bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Distributed learning consensus control based on neural networks for heterogeneous nonlinear multiagent systems
Authors: Shen Dong , Zhang Chao , Xu Jian‐Xin 
Published: June 2019

SummaryThis paper considers a novel distributed iterative learning consensus control algorithm based on neural networks for the control of heterogeneous nonlinear multiagent systems. The system's unknown nonlinear function is approximated by suitable neural networks; the approximation error is countered by a robust term in the control. Two types of control algorithms, both of which utilize distributed learning laws, are provided to achieve consensus. In the provided control algorithms, the desired reference is considered to be an unknown factor and then estimated using the associated learning laws. The consensus convergence is proven by the composite energy function method. A numerical simulation is ultimately presented to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed control schemes.
Tetrahedral Framework Nucleic Acids Promote Corneal Epithelial Wound Healing in Vitro and in Vivo
Authors: Liu Nanxin , Zhang Xiaolin , Li Ni , Zhou Mi , Zhang Tianxu , Li Songhang , Cai Xiaoxiao , Ji Ping , Lin Yunfeng 
Published: June 2019

AbstractPoor post‐traumatic wound healing can affect the normal function of damaged tissues and organs. For example, poor healing of corneal epithelial injuries may lead to permanent visual impairment. It is of great importance to find a therapeutic way to promote wound closure. Tetrahedral framework nucleic acids (tFNAs) are new promising nanomaterials, which can affect the biological behavior of cells. In the experiment, corneal wound healing is used as an example to explore the effect of tFNAs on wound healing. Results show that the proliferation and migration of human corneal epithelial cells are enhanced by exposure to tFNAs in vitro, possibly relevant to the activation of P38 and ERK1/2 signaling pathway. An animal model of corneal alkali burn is established to further identify the facilitation effect of tFNAs on corneal wound healing in vivo. Clinical evaluations and histological analyses show that tFNAs can improve the corneal transparency and accelerate the re‐epithelialization of wounds. Both in vitro and in vivo experiments show that tFNAs can play a positive role in corneal epithelial wound healing.
In the Age of Cities: The Impact of Urbanisation on House Prices and Affordability
Authors: van Doorn Lisette , Arnold Amanprit , Rapoport Elizabeth 
Published: June 2019

AbstractRapid urbanisation as well as demographic and technological changes are among the trends reshaping the cities in which we live, work and play. This paper explores how these trends, the growing diversity of household types and demands, and the development of residential real estate as a mainstream investment sector impact the housing market in major cities. These factors are contributing, in many cities, to rising house prices, affordable housing shortages and inflexible housing stock. These problems in turn threaten not just financial market stability, but also quality of life and integration, as well as city competitiveness on the national and international scale. In response, the Urban Land Institute (ULI) recommends that cities should focus on creating more housing, including a more diverse range of options so that the housing stock can better meet the needs of different household types and income levels. By applying the principles of “good density”—mixed, use, well-connected environments with high-quality placemaking—integrated urban environments can be created that cater to a range of income and population groups and contribute to the vibrancy and authenticity of a city.
The Smouldering Issue
Authors: Ivens Laurens 
Published: June 2019

AbstractIn the 90s, almost 90% of the housing supply in Amsterdam consisted of rental homes, largely in the affordable segment. But at the same time, a reduction of the social rental sector and stimulation of the market sector had gained the upper hand. At this moment, the housing market of Amsterdam has become overheated. Homes are increasingly more unaffordable for low and middle income households. More and more groups that previously had easy access to the Amsterdam housing market are now excluded from it, which is putting pressure on the old ideal of the undivided city in which rich and poor live amongst one another. Therefore the Housing Agenda 2025 has been adopted, in which it is stipulated that the target for new construction is 40% controlled rent, 40% moderately priced rent or purchase and 20% market-value homes. Construction of new homes is one of the Municipality’s main management instruments to keeping the housing market accessible. For the construction of homes, however, the Municipality is also dependent on market players and present price developments have caused the new homes to be increasingly smaller. These developments can only be adjusted to a limited extent.
Housing Markets in Scandinavia: Supply, Demand and Regulation
Authors: Torstensen Kjersti Næss , Roszbach Kasper 
Published: June 2019

AbstractThis chapter discusses the recent developments in the housing markets of Scandinavian capital cities and some of the related policy challenges. We briefly review demographic trends, both over the past 10 years and looking ahead, and show that housing supply shortages have been building up, contributing to rising house prices. Drawing on a few recent housing market studies, we go over the observed and likely consequences of housing shortages and house prices rises. Finally, we discuss the geographical mortgage policy implemented in Norway, with a particular focus on restricting mortgage lending in Oslo a year ago.
Soaring House Prices in Major Cities: How to Spot and Moderate Them
Authors: Claeys Grégory , Efstathiou Konstantinos , Schoenmaker Dirk 
Published: June 2019

AbstractRapidly rising house prices are a well-known source of financial instability. This chapter examines whether there are regional differences in house price growth within European countries and, whether this warrants more targeted measures to address vulnerabilities. The focus is on the division in terms of house prices between the capital cities and the rest of the territories of six EU countries. There is evidence of a decoupling between capitals and the rest of the country. House prices in capitals seem to have a stronger cyclical component which would indicate a clear rationale for regional-level tools. An instrument that could be used locally is tax. But adjusting taxes to dampen house prices would be very difficult. Structural measures to adjust the housing supply, such as relaxing planning restrictions typically have a long lead time. An alternative is to use macroprudential measures at a regional level, in particular loan-to-value and debt-to-income limits. In that way, the housing boom-bust cycle might be dampened.
House Prices and Financial Stability: An Australian Perspective
Authors: Bullock Michele , Orsmond David 
Published: June 2019

AbstractStrong growth of household indebtedness and housing prices has raised a range of financial stability concerns in Australia. While the main policy response has been to tighten lending standards, two quantitative portfolio benchmarks have also been used to help address the emerging macro-financial risks. These benchmarks have dampened activity in the types of loans targeted, though there are a number of questions around their use over the medium term. In particular, it is difficult to directly measure the effectiveness of these policies in addressing financial stability risks and hence to calibrate them accordingly. It is also important to consider whether there are undesirable consequences of such measures. More generally, the use of quantitative benchmarks to address financial stability risks is a relatively new policy approach in Australia and the practices are likely to evolve as more experience is gained.
Tackling London’s Housing Crisis
Authors: Ratcliff Jamie 
Published: June 2019

AbstractThe origins of London’s housing crisis can be traced to a failure to provide the number and types of homes that are required. This resulted in prices and rents rising rapidly, with more than a quarter of Londoners living in poverty once housing costs are taken into account. Tackling London’s housing crisis will be a marathon and not a sprint, with a need to build 66,000 homes every year for the next 25 years. In order to meet housing need the majority of these homes will need to be affordable (subsidised) tenures. Central to addressing this challenge is to diversify who builds new homes, where they are located and how they are built. Besides that, land supply must increase and greater public investment is needed to sustain and support homebuilding. In order to build more homes, new players must enter the market to complement the work of traditional private sector developers. Action to help Londoners must not be delayed, immediate actions are needed to ensure that as many of the new homes as possible are genuinely affordable, to offer greater stability and tenant rights and to invest in places for homeless Londoners to live.
Regional House Price Differences: Drivers and Risks
Authors: Claessens Stijn , Schanz Jochen 
Published: June 2019

AbstractRecently, rapid increases in house prices have caught policy makers’ attention, especially where regional discrepancies are stark. House price fluctuations in large cities can amplify macroeconomic fluctuations and impair financial stability. Price rises in cities tend to be persistent, and since urban areas tend to attract speculative buyers, house price reversals may be larger there. Externalities from such developments can be significant when the city is large and tightly connected to the rest of the country, through supply chain, labour market or financial sector links. Macroprudential policy may be applied to address regionally concentrated house price fluctuations, but the bar to using targeted macroprudential measures is currently high.
Fractal-Scaling Properties as Aesthetic Primitives in Vision and Touch
Authors: Viengkham Catherine , Isherwood Zoey , Spehar Branka 
Published: June 2019

AbstractNatural forms, often characterized by irregularity and roughness, have a unique complexity that exhibit self-similarity across different spatial scales or levels of magnification. Our visual system is remarkably efficient in the processing of natural scenes and tuned to the multi-scale, fractal-like properties they possess. The fractal-like scaling characteristics are ubiquitous in many physical and biological domains, with recent research also highlighting their importance in aesthetic perception, particularly in the visual and, to some extent, auditory modalities. Given the multitude of fractal-like scaling manifestations, we explore potential commonalities in the way they might affect aesthetic preference within and across different physical and sensory domains. We use a range of visual and tactile stimuli to explore the equivalence of fractal-scaling effects on aesthetic preferences within and across visual and tactile modalities. Our results suggest that, despite some superficial differences, the underlying dimensional structure mediating the preference across the two domains is remarkably similar. The qualitative nature of this dimensional structure as well as suggestions for future research are discussed.
QTL-seq reveals a major root-knot nematode resistance locus on chromosome 11 in rice (Oryza sativa L.)
Authors: Lahari Zobaida , Ribeiro Antonio , Talukdar Partha , Martin Brennan , Heidari Zeynab , Gheysen Godelieve , Price Adam H. , Shrestha Roshi 
Published: June 2019

AbstractThe root-knot nematode Meloidogyne graminicola is a serious pest in rice affecting production in many rice growing areas. Natural host resistance is an attractive control strategy because the speed of the parasite’s life cycle and the broad host range it attacks make other control measures challenging. Although resistance has been found in the domesticated African rice Oryza glaberrima and the wild rice species O. longistaminata, the introgression of resistance genes to Asian rice O. sativa is challenging. Resistance due to a major gene in O. sativa would greatly aid breeding. Recently two accessions resistant to M. graminicola have been identified in a screen of 332 diverse O. sativa cultivars. In this study, these two resistant cultivars, LD 24 (an indica from Sri Lanka) and Khao Pahk Maw (an aus from Thailand), were crossed with a moderately susceptible cultivar, Vialone Nano (a temperate japonica from Italy). Approximately 175 F2 progeny of both populations were screened for susceptibility to M. graminicola infection. Between 20 and 23 individuals with highest and lowest galls per plants were pooled to make susceptible and resistant bulks which were sequenced to conduct bulked segregant analysis using the QTL-seq method. This revealed a nematode resistance locus from 23 Mbp to the bottom of rice chromosome 11 in both crosses suggesting a rare introgression of the same locus is responsible for resistance in both cultivars. While this information can be used in marker-assisted breeding, analysis of available SNP data revealed candidate loci and genes worthy of further investigation for gene identification.
Bio-electrical impedance analysis for perioperative fluid evaluation in open major abdominal surgery
Authors: Ciumanghel Adi-Ionut , Grigoras Ioana , Siriopol Dimitrie , Blaj Mihaela , Rusu Daniel-Mihai , Grigorasi Gabriela Raluca , Igna Alexandru Razvan , Duca Oana , Siriopol Ianis , Covic Adrian 
Published: June 2019

AbstractWater retention and intercompartmental redistribution occur frequently in association with adverse postoperative outcomes, yet the available strategies for non-invasive assessment are limited. One such approach for evaluating body water composition in various circumstances is bio-electrical impedance analysis (BIA). This study aims to appraise the usefulness of the Body Composition Monitor (BCM, Fresenius Medical Care, Germany) in assessing body fluid composition and intercompartmental shifts before and after open major abdominal surgery. This prospective, clinician blinded observational study enrolled all the patients scheduled consecutively for elective major open abdominal surgery during a 1-year period starting from January 1st, 2016. BIA parameters—total body water (TBW), extracellular water (ECW), intracellular water (ICW), absolute fluid overload (AFO), and relative fluid overload (RFO) were measured before and after surgery. The results were compared with fluid balance and outcome parameters such as organ dysfunction, ICU-and hospital length of stay (-LOS). The study population included 71 patients aged 60.2 ± 12 of whom 60.6% men and with a BMI of 26.3 ± 5.1 kg/m2. Postoperative acute kidney injury, respiratory dysfunction, and infections occurred in 14.0%, 19.7% and 28.1% of cases, respectively. The median LOS in ICU was 20 h and the hospital-LOS was 10 days. Positive intraoperative fluid balance (2.4 ± 1.0 L) resulted in a significant increase of TBW (1.4 ± 2.4 L) and of ECW (1.4 ± 1.2 L). Intraoperative fluid balance significantly correlated with TBW change (r = 0.23, p = 0.04) and with AFO change (r = 0.31, p < 0.01). A significant correlation was found between pre- and postoperative AFO and RFO on one hand, and ICU-LOS on the other. BIA may be a useful tool for the perioperative assessment of volume status.
The TOC GTPase Receptors: Regulators of the Fidelity, Specificity and Substrate Profiles of the General Protein Import Machinery of Chloroplasts
Authors: Schnell Danny J. 
Published: June 2019

Abstract
More than 2500 nuclear encoded preproteins are required for the function of chloroplasts in terrestrial plants. These preproteins are imported into chloroplasts via the concerted action of two multi-subunit translocons of the outer (TOC) and inner (TIC) membranes of the chloroplast envelope. This general import machinery functions to recognize and import proteins with high fidelity and efficiency to ensure that organelle biogenesis is properly coordinated with developmental and physiological events. Two components of the TOC machinery, Toc34 and Toc159, act as the primary receptors for preproteins at the chloroplast surface. They interact with the intrinsic targeting signals (transit peptides) of preproteins to mediate the selectivity of targeting, and they contribute to the quality control of import by constituting a GTP-dependent checkpoint in the import reaction. The TOC receptor family has expanded to regulate the import of distinct classes of preproteins that are required for remodeling of organelle proteomes during plastid-type transitions that accompany developmental changes. As such, the TOC receptors function as central regulators of the fidelity, specificity and selectivity of the general import machinery, thereby contributing to the integration of protein import with plastid biogenesis.
Prosocial behavior as a protective factor against peers' acceptance of aggression in the development of aggressive behavior in childhood and adolescence☆
Authors: Jung Janis , Schröder‐Abé Michela 
Published: June 2019

ABSTRACTIntroductionAlthough peers' acceptance of aggression is a major risk for the development of aggressive behavior, not all individuals who are situated within an aggression approving peer group engage in aggression. The present longitudinal study examined prosocial behavior as a moderator of the link between peers' acceptance of aggression and individual physical aggression.MethodsThe study used two waves of data of a large longitudinal study conducted in Germany. Self‐reports of 1663 male and female children and adolescents aged between 10 and 20 years were used as measures for physical aggression, peers' acceptance of aggression, and prosocial behavior.ResultsLatent moderated structural equation modeling revealed significant main effects of peers' acceptance of aggression at T1 and prosocial behavior at T1 on aggressive behavior at T2. Most importantly, a significant interaction between both constructs indicated that the increase in individual aggression with peers' acceptance of aggression depended on participants' level of prosocial behavior. Applying the Johnson‐Neyman technique, peers' acceptance of aggression was found to promote aggression only for participants with low levels of prosocial behavior, but not for moderately or highly prosocial individuals.ConclusionsThe findings suggest that prosocial behavior has the propensity to attenuate the negative effect of peers' acceptance of aggression in the etiology of physical aggression in childhood and adolescence.
Biomagnetic biomarkers for dementia: A pilot multicentre study with a recommended methodological framework for magnetoencephalography
Authors: Hughes Laura E. , Henson Richard N. , Pereda Ernesto , Bruña Ricardo , López‐Sanz David , Quinn Andrew J. , Woolrich Mark W. , Nobre Anna C. , Rowe James B. , Maestú Fernando ,   the BioFIND Working Group
Published: June 2019

AbstractIntroductionAn increasing number of studies are using magnetoencephalography (MEG) to study dementia. Here we define a common methodological framework for MEG resting‐state acquisition and analysis to facilitate the pooling of data from different sites.MethodsTwo groups of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n = 84) and healthy controls (n = 84) were combined from three sites, and site and group differences inspected in terms of power spectra and functional connectivity. Classification accuracy for MCI versus controls was compared across three different types of MEG analyses, and compared with classification based on structural MRI.ResultsThe spectral analyses confirmed frequency‐specific differences in patients with MCI, both in power and connectivity patterns, with highest classification accuracy from connectivity. Critically, site acquisition differences did not dominate the results.DiscussionThis work provides detailed protocols and analyses that are sensitive to cognitive impairment, and that will enable standardized data sharing to facilitate large‐scale collaborative projects.
Which Dimensions of Human Sexuality Are Related to Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder (CSBD)? Study Using a Multidimensional Sexuality Questionnaire on a Sample of Polish Males
Authors: Kowalewska Ewelina , Kraus Shane W. , Lew-Starowicz Michał , Gustavsson Katarzyna , Gola Mateusz 
Published: June 2019

Abstract

Introduction
Human sexuality is a multidimensional phenomenon related to several factors, such as self-esteem, awareness of sexual needs, and ability to communicate them to others.

Aim
To examine the sexual characteristics of patients seeking treatment for compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD)—a clinical diagnosis recently included in the 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases classification.

Methods
We have investigated the sexual characteristics of 72 Polish men seeking treatment for CSBD compared with 208 men from the Polish general population.

Main Outcome Measures
The Multidimensional Sexual Questionnaire–PL was used to examine 12 sexual aspects of human sexuality. The severity of CSBD symptoms was assessed using Sexual Addiction Screening Test–PL, and the severity of problematic pornography use was measured by Brief Pornography Screener.

Results
Results show that CSBD patients (when compared with the general population) exhibit higher sexual anxiety, sexual depression, external sexual control, and fear of sexual relationship. Furthermore, CSBD severity is negatively related to sexual esteem, internal sexual control, sexual consciousness, sexual assertiveness, and sexual satisfaction.

Clinical Implications
Our findings suggest that the impairment of the abovementioned dimensions warrant attention during clinical work and future studies on CSBD.

Strengths & Limitations
This study was limited to men, most of whom self-identified as heterosexual. Future research should include women and non-heterosexual identified individuals.

Conclusion
Sexual esteem, consciousness, assertiveness, satisfaction and internal sexual control are commonly affected among CSBD individuals and should be properly addressed during the clinical interview and treatment intervention.
POLICY AND PRACTICE IN ODA DISBURSEMENTS: AN ANALYSIS OF CHANGES IN SOUTH KOREA'S OFFICIAL DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE
Authors: Patterson Dennis , Choi Jangsup 
Published: June 2019

AbstractSouth Korea is the only nation to become an important donor nation after being a recipient of Official Development Assistance (ODA) for several decades. In 2010, it became a member of the OECD's Development Assistance Committee, and while it has continued to use its experience as a former ODA recipient to inform its distribution practices, it also has evolved its ODA policies in response to changes in international norms and the imperatives associated with being a DAC-member nation. We know that, while policies may change, actual ODA disbursements—which nations are selected as recipients and receive ODA in what amounts—may lag or even remain unchanged. In this paper, we use the case of South Korea to determine how actual ODA disbursements change in response to policy changes. To accomplish this, we use a selection model to conduct a statistical analysis of South Korea's ODA disbursements using dyadic data from 1987 to 2016. Our results indicate that, while there has been continuity in terms of which nations receive South Korean ODA, there were also notable changes in its disbursements. Specifically, the ODA policy changes the South Korean government enacted did result in an altered profile of nations that were targeted by South Korea as ODA recipients.