bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Monotonic, critical monotonic, and nearly monotonic low‐pass filters designed by using the parity relation for Jacobi polynomials
Authors: Stojanović Nikola , Stamenković Negovan , Živaljević Dragana 
Published: July 2017

SummaryA new class of continuous‐time low‐pass filter using a set of Jacobi polynomials, with all transmission zeros at infinity, is described. The Jacobi polynomial has been adapted by using the parity relation for Jacobi polynomials in order to be used as a filter approximating function. The resulting class of polynomials is referred to as a pseudo Jacobi polynomials, because they are not orthogonal. The obtained magnitude response of these filters is more general than the magnitude response of the classical ultraspherical filter, because of one additional degree of freedom available in pseudo Jacobi polynomials. This additional parameter may be used to obtain a magnitude response having either smaller passband ripples or sharper cutoff slope. Monotonic, critical monotonic, or nearly monotonic passband filter approximating functions can be also generated. It is shown that proposed pseudo Jacobi polynomial filter approximation also includes the Chebyshev filter of the first kind, the Chebyshev filter of the second kind, the Legendre filter, and many transitional filter approximations, as its special cases. Several examples are presented, and detailed formulas including the practical suggestions for their efficient implementation are also provided. The proposed nearly monotonic filter is compared with the least‐square‐monotonic filters, designed as critical monotonic, in details. The advantages of the new filters are discussed. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Crosstalk‐noise‐aware bus coding with low‐power ground‐gated repeaters
Authors: Jiao Hailong , Wang Rui , He Yifan 
Published: July 2017

SummaryCrosstalk noise is one of the serious reliability concerns in nanoscale integrated circuits. Repeater insertion together with shielding wires is a typical method to suppress crosstalk noise associated with global data bus. A new crosstalk‐noise‐aware bus coding scheme with ground‐gated repeaters is proposed in this paper to minimize the routing overhead as well as power consumption of data bus systems. A subset of 4‐to‐6 crosstalk‐noise‐aware codes is selected to minimize the number of simultaneous data transitions. The routing overhead is reduced by 12.31% with the new bus coding scheme compared with the conventional data bus with shielding wires. Furthermore, the leakage power and worst‐case active power consumptions are reduced by 12.5% and 18.26%, respectively, with the new crosstalk‐noise‐aware data bus system as compared with the previously published bus coding system in an industrial 40‐nm CMOS technology.
Throughput performance under primary user emulation attack in cognitive radio networks
Authors: Yadav Kuldeep , Prasad Binod , Bhowmick Abhijit , Roy Sanjay Dhar , Kundu Sumit 
Published: July 2017

SummarySpectrum sensing in cognitive radio networks imposes some security threats to the secondary users (SUs) such as primary user emulation attack (PUEA). In the present paper, throughput of an SU is studied for cognitive radio network under PUEA where SU spectrum access is hybrid, ie, either in overlay mode or in underlay mode. A novel analytical expression for throughput of an SU in presence of PUEA is developed. Impact of several parameters such as sensing time, attacker strength, attacker's presence probabilities, maximum allowable SU transmit power, and tolerable interference limit at primary user on the throughput of an SU is investigated. The throughput performance under PUEA and without PUEA is compared.
Morphological plasticity in a native freshwater fish from semiarid Australia in response to variable water flows
Authors: Kelley Jennifer L. , Davies Peter M. , Collin Shaun P. , Grierson Pauline F. 
Published: July 2017

AbstractIn fishes, alterations to the natural flow regime are associated with divergence in body shape morphology compared with individuals from unaltered habitats. However, it is unclear whether this morphological divergence is attributable to evolutionary responses to modified flows, or is a result of phenotypic plasticity. Fishes inhabiting arid regions are ideal candidates for studying morphological plasticity as they are frequently exposed to extreme natural hydrological variability. We examined the effect of early exposure to flows on the development of body shape morphology in the western rainbowfish (Melanotaenia australis), a freshwater fish that is native to semiarid northwest Australia. Wild fish were collected from a region (the Hamersley Ranges) where fish in some habitats are subject to altered water flows due to mining activity. The offspring of wild‐caught fish were reared in replicated fast‐flow or slow‐flow channels, and geometric morphometric analyses were used to evaluate variation in fish body shape following 3, 6, 9, and 12 months of exposure. Water flows influenced fish morphology after 6 and 9 months of flow exposure, with fish in fast‐flow environments displaying a more robust body shape than those in slow‐flow habitats. No effect of flow exposure was observed at 3 and 12 months. Fishes also showed significant morphological variation within flow treatments, perhaps due to subtle differences in water flow among the replicate channels. Our findings suggest that early exposure to water flows can induce shifts in body shape morphology in arid zone freshwater fishes. Morphological plasticity may act to buffer arid zone populations from the impacts of anthropogenic activities, but further studies are required to link body shape plasticity with behavioral performance in habitats with modified flows.
Phospholipids modulate Caco‐2 transport of EGCG3”Me from Chinese oolong tea
Authors: Cheng Mei , Zhang Xin , Wu Zufang , Weng Peifang , Cao Jinxuan 
Published: July 2017

(‐)‐Epigallocatechin 3‐O‐(3‐O‐methyl) gallate (EGCG3”Me) has exhibited significant biological activities, however, it is poorly absorbed after oral intake. Phospholipids (PL) have been reported to serve as enhancing agents in absorption, therefore, this study evaluated the role of PL in transepithelial transport within a Caco‐2 cell monolayer‐model system and impact on EGCG3”Me stability. First, EGCG3”Me was prepared from Chinese oolong tea by column chromatography, and EGCG3”Me‐PL complex was prepared. The structure of EGCG3”Me‐PL was characterized by X‐ray diffractometry and differential scanning calorimetry, and it exhibited relatively higher stability than EGCG3”Me in mimic gastrointestinal digestion conditions. Meanwhile, the presence of PL increased the transepithelial transport of EGCG3”Me, apparent permeability coefficients (Papp) of EGCG3”Me‐PL were significantly higher, while its efflux ratio was lower than EGCG3”Me, which indicated the promotion of bioavailability.Practical applications: For the health effects of tea polyphenols, this crucial issue encompasses dissolution, absorption, distribution, and disposition in target tissues. In our study, EGCG3” Me‐PL complex may effectively improve the overall absorption and bioavailability of EGCG3”Me. It could provide information about the potential of PL in the promotion of intestinal transport of EGCG3”Me, and the investigation may be fascinated in manufacturing functional foods, containing high content of tea polyphenols with increased absorption properties.The presence of phospholipids effectively increased the transepithelial transport of EGCG3”Me, and EGCG3”Me‐phospholipids complex may effectively improve the overall absorption and bioavailability of EGCG3”Me.
Selectivity enhancements in gel‐based DNA‐nanoparticle assays by membrane‐induced isotachophoresis: thermodynamics versus kinetics
Authors: Marczak Steven , Smith Elaine , Senapati Satyajyoti , Chang Hsueh‐Chia 
Published: July 2017

AbstractSelectivity against mutant nontargets with a few mismatches remains challenging in nucleic acid sensing. Sensitivity enhancement by analyte concentration does not improve selectivity because it affects targets and nontargets equally. Hydrodynamic or electrical shear enhanced selectivity is often accompanied by substantial losses in target signals, thereby leading to poor limits of detection. We introduce a platform based on depletion isotachophoresis in agarose gel generated by an ion‐selective membrane that allows both selectivity and sensitivity enhancement with a two‐step assay involving concentration polarization at an ion‐selective membrane. By concentrating both the targets and probe‐functionalized nanoparticles by ion enrichment at the membrane, the effective thermodynamic dissociation constant is lowered from 40 nM to below 500 pM, and the detection limit is 10 pM as reported previously. A dynamically optimized ion depletion front is then generated from the membrane with a high electrical shear force to selectively and irreversibly dehybridize nontargets. The optimized selectivity against a two‐mismatch nontarget (in a 35‐base pairing sequence) is shown to be better than the thermodynamic equilibrium selectivity by more than a hundred‐fold, such that there is no detectable signal from the two‐mismatch nontarget. We offer empirical evidence that irreversible cooperative dehybridization plays an important role in this kinetic selectivity enhancement and that mismatch location controls the optimum selectivity even when there is little change in the corresponding thermodynamic dissociation constant.
Modeling chemical accumulation in sediment of small waterbodies accounting for sediment transport and water-sediment exchange processes over long periods
Authors: Patterson David Albert , Strehmel Alexander , Erzgräber Beate , Hammel Klaus 
Published: July 2017

Abstract

In a recent scientific opinion of the European Food Safety Authority it is argued that the accumulation of plant protection products in sediments over long time periods may be an environmentally significant process. Therefore, the European Food Safety Authority proposed a calculation to account for plant protection product accumulation. This calculation, however, considers plant protection product degradation within sediment as the only dissipation route, and does not account for sediment dynamics or back-diffusion into the water column. The hydraulic model Hydrologic Engineering Center-River Analysis System (HEC-RAS; US Army Corps of Engineers) was parameterized to assess sediment transport and deposition dynamics within the FOrum for Co-ordination of pesticide fate models and their USe (FOCUS) scenarios in simulations spanning 20 yr. The results show that only 10 to 50% of incoming sediment would be deposited. The remaining portion of sediment particles is transported across the downstream boundary. For a generic plant protection product substance this resulted in deposition of only 20 to 50% of incoming plant protection product substance. In a separate analysis, the FOCUS TOXSWA model was utilized to examine the relative importance of degradation versus back-diffusion as loss processes from the sediment compartment for a diverse range of generic plant protection products. In simulations spanning 20 yr, it was shown that back-diffusion was generally the dominant dissipation process. The results of the present study show that sediment dynamics and back-diffusion should be considered when calculating long-term plant protection product accumulation in sediment. Neglecting these may lead to a systematic overestimation of accumulation. Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:3223–3231. © 2017 SETAC
High‐risk human papillomavirus infection clearance following conization among patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasm grade 3 aged at least 45 years
Authors: Zhang Guorui , Lang Jinghe , Shen Keng , Zhu Lan , Xiang Yang 
Published: July 2017

AbstractObjectiveTo investigate high‐risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection clearance rates following successful cold knife conization and factors predictive of HPV clearance among patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasm grade 3.MethodThe present retrospective study analyzed clinical data from patients aged at least 45 years with cervical intraepithelial neoplasm grade 3 who had undergone successful cold knife conization and attended regular follow‐up at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, China, between January 1, 2002 and December 31, 2012. HPV clearance rates and potential indicators for HPV clearance were analyzed.ResultsData from 156 patients were included; persistent high‐risk HPV infection was recorded in 78 (50.0%), 45 (28.8%), 35 (22.4%), 24 (15.4%), and 21 (13.5%) patients at 4, 8, 12, 18, and 24 months after conization, respectively. Clearance rates were significantly lower among patients aged at least 55 years compared with younger patients, with increased odds of persistent HPV infection at 8 months (odds ratio [OR] 4.038; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.766–10.839), 12 months (OR 5.923; 95% CI 2.450–16.604), 18 months (OR 5.957; 95% CI 2.031–17.469), and 24 months (OR 5.327; 95% CI 1.909–17.971) compared with patients aged 45–49 years.ConclusionAge was a prognostic factor for post‐operative high‐risk HPV infection clearance. Lower clearance rates were observed among patients aged at least 55 years.
A systematic review of implementation strategies to deliver guidelines on obstetric care practice in low‐ and middle‐income countries
Authors: Imamura Mari , Kanguru Lovney , Penfold Suzanne , Stokes Tim , Camosso‐Stefinovic Janette , Shaw Beth , Hussein Julia 
Published: July 2017

AbstractBackgroundHealthcare measures to prevent maternal deaths are well known. However, effective implementation of this knowledge to change practice remains a challenge.ObjectivesTo assess whether strategies to promote the use of guidelines can improve obstetric practices in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs).Search strategyElectronic databases were searched up to February 7, 2014, using relevant terms for implementation strategies (e.g. “audit,” “education,” “reminder”), and maternal mortality.Selection criteriaRandomized and non‐randomized studies of implementation strategies targeting healthcare professionals within the formal health services in LMICs were included.Data collection and analysisCochrane methodological guidance was followed. Because of heterogeneity in the interventions, a narrative synthesis was completed.Main resultsNine studies met the inclusion criteria. Moderate‐to‐low‐quality evidence was found to show improvement in the areas of doctor–patient communication (one study), analgesic provision (one study), the management of emergencies (two studies) and maternal and late neonatal mortality (one study each). Intervention effects were not consistent across studies.ConclusionsImplementation strategies targeting health professionals could lead to improvement in obstetric care in LMICs. Future research should explore what feature of an intervention is effective in one context and how this could be translated into another context.PROSPEROCRD42014010310
Systematic review of obstetric care from a women‐centered perspective in Nigeria since 2000
Authors: Hirose Atsumi , Owolabi Oluwatoyin , Imamura Mari , Okonofua Friday , Hussein Julia 
Published: July 2017

AbstractBackgroundA women‐centered approach can improve the quality of patient care.ObjectiveTo review issues in the provision of obstetric care from a patient‐centered care perspective in Nigeria.Search strategyUsing terms related to maternal and perinatal mortality, in combination with “Nigeria”, MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, Web of Knowledge, and African Journal Online were searched, between December 1, 2013 and January 31, 2014, for articles in any language.Selection criteriaArticles published in a Nigerian setting after 2000 that investigated causes of and circumstance surrounding maternal deaths and complications, or clinical practice related to maternal care were included.Data collection and analysisData were extracted by two reviewers using a standardized abstraction form and were analyzed from a patient‐centered perspective.Main resultsThe analysis included 57 studies. Clandestine induced abortions, lack of prenatal care, delays in seeking care, and the use of spiritual churches for delivery were found to contribute to adverse pregnancy outcomes.ConclusionsHealthcare systems respond inadequately to patients' needs in terms of abortion care, information sharing, transitioning between prenatal and obstetric care, and patients' non‐medical needs. Data from clinician‐led maternal death audits provided insights into how women‐centered care can be provided; nonetheless, more‐focused studies from a primarily patient‐centered perspective are warranted.
Prevalence of induced abortions and contraceptive use among married women in an urban slum of Delhi, India
Authors: Bhilwar Meenakshi , Lal Panna , Sharma Nandini , Bhalla Preena , Kumar Ashok 
Published: July 2017

AbstractObjectiveTo document abortion practices and contraceptive use among women of reproductive age in an urban slum of Delhi.MethodsData were collected as part of a cross‐sectional study conducted in an urban resettlement colony in the North East District of Delhi between November 2010 and December 2011. Systematic random sampling was used to enroll 200 married women aged 15–49 years from each of the four blocks of the colony. Participants were interviewed and data were entered into a pretested semi‐structured questionnaire.ResultsAmong 802 participants, 284 (35.4%) reported at least one spontaneous or induced abortion, and 196 (24.4%) reported induced abortions. Unsupervised medical termination was reported by 78 (27.5%) of the 284 women. Overall, only 207 (25.8%) women practiced any type of contraception. The predominant decision maker regarding contraception was the husband for 95 (45.9%) women and the mother‐in‐law for 78 (37.7%).ConclusionThere is a need for focused community‐based education to address specific issues, particularly regarding the dangers of unsafe abortion and choosing a method of contraception in consultation with a healthcare practitioner.
Safety of vaginal delivery among dichorionic diamniotic twins over 10 years in a UK teaching hospital
Authors: Rzyska Ewelina , Ajay Bini , Chandraharan Edwin 
Published: July 2017

AbstractObjectiveTo determine whether vaginal delivery among dichorionic diamniotic twins remains a safe option following full implementation of the European Working Time Directive in the UK.MethodsA retrospective study was conducted using data for women with dichorionic diamniotic twin pregnancies who attended a teaching hospital in London, UK, for delivery between January 4, 2000, and December 23, 2010.ResultsAmong 892 women, 474 (53.1%) attempted vaginal delivery, 220 (46.4%) of whom achieved spontaneous vaginal delivery of both twins. Instrumental vaginal delivery was performed among 89 women (18.8%), and 165 (34.8%) women underwent emergency cesarean delivery. Delivery of the second twin by emergency cesarean (n=31) was predominantly for fetal distress (13 [41.9%]) or abnormal lie (10 [32.3%]). A 5‐minute Apgar score of 9 or 10 was recorded for 384 (83.7%) of 459 first twins and 369 (82.9%) of 445 second twins, irrespective of the mode of delivery.ConclusionVaginal delivery among dichorionic diamniotic twins had a good success rate and a low intrapartum emergency cesarean delivery rate. Training in cardiotocography and intrapartum procedures might further reduce the need for emergency cesarean delivery.
Zika virus infection in Brazil and human rights obligations
Authors: Diniz Debora , Gumieri Sinara , Bevilacqua Beatriz Galli , Cook Rebecca J. , Dickens Bernard M. 
Published: July 2017

AbstractThe February 2016 WHO declaration that congenital Zika virus syndrome constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern reacted to the outbreak of the syndrome in Brazil. Public health emergencies can justify a spectrum of human rights responses, but in Brazil, the emergency exposed prevailing inequities in the national healthcare system. The government's urging to contain the syndrome, which is associated with microcephaly among newborns, is confounded by lack of reproductive health services. Women with low incomes in particular have little access to such health services. The emergency also illuminates the harm of restrictive abortion legislation, and the potential violation of human rights regarding women's health and under the UN Conventions on the Rights of the Child and on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Suggestions have been proposed by which the government can remedy the widespread healthcare inequities among the national population that are instructive for other countries where congenital Zika virus syndrome is prevalent.
Effects of fluoride‐modified titanium surfaces with the similar roughness on RUNX2 gene expression of osteoblast‐like MG63 cells
Authors: Lee Ji‐Hyoun , Koak Jai‐Young , Lim Young‐Jun , Kwon Ho‐Beom , Kong Hyunjoon , Kim Myung‐Joo 
Published: July 2017

AbstractChemical modification of titanium surfaces by hydrofluoric acid (HF) is an effective method to improve bone responses on titanium implant surfaces. In this study, titanium disks were sandblasted with titanium oxide grits and modified with 0.2% and 0.4% of diluted HF under different exposure times of 40 and 60 s. Surface characteristics, such as surface chemical composition, surface topography, and surface wettability, were investigated. To examine MG63 osteoblast‐like cell responses to fluoride‐modified titanium surfaces with roughness similar to that of nonmodified surfaces, a cell proliferation assay was performed and gene expression levels of Runx2 were evaluated using real‐time PCR. Fluoride‐modified titanium surfaces revealed no significant roughness difference but with hydrophilic properties than control group SB. Moreover, the relative atomic concentration percentages of fluoride were 0.7, 1.5, and 2.8. As fluoride concentrations increased, surface wettability increased and cell proliferation began earlier. However, the gene expression levels of Runx2 increased earlier on surfaces with 1.5% fluoride, with significantly high surface skewness. There seems to be an optimal fluoride concentration percentage when gene expression levels of Runx2 were taken into consideration. In addition, surface parameters, such as surface wettability and surface skewness, seem to be important factors in the enhancement of osteoblast differentiation by HF. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 3102–3109, 2017.