bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Antiviral Activities of Mulberry (Morus alba) Juice and Seed against Influenza Viruses
Authors: Kim Hyojin , Chung Mi Sook
Published: November 2018

Antiviral activities of Morus alba (MA) juice and seed were examined using time‐of‐addition plaque assays against influenza viruses, A/Brisbane/59/2007 (H1N1) (BR59), pandemic A/Korea/01/2009(H1N1) (KR01), A/Brisbane/10/2007(H3N2) (BR10), and B/Florida/4/2006 (FL04). MA juice (MAJ) showed much higher antiviral activity than MA seed (MAS). In the pre‐ and cotreatment of virus, MAJ showed antiviral effects against BR59, KR01, and FL04 in a dose‐dependent manner. In particular, MAJ at 4% concentration exhibited 1.3 log inhibition in the pre‐ and cotreatment of the virus against FL04, a type B virus. However, little or weak inhibition was observed in the posttreatment of MAJ. GSH levels in the virus‐infected cells were also examined. The decreased levels by the viral infection were restored significantly by the addition of MAJ. MAJ also exhibited significant DPPH radical scavenging and ferric ion‐reducing activities in a dose‐dependent manner. Cyanidin‐3‐rutinoside, the most abundant polyphenol compound of MAJ identified by LC‐MS in this study, showed weak inhibitory effects against FL04 in the pretreatment, whereas gallic acid, a minor compound of MAJ, revealed significant antiviral effect. These results suggest that MAJ can be developed as a novel plant‐derived antiviral against influenza viruses.
Paths to Polarization: How Extreme Views, Miscommunication, and Random Chance Drive Opinion Dynamics
Authors: Turner Matthew A. , Smaldino Paul E.
Published: November 2018

Understanding the social conditions that tend to increase or decrease polarization is important for many reasons. We study a network‐structured agent‐based model of opinion dynamics, extending a model previously introduced by Flache and Macy (2011), who found that polarization appeared to increase with the introduction of long‐range ties but decrease with the number of salient opinions, which they called the population’s “cultural complexity.” We find the following. First, polarization is strongly path dependent and sensitive to stochastic variation. Second, polarization depends strongly on the initial distribution of opinions in the population. In the absence of extremists, polarization may be mitigated. Third, noisy communication can drive a population toward more extreme opinions and even cause acute polarization. Finally, the apparent reduction in polarization under increased “cultural complexity” arises via a particular property of the polarization measurement, under which a population containing a wider diversity of extreme views is deemed less polarized. This work has implications for understanding the population dynamics of beliefs, opinions, and polarization as well as broader implications for the analysis of agent‐based models of social phenomena.
Fuzzy Entropy for Pythagorean Fuzzy Sets with Application to Multicriterion Decision Making
Authors: Yang Miin-Shen , Hussain Zahid
Published: November 2018

The concept of Pythagorean fuzzy sets (PFSs) was initially developed by Yager in 2013, which provides a novel way to model uncertainty and vagueness with high precision and accuracy compared to intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs). The concept was concretely designed to represent uncertainty and vagueness in mathematical way and to furnish a formalized tool for tackling imprecision to real problems. In the present paper, we have used both probabilistic and nonprobabilistic types to calculate fuzzy entropy of PFSs. Firstly, a probabilistic‐type entropy measure for PFSs is proposed and then axiomatic definitions and properties are established. Secondly, we utilize a nonprobabilistic‐type with distances to construct new entropy measures for PFSs. Then a min–max operation to calculate entropy measures for PFSs is suggested. Some examples are also used to demonstrate suitability and reliability of the proposed methods, especially for choosing the best one/ones in structured linguistic variables. Furthermore, a new method based on the chosen entropies is presented for Pythagorean fuzzy multicriterion decision making to compute criteria weights with ranking of alternatives. A comparison analysis with the most recent and relevant Pythagorean fuzzy entropy is conducted to reveal the advantages of our developed methods. Finally, this method is applied for ranking China‐Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects. These examples with applications demonstrate practical effectiveness of the proposed entropy measures.
A Radio Propagation Model for Mixed Paths in Amazon Environments for the UHF Band
Authors: Eras L. E. C. , Silva Diego K. N. da , Barros Fabrício B. , Correia Luís M. , Cavalcante G. P. S.
Published: November 2018

This paper presents a radio propagation model for the UHF band that is designed for an outdoor scenario in the Amazon region of Brazil and comprises city, water, and forest environments. The model is designed for the Mobile and Home Digital Television (M‐DTV and H‐DTV) services. In the case of M‐DTV, the electric field is calculated at user height, while for H‐DTV it considers a fixed antenna on houses roofs. The field calculation is based on Geometrical Optics (GO) and the Uniform Theory of Diffraction (UTD). The results for M‐DTV show a good agreement with measurement data in an Amazonian city (Belém) for 521 MHz. Different parameters of the proposed model are analyzed: the transition zone city‐water, the level of water, the incidence angle in the forest, and electrical parameters for forest. Finally, the comparison that was made between the electric fields for H‐DTV and M‐DTV shows a difference of up to 19 dB.
Excision and Primary Anastomosis for Short Bulbar Strictures: Is It Safe to Change from the Transecting towards the Nontransecting Technique?
Authors: Waterloos M. , Verla W. , Oosterlinck W. , François P. , Lumen N.
Published: November 2018

Objective. To explore whether it is safe to change from transecting excision and primary anastomosis (tEPA) towards nontransecting excision and primary anastomosis (ntEPA) in the treatment of short bulbar urethral strictures and to evaluate whether surgical outcomes are not negatively affected after introduction of ntEPA. Materials and Methods. Two-hundred patients with short bulbar strictures were treated by tEPA (n=112) or ntEPA (n=88) between 2001 and 2017 in a single institution. Failure rate and other surgical outcomes (complications, operation time, hospital stay, catheterization time, and extravasation at first cystography) were calculated for both groups. Potentially predictive factors for failure (including ntEPA) were analyzed using Cox regression analysis. Results. Median follow-up for the entire cohort was 76 months, 118 months, and 32 months for, respectively, tEPA and ntEPA (p<0.001). Nineteen (9.5%) patients suffered a failure, 13 (11.6%) with tEPA and 6 (6.8%) with ntEPA (p=0.333). High-grade (grade ≥3) complication rate was low (1%) and not higher with ntEPA. Median operation time, hospital stay, and catheterization time with tEPA and ntEPA were, respectively, 98 and 87 minutes, 3 and 2 days, and 14 and 9 days. None of these outcomes were negatively affected by the use of ntEPA. Diabetes and previous urethroplasty were significant predictors for failure (Hazard ratio resp. 0.165 and 0.355), whereas ntEPA was not. Conclusions. Introduction of ntEPA did not negatively affect short-term failure rate, high-grade complication rate, operation time, catheterization time, and hospital stay in the treatment of short bulbar strictures. Diabetes and previous urethroplasty are predictive factors for failure.
S-Allyl Cysteine Alleviates Hydrogen Peroxide Induced Oxidative Injury and Apoptosis through Upregulation of Akt/Nrf-2/HO-1 Signaling Pathway in HepG2 Cells
Authors: Basu Chitra , Sur Runa
Published: November 2018

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) mediated oxidative stress leading to hepatocyte apoptosis plays a pivotal role in the pathophysiology of several chronic liver diseases. This study demonstrates that S-allyl cysteine (SAC) renders cytoprotective effects on H2O2 induced oxidative damage and apoptosis in HepG2 cells. Cell viability assay showed that SAC protected HepG2 cells from H2O2 induced cytotoxicity. Further, SAC treatment dose dependently inhibited H2O2 induced apoptosis via decreasing the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, restoring mitochondrial membrane potential (∆Ψm), inhibiting mitochondrial cytochrome c release, and inhibiting proteolytic cleavage of caspase-3. SAC protected cells from H2O2 induced oxidative damage by inhibiting reactive oxygen species accumulation and lipid peroxidation. The mechanism underlying the antiapoptotic and antioxidative role of SAC is the induction of the heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) gene in an NF-E2-related factor-2 (Nrf-2) and Akt dependent manner. Specifically SAC was found to induce the phosphorylation of Akt and enhance the nuclear localization of Nrf-2 in cells. Our results were further confirmed by specific HO-1 gene knockdown studies which clearly demonstrated that HO-1 induction indeed played a key role in SAC mediated inhibition of apoptosis and ROS production in HepG2 cells, thus suggesting a hepatoprotective role of SAC in combating oxidative stress mediated liver diseases.
Development and Application of an UHPLC‐MS/MS Method for Comparative Pharmacokinetic Study of Eight Major Bioactive Components from Yin Chen Hao Tang in Normal and Acute Liver Injured Rats
Authors: Wang Yun , Xing Xinrui , Cao Yan , Zhao Liang , Sun Sen , Chen Yang , Chai Yifeng , Chen Si , Zhu Zhenyu
Published: November 2018

Yin Chen Hao Tang (YCHT) is one of the most famous hepatoprotective herbal formulas in China, but its pharmacokinetic investigation in model rats has been rarely conducted. In this study, the hepatic injury model was caused by intraperitoneal injections of carbon tetrachloride (CCl4), and YCHT was orally administered to the model and normal rats. An ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC–MS/MS) method was established to analyze the plasma pharmacokinetics of eight major bioactive ingredients from YCHT in both the normal and liver injured rats. The calibration curves presented good linearity (r > 0.9981) in the concentration range. The relative standard deviation (RSD%) of inter‐ and intraday precision was within 9.55%, and the accuracy (RE%) ranged from ‐10.72% to 2.46%. The extraction recovery, matrix effect, and stability were demonstrated to be within acceptable ranges. The lower limit of detection (LLOD) and lower limit of quantitation (LLOQ) were around 0.1 ng/mL and 0.5 ng/mL, respectively, which were much lower than those in other related researches. Results reveal that there are significant differences in the pharmacokinetics of scoparone, geniposide, rhein, aloe‐emodin, physcion, and chrysophanol in hepatic injured rats as compared to those in control except for scopoletin and emodin. Our experimental results provide a meaningful reference for the clinical dosage of YCHT in treating liver disorders, and the improvement of LLOD and LLOQ can also broaden the range of our method’s application, which is very suitable for quantitating these eight compounds with low levels.
Utilization of Antenatal Care Services in Dalit Communities in Gorkha, Nepal: A Cross-Sectional Study
Authors: Awasthi Mamata Sherpa , Awasthi Kiran Raj , Thapa Harish Singh , Saud Bhuvan , Pradhan Sarita , Khatry Roshani Agrawal
Published: November 2018

Background and Objective. Antenatal care (ANC) is one of the main components of maternal health. Utilization of safe motherhood is deprived in women who belong to low-caste groups like Dalit of Nepal. Low socioeconomic status, poor knowledge and awareness on obstetric complications, lack of decision-making autonomy, and limited health care options lead to underutilization of existing maternal health care service. The aim of this study was to ascertain the utilization of antenatal care services in terms of ANC visits with health personnel, receiving recommended period of iron tablets, consumption of antihelminthes and number of Tetanus Toxoid (TT) vaccines taken among child bearing women in Dalit community. Materials and Methods. Descriptive cross-sectional research design was used to conduct the study of 150 child bearing women of reproductive age (15-49 years) having at least one child up to three years of age in a Dalit community of Gorkha from March 2015 to March 2016. The data was collected from each mother by conducting face to face interview with each household by using a questionnaire. Result. The study revealed that mean age at marriage of respondents was 17.7 years and mean age at first pregnancy was 18 years. 44.6% of respondents experienced complication during last pregnancy, labour, and postpartum period in their last pregnancy. 59.3% of respondents stated that neighbors, relatives, and traditional healers were the best first contact person during health problem of women. 76.0% of respondents had attended antepartum visit during their last pregnancy whereas 24.0% of respondents did not attend any antepartum clinic. 68.3% of the mothers had consumed Iron/Folates within 45 days after delivery. Only 30.0% of respondents received antihelminthes (albendazole) while 70.0% of respondents had received TT Vaccines during their last pregnancy. Age, type of family, and education of the mothers were significantly associated with utilization of antenatal care services. Conclusion. Even though there is reasonable good utilization rate of antenatal service, the study revealed that low education and awareness among mothers, low socioeconomic condition, early marriage and pregnancy, inappropriate antenatal health check-up, and cultural taboos were significant factors affecting the satisfactory utilization of services among the Dalit community. Hence, there is a need to emphasize on raising awareness of Dalit mothers for receiving available prenatal services.
Test Sequence Reduction of Wireless Protocol Conformance Testing to Internet of Things
Authors: Lin Weiwei , Zeng Hongwei , Gao Honghao , Miao Huaikou , Wang Xiaolin
Published: November 2018

Wireless communication protocols are indispensable in Internet of Things (IoT), which refer to rules and conventions that must be followed by both entities to complete wireless communication or service. Wireless protocol conformance testing concerns an effective way to judge whether a wireless protocol is carried out as expected. Starting from existing test sequence generation methods in conformance testing, an improved method based on overlapping by invertibility and multiple unique input/output (UIO) sequences is proposed in this paper. The method is accomplished in two steps: first, maximum-length invertibility-dependent overlapping sequences (IDOSs) are constructed, then a minimum-length rural postman tour covering the just constructed set of maximum-length IDOSs is generated and a test sequence is extracted from the tour. The soundness and effectiveness of the method are analyzed. Theory and experiment show that desirable test sequences can be yielded by the proposed method to reveal violations of wireless communication protocols in IoT.
Exact Null Controllability, Stabilizability, and Detectability of Linear Nonautonomous Control Systems: A Quasisemigroup Approach
Authors: Sutrima Sutrima , Indrati Christiana Rini , Aryati Lina
Published: November 2018

In the theory control systems, there are many various qualitative control problems that can be considered. In our previous work, we have analyzed the approximate controllability and observability of the nonautonomous Riesz-spectral systems including the nonautonomous Sturm-Liouville systems. As a continuation of the work, we are concerned with the analysis of stability, stabilizability, detectability, exact null controllability, and complete stabilizability of linear non-autonomous control systems in Banach spaces. The used analysis is a quasisemigroup approach. In this paper, the stability is identified by uniform exponential stability of the associated C0-quasisemigroup. The results show that, in the linear nonautonomous control systems, there are equivalences among internal stability, stabizability, detectability, and input-output stability. Moreover, in the systems, exact null controllability implies complete stabilizability.
Dempster-Shafer Theory for the Prediction of Auxin-Response Elements (AuxREs) in Plant Genomes
Authors: Sghaier Nesrine , Ben Ayed Rayda , Ben Marzoug Riadh , Rebai Ahmed
Published: November 2018

Auxin is a major regulator of plant growth and development; its action involves transcriptional activation. The identification of Auxin-response element (AuxRE) is one of the most important issues to understand the Auxin regulation of gene expression. Over the past few years, a large number of motif identification tools have been developed. Despite these considerable efforts provided by computational biologists, building reliable models to predict regulatory elements has still been a difficult challenge. In this context, we propose in this work a data fusion approach for the prediction of AuxRE. Our method is based on the combined use of Dempster-Shafer evidence theory and fuzzy theory. To evaluate our model, we have scanning the DORNRÖSCHEN promoter by our model. All proven AuxRE present in the promoter has been detected. At the 0.9 threshold we have no false positive. The comparison of the results of our model and some previous motifs finding tools shows that our model can predict AuxRE more successfully than the other tools and produce less false positive. The comparison of the results before and after combination shows the importance of Dempster-Shafer combination in the decrease of false positive and to improve the reliability of prediction. For an overall evaluation we have chosen to present the performance of our approach in comparison with other methods. In fact, the results indicated that the data fusion method has the highest degree of sensitivity (Sn) and Positive Predictive Value (PPV).
Osteogenesis-Related Behavior of MC3T3-E1 Cells on Substrates with Tunable Stiffness
Authors: Zhang Yingying , Xing Yanghui , Li Jian , Zhang Zhiqiang , Luan Huiqin , Chu Zhaowei , Gong He , Fan Yubo
Published: November 2018

Osteogenic differentiation of cells has considerable clinical significance in bone defect treatment, and cell behavior is linked to extracellular matrix stiffness. This study aimed to determine how matrix stiffness affects cell morphology and subsequently regulates the osteogenic phenotype of osteogenesis precursor cells. Four PDMS substrates were prepared with stiffness corresponding to the elastic modulus ranging from 0.6 MPa to 2.7 MPa by altering the Sylgard 527 and Sylgard 184 concentrations. MC3T3-E1 cells were cultured on the matrices. Cell morphology, vinculin expression, and key osteogenic markers, Col I, OCN, OPN, and calcium nodule, were examined. The activity and expression level of Yes-associated protein (YAP) were evaluated. Results showed that cell spreading exhibited no correlation with the stiffness of matrix designed in this paper, but substratum stiffness did modulate MC3T3-E1 osteogenic differentiation. Col I, OPN, and OCN proteins were significantly increased in cells cultured on soft matrices compared with stiff matrices. Additionally, cells cultured on the 1:3 ratio matrices had more nodules than those on other matrices. Accordingly, cells on substrates with low stiffness showed enhanced expression of the osteogenic markers. Meanwhile, YAP expression was downregulated on soft substrates although the subcellular location was not affected. Our results provide evidence that matrix stiffness (elastic modulus ranging from 0.6 MPa to 2.7 MPa) affects the osteogenic differentiation of MC3T3-E1, but it is not that “the stiffer, the better” as showed in some of the previous studies. The optimal substrate stiffness may exist to promote osteoblast differentiation. Cell differentiation triggered by the changes in substrate stiffness may be independent of the YAP signal. This study has important implications for biomaterial design and stem cell-based tissue engineering.
A Blockchain‐Based Contractual Routing Protocol for the Internet of Things Using Smart Contracts
Authors: Ramezan Gholamreza , Leung Cyril
Published: November 2018

In this paper, we propose a novel blockchain‐based contractual routing (BCR) protocol for a network of untrusted IoT devices. In contrast to conventional secure routing protocols in which a central authority (CA) is required to facilitate the identification and authentication of each device, the BCR protocol operates in a distributed manner with no CA. The BCR protocol utilizes smart contracts to discover a route to a destination or data gateway within heterogeneous IoT networks. Any intermediary device can guarantee a route from a source IoT device to a destination device or gateway. We compare the performance of BCR with that of the Ad-hoc On‐Demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing protocol in a network of 14 devices. The results show that the routing overhead of the BCR protocol is 5 times lower compared to AODV at the cost of a slightly lower packet delivery ratio. BCR is fairly resistant to both Blackhole and Greyhole attacks. The results show that the BCR protocol enables distributed routing in heterogeneous IoT networks.
Competition May Increase Social Utility in Bipartite Matching Problem
Authors: Kong Yi-Xiu , Yuan Guang-Hui , Zhou Lei , Wu Rui-Jie , Shi Gui-Yuan
Published: November 2018

Bipartite matching problem is to study two disjoint groups of agents who need to be matched pairwise. It can be applied to many real‐world scenarios and explain many social phenomena. In this article, we study the effect of competition on bipartite matching problem by introducing conformity into the preference structure. The results show that a certain amount of competition can improve the overall utility of society and also eliminate the giant shift of social utility when matching unequal numbers of men and women.
Research on Trajectory Data Releasing Method via Differential Privacy Based on Spatial Partition
Authors: Han Qilong , Xiong Zuobin , Zhang Kejia
Published: November 2018

A number of security and privacy challenges of cyber system are arising due to the rapidly evolving scale and complexity of modern system and networks. The cyber system is a fundamental ingredient for Internet of Things (IoT) and smart city which are driven by huge amount of data. These data carry a lot of information for mining and analysis, especially trajectory data. If unprotected trajectory data is released, it may disclose user’s personal privacy, such as home, religion, and behavior mode, which will endanger their personal security. Until now, many methods for protecting trajectory information have been proposed. However, these methods have the following deficiencies: (i) they cannot defend against speculative attacks if the attacker’s background knowledge is maximized; (ii) when studying the problem, they made some strong assumptions that did not match the reality; (iii) the implementation algorithm is complicated and the time complexity is high, which means that data cannot be executed quickly when the amount is large. So, in this paper, we propose a spatial partition based method to publish trajectory data via differential privacy. First, by exponential mechanism, we divide location set at the same time into different partitions fast and accurately. Then we propose another effective method to release trajectory in a differential private manner. We design experiment based on the real-life dataset and compare it with existing method. The results show that the trajectory dataset released by our algorithm has better usability while ensuring privacy.
Carbon Dioxide Laser Microsurgery versus Low-Temperature Plasma Radiofrequency Ablation for T1a Glottic Cancer: A Single-Blind Randomized Clinical Trial
Authors: Zhang Yan , Wang Binru , Sun Guangbin , Zhang Guoliang , Lu Ling , Liang Gengtian
Published: November 2018

Background. Very few studies have been conducted to compare carbon dioxide laser microsurgery (CO2-LS) with low-temperature plasma radiofrequency ablation (LTP-RFA) in treating T1a glottic cancer. Therefore, we conducted this study to compare the efficacy of CO2-LS and LTP-RFA to define a superior therapeutic modality for T1a glottic cancer.Methods. Patients (n=131) with T1a glottic cancer were recruited between January 2010 and September 2014. The included patients were randomly assigned to either receive CO2-LS (n=65) or LTP-RFA (n=66). We conducted the following multidimensional vocal assessments: (i) videostroboscopic evaluation; (ii) auditory-perceptual evaluation; (iii) aerodynamics/ efficiency; (iv) acoustics; and (v) self-assessment questionnaires. Meanwhile, the surgery time and three-year overall survival rates in two groups were recorded. The predefined primary endpoint was overall survival, and the minimum follow-up time was set to six months.Results. After treatment, we found that the structure and vibration of vocal cord might recover more quickly in patients receiving LTP-RFA than in patients receiving CO2-LS, and moreover, the patients in the LTP-RFA group had the better vocal functions. Meanwhile, the surgery time was significantly less in the LTP-RFA group (8.83±1.59 minutes) than in the CO2-LS group (12.49±1.40 minutes) (p<0.00001). In addition, the two intervention methods had the similar three-year overall survival rates (94% versus 96%, p=0.58).Conclusion. These results indicated that both LTP-RFA and CO2-LS could effectively treat T1a glottic cancer, and LTP-RFA might have some advantages in voice function. Limited by the relatively small sample size, future studies were needed to validate our conclusion.
Laplace Functional Ordering of Point Processes in Large‐Scale Wireless Networks
Authors: Lee Junghoon , Tepedelenlioğlu Cihan
Published: November 2018

Stochastic orders on point processes are partial orders which capture notions like being larger or more variable. Laplace functional ordering of point processes is a useful stochastic order for comparing spatial deployments of wireless networks. It is shown that the ordering of point processes is preserved under independent operations such as marking, thinning, clustering, superposition, and random translation. Laplace functional ordering can be used to establish comparisons of several performance metrics such as coverage probability, achievable rate, and resource allocation even when closed form expressions of such metrics are unavailable. Applications in several network scenarios are also provided where tradeoffs between coverage and interference as well as fairness and peakyness are studied. Monte‐Carlo simulations are used to supplement our analytical results.
Removal of Solids from Palm Oil Mill Effluent and Paint Wastewater Using Electrocoagulation Technique
Authors: Nwabanne Joseph Tagbo , Oguegbu Ozioma Onyinye , Agu Chinedu Matthew
Published: November 2018

Electrocoagulation has been employed as a treatment technique for treating various wastewaters. This study focuses on the performance of electrocoagulation process for the treatment of Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) and Paint Wastewater (PW) using iron electrodes. POME obtained from local palm oil producers and PW from a paint industry, both in Enugu state of Nigeria, were treated by electrocoagulation using two iron electrodes. Effects of current density, electrocoagulation time, pH, and temperature were studied. Results revealed that this process could reduce the concentration of Total Suspended and Dissolved Solids (TSDP), in both POME and PW. The highest removal efficiencies of 65% and 76% were obtained for POME and PW, respectively, at 3 Amps, 60min, pH of 10, and 50°C for POME and 3 Amps, 60min, pH of 6, and 60°C for PW. Of the two kinetic models studied, second-order kinetic model fitted best to the obtained experimental kinetic data. From this study, it can be concluded that electrocoagulation is effective in the treatment of POME and PW.
An Effective Soft‐Sensor Method Based on Belief‐Rule‐Base and Differential Evolution for Tipping Paper Permeability Measurement
Authors: Hu Rong , Zhang Qinli , Qian Bin , Chang Leilei , Zhou Zhijie
Published: November 2018

The current paper presents a soft‐sensor method based on belief‐rule‐base (BRB) system for solving the problem of tipping paper permeability measurement in the tobacco industry. Firstly, BRB is utilized to establish a model between the feature variables in the tipping paper image and the corresponding paper permeability obtained by the traditional measuring device. Unlike the traditional case of BRB, this paper adds the output attribute as the optimization parameters. In this way, the feasible solution space can be enlarged to obtain an effective BRB model. Second, in order to find the reasonable parameters of BRB in a complex nonconvex solution space, an enhanced differential evolutionary (DE) algorithm is developed to train BRB, which not only embeds a simplex method to stress the balance between the global and local search but also designs a perturbation operation and an adaptively selected mutation strategy to maintain the diversity of search direction. The test results and comparisons based on the data collected from a cigarette factory in China show that the presented method is effective and robust.
Vangueria madagascariensisFruit Tree: Nutritional, Phytochemical, Pharmacological, and Primary Health Care Applications as Herbal Medicine
Authors: Maroyi Alfred
Published: November 2018

Vangueria madagascariensisJ. F. Gmel. is a plant species regarded as an important fruit tree and medicinal plant in sub-Saharan Africa. This study critically reviewed the nutritional value, phytochemistry, medicinal uses, and pharmacological properties ofV. madagascariensis. Relevant information on food and medicinal uses of the species was collected from electronic databases such as ISI Web of Knowledge, ProQuest, ScienceDirect, OATD, Scopus, OpenThesis, PubMed, and Google Scholar, and preelectronic literatures were obtained from the university library covering the period 1966 to 2018. Literature studies revealed thatV. madagascariensishas been integrated into farming systems as a fruit tree to support income and nutritional security of households in the region.Vangueria madagascariensisis used as a herbal medicine against diabetes, gastrointestinal problems, malaria, pain, parasitic worms, and skin diseases. Phytochemical compounds identified from the species include alcohols, aldehydes, esters, furanoids, ketones, and terpenoids. Pharmacological studies revealed thatV. madagascariensisextracts have antibacterial, anticonvulsant, antidiabetic, antifungal, anti-inﬂammatory, antioxidant, cytotoxicity, antimalarial, and antiplasmodial properties.Vangueria madagascariensisshould be subjected to detailed nutritional, pharmacological, and toxicological evaluations aimed at correlating the traditional uses of the species and the scientific evidence as well as establishing the efficacy, clinical relevance, safety, and mechanisms of action of the plant extracts and compounds.
Complexities in Financial Network Topological Dynamics: Modeling of Emerging and Developed Stock Markets
Authors: Tang Yong , Xiong Jason Jie , Jia Zi-Yang , Zhang Yi-Cheng
Published: November 2018

Policy makings and regulations of financial markets rely on a good understanding of the complexity of financial markets. There have been recent advances in applying data‐driven science and network theory into the studies of social and financial systems. Financial assets and institutions are strongly connected and influence each other. It is essential to study how the topological structures of financial networks could potentially influence market behaviors. Network analysis is an innovative method to enhance data mining and knowledge discovery in financial data. With the help of complex network theory, the topological network structures of a market can be extracted to reveal hidden information and relationships among stocks. In this study, two major markets of the most influential economies, China and the United States, are systematically studied from the perspective of financial network analysis. Results suggest that the network properties and hierarchical structures are fundamentally different for the two stock markets. The patterns embedded in the price movements are revealed and shed light on the market dynamics. Financial policymakers and regulators can gain inspiration from these findings for applications in policy making, regulations design, portfolio management, risk management, and trading.
Terrain Adaptive Estimation of Instantaneous Centres of Rotation for Tracked Robots
Authors: Wang Cuifeng , Lv Wenjun , Li Xiaochuan , Mei Mingliang
Published: November 2018

As a type of skid‐steering mobile robot, the tracked robot suffers from inevitable slippage, which results in an imprecise kinematics model and a degradation of performance during navigation. Compared with the traditional robot, the kinematics model is able to reflect the influences of slippage through the introduction of instantaneous centres of rotation (ICRs). However, ICRs cannot be measured directly and are time‐varying with terrain variation, and thus, here, we aim to develop an online estimation method to acquire the ICRs of a robot by means of data fusion technologies. First, an innovation‐based extended Kalman filter (IEKF) is employed to fuse the readings from two incremental encoders and a GPS‐compass integrated sensor, to provide a real‐time ICR estimation. Second, a decision tree‐based learning system is used to classify the terrains that the robot traverses, according to the vibration signals gathered by an accelerometer. The results of this terrain classification are improved via a Bayesian filter, by utilizing temporal correlation in the terrain time series. Third, the performances of the ICR estimation and terrain classification are mutually promoted. On one hand, terrain variation is detected with the aid of the terrain classification, and therefore, the process noise variance of IEKF can be automatically adjusted. Hence, the results of ICR estimation are smooth if the terrain does not change and converge rapidly upon terrain variation. On the other hand, the sudden changes in innovation are used to adjust the state transition probability during the recursive calculation of the Bayesian filter, thus increasing the accuracy of the terrain classification. A real‐world experiment was undertaken on a tracked robot to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. It is also demonstrated that the terrain adaptive odometry outperforms the traditional approach with the knowledge of ICRs.
Multilayer Hybrid Deep-Learning Method for Waste Classification and Recycling
Authors: Chu Yinghao , Huang Chen , Xie Xiaodan , Tan Bohai , Kamal Shyam , Xiong Xiaogang
Published: November 2018

This study proposes a multilayer hybrid deep-learning system (MHS) to automatically sort waste disposed of by individuals in the urban public area. This system deploys a high-resolution camera to capture waste image and sensors to detect other useful feature information. The MHS uses a CNN-based algorithm to extract image features and a multilayer perceptrons (MLP) method to consolidate image features and other feature information to classify wastes as recyclable or the others. The MHS is trained and validated against the manually labelled items, achieving overall classification accuracy higher than 90% under two different testing scenarios, which significantly outperforms a reference CNN-based method relying on image-only inputs.
Review on Cement Stabilization/Solidification of Municipal Solid Waste Incineration Fly Ash
Authors: Fan Chengcheng , Wang Baomin , Zhang Tingting
Published: November 2018

Municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) fly ash must be treated properly prior to being disposed in the security landfill due to its serious pollution toxicity. Nowadays, lots of studies have demonstrated that cement‐based stabilization/solidification could reduce the toxicity pollution effectively by encapsulating the heavy metals into cement matrix, which leads to greater capacity and weight. This paper compares and discusses the MSWI fly ash treatment with the mostly used matrix materials such as Portland cement, phosphate cement, aluminate cement, and alkaline activated cement. Moreover, immobilization mechanism introduced by the interaction between the MSWI fly ash and hydrated cement matrix materials, such as the physical cementing effect, adsorption, isomorphous replacement, and complex precipitation, was explored in depth. The paper also pointed out some reasonable development directions for cement‐based stabilization/solidification technology to improve the effectiveness and application of cement‐based stabilization/solidification technology.
Influence of Strain and Stress Triaxiality on the Fracture Behavior of GB 35CrMo Steel during Hot Tensile Testing
Authors: Li Zheng , Zhou Yajun , Wang Sanxing
Published: November 2018

To better understand cavitation nucleation and crack initiation in 35CrMo steel during high‐temperature tensile processing and the effect of stress triaxiality on its fracture behaviors, uniaxial and notch high‐temperature tensile tests were performed. The microstructure, fracture morphology, fracture strain, and stress triaxiality of the tested 35CrMo steel were then characterized and discussed. The results showed that crack formation in 35CrMo steel included stages of nucleation, growth, and microcavity aggregation. Scanning electron microscopy and energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy demonstrated that crack formation was closely related to the presence of steel inclusions. High‐temperature tensile testing of samples with different notch radii showed that the fracture strain of 35CrMo steel was decreased with increasing stress triaxiality, that is, increased stress levels corresponded to decreased material plasticity. In addition, the recrystallization degree was decreased with increased stress triaxiality, and the grain size growth was slowed. The failure of 35CrMo steel occurred via ductile fracture, and low stress triaxiality, and high temperature conditions induced large and deep dimples on the fracture surface.
Sex-Associated Differential mRNA Expression of Cytokines and Its Regulation by Sex Steroids in Different Brain Regions in aPlasmodium bergheiANKA Model of Cerebral Malaria
Authors: Legorreta-Herrera Martha , Nava-Castro Karen E. , Palacios-Arreola Margarita I. , Hernández-Cervantes Rosalía , Aguilar-Castro Jesús , Cervantes-Candelas Luis A. , Morales-Montor Jorge
Published: November 2018

Cerebral malaria (CM) is the major complication associated with death in malaria patients, and its pathogenesis is associated with excessive proinflammatory cytokine production. Notably, the severity and mortality of natural infections withPlasmodiumare higher in males than females, suggesting that sexual hormones influence both the pathogenesis of and immune response in CM. However, no studies on inflammation mediators in the brains of both sexes have been reported. In this work, the mRNA expression levels of the proinflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IFN-γ, TNF-α, and IL-2 were measured in the preoptic area, hypothalamus, hippocampus, olfactory bulb, frontal cortex, and lateral cortex regions of gonadectomized female and male CBA/Ca mice infected withP. bergheiANKA (a recognized experimental CM model). Our findings demonstrate that both infection withP. bergheiANKA and gonadectomy trigger a cerebral sex dimorphic mRNA expression pattern of the cytokines IL-1β, TNF-α, IFN-γ, and IL-2. This dimorphic cytokine pattern was different in each brain region analysed. In most cases, infected males exhibited higher mRNA expression levels than females, suggesting that sexual hormones differentially regulate the mRNA expression of proinflammatory cytokines in the brain and the potential use of gonadal steroids or their derivates in the immunomodulation of cerebral malaria.
Prevalence and Associated Factors of Perinatal Asphyxia among Neonates in General Hospitals of Tigray, Ethiopia, 2018
Authors: Gebreheat Gdiom , Tsegay Tesfay , Kiros Dessalegn , Teame Hirut , Etsay Natnael , Welu Guesh , Abraha Desta
Published: November 2018

Perinatal asphyxia is one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality in neonates. Perinatal asphyxia occurs in association with maternal, fetal, and maternofetal factors. However, the magnitude and associated factors of perinatal asphyxia are not well studied in Tigray, Ethiopia. Therefore, our study is conducted to determine the prevalence and factors associated with perinatal asphyxia among neonates in general hospitals of Tigray. An observational hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted in randomly selected general hospitals. A semistructured questionnaire was used to collect data from 421 randomly selected neonates with their mothers and medical records. The data was entered into epidata version 3.5 and exported to Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 for analysis. Finally, the presence of an association between a dependent variable and an independent variables has been declared at P-value ≤0.05, or adjusted odds ratio (AOR), 95% confidence interval (CI). Accordingly, the result of this study showed that the prevalence of perinatal asphyxia among the selected general hospitals was 22.1%. Neonates born with cesarean section are seven times more likely to have perinatal asphyxia than those who are born spontaneously through the vagina (AOR, 6.97; CI (2.87-16.93)). In addition, neonates who are born meconium stained are 8.55 times more likely to have perinatal asphyxia than those who had not stained with meconium (AOR, 8.55; CI (4.20-17.39)). Neonates who are weighed less than 2.5 kg are 12.75 times more likely to have perinatal asphyxia than those who are weighed 2.5-4 kg (AOR, 12.75; CI (4.05-40.08)). Prolonged duration of labour was also associated statistically with perinatal asphyxia (AOR, 3.33, CI (1.32-8.38)). In conclusion, the magnitude of perinatal asphyxia in general hospitals of Tigray remains high. Low birth weight, meconium-stained amniotic fluid, cesarean section, and prolonged maternal labour have been associated with perinatal asphyxia.
Does Competence Determine Who Leads in a Dyadic Cooperative Task? A Study of Children with and without a Neurodevelopmental Disorder
Authors: Vink Roy , Hasselman Fred , Cillessen Antonius H. N. , Wijnants Maarten L. , Bosman Anna M. T.
Published: November 2018

Cooperative learning is an effective means for the acquisition of academic performance. It is an established fact that collaborating members should be operating in one another’s zone of proximal development to attain optimal performance. One variable that plays an as‐yet unknown role in collaborative success is the leader‐follower distinction. In the present study, leading and following behavior was determined by assessing rhythmical coordination of postural sway in typically developing children (n = 183) and children with a neurodevelopmental disorder (n = 106). Postural sway was measured using Nintendo Wii Balance Boards, and dyads performed a tangram task while standing on these balance boards, with the number of puzzles solved correctly serving as the measure of task performance. Irrespective of task performance, there was a consistent pattern of leading and following in typically developing dyads: the higher‐ability child was in the lead. For children with a neurodevelopmental disorder, the pattern differed depending on task performance. While the patterns of low‐performing dyads were comparable to those of typically developing children, high‐performing dyads showed the opposite pattern; namely, the low‐ability dyad member was in the lead. For interactions with children with a neurodevelopmental disorder and a low‐level cognitive ability, it may be better to follow their lead, because it may result in better performance on their part.
How to Build a Patient-Specific Hybrid Simulator for Orthopaedic Open Surgery: Benefits and Limits of Mixed-Reality Using the Microsoft HoloLens
Authors: Condino Sara , Turini Giuseppe , Parchi Paolo D. , Viglialoro Rosanna M. , Piolanti Nicola , Gesi Marco , Ferrari Mauro , Ferrari Vincenzo
Published: November 2018

Orthopaedic simulators are popular in innovative surgical training programs, where trainees gain procedural experience in a safe and controlled environment. Recent studies suggest that an ideal simulator should combine haptic, visual, and audio technology to create an immersive training environment. This article explores the potentialities of mixed-reality using the HoloLens to develop a hybrid training system for orthopaedic open surgery. Hip arthroplasty, one of the most common orthopaedic procedures, was chosen as a benchmark to evaluate the proposed system. Patient-specific anatomical 3D models were extracted from a patient computed tomography to implement the virtual content and to fabricate the physical components of the simulator. Rapid prototyping was used to create synthetic bones. The Vuforia SDK was utilized to register virtual and physical contents. The Unity3D game engine was employed to develop the software allowing interactions with the virtual content using head movements, gestures, and voice commands. Quantitative tests were performed to estimate the accuracy of the system by evaluating the perceived position of augmented reality targets. Mean and maximum errors matched the requirements of the target application. Qualitative tests were carried out to evaluate workload and usability of the HoloLens for our orthopaedic simulator, considering visual and audio perception and interaction and ergonomics issues. The perceived overall workload was low, and the self-assessed performance was considered satisfactory. Visual and audio perception and gesture and voice interactions obtained a positive feedback. Postural discomfort and visual fatigue obtained a nonnegative evaluation for a simulation session of 40 minutes. These results encourage using mixed-reality to implement a hybrid simulator for orthopaedic open surgery. An optimal design of the simulation tasks and equipment setup is required to minimize the user discomfort. Future works will include Face Validity, Content Validity, and Construct Validity to complete the assessment of the hip arthroplasty simulator.
Optimal Synthesis of Four-Bar Linkage Path Generation through Evolutionary Computation with a Novel Constraint Handling Technique
Authors: Sleesongsom Suwin , Bureerat Sujin
Published: November 2018

This paper presents a novel constraint handling technique for optimum path generation of four-bar linkages using evolutionary algorithms (EAs). Usually, the design problem is assigned to minimize the error between desired and obtained coupler curves with penalty constraints. It is found that the currently used constraint handling technique is rather inefficient. In this work, we propose a new technique, termed a path repairing technique, to deal with the constraints for both input crank rotation and Grashof criterion. Three traditional path generation test problems are used to test the proposed technique. Metaheuristic algorithms, namely, artificial bee colony optimization (ABC), adaptive differential evolution with optional external archive (JADE), population-based incremental learning (PBIL), teaching-learning-based optimization (TLBO), real-code ant colony optimization (ACOR), a grey wolf optimizer (GWO), and a sine cosine algorithm (SCA), are applied for finding the optimum solutions. The results show that new technique is a superior constraint handling technique while TLBO is the best method for synthesizing four-bar linkages.