bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Low-Carbon Job Shop Scheduling Problem with Discrete Genetic-Grey Wolf Optimization Algorithm
Authors: Gu Jiuchun , Jiang Tianhua , Zhu Huiqi , Zhang Chao
Published: September 2019

The workshop scheduling has historically emphasized the production metrics without involving any environmental considerations. Low-carbon scheduling has attracted the attention of many researchers after the promotion of green manufacturing. In this paper, we investigate the low-carbon scheduling problem in a job shop environment. A mathematical model is first established with the objective to minimize the sum of energy-consumption cost and completion-time cost. A discrete genetic-grey wolf optimization algorithm (DGGWO) is developed to solve the problem in this study. According to the characteristics of the problem, a job-based encoding method is first employed. Then a heuristic approach and the random generation rule are combined to fulfill the population initialization. Based on the original GWO, a discrete individual updating method the crossover operation of the genetic algorithm is adopted to make the algorithm directly work in a discrete domain. Meanwhile, a mutation operator is adopted to enhance the population diversity and avoid the algorithm from getting trapped into the local optima. In addition, a variable neighborhood search is embedded to further improve the search ability. Finally, extensive simulations are conducted based on 43 benchmark instances. The experimental data demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can yield better results than the other published algorithms.
Copper Electroforming Optimization for Fused Deposition Modeling Produced ABS Components for Indirect Tooling Applications
Authors: Phull Gurpreet Singh , Kumar Sanjeev , Walia Ravinderjit Singh , Singh Harpinder
Published: September 2019

The market trends from last few decades have increased the pressure on development of the new products in minimum time. This can be supplemented with modification in the manufacturing processes for product development. Since last two decades, additive manufacturing (AM) also known as rapid prototyping has been used to produce components. The present work aims at optimization of thickness of deposition and surface finish of copper on Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) components produced by Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), which can be used for indirect tooling. The different process parameters such as Voltage, Concentration of Copper sulfate Solution (CSS) and deposition time are optimized. The experiment reveals that the best process parameters for maximum deposition rate gives a deposition rate of 0.19 mm/h. The surface roughness is found to be minimum at the lower values of the process parameters as 1.87 [Formula: see text]m. It has been observed that voltage (43.2%) and concentration of CSS (48.8%) significantly affect the deposition rate and for surface finish the concentration of CSS (69.59%) is the major contributor. The microstructure study of the deposited copper reveals a variation in the grain size from coarse to fine as the thickness of the deposited layer increases.
An Integrated Multi-Period Layout Planning and Scheduling Model for Sustainable Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems
Authors: Ghanei S. , AlGeddawy T.
Published: September 2019

In a dynamic production environment, not only the customer’s needs change with time, but the economic aspects of that environment, such as energy pricing, also change. Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (RMSs) are designed to respond to such changes by reconfiguring system components efficiently. This paper presents a novel mathematical model to maximize energy sustainability of RMS. The novelty aspect of the model is the consideration of energy sustainability concurrently with system configuration and scheduling decisions in each period of the planning horizon. The objective of this mixed integer linear model is to minimize the total cost of energy consumption, system reconfiguration, and part transportation between machines, depending on fluctuations of energy pricing and demand during different periods. Several case studies are solved by GAMS Software to illustrate the performance of the presented model and analyze its sensitivity to the volatility of energy pricing and demand to show their effect on system changeability. An efficient genetic algorithm (GA) has been developed to solve the model in larger scale due to its NP-hardness and compared to GAMS for validation. Results show that the presented GA finds near-optimal solutions in 70% shorter time than GAMS on average.
A Non-Dominant Sorting Genetic Algorithm for Optimization of a Product Design and Selection of Its Suppliers
Authors: Labbi Oulfa , Ahmadi Abdeslam , Ouzizi Latifa , Douimi Mohammed
Published: September 2019

The aim of this paper is to address the problem of supplier selection in a context of an integrated product design. Indeed, the product specificities and the suppliers’ constraints are both integrated into product design phase. We consider the case of improving the design of an existing product and study the selection of its suppliers adopting a bi-objective optimization approach. Considering multi-products, multi-suppliers and multi-periods, the mathematical model proposed aims to minimize supplying, transport and holding costs of product components as well as quality rejected items. To solve the bi-objective problem, an evolutionary algorithm namely, non-dominant sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) is employed. The algorithm provides a set of Pareto front solutions optimizing the two objective functions at once. Since parameters values of genetic algorithms have a significant impact on their efficiency, we have proposed to study the impact of each parameter on the fitness functions in order to determine the optimal combination of these parameters. Thus, a number of simulations evaluating the effects of crossover rate, mutation rate and number of generations on Pareto fronts are presented. To evaluate performance of the algorithm, results are compared to those obtained by the weighted sum method through a numerical experiment. According to the computational results, the non-dominant sorting genetic algorithm outperforms the CPLEX MIP solver in both solution quality and computational time.
Dynamical complexity and K-theory of Lp operator crossed products
Authors: Chung Yeong Chyuan
Published: September 2019

We apply quantitative (or controlled) [Formula: see text]-theory to prove that a certain [Formula: see text] assembly map is an isomorphism for [Formula: see text] when an action of a countable discrete group [Formula: see text] on a compact Hausdorff space [Formula: see text] has finite dynamical complexity. When [Formula: see text], this is a model for the Baum–Connes assembly map for [Formula: see text] with coefficients in [Formula: see text], and was shown to be an isomorphism by Guentner et al.
Leveraging Active Learning and Conditional Mutual Information to Minimize Data Annotation in Human Activity Recognition
Authors: Adaimi Rebecca , Thomaz Edison
Published: September 2019

A difficulty in human activity recognition (HAR) with wearable sensors is the acquisition of large amounts of annotated data for training models using supervised learning approaches. While collecting raw sensor data has been made easier with advances in mobile sensing and computing, the process of data annotation remains a time-consuming and onerous process. This paper explores active learning as a way to minimize the labor-intensive task of labeling data. We train models with active learning in both offline and online settings with data from 4 publicly available activity recognition datasets and show that it performs comparably to or better than supervised methods while using around 10% of the training data. Moreover, we introduce a method based on conditional mutual information for determining when to stop the active learning process while maximizing recognition performance. This is an important issue that arises in practice when applying active learning to unlabeled datasets.
EduSense
Authors: Ahuja Karan , Kim Dohyun , Xhakaj Franceska , Varga Virag , Xie Anne , Zhang Stanley , Townsend Jay Eric , Harrison Chris , Ogan Amy , Agarwal Yuvraj
Published: September 2019

Providing university teachers with high-quality opportunities for professional development cannot happen without data about the classroom environment. Currently, the most effective mechanism is for an expert to observe one or more lectures and provide personalized formative feedback to the instructor. Of course, this is expensive and unscalable, and perhaps most critically, precludes a continuous learning feedback loop for the instructor. In this paper, we present the culmination of two years of research and development on EduSense, a comprehensive sensing system that produces a plethora of theoretically-motivated visual and audio features correlated with effective instruction, which could feed professional development tools in much the same way as a Fitbit sensor reports step count to an end user app. Although previous systems have demonstrated some of our features in isolation, EduSense is the first to unify them into a cohesive, real-time, in-the-wild evaluated, and practically-deployable system. Our two studies quantify where contemporary machine learning techniques are robust, and where they fall short, illuminating where future work remains to bring the vision of automated classroom analytics to reality.
Prediction of Mood Instability with Passive Sensing
Authors: Morshed Mehrab Bin , Saha Koustuv , Li Richard , D'Mello Sidney K. , De Choudhury Munmun , Abowd Gregory D. , Plötz Thomas
Published: September 2019

Mental health issues, which can be difficult to diagnose, are a growing concern worldwide. For effective care and support, early detection of mood-related health concerns is of paramount importance. Typically, survey based instruments including Ecologically Momentary Assessments (EMA) and Day Reconstruction Method (DRM) are the method of choice for assessing mood related health. While effective, these methods require some effort and thus both compliance rates as well as quality of responses can be limited. As an alternative, We present a study that used passively sensed data from smartphones and wearables and machine learning techniques to predict mood instabilities, an important aspect of mental health. We explored the effectiveness of the proposed method on two large-scale datasets, finding that as little as three weeks of continuous, passive recordings were sufficient to reliably predict mood instabilities.
Modeling Personality vs. Modeling Personalidad
Authors: Khwaja Mohammed , Vaid Sumer S. , Zannone Sara , Harari Gabriella M. , Faisal A. Aldo , Matic Aleksandar
Published: September 2019

Sensor data collected from smartphones provides the possibility to passively infer a user's personality traits. Such models can be used to enable technology personalization, while contributing to our substantive understanding of how human behavior manifests in daily life. A significant challenge in personality modeling involves improving the accuracy of personality inferences, however, research has yet to assess and consider the cultural impact of users' country of residence on model replicability. We collected mobile sensing data and self-reported Big Five traits from 166 participants (54 women and 112 men) recruited in five different countries (UK, Spain, Colombia, Peru, and Chile) for 3 weeks. We developed machine learning based personality models using culturally diverse datasets - representing different countries - and we show that such models can achieve state-of-the-art accuracy when tested in new countries, ranging from 63% (Agreeableness) to 71% (Extraversion) of classification accuracy. Our results indicate that using country-specific datasets can improve the classification accuracy between 3% and 7% for Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. We show that these findings hold regardless of gender and age balance in the dataset. Interestingly, using gender- or age- balanced datasets as well as gender-separated datasets improve trait prediction by up to 17%. We unpack differences in personality models across the five countries, highlight the most predictive data categories (location, noise, unlocks, accelerometer), and provide takeaways to technologists and social scientists interested in passive personality assessment.
Phyjama
Authors: Kiaghadi Ali , Homayounfar Seyedeh Zohreh , Gummeson Jeremy , Andrew Trisha , Ganesan Deepak
Published: September 2019

Unobtrusive and continuous monitoring of cardiac and respiratory rhythm, especially during sleeping, can have significant clinical utility. An exciting new possibility for such monitoring is the design of textiles that use all-textile sensors that can be woven or stitched directly into a textile or garment. Our work explores how we can make such monitoring possible by leveraging something that is already familiar, such as pyjama made of cotton/silk fabric, and imperceptibly adapt it to enable sensing of physiological signals to yield natural fitting, comfortable, and less obtrusive smart clothing.

We face several challenges in enabling this vision including requiring new sensor design to measure physiological signals via everyday textiles and new methods to deal with the inherent looseness of normal garments, particularly sleepwear like pyjamas. We design two types of textile-based sensors that obtain a ballistic signal due to cardiac and respiratory rhythm ---the first a novel resistive sensor that leverages pressure between the body and various surfaces and the second is a triboelectric sensor that leverages changes in separation between layers to measure ballistics induced by the heart. We then integrate several instances of such sensors on a pyjama and design a signal processing pipeline that fuses information from the different sensors such that we can robustly measure physiological signals across a range of sleep and stationary postures. We show that the sensor and signal processing pipeline has high accuracy by benchmarking performance both under restricted settings with twenty one users as well as more naturalistic settings with seven users.
Light Ears
Authors: Maiti Anindya , Jadliwala Murtuza
Published: September 2019

Modern Internet-enabled smart lights promise energy efficiency and many additional capabilities over traditional lamps. However, these connected lights also create a new attack surface, which can be maliciously used to violate users' privacy and security. In this paper, we design and evaluate novel attacks that take advantage of light emitted by modern smart bulbs, in order to infer users' private data and preferences. The first two attacks are designed to infer users' audio and video playback by a systematic observation and analysis of the multimedia-visualization functionality of smart light bulbs. The third attack utilizes the infrared capabilities of such smart light bulbs to create a covert-channel, which can be used as a gateway to exfiltrate user's private data out of their secured home or office network. A comprehensive evaluation of these attacks in various real-life settings confirms their feasibility and affirms the need for new privacy protection mechanisms.
Using Deep Learning and Mobile Offloading to Control a 3D-printed Prosthetic Hand
Authors: Shatilov Kirill A. , Chatzopoulos Dimitris , Hang Alex Wong Tat , Hui Pan
Published: September 2019

Although many children are born with congenital limb malformation, contemporary functional artificial hands are costly and are not meant to be adapted to growing hand. In this work, we develop a low cost, adaptable and personalizable system of an artificial prosthetic hand accompanied with hardware and software modules. Our solution consists of (i) a consumer grade electromyography (EMG) recording hardware, (ii) a mobile companion device empowered by deep learning classification algorithms, (iii) an cloud component for offloading computations, and (iv) mechanical 3D printed arm operated by the embedded hardware. We focus on the flexibility of the designed system making it more affordable than the alternatives. We use 3D printed materials and open-source software thus enabling the community to contribute and improve the system. In this paper, we describe the proposed system and its components and present the experiments we conducted in order to show the feasibility and applicability of our approach. Extended experimentation shows that our proposal is energy efficient and has high accuracy.
VLA
Authors: Shen Meng , Liao Zelin , Zhu Liehuang , Xu Ke , Du Xiaojiang
Published: September 2019

Adversarial example attacks have become a growing menace to neural network-based face recognition systems. Generated by composing facial images with pixel-level perturbations, adversarial examples change key features of inputs and thereby lead to misclassification of neural networks. However, the perturbation loss caused by complex physical environments sometimes prevents existing attack methods from taking effect.

In this paper, we focus on designing new attacks that are effective and inconspicuous in the physical world. Motivated by the differences in image-forming principles between cameras and human eyes, we propose VLA, a novel attack against black-box face recognition systems using visible light. In VLA, visible light-based adversarial perturbations are crafted and projected on human faces, which allows an adversary to conduct targeted or un-targeted attacks. VLA decomposes adversarial perturbations into a perturbation frame and a concealing frame, where the former adds modifications on human facial images while the latter makes these modifications inconspicuous to human eyes. We conduct extensive experiments to demonstrate the effectiveness, inconspicuousness, and robustness of the adversarial examples crafted by VLA in physical scenarios.
Enhancing Augmented VR Interaction via Egocentric Scene Analysis
Authors: Tian Yang , Fu Chi-Wing , Zhao Shengdong , Li Ruihui , Tang Xiao , Hu Xiaowei , Heng Pheng-Ann
Published: September 2019

Augmented virtual reality (AVR) takes portions of the physical world into the VR world to enable VR users to access physical objects. State-of-the-art solutions mainly focus on extracting and showing physical objects in the VR world. In this work, we go beyond previous solutions and propose a novel approach to realize AVR. We first analyze the physical environment in the user's egocentric view through depth sensing and deep learning, then acquire the layout and geometry of the surrounding objects, and further explore their affordances. Based on the above information, we create visual guidance (hollowed guiding path) and hybrid user interfaces (augmented physical notepad, LR finger slider, and LRRL finger slider) to augment the AVR interaction. Empirical evaluations showed that the participants responded positively to our AVR techniques.
SoberComm
Authors: You Chuang-Wen , Chuang Yaliang , Lin Hung-Yeh , Tsai Jui-Ting , Huang Yi-Ching , Kuo Chia-Hua , Huang Ming-Chyi , Wu Shan Jean , Liu Frank Wencheng , Hsu Jane Yung-Jen , Wu Hui-Ching
Published: September 2019

This paper reports on the development of a mobile support system (called SoberComm) aimed at facilitating the sharing of alcohol-use data between patients and their family members, while providing treatment teams with the data necessary to make constructive suggestions concerning inter-family communications. We began by conducting a pilot study to identify salient themes, which could be used to guide the overall design of the system. We then conducted an iterative development process involving the prototyping and evaluation of user interfaces using medium-fidelity wireframes. The final high-fidelity design was used in the practical implementation of SoberComm in a two-week field study involving nine dyads of alcohol dependent patients and their family members. Results demonstrate that SoberComm makes it easier for patients to refuse alcohol and deal with many of the issues underlying the difficulties they face. Responses collected via qualitative interviews also provided qualitative evidence that the proposed system can enhance problem-solving skills and facilitate communication between alcohol-dependent patients and their family members.
CellTrans
Authors: Zhao Yi , Wang Xu , Li Jianbo , Zhang Desheng , Yang Zheng
Published: September 2019

Understanding citizens' main transportation modes at urban scale is beneficial to a range of applications, such as urban planning, user profiling, transportation management, and precision marketing. Previous methods on mode inference are mostly focused on utilizing GPS data with high spatiotemporal granularity. However, due to high costs of GPS data collection, the previous work typically is in small scales. In contrast, the cellular data logging interactions between cellphone users and cell towers cover much higher population given the ubiquity of cellphones. Nevertheless, utilizing cellular data introduces new challenges given their low spatiotemporal granularity compared to GPS data. In this paper, we design CellTrans, a novel framework to survey users' main transportation modes (public transportation or private car) at urban scale with cellular data. CellTrans extracts various mobility features that are pertinent to users' main transportation modes and presents solutions for different application scenarios including when there are no labeled users in the studied cities. We evaluate CellTrans on two real-world large-scale cellular datasets covering 3 million users, among which 2,589 users are with labels. We assess our method not only quantitatively with labeled users, but also qualitatively with the whole population. The experiments show that CellTrans infers users' main transportation modes with accuracy over 80% (with a performance gain of 20% compared to state-of-the-art), and CellTrans remains effective when applied at urban scale to the whole population.
Standard Deviations: The Biological Bases of Transmission Ratio Distortion
Authors: Fishman Lila , McIntosh Mariah
Published: September 2019

The rule of Mendelian inheritance is remarkably robust, but deviations from the equal transmission of alternative alleles at a locus [a.k.a. transmission ratio distortion (TRD)] are also commonly observed in genetic mapping populations. Such TRD reveals locus-specific selection acting at some point between the diploid heterozygous parents and progeny genotyping and therefore can provide novel insight into otherwise-hidden genetic and evolutionary processes. Most of the classic selfish genetic elements were discovered through their biasing of transmission, but many unselfish evolutionary and developmental processes can also generate TRD. In this review, we describe methodologies for detecting TRD in mapping populations, detail the arenas and genetic interactions that shape TRD during plant and animal reproduction, and summarize patterns of TRD from across the genetic mapping literature. Finally, we point to new experimental approaches that can accelerate both detection of TRD and characterization of the underlying genetic mechanisms.
Climate-Driven Shifts in Marine Species Ranges: Scaling from Organisms to Communities
Authors: Pinsky Malin L. , Selden Rebecca L. , Kitchel Zoë J.
Published: September 2019

The geographic distributions of marine species are changing rapidly, with leading range edges following climate poleward, deeper, and in other directions and trailing range edges often contracting in similar directions. These shifts have their roots in fine-scale interactions between organisms and their environment—including mosaics and gradients of temperature and oxygen—mediated by physiology, behavior, evolution, dispersal, and species interactions. These shifts reassemble food webs and can have dramatic consequences. Compared with species on land, marine species are more sensitive to changing climate but have a greater capacity for colonization. These differences suggest that species cope with climate change at different spatial scales in the two realms and that range shifts across wide spatial scales are a key mechanism at sea. Additional research is needed to understand how processes interact to promote or constrain range shifts, how the dominant responses vary among species, and how the emergent communities of the future ocean will function.
Multiple Roles of c-di-GMP Signaling in Bacterial Pathogenesis
Authors: Valentini Martina , Filloux Alain
Published: September 2019

The intracellular signaling molecule cyclic di-GMP (c-di-GMP) regulates the lifestyle of bacteria and controls many key functions and mechanisms. In the case of bacterial pathogens, a wide variety of virulence lifestyle factors have been shown to be regulated by c-di-GMP. Evidence of the importance of this molecule for bacterial pathogenesis has become so great that new antimicrobial agents are tested for their capacity of targeting c-di-GMP signaling. This review summarizes the current knowledge on this topic and reveals its application for the development of new antivirulence intervention strategies.
Coordination of the Cell Cycle in Trypanosomes
Authors: Wheeler Richard J. , Gull Keith , Sunter Jack D.
Published: September 2019

Trypanosomes have complex life cycles within which there are both proliferative and differentiation cell divisions. The coordination of the cell cycle to achieve these different divisions is critical for the parasite to infect both host and vector. From studying the regulation of the proliferative cell cycle of the Trypanosoma brucei procyclic life cycle stage, three subcycles emerge that control the duplication and segregation of ( a) the nucleus, ( b) the kinetoplast, and ( c) a set of cytoskeletal structures. We discuss how the clear dependency relationships within these subcycles, and the potential for cross talk between them, are likely required for overall cell cycle coordination. Finally, we look at the implications this interdependence has for proliferative and differentiation divisions through the T. brucei life cycle and in related parasitic trypanosomatid species.
Bacterial Persisters and Infection: Past, Present, and Progressing
Authors: Gollan Bridget , Grabe Grzegorz , Michaux Charlotte , Helaine Sophie
Published: September 2019

Persisters are nongrowing, transiently antibiotic-tolerant bacteria within a clonal population of otherwise susceptible cells. Their formation is triggered by environmental cues and involves the main bacterial stress response pathways that allow persisters to survive many harsh conditions, including antibiotic exposure. During infection, bacterial pathogens are exposed to a vast array of stresses in the host and form nongrowing persisters that survive both antibiotics and host immune responses, thereby most likely contributing to the relapse of many infections. While antibiotic persisters have been extensively studied over the last decade, the bulk of the work has focused on how these bacteria survive exposure to drugs in vitro. The ability of persisters to survive their interaction with a host is important yet underinvestigated. In order to tackle the problem of persistence of infections that contribute to the worldwide antibiotic resistance crisis, efforts should be made by scientific communities to understand and merge these two fields of research: antibiotic persisters and host-pathogen interactions. Here we give an overview of the history of the field of antibiotic persistence, report evidence for the importance of persisters in infection, and highlight studies that bridge the two areas.
Chromatic Acclimation in Cyanobacteria: A Diverse and Widespread Process for Optimizing Photosynthesis
Authors: Sanfilippo Joseph E. , Garczarek Laurence , Partensky Frédéric , Kehoe David M.
Published: September 2019

Chromatic acclimation (CA) encompasses a diverse set of molecular processes that involve the ability of cyanobacterial cells to sense ambient light colors and use this information to optimize photosynthetic light harvesting. The six known types of CA, which we propose naming CA1 through CA6, use a range of molecular mechanisms that likely evolved independently in distantly related lineages of the Cyanobacteria phylum. Together, these processes sense and respond to the majority of the photosynthetically relevant solar spectrum, suggesting that CA provides fitness advantages across a broad range of light color niches. The recent discoveries of several new CA types suggest that additional CA systems involving additional light colors and molecular mechanisms will be revealed in coming years. Here we provide a comprehensive overview of the currently known types of CA and summarize the molecular details that underpin CA regulation.
Signaling Cascades Governing Entry into and Exit from Host Cells by Toxoplasma gondii
Authors: Bisio Hugo , Soldati-Favre Dominique
Published: September 2019

The Apicomplexa phylum includes a large group of obligate intracellular protozoan parasites responsible for important diseases in humans and animals. Toxoplasma gondii is a widespread parasite with considerable versatility, and it is capable of infecting virtually any warm-blooded animal, including humans. This outstanding success can be attributed at least in part to an efficient and continuous sensing of the environment, with a ready-to-adapt strategy. This review updates the current understanding of the signals governing the lytic cycle of T. gondii, with particular focus on egress from infected cells, a key step for balancing survival, multiplication, and spreading in the host. We cover the recent advances in the conceptual framework of regulation of microneme exocytosis that ensures egress, motility, and invasion. Particular emphasis is given to the trigger molecules and signaling cascades regulating exit from host cells.
Paracrine crosstalk between intestinal L- and D-cells controls secretion of glucagon-like peptide-1 in mice
Authors: Jepsen Sara L. , Grunddal Kaare V. , Wewer Albrechtsen Nicolai J. , Engelstoft Maja S. , Gabe Maria B. N. , Jensen Elisa P. , Ørskov Cathrine , Poulsen Steen S. , Rosenkilde Mette M. , Pedersen Jens , Gribble Fiona M. , Reimann Frank , Deacon Carolyn F. , Schwartz Thue W. , Christ Andreas D. , Martin Rainer E. , Holst Jens J.
Published: September 2019

DPP-4 inhibitors, used for treatment of type 2 diabetes, act by increasing the concentrations of intact glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), but at the same time, they inhibit secretion of GLP-1, perhaps by a negative feedback mechanism. We hypothesized that GLP-1 secretion is feedback regulated by somatostatin (SS) from neighboring D-cells, and blocking this feedback circuit results in increased GLP-1 secretion. We used a wide range of experimental techniques, including gene expression analysis, immunohistochemical approaches, and the perfused mouse intestine to characterize the paracrine circuit controlling GLP-1 and SS. We show that 1) antagonizing the SS receptor (SSTr) 2 and SSTr5 led to increased GLP-1 and SS secretion in the mouse, 2) SS exhibits strong tonic inhibition of GLP-1 secretion preferentially through SSTr5, and 3) the secretion of S was GLP-1 receptor dependent. We conclude that SS is a tonic inhibitor of GLP-1 secretion, and interventions in the somatostain-GLP-1 paracrine loop lead to increased GLP-1 secretion.
Gender Differences in Long-Term Outcomes of Medical Therapy and Successful Percutaneous Coronary Intervention for Coronary Chronic Total Occlusions
Authors: Guo Lei , Lv Haichen , Zhong Lei , Wu Jian , Ding Huaiyu , Xu Jiaying , Huang Rongchong
Published: September 2019

Background. There is a paucity of information about the gender differences in clinical outcomes of successful percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) compared with medical therapy (MT) in patients with coronary chronic total occlusions (CTOs). Objectives. We aimed to investigate the impact of gender on long-term clinical outcomes associated with successful CTO-PCI versus MT in patients with CTOs. Methods. Between January 2007 and December 2016, a total of 1702 patients with ≥1 CTO were enrolled. After exclusion, 1294 patients with 1520 CTOs were analyzed and were divided into the female group (n = 304, 23.5%) and the male group (n = 990, 76.5%). The patients in the female or male group were assigned to a MT group or successful CTO-PCI group according to the treatment strategy. In the female group, they were divided into two groups: 177 patients in the MT group and 127 patients in the successful CTO-PCI group. In the male group, they were divided into two groups: 623 patients in the MT group and 367 patients in the successful CTO-PCI group. The primary outcome was cardiac death. The secondary outcome was major adverse cardiac event (MACE). Results. The median overall follow-up duration was 3.6 (IQR, 2.1–5.0) years, there were no significant differences between the MT and successful CTO-PCI groups with respect to the prevalence of cardiac death (MT vs. successful PCI: 6.8% vs. 3.9%, p=0.287) and MACE (20.9% vs. 21.3%, p=0.810) in female patients. In the male group, the occurrence of cardiac death (MT vs. successful PCI: 6.6% vs. 3.8%, p=0.066) was similar between the two groups. The MACE rate (30.0% vs. 18.5%, p<0.001) was significantly higher in the MT group. Heart failure (hazard ratio 3.40, 95% confidence interval 1.23–9.40, p=0.018) was an independent predictor of cardiac death in female patients. Conclusions. Successful CTO-PCI was not associated with reduced risk of cardiac death compared with medical therapy alone in both female and male patients. However, men have a significant reduction in MACE rate after successful CTO-PCI. Aggressive CTO-PCI should be considered carefully among female patients.
Three-Point Bending Fatigue Test of TiAl6V4 Titanium Alloy at Room Temperature
Authors: Belan Juraj , Kuchariková Lenka , Tillová Eva , Chalupová Mária
Published: September 2019

A polycrystalline alpha-beta TiAl6V4 alloy in the annealed condition was used for the three-point bending fatigue test at frequencyf∼100 Hz. The static preloadFstat. = −15 kN and variable dynamic forceFdyn. = −7 kN to −13.5 kN were set as fatigue test loading parameters. The fatigue life S-N curve presented the stress amplitudeσaas a function of a number of cycles to fractureNf. A limiting number of cycles to run out of 2.0 × 107cycles were chosen for the 3-point fatigue tests of rectangular specimens. In addition, the Smith diagram was used to predict the fatigue life. The alpha lamellae width has a significant influence on fatigue life. It is assumed that the increasing width of alpha lamellae decreases fatigue life. A comparison of fatigue results with given alpha lamellae width in our material to the results of other researchers was performed. The SEM fractography was performed with an accent to reveal the initiation sites of crack at low and high load stresses and mechanism of crack propagation for the fatigue part of fracture.
A Novel Cost-Effective Technique for Speedy Resolution of Infantile Umbilical Hernia: Ammannaya’s Technique
Authors: Ammannaya Ganesh Kumar K. , Sripad Ninada
Published: September 2019

Umbilical hernia in the infant is common and resolves in majority of the cases by 6 years of age. Observation till this age and surgery in the event of persistence are the widely followed management strategies. Trusses, taping, and adhesive strapping have been tried to achieve speedy resolution with variable success and a significant incidence of skin complications. We present a novel, simple, easily reproducible, and highly cost-effective technique to achieve complete resolution of infantile umbilical hernia in a span of 8 weeks, with no skin complications.
Spanish Transcultural Adaptation of the Activity Card Sort
Authors: Alegre-Muelas Cristina , Alegre-Ayala Jorge , Huertas-Hoyas Elisabet , Martínez-Piédrola MªRosa , Pérez-Corrales Jorge , Máximo-Bocanegra Nuria , Sánchez-Camarero Carlos , Pérez-de-Heredia-Torres Marta
Published: September 2019

The Activity Card Sort (ACS) measures the level of participation, as perceived by each person which, unlike other scales, makes it both personal and significant. However, there is a limitation to applying the ACS to Spanish older adults as it is restricted to culturally relevant activities solely in the United States. Therefore, the aim of this study was to select activity items that reflected Spanish older adults’ lifestyles in order to develop the Activity Card Sort-Spain Version (ACS-SP). Frequently, activities performed in Spain (n=103) were listed in an initial draft. The Likert scale was administrated to a large group of Spanish nationals over the age of 60 years (n=98) to establish which type of activities will be eventually included in the Spanish version. The final version was drawn up comprising 79 activities distributed between four performance areas. In addition, other activities that were not previously included by other assessment tools were considered and have been listed in this review, such as taking a nap, going out for a drink or “tapas,” or searching for a job. The gradual adaptation to ACS for Spaniards will make it possible to measure the level of an individual’s participation within a community. However, further work on psychometric properties is needed.
Study on Quantitative Sewage Blowing-Off and Real-Time Sewage Level Detection of Submarine Storage Tank
Authors: Yang Kai , Liao Yide , Chen Xubing , Yang Xiaodong
Published: September 2019

Aiming at the problems of huge exhaust noise and air bubbles caused by sewage blowing-off at an inappropriate time for a submarine ST, a sewage level detection system is designed, which can detect in real-time the sewage level using a weighing sensor to achieve quantitative sewage blowing-off. Therefore, the theoretical analysis of the sewage blowing-off is carried out, and the process of the sewage blowing-off is simulated by a VOF model of Fluent. From the simulation, the gas-liquid volume distribution diagram, the volume curve of the sewage, and the flow rate curve of the outlet sewage are obtained. Furthermore, the installation and detection method of the weighing sensor are described in detail. Finally, an experimental test system for simulating the sewage blowing-off is established, and an ultrasonic liquid level sensor, capacitance level sensor, and weighing sensor are tested. By comparing the effects of the three sensors, the result shows that the weighing sensor is the most effective for real-time sewage level detection during the process of sewage blowing-off and can effectively reduce the exhaust noise of the sewage blowing-off system.
Ultrasonic-Assisted Synthesis, Characterization, and Photocatalytic Application of SiO2@TiO2 Core-Shell Nanocomposite Particles
Authors: Bahadur Newaz Mohammed , Chowdhury Farhana , Obaidullah Md. , Hossain Md. Shahadat , Rashid Rumana , Akter Yeasmin , Furusawa Takeshi , Sato Masahide , Suzuki Noboru
Published: September 2019

In this study, we report the synthesis of SiO2@TiO2 core-shell nanocomposite particles by ultrasound irradiation of a mixture of dispersed SiO2 nanoparticles, titanium-tetra-n-butoxide (TBOT), and ammonia in an ethanol-water solution medium. The resulting core-shell nanocomposite particles were characterized by SEM, TEM, FT-IR, XPS, XRF, zeta potential measurements, XRD, and UV-visible spectroscopy. Results showed that TiO2 nanoparticles coated on the surface of SiO2 were 6–10 nm in size and retained an anatase crystalline phase. Zeta potential measurements confirmed that the surface property of the SiO2 changed after TiO2 coating. SiO2@TiO2 core-shell particles demonstrated better decolorization of methylene blue dye compared to commercial TiO2 in aqueous solution under UV light. After treatment, the catalysts were separated with low-speed centrifugation and successfully reused four times without loss of activity. This study may provide some inspiration for the synthesis of other metal oxide-metal oxide core-shell nanocomposite materials through ultrasound irradiation.
Pretreatment with AM1241 Enhances the Analgesic Effect of Intrathecally Administrated Mesenchymal Stem Cells
Authors: Xie Junran , Ren Jinxuan , Liu Na , Wu Chengwei , Xiao Dongju , Luo Huanyu , Du Jingxian
Published: September 2019

Mesenchymal stem cells have cannabinoid (CB) receptors type 1 and type 2 and can alleviate a variety of neuropathic pains, including chronic constriction injury (CCI). A selective CB2 receptor agonist is AM1241. In the present study, it was found that mice with CCI displayed a longer duration of mechanical and thermal analgesia when intrathecally (i.t.) injected with AM1241-treated mesenchymal stem cells, compared to those injected with untreated mesenchymal stem cells or AM1241 alone. Moreover, CCI-induced upregulation of the phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) 1/2 (p-ERK1/2) was inhibited following i.t. injection of AM1241-treated mesenchymal stem cells and this inhibition was noticeably higher compared to injection with untreated mesenchymal stem cells. The expression of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) was also analyzed in the dorsal root ganglion (DRGs) and spinal cord of CCI mice. In untreated CCI mice, expression of TGF-β1 was increased, whereas pretreatment with AM1241-treated mesenchymal stem cells regulated the expression of TGF-β1 on 10 days and 19 days after surgery. In addition, i.t. injection of exogenous TGF-β1 slightly alleviated neuropathic pain whilst neutralization of TGF-β1 potently blocked the effect of AM1241-treated mesenchymal stem cells on thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia of CCI mice. In an in vitro experiment, AM1241 could enhance the release of TGF-β1 in the supernatant of BMSCs after lipopolysaccharide (LPS) simulation. Taken together, the findings of the current study show that i.t. administration of AM1241-treated mesenchymal stem cells has a positive effect on analgesia and that TGF-β1 and p-ERK1/2 may be the molecular signaling pathway involved in this process.
Effect of Spices on the Formation of VOCs in Roasted Mutton Based on GC-MS and Principal Component Analysis
Authors: Xi Jiapei , Zhan Ping , Tian Honglei , Wang Peng
Published: September 2019

Peppertree prickly ash, Amomum tsao-ko, cumin, and ginger have long been used in Asian countries to modify the flavor and to partially neutralize any unpleasant odors present in roast lamb. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the change in the amount of volatile components present in roast lamb compared to meat added with peppertree prickly ash, Amomum tsao-ko, cumin, and ginger. Principal component analysis was carried out on the 27 initially selected from 88 volatile substances, and 15 substances with a projection of more than 0.25 in the load matrix were used as indicators to study the different contents in roasted mutton and lamb prepared by adding peppertree prickly ash, Amomum tsao-ko, cumin, and ginger. The types of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) detected in roast meat without adding spices were the least. Roast meat with the addition of cumin leads to the strongest content of aldehydes, followed by the addition of Amomum tsao-ko. Additionally, roast meat with the addition of Chinese prickly ash leads to the strongest content of terpenes, followed by the addition of ginger. Moreover, with the addition of spices, the content of volatiles responsible for the presence of a mutton odor (such as hexanal, heptanal, pentanal, (z)-4-decenal, benzaldehyde, p-propyl-anisole, and dimethyl ether) was not significantly decreased, and in fact some volatiles increased in amount such as pentanal, hexanal, octanal, and (z)-4-decenal. In conclusion, the effect of addition of spices on the volatile profile of roasted mutton and lamb can be attributed to the generation of flavor volatiles mainly derived from raw spices’ hot action, with few additional volatiles formed during boiling.
Salidroside Protects Dopaminergic Neurons by Enhancing PINK1/Parkin-Mediated Mitophagy
Authors: Li Ruru , Chen Jianzong
Published: September 2019

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease characterized by the degeneration of nigrostriatal dopaminergic (DA) neurons. Our previous studies have suggested that salidroside (Sal) might play neuroprotective effects against PD by preserving mitochondrial Complex I activity. However, the exact mechanism of the neuroprotective effect of Sal remains unclear. Growing evidence indicates that PINK1/Parkin-mediated mitophagy is involved in the development of PD. In this study, we investigated whether Sal exerts a neuroprotective effect by modulating PINK1/Parkin-mediated mitophagy. Results showed that Sal alleviated MPTP-induced motor deficits in pole test. Moreover, Sal diminished MPTP-induced degeneration of nigrostriatal DA neurons as evidenced by upregulated TH-positive neurons in the substantia nigra, increased DAT expression, and high dopamine and metabolite levels in the striatum. Furthermore, in comparison with the MPP+/MPTP group, Sal considerably increased the mitophagosome and mitophagy flux. Moreover, in comparison with the MPP+/MPTP group, Sal evidently enhanced the mitochondrial expression of PINK1 and Parkin, accompanied by an increase in the colocalization of mitochondria with Parkin. However, transfection of MN9D cells with PINK1 siRNA reversed Sal-induced activated mitophagy and cytoprotective effect. In conclusion, Sal may confer neuroprotective effects by enhancing PINK1/Parkin-mediated mitophagy in MPP+/MPTP-induced PD models.
A presença da mulher ateniense no comércio
Authors: Porfirio Aline
Published: September 2019

Pensar na mulher na antiguidade grega é sempre associá-la à imagem de mulher dedicada ao espaço familiar, essa imagem é a da chamada mélissai, a mulher “cidadã”. Porém não é somente essa mulher que nos é mostrada na cultura material. A partir da observação da iconografia vascular, presente em vasos cerâmicos, é possível notar a presença de mulheres em contextos não-domésticos, como por exemplo no comércio. Tendo esses vasos como fonte e utilizando-se do estudo de gênero de forma que contemple as mulheres como sendo um grupo heterogêneo, esse artigo tem como objetivo observar a maneira pela qual essa iconografia é capaz de revelar a presença feminina em atividades comerciais fora do oikos.
O Bombardeio do Camboja (1969-1973)
Authors: Arbage Jorge
Published: September 2019

Desde o fim do regime do Khmer Vermelho sobre o Camboja em janeiro de 1979, inúmeras obras se debruçaram sobre o tema, eventualmente moldando o pensamento a respeito desse regime e da relação de sua ascensão com o contexto da Guerra do Vietnã e do bombardeio americano. Muitos desses estudos focaram no papel de Nixon e Kissinger, atribuindo a ambos (e aos Estados Unidos) a responsabilidade pela ascensão e modus operandi do Khmer Vermelho. Este artigo é uma tentativa de oferecer uma outra perspectiva a respeito da questão: busca explicar como e porque os Estados Unidos bombardearam o Camboja entre 1969 e 1973, qual o objetivo da operação e quais os impactos disto na ascensão do Khmer Vermelho.