bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Doctors’ perception of support and the processes involved in complaints investigations and how these relate to welfare and defensive practice: a cross-sectional survey of the UK physicians
Authors: Bourne Tom , De Cock Bavo , Wynants Laure , Peters Mike , Van Audenhove Chantal , Timmerman Dirk , Van Calster Ben , Jalmbrant Maria
Published: November 2017

Objective

How adverse outcomes and complaints are managed may significantly impact on physician well-being and practice. We aimed to investigate how depression, anxiety and defensive medical practice are associated with doctors actual and perceived support, behaviour of colleagues and process issues regarding how complaints investigations are carried out.

Design

A survey study. Respondents were classified into three groups: no complaint, recent/current complaint (within 6 months) or past complaint. Each group completed specific surveys.

Setting

British Medical Association (BMA) members were invited to complete an online survey.

Participants

95 636 members of the BMA were asked to participate. 7926 (8.3%) completed the survey, of whom 1780 (22.5%) had no complaint, 3889 (49.1%) had a past complaint and 2257 (28.5%) had a recent/current complaint. We excluded those with no complaints leaving 6144 in the final sample.

Primary outcomes measures

We measured anxiety and depression using the Generalised Anxiety Disorder Scale 7 and Physical Health Questionnaire 9. Defensive practice was assessed using a new measure for avoidance and hedging.

Results

Most felt supported by colleagues (61%), only 31% felt supported by management. Not following process (56%), protracted timescales (78%), vexatious complaints (49%), feeling bullied (39%) or victimised for whistleblowing (20%), and using complaints to undermine (31%) were reported. Perceived support by management (relative risk (RR) depression: 0.77, 95% CI 0.71 to 0.83; RR anxiety: 0.80, 95% CI 0.74 to 0.87), speaking to colleagues (RR depression: 0.64, 95% CI 0.48 to 0.84 and RR anxiety: 0.69, 95% CI 0.51 to 0.94, respectively), fair/accurate documentation (RR depression: 0.80, 95% CI 0.75 to 0.86; RR anxiety: 0.81, 95% CI 0.75 to 0.87), and being informed about rights (RR depression 0.96 (0.89 to 1.03) and anxiety 0.94 (0.87 to 1.02), correlated positively with well-being and reduced defensive practice. Doctors worried most about professional humiliation following a complaint investigation (80%).

Conclusion

Poor process, prolonged timescales and vexatious use of complaints systems are associated with decreased psychological welfare and increased defensive practice. In contrast, perceived support from colleagues and management is associated with a reduction in these effects.
Improving the workflow of nursing assistants at a general hospital in Japan
Authors: Isono Hiroki , Suzuki Sayuri , Ogura Jun , Haruta Junji , Maeno Tetsuhiro
Published: November 2017

Transferring non-specialised tasks from registered nurses to nursing assistants may help registered nurses focus on specialised tasks. Optimising the workflow of nursing assistants by making their tasks more efficient may improve problems associated with the shortage of registered nurses. The nursing assistants at our hospital were stressed about referring inpatients to outpatient specialty clinics. Therefore, we initiated a project to optimise the referral process and reduce the time spent by nursing assistants on this task, with the collaboration of physicians, registered nurses and administrative assistants. The Training for Effective & Efficient Action in Medical Service–Better Process (TEAMS-BP) method, which was developed by modifying the Japanese Training Within Industry–Job Method, was used for the optimisation process. TEAMS-BP teaches users how to break each task down into its individual components, to scrutinise the details, and then to develop new processes by eliminating, combining, rearranging and simplifying tasks. At baseline, each referral took 10 min and was performed 39 times over 10 days in six wards. The first TEAMS-BP cycle did not yield satisfactory results for the nursing assistants. In the second TEAMS-BP cycle, participants included inpatient and outpatient physicians, registered nurses and administrative assistants. As a result, we changed the referral process from paper to electronic records and streamlined referrals that were ordered by inpatient physicians to outpatient physicians. The use of this method saved the equivalent of 175 hours of nursing assistants’ time per year at no additional cost. If we had been able to define the referral process as an interdisciplinary task and show the merits to each department from the beginning, we may have been able to form the interprofessional team in the first TEAMS-BP. Improving the efficiency of nursing assistants can allow other professionals to focus on their specialised tasks more effectively.
An easy, prompt and reproducible methodology to manage an unexpected increase of incident reports in surgery theatres
Authors: Moccia Adriana , Quattrin Rosanna , Battistella Claudio , Fabbro Elisa , Brusaferro Silvio
Published: November 2017

Objectives

Surgery is a high-risk hospital area for adverse events (AEs) occurrence. This study aims to develop an effectiveness and reactive methodology to manage an unexpected increase of AEs in the operating rooms (ORs) of a large Academic Hospital providing about 30 000 surgeries per year.

Methods

The study included three phases: 1. analysis of the AEs collected through the hospital incident reporting system from 2014 to 2015; 2. development of a programme to improve the surgical patient’s safety and 3. application and evaluation of the programme effectiveness.

Results

In 2014, all hospital AEs were 825 (10.3% in ORs), while in the first 5 months of 2015, they were 645 (17.7% in ORs) [relative risk (RR) 2015 vs 2014=1.7; 95% CI=1.3 to 2.2;p<0.0001] with two sentinel events. Due to this increase, 177 real-time observations were planned in 12 ORs with external staff (n.25) during 1 week in June, July and November 2015 using a checklist with 14 items related to the patient’s pathway (surgical site, time-out, medical records and sponges count). After the observations, the AEs decreased from 11.4×1000 surgeries (January–June 2015) to 8.6×1000 (July–December 2015) (RR=0.7, 95% CI=0.6 to 0.9,p<0.05). Compliance to the correct procedures applied by ORs staff has improved during the year for all items.

Conclusions

The methodology of this study has been revealed effective to control an unexpected increase in AEs and to improve the healthcare workers’ adherence to correct procedures and it could be translated in other patients’ safety settings.
Reducing hypothermia in newborns admitted to a neonatal care unit in a large academic hospital in New Delhi, India
Authors: Datta Vikram , Saili Arvind , Goel Srishti , Sooden Ankur , Singh Mahtab , Vaid Sonali , Livesley Nigel
Published: November 2017

Neonatal hypothermia is a common and dangerous condition around the world. 70% of neonates born in Kalawati Saran Children’s Hospital in New Delhi, India, and subsequently admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) had a temperature below 36.5°C on admission. In July 2016, we formed a team of staff from the labour room, NICU and auxiliary staff to reduce hypothermia in babies transported to our NICU using quality improvement methods. We identified problems related to staff awareness of hypothermia and its dangers, environmental factors and supply issues in the labour room, and challenges with rapidly and safely transferring sick newborns to the NICU. We used the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles to test and adapt solutions to these problems. Because infection is a common complication of hypothermia, we also instituted a training programme to improve handwashing skills among parents and health workers. Within 9 months of starting our quality improvement project, the proportion of neonates who were normothermic on admission increased from 27% to 75%, the number of cases of late-onset neonatal sepsis decreased from 15.2 to 5 cases/1000 patient days, and all-cause mortality fell from 4.2 to 2.6 neonatal deaths per week. Multiple factors can lead to neonatal hypothermia, and the most important factors will differ from facility to facility. Quality improvement methods provide health workers with the skills to identify the key factors contributing to hypothermia in their facility and to develop strategies to address them. Addressing processes of care can lead to improved thermal care and save lives.
A Crossover Improved Genetic Algorithm and Its Application in Non-Uniform Linear Antenna Arrays
Authors: Appasani Bhargav , Pelluri Rahul , Verma Vijay Kumar , Gupta Nisha
Published: November 2017

Genetic Algorithm (GA) is a widely used optimization technique with multitudinous applications. Improving the performance of the GA would further augment its functionality. This paper presents a Crossover Improved GA (CIGA) that emulates the motion of fireflies employed in the Firefly Algorithm (FA). By employing this mimicked crossover operation, the overall performance of the GA is greatly enhanced. The CIGA is tested on 14 benchmark functions conjointly with the other existing optimization techniques to establish its superiority. Finally, the CIGA is applied to the practical optimization problem of synthesizing non-uniform linear antenna arrays with low side lobe levels (SLL) and low beam width, both requirements being incompatible. However, the proposed CIGA applied for the synthesis of a 12 element array yields an SLL of [Formula: see text]29.2[Formula: see text]dB and a reduced beam width of 19.1[Formula: see text].
Testing Programs with Contextual Unfoldings
Authors: Kähkönen Kari , Heljanko Keijo
Published: November 2017

In this article, we present a new algorithm that combines contextual unfoldings and dynamic symbolic execution to systematically test multithreaded programs. The approach uses symbolic execution to limit the number of input values and unfoldings to thus limit the number of thread interleavings that are needed to cover reachable local states of threads in the program under test. We show that the use of contextual unfoldings allows interleavings of threads to be succinctly represented. This can in some cases lead to a substantial reduction in the number of needed test executions when compared to previous approaches.
Interactive example-based terrain authoring with conditional generative adversarial networks
Authors: Guérin Éric , Digne Julie , Galin Éric , Peytavie Adrien , Wolf Christian , Benes Bedrich , Martinez Benoît
Published: November 2017

Authoring virtual terrains presents a challenge and there is a strong need for authoring tools able to create realistic terrains with simple user-inputs and with high user control. We propose an example-based authoring pipeline that uses a set of terrain synthesizers dedicated to specific tasks. Each terrain synthesizer is a Conditional Generative Adversarial Network trained by using real-world terrains and their sketched counterparts. The training sets are built automatically with a view that the terrain synthesizers learn the generation from features that are easy to sketch. During the authoring process, the artist first creates a rough sketch of the main terrain features, such as rivers, valleys and ridges, and the algorithm automatically synthesizes a terrain corresponding to the sketch using the learned features of the training samples. Moreover, an erosion synthesizer can also generate terrain evolution by erosion at a very low computational cost. Our framework allows for an easy terrain authoring and provides a high level of realism for a minimum sketch cost. We show various examples of terrain synthesis created by experienced as well as inexperienced users who are able to design a vast variety of complex terrains in a very short time.
Articulated distance fields for ultra-fast tracking of hands interacting
Authors: Taylor Jonathan , Tankovich Vladimir , Tang Danhang , Keskin Cem , Kim David , Davidson Philip , Kowdle Adarsh , Izadi Shahram
Published: November 2017

The state of the art in articulated hand tracking has been greatly advanced by hybrid methods that fit a generative hand model to depth data, leveraging both temporally and discriminatively predicted starting poses. In this paradigm, the generative model is used to define an energy function and a local iterative optimization is performed from these starting poses in order to find a "good local minimum" (i.e. a local minimum close to the true pose). Performing this optimization quickly is key to exploring more starting poses, performing more iterations and, crucially, exploiting high frame rates that ensure that temporally predicted starting poses are in the basin of convergence of a good local minimum. At the same time, a detailed and accurate generative model tends to deepen the good local minima and widen their basins of convergence. Recent work, however, has largely had to trade-off such a detailed hand model with one that facilitates such rapid optimization. We present a new implicit model of hand geometry that mostly avoids this compromise and leverage it to build an ultra-fast hybrid hand tracking system. Specifically, we construct an articulated signed distance function that, for any pose, yields a closed form calculation of both the distance to the detailed surface geometry and the necessary derivatives to perform gradient based optimization. There is no need to introduce or update any explicit "correspondences" yielding a simple algorithm that maps well to parallel hardware such as GPUs. As a result, our system can run at extremely high frame rates (e.g. up to 1000fps). Furthermore, we demonstrate how to detect, segment and optimize for two strongly interacting hands, recovering complex interactions at extremely high framerates. In the absence of publicly available datasets of sufficiently high frame rate, we leverage a multiview capture system to create a new 180fps dataset of one and two hands interacting together or with objects.
A polynomial particle-in-cell method
Authors: Fu Chuyuan , Guo Qi , Gast Theodore , Jiang Chenfanfu , Teran Joseph
Published: November 2017

Recently the Affine Particle-In-Cell (APIC) Method was proposed by Jiang et al.[2015; 2017b] to improve the accuracy of the transfers in Particle-In-Cell (PIC) [Harlow 1964] techniques by augmenting each particle with a locally affine, rather than locally constant description of the velocity. This reduced the dissipation of the original PIC without suffering from the noise present in the historic alternative, Fluid-Implicit-Particle (FLIP) [Brackbill and Ruppel 1986]. We present a generalization of APIC by augmenting each particle with a more general local function. By viewing the grid-to-particle transfer as a linear and angular momentum conserving projection of the particle-wise local grid velocities onto a reduced basis, we greatly improve the energy and vorticity conservation over the original APIC. Furthermore, we show that the cost of the generalized projection is negligible over APIC when using a particular class of local polynomial functions. Lastly, we note that our method retains the filtering property of APIC and PIC and thus has similar robustness to noise.
Snapshot difference imaging using correlation time-of-flight sensors
Authors: Callenberg Clara , Heide Felix , Wetzstein Gordon , Hullin Matthias B.
Published: November 2017

Computational photography encompasses a diversity of imaging techniques, but one of the core operations performed by many of them is to compute image differences. An intuitive approach to computing such differences is to capture several images sequentially and then process them jointly. In this paper, we introduce a snapshot difference imaging approach that is directly implemented in the sensor hardware of emerging time-of-flight cameras. With a variety of examples, we demonstrate that the proposed snapshot difference imaging technique is useful for direct-global illumination separation, for direct imaging of spatial and temporal image gradients, for direct depth edge imaging, and more.
Scattering-aware texture reproduction for 3D printing
Authors: Elek Oskar , Sumin Denis , Zhang Ran , Weyrich Tim , Myszkowski Karol , Bickel Bernd , Wilkie Alexander , Křivánek Jaroslav
Published: November 2017

Color texture reproduction in 3D printing commonly ignores volumetric light transport (cross-talk) between surface points on a 3D print. Such light diffusion leads to significant blur of details and color bleeding, and is particularly severe for highly translucent resin-based print materials. Given their widely varying scattering properties, this cross-talk between surface points strongly depends on the internal structure of the volume surrounding each surface point. Existing scattering-aware methods use simplified models for light difusion, and often accept the visual blur as an immutable property of the print medium. In contrast, our work counteracts heterogeneous scattering to obtain the impression of a crisp albedo texture on top of the 3D print, by optimizing for a fully volumetric material distribution that preserves the target appearance. Our method employs an efficient numerical optimizer on top of a general Monte-Carlo simulation of heterogeneous scattering, supported by a practical calibration procedure to obtain scattering parameters from a given set of printer materials. Despite the inherent translucency of the medium, we reproduce detailed surface textures on 3D prints. We evaluate our system using a commercial, five-tone 3D print process and compare against the printer's native color texturing mode, demonstrating that our method preserves high-frequency features well without having to compromise on color gamut.
Simplicial complex augmentation framework for bijective maps
Authors: Jiang Zhongshi , Schaefer Scott , Panozzo Daniele
Published: November 2017

Bijective maps are commonly used in many computer graphics and scientific computing applications, including texture, displacement, and bump mapping. However, their computation is numerically challenging due to the global nature of the problem, which makes standard smooth optimization techniques prohibitively expensive. We propose to use a scaffold structure to reduce this challenging and global problem to a local injectivity condition. This construction allows us to benefit from the recent advancements in locally injective maps optimization to efficiently compute large scale bijective maps (both in 2D and 3D), sidestepping the need to explicitly detect and avoid collisions. Our algorithm is guaranteed to robustly compute a globally bijective map, both in 2D and 3D. To demonstrate the practical applicability, we use it to compute globally bijective single patch parametrizations, to pack multiple charts into a single UV domain, to remove self-intersections from existing models, and to deform 3D objects while preventing self-intersections. Our approach is simple to implement, efficient (two orders of magnitude faster than competing methods), and robust, as we demonstrate in a stress test on a parametrization dataset with over a hundred meshes.
Avatar digitization from a single image for real-time rendering
Authors: Hu Liwen , Saito Shunsuke , Wei Lingyu , Nagano Koki , Seo Jaewoo , Fursund Jens , Sadeghi Iman , Sun Carrie , Chen Yen-Chun , Li Hao
Published: November 2017

We present a fully automatic framework that digitizes a complete 3D head with hair from a single unconstrained image. Our system offers a practical and consumer-friendly end-to-end solution for avatar personalization in gaming and social VR applications. The reconstructed models include secondary components (eyes, teeth, tongue, and gums) and provide animation-friendly blendshapes and joint-based rigs. While the generated face is a high-quality textured mesh, we propose a versatile and efficient polygonal strips (polystrips) representation for the hair. Polystrips are suitable for an extremely wide range of hairstyles and textures and are compatible with existing game engines for real-time rendering. In addition to integrating state-of-the-art advances in facial shape modeling and appearance inference, we propose a novel single-view hair generation pipeline, based on 3D-model and texture retrieval, shape refinement, and polystrip patching optimization. The performance of our hairstyle retrieval is enhanced using a deep convolutional neural network for semantic hair attribute classification. Our generated models are visually comparable to state-of-the-art game characters designed by professional artists. For real-time settings, we demonstrate the flexibility of polystrips in handling hairstyle variations, as opposed to conventional strand-based representations. We further show the effectiveness of our approach on a large number of images taken in the wild, and how compelling avatars can be easily created by anyone.
RAB27B requirement for stretch-induced exocytosis in bladder umbrella cells
Authors: Gallo Luciana I. , Dalghi Marianela G. , Clayton Dennis R. , Ruiz Wily G. , Khandelwal Puneet , Apodaca Gerard
Published: November 2017

Umbrella cells, which must maintain a tight barrier, modulate their apical surface area during bladder filling by exocytosis of an abundant, subapical pool of discoidal- and/or fusiform-shaped vesicles (DFVs). Despite the importance of this trafficking event for bladder function, the pathways that promote DFV exocytosis remain to be identified. We previously showed that DFV exocytosis depends in part on a RAB11A-RAB8A-MYO5B network, but RAB27B is also reported to be associated with DFVs, and knockout mice lacking RAB27B have fewer DFVs. However, the RAB27B requirements for DFV exocytosis and the relationship between RAB27B and the other umbrella cell-expressed RABs remains unclear. Using a whole bladder preparation, we observed that filling-induced exocytosis of human growth hormone-loaded DFVs was significantly inhibited when RAB27B expression was downregulated using shRNA. RAB27A was also expressed in rat urothelium; however, RAB27A-specific shRNAs did not inhibit exocytosis, and the combination of RAB27A and RAB27B shRNAs did not significantly affect DFV exocytosis more than treatment with RAB27B shRNA alone. RAB27B and RAB11A showed a small degree of overlap when quantified using Squassh segmentation software, and expression of dominant-active or dominant-negative mutants of RAB11A or RAB8A, or expression of a RAB11A-specific shRNA, had no significant effect on the size, number, or intensity of RAB27B-positive DFVs. Likewise, treatment with RAB27B-specific shRNA had no effect on RAB11A-positive DFV parameters. We conclude that RAB27B, but not RAB27A, regulates DFV exocytosis in bladder umbrella cells in a manner that may be parallel to the previously described RAB11A-RAB8A-MYO5B pathway.
Immune Response and Protective Efficacy of a Heterologous DNA-Protein Immunization withLeishmaniaSuperoxide Dismutase B1
Authors: Bayih Abebe Genetu , Daifalla Nada S. , Gedamu Lashitew
Published: November 2017

Growing evidence shows that antioxidant proteins ofLeishmaniacould be used as vaccine candidates. In this study, we report the efficacy ofLeishmania donovaniiron superoxide dismutase B1 (LdFeSODB1) as a vaccine antigen in BALB/c mice in a DNA-protein prime-boost immunization regimen in the presence or absence of murine granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (mGMCSF) DNA adjuvant. The expression study confirmed that LdFeSODB1 is expressed in mammalian cells and mGMCSF fusion mediates the secretion of the recombinant protein. Heterologous immunization with LdFeSODB1 induced a strong antibody- and cell-mediated immune response in mice. Immunization triggered a mixed Th1/Th2 response as evidenced by the ratio of IgG2a to IgG1. Antigen-stimulated spleen cells from the immunized mice produced high level IFN-γ. Multiparametric flow cytometry data showed that immunization with LdFeSODB1 induced significantly higher expression of TNF-αor IL-2 by antigen-stimulated T cells. Eight weeks afterL. majorinfection, immunization with the antigen shifted the immune response to a more Th1 type than the controls as demonstrated by IgG2a/IgG1 ratio. Moreover, IFN-γproduction by antigen-stimulated spleen cells from immunized mice remained high. The footpad swelling experiment showed that immunization with LdFeSODB1 resulted in partial protection of mice from a high doseL. majorinfection.
Changes of Metabolomic Profile in Helianthus annuus under Exposure to Chromium(VI) Studied by capHPLC-ESI-QTOF-MS and MS/MS
Authors: Gonzalez Ibarra Alan Alexander , Wrobel Kazimierz , Yanez Barrientos Eunice , Corrales Escobosa Alma Rosa , Gutierrez Corona J. Felix , Enciso Donis Israel , Wrobel Katarzyna
Published: November 2017

The application of capHPLC-ESI-QTOF-MS and MS/MS to study the impact of Cr(VI) on metabolites profile in Helianthus annuus is reported. Germinated seeds were grown hydroponically in the presence of Cr(VI) (25 mgCr/L) and root extracts of the exposed and control plants were analyzed by untargeted metabolomic approach. The main goal was to detect which metabolite groups were mostly affected by Cr(VI) stress; two data analysis tools (ProfileAnalysis, Bruker, and online XCMS) were used under criteria of intensity threshold 5 · 104 cps, fold change ≥ 5, and p≤0.01, yielding precursor ions. Molecular formulas were assigned based on data processing with two computational tools (SIRIUS and MS-Finder); annotation of candidate structures was performed by database search using CSI:FingerID and MS-Finder. Even though ultimate identification has not been achieved, it was demonstrated that secondary metabolism became activated under Cr(VI) stress. Among 42 candidate compounds returned from database search for seven molecular formulas, ten structures corresponded to isocoumarin derivatives and eleven were sesquiterpenes or sesquiterpene lactones; three benzofurans and four glycoside or pyrane derivatives of phenolic compounds were also suggested. To gain further insight on the effect of Cr(VI) in sunflower, isocoumarins and sesquiterpenes were selected as the target compounds for future study.
Isolation of Potential Phages against Multidrug-Resistant Bacterial Isolates: Promising Agents in the Rivers of Kathmandu, Nepal
Authors: Bhetwal Anjeela , Maharjan Anjila , Shakya Shreena , Satyal Deepa , Ghimire Sumitra , Khanal Puspa Raj , Parajuli Narayan Prasad
Published: November 2017

Bacteriophages are being the subject of interest for alternative antimicrobial therapy for infectious diseases in recent years. Therapeutic effectiveness regarding phage therapy is a matter of concern since it is the most promising biological treatment of this era. Hence, the present study was aimed to isolate the potential bacteriophages present in river water samples and to analyze their host range among clinical strains of bacteria. Ten different locations of Kathmandu valley were selected for the collection of river water for the detection of probable phages. Bacteriophages were isolated from water samples using the double agar overlay method. Isolated phages were purified by diluting in the SM-buffer and filtering through 0.22 μm filter. Purified lysate was further processed for analyzing its host range by using spot method. Their host range was characterized against 20 bacterial strains, including multidrug-resistant. Total 67 different phages were isolated against 8 different host organisms. Out of them, forty-seven phages were selected for analyzing its host range. Among them, Serratia phages (ΦSER) had the broad host range infecting 17 different bacterial strains including multidrug-resistant harboring ESBL and MBL genotypes. However, Klebsiella phages (ΦKP) had narrow host range in comparison to other phages. Isolated phages had the potential effect against clinical strains of bacteria along with their broader host spectrum. Most importantly, promising effect against MDR pathogens in this study has raised the probable chances of the utility of these phages for biological control of bacterial infection including MBL and ESBL strains.
Dynamic Analysis of Helical Planetary Gear Sets under Combined Force and Moment Loading
Authors: Liu Yanfang , Lai Junbin , Dong Peng , Xu Xiangyang
Published: November 2017

The dynamic behavior of a single-stage planetary gear set with helical gears of multishaft automotive automatic transmissions has been studied, in which one component of the planetary gear set is imposed by additional external vertical and axial loading from countershaft gear pair in addition to the moment. Under these combined loading conditions, the contributions of the deflections of the ring gear and the carrier cannot be neglected. A three-dimensional nonlinear time-variant dynamic model considering not only the transverse, torsional, axial, and rotational motions of the gears but also the elasticity of the mounted shafts has been developed by combining the lumped parameter method with finite element method. The natural modes and the forced vibration responses due to static transmission errors have been obtained. The proposed dynamic model is employed to describe the effects of the combined external loading condition and positioning on the dynamic behavior of a four-planet system.
Morphological Asymmetry of the Superior Cervical Facets from C3 through C7 due to Degeneration
Authors: Van Vlasselaer Nicolas , Van Roy Peter , Cattrysse Erik
Published: November 2017

Introduction. Knowledge about facet morphology has already been discussed extensively in literature but is limited regarding asymmetry and its relation to facet degeneration. Method. Facet dimensions, surface area, curvature, and degeneration of the superior facets were measured in 85 dried human vertebrae from the anatomical collection of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. The vertebrae were analysed using the Microscribe G2X digitizer (Immersion Co., San Jose, CA) and a grading system for the evaluation of cervical facet degeneration. Coordinates were processed mathematically to evaluate articular tropism. The statistical analysis includes the paired t-test and the Pearson correlation. Results. On average, no systematic differences between the left and right facets were found concerning morphology and degeneration. However, there were significant differences regardless of the side-occurrence. There was a significant correlation between the dimensions of the total facet surface and the degree of degeneration but not for the recognizable joint surface. Conclusions. Facet tropism of the upper joint facets occurred often in the cervical spine but without side preference. A bigger difference in degeneration asymmetry was associated with a bigger difference in facet joint dimension asymmetry.
Emerging Roles of MTG16 in Cell-Fate Control of Hematopoietic Stem Cells and Cancer
Authors: Steinauer Nickolas , Guo Chun , Zhang Jinsong
Published: November 2017

MTG16 (myeloid translocation gene on chromosome 16) and its related proteins, MTG8 and MTGR1, define a small family of transcriptional corepressors. These corepressors share highly conserved domain structures yet have distinct biological functions and tissue specificity. In vivo studies have shown that, of the three MTG corepressors, MTG16 is uniquely important for the regulation of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell (HSPC) proliferation and differentiation. Apart from this physiological function, MTG16 is also involved in carcinomas and leukemias, acting as the genetic target of loss of heterozygosity (LOH) aberrations in breast cancer and recurrent translocations in leukemia. The frequent involvement of MTG16 in these disease etiologies implies an important developmental role for this transcriptional corepressor. Furthermore, mounting evidence suggests that MTG16 indirectly alters the disease course of several leukemias via its regulatory interactions with a variety of pathologic fusion proteins. For example, a recent study has shown that MTG16 can repress not only wild-type E2A-mediated transcription, but also leukemia fusion protein E2A-Pbx1-mediated transcription, suggesting that MTG16 may serve as a potential therapeutic target in acute lymphoblastic leukemia expressing the E2A-Pbx1 fusion protein. Given that leukemia stem cells share similar regulatory pathways with normal HSPCs, studies to further understand how MTG16 regulates cell proliferation and differentiation could lead to novel therapeutic approaches for leukemia treatment.
Skin Hyperpigmentation as the Presenting Symptom of Subacute Combined Degeneration of the Spinal Cord
Authors: Alhazmi Abdulhameed , Almalki Abdulrahman , Ghazala Safieeldin
Published: November 2017

Vitamin B12 deficiency results in hematological, neurological, and rarely dermatological complications. Subacute combined degeneration of the cord is one of the neurological complications, and usually the presenting symptom is paresthesia. Herein, we report a case of a 46-year-old man with subacute combined degeneration presenting with knuckle hyperpigmentation.
Theatre Is a Valid Add-On Therapeutic Intervention for Emotional Rehabilitation of Parkinson’s Disease Patients
Authors: Mirabella Giovanni , De Vita Paolo , Fragola Michele , Rampelli Silvia , Lena Francesco , Dilettuso Fulvia , Iacopini Marta , d’Avella Raffaella , Borgese Maria Concetta , Mazzotta Silvia , Lanni Deborah , Grano Marco , Lubrani Sara , Modugno Nicola
Published: November 2017

Conventional medical treatments of Parkinson’s disease (PD) are effective on motor disturbances but may have little impact on nonmotor symptoms, especially psychiatric ones. Thus, even when motor symptomatology improves, patients might experience deterioration in their quality of life. We have shown that 3 years of active theatre is a valid complementary intervention for PD as it significantly improves the well-being of patients in comparison to patients undergoing conventional physiotherapy. Our aim was to replicate these findings while improving the efficacy of the treatment. We ran a single-blinded pilot study lasting 15 months on 24 subjects with moderate idiopathic PD. 12 were assigned to a theatre program in which patients underwent “emotional” training. The other 12 underwent group physiotherapy. Patients were evaluated at the beginning and at the end of their treatments, using a battery of eight clinical and five neuropsychological scales. We found that the emotional theatre training improved the emotional well-being of patients, whereas physiotherapy did not. Interestingly, neither of the groups showed improvements in either motor symptoms or cognitive abilities tested by the neuropsychological battery. We confirmed that theatre therapy might be helpful in improving emotional well-being in PD.
Electroacupuncture Inhibits the Activation of p38MAPK in the Central Descending Facilitatory Pathway in Rats with Inflammatory Pain
Authors: Hu Man-Li , Zhou Fei-Yan , Liu Jing-Jing , Ding Yi , Zhong Ju-Ming , Ding Ming-Xing
Published: November 2017

The mitogen‐activated protein kinases (MAPKs), especially p38MAPK, play a pivotal role in chronic pain. Electroacupuncture (EA) relieves inflammatory pain underlying the descending pathway, that is, the periaqueductal gray (PAG), the rostral ventromedial medulla (RVM), and the spinal cord dorsal horn (SCDH). However, whether EA antagonizes inflammatory pain through regulation of p38MAPK in this descending facilitatory pathway is unclear. Complete Freund’s adjuvant (CFA) was injected into the hind paw of rats to establish inflammatory pain model. EA was administrated for 30 min at Zusanli and Kunlun acupoints at 0.5, 24.5, 48.5, and 72.5 h, respectively. The paw withdrawal threshold (PWT), paw edema, and Phosphor‐p38MAPK‐Immunoreactivity (p‐p38MAPK‐IR) cells were measured before (0 h) and at 1, 3, 5, 7, 25, and 73 h after CFA or saline injection. EA increased PWT at 1, 3, 25, and 73 h and inhibited paw edema at 25 and 73 h after CFA injection. Moreover, the increasing number of p‐p38MAPK‐IR cells which was induced by CFA was suppressed by EA stimulation in PAG and RVM at 3 and 5 h and in SCDH at 5, 7, 25, and 73 h. These results suggest that EA suppresses inflammation‐induced hyperalgesia probably through inhibiting p38MAPK activation in the descending facilitatory pathway.
Kinect V2 Performance Assessment in Daily-Life Gestures: Cohort Study on Healthy Subjects for a Reference Database for Automated Instrumental Evaluations on Neurological Patients
Authors: Scano Alessandro , Chiavenna Andrea , Malosio Matteo , Molinari Tosatti Lorenzo
Published: November 2017

Background. The increase of sanitary costs related to poststroke rehabilitation requires new sustainable and cost-effective strategies for promoting autonomous and dehospitalized motor training. In the Riprendo@Home and Future Home for Future Communities research projects, the promising approach of introducing low-cost technologies that promote home rehabilitation is exploited. In order to provide reliable evaluation of patients, a reference database of healthy people’s performances is required and should consider variability related to healthy people performances.Methods.78 healthy subjects performed several repetitions of daily-life gestures, the reaching movement (RM) and hand-to-mouth (HtMM) movement with both the dominant and nondominant upper limbs. Movements were recorded with a Kinect V2. A synthetic biomechanical protocol based on kinematical, dynamical, and motor control parameters was used to assess motor performance of the healthy people. The investigation was conducted by clustering participants depending on their limb dominancy (right/left), gender (male/female), and age (young/middle/senior) as sources of variability.Results.Results showed that limb dominancy has minor relevance in affecting RM and HtMM; gender has relevance in affecting the HtMM; age has major effect in affecting RM and HtMM.Conclusions.An investigation of healthy subjects’ upper limb performances during daily-life gestures was performed with the Kinect V2 sensor. Findings will be the basis for a database of normative data for neurological patients’ motor evaluation.
Hmox1Deficiency Sensitizes Mice to Peroxynitrite Formation and Diabetic Glomerular Microvascular Injuries
Authors: Lenoir Olivia , Gaillard François , Lazareth Hélène , Robin Blaise , Tharaux Pierre-Louis
Published: November 2017

Objective.Indirect evidence suggests a role for heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) in limiting diabetic vasculopathy. The goal of this study was to assess the role of HO-1 in the development of microvascular lesions within glomeruli during diabetes mellitus using a mouse model with specific alteration of theHmox1gene.Approach and Results.The effects ofHmox1haploinsufficiency were studied as a means of assessing the intrinsic contribution of HO-1 in the development of renal microvascular lesions during diabetes. Renal function and histology were analyzed 10 weeks after diabetes induction with streptozotocin. DiabeticHmox1+/−mice showed higher levels of albuminuria and blood urea compared to their wild-type diabetic littermates. More severe glomerular microvascular lesions were also observed in the diabeticHmox1+/−mice. This was associated with a renal increase in the expression of the oxidative stress marker, nitrotyrosine.Conclusions.GeneticHmox1partial deficiency is sufficient to sensitize mice to the development of diabetic glomerular microvascular lesions. HO-1 exerts antioxidant effects in the kidney during diabetes mellitus. These have protective effects on the development of glomerular endothelial injury.
Onychomatricoma: A Rare Nail Tumor with an Unusual Clinical Presentation
Authors: Kamath Preetha , Wu Timothy , Villada Gabriel , Zaiac Martin , Elgart George , Tosti Antonella
Published: November 2017

First described in 1992, onychomatricoma is a rare, benign, fibroepithelial tumor of the nail matrix with few reported cases in the literature. The tumor predominately affects the fingers of Caucasian women during the 5th decade of life and is typically slow growing and painless. The authors present a unique clinical presentation of a giant onychomatricoma in a darker-skinned 60-year-old South Asian individual who presented with a large dome-shaped nail that was smooth, shiny, and green.
Effects of L- and N-Type Ca Channel Blocker Cilnidipine on Changes in Heart Rate and QT Interval During Dialysis
Authors: Iida Takeshi , Morimoto Satoshi , Amari Yoshifumi , Ando Takashi , Ichihara Atsuhiro
Published: November 2017

Background/Aims: Hemodialysis patients have poor prognosis due to increased prevalence of cardiovascular diseases. Treatment to suppress increases in sympathetic nerve activity and QT prolongation may have the potential to reduce the occurrence of these events. The L/N-type Calcium (Ca) channel blocker cilnidipine has unique inhibitory action to inhibit sympathetic nerve activity and in a canine model ameliorates QT prolongation. In this study, we investigated whether cilnidipine has inhibitory effects on heart rate, an index of sympathetic nerve activity, and QT prolongation in patients undergoing dialysis. Methods: An L-type Ca channel blocker amlodipine was administered for 4 weeks followed by cilnidipine treatment for 4 weeks. On the last day of each period, heart rate and corrected QT interval were estimated and compared between the two periods. Results: Cilnidipine showed greater suppression of heart rate during dialysis than did amlodipine. The corrected QT interval in one dialysis session was significantly increased, and 3 of 17 patients showed prominent QT prolongation during administration of amlodipine but not cilnidipine. Conclusion: These data suggested that cilnidipine may inhibit increases in heart rate and QT interval. Cilnidipine may have beneficial effects in reducing cardiovascular events, resulting from increased sympathetic nerve activity and lethal arrhythmias in hemodialysis patients.
Sufficient Dimension Reduction via Direct Estimation of the Gradients of Logarithmic Conditional Densities
Authors: Sasaki Hiroaki , Tangkaratt Voot , Niu Gang , Sugiyama Masashi
Published: November 2017

Sufficient dimension reduction (SDR) is aimed at obtaining the low-rank projection matrix in the input space such that information about output data is maximally preserved. Among various approaches to SDR, a promising method is based on the eigendecomposition of the outer product of the gradient of the conditional density of output given input. In this letter, we propose a novel estimator of the gradient of the logarithmic conditional density that directly fits a linear-in-parameter model to the true gradient under the squared loss. Thanks to this simple least-squares formulation, its solution can be computed efficiently in a closed form. Then we develop a new SDR method based on the proposed gradient estimator. We theoretically prove that the proposed gradient estimator, as well as the SDR solution obtained from it, achieves the optimal parametric convergence rate. Finally, we experimentally demonstrate that our SDR method compares favorably with existing approaches in both accuracy and computational efficiency on a variety of artificial and benchmark data sets.
Joint Concept Correlation and Feature-Concept Relevance Learning for Multilabel Classification
Authors: Zhao Xiaowei , Ma Zhigang , Li Zhi , Li Zhihui
Published: November 2017

In recent years, multilabel classification has attracted significant attention in multimedia annotation. However, most of the multilabel classification methods focus only on the inherent correlations existing among multiple labels and concepts and ignore the relevance between features and the target concepts. To obtain more robust multilabel classification results, we propose a new multilabel classification method aiming to capture the correlations among multiple concepts by leveraging hypergraph that is proved to be beneficial for relational learning. Moreover, we consider mining feature-concept relevance, which is often overlooked by many multilabel learning algorithms. To better show the feature-concept relevance, we impose a sparsity constraint on the proposed method. We compare the proposed method with several other multilabel classification methods and evaluate the classification performance by mean average precision on several data sets. The experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.
A Perceptual-Like Population-Coding Mechanism of Approximate Numerical Averaging
Authors: Brezis Noam , Bronfman Zohar Z. , Usher Marius
Published: November 2017

Humans possess a remarkable ability to rapidly form coarse estimations of numerical averages. This ability is important for making decisions that are based on streams of numerical or value-based information, as well as for preference formation. Nonetheless, the mechanism underlying rapid approximate numerical averaging remains unknown, and several competing mechanism may account for it. Here, we tested the hypothesis that approximate numerical averaging relies on perceptual-like processes, instantiated by population coding. Participants were presented with rapid sequences of numerical values (four items per second) and were asked to convey the sequence average. We manipulated the sequences' length, variance, and mean magnitude and found that similar to perceptual averaging, the precision of the estimations improves with the length and deteriorates with (higher) variance or (higher) magnitude. To account for the results, we developed a biologically plausible population-coding model and showed that it is mathematically equivalent to a population vector. Using both quantitative and qualitative model comparison methods, we compared the population-coding model to several competing models, such as a step-by-step running average (based on leaky integration) and a midrange model. We found that the data support the population-coding model. We conclude that humans' ability to rapidly form estimations of numerical averages has many properties of the perceptual (intuitive) system rather than the arithmetic, linguistic-based (analytic) system and that population coding is likely to be its underlying mechanism.
Transliteration versus Translation of Greek Plant Names in the Syriac Medical Writings of Sergius of Reš ʿAynā: On the Tables of Contents in BL Add. 14,661
Authors: Calà Irene , Hawley Robert
Published: November 2017

This article explores some of the translational choices made by Sergius of Reš ʿAynā in translating the Greek plant names found in Books VI–VIII of Galen’s treatise On simple drugs into Syriac, and especially as found in the “tables of contents”—or pínakes—which preface these books. These latter took the form of alphabetically ordered lists of Greek phytonyms transliterated into Syriac characters, occasionally followed by a translational gloss in Syriac. After a brief introduction, we discuss the form, function and content of these pínakes, outline a typology, and suggest explanations for selected problematic features.
Four new earthworm species of Kazimierzus Plisko, 2006 (Clitellata, Kazimierzidae)
Authors: NXELE THEMBEKA CLARA , PLISKO JADWIGA DANUTA , MWABVU TAROMBERA , ZISHIRI OLIVER TENDAYI
Published: November 2017

Four new species of Kazimierzus are described from the Western Cape and Northern Cape, South Africa: K. kleinoodi sp. n., K. nietvoorbiji sp. n., K. nieuwoudtvillensis sp. n., and K. phumlani sp. n. Kazimierzus kleinoodi is distinguished from the other species of this genus by the position of the calciferous glands in 9 and paired spermathecae in five segments. The position of the spermathecae in 11/12–15/16 as well as the position of the calciferous glands in 11 separates K. nietvoorbiji from the other new species. Kazimierzus nieuwoudtvillensis is distinguished from the others by the position of the clitellum (12–25) and spermathecae in four rows. The combination of the position of the clitellum, three rows of spermathecae and the position of the calciferous glands in 10 distinguish K. phumlani from the other species.