user behavior from provenance features, (3) estimating the reputation of both stereotypes and users, (4) using a combination of user and stereotype reputations to estimate the trustworthiness of artifacts, and (5) selecting sets of artifacts to trust. These algorithms rely on the W3C PROV recommendations for provenance and on evidential reasoning by means of subjective logic.

We evaluate the pipeline over two tagging datasets: tags and evaluations from the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision’s
Waisda?
video tagging platform, as well as crowdsourced annotations from the
Steve.Museum
project. The approach achieves up to 85% precision when predicting tag trustworthiness. Perhaps more importantly, the pipeline provides satisfactory results using relatively little evidence through the use of provenance.
Array Size Computation under Uniform Overlapping and Irregular Accesses
Authors: Kritikakou Angeliki , Catthoor Francky , Kelefouras Vasilios , Goutis Costas
Published: February 2016

The size required to store an array is crucial for an embedded system, as it affects the memory size, the energy per memory access, and the overall system cost. Existing techniques for finding the minimum number of resources required to store an array are less efficient for codes with large loops and not regularly occurring memory accesses. They have to approximate the accessed parts of the array leading to overestimation of the required resources. Otherwise, their exploration time is increased with an increase over the number of the different accessed parts of the array. We propose a methodology to compute the minimum resources required for storing an array which keeps the exploration time low and provides a near-optimal result for regularly and non-regularly occurring memory accesses and overlapping writes and reads.
ECDSA Passive Attacks, Leakage Sources, and Common Design Mistakes
Authors: Dubeuf Jeremy , Hely David , Beroulle Vincent
Published: February 2016

Elliptic Curves Cryptography (ECC) tends to replace RSA for public key cryptographic services. ECC is involved in many secure schemes such as Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) key agreement, Elliptic Curve Integrated Encryption Scheme (ECIES), and Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA). As for every cryptosystem, implementation of such schemes may jeopardize the inherent security provided by the mathematical properties of the ECC. Unfortunate implementation or algorithm choices may create serious vulnerabilities. The elliptic curve scalar operation is particularly sensitive among these schemes. This article surveys passive attacks against well-spread elliptic curve scalar multiplication algorithms highlighting leakage sources and common mistakes that can be used to attack the ECDSA scheme. Experimental results are provided to illustrate and demonstrate the effectiveness of each vulnerability. Finally, the article describes the link between partial leakage and lattice attack in order to understand and demonstrate the impact of small leakages on the security of ECDSA. An example of side channel and lattice attack combination on NIST P-256 is provided in the case where the elliptic curve scalar multiplication is not protected against DPA/CPA and a controllable device is not accessible.
Exploring Soft-Error Robust and Energy-Efficient Register File in GPGPUs using Resistive Memory
Authors: Tan Jingweijia , Li Zhi , Chen Mingsong , Fu Xin
Published: February 2016

The increasing adoption of graphics processing units (GPUs) for high-performance computing raises the reliability challenge, which is generally ignored in traditional GPUs. GPUs usually support thousands of parallel threads and require a sizable register file. Such large register file is highly susceptible to soft errors and power-hungry. Although ECC has been adopted to register file in modern GPUs, it causes considerable power overhead, which further increases the power stress. Thus, an energy-efficient soft-error protection mechanism is more desirable. Besides its extremely low leakage power consumption, resistive memory (e.g., spin-transfer torque RAM) is also immune to the radiation induced soft errors due to its magnetic field based storage. In this article, we propose to LEverage reSistive memory to enhance the Soft-error robustness and reduce the power consumption (LESS) of registers in the General-Purpose computing on GPUs (GPGPUs). Since resistive memory experiences longer write latency compared to SRAM, we explore the unique characteristics of GPGPU applications to obtain the win-win gains: achieving the near-full soft-error protection for the register file, and meanwhile substantially reducing the energy consumption with negligible performance degradation. Our experimental results show that LESS is able to mitigate the registers soft-error vulnerability by 86% and achieve 61% energy savings with negligible (e.g., 1%) performance degradation.
Toward Generalizing the Unification with Statistical Outliers
Authors: Angiulli Fabrizio , Fassetti Fabio
Published: February 2016

In this work, we introduce a novel definition of outlier, namely the Gradient Outlier Factor (or GOF), with the aim to provide a definition that unifies with the statistical one on some standard distributions but has a different behavior in the presence of mixture distributions. Intuitively, the GOF score measures the probability to stay in the neighborhood of a certain object. It is directly proportional to the density and inversely proportional to the variation of the density. We derive formal properties under which the GOF definition unifies the statistical outlier definition and show that the unification holds for some standard distributions, while the GOF is able to capture tails in the presence of different distributions even if their densities sensibly differ. Moreover, we provide a probabilistic interpretation of the GOF score, by means of the notion of density of the data density. Experimental results confirm that there are scenarios in which the novel definition can be profitably employed. To the best of our knowledge, except for distance-based outlier, no other data mining outlier definition has a so clearly established relationship with statistical outliers.
Design-for-Testability for Functional Broadside Tests under Primary Input Constraints
Authors: Pomeranz Irith
Published: February 2016

Functional broadside tests avoid overtesting of delay faults by creating functional operation conditions during the clock cycles where delay faults are detected. When a circuit is embedded in a larger design, a functional broadside test needs to take into consideration the functional constraints that the design creates for its primary input vectors. At the same time, application of primary input vectors as part of a scan-based test requires hardware support. An earlier work considered the case where a primary input vector is held constant during a test. The approach described in this article matches the hardware for applying primary input vectors to the functional constraints that the design creates. This increases the transition fault coverage that can be achieved by functional broadside tests. This article also considers the effect on the transition fault coverage achievable using close-to-functional broadside tests.
Security-Aware Obfuscated Priority Assignment for Automotive CAN Platforms
Authors: Lukasiewycz Martin , Mundhenk Philipp , Steinhorst Sebastian
Published: February 2016

Security in automotive in-vehicle networks is an increasing problem with the growing connectedness of road vehicles. This article proposes a security-aware priority assignment for automotive controller area network (CAN) platforms with the aim of mitigating scaling effects of attacks on vehicle fleets. CAN is the dominating field bus in the automotive domain due to its simplicity, low cost, and robustness. While messages might be encrypted to enhance the security of CAN systems, their priorities are usually identical for automotive platforms, comprising generally a large number of vehicle models. As a result, the identifier uniquely defines which message is sent, allowing attacks to scale across a fleet of vehicles with the same platform. As a remedy, we propose a methodology that is capable of determining obfuscated message identifiers for each individual vehicle. Since identifiers directly represent message priorities, the approach has to take the resulting response time variations into account while satisfying application deadlines for each vehicle schedule separately. Our approach relies on Quadratically Constrained Quadratic Program (QCQP) solving in two stages, specifying first a set of feasible fixed priorities and subsequently bounded priorities for each message. With the obtained bounds, obfuscated identifiers are determined, using a very fast randomized sampling. The experimental results, consisting of a large set of synthetic test cases and a realistic case study, give evidence of the efficiency of the proposed approach in terms of scalability. The results also show that the diversity of obtained identifiers is effectively optimized with our approach, resulting in a very good obfuscation of CAN messages in in-vehicle communication.
TSocket
Authors: Chen Guoqing , Xu Yi , Hu Xing , Guo Xiangyang , Ma Jun , Hu Yu , Xie Yuan
Published: February 2016

As technology scales, thermal management for multicore architectures becomes a critical challenge due to increasing power density. Existing power budgeting techniques focus on maximizing performance under a given power budget by optimizing the core configurations. In multicore era, a chip-wide power budget, however, is not sufficient to ensure thermal constraints because the thermal sustainable power capacity varies with different threading strategies and core configurations. In this article, we propose two models to dynamically estimate the thermal sustainable power capacity in homogeneous multicore systems:
uniform power model
and
nonuniform power model
. These two models convert the thermal effect of threading strategies and core configurations into power capacity, which provide a context-based core power capacity for power budgeting. Based on these models, we introduce a power budgeting framework aiming to improve the performance within thermal constraints, named as TSocket. Compared to the chip-wide power budgeting solution, TSocket shows 19% average performance improvement for the PARSEC benchmarks in single program scenario and up to 11% performance improvement in multiprogram scenario. The performance improvement is achieved by reducing thermal violations and exploring thermal headrooms.
Information Quality Research Challenge
Authors: Lukyanenko Roman
Published: February 2016

As information technology becomes an integral part of daily life, increasingly, people understand the world around them by turning to digital sources as opposed to directly interacting with objects in the physical world. This has ushered in the age of Ubiquitous Digital Intermediation (UDI). With the explosion of UDI, the scope of Information Quality (IQ) research is due to expand dramatically as the challenge becomes to capture the wealth and nuances of human experience. This article presents three key changes to the IQ landscape brought about by UDI, including expansion of the scope of traditional IQ dimensions, digital to physical mapping challenge, and the increased need to manage content authenticity. UDI generates many novel questions and opportunities for the IQ research community.
On Folded-Clos Networks with Deterministic Single-Path Routing
Authors: Yuan Xin , Nienaber Wickus , Mahapatra Santosh
Published: February 2016

Folded-Clos networks, also known as fat-trees, have been widely used as interconnects in large-scale high-performance computing clusters. Although users often treat such interconnects as replacements of nonblocking crossbar switches that can carry out any permutation communication without contention, the networking capability of such interconnects without a centralized controller in computer communication environments is not well understood. In this article, we investigate nonblocking two-level folded-Clos networks with deterministic single-path routing, but no centralized controller, and establish the nonblocking condition. The results indicate that nonblocking two-level folded-Clos networks without a centralized controller are much more expensive to construct than the traditional nonblocking networks in the telecommunication environment. Practical two-level folded-Clos based interconnects are blocking. For such interconnects, we establish the lower bound for worst-case contention for permutations with any deterministic single-path routing scheme, show that existing routing schemes perform poorly in terms of worst-case contention for permutations, present a routing scheme that achieves the theoretical optimal, and empirically compare the performance of existing schemes with the optimal routing scheme. The techniques developed for two-level folded-Clos networks are further extended for the general fat-trees of any heights.
Déjà Fu: a concurrency testing library for Haskell
Authors: Walker Michael , Runciman Colin
Published: February 2016

Systematic concurrency testing (SCT) is an approach to testing potentially nondeterministic concurrent programs. SCT avoids potentially unrepeatable results that may arise from unit testing concurrent programs. It seems to have received little attention from Haskell programmers. This paper introduces a generalisation of Haskell's concurrency abstraction in the form of typeclasses, and a library for testing concurrent programs. A number of examples are provided, some of which come from pre-existing packages.
SIGIR 2015 Workshop Program Overview
Authors: Diaz Fernando , Kelly Diane
Published: February 2016

SIGIR workshops provide a platform for presenting novel ideas in a less formal and more focused way than the main conference. The SIGIR Workshop Program is a venue where discussion, collaboration and the sharing of ideas can take place. This paper provides an overview of the SIGIR 2015 workshop program. Papers describing details of the individual workshops written by workshop organizers are also included in this issue of the Forum.
Benchmarking News Recommendations
Authors: Hopfgartner Frank , Brodt Torben , Seiler Jonas , Kille Benjamin , Lommatzsch Andreas , Larson Martha , Turrin Roberto , Serény András
Published: February 2016

The CLEF NewsREEL challenge is a campaign-style evaluation lab allowing participants to evaluate and optimize news recommender algorithms. The goal is to create an algorithm that is able to generate news items that users would click, respecting a strict time constraint. The lab challenges participants to compete in either a "living lab" (Task 1) or perform an evaluation that replays recorded streams (Task 2). In this report, we discuss the objectives and challenges of the NewsREEL lab, summarize last year's campaign and outline the main research challenges that can be addressed by participating in NewsREEL 2016.
Neuronal coupling by endogenous electric fields: cable theory and applications to coincidence detector neurons in the auditory brain stem
Authors: Goldwyn Joshua H. , Rinzel John
Published: January 2016

The ongoing activity of neurons generates a spatially and time-varying field of extracellular voltage ( Ve). This Vefield reflects population-level neural activity, but does it modulate neural dynamics and the function of neural circuits? We provide a cable theory framework to study how a bundle of model neurons generates Veand how this Vefeeds back and influences membrane potential ( Vm). We find that these “ephaptic interactions” are small but not negligible. The model neural population can generate Vewith millivolt-scale amplitude, and this Veperturbs the Vmof “nearby” cables and effectively increases their electrotonic length. After using passive cable theory to systematically study ephaptic coupling, we explore a test case: the medial superior olive (MSO) in the auditory brain stem. The MSO is a possible locus of ephaptic interactions: sounds evoke large (millivolt scale) Vein vivo in this nucleus. The Veresponse is thought to be generated by MSO neurons that perform a known neuronal computation with submillisecond temporal precision (coincidence detection to encode sound source location). Using a biophysically based model of MSO neurons, we find millivolt-scale ephaptic interactions consistent with the passive cable theory results. These subtle membrane potential perturbations induce changes in spike initiation threshold, spike time synchrony, and time difference sensitivity. These results suggest that ephaptic coupling may influence MSO function.
High MMP-9 Expression May Contribute to Retroprosthetic Membrane Formation after KPro Implantation in Rabbit Corneal Alkali Burn Model
Authors: Gao Minghong , Sang Wei , Liu Fuying , Yu Hai , Zhou Runhai , Belin Michael Wellington , Zloty Peter , Chen Yingxin
Published: February 2016

Purpose. To evaluate aqueous humor MMP-9 levels in alkali-burned rabbit cornea following KPr implantation and their roles in RPMs formation.Methods. Left eyes of 36 rabbits received a deep corneal alkali wound. 12 corneas were implanted with KPro and the other 24 control corneas were either penetrating keratoplasty or left without keratoplasty. Aqueous humor MMP-9 and TIMP-1 levels were determined and RPMs were obtained for histopathological and ultrastructural examination.Results. Alkali exposure induced significant increase in aqueous humor MMP-9 level and the data were further enhanced by KPro implantation. By contrast, TMIP-1 levels in aqueous humor showed a decreased trend following corneal alkali burn and KPro surgery. RPMs were developed in 5 out of 10 cases of KPro successfully implanted eyes. Histopathology showed the presence of a large number of fibroblasts and collagen fibers arranged irregularly with inflammatory cells infiltration, and an ingrowth of new blood vessels in this retrokeratoprosthesis fibrous tissue. Immunohistochemical analysis showed positive stain of RPMs for both MMP-9 and TIMP-1. Aqueous humor MMP-9 levels were significantly higher in RPM group postoperatively, while TIMP-1 levels were comparatively lower than that of No-RPM group.Conclusions. Our study evidenced the potential pathophysiological role of MMP-9 expression in RPM formation following KPro implantation.
Local Dynamics and Global Stability of Certain Second-Order Rational Difference Equation with Quadratic Terms
Authors: Hrustić S. Jašarević , Kulenović M. R. S. , Nurkanović M.
Published: February 2016

We present a complete local dynamics and investigate the global dynamics of the following second-order difference equation:xn+1=Axn2+Exn-1+F/axn2+exn-1+f,  n=0,1,2,…, where the parametersA,E,F,a,e, andfare nonnegative numbers with conditionA+E+F>0,a+e+f>0, and the initial conditionsx-1,x0are arbitrary nonnegative numbers such thataxn2+exn-1+f>0,  n=0,1,2,….
A CRISPR-Based Toolbox for Studying T Cell Signal Transduction
Authors: Chi Shen , Weiss Arthur , Wang Haopeng
Published: February 2016

CRISPR/Cas9 system is a powerful technology to perform genome editing in a variety of cell types. To facilitate the application of Cas9 in mapping T cell signaling pathways, we generated a toolbox for large-scale genetic screens in human Jurkat T cells. The toolbox has three different Jurkat cell lines expressing distinct Cas9 variants, including wild-type Cas9, dCas9-KRAB, and sunCas9. We demonstrated that the toolbox allows us to rapidly disrupt endogenous gene expression at the DNA level and to efficiently repress or activate gene expression at the transcriptional level. The toolbox, in combination with multiple currently existing genome-wide sgRNA libraries, will be useful to systematically investigate T cell signal transduction using both loss-of-function and gain-of-function genetic screens.
Computer Vision Based Automatic Extraction and Thickness Measurement of Deep Cervical Flexor from Ultrasonic Images
Authors: Kim Kwang Baek , Song Doo Heon , Park Hyun Jun
Published: February 2016

Deep Cervical Flexor (DCF) muscles are important in monitoring and controlling neck pain. While ultrasonographic analysis is useful in this area, it has intrinsic subjectivity problem. In this paper, we propose automatic DCF extractor/analyzer software based on computer vision. One of the major difficulties in developing such an automatic analyzer is to detect important organs and their boundaries under very low brightness contrast environment. Our fuzzy sigma binarization process is one of the answers for that problem. Another difficulty is to compensate information loss that happened during such image processing procedures. Many morphologically motivated image processing algorithms are applied for that purpose. The proposed method is verified as successful in extracting DCFs and measuring thicknesses in experiment using two hundred 800 × 600 DICOM ultrasonography images with 98.5% extraction rate. Also, the thickness of DCFs automatically measured by this software has small difference (less than 0.3 cm) for 89.8% of extracted DCFs.
Timelike Tangent Developable Surfaces and Bonnet Surfaces
Authors: Ersoy Soley , Eren Kemal
Published: February 2016

A criterion was given for a timelike surface to be a Bonnet surface in 3-dimensional Minkowski space by Chen and Li, 1999. In this study, we obtain a necessary and sufficient condition for a timelike tangent developable surface to be a timelike Bonnet surface by the aid of this criterion. This is examined under the condition of the curvature and torsion of the base curve of the timelike developable surface being nonconstant. Moreover, we investigate the nontrivial isometry preserving the mean curvature for a timelike flat helicoidal surface by considering the curvature and torsion of the base curve of the timelike developable surface as being constant.
Isoflurane Is More Deleterious to Developing Brain Than Desflurane: The Role of the Akt/GSK3βSignaling Pathway
Authors: Tao Guorong , Xue Qingsheng , Luo Yan , Li Guohui , Xia Yimeng , Yu Buwei
Published: February 2016

Demand is increasing for safer inhalational anesthetics for use in pediatric anesthesia. In this regard, researchers have debated whether isoflurane is more toxic to the developing brain than desflurane. In the present study, we compared the effects of postnatal exposure to isoflurane with those of desflurane on long-term cognitive performance and investigated the role of the Akt/GSK3βsignaling pathway. Postnatal day 6 (P6) mice were exposed to either isoflurane or desflurane, after which the phosphorylation levels of Akt/GSK3βand learning and memory were assessed at P8 or P31. The phosphorylation levels of Akt/GSK3βand learning and memory were examined after intervention with lithium. We found that isoflurane, but not desflurane, impaired spatial learning and memory at P31. Accompanied by behavioral change, only isoflurane decreased p-Akt (ser473) and p-GSK3β(ser9) expressions, which led to GSK3βoveractivation. Lithium prevented GSK3βoveractivation and alleviated isoflurane-induced cognitive deficits. These results suggest that isoflurane is more likely to induce developmental neurotoxicity than desflurane in context of multiple exposures and that the Akt/GSK3βsignaling pathway partly participates in this process. GSK3βinhibition might be an effective way to protect against developmental neurotoxicity.
Turbulent Forced Convection and Heat Transfer Characteristic in a Circular Tube with Modified-Twisted Tapes
Authors: Boonloi Amnart , Jedsadaratanachai Withada
Published: February 2016

Heat transfer, pressure loss, and thermal performance assessment in a circular tube heat exchanger with modified-twisted tapes are reported. The rectangular holes are punched out from the general twisted tape to reduce the pressure loss. The influences of the hole sizes (l/D, LR = 0.30, 0.44, 0.78, and 0.88) and twisted ratios (y/D, TR = 1, 1.5, 2, and 4) for the single and double twisted tapes are investigated with a numerical method at turbulent regime, Re = 3000–10,000. The finite volume method and the SIMPLE algorithm are used to investigate for the current research. The numerical results are reported in terms of flow structure and heat transfer behavior and compared with the smooth tube and the regular twisted tape. It is found that the modified-twisted tape provides higher heat transfer rate than the smooth tube due to the longitudinal vortex flows, created by the twisted tape. The longitudinal vortex flows help to increase fluid mixing. The rectangular punched holes of the twisted tape can reduce the pressure loss of the heating system. In addition, the maximum thermal enhancement factor is around 1.39 and 1.31 for the double twisted tape and single twisted tape, respectively, at Re = 3000, LR = 0.78, and TR = 1.
Highly Synchronized Expression of Lineage‐Specific Genes during In Vitro Hepatic Differentiation of Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Lines
Authors: Ghosheh Nidal , Olsson Björn , Edsbagge Josefina , Küppers-Munther Barbara , Van Giezen Mariska , Asplund Annika , Andersson Tommy B. , Björquist Petter , Carén Helena , Simonsson Stina , Sartipy Peter , Synnergren Jane
Published: February 2016

Human pluripotent stem cells‐ (hPSCs‐) derived hepatocytes have the potential to replace many hepatic models in drug discovery and provide a cell source for regenerative medicine applications. However, the generation of fully functional hPSC‐derived hepatocytes is still a challenge. Towards gaining better understanding of the differentiation and maturation process, we employed a standardized protocol to differentiate six hPSC lines into hepatocytes and investigated the synchronicity of the hPSC lines by applying RT‐qPCR to assess the expression of lineage‐specific genes (OCT4, NANOG, T, SOX17, CXCR4, CER1, HHEX, TBX3, PROX1, HNF6, AFP, HNF4a, KRT18, ALB, AAT, and CYP3A4) which serve as markers for different stages during liver development. The data was evaluated using correlation and clustering analysis, demonstrating that the expression of these markers is highly synchronized and correlated well across all cell lines. The analysis also revealed a distribution of the markers in groups reflecting the developmental stages of hepatocytes. Functional analysis of the differentiated cells further confirmed their hepatic phenotype. Taken together, these results demonstrate, on the molecular level, the highly synchronized differentiation pattern across multiple hPSC lines. Moreover, this study provides additional understanding for future efforts to improve the functionality of hPSC‐derived hepatocytes and thereby increase the value of related models.
Synthesis and Luminescent Characteristics of Ce3+-Activated Borosilicate Blue-Emitting Phosphors for LEDs
Authors: Yu Hong , Chen Jinlei , Gan Shucai
Published: February 2016

The phosphors Sr3B2SiO8:Ce3+have been successfully synthesized via solid-state reaction process. Emission/excitation spectra and photoluminescence decay behaviors were investigated in detail. Under the excitation of 340 nm, the emission spectrum presented an asymmetry emission band extended from 350 to 600 nm, which with the main peak at 425 nm can be fitted in two peaks (23940 cm−1and 21934 cm−1). The chromaticity coordinates ofSr3-xB2SiO8:xCe3+are fixed in the blue region; when the intensity of Ce3+reached the maximum, the chromaticity coordinate is (0.154, 0.088) which is more close to the standard CIE of blue light (0.140, 0.080). The results showed the kind of phosphor may have potential applications in the fields of UV-excited white LEDs.
Eosinophilic Fasciitis and Acute Encephalopathy Toxicity from Pembrolizumab Treatment of a Patient with Metastatic Melanoma
Authors: Khoja Leila , Maurice Catherine , Chappell MaryAnne , MacMillan Leslie , Al-Habeeb Ayman S. , Al-Faraidy Nada , Butler Marcus O. , Rogalla Patrik , Mason Warren , Joshua Anthony M. , Hogg David
Published: January 2016

Anti–PD-1 inhibitors have significant activity in metastatic melanoma. Responses often occur early and may be sustained. The optimal duration of treatment with these agents is unknown. Here, we report the case of a 51-year-old woman treated with pembrolizumab, as part of the Keynote-001 trial, as first-line treatment for metastatic disease. She experienced a complete response after 13.8 months of treatment with no adverse events. One month after the last drug infusion and 18 months from starting treatment, the patient presented with eosinophilic fasciitis. She then developed acute confusion and weakness, thought to be due to intracranial vasculitis. High-dose steroids were initiated with resolution of the fasciitis. Aspirin was commenced for presumed vasculitis with resolution of the neurologic symptoms. To our knowledge, there are no previous reports of eosinophilic fasciitis or cerebral vasculitis due to anti–PD-1 agents. This case demonstrates that toxicity may occur in association with pembrolizumab treatment after a prolonged period of treatment without toxicity. Future trials should explore the optimal duration of treatment with pembrolizumab. Cancer Immunol Res; 4(3); 175–8. ©2016 AACR.