bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Zinc Acetate Potentiates the Action of Tosufloxacin against Escherichia coli Biofilm Persisters
Authors: Usui Masaru , Yokoo Hayato , Tamura Yutaka , Nakajima Chie , Suzuki Yasuhiko , Ghigo Jean-Marc , Beloin Christophe
Published: April 2019

Formation of bacterial biofilms is a major health threat due to their high levels of tolerance to multiple antibiotics and the presence of persisters responsible for infection relapses. We previously showed that a combination of starvation and induction of SOS response in biofilm led to increased levels of persisters and biofilm tolerance to fluoroquinolones.
Structure of Dirithromycin Bound to the Bacterial Ribosome Suggests New Ways for Rational Improvement of Macrolides
Authors: Khabibullina Nelli F. , Tereshchenkov Andrey G. , Komarova Ekaterina S. , Syroegin Egor A. , Shiriaev Dmitrii I. , Paleskava Alena , Kartsev Victor G. , Bogdanov Alexey A. , Konevega Andrey L. , Dontsova Olga A. , Sergiev Petr V. , Osterman Ilya A. , Polikanov Yury S.
Published: April 2019

Although macrolides are known as excellent antibacterials, their medical use has been significantly limited due to the spread of bacterial drug resistance. Therefore, it is necessary to develop new potent macrolides to combat the emergence of drug-resistant pathogens.
Vegetable fibre in an infected ovarian dermoid cyst
Authors: Villarreal Carla M , Yedavally Srikala , Mulhem Elie
Published: April 2019

Tubo-ovarian abscesses (TOAs) are inflammatory masses involving the fallopian tube, ovary and occasionally other adjacent pelvic organs. A 32-year-old woman with no significant medical history presented with a chief complaint of lower abdominal pain. Initial CT of the abdomen was suggestive of a colon abscess; however, a repeat CT suggested a TOA. The left ovary was densely adherent to the left pelvic sidewall and the rectosigmoid colon. The content of the ovary was consistent with a dermoid and suspected of superinfection. Pathological examination of the tissue revealed normal ovarian cortical tissue, hair cells, melanin, and epidermal and neural tissue, as well as evidence of a foreign object resembling vegetable matter. The vegetable fibre found in this patient’s biopsy was of an unclear aetiology, but probably indicates a perforation of the bowel. Any cause of bowel perforation adjacent to the adnexa can lead to TOA, therefore providing a rational speculation for this case.
Enormous haemangioma of the liver
Authors: Zerpa Rommel , Abdelghani Eman Helmy , Iliescu Gloria , Escalante Carmen
Published: April 2019

Haemangiomas are the most common benign tumours of the liver. Their origin lies in the proliferation of the vascular endothelium. Their growth mechanism is by dilation. They are considered giant when they exceed 5 cm at their greatest diameter. Very uncommon presentations surpass 15 cm; these are known as enormous haemangiomas. We present a case of a 54-year-old woman with an enormous haemangioma of 30 cm in diameter. A mass was present in her right upper quadrant along with dull abdominal pain for several years. It is unknown for how long the tumour had been developing. She underwent surgical management due to evident mass effect. Clinicians should be aware of the importance of early diagnosis in these types of tumours. Its erratic growth pattern, mass effect-related complications and the capacity of producing haematological abnormalities makes it an entity to be considered.
Worsening renal failure due to renal steal by aortoiliac bypass
Authors: Sato Chisato , Wakabayashi Kohei , Yamaguchi Hiroki , Tanno Kaoru
Published: April 2019

Aortoiliac bypass surgery is the gold standard strategy for removing persistent ischaemia resulting from bilateral aortoiliac occlusive disease, a condition known as Leriche syndrome. However, the impact of aortoiliac bypass surgery on the blood flow of the renal artery is not fully understood. Here, we report a case of worsening renal failure caused by renal steal immediately after aortoiliac bypass for Leriche syndrome. The revascularisation of bilateral renal arteries dramatically improved the patient’s renal function and allowed us to discontinue both haemodialysis and diuretics. This case demonstrates that in rare instances, haemodynamic change induced by aortoiliac bypass surgery affects the arteries feeding other organs. Careful preoperative evaluation for the corresponding branches of the aorta is indispensable. Optimal revascularisation should be performed to avoid serious complications after aortoiliac bypass if the patient is at risk of developing critical ischaemia.
Harding’s disease: an important MS mimic
Authors: Joshi Stuti , Kermode Allan G
Published: April 2019

Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is a mitochondrially inherited disorder characterised by bilateral, painless visual loss which leads to severe optic atrophy. It can be associated with other conditions including multiple sclerosis (MS), movement disorders, epilepsy and cardiac arrhythmias. The association of LHON with an MS-like illness is often referred to as Harding’s disease (or Harding’s syndrome). We report two siblings, who both harbour the 11 778 mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutation, but who manifest markedly different clinical phenotypes; a male with classical LHON and a female with an MS-like illness. LHON affects males four to five times more often than females. By contrast, Harding’s disease is seen predominantly in females, in a pattern comparable to that seen in MS. The pathogenic basis behind the variation in penetrance and phenotype between genders and individual family members remains unclear.
Using natural language processing to extract structured epilepsy data from unstructured clinic letters: development and validation of the ExECT (extraction of epilepsy clinical text) system
Authors: Fonferko-Shadrach Beata , Lacey Arron S , Roberts Angus , Akbari Ashley , Thompson Simon , Ford David V , Lyons Ronan A , Rees Mark I , Pickrell William Owen
Published: April 2019

Objective

Routinely collected healthcare data are a powerful research resource but often lack detailed disease-specific information that is collected in clinical free text, for example, clinic letters. We aim to use natural language processing techniques to extract detailed clinical information from epilepsy clinic letters to enrich routinely collected data.

Design

We used the general architecture for text engineering (GATE) framework to build an information extraction system, ExECT (extraction of epilepsy clinical text), combining rule-based and statistical techniques. We extracted nine categories of epilepsy information in addition to clinic date and date of birth across 200 clinic letters. We compared the results of our algorithm with a manual review of the letters by an epilepsy clinician.

Setting

De-identified and pseudonymised epilepsy clinic letters from a Health Board serving half a million residents in Wales, UK.

Results

We identified 1925 items of information with overall precision, recall and F1 score of 91.4%, 81.4% and 86.1%, respectively. Precision and recall for epilepsy-specific categories were: epilepsy diagnosis (88.1%, 89.0%), epilepsy type (89.8%, 79.8%), focal seizures (96.2%, 69.7%), generalised seizures (88.8%, 52.3%), seizure frequency (86.3%–53.6%), medication (96.1%, 94.0%), CT (55.6%, 58.8%), MRI (82.4%, 68.8%) and electroencephalogram (81.5%, 75.3%).

Conclusions

We have built an automated clinical text extraction system that can accurately extract epilepsy information from free text in clinic letters. This can enhance routinely collected data for research in the UK. The information extracted with ExECT such as epilepsy type, seizure frequency and neurological investigations are often missing from routinely collected data. We propose that our algorithm can bridge this data gap enabling further epilepsy research opportunities. While many of the rules in our pipeline were tailored to extract epilepsy specific information, our methods can be applied to other diseases and also can be used in clinical practice to record patient information in a structured manner.
Working-age adults’ perspectives on living with persistent postural-perceptual dizziness: a qualitative exploratory study
Authors: Sezier Ann Elisabeth Ignace , Saywell Nicola , Terry Gareth , Taylor Denise , Kayes Nicola
Published: April 2019

Objectives

To (a) explore the experiences of persistent postural-perceptual dizziness (PPPD), formerly chronic subjective dizziness on the personal, work and social lives of working-age adults; (b) enhance current understandings of the condition and its impact on the lives of working-age adults and (c) highlight points for consideration and importance to clinical practice.

Methods

This qualitative exploratory study drew on interpretive descriptive methodology. Working-age adults (n=8) diagnosed with PPPD were recruited from a single New Zealand community-based specialist clinic. Data from interviews (n=8) and postinterview reflections (n=2) were analysed using thematic analysis.

Results

Three themes were constructed: (1) It sounds like I’m crazy—referring to the lack of medical, social and self-validation associated with PPPD; (2) I’m a shadow of my former self—representing the impact of the condition on sense of self and life trajectory and (3) How will I survive?— highlighting individual coping processes.

Conclusion

This study contributed to the existing body of knowledge by highlighting the complexity and fluidity of experiencing PPPD. It also drew attention to the tension between the acute illness framework that forms the basis of many therapeutic interactions and the enduring psychosocial support needs of the person experiencing PPPD. The findings highlighted that contextual factors need to be taken into account and that a person-centred and biopsychosocial approach, rather than a condition-specific biomedical approach, is needed for care to be perceived as meaningful and satisfactory.
Preoperative predictors of poor acute postoperative pain control: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Yang Michael M H , Hartley Rebecca L , Leung Alexander A , Ronksley Paul E , Jetté Nathalie , Casha Steven , Riva-Cambrin Jay
Published: April 2019

Objectives

Inadequate postoperative pain control is common and is associated with poor clinical outcomes. This study aimed to identify preoperative predictors of poor postoperative pain control in adults undergoing inpatient surgery.

Design

Systematic review and meta-analysis

Data sources

MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL and PsycINFO were searched through October 2017.

Eligibility criteria

Studies in any language were included if they evaluated postoperative pain using a validated instrument in adults (≥18 years) and reported a measure of association between poor postoperative pain control (defined by study authors) and at least one preoperative predictor during the hospital stay.

Data extraction and synthesis

Two reviewers screened articles, extracted data and assessed study quality. Measures of association for each preoperative predictor were pooled using random effects models.

Results

Thirty-three studies representing 53 362 patients were included in this review. Significant preoperative predictors of poor postoperative pain control included younger age (OR 1.18 [95% CI 1.05 to 1.32], number of studies, n=14), female sex (OR 1.29 [95% CI 1.17 to 1.43], n=20), smoking (OR 1.33 [95% CI 1.09 to 1.61], n=9), history of depressive symptoms (OR 1.71 [95% CI 1.32 to 2.22], n=8), history of anxiety symptoms (OR 1.22 [95% CI 1.09 to 1.36], n=10), sleep difficulties (OR 2.32 [95% CI 1.46 to 3.69], n=2), higher body mass index (OR 1.02 [95% CI 1.01 to 1.03], n=2), presence of preoperative pain (OR 1.21 [95% CI 1.10 to 1.32], n=13) and use of preoperative analgesia (OR 1.54 [95% CI 1.18 to 2.03], n=6). Pain catastrophising, American Society of Anesthesiologists status, chronic pain, marital status, socioeconomic status, education, surgical history, preoperative pressure pain tolerance and orthopaedic surgery (vs abdominal surgery) were not associated with increased odds of poor pain control. Study quality was generally high, although appropriate blinding of predictor during outcome ascertainment was often limited.

Conclusions

Nine predictors of poor postoperative pain control were identified. These should be recognised as potentially important factors when developing discipline-specific clinical care pathways to improve pain outcomes and to guide future surgical pain research.

PROSPERO registration number

CRD42017080682.
Empirical evidence of the impact of study characteristics on the performance of prediction models: a meta-epidemiological study
Authors: Damen Johanna A A G , Debray Thomas P A , Pajouheshnia Romin , Reitsma Johannes B , Scholten Rob J P M , Moons Karel G M , Hooft Lotty
Published: April 2019

Objectives

To empirically assess the relation between study characteristics and prognostic model performance in external validation studies of multivariable prognostic models.

Design

Meta-epidemiological study.

Data sources and study selection

On 16 October 2018, we searched electronic databases for systematic reviews of prognostic models. Reviews from non-overlapping clinical fields were selected if they reported common performance measures (either the concordance (c)-statistic or the ratio of observed over expected number of events (OE ratio)) from 10 or more validations of the same prognostic model.

Data extraction and analyses

Study design features, population characteristics, methods of predictor and outcome assessment, and the aforementioned performance measures were extracted from the included external validation studies. Random effects meta-regression was used to quantify the association between the study characteristics and model performance.

Results

We included 10 systematic reviews, describing a total of 224 external validations, of which 221 reported c-statistics and 124 OE ratios. Associations between study characteristics and model performance were heterogeneous across systematic reviews. C-statistics were most associated with variation in population characteristics, outcome definitions and measurement and predictor substitution. For example, validations with eligibility criteria comparable to the development study were associated with higher c-statistics compared with narrower criteria (difference in logit c-statistic 0.21(95% CI 0.07 to 0.35), similar to an increase from 0.70 to 0.74). Using a case-control design was associated with higher OE ratios, compared with using data from a cohort (difference in log OE ratio 0.97(95% CI 0.38 to 1.55), similar to an increase in OE ratio from 1.00 to 2.63).

Conclusions

Variation in performance of prognostic models across studies is mainly associated with variation in case-mix, study designs, outcome definitions and measurement methods and predictor substitution. Researchers developing and validating prognostic models should realise the potential influence of these study characteristics on the predictive performance of prognostic models.
From Local Understanding to Global Regression in Monocular Visual Odometry
Authors: Esfahani Mahdi Abolfazli , Wu Keyu , Yuan Shenghai , Wang Han
Published: April 2019

The most significant part of any autonomous intelligent robot is the localization module that gives the robot knowledge about its position and orientation. This knowledge assists the robot to move to the location of its desired goal and complete its task. Visual Odometry (VO) measures the displacement of the robots’ camera in consecutive frames which results in the estimation of the robot position and orientation. Deep Learning, nowadays, helps to learn rich and informative features for the problem of VO to estimate frame-by-frame camera movement. Recent Deep Learning-based VO methods train an end-by-end network to solve VO as a regression problem directly without visualizing and sensing the label of training data in the training procedure. In this paper, a new approach to train Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) for the regression problems, such as VO, is proposed. The proposed method first changes the problem to a classification problem to learn different subspaces with similar observations. After solving the classification problem, the problem converts to the original regression problem to solve using the knowledge achieved by solving the classification problem. This approach helps CNN to solve regression problem globally in a local domain learned in the classification step, and improves the performance of the regression module for approximately 10%.
New theoretical results for radiative 3H(p,γ)4He, 3He(2H,γ)5Li, 4He(2H,γ)6Li, 4He(3H,γ)7Li and 4He(3He,γ)7Be captures at astrophysical energies
Authors: Dubovichenko Sergey , Dzhazairov-Kakhramanov Albert , Burkova Nataliya
Published: April 2019

We have studied the proton capture reaction [Formula: see text]. It plays a role in the nucleosynthesis of primordial elements in the early Universe leading to the prestellar formation of [Formula: see text] nuclei. All results of our researches and more new data from works show that the contribution of the [Formula: see text] capture reaction into the processes of primordial nucleosynthesis is relatively small. However, it makes sense to consider this process for making the picture complete for the formation of prestellar [Formula: see text] and clearing of mechanisms of this reaction. Furthermore, we have considered the [Formula: see text] reaction in the low energy. This reaction also forms part of the nucleosynthesis chain of the processes occurring in the early stages of formation of stable stars. They are possible candidates for overcoming the well-known problem of the [Formula: see text] gap in the synthesis of light elements in the primordial Universe. Continuing the study, we have considered the radiative capture [Formula: see text] at superlow energies, which has a undeniable interest for nuclear astrophysics, since it takes part in the proton–proton fusion chain, and new experimental data on the astrophysical [Formula: see text]-factors of this process at energies down to 90 and 23[Formula: see text]keV and data on the radiative capture reaction [Formula: see text] down to 50[Formula: see text]keV appeared recently. Moreover, radiative capture reactions [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] may have played a certain role in prestellar nucleosynthesis after the Big Bang, when the temperature of the Universe decreased to the value of [Formula: see text].
A specific type of permutation and complete permutation polynomials over finite fields
Authors: Ongan Pınar , Temür Burcu Gülmez
Published: April 2019

In this paper, we study polynomials of the form [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] and list all permutation polynomials (PPs) and complete permutation polynomials (CPPs) of this form. This type of polynomials were studied by Bassalygo and Zinoviev for the cases [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], Wu, Li, Helleseth and Zhang for the case [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], Bassalygo and Zinoviev answered the question for the case [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] and finally by Bartoli et al. for the case [Formula: see text]. Here, we determine all PPs and CPPs for the case [Formula: see text].
Ultrasonic Formation of Copper/Iron Graphene Oxide for Ketorolac Delivery
Authors: Radziuk D. , Mikhnavets L. , Tabulina L. , Labunov V. , Vorokhta M. , Matolín V.
Published: April 2019

New accessible sonochemical methods were developed for the functionalization of synthesized graphene oxide (GO) with copper/iron compounds and drug intercalation into their structure in aqueous solution at ambient conditions by using ultrasound (20[Formula: see text]kHz) treatment. The sonochemical formation mechanism of a new nanomaterial was revealed through the structural analysis of three types of nanocomposites: (i) copper@graphene oxide, (ii) copper/iron@graphene oxide and (iii) iron@graphene oxide. Unique copper/iron-modified graphene oxide nanocomposites can be used as nanocarriers for the anti-inflammatory drug (ketorolac) delivery in aqueous solution due to the reduced submicron size and enlarged surface area. Disintegration of the ultrasonically intercalated ketorolac followed the exponential decay curve fit at higher pH values of the aqueous solution with a higher decay constant observed in copper/iron-modified graphene oxide nanocomposites.
Shelf Life Improvement of SERS-Active Substrates Based on Copper and Porous Aluminum Oxide
Authors: Zavatski S. , Redko S. , Bandarenka H.
Published: April 2019

Copper nanostructures demonstrating an activity in the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy were formed via electrochemical deposition of copper on porous aluminum oxide (PAO) and protected from oxidation by surface coverage with polyethylene glycol (PEG) and silver. The SERS measurements of 10[Formula: see text]-M 4-mercaptophenylboronic acid (MPBA) molecules adsorbed on fresh Cu-coated samples, Cu–PEG and Cu–PEG–Ag nanocomposites after 5, 10, 15, 60, 180 and 300[Formula: see text]min of storage in air indicated the effectiveness of the proposed approach in protection from oxidation.
Luminescence of Porous Nanostructured Strontium Titanate Films Doped with Eu3+ Ions
Authors: Rudenko M. V. , Raichynok T. F. , Radush Y. V. , Podhorodecki A. , Ilkov V. K.
Published: April 2019

Porous nanostructured strontium titanate films doped with europium SrTiO3:Eu[Formula: see text] fabricated on silicon and porous anodic alumina by the sol–gel route are presented. The films with the thicknesses of 430[Formula: see text]nm and 510[Formula: see text]nm after depositions of three and five layers, respectively, have the perovskite structure confirmed by X-ray diffraction. The porous films demonstrate Eu[Formula: see text] photoluminescence peaks at 593 ([Formula: see text]), 615 ([Formula: see text]) and 705 ([Formula: see text])[Formula: see text]nm. The porosity and PL intensity of the fabricated films noticeably reduce with the number of deposited layers.
Structure and Up-Conversion Luminescence of Er3+/Yb3+ Co-Doped Lanthanum Zirconate Ceramics
Authors: Trusova E. , Klement R. , Tratsiak Y. , Bača L’. , Veteška P. , Janek M.
Published: April 2019

La2Zr2O7:Er, Yb nanoceramics have been obtained. Its structural and up-conversion luminescent properties were investigated. Under 980 nm laser excitation, the ceramics produced intense green and red up-conversion emission. The influence of Er3+ concentration and annealing conditions on the emission intensities has been discussed. The fabricated ceramics are expected to be an efficient up-conversion material with potential applications for laser diodes, display devices, detectors where the near infrared excitation is required.
Properties of TiO2/TiOx Active Layers and Fabrication Resistive Switching Device
Authors: Bibilashvili A. , Kushitashvili Z.
Published: April 2019

The electrical and structural properties of titanium oxides TiO2/TiOx fabricated by reactive magnetron sputtering were studied and used in a memristor. X-ray diffraction and [Formula: see text]–[Formula: see text] measurements were performed in order to characterize the fabricated structures.
Porous Silicon for Accumulation and Generation of Hydrogen
Authors: Dolbik A. V. , Lazarouk A. S. , Leshok A. A.
Published: April 2019

Porous silicon layers have been formed by electrochemical anodization of [Formula: see text]- and [Formula: see text]-type Si substrates. The volume of hydrogen desorbed from the surface of porous silicon after the anodic treatment was measured to be as large as 4[Formula: see text]wt.%. Regeneration of hydrogen can be achieved by porous silicon reanodization.
3D Silicon Photonic Structures Based on Avalanche LED with Interconnections through Optical Interposer
Authors: Lazarouk S. K. , Leshok A. A. , Kozlova T. A. , Dolbik A. V. , Vi Le Dinh , Ilkov V. K. , Labunov V. A.
Published: April 2019

Design and manufacturing technology of 3D silicon photonic structures with optical interconnections through microchannel vias interposers were developed. Silicon chips placed over each other were separated by the silicon microchannel vias interposer served as a light waveguide. Light emitting diodes and photodiodes were formed at the inner surfaces of silicon chips from nanostructured silicon clusters embedded into alumina matrix. The developed structure is characterized by the current conversion efficiency of 0.1% and can operate in the GHz frequency range.
Modeling of Electron Transfer in Graphene on SiC Substrate
Authors: Muravev V. V. , Mishchenka V. N.
Published: April 2019

The results of simulation of electron transfer processes in a single graphene layer on a SiC substrate are presented. High mobility of charge carriers with respect to all known materials makes graphene to be a promising candidate for applications in new semiconductor devices. The prevalence of electron–electron scattering over other types of scattering in the range of moderate field energies in a single graphene layer is established by modeling using the Monte Carlo method.
Bounds for peripheral distance signless Laplacian eigenvalues of graphs
Authors: Alhevaz Abdollah , Baghipur Maryam , Paul Somnath , Ramane H. S.
Published: April 2019

The eccentricity of a vertex [Formula: see text] in a graph [Formula: see text] is the maximum distance between [Formula: see text] and any other vertex of [Formula: see text] A vertex with maximum eccentricity is called a peripheral vertex. In this paper, we study the distance signless Laplacian matrix of a connected graph [Formula: see text] with respect to peripheral vertices and define the peripheral distance signless Laplacian matrix of a graph [Formula: see text], denoted by [Formula: see text]. We then give some bounds on various eigenvalues of [Formula: see text] Moreover, we define energy in terms of [Formula: see text] and give some bounds on the energy.
Model-in-the-Loop Testing for Cyber Physical Systems
Authors: Turlea Ana
Published: April 2019

Context: Nowadays, there is of high interest to use automated testing, not only because it optimizes the manual testing by reducing the needed time and cost, but also because manual testing is more likely to produce errors. Increasing the safety of software controlled complex systems, that use many distributed electronic controlled units, requires extensive testing. In model based testing, the test specification is derived from the system requirements and a model that describes selected functional and nonfunctional aspects of the system under test.
Your Table Can Be an Input Panel
Authors: Chen Mingshi , Yang Panlong , Xiong Jie , Zhang Maotian , Lee Youngki , Xiang Chaocan , Tian Chang
Published: April 2019

This paper explores the possibility of extending the input and interactions beyond the small screen of the mobile device onto ad hoc adjacent surfaces, e.g., a wooden tabletop with acoustic signals. While the existing finger tracking approaches employ the active acoustic signal with a fixed frequency, our proposed system Ipanel employs the acoustic signals generated by sliding of fingers on the table for tracking. Different from active signal tracking, the frequency of the finger-table generated acoustic signals keeps changing, making accurate tracking much more challenging than the traditional approaches with fix frequency signal from the speaker. Unique features are extracted by exploiting the spatio-temporal and frequency domain properties of the generated acoustic signals. The features are transformed into images and then we employ the convolutional neural network (CNN) to recognize the finger movement on the table. Ipanel is able to support not only commonly used gesture (click, flip, scroll, zoom, etc.) recognition, but also handwriting (10 numbers and 26 alphabets) recognition at high accuracies. We implement Ipanel on smartphones, and conduct extensive real environment experiments to evaluate its performance. The results validate the robustness of Ipanel, and show that it maintains high accuracies across different users with varying input behaviours (e.g., input strength, speed and region). Further, Ipanel's performance is robust against different levels of ambient noise and varying surface materials.
CAP
Authors: Chen Xinlei , Wang Yu , He Jiayou , Pan Shijia , Li Yong , Zhang Pei
Published: April 2019

Context-aware mobile application (App) usage prediction benefits a variety of applications such as precise bandwidth allocation, App launch acceleration, etc. Prior works have explored this topic through individual data profiles and contextual information. However, it is still a challenging problem because of the following three aspects: i. App usage behavior is usually influenced by multiple factors, especially temporal and spatial factors. ii. It is difficult to describe individuals' preferences, which are usually time-variant. iii. A single user's data is sparse on the spatial domain and only covers a limited number of locations. Prediction becomes more difficult when the user appears at a new location.

This paper presents CAP, a context-aware App usage prediction algorithm that takes both contextual information (location & time) and attribution (App with type information) into consideration. We find that the relationships between App-location, App-time, and App-App type are essential to prediction and propose a heterogeneous graph embedding algorithm to map them into the common comparable latent space. In addition, we create a user profile for each user with App usage and trajectory history to describe the individual dynamic preference for personalized prediction. We evaluate the performance of our proposed CAP with two large-scale real-world datasets. Extensive evaluations demonstrate that CAP achieves 30% higher accuracy than a state-of-the-art method Personalized Ranking Metric Embedding (PRME) in terms of Accuracy@5. In terms of mean reciprocal rank (MRR), CAP achieves 1.5× higher than the straightforward baseline Sta and 2× higher than PRME. Our investigation enables a range of applications to benefit from such timely predictions, including network operators, service providers, and etc.
Modeling Biobehavioral Rhythms with Passive Sensing in the Wild
Authors: Doryab Afsaneh , Dey Anind K. , Kao Grace , Low Carissa
Published: April 2019

Biobehavioral rhythms are associated with numerous health and life outcomes. We study the feasibility of detecting rhythms in data that is passively collected from Fitbit devices and using the obtained model parameters to predict readmission risk after pancreatic surgery. We analyze data from 49 patients who were tracked before surgery, in hospital, and after discharge. Our analysis produces a model of individual patients' rhythms for each stage of treatment that is predictive of readmission. All of the rhythm-based models outperform the traditional approaches to readmission risk stratification that uses administrative data.
Evaluating the Impact of Technology Assisted Hotspot Policing on Situational Awareness and Task-Load
Authors: Engelbrecht Hendrik , Lukosch Stephan G. , Datcu Dragos
Published: April 2019

Everyday field work of a police officer requires the perception, filtering and understanding of large amounts of information in highly dynamic situations. This presents opportunities for ICT to alleviate strain on officers by providing adequate information provisioning. We evaluate the usage of a mobile location-based hotspot policing system, comprised of a smartphone, smartwatch and a web-application, during real field work with officers in high and low hotspot density locations. We use a repeated measures design to compare possible effects with our baseline measure, i.e. field work without using the system. Usability, task-load and situational awareness (SA), as well as possible mediators, are evaluated to gain insight into the differences between modes of transportation and the overall viability of the system itself. No significant difference was found between the two locations. Officers using the system scored high on usability measures and interview feedback was largely positive. Measures on SA remained stable throughout baseline and experimental shifts. Task-load was significantly higher with the use of the system. The contradiction in these findings can be explained by showing the differences in the nature of field work with and without the system.
Reconstructing Human Joint Motion with Computational Fabrics
Authors: Liu Ruibo , Shao Qijia , Wang Siqi , Ru Christina , Balkcom Devin , Zhou Xia
Published: April 2019

Accurate and continuous monitoring of joint rotational motion is crucial for a wide range of applications such as physical rehabilitation [6, 85] and motion training [22, 54, 68]. Existing motion capture systems, however, either need instrumentation of the environment, or fail to track arbitrary joint motion, or impose wearing discomfort by requiring rigid electrical sensors right around the joint area. This work studies the use of everyday fabrics as a flexible and soft sensing medium to monitor joint angular motion accurately and reliably. Specifically we focus on the primary use of conductive stretchable fabrics to sense the skin deformation during joint motion and infer the joint rotational angle. We tackle challenges of fabric sensing originated by the inherent properties of elastic materials by leveraging two types of sensing fabric and characterizing their properties based on models in material science. We apply models from bio-mechanics to infer joint angles and propose the use of dual strain sensing to enhance sensing robustness against user diversity and fabric position offsets. We fabricate prototypes using off-the-shelf fabrics and micro-controller. Experiments with ten participants show 9.69° median angular error in tracking joint angle and its sensing robustness across various users and activities.
Measuring the Effects of Stress on Mobile Interaction
Authors: Sarsenbayeva Zhanna , van Berkel Niels , Hettiachchi Danula , Jiang Weiwei , Dingler Tilman , Velloso Eduardo , Kostakos Vassilis , Goncalves Jorge
Published: April 2019

Research shows that environmental factors such as ambient noise and cold ambience can render users situationally impaired, adversely affecting interaction with mobile devices. However, an internal factor which is known to negatively impact cognitive abilities -- stress -- has not been systematically investigated in terms of its impact on mobile interaction. In this paper, we report a study where we use the Trier Social Stress Test to induce stress on participants, and investigate its effect on three aspects of mobile interaction: target acquisition, visual search, and text entry. We find that stress reduces completion time and accuracy during target acquisition tasks, as well as completion time during visual search tasks. Finally, we are able to directly contrast the magnitude of these effects to previously published effects of environmentally-caused impairments. Our work contributes to the growing body of literature on situational impairments.
Batch Localization Based on OFDMA Backscatter
Authors: Tong Xinyu , Zhu Fengyuan , Wan Yang , Tian Xiaohua , Wang Xinbing
Published: April 2019

OFDMA Wi-Fi backscatter can significantly improve the communication efficiency and meanwhile maintain ultra-low power consumption; however, the ground-up reworking on the core mechanism of traditional Wi-Fi system revolutionizes the basis of many existing Wi-Fi based mechanisms. In this paper, we explore how localization can be realized based on OFDMA backscatter, where a batch localization mechanism utilizing concurrent communication in the OFDMA backscatter system is proposed. We present a series of mechanisms to deal with the fundamental change of assumptions brought by the new paradigm. First, we process signals at the receiver in a finer granularity for signal classification. Then we remove phase offsets in real time without interrupting the communication. Finally, we propose an extended MUSIC algorithm to improve accuracy with limited localization information in OFDMA backscatter mechanism. We implement a prototype under the 802.11g framework in WARP, based on which we conduct comprehensive experiments to evaluate our propose mechanism. Results show that our system can localize 48 tags simultaneously, while achieving average localization errors within 0.49m. The tag's power consumption is about 55-81.3μW.
Revealing Urban Dynamics by Learning Online and Offline Behaviours Together
Authors: Xia Tong , Li Yong
Published: April 2019

Urban problems and diseases accompanied by the pace of urbanization have drawn attention to the importance of understanding urban dynamics, while a deep and comprehensive understanding is challenging due to our diversified lifestyles in the modern city. In this paper, we propose an urban dynamics modeling system to characterize the regularity of urban activity dynamics as well as urban functions by learning residents' online and offline behaviours together. Built on a state-sharing hidden Markov model, our system utilizes online activities of App usage and offline activities of mobility in different urban regions and different time slots for learning. The learnt state sequence of each region reveals urban dynamics with the corresponding urban functions. We evaluate our system via a large-scale mobile network accessing dataset, which discovers ten hidden states characterizing different life modes and eight representative dynamic patterns corresponding to different urban functions. These discovered dynamic patterns and inferred functions are validated by social media check-ins and the land-use published by the government with 81% accuracy. Based on our model, we propose two applications, crowd flow prediction and popular App prediction, which outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches by 36.1% and 15.7%, respectively. This study paves the way for extensive city-related applications including urban demand analysis, land-use planning, and activity prediction.
GEVR
Authors: Zhang Jason Shuo , Gartrell Mike , Han Richard , Lv Qin , Mishra Shivakant
Published: April 2019

In this paper, we present GEVR, the first Group Event Venue Recommendation system that incorporates mobility via individual location traces and context information into a "social-based" group decision model to provide venue recommendations for groups of mobile users. Our study leverages a real-world dataset collected using the OutWithFriendz mobile app for group event planning, which contains 625 users and over 500 group events. We first develop a novel "social-based" group location prediction model, which adaptively applies different group decision strategies to groups with different social relationship strength to aggregate each group member's location preference, to predict where groups will meet. Evaluation results show that our prediction model not only outperforms commonly used and state-of-the-art group decision strategies with over 80% accuracy for predicting groups' final meeting location clusters, but also provides promising qualities in cold-start scenarios. We then integrate our prediction model with the Foursquare Venue Recommendation API to construct an event venue recommendation framework for groups of mobile users. Evaluation results show that GEVR outperforms the comparative models by a significant margin.
Horizontal Cell Biology: Monitoring Global Changes of Protein Interaction States with the Proteome-Wide Cellular Thermal Shift Assay (CETSA)
Authors: Dai Lingyun , Prabhu Nayana , Yu Liang Ying , Bacanu Smaranda , Ramos Anderson Daniel , Nordlund Pär
Published: April 2019

The cellular thermal shift assay (CETSA) is a biophysical technique allowing direct studies of ligand binding to proteins in cells and tissues. The proteome-wide implementation of CETSA with mass spectrometry detection (MS-CETSA) has now been successfully applied to discover targets for orphan clinical drugs and hits from phenotypic screens, to identify off-targets, and to explain poly-pharmacology and drug toxicity. Highly sensitive multidimensional MS-CETSA implementations can now also access binding of physiological ligands to proteins, such as metabolites, nucleic acids, and other proteins. MS-CETSA can thereby provide comprehensive information on modulations of protein interaction states in cellular processes, including downstream effects of drugs and transitions between different physiological cell states. Such horizontal information on ligandmodulation in cells is largely orthogonal to vertical information on the levels of different proteins and therefore opens novel opportunities to understand operational aspects of cellular proteomes.
Dexterous Hand Movements and Their Recovery After Central Nervous System Injury
Authors: Isa Tadashi
Published: April 2019

Hand dexterity has uniquely developed in higher primates and is thought to rely on the direct corticomotoneuronal (CM) pathway. Recent studies have shown that rodents and carnivores lack the direct CM pathway but can control certain levels of dexterous hand movements through various indirect CM pathways. Some homologous pathways also exist in higher primates, and among them, propriospinal (PrS) neurons in the mid-cervical segments (C3-C4) are significantly involved in hand dexterity. When the direct CM pathway was lesioned caudal to the PrS and transmission of cortical commands to hand motoneurons via the PrS neurons remained intact, dexterous hand movements could be significantly recovered. This recovery model was intensively studied, and it was found that, in addition to the compensation by the PrS neurons, a large-scale reorganization in the bilateral cortical motor-related areas and mesolimbic structures contributed to recovery. Future therapeutic strategies should target these multihierarchical areas.
In Vitro Antimicrobial Activity of Some Medicinal Plants against Human Pathogenic Bacteria
Authors: Manandhar Sarita , Luitel Shisir , Dahal Raj Kumar
Published: April 2019

The emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance, as well as the evolution of new strains of disease causing agents, are of great concern to the global health community. Effective treatment of a disease entails the development of new pharmaceuticals or some potential source of novel drugs. Commonly used medicinal plants of our community could be an excellent source of drugs to fight off this problem. This study is focused on exploring the antimicrobial properties of the plants that are commonly being used as traditional medicines. The antimicrobial potential of four different plant extracts was screened against twelve pathogenic microorganisms and two reference bacterial strains. Methanolic extracts of Oxalis corniculata, Artemisia vulgaris, Cinnamomum tamala, and Ageratina adenophora were subjected to a test of their antimicrobial properties by agar well diffusion method. The result indicated that most of the extracts exhibited antimicrobial properties. The highest potential was observed in the extract of O. corniculata against Escherichia coli, Salmonella Typhi, MDR Salmonella Typhi, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Citrobacter koseri with zone of inhibition (ZOI) of 17 mm, 13 mm, 16 mm, 11 mm, and 12 mm, respectively. Oxalis corniculata also showed the highest MIC against test organisms. The methanolic extract of Artemisia vulgaris, Cinnamomum tamala, and Ageratina adenophora showed efficacy against Staphylococcus aureus. Ageratina adenophora also showed antifungal activity against Rhizopus spp. The experiment confirmed the efficacy of some selected plant extracts as natural antimicrobials and suggested the possibility of employing them in drugs for the treatment of infectious diseases caused by the test organisms.
Is Pectus Excavatum a Risk Factor for Spontaneous Pneumothorax? “Haller Index Measurements in Patients with Primary Spontaneous Pneumothorax”
Authors: Kılıçgün Ali , Yakşi Osman , Ünal Mehmet
Published: April 2019

Aim. In this study, we aimed to retrospectively investigate whether pectus excavatum (PE) is a risk factor for the development of primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) and to determine its role in the etiology of the disease. Materials and Methods. Chest-computed tomography (CT) of the patients who were treated for spontaneous pneumothorax between January 2015 and December 2017 in our clinic was examined, and their Haller indices were measured (group I). The patients in the control group who underwent chest CT for other reasons during the same period and were in the same age with the group I were also included in the study (group II) Results. In group I, for patients with PE, the mean Haller index was 2.41, while it was 2.09 in the control group (group II). There was a significant difference between the two groups. Conclusions. PE deformities in the chest wall may predispose to the development of spontaneous pneumothorax, and PE may be among the etiologic factors of spontaneous pneumothorax. Therefore, there is a need for studies involving larger patient groups.
Variation in Righting Times of Holothuria atra, Stichopus chloronotus, and Holothuria edulis in Response to Increased Seawater Temperatures on Heron Reef in the Southern GBR
Authors: Buccheri Elizabeth , Foellmer Matthias W. , Christensen Beth A. , Langis Paul , Ritter Stefani , Wolf Esther , Freeman Aaren S.
Published: April 2019

Sea cucumbers can mitigate some impacts of climate change through digestion of benthic sands and production of calcium carbonate. The projected ecological benefits of sea cucumbers in warmer, more acidic oceans are contingent on the capacities of individuals to acclimate and populations to adapt to climatic changes. The goal of this experiment was to evaluate the degree to which warming waters would impact three abundant species of sea cucumbers on the Heron Reef in Queensland, Australia. We conducted a behavioral assay using three species of sea cucumbers, Holothuria atra, Stichopus chloronotus, and Holothuria edulis. Individuals from each species were subjected to three conditions mimicking current summer temperatures, current winter temperatures, and an elevated temperature consistent with future ocean warming by the year 2100. Sea cucumber reactions were evaluated using righting time as a proxy for their stress levels and overall tolerance of warming events. The three sea cucumber species reacted differently to water temperature changes: H. atra’s righting times declined with temperature, S. chloronotus had greater righting times at high and low temperature extremes, and H. edulis’s righting times remained relatively constant throughout. Our results suggest that each of these species might respond differently to ocean warming and while some may be able to continue to combat climate change in benthic communities, others may decline in ecological function.
Enhancing the Ambient Assisted Living Capabilities with a Mobile Robot
Authors: Gomez-Donoso Francisco , Escalona Félix , Rivas Francisco Miguel , Cañas Jose Maria , Cazorla Miguel
Published: April 2019

Ambient assisted living (AAL) environments are currently a key focus of interest as an option to assist and monitor disabled and elderly people. These systems can improve their quality of life and personal autonomy by detecting events such as entering potentially dangerous areas, potential fall events, or extended stays in the same place. Nonetheless, there are areas that remain outside the scope of AAL systems due to the placement of cameras. There also exist sources of danger in the scope of the camera that the AAL system cannot detect. These sources of danger are relatively small in size, occluded, or nonstatic. To solve this problem, we propose the inclusion of a robot which maps such uncovered areas looking for new potentially dangerous areas that go unnoticed by the AAL. The robot then sends this information to the AAL system in order to improve its performance. Experimentation in real-life scenarios successfully validates our approach.