bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Association between mitochondrial DNA damage and ocular blood flow in patients with glaucoma
Authors: Inoue-Yanagimachi Maki , Himori Noriko , Sato Kota , Kokubun Taiki , Asano Toshifumi , Shiga Yukihiro , Tsuda Satoru , Kunikata Hiroshi , Nakazawa Toru
Published: September 2018

Background/Aims

We determined the relationship between tissue mean blur rate (MT) and mitochondrial dysfunction, represented by the mitochondrial/nuclear DNA (mtDNA/nDNA) ratio. We also investigated the usefulness of these biomarkers.

Methods

We assessed ocular blood flow in 123 eyes of 123 patients with open-angle glaucoma (OAG) and 37 control eyes of 37 healthy subjects by measuring MT in the optic nerve head with laser speckle flowgraphy. We measured mtDNA and nDNA with PCR, calculated the mtDNA/nDNA ratio and compared this ratio with MT using Spearman’s rank test. We used multiple regression analysis to further investigate the association between MT and glaucoma in the most severe group.

Results

The control and the patients with glaucoma had significant differences in the mtDNA/nDNA ratio, circumpapillary retinal nerve fibre layer thickness and MT. There was no significant relationship between the mtDNA/nDNA ratio and MT in patients with OAG overall or the female patients with OAG, but there was a significant relationship between the mtDNA/nDNA ratio and MT, temporal-MT and superior-MT in male patients with severe OAG (r=−0.46, p=0.03; r=−0.51, p=0.02; r=−0.61, p<0.01, respectively). Furthermore, we found that the mtDNA/nDNA ratio was an independent contributor to temporal-MT and superior-MT in these patients (p<0.01 and p=0.03, respectively).

Conclusion

We found that there was a significant relationship between the mtDNA/nDNA ratio and MT in male patients with severe OAG, suggesting that the mtDNA/nDNA ratio may be a new biomarker in glaucoma and may help research on the vulnerability of these patients to mitochondrial dysfunction.
Identification of new-onset atrial fibrillation after cardiac surgery in Vietnam. A feasibility study of a novel screening strategy in a limited-resource setting: study protocol
Authors: Ngo Thi Hai Linh , Vu Van Ba , Nguyen Cong Huu , Le Tien Dung , Hoang Trung Kien , Freedman Ben , Lowres Nicole
Published: September 2018

Introduction

Atrial fibrillation (AF) developing after cardiac surgery is the most common postoperative complication with an incidence up to 50%. The presence of postoperative AF is associated with significant morbidity, mortality and economic burden. However, in Vietnam, data on AF postcardiac surgery are limited, in part due to a shortage of screening equipment. This project aims to identify the incidence, risk factors and postoperative complications of new-onset postoperative AF after cardiac surgery, and the feasibility of introducing a novel screening strategy using the combination of two portable devices to detect AF.

Methods and analysis

This is a feasibility study examining patients who are (1) ≥18 years old; (2) undergoing coronary artery bypass graft and/or valve surgery and (3) in normal sinus rhythm prior to their operation. Patients with congenital heart disease, a prior history of AF or those who require a pacemaker after surgery will be excluded. All patients will be followed up for the duration of their hospitalisation. The screening strategy will include monitoring the continuous ECG tracing in the intensive care unit, and if AF is suspected, a 30 s lead-1 ECG will be recorded using the smartphone-based AliveCor Kardia Mobile. On the postoperative wards, blood pressure will be measured three times daily using a modified blood pressure device (Microlife BP200 Afib): and if AF is suspected a 30 s ECG will be recorded using the AliveCor Kardia Mobile. A 12-lead ECG may be ordered subsequently if clinically indicated. The primary outcome is the incidence of postoperative AF. Secondary outcomes include establishing the risk factors and complications associated with postoperative AF; and the barriers and facilitators of the screening strategy.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethics approval was granted by Scientific Board of Cardiovascular Centre, E Hospital on 28 September, 2017. Study results will be disseminated through local and international conferences and peer-reviewed publications.
Anastomotic leakage after intrathoracic versus cervical oesophagogastric anastomosis for oesophageal carcinoma in Chinese population: a retrospective cohort study
Authors: Liu Yin-jiang , Fan Jun , He Huang-he , Zhu Shu-sheng , Chen Qiu-lan , Cao Rong-hua
Published: September 2018

Objective

To investigate the characteristics and predictors for anastomotic leakage after oesophagectomy for oesophageal carcinoma from the perspective of anastomotic level.

Design

Retrospective cohort study.

Settings

A single tertiary medical centre in China.

Participants

From January 2010 to December 2016, all patients with oesophageal cancer of the distal oesophagus or gastro-oesophageal junction undergoing elective oesophagectomy with a curative intent for oesophageal carcinoma with intrathoracic oesophagogastric anastomosis (IOA) versus cervical oesophagogastric anastomosis (COA) were included. We investigated anastomotic level and perioperative confounding factors as potential risk factors for postoperative leakage by univariate and multivariate logistic regression.

Primary outcome measures

The primary outcome was the odds of anastomotic leakage by different confounding factors. Secondary outcome was the association of IOA versus COA with other postoperative outcomes.

Results

Of 458 patients included, 126 underwent cervical anastomosis and 332 underwent intrathoracic anastomosis. Anastomotic leakage developed in 55 patients (12.0%), with no statistical differences between COA and IOA (16.6% vs 10.2%; p=0.058). Multivariable analysis identified active diabetes mellitus (OR 2.001, p=0.047), surgical procedure (open: reference; minimally invasive: OR 1.770, p=0.049) and anastomotic method (semimechanical: reference; stapled: OR 1.821; handsewn: OR 2.271, p=0.048) rather than anastomotic level (IOA: reference; COA: OR 1.622, p=0.110) were independent predictors of leakage.

Conclusions

Surgical and anastomotic techniques rather than the level of anastomotic site were independent predictors of postoperative anastomotic leakage in patients undergoing oesophageal cancer surgery.
Physical activity and concussion risk in youth ice hockey players: pooled prospective injury surveillance cohorts from Canada
Authors: Blake Tracy A , Doyle-Baker Patricia K , Brooks Brian L , Palacios-Derflingher Luz , Emery Carolyn A
Published: September 2018

Objective

To examine the association between meeting physical activity (PA) volume recommendations and concussion rates in male ice hockey players aged 11–17 years.

Design

Pooled prospective injury surveillance cohort data from the 2011–2012, 2013–2014 and 2014–2015 youth ice hockey seasons.

Participants

Male Alberta-based Pee Wee (aged 11–12 years), Bantam (aged 13–14 years) and Midget (aged 15–17 years) ice hockey players participating in any of the three cohorts were eligible (n=1726). A total of 1208 players were included after the exclusion criteria were applied (ie, players with new/unhealed injuries within 6 weeks of study entry, missing 6-week PA history questionnaires, missing game and/or practice participation exposure hours, players who sustained concussions when no participation exposure hours were collected).

Outcome measures

Dependent variable: medically diagnosed concussion. Independent variable: whether or not players’ self-reported history of PA (ie, hours of physical education and extracurricular sport participation) met the Canadian Society of Exercise Physiology and Public Health Agency of Canada recommendation of one hour daily during the 6 weeks prior to study entry (ie, 42 hours or more).

Results

The PA volume recommendations were met by 65.05% of players who subsequently sustained concussions, and 75.34% of players who did not sustain concussions. The concussion incidence rate ratios (IRR) reflect higher concussion rates in players who did not meet the PA volume recommendations vs. players who met the PA volume recommendations among Pee Wee players (IRR 2.94 95% CI 1.30 to 6.64), Bantam players (IRR 2.18, 95% CI 1.21 to 3.93) and non-elite players aged 11–14 years (IRR 2.45, 95% CI 1.33 to 4.51).

Conclusion and relevance

The concussion rate of players who did not meet the Canadian PA volume recommendations was more than twice the concussion rate of players who met recommendations among male Pee Wee players, Bantam players and non-elite level players. Further exploration of the impact of public health PA recommendations in a sport injury prevention context is warranted.
Work of being an adult patient with chronic kidney disease: a systematic review of qualitative studies
Authors: Roberti Javier , Cummings Amanda , Myall Michelle , Harvey Jonathan , Lippiett Kate , Hunt Katherine , Cicora Federico , Alonso Juan Pedro , May Carl R
Published: September 2018

Introduction

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) requires patients and caregivers to invest in self-care and self-management of their disease. We aimed to describe theworkfor adult patients that follows from these investments and develop an understanding of burden of treatment (BoT).

Methods

Systematic review of qualitative primary studies that builds on EXPERTS1 Protocol, PROSPERO registration number: CRD42014014547. We included research published in English, Spanish and Portuguese, from 2000 to present, describing experience of illness and healthcare of people with CKD and caregivers. Searches were conducted in MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL Plus, PsycINFO, Scopus, Scientific Electronic Library Online and Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina y el Caribe, España y Portugal. Content was analysed with theoretical framework using middle-range theories.

Results

Searches resulted in 260 studies from 30 countries (5115 patients and 1071 carers). Socioeconomic status was central to the experience of CKD, especially in its advanced stages when renal replacement treatment is necessary. Unfunded healthcare was fragmented and of indeterminate duration, with patients often depending on emergency care. Treatment could lead to unemployment, and in turn, to uninsurance or underinsurance. Patients feared catastrophic events because of diminished financial capacity and made strenuous efforts to prevent them. Transportation to and from haemodialysis centre, with variable availability and cost, was a common problem, aggravated for patients in non-urban areas, or with young children, and low resources. Additional work for those uninsured or underinsured included fund-raising. Transplanted patients needed to manage finances and responsibilities in an uncertain context. Information on the disease, treatment options and immunosuppressants side effects was a widespread problem.

Conclusions

Being a person with end-stage kidney disease always implied high burden, time-consuming, invasive and exhausting tasks, impacting on all aspects of patients' and caregivers’ lives. Further research on BoT could inform healthcare professionals and policy makers about factors that shape patients’ trajectories and contribute towards a better illness experience for those living with CKD.

PROSPERO registration number

CRD42014014547.
Risk factors for new-onset atrial fibrillation on the general adult ICU: protocol for a systematic review
Authors: Bedford Jonathan , Harford Mirae , Petrinic Tatjana , Young J Duncan , Watkinson Peter J
Published: September 2018

Introduction

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common arrhythmia in the critical care environment. New-onset AF is associated with increased mortality and intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay. Observational studies have identified several epidemiological and disease severity-related factors associated with developing new-onset AF on the ICU. However, there are limited data on the modifiable risk factors in the general adult ICU population.

We describe a protocol for a systematic review of modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors for new-onset AF in the general adult ICU population. The results of this review will aid the development of risk prediction tools and inform future research into AF prevention on the ICU.

Methods and analysis

Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online, Excerpta Medica database and the Cochrane Library, including Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials will be searched for studies that assess the association of patient variables, investigation results, interventions and diagnoses associated with subsequent new-onset AF on the ICU.

Only studies involving adult patients admitted to non-service-specific ICUs will be included. We will extract data relating to the statistical association between reversible and non-reversible factors and AF, the quality of the studies and the generalisability of the results. This systematic review will be reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses.

Ethics and dissemination

This proposed systematic review will be based on published data, and therefore ethical approval is not required. The findings of this study will be disseminated through publication in a peer reviewed journal and will be presented at conferences.

PROSPERO registration number

CRD42017074221.
Serum albumin at 1 year predicts long-term renal outcome in lupus nephritis
Authors: Domingues Vinicius , Levinson Benjamin A , Bornkamp Nicole , Goldberg Judith D , Buyon Jill , Belmont H Michael
Published: September 2018

Objectives

The study aimed to determine if serum albumin at 12 months predicts long-term renal outcome at 48 months. Data from the NYU SAMPLE (Specimen and Matched Phenotype Linked Evaluation) Lupus Registry were used to compare the performance of albumin, anti-double-stranded DNA, C3/C4, proteinuria and haematuria.

Methods

82 patients with SLE with data at time of renal biopsy, at 12 months and at a second visit, and up to 48 months were included. The significance of each biomarker as a predictor of an adverse renal outcome (ARO), defined as doubling of serum creatinine, as creatinine >4 mg/dL if initial >2.5 mg/dL or ESRD, was evaluated in univariate and exploratory multivariable Cox proportional hazards models. Hazard ratios (HRs) for ARO with 95% CIs were generated. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves at 48 months were used to identify the optimal cut-off point for albumin and proteinuria to predict ARO. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated for albumin and proteinuria.

Results

Serum albumin and proteinuria had statistically significant HRs for ARO (0.140 and 1.459, respectively). The model with both albumin and proteinuria indicated no additional independent contribution of proteinuria to albumin alone. The ROC curves identified cut-offs of 3.7 g/dL for albumin and 0.964 urine protein to creatinine ratio for proteinuria. Albumin had a sensitivity of 94%, specificity of 87%, PPV of 64% and NPV of 98%.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates serum albumin >3.7 g/dL is a predictor of a favourable long-term renal outcome. These results support the inclusion of albumin as an outcome in lupus nephritis trials and treat-to-target guidelines.
Forced caesareans: applying ordinary standards to an extraordinary case
Authors: Ismaili M’hamdi Hafez , de Beaufort Inez
Published: September 2018

Is it morally justifiable to force non-consenting pregnant women to submit to caesarean surgery to save their fetus in distress? Even though proponents and opponents largely agree on the interests at stake, such as the health and life of the fetus and the respect for bodily integrity and autonomy of pregnant women, they disagree on which moral weight to attach to these interests. This is why disagreements about the justifiability of forced caesareans tend to be pervasive and intractable. To sidestep this deadlock, we will focus on conditions that give rise to the ‘caesarean dilemma’ in the first place, namely the conflict between inherent norms and values medical professionals are committed to by virtue of being a medical professional. Using the reflective equilibrium, we will test the opponents’ and proponents’ considered judgments about forced caesareans against the norms and values they—as medical professionals—are committed to and determine whether they are coherent. Subsequently we will identify the proponents’ incoherencies between the considered judgments and norms and values they are committed to and conclude that as long as these incoherencies are in place, forced caesareans are morally impermissible.
A Branch-and-Bound Algorithm for Two-Agent Scheduling with Learning Effect and Late Work Criterion
Authors: Liu Shang-Chia , Duan Jiahui , Lin Win-Chin , Wu Wen-Hsiang , Kung Jan-Yee , Chen Hau , Wu Chin-Chia
Published: September 2018

This paper studies a two-agent single-machine scheduling problem with sum-of-processing-times-based learning consideration. The goal is to find an optimal schedule to minimize the total late work of the first agent subject to the restriction that the maximum lateness of the second agent has an upper bound. For this problem, a branch-and-bound algorithm along with several dominances and a lower bound is developed to find the optimal solution, and a tabu algorithm with several improvements is proposed to find the near-optimal solution. Computational experiments are provided to further measure the performance of the proposed algorithms.
Asymptotically Maximal Throughput in Tandem Systems with Flexible and Dedicated Servers
Authors: Zou Aili Alice , Down Douglas G.
Published: September 2018

For a system of two tandem queues with a finite intermediate buffer, we study the asymptotically maximal throughput as the number of servers in each station grows to infinity. First, we study the system with only dedicated servers, and then we examine the system with both dedicated and flexible servers. We assume that travel times between the two stations are negligible and that each server can only work on one customer at a time. We model the system as a birth–death Markov process, derive a closed form solution for the stationary distribution, and quantify the maximal asymptotic normalized throughput as the number of servers grows to infinity. We show that flexibility is more favorable for small systems, and as the number of servers grows, the benefits of flexibility decrease. Furthermore, we prove that when the number of servers goes to infinity, there is no need of flexibility at all, as the maximum value of the throughput is obtained. However, flexibility still has a secondary beneficial effect — a little flexibility (on the order of the square root of the number of dedicated servers at each station) guarantees that all dedicated servers are busy and results in faster convergence to the maximum throughput.
Structural Properties of Fe/Cu Magnetic Multilayers: A Monte Carlo Approach
Authors: Kengne Jules Berlin Nde , Fongang Bernard , Zekeng Serge
Published: September 2018

Using atomistic Monte Carlo simulations, we investigated the impact of the interface on the structural properties of iron and copper (Fe/Cu) magnetic multilayers grown by Voronoi diagram. Interest in magnetic multilayers has recently emerged as they are shown to be promising candidates for magnetic storage media, magneto-resistive sensors and personalized medical treatment. As these artificial materials show large differences in properties compared to conventional ones, many experimental and theoretical works have been dedicated on shedding light on these differences and tremendous results have emerged. However, little is known about the influence of the interfaces on magnetic layers. Using numerical approaches, we show that the structure of each layer depends on its thickness and the interface morphology. The Fe and Cu layers can adopt either the body-centered-cubic (bcc) or face-centered-cubic (fcc) structure, while the interface can assume amorphous, bcc, fcc, or a mixture of bcc and fcc structures depending on the layer thicknesses. These results are in good agreement with the experiments. They could be helpful in understanding effects such as giant magneto-resistance from the structural perspective.
Early life in Edinburgh and beyond: 1835–55
Authors: Cribb Stephen J.
Published: September 2018

Archibald Geikie was born on 28 December 1835 into a middle class professional family from central Edinburgh, whose principal business for at least four generations had been hairdressing. This paper looks at the life and times of an academic young boy and charts his early years and the factors that helped him to develop. He was clearly driven and certainly had an eye for the best chance. Persevering through bouts of serious illness and family monetary problems in his teenage years, he undertook several geological excursions, published reports and secured introductions to many of the significant natural scientists living in Edinburgh at the time. With the help of these contacts, and shrugging off the difficulties that appeared in his path, he achieved by the age of 20 the first step towards his chosen profession and became a geologist with the newly established Geological Survey of Scotland.
BestSF
Authors: Benatia Akrem , Ji Weixing , Wang Yizhuo , Shi Feng
Published: September 2018

The Sparse Matrix-Vector Multiplication (SpMV) kernel dominates the computing cost in numerous scientific applications. Many implementations based on different sparse formats were proposed to improve this kernel on the recent GPU architectures. However, it has been widely observed that there is no “best-for-all” sparse format for the SpMV kernel on GPU. Indeed, serious performance degradation of an order of magnitude can be observed without a careful selection of the sparse format to use. To address this problem, we propose in this article BestSF (Best Sparse Format), a new learning-based sparse meta-format that automatically selects the most appropriate sparse format for a given input matrix. To do so, BestSF relies on a cost-sensitive classification system trained using Weighted Support Vector Machines (WSVMs) to predict the best sparse format for each input sparse matrix. Our experimental results on two different NVIDIA GPU architectures using a large number of real-world sparse matrices show that BestSF achieved a noticeable overall performance improvement over using a single sparse format. While BestSF is trained to select the best sparse format in terms of performance (GFLOPS), our further experimental investigations revealed that using BestSF also led, in most of the test cases, to the best energy efficiency (MFLOPS/W). To prove its practical effectiveness, we also evaluate the performance and energy efficiency improvement achieved when using BestSF as a building block in a GPU-based Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient (PCG) iterative solver.
Low Complexity Multiply-Accumulate Units for Convolutional Neural Networks with Weight-Sharing
Authors: Garland James , Gregg David
Published: September 2018

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are one of the most successful machine-learning techniques for image, voice, and video processing. CNNs require large amounts of processing capacity and memory bandwidth. Hardware accelerators have been proposed for CNNs that typically contain large numbers of multiply-accumulate (MAC) units, the multipliers of which are large in integrated circuit (IC) gate count and power consumption. “Weight-sharing” accelerators have been proposed where the full range of weight values in a trained CNN are compressed and put into bins, and the bin index is used to access the weight-shared value. We reduce power and area of the CNN by implementing parallel accumulate shared MAC (PASM) in a weight-shared CNN. PASM re-architects the MAC to instead count the frequency of each weight and place it in a bin. The accumulated value is computed in a subsequent multiply phase, significantly reducing gate count and power consumption of the CNN. In this article, we implement PASM in a weight-shared CNN convolution hardware accelerator and analyze its effectiveness. Experiments show that for a clock speed 1GHz implemented on a 45nm ASIC process our approach results in fewer gates, smaller logic, and reduced power with only a slight increase in latency. We also show that the same weight-shared-with-PASM CNN accelerator can be implemented in resource-constrained FPGAs, where the FPGA has limited numbers of digital signal processor (DSP) units to accelerate the MAC operations.
11th European Summer School in Information Retrieval (ESSIR 2017)
Authors: Scells Harrisen
Published: September 2018

The 11th European Summer School in Information Retrieval (ESSIR 2017) was held in Barcelona, Spain from the 4th to the 8th of September 2017 at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. ESSIR consisted of a week of lectures and seminars delivered by top invited experts in the field of Information Retrieval. This year the program of ESSIR included 13 lectures, one symposium (FDIA), 13 student presentations, one poster session, one industry session, and two social events. This report is an overview of the successful summer school which attracted a total of 46 students from around the world.
Report on the 7th International Workshop on Bibliometric-enhanced Information Retrieval (BIR 2018)
Authors: Mayr Philipp , Frommholz Ingo , Cabanac Guillaume
Published: September 2018

The Bibliometric-enhanced Information Retrieval (BIR) workshop series has started at ECIR in 2014 and serves as the annual gathering of IR researchers who address various information-related tasks on scientific corpora and bibliometrics. We welcome contributions elaborating on dedicated IR systems, as well as studies revealing original characteristics on how scientific knowledge is created, communicated, and used. This report presents all accepted papers at the 7th BIR workshop at ECIR 2018 in Grenoble, France.
Report on the Workshop on Social Aspects in Personalization And Search (SoAPS)
Authors: Boratto Ludovico , Stilo Giovanni
Published: September 2018

The 2nd Workshop on Social Aspects in Personalization And Search was held on March 26, 2018 in conjuction with the 40th European Conference on Information Retrieval (ECIR 2018). The scientific program included paper presentations and a final discussion. The keynotes were delivered by Dr. Sihem Amer-Yahia and Dr. Denis Parra.
Building Community: Report on KidRec Workshop on Children and Recommender Systems at RecSys 2017
Authors: Pera Maria Soledad , Fails Jerry Alan , Gelsomini Mirko , Garzotto Franca
Published: September 2018

We present in this manuscript a report on KidRec 2017 workshop, the first edition of the international workshop on Children & Recommender Systems, co-located with the 11th ACM Conference on Recommender Systems (RecSys) held in Como, Italy. While research focused on recommender systems is prolific and addresses issues pertaining to multiple domains-from music, restaurant, and movie recommendations to scholarly publications or news-little has been done to explore the constraints and limitations that existing strategies must face when applied to non-traditional stakeholders, such as children. The first edition of our workshop was aimed at providing a venue dedicated to building community in this area and identify future research paths to nurture and grow this emerging community.
Comparison of Local Load Influence on Crack Evolution of Coal and Briquette Coal Samples
Authors: Zhao Hongbao , Wang Tao , Zhang Huan , Wei Ziqiang
Published: September 2018

Taking raw coal and briquette coal samples with preset center holes as research objects, this paper makes a systematic analysis and research of crack evolution laws of the two different coal samples under the local load. The results show that the raw coal and briquette coal samples are different mainly in number, dimension, and complexity of the internal microstructures, so it is not right to replace raw coal with briquette coal when performing observational study of the crack evolution of microstructures; under the effect of local load, local property, randomness of crack initiation position, and crack initiation stress of raw coal samples are greater than those of briquette coal samples; law of instantaneous maximum effective cut‐through rate of raw coal samples is more complex than that of briquette coals; under the effect of uniformly distributed load, end effect factor Fe, sample microstructure influencing factor Fs, and preset center hole factor Fh are the major factors influencing crack growth, among which the amplified end effect factor Fe and sample microstructure influencing factor Fs are dominant factors; under the effect of local load, local load influencing factor Fp, end effect factor Fe, sample microstructure influencing factor Fs, and preset center hole factor Fs are the major factors influencing crack growth, among which the local load influencing factor Fp, end effect factor Fe, and sample microstructure influencing factor Fs are dominant factors. Compared with briquette coal samples, raw coal samples are more sensitive to influencing factors, such as local load influencing factor Fp, end effect factor Fe, sample microstructure influencing factor Fs, and preset center hole factor Fh, and can aggravate the influence of these factors on the crack growth; the paper also puts forward a method for describing local load based on a coupling mechanical model of uniaxial compression and local shear.
A Two-Phase Flow Model for Pressure Transient Analysis of Water Injection Well considering Water Imbibition in Natural Fractured Reservoirs
Authors: Li Mengmeng , Li Qi , Bi Gang , Lin Jiaen
Published: September 2018

The pressure injection falloff test for water injection well has the advantages of briefness and convenience, with no effect on the oil production. It has been widely used in the oil field. Tremendous attention has been focused on oil-water two-phase flow model based on the Perrine-Martin theory. However, the saturation gradient is not considered in the Perrine-Martin method, which may result in errors in computation. Moreover, water imbibition is important for water flooding in natural fractured reservoirs, while the pressure transient analysis model has rarely considered water imbibition. In this paper, we proposed a semianalytical oil-water two-phase flow imbibition model for pressure transient analysis of a water injection well in natural fractured reservoirs. The parameters in this model, including total compressibility coefficient, interporosity flow coefficient, and total mobility, change with water saturation. The model was solved by Laplace transform finite-difference (LTFD) method coupled with the quasi-stationary method. Based on the solution, the model was verified by the analytical method and a field water injection test. The features of typical curves and the influences of the parameters on the typical curves were analyzed. Results show that the shape of pressure curves for single phase flow resembles two-phase flow, but the position of the two-phase flow curves is on the upper right of the single phase flow curves. The skin factor and wellbore storage coefficient mainly influence the peak value of the pressure derivatives and the straight line of the early period. The shape factor has a major effect on the position of the “dip” of pressure derivatives. The imbibition rate coefficient mainly influences the whole system radial flow period of the curves. This work provides valuable information in the design and evaluation of stimulation treatments in natural fractured reservoirs.
A New Semisupervised-Entropy Framework of Hyperspectral Image Classification Based on Random Forest
Authors: Sun Mengmeng , Wang Chunyang , Wang Shuangting , Zhao Zongze , Li Xiao
Published: September 2018

The purposes of the algorithm presented in this paper are to select features with the highest average separability by using the random forest method to distinguish categories that are easy to distinguish and to select the most divisible features from the most difficult categories using the weighted entropy algorithm. The framework is composed of five parts:(1)random samples selection with(2)probabilistic output initial random forest classification processing based on the number of votes;(3)semisupervised classification, which is an improvement of the supervision classification of random forest based on the weighted entropy algorithm;(4)precision evaluation; and(5)a comparison with the traditional minimum distance classification and the support vector machine (SVM) classification. In order to verify the universality of the proposed algorithm, two different data sources are tested, which are AVIRIS and Hyperion data. The results show that the overall classification accuracy of AVIRIS data is up to 87.36%, the kappa coefficient is up to 0.8591, and the classification time is 22.72s. Hyperion data is up to 99.17%, the kappa coefficient is up to 0.9904, and the classification time is 8.16s. Classification accuracy is obviously improved and efficiency is greatly improved, compared with the minimum distance and the SVM classifier and the CART classifier.
The Role of Autoimmune Regulator (AIRE) in Peripheral Tolerance
Authors: Zhao Bingjie , Chang Lu , Fu Haiying , Sun Guangyu , Yang Wei
Published: September 2018

Autoimmune regulator (AIRE), whose gene mutation is considered to be a causative factor of autoimmune polyglandular syndrome type 1 (APS1), is an important transcriptional regulator. Studies on the role of AIRE in the central immune system have demonstrated that AIRE can eliminate autoreactive T cells by regulating the expression of a series of tissue specific antigens promiscuously in medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) and induce regulatory T cell (Treg) production to maintain central immune tolerance. However, the related research of AIRE in peripheral tolerance is few. In order to understand the current research progress on AIRE in peripheral tolerance, this review mainly focuses on the expression and distribution of AIRE in peripheral tissues and organs, and the role of AIRE in peripheral immune tolerance such as regulating Toll-like receptor (TLR) expression and the maturation status of antigen presenting cells (APCs), inducing T cell tolerance and differentiation. This review will show us that AIRE also plays an indispensable role in the periphery.
Anti‐Thermal Skin Aging Activity of Aqueous Extracts Derived from Apple Mint (Mentha suaveolens Ehrh.) in Human Dermal Fibroblasts
Authors: Son Dahee , Kim Minkyung , Woo Hyunju , Park Deokhoon , Jung Eunsun
Published: September 2018

Thermal skin aging refers to skin aging induced by heat shock treatment. Apple mint (Mentha suaveolens Ehrh.) has been used as a folk medicine to treat various diseases. However, the activity of apple mint in thermal skin aging has yet to be investigated. In this study, we conducted various biological assays to demonstrate the anti‐thermal skin aging activity of extracts of apple mint leaves (ALE). As a result, ALE showed significant antioxidant activities and inhibited the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), and interleukin‐8 (IL‐8) as well as suppressed mitogen‐activated proteins kinases (MAPKs) such as extracellular signal regulated kinases (ERK), c‐Jun N terminal kinases (JNK), and p38 MAPK triggered by heat shock treatment in human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs). Consequently, ALE could be used as attractive cosmetic materials with anti‐thermal skin aging activity.
Laplace Transform Method for Pricing American CEV Strangles Option with Two Free Boundaries
Authors: Zhou Zhiqiang , Wu Hongying
Published: September 2018

Laplace transform method (LTM) has a lot of applications in the evaluation of European-style options and exotic options without early exercise features. However the Laplace transform methods for pricing American options have unsatisfactory accuracy and suffer from the instability. The aim of this paper is to develop a Laplace transform method for pricing American Strangles options with the underlying asset price following the constant elasticity volatility (CEV) models. By approximating the free boundaries, the Laplace transform is taken on a fixed space region to replace the moving boundaries space. After solving the linear system in Laplace space, Gaver-Stehfest formula (GSF) and hyperbola contour integral method (HCIM) are applied to compute the Laplace inversion. Numerical results show that the LTM-HCIM outperform the LTM-GSF in regard to the accuracy and stability for the option values.
The Assessment and Evolution of Water‐Conducting Rules under the Influence of Mining‐Induced Stress
Authors: Feng Feisheng , Peng Suping , Du Wenfeng , He Yunlan , Chong Shan
Published: September 2018

It is important to study the mechanism of water inrush on a seam floor by exploring the rules of permeability variations during rock deformation on the seam floor and in the course of fracturing as well as their responses to characteristics of the macromechanical environment such as mine ground pressure, engineering geology, and fluid mechanics. First, through the analysis of bearing pressure changes in the process of exploiting the working face, a mechanical model for the seam floor above the confined water is established. Based on the graphic data‐processing software Mathcad, the computational process and methods for assessing the vertical, horizontal, and shear stresses are provided together with the corresponding variation curve of the rock stratum 5 m below the floor, covering the entire process from a position 120 m away from the working face to a position 280 m behind it. Second, the permeability coefficients of different lithologies are measured in the laboratory. For rock stratum 5 m below the floor, the corresponding external loading path is set up according to its actual stress. The actual dynamic stress environment of the rocks is simulated, and their permeability characteristics are studied. In addition, based on data fitting, the permeability coefficient variations in the mining process are determined for a rock stratum 5 m below the floor. Finally, in accordance with the permeability variation law of the floor of the working face, the seam floor is divided into six areas, namely, the compression and expansion zone, the bed separation and expansion zone, the pressure relief zone, the compression zone, the stable recovery zone, and the stability zone. Thus, the water‐resisting performance of the floor can be expressed more objectively.
A Review of Pediatric Lower Extremity Data for Pedestrian Numerical Modeling: Injury Epidemiology, Anatomy, Anthropometry, Structural, and Mechanical Properties
Authors: Meng Yunzhu , Untaroiu Costin D.
Published: September 2018

Pedestrian injuries are the fourth leading cause of unintentional injury-related death among children aged 1 to 19. The lower extremity represents the most frequently injured body region in car-to-pedestrian accidents. The goal of this study was to perform a systematic review of the data related to pedestrian lower extremity injuries, anatomy, anthropometry, structural, and mechanical properties, which can be used in the development of new pediatric computational models. The study began with a review of epidemiologic data related to pediatric pedestrian accidents. Anatomy of the child lower extremity and age-related anthropometry data were presented as well. Then, both the mechanical and structural properties of the lower extremity main components (e.g., bones, cartilages, knee ligaments, muscles, tendons, and growth plates) available in literature were summarized. The study concluded with a brief description of current child pedestrian models, which included a discussion about their limitations. We believe that data included in this review study can help in improving the biofidelity of current child models and support the development and validation of new child models used by safety researchers for protection of pediatric population.
Thoracoscopic Treatment of Pneumothorax in Marfan Syndrome: Hemostatic Patch to Support Lung Resection Recovery
Authors: Pelizzo Gloria , Arbustini Eloisa , Pasqua Noemi , Morbini Patrizia , Calcaterra Valeria
Published: September 2018

Introduction. In selected patients, the absorbable fibrin patch TachoSil® is superior to standard surgical treatment in reducing air leakage after pulmonary lobectomy. Pulmonary involvement is not considered a main feature of Marfan syndrome (MFS); however, spontaneous pneumothorax (SP) with a high rate of recurrence is frequently reported. We describe the use of TachoSil® in the supportive treatment of recurrent pneumothorax in a girl with MFS. Case Report. A 12-year-old girl with a previous diagnosis of MFS and recurrent history of left spontaneous pneumothorax was submitted to thoracoscopic atypical lung resection. Two patches (9.5 × 4.8 cm) were cut from the adhesive/foam complex (TachoSil®) and were pressed against the sutured area as supportive treatment. The patient recovered with no further SP recurrences. Conclusions. The use of the TachoSil® surgical patch may be useful in pneumothorax supportive treatment, particularly in pediatric MFS by ameliorating the mechanical strength of the lung.
Damage Evaluation for Rock Burst Proneness of Deep Hard Rock under Triaxial Cyclic Loading
Authors: You Shuang , Ji Hongguang , Zhang Zijian , Zhang Chenghan
Published: September 2018

High stress and strong excavation disturbance are the main causes of dynamic disasters, rock burst in deep hard rocks, and are more frequent and violent than those in shallow, which seriously restricts the deep mining. Given rock burst encountered in deep mining of Lingnan metal mines, the optimized triaxial cyclic loading and unloading tests are designed to characterize the performance of rock failure and to evaluate the rock burst proneness. The correlation between elastic energy index and damage evolution is built, and rock burst proneness in each status is analyzed; furthermore, the dissipation energy in the failure process of deep rocks is explicated. In this paper, the law that the elastic energy index via damage increases is drawn. In terms of the dynamic disaster conditions in the deep rock, the identification approach for the damage zone of the rock burst is established.
Mitral Valve Endocarditis due to Lactobacillus
Authors: Groga-Bada Patrick , Mueller Iris I. , Foschi Federico , Gawaz Meinrad , Eick Christian
Published: September 2018

Lactobacillus species are Gram-positive, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped bacteria. They belong to the lactic acid bacteria group and are also known as a usual part of the normal flora of the gastrointestinal tract as well as of the urinary and genital tracts. They are an infrequent human pathogen but can induce several infections such as bacteremia and infectious endocarditis. We report the case of an 81-year-old woman with Lactobacillus bacteremia and mitral valve endocarditis as well as splenic abscesses.
Weak Solutions of a Coupled System of Urysohn‐Stieltjes Functional (Delayed) Integral Equations
Authors: El-Sayed A. M. A. , Al-Fadel M. M. A.
Published: September 2018

We study the existence of weak solutions for the coupled system of functional integral equations of Urysohn‐Stieltjes type in the reflexive Banach space E. As an application, the coupled system of Hammerstien‐Stieltjes functional integral equations is also studied.
Fermented Corn Stalk for Biosorption of Copper(II) from Aqueous Solution
Authors: Ren B. , Shahzad M. K. , Zhang X. , Jin Y. , Ouyang F. , Li H.
Published: September 2018

Corn stalk is the amplest and inexpensive organic material in Heilongjiang province, China. This resource is vicious, causing pollution of the environment. In this present study, an adsorbent is prepared by corn stalk fermentation with Aspergillus niger. The fermentative effects of water content ratio, initial pH medium, temperature, and time were addressed. The analysis of factors and orthogonal experiments revealed that the optimum conditions of producing cellulose were solid‐liquid ratio of 1 : 5, temperature 28°C, initial pH, and 72 hours. The modification mechanism was investigated by using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The biosorption capacity of fermented corn stalk was better than that of raw corn stalk under identical conditions, and this improvement can be ascribed to the enzyme system secretion by A. niger under changing the surface properties of the raw corn stalk. Some of the hydroxyl and carboxyl groups are bounded by cellulose which became free hydroxyl and carboxyl groups with a high ability after adsorption of heavy metals.
Reversible Data Hiding with Pixel Prediction and Additive Homomorphism for Encrypted Image
Authors: Yu Chunqiang , Zhang Xianquan , Tang Zhenjun , Chen Yan , Huang Jingyu
Published: September 2018

Data hiding in encrypted image is a recent popular topic of data security. In this paper, we propose a reversible data hiding algorithm with pixel prediction and additive homomorphism for encrypted image. Specifically, the proposed algorithm applies pixel prediction to the input image for generating a cover image for data embedding, referred to as the preprocessed image. The preprocessed image is then encrypted by additive homomorphism. Secret data is finally embedded into the encrypted image via modular 256 addition. During secret data extraction and image recovery, addition homomorphism and pixel prediction are jointly used. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can accurately recover original image and reach high embedding capacity and good visual quality. Comparisons show that the proposed algorithm outperforms some recent algorithms in embedding capacity and visual quality.
Study of Influential Factors of the Vibration Modal of the Rocket Equipment Bay and Structural Improvement Based on Finite Element Analysis
Authors: Li Chenghu , Han Guanlin , Duan Chunxu
Published: September 2018

In this paper, the study focuses on influential factors of the vibration modal of the equipment bay of a carrier rocket and the structural improvement of the equipment bay by using finite element modal analysis. The finite element analysis focuses on the influences of the mass of the inertial bracket, the thickness of parts of the inertial bracket, and the stringer thickness on the first modal frequency of the equipment bay. As the analytical results show, the vibration displacement of mounting panels can be greatly reduced when the equipment bay is added with mass, and the vibration of the equipment bay with mass mainly occurs on the inertial bracket (without mass, the maximum vibration displacement occurs on the mounting panel); the top surface thickness of the inertial bracket has the maximum influence on the first modal frequency of the equipment bay, the stringer thickness and the side thickness of the inertial bracket have relatively high influence on the first modal frequency, the rib thickness of the inertial bracket has relatively low influence on the first modal frequency, and the beam thickness of the inertial bracket has the minimum influence on the first modal frequency.