bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Age‐dependent expression of osteochondrosis‐related genes in equine leukocytes
Authors: Mendoza L. , Piquemal D. , Lejeune J. P. , Vander Heyden L. , Noguier F. , Bruno R. , Sandersen C. , Serteyn D.
Published: March 2015

Introduction:

Osteochondrosis (OC) is a developmental disease in horses which has a significant impact on the horse's welfare and performance. The early disturbance in the process of endochondral ossification progresses to inflammatory and repair processes in older horses. Previously, differentially expressed genes in leukocytes of OC‐affected horses have been identified. The aim of the present study is to detect age‐related changes in these differentially expressed genes.

Materials and Methods:

The expression of OC‐related genes was analysed by real‐time PCR and subsequent statistical analysis (ΔΔCT) in the leukocytes of 135 Belgian Warmblood horses divided into three different age groups: <12 months (n=47), 18–24 months (n=50) >30 months (n=38).

Results:

Relative expression of genes of horses less than 12 months of age showed significant induction of the genes MGAT4A, PRKCG, MHCI, ApoB, ApoB3G, B4GALT6 and a significantly lower expression of the genes OAS3. Horses of 18–24 months of age, showed a significantly higher expression of the genes TBC1D9, MGAT4A, IFIH1, MHCIIa and MMP1. Horses of more than 30 months of age showed a significantly higher expression of the genes MGAT4A, HP, SECTM1 compared with their age‐matched control groups.

Conclusions:

The study demonstrates that OC‐related genes are differentially expressed in horses of different ages compared with their age‐matched controls. Some of the genes may be implicated in cell signalling and differentiation as well as carbohydrate and lipid metabolism and inflammation. However, the causal relationship between the differentially expressed genes and the development and progression of the OC lesions needs to be determined.
Model for predicting resilient modulus of unsaturated subgrade soil using soil-water characteristic curve
Authors: Han Zhong , Vanapalli Sai K.
Published: March 2015

Soil suction (ψ) is one of the key factors that influence the resilient modulus (MR) of pavement subgrade soils. There are several models available in the literature for predicting the MR–ψ correlations. However, the various model parameters required in the existing models are generally determined by performing regression analysis on extensive experimental data of the MR–ψ relationships, which are cumbersome, expensive, and time-consuming to obtain. In this paper, a model is proposed to predict the variation of the MR with respect to the ψ for compacted fine-grained subgrade soils. The information of (i) the MR values at optimum moisture content condition (MROPT) and saturation condition (MRSAT), which are typically determined for use in pavement design practice; (ii) the ψ values at optimum moisture content condition (ψOPT); and (iii) the soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) is required for using this model. The proposed model is validated by providing comparisons between the measured and predicted MR–ψ relationships for 11 different compacted fine-grained subgrade soils that were tested following various protocols (a total of 16 sets of data, including 210 testing results). The proposed model was found to be suitable for predicting the variation of the MR with respect to the ψ for all the subgrade soils using a single-valued model parameter ξ, which was found to be equal to 2.0. The proposed model is promising for use in practice, as it only requires conventional soil properties and alleviates the need for experimental determination of the MR–ψ relationships.
High-velocity estimates for Schrödinger operators in two dimensions: Long-range magnetic potentials and time-dependent inverse scattering
Authors: Ballesteros Miguel , Weder Ricardo
Published: March 2015

We introduce a general class of long-range magnetic potentials and derive high velocity limits for the corresponding scattering operators in quantum mechanics, in the case of two dimensions. We analyze the high velocity limits that we obtain in the presence of an obstacle and we uniquely reconstruct from them the electric potential and the magnetic field outside the obstacle, that are accessible to the particles. We additionally reconstruct the inaccessible fluxes (magnetic fluxes produced by fields inside the obstacle) modulo 2π, which give a proof of the Aharonov–Bohm effect. For every magnetic potential A in our class, we prove that its behavior at infinity [Formula: see text] can be characterized in a natural way; we call it the long-range part of the magnetic potential. Under very general assumptions, we prove that [Formula: see text] can be uniquely reconstructed for every [Formula: see text]. We characterize properties of the support of the magnetic field outside the obstacle that permit us to uniquely reconstruct [Formula: see text] either for all [Formula: see text] or for [Formula: see text] in a subset of 𝕊1. We also give a wide class of magnetic fields outside the obstacle allowing us to uniquely reconstruct the total magnetic flux (and [Formula: see text] for all [Formula: see text]). This is relevant because, as it is well-known, in general the scattering operator (even if it is known for all velocities or energies) does not define uniquely the total magnetic flux (and [Formula: see text]). We analyze additionally injectivity (i.e. uniqueness without giving a method for reconstruction) of the high velocity limits of the scattering operator with respect to [Formula: see text]. Assuming that the magnetic field outside the obstacle is not identically zero, we provide a class of magnetic potentials for which injectivity is valid.
Linearization and Gronwall conjecture of Legendrian webs
Authors: Ozawa Tetsuya , Sato Hajime
Published: March 2015

The Gronwall conjecture, which is still open, asserts that if a 3-web in the plane is linearizable, then the linearization is unique modulo projective transformations. We prove the conjecture for Legendrian d-webs, provided d ≥ 4. Precisely, our theorem states that, if a Legendrian d-web with d ≥ 4 in the (real or complex) 3-dimensional contact manifold is linearizable, then there is a unique linearization of the Legendrian d-web up to a contact projective transformation. For the proof, we use the linearization technique of the third order ordinary differential equations and the Schwarzian derivatives of contact transformations.
Holomorphic curves in algebraic varieties of maximal albanese dimension
Authors: Yamanoi Katsutoshi
Published: March 2015

We prove a second main theorem type estimate in Nevanlinna theory for holomorphic curves f : Y → X from finite covering spaces Y → ℂ of the complex plane ℂ into complex projective manifolds X of maximal albanese dimension. If X is moreover of general type, then this implies that the special set of X is a proper subset of X. For a projective curve C in such X, our estimate also yields an upper bound of the ratio of the degree of C to the geometric genus of C, provided that C is not contained in a proper exceptional subset in X.
Information geometry of Busemann-barycenter for probability measures
Authors: Itoh Mitsuhiro , Satoh Hiroyasu
Published: March 2015

Using Busemann function of an Hadamard manifold X we define the barycenter map from the space 𝒫+(∂X, dθ) of probability measures having positive density on the ideal boundary ∂X to X. The space 𝒫+(∂X, dθ) admits geometrically a fiber space structure over X from Fisher information geometry. Following the arguments in [E. Douady and C. Earle, Conformally natural extension of homeomorphisms of the circle, Acta Math.157 (1986) 23–48; G. Besson, G. Courtois and S. Gallot, Entropies et rigidités des espaces localement symétriques de coubure strictement négative, Geom. Funct. Anal.5 (1995) 731–799; Minimal entropy and Mostow's rigidity theorems, Ergodic Theory Dynam. Systems16 (1996) 623–649], we exhibit that under certain geometrical hypotheses a homeomorphism Φ of the ideal boundary ∂X induces, by the aid of push-forward, an isometry of X whose extension is Φ.
Upper limit on the central density of dark matter in the Eddington-inspired Born–Infeld (EiBI) gravity
Authors: Izmailov Ramil , Potapov Alexander A. , Filippov Alexander I. , Ghosh Mithun , Nandi Kamal K.
Published: March 2015

We investigate the stability of circular material orbits in the analytic galactic metric recently derived by Harko et al., Mod. Phys. Lett. A29, 1450049 (2014). It turns out that stability depends more strongly on the dark matter central density ρ0 than on other parameters of the solution. This property then yields an upper limit on ρ0 for each individual galaxy, which we call here [Formula: see text], such that stable circular orbits are possible only when the constraint [Formula: see text] is satisfied. This is our new result. To approximately quantify the upper limit, we consider as a familiar example our Milky Way galaxy that has a projected dark matter radius R DM ~180 kpc and find that [Formula: see text]. This limit turns out to be about four orders of magnitude larger than the latest data on central density ρ0 arising from the fit to the Navarro–Frenk–White (NFW) and Burkert density profiles. Such consistency indicates that the Eddington-inspired Born–Infeld (EiBI) solution could qualify as yet another viable alternative model for dark matter.
Exponential convergence for hp-version and spectral finite element methods for elliptic problems in polyhedra
Authors: Schötzau Dominik , Schwab Christoph
Published: March 2015

We establish exponential convergence of conforming hp-version and spectral finite element methods for second-order, elliptic boundary-value problems with constant coefficients and homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions in bounded, axiparallel polyhedra. The source terms are assumed to be piecewise analytic. The conforming hp-approximations are based on σ-geometric meshes of mapped, possibly anisotropic hexahedra and on the uniform and isotropic polynomial degree p ≥ 1. The principal new results are the construction of conforming, patchwise hp-interpolation operators in edge, corner and corner-edge patches which are the three basic building blocks of geometric meshes. In particular, we prove, for each patch type, exponential convergence rates for the H1-norm of the corresponding hp-version (quasi)interpolation errors for functions which belong to a suitable, countably normed space on the patches. The present work extends recent hp-version discontinuous Galerkin approaches to conforming Galerkin finite element methods.
Dependability Analysis of Homogeneous Distributed Software/Hardware Systems
Authors: Vijayalakshmi G.
Published: March 2015

With the increasing demand for high availability in safety-critical systems such as banking systems, military systems, nuclear systems, aircraft systems to mention a few, reliability analysis of distributed software/hardware systems continue to be the focus of most researchers. The reliability analysis of a homogeneous distributed software/hardware system (HDSHS) with k-out-of-n : G configuration and no load-sharing nodes is analyzed. However, in practice the system load is shared among the working nodes in a distributed system. In this paper, the dependability analysis of a HDSHS with load-sharing nodes is presented. This distributed system has a load-sharing k-out-of-(n + m) : G configuration. A Markov model for HDSHS is developed. The failure time distribution of the hardware is represented by the accelerated failure time model. The software faults are detected during software testing and removed upon failure. The Jelinski–Moranda software reliability model is used. The maintenance personal can repair the system up on both software and hardware failure. The dependability measures such as reliability, availability and mean time to failure are obtained. The effect of load-sharing hosts on system hazard function and system reliability is presented. Furthermore, an availability comparison of our results and the results in the literature is presented.
Duflo involutions for 2-categories associated to tree quivers
Authors: Zhang Xiaoting
Published: March 2015

Motivated by the definition of Duflo involution for fiat [Formula: see text]-categories, we define certain analogues of Duflo involution for arbitrary finitary [Formula: see text]-categories and show that such Duflo involutions exist for two classes of finitary [Formula: see text]-categories associated with tree path algebras. Additionally, we describe the quiver for the algebra underlying the principal [Formula: see text]-representation for these two classes of finitary [Formula: see text]-categories.
Cohomology with support of dimension ≤ d
Authors: Zamani N. , Bijan-Zadeh M. H. , Sayedsadeghi M. S.
Published: March 2015

Let [Formula: see text] be a commutative Noetherian ring, [Formula: see text] be an integer and let [Formula: see text] denote the ideals of [Formula: see text] of dimension [Formula: see text]. For an integer [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]-modules [Formula: see text], we define the [Formula: see text]th cohomology module [Formula: see text] and study some of its properties. Some vanishing results will be proved and the connection between the vanishing of this cohomology modules with the dimension of certain subsets of [Formula: see text] will be investigated.
Simple semirings with zero
Authors: Kepka Tomáš , Kortelainen Juha , Němec Petr
Published: March 2015

A characterization of a class of congruence-simple semirings with zero (now containing some infinite cases) is presented.
On integral absolutely irreducible representations of finite groups
Authors: Malinin Dmitry
Published: March 2015

We consider the arithmetic background of integral representations of finite groups over [Formula: see text]-adic and algebraic number rings. Some infinite series of integral pairwise inequivalent absolutely irreducible representations of finite [Formula: see text]-groups with the extra congruence conditions are constructed, and some applications are given. Certain problems concerning integral irreducible two-dimensional representations over number rings are discussed.
On multiplicative subgroups in division rings
Authors: Hai Bui Xuan , Tu Nguyen Anh
Published: March 2015

Let [Formula: see text] be a division ring. In this paper, we investigate properties of subgroups of an arbitrary subnormal subgroup of the multiplicative group [Formula: see text] of [Formula: see text]. The new obtained results generalize some previous results on subgroups of [Formula: see text].
2-Prime ideals and their applications
Authors: Beddani Charef , Messirdi Wahiba
Published: March 2015

This paper introduces the notion of [Formula: see text]-prime ideals, and uses it to present certain characterization of valuation rings. Precisely, we will prove that an integral domain [Formula: see text] is a valuation ring if and only if every ideal of [Formula: see text] is [Formula: see text]-prime. On the other hand, we will prove that the normalization [Formula: see text] of [Formula: see text] is a valuation ring if and only if the intersection of integrally closed 2-prime ideals of [Formula: see text] is a 2-prime ideal. At the end of this paper, we will give a generalization of some results of Gilmer and Heinzer by studying the properties of domains in which every primary ideal is an integrally closed 2-prime ideal.
Completely simple congruences on E-inversive semigroups
Authors: Gigoń Roman S.
Published: March 2015

We study completely simple congruences on an arbitrary [Formula: see text]-inversive semigroup [Formula: see text]. In particular, we show that every such congruence [Formula: see text] on [Formula: see text] is uniquely determined by its kernel and trace, and that the trace of [Formula: see text] is a congruence on the biordered set [Formula: see text]. Moreover, we investigate the complete lattice of all completely simple congruences on [Formula: see text] and show that the trace relation is a complete congruence on this lattice. We also construct a family of completely simple congruences on [Formula: see text].
THE EFFECT OF IN-GROUP FAVORITISM ON THE COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOR OF INDIVIDUALS' OPINIONS
Authors: ALIZADEH MEYSAM , CIOFFI-REVILLA CLAUDIO , CROOKS ANDREW
Published: March 2015

Empirical findings from social psychology show that sometimes people show favoritism toward in-group members in order to reach a global consensus, even against individuals' own preferences (e.g., altruistically or deontically). Here we integrate ideas and findings on in-group favoritism, opinion dynamics, and radicalization using an agent-based model entitled cooperative bounded confidence (CBC). We investigate the interplay of homophily, rejection, and in-group cooperation drivers on the formation of opinion clusters and the emergence of extremist, radical opinions. Our model is the first to explicitly explore the effect of in-group favoritism on the macro-level, collective behavior of opinions. We compare our model against the two-dimentional bounded confidence model with rejection mechanism, proposed by Huet et al. [Adv. Complex Syst.13(3) (2010) 405–423], and find that the number of opinion clusters and extremists is reduced in our model. Moreover, results show that group influence can never dominate homophilous and rejecting encounters in the process of opinion cluster formation. We conclude by discussing implications of our model for research on collective behavior of opinions emerging from individuals' interaction.
Synthesis and wire-like performance of diruthenium molecular wire with a C≡C-porphyrin-C≡C linker
Authors: Tanaka Yuya , Ono Masanori , Akita Munetaka
Published: March 2015

A diruthenium complex with a free-base porphyrin linker 1 is synthesized and characterized by 1 H and 31 P NMR, IR, and ESI-TOF-MS spectroscopy. A cyclic voltammogram of 1 shows two reversible waves attributed to the redox processes at the ruthenium centers, and a compropotionation constant (K C ) has been determined to be 1.8 × 105, indicating that a mixed valence state of 1+ is thermodynamically stable. The monocationic complex 1+ obtained by chemical oxidation of 1 by [ Cp 2 Fe ] PF 6 shows an intervalence charge transfer (IVCT) band in the NIR region. On the basis of the electronic coupling ( V ab) of 2644 cm-1 obtained by analysis of the IVCT band, complex 1+• is assigned as a Class III compound according to the Robin–Day classification. DFT calculation and IR study suggest that the strength of π-back donation is one of key determinants for a strong electronic coupling between the two metal centers.
CHANGES IN THE IMPACT ASSESSMENT FAMILY 2003–2014: IMPLICATIONS FOR CONSIDERING ACHIEVEMENTS, GAPS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Authors: VANCLAY FRANK
Published: March 2015

Over 150 forms of impact assessment can be identified using Google searches, with several new forms appearing since 2003. Since then, the popularity of the various members of the impact assessment family has changed, partly in response to legislative and regulatory changes, and general trends in society. The information explosion and expansion of the internet has resulted in a 32 fold increase in the number of hits for "impact assessment", now over 12 million. The conventional methods most frequently mentioned in 2003 had relatively low proportional change over the last 10 years but remain amongst the most frequently mentioned in 2014: risk assessment, public participation, cost-benefit analysis, public involvement, environmental monitoring, and project evaluation. The terms with highest proportional change (i.e. the super-hot topics) were primarily social concerns, including: equality impact assessment, welfare impact assessment, mental health impact assessment, disability impact assessment, human impact assessment, social impact assessment, and social risk assessment. Other terms that had high proportional change included life cycle impact assessment. Information about the relative popularity of the various forms of impact assessment is used in this paper to discuss issues and trends in the broad field of impact assessment.
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT RESEARCH IN GERMANY: RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT
Authors: KOEPPEL JOHANN , GEISSLER GESA
Published: March 2015

This paper aims to provide an overview of German Environmental Assessment (EA) research over the recent decades. Likely reasons for previous developments as Germany's post-Cold War challenges, ongoing case study research endeavours and further prospects are outlined. This involves research on large-scale SEA making, an enhanced EA theory building and a move towards "best available science" research. Last but not least, a stronger research oriented conference series is proposed.
Highly Ordered Mesoporous WO3 with Excellent Catalytic Performance and Reusability for Deep Oxidative Desulfurization
Authors: Li Zhenghua , Jeong Heon Jong , Sivaranjani Kumarsrinivasan , Song Byung Jin , Park Su Bin , Li Donghao , Lee Chul Wee , Jin Mingshi , Kim Ji Man
Published: March 2015

Highly ordered mesoporous tungsten trioxide ( WO 3) with high surface area (75 m2/g) and well-defined mesopores were successfully prepared through a hard templating method using a mesoporous silica KIT-6 as a template and ( NH 4)6 H 2 W 12 O 40 ⋅ x H 2 O as a tungsten precursor. Oxidative desulfurization of a model oil with H 2 O 2 as the oxidant was carried out at 50°C under atmospheric pressure in order to analyze the catalytic activity. The desulfurization reactions were optimized by various kinds of reaction parameters such as H 2 O 2/ S molar ratio, reaction temperatures and series of sulfur-containing compounds [dibenzothiophene (DBT), benzothiophene (BT) and 4,6-dimethyl dibenzothiophene (4,6-DMBT)]. Excellent catalytic activity for the removal of the sulfur-containing compounds from the model oil was observed with mesoporous WO 3 catalyst, where the activity was maintained during 5 recycle tests without any regeneration process. The high catalytic activity and durability is mainly attributed to well-defined mesopores and high surface area of mesoporous WO 3 catalyst.
A linear time algorithm to compute a minimum restrained dominating set in proper interval graphs
Authors: Panda B. S. , Pradhan D.
Published: March 2015

A set D ⊆ V is a restrained dominating set of a graph G = (V, E) if every vertex in V\D is adjacent to a vertex in D and a vertex in V\D. Given a graph G and a positive integer k, the restrained domination problem is to check whether G has a restrained dominating set of size at most k. The restrained domination problem is known to be NP-complete even for chordal graphs. In this paper, we propose a linear time algorithm to compute a minimum restrained dominating set of a proper interval graph. We present a polynomial time reduction that proves the NP-completeness of the restrained domination problem for undirected path graphs, chordal bipartite graphs, circle graphs, and planar graphs.
Self-Assembly Technique for Biomedical Applications
Authors: Gong Xiao
Published: March 2015

Layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly has attracted extensive attention for its simplicity and versatility. Self-assembly has many potential applications, among which biomedical applications is especially important because it can be used as a means of generating drug delivery and biomedical materials. Based on this, most recent progress in the field of self-assembly technique for drug delivery and biomedical material applications are summarized in this mini review. The remaining challenges are also mentioned.
Pool Boiling Performance of Notched Tubes in Lithium Bromide Solution
Authors: Sim Yong-Sub , Kim Nae-Hyun
Published: March 2015

In the present study, pool boiling heat transfer coefficients in Lithium Bromide ( LiBr ) solution were obtained for smooth, floral, notched fin and notched floral tubes. Test range covered saturation pressure from 7.38 to 101.3 kPa, LiBr concentration from 0% to 50%. Floral tube yielded the highest heat transfer coefficient, and smooth tube yielded the lowest heat transfer coefficient. Effect of notching on heat transfer coefficient was dependent on tube shape. When applied to the smooth tube (notched fin tube), notching increased the heat transfer coefficient. When applied to the floral tube (notched floral tube), on the other hand, notching decreased the heat transfer coefficient. The reason has been attributed to the balance of advantage of added nucleation sites and disadvantage of added flow resistance. Boiling heat transfer correlations were developed which are applicable for saturation pressure from 7.38 to 101.3 kPa and LiBr concentration from 0% to 50%.
Gold exploration using heavy minerals in till and weathered bedrock in Petäjäselkä, northern Finland
Authors: Taivalkoski Anne , Sarala Pertti , Hulkki Helena
Published: March 2015

As a part of a gold exploration project in Petäjäselkä, northern Finland, carried out by the Geological Survey of Finland, heavy mineral studies and detailed till geochemical and stratigraphical studies were used for mineral exploration. These studies covered
c
. 22 km
2
in the Petäjäselkä area. The objective of this research was to find out how heavy minerals and till geochemistry can be used in gold exploration, and how they reflect the glacial dispersion in shallow till areas in Petäjäselkä. Furthermore, an automated mineralogical identification method (SEM-EDS) was tested in the indicator mineral research.

Samples from till and underlying, pre-glacially weathered bedrock were collected from the test pits and trenches. A total of 381 heavy mineral and 713 geochemical samples were collected. The heavy mineral samples were concentrated with a spiral concentrator and a Knelson concentrator. The geochemical samples were analysed by ICP-AES and GF-AAS following aqua regia decomposition. The elevated gold contents and distinct anomalies found in till and weathered bedrock indicate the whole study area to have potential for gold mineralization. Based on microscopic and automated mineralogical studies, native gold was the only useful indicator mineral present in the heavy mineral samples for gold exploration in Petäjäselkä.The detailed till geochemical results show that the glacial transport distance in Petäjäselkä is short, only some tens of meters. Differences in the Au-Ag contents of the gold grains were noted between the three gold mineralized targets in Kerolaki, Selkä-Mäntypää and Ranta-Mäntypää. Arsenic, bismuth and tellurium proved to be pathfinder elements for gold mineralization both in till and weathered bedrock. The results of this study show that the heavy mineral studies, together with till geochemical studies, provide a useful method for identifying exploration targets in glaciated terrain. However, different methods of heavy mineral concentration affect the recovery of gold grains and thereby the final results of this study.
Human Tutorial Instruction in the Raw
Authors: Gil Yolanda
Published: March 2015

Humans learn procedures from one another through a variety of methods, such as observing someone do the task, practicing by themselves, reading manuals or textbooks, or getting instruction from a teacher. Some of these methods generate examples that require the learner to generalize appropriately. When procedures are complex, however, it becomes unmanageable to induce the procedures from examples alone. An alternative and very common method for teaching procedures is tutorial instruction, where a teacher describes in general terms what actions to perform and possibly includes explanations of the rationale for the actions. This article provides an overview of the challenges in using human tutorial instruction for teaching procedures to computers. First, procedures can be very complex and can involve many different types of interrelated information, including (1) situating the instruction in the context of relevant objects and their properties, (2) describing the steps involved, (3) specifying the organization of the procedure in terms of relationships among steps and substeps, and (4) conveying control structures. Second, human tutorial instruction is naturally plagued with omissions, oversights, unintentional inconsistencies, errors, and simply poor design. The article presents a survey of work from the literature that highlights the nature of these challenges and illustrates them with numerous examples of instruction in many domains. Major research challenges in this area are highlighted, including the difficulty of the learning task when procedures are complex, the need to overcome omissions and errors in the instruction, the design of a natural user interface to specify procedures, the management of the interaction of a human with a learning system, and the combination of tutorial instruction with other teaching modalities.
Solving the Global Atmospheric Equations through Heterogeneous Reconfigurable Platforms
Authors: Gan Lin , Fu Haohuan , Luk Wayne , Yang Chao , Xue Wei , Huang Xiaomeng , Zhang Youhui , Yang Guangwen
Published: March 2015

One of the most essential and challenging components in climate modeling is the atmospheric model. To solve multiphysical atmospheric equations, developers have to face extremely complex stencil kernels that are costly in terms of both computing and memory resources. This article aims to accelerate the solution of global shallow water equations (SWEs), which is one of the most essential equation sets describing atmospheric dynamics. We first design a hybrid methodology that employs both the host CPU cores and the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) accelerators to work in parallel. Through a careful adjustment of the computational domains, we achieve a balanced resource utilization and a further improvement of the overall performance. By decomposing the resource-demanding SWE kernel, we manage to map the double-precision algorithm into three FPGAs. Moreover, by using fixed-point and reduced-precision floating point arithmetic, we manage to build a fully pipelined mixed-precision design on a single FPGA, which can perform 428 floating-point and 235 fixed-point operations per cycle. The mixed-precision design with four FPGAs running together can achieve a speedup of 20 over a fully optimized design on a CPU rack with two eight-core processorsand is 8 times faster than the fully optimized Kepler GPU design. As for power efficiency, the mixed-precision design with four FPGAs is 10 times more power efficient than a Tianhe-1A supercomputer node.
An Evaluation-Driven Decision Procedure for G3i
Authors: Ferrari Mauro , Fiorentini Camillo , Fiorino Guido
Published: March 2015

It is well known that G3i, the sequent calculus for intuitionistic propositional logic where weakening and contraction are absorbed into the rules, is not terminating. Indeed, due to the contraction in the rule for left implication, the naïve goal-oriented proof-search strategy, consisting in applying the rules of the calculus bottom up until possible, can generate branches of infinite length. The usual solution to this problem is to support the proof-search procedure with a loop checking mechanism that prevents the generation of infinite branches by storing and analyzing some information regarding the branch under development.

In this article, we propose a new technique based on evaluation functions. An evaluation function is a lightweight computational mechanism that, analyzing only the current goal of the proof search, allows one to drive the application of rules to guarantee termination and to avoid useless backtracking. We describe an evaluation-driven proof-search procedure that given a sequent σ returns either a G3i-derivation of σ or a countermodel for σ. We prove that such a procedure is terminating and correct, and that the depth of the G3i-trees generated during proof search is quadratic in the size of σ. Finally, we discuss the overhead time introduced by evaluation functions in the proof-search procedure.
Efficient Computation of the Tree Edit Distance
Authors: Pawlik Mateusz , Augsten Nikolaus
Published: March 2015

We consider the classical tree edit distance between ordered labelled trees, which is defined as the minimum-cost sequence of node edit operations that transform one tree into another. The state-of-the-art solutions for the tree edit distance are not satisfactory. The main competitors in the field either have optimal worst-case complexity but the worst case happens frequently, or they are very efficient for some tree shapes but degenerate for others. This leads to unpredictable and often infeasible runtimes. There is no obvious way to choose between the algorithms.

In this article we present RTED, a robust tree edit distance algorithm. The asymptotic complexity of our algorithm is smaller than or equal to the complexity of the best competitors for any input instance, that is, our algorithm is both efficient and worst-case optimal. This is achieved by computing a dynamic decomposition strategy that depends on the input trees. RTED is shown optimal among all algorithms that use LRH (
left-right-heavy
) strategies, which include RTED and the fastest tree edit distance algorithms presented in literature. In our experiments on synthetic and real-world data we empirically evaluate our solution and compare it to the state-of-the-art.
Why Is It Hard to Obtain a Dichotomy for Consistent Query Answering?
Authors: Fontaine Gaëlle
Published: March 2015

A database may for various reasons become inconsistent with respect to a given set of integrity constraints. In the late 1990s, the formal approach of consistent query answering was proposed in order to query such databases. Since then, a lot of efforts have been spent to classify the complexity of consistent query answering under various classes of constraints. It is known that for the most common constraints and queries, the problem is in coNP and might be coNP-hard, yet several relevant tractable classes have been identified. Additionally, the results that emerged suggested that given a set of key constraints and a conjunctive query, the problem of consistent query answering is either in PTime or is coNP-complete. However, despite all the work, as of today this dichotomy remains a conjecture.

The main contribution of this article is to explain why it appears so difficult to obtain a dichotomy result in the setting of consistent query answering. Namely, we prove that such a dichotomy with respect to common classes of constraints and queries is harder to achieve than a dichotomy for the constraint satisfaction problem, which is a famous open problem since the 1990s.
The Complexity of Decomposing Modal and First-Order Theories
Authors: Göller Stefan , Jung Jean-Christoph , Lohrey Markus
Published: March 2015

We study the satisfiability problem of the logic K
2
= K × K—the two-dimensional variant of unimodal logic, where models are restricted to asynchronous products of two Kripke frames. Gabbay and Shehtman proved in 1998 that this problem is decidable in a tower of exponentials. So far, the best-known lower bound is NEXP-hardness shown by Marx and Mikulás in 2001.

Our first main result closes this complexity gap. We show that satisfiability in K
2
is nonelementary. More precisely, we prove that it is
k
-NEXP-complete, where
k
is the switching depth (the minimal modal rank among the two dimensions) of the input formula, hereby solving a conjecture of Marx and Mikulás. Using our lower-bound technique also allows us to derive nonelementary lower bounds for the two-dimensional modal logics K4 × K and S5
2
× K, for which only elementary lower bounds were previously known.

Moreover, we apply our technique to prove nonelementary lower bounds for the sizes of Feferman-Vaught decompositions with respect to product for any decomposable logic that is at least as expressive as unimodal K, generalizing a recent result by the first author and Lin. For the three-variable fragment FO
3
of first-order logic, we obtain the following two immediate corollaries: the size of Feferman-Vaught decompositions with respect to disjoint sum are inherently nonelementary, and equivalent formulas in Gaifman normal form are inherently nonelementary.

Our second main result consists in providing effective elementary (more precisely, doubly exponential) upper bounds for the two-variable fragment FO
2
of first-order logic both for Feferman-Vaught decompositions and for equivalent formulas in Gaifman normal form.
Emotional States Associated with Music
Authors: Deng James J. , Leung Clement H. C. , Milani Alfredo , Chen Li
Published: March 2015

We present several interrelated technical and empirical contributions to the problem of emotion-based music recommendation and show how they can be applied in a possible usage scenario. The contributions are (1) a new three-dimensional resonance-arousal-valence model for the representation of emotion expressed in music, together with methods for automatically classifying a piece of music in terms of this model, using robust regression methods applied to musical/acoustic features; (2) methods for predicting a listener’s emotional state on the assumption that the emotional state has been determined entirely by a sequence of pieces of music recently listened to, using conditional random fields and taking into account the decay of emotion intensity over time; and (3) a method for selecting a ranked list of pieces of music that match a particular emotional state, using a minimization iteration method. A series of experiments yield information about the validity of our operationalizations of these contributions. Throughout the article, we refer to an illustrative usage scenario in which all of these contributions can be exploited, where it is assumed that (1) a listener’s emotional state is being determined entirely by the music that he or she has been listening to and (2) the listener wants to hear additional music that matches his or her current emotional state. The contributions are intended to be useful in a variety of other scenarios as well.
Exercise training alters DNA methylation patterns in genes related to muscle growth and differentiation in mice
Authors: Kanzleiter Timo , Jähnert Markus , Schulze Gunnar , Selbig Joachim , Hallahan Nicole , Schwenk Robert Wolfgang , Schürmann Annette
Published: March 2015

The adaptive response of skeletal muscle to exercise training is tightly controlled and therefore requires transcriptional regulation. DNA methylation is an epigenetic mechanism known to modulate gene expression, but its contribution to exercise-induced adaptations in skeletal muscle is not well studied. Here, we describe a genome-wide analysis of DNA methylation in muscle of trained mice ( n = 3). Compared with sedentary controls, 2,762 genes exhibited differentially methylated CpGs ( P < 0.05, meth diff >5%, coverage >10) in their putative promoter regions. Alignment with gene expression data ( n = 6) revealed 200 genes with a negative correlation between methylation and expression changes in response to exercise training. The majority of these genes were related to muscle growth and differentiation, and a minor fraction involved in metabolic regulation. Among the candidates were genes that regulate the expression of myogenic regulatory factors ( Plexin A2) as well as genes that participate in muscle hypertrophy ( Igfbp4) and motor neuron innervation ( Dok7). Interestingly, a transcription factor binding site enrichment study discovered significantly enriched occurrence of CpG methylation in the binding sites of the myogenic regulatory factors MyoD and myogenin. These findings suggest that DNA methylation is involved in the regulation of muscle adaptation to regular exercise training.
Extreme obesity is associated with variation in genes related to the circadian rhythm of food intake and hypothalamic signaling
Authors: Mariman Edwin C. M. , Bouwman Freek G. , Aller Erik E. J. G. , van Baak Marleen A. , Wang Ping
Published: March 2015

The hypothalamus is important for regulation of energy intake. Mutations in genes involved in the function of the hypothalamus can lead to early-onset severe obesity. To look further into this, we have followed a strategy that allowed us to identify rare and common gene variants as candidates for the background of extreme obesity from a relatively small cohort. For that we focused on subjects with a well-selected phenotype and on a defined gene set and used a rich source of genetic data with stringent cut-off values. A list of 166 genes functionally related to the hypothalamus was generated. In those genes complete exome sequence data from 30 extreme obese subjects (60 genomes) were screened for novel rare indel, nonsense, and missense variants with a predicted negative impact on protein function. In addition, (moderately) common variants in those genes were analyzed for allelic association using the general population as reference (false discovery rate < 0.05). Six novel rare deleterious missense variants were found in the genes for BAIAP3, NBEA, PRRC2A, RYR1, SIM1, and TRH, and a novel indel variant in LEPR. Common variants in the six genes for MBOAT4, NPC1, NPW, NUCB2, PER1, and PRRC2A showed significant allelic association with extreme obesity. Our findings underscore the complexity of the genetic background of extreme obesity involving rare and common variants of genes from defined metabolic and physiologic processes, in particular regulation of the circadian rhythm of food intake and hypothalamic signaling.
An EMG Keyboard for Forearm Amputees
Authors: Yu Wenwei , Kato Ryu , Fabio Fukuda , Yokoi Hiroshi , Kakazu Yukinori
Published: March 2015

A high-efficiency, easy-to-use input device is not only important for data entry but also for human-computer interaction. To date, there has been little research on input devices with many degrees of freedom (DOF) that can be used by the handicapped. This paper presents the development of an electromyography (EMG)-based input device for forearm amputees. To overcome the difficulties in analysing EMG and realising high DOF from biosignals, the following were integrated: (1) an online learning method to cope with nonlinearity and the individual difference of EMG signals; (2) a smoothing algorithm to deal with noisy recognition results and transition states; and (3) a modified Huffman coding algorithm to generate the optimal code, taking expected error and input efficiency into consideration. Experiments showed the validity of the system and the possibility for development of a quiet, free-posture (no postural restriction) input device with many DOF for users, including forearm amputees.
Multi-Joint Coordination of Vertical Arm Movement
Authors: Seth Ajay , McPhee John J. , Pandy Marcus G.
Published: March 2015

A model of the human arm was developed to study coordination of multi-joint movement in the vertical plane. The arm was represented as a two-segment, two-degree of freedom dynamic system with net muscle torques acting at the shoulder and elbow. Kinematic data were collected from a subject who performed unrestrained vertical movements with only the initial and final hand elevations prescribed. Movements were performed with and without a hand-held load. The method of computed torques was implemented to obtain net muscle torques, which enables position and velocity feedback to be used to estimate joint angular accelerations that produce a more stable simulation of arm movement. The model simulation was then used to calculate the contributions of the net muscle torques, gravitational torques and velocity-interaction torques to the angular accelerations of the shoulder and elbow and also to the vertical acceleration of the hand. The net muscle torques and gravity were the prime movers of the arm. The velocity-dependent effects contributed little to the dynamics of arm movement and were, in fact, insignificant when the hand was loaded. The muscles of the shoulder and elbow acted synergistically to elevate the arm in the sagittal plane. The hand was accelerated upward by the elbow first, until the point of maximum elbow flexion, after which the shoulder became the prime mover. Gravity acted consistently to accelerate the hand downward. Coordination was notably invariant to changes in external load. Some compensation for load was observed in the control, and these differences were attributed mainly to an increase in system inertia.
FACE: Facial Automaton for Conveying Emotions
Authors: Pioggia Giovanni , Ahluwalia Arti , Carpi Federico , Marchetti Andrea , Ferro Marcello , Rocchia Walter , De Rossi Danilo
Published: March 2015

The human face is the main organ of expression, capable of transmitting emotions that are almost instantly recognised by fellow beings. In this paper, we describe the development of a lifelike facial display based on the principles of biomimetic engineering. A number of paradigms that can be used for developing believable emotional displays, borrowing from elements of anthropomorphic mechanics and control, and materials science, are outlined. These are used to lay down the technological and philosophical premises necessary to construct a man-machine interface for expressing emotions through a biomimetic mechanical head. Applications in therapy to enhance social skills and understanding emotion in people with autism are discussed.
Comparative Study of Mechanical Stresses in Human Limb Bones
Authors: Drăgulescu Doina , Rusu Lucian , Morcovescu Vlad , Precup Cris
Published: March 2015

This research studies the upper and lower limb bones of elderly persons. The measurements of compressive, tensile and bending forces were performed on 147 specimens: 72 in a compression trial, 21 in a tensile trial and 54 in a bending trial. Bones were extracted from 38 cadavers (60–70-years-old at the time of death). Experimental protocols were developed to minimise the possible errors in obtaining the data. All results were statistically processed. There was a significant difference between the results of both the tensile and bending trials and the compression trial (p = 0.08). Significant differences were observed between the results of the compression test in proximal versus distal ends of the bones (femur, tibia and humerus). After the removal of outlying results, an F-test analysis was performed on all remaining values, establishing different correlation levels between the groups of results. These results were compared with those published by other researchers.
Mechanical Blood Pumps for Cardiac Assistance
Authors: Akdis M. , Reul H.
Published: March 2015

Cardiac assist devices are classified into the traditional engineering categories of displacement and rotary pumps. Clinical use and indications of the various pump categories are outlined and a detailed description of currently available systems is given. The first part deals with extracorporeal as well as implantable ventricular assist devices (VAD) of the displacement type and is followed by a section on current developments in the field of total artificial hearts (TAH). The second part covers the rotary pump category from cardiopulmonary bypass applications to implantable systems, including specific design aspects of radial, diagonal, and axial pumps.
Realistic Active Haptic Guided Exploration with Cartesian Control for Force–Position Tracking in Finite Time
Authors: Domínguez-Ramírez O. A. , Parra-Vega V.
Published: March 2015

Perception and interaction with virtual surfaces, through kinaesthetic sensation and visual stimuli, is the basic issue of a haptic interface. When the virtual or real object is in a remote location, and guidance is required to perceive kinaesthetic feedback, a haptic guidance scheme is required. In this document, with purpose of haptic-guided exploration, a new scheme for simultaneous control of force and cartesian position is proposed without using inverse kinematics, and without using the dynamic model of PHANToM, though a strict stability analysis includes the dynamic model of PHANToM. We rely on our previously proposed results to propose a new haptic cartesian controller to reduce the burden of computing cartesian forces in PHANToM. Furthermore, a time base generator for finite-time tracking is also proposed to achieve very fast tracking and high precision, which translated into high fidelity kinaesthetic feedback.