bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Safety and mechanism of action of noninvasive radiofrequency treatment for vaginal laxity: Histological study in the swine vaginal model
Authors: Kent David E. , Bernardy Jan 
Published: October 2019

AbstractBackgroundStructural changes in collagen and elastin fiber density have been previously evaluated by qualitative histological studies; however, quantitative evaluations are lacking.AimTo evaluate quantitative changes in collagen and elastin fibers in the vaginal wall in a porcine model after volumetric radiofrequency heating with an intravaginal applicator.MethodsAn animal model was used (domestic pig, multipara: 5.67 ± 0.94 deliveries, 3 years of age). Three pigs under general anesthesia were treated (8‐minute, vaginal canal area) once per week for the course of three weeks. There were 2 follow‐up evaluations at one and four weeks. Histology specimens were obtained via punch biopsy under ultrasound control. Ultrasound video measurements of the vaginal wall thickness were also obtained. Tissue samples were stained by H&E as well as stains for collagen and elastin fibers.ResultsElastin (P < .001) and collagen (P < .01) fiber density increased after every treatment. The measured increase in fibers was highest at the one‐week follow‐up. Elastin accounted on average for 51.46 ± 16.86% of the tissue examined (increase of 36.8% points), while collagen accounted on average for 44.83 ± 18.92% (increase of 17.1% points). The number of synthetically active cells was increased by 16%. While vaginal wall thickness did show an increase of 1.66 mm (32%), this tendency was not statistically significant (P > .05).ConclusionResults suggest that volumetric heating of vaginal tissue produced quantitative improvement in the connective tissue organization in a porcine study. Neocollagenesis and neoelastogenesis were observed with an increased number of synthetically active cells.
Ecological drivers of tree assemblage in tropical, subtropical and subalpine forests
Authors: Asefa Mengesha , Wen Han‐Dong , Brown Calum , Cao Min , Xu Kun , Hu Yue‐Hua 
Published: October 2019

AbstractAimsIt is widely accepted that deterministic and neutral dispersal processes are two of the principal mechanisms driving community assembly. However, the relative importance of these ecological drivers between distinct life stages both at community and individual species levels remains poorly understood in different vegetation types. Here, we address the following questions: (a) is there a ubiquitous process shaping tree assemblage; (b) how does the relative importance of environmental and dispersal processes vary through ontogeny in different vegetation types; and (c) will the spatial patterns of trees at community and individual species levels reflect similar contribution between ecological processes?LocationYunnan province, southwest China.MethodsWe used the Homogeneous Poisson, Homogeneous Thomas, Inhomogeneous Poisson, and Inhomogeneous Thomas point process models to predict the effect of stochastic, dispersal and/or environmental processes, respectively, on the distribution of trees across ontogeny in tropical, subtropical and subalpine forests. To evaluate the relative importance of models, we compared the observed and simulated patterns of the species–area relationship and the pair correlation function g(r) at community and species level, respectively.ResultsThe Homogeneous Thomas model was the model with the lowest Akaike information criterion (AIC) scores across ontogeny and forest types at community level. At the species level, however, Homogeneous Thomas, and Inhomogeneous Thomas predicted the distribution of large and small trees, respectively, with lower AIC values in two of our three plots. In the third plot, the Homogeneous Thomas model is dominant across ontogeny at the species level.ConclusionsTree communities are assembled mainly by the dispersal process at community level. The relative importance of ecological processes for species distribution varies across life stages at the species level, suggesting that there is an ontogenetic shift of ecological processes in shaping tree distribution. Using different summary statistics at both community and species levels helps to discern the different spatial structures of species and increases our appreciation of the processes underpinning community assembly.
Cytosolic GABA inhibits anion transport by wheat ALMT1
Authors: Long Yu , Tyerman Stephen D. , Gilliham Matthew 
Published: October 2019

Summary

Anion transport by aluminium‐activated malate transporter (ALMT) proteins is negatively regulated by gamma‐aminobutyric acid (GABA), which increases in concentration during stress.

Here, the interaction between GABA and wheat (Triticum aestivum, Ta) TaALMT1 heterologously‐expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes was investigated.

GABA inhibited anion transport by TaALMT1 in membrane patches from the cytosolic, not extracellular membrane face, via a reduction in open probability (NPopen), not an inhibition of channel current magnitude. TaALMT1 currents in patches frequently exhibited rundown with complete removal of cytosolic factors, but were partially sustained by protein kinase C dependent phosphorylation. When applied to whole oocytes a GABA‐analogue‐BODIPY conjugate inhibited TaALMT1 anion currents from the cytoplasmic face only, whereas free GABA inhibited from both the inside and outside consistent with GABA traversing the TaALMT1 pore then acting from the inside.

We propose GABA does not competitively inhibit ALMT conductance through the same pore but rather leads to an allosteric effect, reducing anion channel opening frequency. Across plants GABA is a conserved regulator of anion transport via ALMTs – a family with numerous physiological roles beyond Al3+ tolerance. Our data suggests that a GABA–ALMT interaction from the cytosolic face has the potential to form part of a novel plant signalling pathway.
Co‐administration of chitin micro‐particle and Leishmania antigen proposed a new immune adjuvant against experimental leishmaniasis
Authors: Azizi Mahdieh , Yousefi Roya , Yeganeh Farshid , Mami Sanaz , Haji Molla Hoseini Mostafa 
Published: October 2019

AbstractAimsWe investigated the protective effect of chitin micro‐particle (CMP) as an adjuvant against Leishmania infection in BALB/c mice.MethodsMice were immunized subcutaneously with soluble Leishmania antigen (SLA) plus CMP (100 µg SLA + 100 µg CMP/100 µL) as the test group. Three weeks after the last immunization, test and control groups were infected by Leishmania major (L major). Eight weeks post‐infection, evaluation of parasites load in lymph nodes was performed using limiting dilution assay. Then, the spleen cell cytokine response (TNF‐α, IFN‐γ, IL‐4, IL‐10, IL‐17 and IL‐27) to SLA among vaccinated and nonvaccinated groups was investigated using ELISA. Serum levels of IgG1 and IgG2a were measured as well.ResultsThe SLA plus CMP group demonstrated the protection. The responses included reduced lesion formation and lower parasite load. Also, in comparison with control group higher levels of IFN‐γ and, IL‐10 in the culture of spleen cells, and lower levels of IgG1 in sera were seen in SLA plus CMP group.ConclusionThe data supported the possibility of using CMP as a suitable adjuvant in Leishmania vaccination.
Bringing Voters into the Equation: An Individual‐Level Analysis of the Vice Presidential Home State Advantage
Authors: Devine Christopher J. , Kopko Kyle C. 
Published: October 2019

This article critiques two leading analyses of the vice presidential home state advantage (VP HSA) and uses their fundamental methodological insights to develop a comprehensive, individual‐level analysis aimed at resolving a major conflict in the political science literature. Our analyses of the 1952–2016 American National Election Studies and the 2008–16 Cooperative Congressional Election Studies provide no evidence of a statistically significant VP HSA. These results are consistent with Devine and Kopko's findings, and inconsistent with Heersink and Peterson's, regarding the VP HSA, in general. However, they are also inconsistent with Devine and Kopko's previous findings regarding a conditional advantage based upon home state population and candidate experience. These results underscore the importance of using individual‐ rather than aggregate‐level data to analyze voting behavior, whenever possible.
Optimal Matching Approaches in Health Policy Evaluations Under Rolling Enrolment
Authors: Pimentel Samuel D. , Forrow Lauren Vollmer , Gellar Jonathan , Li Jiaqi 
Published: October 2019

SummaryComparison group selection is paramount for health policy evaluations, where randomization is seldom practicable. Rolling enrolment is common in these evaluations, introducing challenges for comparison group selection and inference. We propose a novel framework, GroupMatch, for comparison group selection under rolling enrolment, founded on the notion of time agnosticism: two subjects with similar outcome trajectories but different enrolment periods may be more prognostically similar and produce better inference if matched, than two subjects with the same enrolment period but different pre-enrolment trajectories. We articulate the conceptual advantages of this framework and demonstrate its efficacy in a simulation study and in an application to a study of the effect of falls in Medicare Advantage patients.
Expanding and Repositioning Cognitive Science
Authors: Rosenbloom Paul S. , Forbus Kenneth D. 
Published: October 2019

AbstractCognitive science has converged in many ways with cognitive psychology, but while also maintaining a distinctive interdisciplinary nature. Here we further characterize this existing state of the field before proposing how it might be reconceptualized toward a broader and more distinct, and thus more stable, position in the realm of sciences.
Time and Motion Studies of Manual Harvesting Methods for Oil Palm Fruit Bunches: A Malaysian Case Study
Authors: Saibani Nizaroyani , Muhamed Ariff Azly , Maliami Mohd Faizal , Ahmad Rasyidah 
Published: October 2019

In optimizing the yield of oil palm fruit bunches collection, the mechanization of the collection process is very important. However, before the analysis of the cost benefits of any mechanization development can be utilized, this study has to be carried out. Time and Motion Studies (TMS) is used to identify and measure the efficiency of the oil palm fruit bunches’ manual harvesting technique. The Direct Time Study Technique has been selected to determine and record the time taken by the harvester to harvest the oil palm fruit bunches, where the tool used in this technique is a stopwatch, alongside the Time Study Observation Sheet. Meanwhile, to examine the motions used by the harvester in the harvesting process, the Therblig’s Motion Principle is applied to identify effective and non- effective motions. A field work study has been conducted by monitoring two harvesters and all the real time data is recorded in the time study observation sheet and analyzed to get a value of Normal Time (NT) and also Standard Time (ST) for each work element involved in the manual harvesting process of palm oil. There are seven work elements that have been identified to have been used by the harvester to complete the process, the first element is searching for the mature palm oil tree (NT= 40.73 seconds), the second element is adjusting the Aluminium Pole and Knife (APK) cutter (NT= 23.36 seconds), the third element is cutting the oil palm’s frond (NT= 51.30 seconds), the fourth element is cutting the mature oil palm’s bunches (NT= 60.26 seconds), the fifth element is collecting the oil palm’s frond that has been cut (NT= 21.69 seconds), the sixth element is putting the oil palm’s bunches that have been cut into the wheel barrow (NT= 34.25 seconds) and the seventh element is collecting the loose oil palm fruits or called fruitlets (NT= 77.49 seconds). The study also categorized a few non-effective work elements carried out during the manual harvesting process. The elements are: searching for the oil palm trees that have mature oil palm bunches, adjusting the APK cutter and also collecting the loose oil palm fruitlets off the ground.
THERMOPHYSICAL PROPERTIES ANALYSIS FOR AMMONIA-WATER MIXTURE OF AN ORGANIC RANKINE CYCLE
Authors: Mohd Razif N.H. , Mamat A.M.I , Lias I. , Mohamed W.A.N.W 
Published: October 2019

In an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC), the thermofluid properties of the organic fluid are key parameters to achieve an optimum energy recovery. Non-azeotrapic fluid, such as ammonia-water mixture is suitable for applications in low grade heat source because of the thermodynamic characteristics of this fluid. This paper reports experimental data of thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity of ammonia-water mixtures that will be used for ORC application. Five ratios of ammonia to water concentration were tested which are; (1) 25:75, (2) 20:80, (3) 15:85, (4) 10:90 and (5) 5:95. These five mixtures are characterized at a temperature range from 25ºC to 40ºC. The result shows that the thermal conductivity increases as the concentration of the ammonia reduces. The thermal conductivity also increases as the mixture temperature increases. The ammonia-water mixture at the ratio of 5:95 gives the highest thermal conductivity at 40ºC which is 30% better than the other concentrations at similar temperature. The dynamic viscosity, and heat capacity, of these mixtures shows a linear relationship to ammonia molar concentration.
THE INFLUENCE OF NI-TI RATIO ON THE REVERSIBLE AUSTENITE-MARTENSITE TRANSFORMATION AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES PRODUCED BY METAL INJECTION MOULDING
Authors: Razali Rosliza , Abdullah Zulaila , Subuki Istikamah , Muhamad Norhamidi , Ismail Muhammad Hussain 
Published: October 2019

This paper highlights the influence of Ni-Ti ratio on the phase constituents, the reversible austenite-martensite transformation and mechanical properties produced by metal injection molding (MIM). The binder system used was mainly palm stearin with minor fraction of polyethylene. Injection moulding was done successfully at 130˚C to form tensile shape samples. It was followed by solvent extraction, thermal debinding at 500oC and subsequently sintered in high vacuum at 1100˚C. The result showed that as the Ni content increased, the fraction of austenite phase also increased owing to greater fraction of transient liquid phase formation during the sintering, thus improved the mechanical tensile properties. However, the reversible austenite to martensite phase transformation temperatures (PTTs) seemed to be broadened with increased Ni content due to formation of metastable R-phase.
THE PERFORMANCE OF LEVERAGE BASED NEAR NEIGHBOUR-ROBUST WEIGHT LEAST SQUARES IN MULTIPLE LINEAR REGRESSION IN THE PRESENCE OF HETEROSCEDASTIC ERRORS AND OUTLIER
Authors: Li Peng Khoo , Adnan Robiah , Ahmad Maizah Hura 
Published: October 2019

In this study, Leverage Based Near Neighbour–Robust Weighted Least Squares (LBNN-RWLS) method is proposed in order to estimate the standard error accurately in the presence of heteroscedastic errors and outliers in multiple linear regression. The data sets used in this study are simulated through monte carlo simulation. The data sets contain heteroscedastic errors and different percentages of outliers with different sample sizes. The study discovered that LBNN-RWLS is able to produce smaller standard errors compared to Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Least Trimmed of Squares (LTS) and Weighted Least Squares (WLS). This shows that LBNN-RWLS can estimate the standard error accurately even when heteroscedastic errors and outliers are present in the data sets.
AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON CSFs FOR PRE-DEVELOPMENT PROCESSESS IMPLEMENTATION AT SMEs IN MALAYSIA
Authors: Abu N.H. , Deros B.M. , Mansor M.F. 
Published: October 2019

New product development processes and product innovation in manufacturing organization is promoting an environment of competitive advantage for organization that can make adequate use of the processes. However, Malaysian SMEs is facing with huge obstacles in implementing various product innovation activities particularly the pre-development processes due to scarce financial resources, manpower, knowledge, and expertise. In fact, the previous research result shows that more focus were given to the discussing about critical success factor for pre-development process implementation in large organizations compared with SMEs. In reality, SMEs having different characteristics compared with large organizations. Primarily, this study is performed, to identify the critical factors which are able to increase the successful implementation of pre-development in SMEs. In achieving the research objective, Delphi techniques have been used for confirmation to identify critical factors based on previous literatures, whether those factors are suitable with the characteristics and surrounding nature of SMEs. The survey form were sent to 35 respondents whose expertise are in the field of pre-development process. However, the researcher managed to interview 20 expert panels. The result of the research showed that ttop management factor, team leaders and members of the team were the main contributors leading the successfulness of the pre-development process in the SMEs organization worthwhile training program factor’s effect is low.
PREDICTING ANIMATED FILM OF BOX-OFFICE SUCCESS WITH NEURAL NETWORKS
Authors: M.T. Riwinoto, , Zega Selly Artaty , Irlanda Gia 
Published: October 2019

Animation industry involves huge funds in production process and its success will give great income. Predicting the box-office of animated film has become an interesting topic to be discussed, because past studies are shown to be contradictory. Sharda and Delen conducted a similar study that used seven parameters, i.e. MPAA rating, competition, star value, genre, special effects, sequel and number of screens; and generated pinpoint accuracy (i.e. Bingo) with 36.9% and within one category (1-Away) with 75.2%. The authors proposed new and simple parameters that can be used to predict the success of animated films, i.e. the actors/actress, animation studio, genre, MPAA rating and the sequel of the film. These five parameters are relatively simple because it can be easily collected. In this study, the use of neural networks in predicting the financial performance of 120 animated films from 1995 until 2013 was explored. There are three categories of financial performance that become the class label of this study, they are: low, medium and high. Our prediction result in bingo is 58% and 1-away is 89,7%. By using the simple parameters, this study can reach a better accuracy. It is expected that this prediction can help animation film industry to predict the expected revenue range before its theatrical release.
METRIC BASED SOFTWARE PROJECT PERFORMANCE MONITORING MODEL
Authors: Doraisamy Mariayee , Ibrahim Suhaimi , Mahrin Mohd Naz’ri 
Published: October 2019

Successful implementation of software projects development is entirely depending upon successful monitoring and control mechanism. Software metrics can deliver the necessary information for monitoring and control the software projects development for its enhancement. However, the current software metrics does not widely address the performance criteria and related metrics for software project management. Largely, metrics are identified in the perspectives of software development only. Hence, the aim of this study is to formulate a Metric based Software Project Performance Monitoring Model which consists of performance criteria and metrics that involves in a software projects development. This model formulation is consists of five processes: metrics integration, metrics validation, metrics description, metrics categorization and metrics threshold. The proposed model is a novel approach and adds significant of knowledge to the software engineering domain especially on software project monitoring and software measurement domain. Generally, this model will be a guideline for software project managers to monitor and control software projects particularly in public sector software projects. In order to demonstrate the applicability of this model, case study was conducted at various departments at Malaysian Public Sector. The results show that the proposed model is very useful for the project managers in monitoring and control software projects.
USE OF NEW EFFICIENT LOSSLESS DATA COMPRESSION METHOD IN TRANSMITTING ENCRYPTED BAPTISTA SYMMETRIC CHAOTIC CRYPTOSYSTEM DATA
Authors: Daud Muhamad Azlan , Kamel Ariffin Muhammad Rezal , Kularajasingam S. , Che Hussin Che Haziqah , Juhan Nurliyana , Hasni Mohd Mughti 
Published: October 2019

A new compression algorithm used to ensure a modified Baptista symmetric cryptosystem which is based on a chaotic dynamical system to be applicable is proposed. The Baptista symmetric cryptosystem able to produce various ciphers responding to the same message input. This modified Baptista type cryptosystem suffers from message expansion that goes against the conventional methodology of a symmetric cryptosystem. A new lossless data compression algorithm based on theideas from the Huffman coding for data transmission is proposed.This new compression mechanism does not face the problem of mapping elements from a domain which is much larger than its range.Our new algorithm circumvent this problem via a pre-defined codeword list. The purposed algorithm has fast encoding and decoding mechanism and proven analytically to be a lossless data compression technique.
DNA MOTIF IDENTIFICATION USING LPBS
Authors: Harun Hazaruddin , Syed Abdullah Sharifah Lailee , Hambali Hamirul Aini 
Published: October 2019

In recent years, several deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)-based approaches have been developed for species identification including DNA sequencing. The search for motif or patterns in DNA sequences is important in many fields especially in biology. In this paper, a new particle swarm optimization (PSO) approach for discovering species-specific motifs was proposed. The new method named as Linear-PSO with Binary Search (LPBS) is developed to discover motifs of specific species through DNA sequences. This enhanced method integrates Linear-PSO and binary search technique to minimize the execution time and to increase the correctness in identifying the motif. In this study, two fragments samples of ‘mitochondrial cytochrome C oxidase subunit I’ (COI or COX1) were collected from the Genbank online database. DNA sequences for the first sample are fragments of COI for one species and the second samples are a complete COI from a different species. The genome of COI was used as a reference set and other DNA sequences were used as a comparison set. The results show that the LPBS algorithm is able to discover motifs of a species when using DNA sequences from the same fragment of COI.