bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
An Examination of Correlates for Adolescent Engagement in Nonsuicidal Self‐Injury, Suicidal Self‐Injury, and Substance Use
Authors: Klassen Janell A. , Hamza Chloe A. , Stewart Shannon L.
Published: July 2017

Little research has examined potential risk factors for direct versus indirect self‐injury among adolescents. To address this limitation, 541 clinically referred adolescents were assessed using the interRAI Child and Youth Mental Health Assessment. Logistic regression analyses revealed that older females who experienced heightened depressive symptoms and neighborhood violence were at increased risk for direct self‐injury, specifically nonsuicidal and suicidal self‐injury. Additionally, adolescents who experienced higher levels of caregiver distress were at greater risk of suicidal self‐injury. In contrast, older adolescents who experienced heightened aggressive behavior were at increased risk for one form of indirect self‐injury, substance use. Findings suggest that nonsuicidal self‐injury, suicidal self‐injury, and substance use are associated with differential risk factors. Implications for targeted prevention strategies are discussed.
Delivery of cytoplasmic and apoplastic effectors from Phytophthora infestans haustoria by distinct secretion pathways
Authors: Wang Shumei , Boevink Petra C. , Welsh Lydia , Zhang Ruofang , Whisson Stephen C. , Birch Paul R. J.
Published: July 2017

The potato blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans secretes effector proteins that are delivered inside (cytoplasmic) or can act outside (apoplastic) plant cells to neutralize host immunity. Little is known about how and where effectors are secreted during infection, yet such knowledge is essential to understand and combat crop disease.

We used transient Agrobacterium tumefaciens‐mediated in planta expression, transformation of P. infestans with fluorescent protein fusions and confocal microscopy to investigate delivery of effectors to plant cells during infection.

The cytoplasmic effector Pi04314, expressed as a monomeric red fluorescent protein (mRFP) fusion protein with a signal peptide to secrete it from plant cells, did not passively re‐enter the cells upon secretion. However, Pi04314‐mRFP expressed in P. infestans was translocated from haustoria, which form intimate interactions with plant cells, to accumulate at its sites of action in the host nucleus. The well‐characterized apoplastic effector EPIC1, a cysteine protease inhibitor, was also secreted from haustoria. EPIC1 secretion was inhibited by brefeldin A (BFA), demonstrating that it is delivered by conventional Golgi‐mediated secretion. By contrast, Pi04314 secretion was insensitive to BFA treatment, indicating that the cytoplasmic effector follows an alternative route for delivery into plant cells.

Phytophthora infestans haustoria are thus sites for delivery of both apoplastic and cytoplasmic effectors during infection, following distinct secretion pathways.
High‐resolution synchrotron imaging shows that root hairs influence rhizosphere soil structure formation
Authors: Koebernick Nicolai , Daly Keith R. , Keyes Samuel D. , George Timothy S. , Brown Lawrie K. , Raffan Annette , Cooper Laura J. , Naveed Muhammad , Bengough Anthony G. , Sinclair Ian , Hallett Paul D. , Roose Tiina
Published: July 2017

In this paper, we provide direct evidence of the importance of root hairs on pore structure development at the root–soil interface during the early stage of crop establishment.

This was achieved by use of high‐resolution (c. 5 μm) synchrotron radiation computed tomography (SRCT) to visualise both the structure of root hairs and the soil pore structure in plant–soil microcosms. Two contrasting genotypes of barley (Hordeum vulgare), with and without root hairs, were grown for 8 d in microcosms packed with sandy loam soil at 1.2 g cm−3 dry bulk density. Root hairs were visualised within air‐filled pore spaces, but not in the fine‐textured soil regions.

We found that the genotype with root hairs significantly altered the porosity and connectivity of the detectable pore space (> 5 μm) in the rhizosphere, as compared with the no‐hair mutants. Both genotypes showed decreasing pore space between 0.8 and 0.1 mm from the root surface. Interestingly the root‐hair‐bearing genotype had a significantly greater soil pore volume‐fraction at the root–soil interface.

Effects of pore structure on diffusion and permeability were estimated to be functionally insignificant under saturated conditions when simulated using image‐based modelling.
Mechanisms of action of nonpeptide hormones on resveratrol‐induced antiproliferation of cancer cells
Authors: Lin Hung‐Yun , Hsieh Meng‐Ti , Cheng Guei‐Yun , Lai Hsuan‐Yu , Chin Yu‐Tang , Shih Ya‐Jung , Nana André Wendindondé , Lin Shin‐Ying , Yang Yu‐Chen S.H. , Tang Heng‐Yuan , Chiang I‐Jen , Wang Kuan
Published: July 2017

Nonpeptide hormones, such as thyroid hormone, dihydrotestosterone, and estrogen, have been shown to stimulate cancer proliferation via different mechanisms. Aside from their cytosolic or membrane‐bound receptors, there are receptors on integrin αvβ3 for nonpeptide hormones. Interaction between hormones and integrin αvβ3 can induce signal transduction and eventually stimulate cancer cell proliferation. Resveratrol induces inducible COX‐2–dependent antiproliferation via integrin αvβ3. Resveratrol and hormone‐induced signals are both transduced by activated extracellular‐regulated kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2); however, hormones promote cell proliferation, while resveratrol induces antiproliferation in cancer cells. Hormones inhibit resveratrol‐stimulated phosphorylation of p53 on Ser15, resveratrol‐induced nuclear COX‐2 accumulation, and formation of p53–COX‐2 nuclear complexes. Subsequently, hormones impair resveratrol‐induced COX‐2–/p53‐dependent gene expression. The inhibitory effects of hormones on resveratrol action can be blocked by different antagonists of specific nonpeptide hormone receptors but not integrin αvβ3 blockers. Results suggest that nonpeptide hormones inhibit resveratrol‐induced antiproliferation in cancer cells downstream of the interaction between ligand and receptor and ERK1/2 activation to interfere with nuclear COX‐2 accumulation. Thus, the surface receptor sites for resveratrol and nonpeptide hormones are distinct and can induce discrete ERK1/2‐dependent downstream antiproliferation biological activities. It also indicates the complex pathways by which antiproliferation is induced by resveratrol in various physiological hormonal environments.
What exactly distinguishes aggressive from chronic periodontitis: is it mainly a difference in the degree of bacterial invasiveness?
Authors: Van der Velden Ubele
Published: July 2017

At the International Workshop for Classification of Periodontal Diseases and Conditions in 1999, the classification of aggressive and chronic periodontitis that is presently used was introduced. A literature review of papers published in 2015 and having aggressive periodontitis in the title revealed that most studies use this terminology but it is questionable whether all established criteria were really applied correctly. Review of the literature showed no qualitative differences between aggressive and chronic periodontitis regarding bacterial and viral aspects. It is also unlikely that that there are major immunologic differences between aggressive and chronic periodontitis. Neutrophil function can be compromised in both conditions but may be more genetically related in aggressive periodontitis and be associated more with lifestyle factors in chronic periodontitis. In general, genetics plays a more important role in aggressive periodontitis than in chronic periodontitis. It is likely that periodontitis progresses by recurrent acute episodes during which invasion of bacteria into the connective tissue may occur. Two cases are presented for which invasive periodontitis is treated with systemic antibiotics, showing remarkable periodontal healing in terms of probing attachment gain, as well as radiographic bone gain. Periodontitis in an active state with bacterial invasion is probably accompanied with a significant increase in subgingival temperature. It is hypothesized that elevated subgingival temperature may help to distinguish between invasive and non‐invasive periodontitis. Scaling and root planing during a burst of disease activity may result in removal of connective tissue fiber attachment and down‐growth of epithelium, thereby preventing the reattachment of connective tissue. Because the burst of disease is accompanied by an increase of temperature, assessment of the temperature may help in deciding whether or not to prescribe systemic antibiotics. When the use of systemic antibiotics is indicated, the antibiotic therapy may help to maintain the connective tissue attachment at the most possible coronal level. The above implies that the ability to diagnose bacterial invasive periodontitis is quite important, and future research is needed to determine if assessment of subgingival temperature may help in diagnosing invasive periodontitis. In addition, it is suggested that future classification systems of periodontitis include the item of bacterial invasive periodontitis.
The periodontal war: microbes and immunity
Authors: Ebersole Jeffrey L. , Dawson Dolph , Emecen‐Huja Pinar , Nagarajan Radhakrishnan , Howard Katherine , Grady Martha E. , Thompson Katherine , Peyyala Rebecca , Al‐Attar Ahmad , Lethbridge Kathryn , Kirakodu Sreenatha , Gonzalez Octavio A.
Published: July 2017

Maintenance of periodontal health or transition to a periodontal lesion reflects the continuous and ongoing battle between the vast microbial ecology in the oral cavity and the array of resident and emigrating inflammatory/immune cells in the periodontium. This war clearly signifies many ‘battlefronts’ representing the interface of the mucosal‐surface cells with the dynamic biofilms composed of commensal and potential pathogenic species, as well as more recent knowledge demonstrating active invasion of cells and tissues of the periodontium leading to skirmishes in connective tissue, the locality of bone and even in the local vasculature. Research in the discipline has uncovered a concerted effort of the microbiome, using an array of survival strategies, to interact with other bacteria and host cells. These strategies aid in colonization by ‘ambushing, infiltrating and outflanking’ host cells and molecules, responding to local environmental changes (including booby traps for host biomolecules), communicating within and between genera and species that provideMASINT(Measurement and Signature Intelligence) to enhance sustained survival, sabotage the host inflammatory and immune responses and by potentially adopting a ‘Fabian strategy’ with a war of attrition and resulting disease manifestations. Additionally, much has been learned regarding the ever‐increasing complexity of the host‐response armamentarium at both cellular and molecular levels that is addressed in this review. Knowledge regarding how these systems fully interact requires both new laboratory and clinical tools, as well as sophisticated modeling of the networks that help maintain homeostasis and are dysregulated in disease. Finally, the triggers resulting in a ‘coup de main’ by the microbiome (exacerbation of disease) and the characteristics of susceptible hosts that can result in ‘pyrrhic victories’ with collateral damage to host tissues, the hallmark of periodontitis, remains unclear. While much has been learned, substantial gaps in our understanding of the ‘parameters of this war’ remain elusive toward fulfilling the Sun Tzu adage: ‘If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.’
OptimalA PrioriBalance in the Design of Controlled Experiments
Authors: Kallus Nathan
Published: July 2017

We develop a unified theory of designs for controlled experiments that balance baseline covariates a priori (before treatment and before randomization) using the framework of minimax variance and a new method called kernel allocation. We show that any notion of a priori balance must go hand in hand with a notion of structure, since with no structure on the dependence of outcomes on baseline covariates complete randomization (no special covariate balance) is always minimax optimal. Restricting the structure of dependence, either parametrically or non-parametrically, gives rise to certain covariate imbalance metrics and optimal designs. This recovers many popular imbalance metrics and designs previously developed ad hoc, including randomized block designs, pairwise-matched allocation and rerandomization. We develop a new design method called kernel allocation based on the optimal design when structure is expressed by using kernels, which can be parametric or non-parametric. Relying on modern optimization methods, kernel allocation, which ensures nearly perfect covariate balance without biasing estimates under model misspecification, offers sizable advantages in precision and power as demonstrated in a range of real and synthetic examples. We provide strong theoretical guarantees on variance, consistency and rates of convergence and develop special algorithms for design and hypothesis testing.
Kinematic stride cycle asymmetry is not associated with sprint performance and injury prevalence in athletic sprinters
Authors: Haugen T. , Danielsen J. , McGhie D. , Sandbakk Ø. , Ettema G.
Published: July 2017

The aims of this study were to (a) quantify the magnitude of kinematic stride cycle asymmetry in high‐level athletic sprinters, (b) explore the association between kinematic asymmetry and maximal sprint running performance, and (c) investigate possible associations between kinematic asymmetry and injury prevalence. Twenty‐two competitive sprinters (age 23 ± 3 year, height 1.81 ± 0.06 m, body mass 75.5 ± 5.6 kg, personal best 100 m 10.86 ± 0.22 seconds) performed 2‐3 flying sprints over 20 m. Kinematics were recorded in 3D using a motion tracking system with 21 cameras at a 250 Hz sampling rate, allowing assessment of six consecutive steps for each athlete. Information about injuries sustained 1 year prior to and after the experiment was continuously registered (type, location, severity/duration, and time of year occurrence). The results showed that ≥11 of the 22 participating athletes displayed large or very large asymmetry for at least 11 of 14 variables, and all athletes displayed large or very large asymmetry for at least three variables. No correlations between individual magnitudes of asymmetry and sprint performance were significant (trivial to moderate). No significant changes in asymmetry between best and worst trial were observed for any of the analyzed variables. In addition, injured and non‐injured athletes did not differ in asymmetry, neither for the time period 1 year prior to nor after the test. In conclusion, kinematic asymmetries in the stride cycle were not associated with neither maximal sprint running performance nor the prevalence of injury among high‐level athletic sprinters.
The identification of nutrient limitations on eutrophication in Dianchi Lake, China
Authors: Liu Xujun
Published: July 2017

Due to rapid urbanisation and economic development, Dianchi Lake has been eutrophic since the 1980s. Control of nutrient loading is regarded as the primary restoration method. Two independent approaches: analysis of 13 years of Dianchi Lake monitoring data using Support Vector Machines (SVM) and a nutrient‐enrichment experiment, identified phosphorus and nitrogen as simultaneously limiting. Total phosphorus (TP) has a clear, stable correlation with chlorophyll‐a (Chl‐a) concentrations in Dianchi Lake. Compared to total nitrogen (TN), TP shows a stronger correlation when Chl‐a concentration is below 0.051 mg/L and an almost equal correlation when it is above this level. An excessive phosphorus to nitrogen ratio may stimulate compensatory fixation of atmospheric N2 by cyanobacteria; therefore, only reducing the external nitrogen input may not necessarily result in lower total nitrogen and chlorophyll concentrations. We recommend that reducing the lake TP load to the lowest economically‐feasible level is the most cost‐effective restoration measure.
Reviewer Acknowledgements
Authors: Young James
Published: July 2017

International Journal of Social Science Studies (IJSSS) would like to acknowledge the following reviewers for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Many authors, regardless of whether IJSSS publishes their work, appreciate the helpful feedback provided by the reviewers. Their comments and suggestions were of great help to the authors in improving the quality of their papers. Each of the reviewers listed below returned at least one review for this issue.Reviewers for Volume 5, Number 8 Agboola O. Paul, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, MalaysiaAhmet Yıkmış, Abant Izzet Baysal Univeersity, TurkeyAmanda ElBassiouny, Spring Hill College, USABegoña Montero-Fleta, Universitat Politécnica de València, SpainBo Li, St Ambrose University, USABonnie L McIntyre, Catholic University of America, Washington D.C., USAE.Ozan Aksoz, Anadolu University, TurkeyEmanuele Achino, C. D. T. O., ItalyGhazali Bello Abubakar, Sokoto State University, NigeriaGülsüm Depeli, Hacettepe University, TurkeyHenry Poduthas, West Texas A&M University, USAJadranka Svarc, Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Zagreb, CroatiaJehu Onyekwere Nnaji, University of Naples II,Italy and Globe Visions Network Italy, ItalyJulia M. Mack, Gannon University, USAK.O. Aramide, The Polytechnic Ibadan, NigeriaKatja Eman, Univerza v Mariboru, SloveniaLaura Diaconu Maxim, "Alexandru Ioan Cuza University" of Iasi, RomaniaMickey Langlais, University of Nebraska – Kearney, USAMohammad Naji Shah Mohammadi, Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaPriyono, Economics Faculty Universities, IndonesiaQingzhi Huan, Peking University, ChinaRasa Poceviciene, Siauliai University, LithuaniaShariq aziz butt, Superior University Lahore, PakistanValentina Evangelista, G. d’Annunzio University, ItalyYaghoob Foroutan , The University of Waikato, New ZealandYanzhe Zhang, Jilin University, China, China/AustraliaZafer İbrahimoglu, Marmara University, Turkey
Analysis of Reservoir Architecture of Shallow-water Delta Front Based on Process—A Case of S2L410 in Southern 79 Block in Wennan Oilfield
Authors: Chen Le , Lin Zhipeng , Yin Taiju , Li Zhongchao , Shen Chunsheng , Luo Bobo
Published: July 2017

The sand body distribution is relatively limited in this block, the lens-shaped sandbodies are more developed, the change of intergranular sandbody is fast and the internal architecture of the sand body is complex, which results in the difficulties of the arrangement of horizontal wells in the study area and the tapping of remaining oil in high water reservoirs. In this paper, taking an example of S2L410 sandbodies in Wen 79 Southern Block, rich drilling data, core data, logging data and geological research results accumulated over many years in Wennan Oilfield were applied to discuss the anatomical method of the reservoir architecture unit in the underwater distributary channel in the shallow delta front, the hierarchy of the internal architecture of the reservoir and the anatomy of the single sand body. On the basis of this, the sequence of the underwater distributary channel in the composite channel is determined by the cross section and the source profile. Under the guidance of the sedimentology principle, the formation process of the underwater distributary channel is restored and the evolution process of underwater distributary channel is recovered.
Purification and Crystal Growth of the Bismuth (III) Iodide-influence of Trace Impurities on the Crystal Quality
Authors: Ferraz Cauê de M. , Armelin Maria José A. , Oliveira Rene R. , Otubo Larissa , Martins João F. T. , Santos Robinson A. dos , Costa Fabio E. , Carvalho Diego. V. S. , Omi Nelson M. , Mesquita C. H. , Hamada Margarida M.
Published: July 2017

This work describes the experimental procedure of purification and preparation of BiI3 crystals by Repeated Vertical Bridgman technique, aiming a future application of this semiconductor crystal as a room temperature radiation detector. The BiI3 powder used as raw material was purified three times and, at each purification, the crystal was evaluated by systematic measurements of the reduction of the impurities, crystalline structure, stoichiometry and surface morphology. The reduction of the trace metal impurities in the BiI3, at each purification, was analyzed by Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA), in order to evaluate the efficiency of the purification technique established in this work. It was demonstrated that the Repeated Bridgman technique is effective to reduce the concentration of many impurities in BiI3, such as Ag, As, Br, Cr, K, Mo, Na and Sb. The crystalline structure of the BiI3 crystal purified twice and three times was similar to BiI3 pattern. However, for BiI3 powder and purified once, an intensity contribution of the BiOI was observed in the diffractograms. Improvement in the stoichiometric ratio was observed at each purification step, as well as the crystal surface morphology.
Spectral moments vs discrete cosine transformation coefficients: Evaluation of acoustic measures distinguishing two merging German fricatives
Authors: Jannedy Stefanie , Weirich Melanie
Published: July 2017

The results of the quantification of the acoustic differences between German /ç/ and /ʃ/ in three speaker groups with varying contrast realizations are presented. Data for two speaker groups were collected in Berlin and Kiel, where the contrast is still realized. Data for a third group were collected in Berlin from speakers of Hood German—a youth-style multiethnolect spoken by adolescents in multilingual and multicultural neighborhoods of Berlin—where the contrast has weakened or is even lost. A forced choice perception test showed that listeners reliably differentiate these two fricatives in minimal pairs produced by the speakers from Berlin and Kiel, but fail to do so for the productions of the Hood German speakers. The acoustic analysis reveals that spectrally, the fricatives are very similar in all varieties. The spectral moments (Center of Gravity, standard deviation, kurtosis, skewness) fail to reveal the differences between the fricatives that are apparent from visual inspection of the spectra and the perceived auditory differences. Analyses of the discrete cosine transformation coefficients, however, better quantify these differences. This study suggests that minute differences between fricatives that vary between speaker groups may be captured more reliably with discrete cosine transformations compared to spectral moments.
The articulatory dynamics of pre-velar and pre-nasal /æ/-raising in English: An ultrasound study
Authors: Mielke Jeff , Carignan Christopher , Thomas Erik R.
Published: July 2017

Most dialects of North American English exhibit /æ/-raising in some phonological contexts. Both the conditioning environments and the temporal dynamics of the raising vary from region to region. To explore the articulatory basis of /æ/-raising across North American English dialects, acoustic and articulatory data were collected from a regionally diverse group of 24 English speakers from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. A method for examining the temporal dynamics of speech directly from ultrasound video using EigenTongues decomposition [Hueber, Aversano, Chollet, Denby, Dreyfus, Oussar, Roussel, and Stone (2007). in IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (Cascadilla, Honolulu, HI)] was applied to extract principal components of filtered images and linear regression to relate articulatory variation to its acoustic consequences. This technique was used to investigate the tongue movements involved in /æ/ production, in order to compare the tongue gestures involved in the various /æ/-raising patterns, and to relate them to their apparent phonetic motivations (nasalization, voicing, and tongue position).
Tracking the phonological status of /l/ in Newfoundland English: Experiments in articulation and acoustics
Authors: De Decker Paul , Mackenzie Sara
Published: July 2017

This paper investigates patterning of /l/ in Newfoundland English. Using acoustic and ultrasound methods, the reported displacement of the traditional Irish pattern of word-final light /l/ is assessed. Acoustic results show darker /l/'s in word-final position in both phrases and compounds. Although the standard allophonic pattern is widespread in Newfoundland English, dialectal variation arising from early settlement patterns continues to influence speech patterns with less distinction between initial and final /l/ in Irish-settled areas. Men show relatively less distinction between initial and final /l/, consistent with sociolinguistic patterns in which men retain local variants. Last, light /l/ in final position may be resurfacing among younger speakers. Ultrasound imaging also shows variable rates of distinction between word-final and initial /l/, but without significant main effects of region or gender. Articulatory analysis reveals a small effect of age, with older speakers being less likely to have significant differences in articulation across positions. An interaction between region and gender shows males from an Irish-settled community are less likely to employ distinct lingual shapes across positions. While some articulatory findings complement the acoustic results, it is suggested that differences between these domains result from lateralization or other aspects of articulation not captured in ultrasound imaging.
Introduction to the Special Issue on Advancing Methods for Analyzing Dialect Variation
Authors: Clopper Cynthia G.
Published: July 2017

Documenting and analyzing dialect variation is traditionally the domain of dialectology and sociolinguistics. However, modern approaches to acoustic analysis of dialect variation have their roots in Peterson and Barney's [(1952). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 24, 175–184] foundational work on the acoustic analysis of vowels that was published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA) over 6 decades ago. Although Peterson and Barney (1952) were not primarily concerned with dialect variation, their methods laid the groundwork for the acoustic methods that are still used by scholars today to analyze vowel variation within and across languages. In more recent decades, a number of methodological advances in the study of vowel variation have been published in JASA, including work on acoustic vowel overlap and vowel normalization. The goal of this special issue was to honor that tradition by bringing together a set of papers describing the application of emerging acoustic, articulatory, and computational methods to the analysis of dialect variation in vowels and beyond.
Phylloplane bacteria of Jatropha curcas: diversity, metabolic characteristics, and growth-promoting attributes towards vigor of maize seedling
Authors: Dubey Garima , Kollah Bharati , Ahirwar Usha , Mandal Asit , Thakur Jyoti Kumar , Patra Ashok Kumar , Mohanty Santosh Ranjan
Published: July 2017

The complex role of phylloplane microorganisms is less understood than that of rhizospheric microorganisms in lieu of their pivotal role in plant’s sustainability. This experiment aims to study the diversity of the culturable phylloplane bacteria of Jatropha curcas and evaluate their growth-promoting activities towards maize seedling vigor. Heterotrophic bacteria were isolated from the phylloplane of J. curcas and their 16S rRNA genes were sequenced. Sequences of the 16S rRNA gene were very similar to those of species belonging to the classes Bacillales (50%), Gammaproteobacteria (21.8%), Betaproteobacteria (15.6%), and Alphaproteobacteria (12.5%). The phylloplane bacteria preferred to utilize alcohol rather than monosaccharides and polysaccharides as a carbon source. Isolates exhibited ACC (1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid) deaminase, phosphatase, potassium solubilization, and indole acetic acid (IAA) production activities. The phosphate-solubilizing capacity (mg of PO4 solubilized by 108 cells) varied from 0.04 to 0.21. The IAA production potential (μg IAA produced by 108 cells in 48 h) of the isolates varied from 0.41 to 9.29. Inoculation of the isolates to maize seed significantly increased shoot and root lengths of maize seedlings. A linear regression model of the plant-growth-promoting activities significantly correlated (p < 0.01) with the growth parameters. Similarly, a correspondence analysis categorized ACC deaminase and IAA production as the major factors contributing 41% and 13.8% variation, respectively, to the growth of maize seedlings.
Antibiotic drug piperacillin induces neuron cell death through mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative damage
Authors: Jiang Shan , Li Tong , Zhou Xiao , Qin Wenjun , Wang Zijun , Liao Yi
Published: July 2017

Although nerve damage/toxicity has been shown to be one of the side effects in patients given prolonged antibiotic treatment, the mechanisms of the action of antibiotics on neuron cells are not clear. In this work, we investigated the toxicity of piperacillin (an antibiotic that can penetrate the blood–brain barrier) on neuron cells and its underlying mechanisms. We show that clinically relevant doses of piperacillin induce apoptosis in SH-SY5Y and human primary neuron cells through activating caspase-3 activity and decreasing Mcl-1 and Bcl-2 levels. In addition, piperacillin causes mitochondrial dysfunction in neuron cells as shown by the reduction of mitochondrial respiration, membrane potential, and ATP production. We further demonstrate that piperacillin increases accumulation of mitochondrial superoxide and reactive oxygen species, suggesting the oxidative stress in neuron cells. Consistently, oxidative damage to DNA, proteins, and membrane lipids are observed in neuron cells exposed to piperacillin. The deleterious effects of piperacillin are abolished in neuron cells by antioxidant N-acetyl-l-cysteine, further confirming that piperacillin causes neuron cell death through inducing mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative damage. Our work demonstrates the role of piperacillin in inducing oxidative damage in neuron cells and also provides a therapeutic strategy to prevent the side effects of antibiotic treatment.
Baicalein Preventive Treatment Confers Optimal Cardioprotection by PTEN/Akt/NO Activation
Authors: Li Jing , Chang Wei-Tien , Li Chang-Qing , Lee Chunpei , Huang Hsien-Hao , Hsu Chin-Wan , Chen Wen-Jone , Zhu Xiangdong , Wang Chong-Zhi , Vanden Hoek Terry L. , Shao Zuo-Hui
Published: July 2017

Baicalein is a flavonoid with excellent oxidant scavenging capability. It has been reported to protect against a variety of oxidative injuries including ischemia/reperfusion (I/R). However, the optimal treatment strategy for I/R injury and the protective mechanisms are not fully understood. In this study we employed an established chick cardiomyocyte model of I/R and investigated the effects of three baicalein treatment strategies on reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging, nitric oxide (NO) production and cell viability. The molecular signaling pathways were also explored. Compared to the I/R control (cell death 52.2[Formula: see text][Formula: see text][Formula: see text]2.0%), baicalein preventive treatment (25[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]M, pretreated for 72[Formula: see text]h and continued through I/R) conferred the best protection (19.5[Formula: see text][Formula: see text][Formula: see text]3.9%, [Formula: see text]), followed by I/R treatment (treated during I/R) and reperfusion treatment (treated at reperfusion only). Preventive and I/R treatments almost completely abolished ROS generation during both ischemic and reperfusion phases, and increased NO production and Akt phosphorylation. Reperfusion treatment reduced the ROS burst in the early reperfusion phase only, and had no effect on NO production and Akt activation. Further, the phosphorylation of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN), a phosphatase negatively regulating Akt activation, was significantly increased by baicalein preventive treatment and slightly by the I/R treatment. PTEN protein expression was reduced in the same trend accordingly. Baicalein reperfusion treatment had no effects on PTEN phosphorylation and expression. Our results indicate that baicalein preventive treatment confers optimal cardioprotection against I/R injury, and this protection involves effective oxidant scavenging and the activation of PTEN/Akt/NO pathway.
The Nambu–Goldstone theorem in nonrelativistic systems
Authors: Arraut Ivan
Published: July 2017

In nonrelativistic systems, when there is spontaneous symmetry breaking, the number of Nambu–Goldstone bosons [Formula: see text] are not necessarily equal to the number of broken generators [Formula: see text]. Here we use the method of operators for analyzing the necessary conditions in order to obtain the correct dispersion relation for the Nambu–Goldstone bosons.
Design Approaches for Resource and Performance Optimization of Reversible BCD Addition and Unified BCD Addition/Subtraction Circuits
Authors: Jayashree H. V. , Patil Sharan , Agrawal V. K
Published: July 2017

The world of computing is in transition. As chips become smaller and faster, they dissipate more heat, in turn more energy is consumed. Reversible logic is gaining significance in the context of emerging technologies such as quantum computing. Reversible circuits have one-to-one mapping between the inputs and outputs. Hence, there is no loss of energy. Reversible circuits are of high interest in low-power CMOS design, optical computing, nano technology, and quantum computing. In this work, we present designs of reversible Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) adder and unified reversible BCD addition/subtraction circuit. We propose three design approaches for BCD addition. The proposed designs 1 and 2 are aimed at optimizing Garbage Outputs. The proposed design 3 outperforms in all the performance parameters along with producing zero Garbage Outputs compared to proposed designs 1 and 2. We present [Formula: see text] digit reversible BCD addition/subtraction circuit using proposed design 3 for BCD addition to get the benefit of performance parameter optimization. This design outperforms existing counterparts.
Probabilistic Model Checking-Based Service Selection Method for Business Process Modeling
Authors: Gao Honghao , Chu Danqi , Duan Yucong , Yin Yuyu
Published: July 2017

Business process modeling is a way to the organizational change management, which provides abstract workflows to describe business logics for customer demands analysis and IT infrastructures improvement. In order to reuse business process for covering different application scopes, it requires the capacity of configuring each task of business process by selecting appropriate services from the candidate services set, and then assembling them together to properly work with each other as domain-specific software. Considering choosing an executable business process with high quality service (QoS), the service selection is regarded as the pivotal step of determining process instances since service displays probabilistic behaviors under the uncertainty of Internet making business process shown different reliability. In this paper, it proposes an approach to the service selection for business process modeling. In the first phase, the function similarity method is used to pick out services from service repository in order to build a set of candidate services, which checks the functions description to find matching services, especially service may publish one or more functions through multiple interfaces. In the second phase, the probabilistic model checking-based method is employed to the quantitative verification of process instances, which involves services composition and stochastic behaviors computing according to workflow structures. Then, corresponding algorithms are discussed for service selection purposes. Furthermore, it introduces the probabilistic model checking-based framework for prototype design and implementation. Finally, experiments are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method comparing with traditional methods.
Augmenting Bug Localization with Part-of-Speech and Invocation
Authors: Zhou Yu , Tong Yanxiang , Chen Taolue , Han Jin
Published: July 2017

Bug localization represents one of the most expensive, as well as time-consuming, activities during software maintenance and evolution. To alleviate the workload of developers, numerous methods have been proposed to automate this process and narrow down the scope of reviewing buggy files. In this paper, we present a novel buggy source-file localization approach, using the information from both the bug reports and the source files. We leverage the part-of-speech features of bug reports and the invocation relationship among source files. We also integrate an adaptive technique to further optimize the performance of the approach. The adaptive technique discriminates Top 1 and Top N recommendations for a given bug report and consists of two modules. One module is to maximize the accuracy of the first recommended file, and the other one aims at improving the accuracy of the fixed defect file list. We evaluate our approach on six large-scale open source projects, i.e. ASpectJ, Eclipse, SWT, Zxing, Birt and Tomcat. Compared to the previous work, empirical results show that our approach can improve the overall prediction performance in all of these cases. Particularly, in terms of the Top 1 recommendation accuracy, our approach achieves an enhancement from 22.73% to 39.86% for ASpectJ, from 24.36% to 30.76% for Eclipse, from 31.63% to 46.94% for SWT, from 40% to 55% for ZXing, from 7.97% to 21.99% for Birt, and from 33.37% to 38.90% for Tomcat.
TREATMENT OF ALUMINUM ALLOYS SURFACE BY NANOSECOND LASER
Authors: EZZAT MOHAMED , EL-WAILY M. A. , ABDEL-RAHMAN M. , ISMAIL YEHEA
Published: July 2017

Aluminum and its alloys are widely used in our daily life because of their desirable physical properties. Improving the quality of Al-alloys surface layers is required for industrial applications. Nd: YAG pulsed Nanosecond Laser was used in irradiating aluminum 1100 alloy to study the surface morphology and hardness properties. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images reveal the presence of small holes with different diameters that are produced by the irradiation of Aluminum alloy surfaces with different laser power densities. The diameters of the produced holes are decreased gradually by increasing the laser power density. Minimum diameter of about 1.84[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m is obtained after irradiating the aluminum surface with 1256.04[Formula: see text]MW/cm2 at which semi-periodic holes-like pattern were produced. An increase in the Vickers microhardness values was obtained until the maximum value of 28 HV was reached at laser power density of 750.16[Formula: see text]MW/cm2. After reaching the maximum value, a fast decrease in the microhardness values was observed. Such changes in microhardness values maybe attributed to the lattice disorder and the change in the defect density produced by laser irradiation.
One-Pot Synthesis of Zincblende CuInSe2 Nanocrystals via a Green Solution Reaction Route
Authors: Li Dehui , Qi Weichen , Xiao Jinglei , Yang Jing , Wu Yong , Gao Qiao , Zhai Shengyong
Published: July 2017

The facile and ecofriendly method for the synthesis of a suitable colloidal nanocrystal ink plays an important role in the field of solar cells. Here, we describe our recent efforts toward this direction by a simple one-pot colloidal method to engineer CuInSe2 (CISe) nanocrystals with cubic zincblende (ZB) structure. The suitable band gap value and obvious photoresponse of the as-synthesized CISe nanocrystals indicate their potential application in the field of thin film solar cells. In addition, a possible crystal growth mechanism has been suggested for the formation of ZB CISe.
Effect of Nitrogen and Boron Localization on the Electrical Properties of Porous Graphene
Authors: Jafari Mahmoud , Nazifi Shima , Asadpour Mohamad
Published: July 2017

The electrical properties of porous graphene (PG) are investigated by using the density functional theory (DFT) with the generalized gradient approximation (GGA). The addition of Boron and nitrogen impurities could change the semiconductor into the [Formula: see text] or [Formula: see text]-type. Results showed that PG had pseudo-metal properties and a direct band gap. Furthermore, adding two impurities resulted in a greater decrease in the energy of the band gap as compared to the other states. In particular, when two impurities were of the boron type, the reduction was more tangible. Moreover, the addition of impurity could also increase the conductivity and pushed the electrical properties toward being a metal.
Analyzing the Fault Injection Sensitivity of Secure Embedded Software
Authors: Yuce Bilgiday , Ghalaty Nahid Farhady , Deshpande Chinmay , Santapuri Harika , Patrick Conor , Nazhandali Leyla , Schaumont Patrick
Published: July 2017

Fault attacks on cryptographic software use faulty ciphertext to reverse engineer the secret encryption key. Although modern fault analysis algorithms are quite efficient, their practical implementation is complicated because of the uncertainty that comes with the fault injection process. First, the intended fault effect may not match the actual fault obtained after fault injection. Second, the logic target of the fault attack, the cryptographic software, is above the abstraction level of physical faults. The resulting uncertainty with respect to the fault effects in the software may degrade the efficiency of the fault attack, resulting in many more trial fault injections than the amount predicted by the theoretical fault attack. In this contribution, we highlight the important role played by the processor microarchitecture in the development of a fault attack. We introduce the microprocessor fault sensitivity model to systematically capture the fault response of a microprocessor pipeline. We also propose Microarchitecture-Aware Fault Injection Attack (MAFIA). MAFIA uses the fault sensitivity model to guide the fault injection and to predict the fault response. We describe two applications for MAFIA. First, we demonstrate a biased fault attack on an unprotected Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) software program executing on a seven-stage pipelined Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) processor. The use of the microprocessor fault sensitivity model to guide the attack leads to an order of magnitude fewer fault injections compared to a traditional, blind fault injection method. Second, MAFIA can be used to break known software countermeasures against fault injection. We demonstrate this by systematically breaking a collection of state-of-the-art software fault countermeasures. These two examples lead to the key conclusion of this work, namely that software fault attacks become much more harmful and effective when an appropriate microprocessor fault sensitivity model is used. This, in turn, highlights the need for better fault countermeasures for software.
Accurate and Energy-Efficient GPS-Less Outdoor Localization
Authors: Aly Heba , Basalamah Anas , Youssef Moustafa
Published: July 2017

Location-based services have become an important part of our daily lives. However, such services require continuous user tracking while preserving the scarce cell-phone battery resource. In this article, we present
Dejavu
, a system that uses standard cell-phone sensors to provide accurate and energy-efficient outdoor localization.
Dejavu
is capable of localizing and navigating both pedestrian and in-vehicle users in real time. Our analysis shows that, whether walking or in-vehicle, when the user encounters a road landmark such as going inside a tunnel, ascending a staircase, or even moving over a bump, all these different landmarks affect the inertial sensors on the phone in a unique pattern.
Dejavu
employs a dead-reckoning localization approach and leverages these road landmarks, among other automatically discovered virtual landmarks, to reset the dead-reckoning accumulated error and achieve accurate localization. To maintain a low energy profile,
Dejavu
uses only energy-efficient sensors or sensors that are already running for other purposes. Moreover,
Dejavu
provides a localization confidence measure along with its predicted location. This improves the usability of the predicted location from end users’ perspective.

We present the design of
Dejavu
and how it leverages crowd-sourcing to automatically learn virtual landmarks and their locations. Our evaluation results from implementation on different Android devices using different testbeds showing that
Dejavu
can localize cell-phones in vehicles with a median error of 8.4
m
in city roads and 16.6
m
on highways and can localize cell-phones carried by pedestrians with a median error of 3.0m. Moreover, compared to the global position system (GPS) and other state-of-the-art systems,
Dejavu
can extend the battery lifetime by up to 347%, while achieving even better localization results than GPS in the more challenging in-city areas. In addition,
Dejavu
estimates the localization confidence measure accurately with a median error of 2.3m and 31cm for in-vehicle and pedestrian users, respectively.
Using Multicore Reuse Distance to Study Coherence Directories
Authors: Zhao Minshu , Yeung Donald
Published: July 2017

Researchers have proposed numerous techniques to improve the scalability of coherence directories. The effectiveness of these techniques not only depends on application behavior, but also on the CPU's configuration, for example, its core count and cache size. As CPUs continue to scale, it is essential to explore the directory's application
and
architecture dependencies. However, this is challenging given the slow speed of simulators. While it is common practice to simulate different applications, previous research on directory designs have explored only a few—and in most cases, only one—CPU configuration, which can lead to an incomplete and inaccurate view of the directory's behavior.

This article proposes to use
multicore reuse distance analysis
to study coherence directories. We develop a framework to extract the directory access stream from parallel least recently used (LRU) stacks, enabling rapid analysis of the directory's accesses and contents across both core count and cache size scaling. A key part of our framework is the notion of
relative reuse distance between sharers
, which defines sharing in a capacity-dependent fashion and facilitates our analyses along the data cache size dimension.

We implement our framework in a profiler and then apply it to gain insights into the impact of multicore CPU scaling on directory behavior. Our profiling results show that directory accesses reduce by 3.3× when scaling the data cache size from 16KB to 1MB, despite an increase in sharing-based directory accesses. We also show that increased sharing caused by data cache scaling allows the portion of on-chip memory occupied by the directory to be reduced by 43.3%, compared to a reduction of only 2.6% when scaling the number of cores. And, we show certain directory entries exhibit high temporal reuse. In addition to gaining insights, we also validate our profile-based results, and find they are within 2--10% of cache simulations on average, across different validation experiments. Finally, we conduct four case studies that illustrate our insights on existing directory techniques. In particular, we demonstrate our directory occupancy insights on a Cuckoo directory; we apply our sharing insights to provide bounds on the size of Scalable Coherence Directories (SCD) and Dual-Grain Directories (DGD); and, we demonstrate our directory entry reuse insights on a multilevel directory design.