bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Efficiency of electricity distribution utilities in India: a data envelopment analysis
Authors: Meher Shibalal , Sahu Ajoy 
Published: June 2016

AbstractThe study makes an effort to measure the relative efficiency of electricity distribution utilities (DUs) of 17 unbundled states in India using a Frontier tool, viz. data envelopment analysis. The model with constant returns to scale is applied to evaluate the relative efficiency of different sample DUs. The input‐orientation measure has been used to calculate the efficiency score of 40 DUs for the year 2012–2013. It is observed that there is existence of inefficiency in 29 out of the 40 sample utilities. These inefficient utilities have the potential to become efficient utilities by benchmarking against the most efficient utilities. In order to supply the same output, these utilities need to reduce their use of inputs to the level of most productive scale size. The regulators need to pay special attention to enhance the efficiency of these inefficient DUs by exploring alternative approaches like incentive‐based regulation.
A Cross‐Sectional Study of Community‐Based Maternal and Child Health Interventions Involving Women's Health Volunteer Groups in Rural Myanmar
Authors: Oguro Michiko , Horiuchi Shigeko 
Published: June 2016

AbstractObjectiveThis study identified the relationship between interventions with women's health volunteer groups in two Myanmar villages and maternal and child health outcomes.Design and SampleThis cross‐sectional study included 188 women aged 15–49 years old with at least one ≤5‐year‐old child. The women were randomly selected from two control and two experimental villages.MeasuresData were collected via structured interview with a questionnaire based on the UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey.ResultsLogistic regression analyses confirmed that women's health volunteer group intervention was related to the participants’ receiving any antenatal care (OR: 6.99, p < .01) and having knowledge regarding danger signs during the perinatal period (OR: 15.08, p < .001), modern contraceptive methods (OR: 44.52, p < .001), acceptable first aid (OR: 14.04, p < .001), and malaria prevention (OR: 40.30, p < .001). A skilled midwife had the most significant relationship with patients’ receiving any antenatal care (OR: 65.18, p < .001). Distance from urban area negatively related to appropriate disposal of the child's stool (i.e., flushed in a latrine; OR: 7.51, p < .05).ConclusionsThis study shows that women's health volunteer groups may positively affect the diffusion of the need to seek antenatal care and health knowledge in rural Myanmar. The importance of skilled midwives is also highlighted, especially in resource‐limited settings.
Reduction of bacteria and human immunodeficiency virus Type 1 infectivity of platelet suspension in plasma using xenon flash‐pulse light in a bench‐scale trial
Authors: Abe Hideki , Shiba Masayuki , Niibe Yoshiyuki , Tadokoro Kenji , Satake Masahiro 
Published: June 2016

BACKGROUNDCurrent pathogen reduction systems for platelet concentrates (PCs) require addition of chemical compounds and/or reduction of plasma content in PCs. We have investigated a new method using xenon (Xe) flash‐pulse light without additional compounds or plasma replacement.STUDY DESIGN AND METHODSAn aliquot of apheresis platelets (PLTs) in plasma inoculated with bacteria or human immunodeficiency virus Type 1 (HIV‐1) was irradiated with Xe flash‐pulse light (Xe flash phototreatment). Bacterial growth was monitored up to 6 days of storage, whereas HIV‐1 infectivity was assayed just after treatment. Pairs of Xe flash‐phototreated and untreated PCs were examined for PLT lesion during the storage period.RESULTSUnder the current conditions, a low titer (1.8 colony‐forming units [CFUs]/mL) of Staphylococcus aureus did not proliferate during the 6‐day storage period, but grew in some cases at high‐titer (24.0 CFUs/mL) inoculation. HIV‐1 infectivity was reduced by 1.8 log. PLT recovery of the treated PCs was lower than untreated ones. An increase of mean PLT volume and glucose consumption, together with a decrease of hypotonic shock response and pH, were enhanced by the treatment. CD62P‐ and PAC‐1–positive PLTs increased after the treatment, indicating the induction of PLT activation. Among biologic response modifiers, soluble CD40 ligand was significantly increased in the treated PCs on Day 6.CONCLUSIONSXe flash phototreatment could prevent bacterial proliferation and reduce HIV‐1 infectivity in 100% plasma PCs without any additional compounds, but enhanced PLT storage lesions. Further improvement is required to increase the potency of pathogen inactivation with reducing PLT damage.
Effect of Prestressing Wire Indentation Type on the Bond Performance and Flexural Capacity of Pretensioned Concrete Crossties Subjected to Cyclic Loading
Authors: Momeni Amir Farid , Peterman Robert J. , Beck B. Terry , Wu Chih-Hang John , Bodapati Naga Narendra B. 
Published: June 2016

Load tests were conducted on pretensioned concrete prisms cast with 13 different 5.32-mm-diameter prestressing wire types that are used in the manufacture of pretensioned concrete railroad ties worldwide. The tests were specifically designed to evaluate the bond performance of wires with different indentation type under the cyclic loading. The prestressing wires were denoted “WA” through “WM” and indentation types included smooth, spiral, chevron, diamond, 2-dot and 4-dot. Four wires were embedded into each concrete prism, which had a 3.5″ (88.9 mm) × 3.5″ (88.9 mm) square cross section. The wires were initially pulled to 7000 pounds (31.14 KN) and gradually de-tensioned when the concrete compressive strength reached 4500 psi (31.03 MPa). A consistent concrete mixture with type III cement, water-cement ratio of 0.32 and a 6-in. slump was used for all prisms.
For each type of wire one 69 in-long (175.26 cm) prism was tested in 4-point-bending under the cyclic load and one under static load at 20-in (50.8 cm) embedment length. For cyclic load tests, the prisms were supported by two rollers spanning 45″ (114.3 cm) and load was applied on a spreading beam set on the top of the test prism. The prism setup and loading configuration were symmetric and load was applied to the prism from spreading beam to two bearings spaced 15″ (38.1 cm) apart. During each test, a concentrated load with the rate of 250 lb/min (1112 N/min) was applied until two cracks were observed at the maximum moment region on the test prisms (region between two bearings).
Once cracks were observed, the load was held constant for 3 minutes at the cracking load. After holding load constant for three minutes, load started to cycle between 400 lb (1779 N) to 4000 lb (17790 N) with the frequency of 3 Hz. The test was designed to go through 200,000 cycles and interlock limits were assigned to the program to stop the test in case of prism failure under the cyclic loading. For prisms able to finish 200,000 cycles of load, the procedure was to unload to zero and start loading the prism with the rate of 250 lb/min (1112 N/min) until prism failed. Values of load, mid-span deflection, and wires end-slip were continuously monitored and recorded during each test. Load-vs-deflection graphs were then plotted and compared for prisms with each wire type, and the maximum sustained moment was also calculated for each test. Also, a set of statically load tests were conducted on the identical pretensioned prisms to compare the results of statically and cyclically load tests. The cyclic load tests revealed that there is a significant difference in the bond performance of different wire types under the cyclic loading and they behave differently under cycles of loadings and unloadings.
GNSS-Based Train Trajectory Simulation System
Authors: Wang Jian , Tao Weijie , Grasso Toro Federico , Baocai Rangtai , Lu Debiao , Liu Jiang 
Published: June 2016

Integrating Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) into railway application has a great potential because of its various advantages, such as lower cost, less trackside equipment, higher positioning accuracy, easier maintenance and so on. Railway system is a safety-critical system that requires high reliability, safety and real-time performance, so GNSS technology must be tested, verified and validated in railway system before putting into practical applications. However, due to the unavoidable restrictions and inconvenience of the railway field conditions, these tests cannot be accomplished on site. On this basis, this paper has developed a GNSS-based train trajectory simulation system which can provide GNSS data simulation of multi-train trajectory in multiple scenarios in order to support the tests and research of GNSS-based railway application, especially GNSS-based train localisation system and GNSS-based train control system.
The GNSS-based train trajectory simulation system is based on the railway timetable (also called schedule), rolling stock information and digital track map. The paper firstly researches on the timetable that stores information of each train at each specified station, including arrival time, departure rime, track to be occupied, and connections to other trains. With the timetable simulation, the train’s trajectory can be generated using the information provided by the digital track map. The output trajectory data is mainly GGA sentence which is compliant with the National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) 0183 standard. The paper also calculates the satellite visibility based on satellite ephemeris to simulate the number of visible satellites during the trajectory with changing time and space. All the information and data, such as timetable, speed/distance curve, distance/time curve, station track occupation state, can be visualized and updated in graphics and diagrams for better view. In addition, the train motion behavior of acceleration, cruising, coasting and braking can also be modelled in the system, as well as the driver’s behavior.
The GNSS-based train trajectory simulation system has been realized using C# programming language in Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. And the field data of Shanxi coal railway transportation company railroad is used in the system. The simulation system is tested and the experimental results show that the developed simulation system can perform the expected functions, and provided data source for GNSS-based train localisation system. In addition, this simulation system has a good performance in compatibility and scalability.
Case Studies of PTC-Preventable Accidents
Authors: Schlesinger Dave 
Published: June 2016

A 1969 collision of two Penn Central train resulted in four fatalities and forty-five injuries. This accident could have been prevented, had some type of train control system been in place. After this accident, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) asked the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to study the feasibility of requiring railroads to install some type of automatic train control system that would prevent human-factor caused accidents. Over the next almost four decades, a number of additional accidents occurred, culminating in the January, 2005 Graniteville Norfolk-Southern accident and the September, 2008 Metrolink Chatsworth accident.
A little more than one month after the Metrolink accident, Congress passed the Rail Safety Improvement Act, which requires Positive Train Control (PTC). To better explain the positive train control requirements, this paper traces each to a detailed case study. Four different accidents are studied, each being an example of one of the four, core positive train control requirements. Included in the case study is a discussion about how positive train control would have prevented the accident, had it been present.
This provides positive train control implementers and other railroad professionals with a better understanding of the factors that have caused or contributed to the cause of the positive train control preventable accidents studied.
Clinical evaluation of a medical high dynamic range display
Authors: Marchessoux Cedric , de Paepe Lode , Vanovermeire Olivier , Albani Luigi 
Published: June 2016

Purpose:Recent new medical displays do have higher contrast and higher luminance but do not have a High Dynamic Range (HDR). HDR implies a minimum luminance value close to zero. A medical HDR display prototype based on two Liquid Crystal layers has been developed. The goal of this study is to evaluate the potential clinical benefit of such display in comparison with a low dynamic range (LDR) display.Methods:The study evaluated the clinical performance of the displays in a search and detection task. Eight radiologists read chest x‐ray images some of which contained simulated lung nodules. The study used a JAFROC (Jacknife Free Receiver Operating Characteristic) approach for analyzing FROC data. The calculated figure of merit (FoM) is the probability that a lesion is rated higher than all rated nonlesions on all images. Time per case and accuracy for locating the center of the nodules were also compared. The nodules were simulated using Samei's model. 214 CR and DR images [half were “healthy images” (chest nodule‐free) and half “diseased images”] were used resulting in a total number of nodules equal to 199 with 25 images with 1 nodule, 51 images with 2 nodules, and 24 images with 3 nodules. A dedicated software interface was designed for visualizing the images for each session. For the JAFROC1 statistical analysis, the study is done per nodule category: all nodules, difficult nodules, and very difficult nodules.Results:For all nodules, the averaged FoMHDR is slightly higher than FoMLDR with 0.09% of difference. For the difficult nodules, the averaged FoMHDR is slightly higher than FoMLDR with 1.38% of difference. The averaged FoMHDR is slightly higher than FoMLDR with 0.71% of difference. For the true positive fraction (TPF), both displays (the HDR and the LDR ones) have similar TPF for all nodules, but looking at difficult and very difficult nodules, there are more TP for the HDR display. The true positive fraction has been also computed in function of the local average luminance around the nodules. For the lowest luminance range, there is more than 30% in favor of the HDR display. For the highest luminance range, there is less than 6% in favor of the LDR display.Conclusions:This study shows the potential benefit of using a HDR display in radiology.
Characterization of air temperature in modern ion chambers due to phantom geometry and ambient temperature changes
Authors: Saenz Daniel L. , Kirby Neil , Gutiérrez Alonso N. 
Published: June 2016

Purpose:Temperature and pressure corrections are necessary to account for the varying mass of air in the sensitive volume of a vented ionization chamber (IC) when performing absolute dose measurements. Locations commonly used to measure the presumed IC air temperature may not accurately represent the chamber cavity air temperature, and phantoms undergoing temperature changes further compound the problem. Prior studies have characterized thermal equilibrium in separate phantoms for Farmer chambers alone. However, the purpose of this study was to characterize the cavity air temperature dependence on changes in the ambient temperature and phantom geometry configuration for a wider and more modern variety of chambers to determine if previously published wait times apply to these chambers as well.Methods:Thermal conduction properties were experimentally investigated by modifying a PTW 0.3 cm3 Semiflex IC with a thermocouple replacing the central electrode. Air cavity temperature versus time was recorded in three phantom geometries characteristic of common absolute dose measurements. The phantoms were (15 ± 1) °C before measurement with an IC at the treatment vault temperature of (21 ± 1) °C. Simulations were conducted to provide a theoretical basis for the measurements and to simulate temperature response of a PTW PinPoint® and Farmer chamber. The simulation methods were first validated by comparison with measured Semiflex chamber thermal response curves before extension to the other chambers.Results:Two thermal equilibria curves were recorded on different time scales. IC temperature initially dropped to the colder phantom temperature but subsequently increased as the phantom itself equilibrated with the warmer room temperature. In a large phantom of dimensions (25.5 × 25.5 × 23.4) cm3, 3 min was required before the IC temperature reached within 0.5 °C of its equilibrium within the phantom. Similarly, wait times of 2 min were needed for 7.5 and 2 cm slab phantoms.Conclusions:Recording of temperature in the phantom was deemed far more accurate than measurement in ambient air due to the air cavity thermally equilibrating with phantom temperature instead of the vented ambient air. Wait times of 3 and 2 min are needed for a cube and 7.5 cm slab phantom, respectively, to achieve 0.2% dosimetric accuracy (temperature accuracy of 0.5 °C). Chamber volume alone did not determine wait times, as a 0.3 cm3 IC required a longer wait time than a Farmer chamber, suggesting wall thickness as an important variable as well.
Whole-Genome Sequences of Seven Strains of Bacillus cereus Isolated from Foodstuff or Poisoning Incidents
Authors: Crovadore Julien , Calmin Gautier , Tonacini Jenna , Chablais Romain , Schnyder Bruno , Messelhäußer Ute , Lefort François 
Published: June 2016

ABSTRACT

We present here the whole shotgun genome sequences of seven strains of
Bacillus cereus
isolated from foodstuff samples or food poisoning incidents.
Draft Genome Sequence of Lactobacillus collinoides CUPV237, an Exopolysaccharide and Riboflavin Producer Isolated from Cider
Authors: Puertas Ana Isabel , Capozzi Vittorio , Llamas María Goretti , López Paloma , Lamontanara Antonella , Orrù Luigi , Russo Pasquale , Spano Giuseppe , Dueñas María Teresa 
Published: June 2016

ABSTRACT

Lactobacillus collinoides
CUPV237 is a strain isolated from a Basque cider.
Lactobacillus collinoides
is one of the most frequent species found in cider from Spain, France, or England. A notable feature of the
L. collinoides
CUPV237 strain is its ability to produce exopolysaccharides.
Complete Genome Sequence of Mesorhizobium ciceri bv. biserrulae Strain WSM1284, an Efficient Nitrogen-Fixing Microsymbiont of the Pasture Legume
Biserrula pelecinus
Authors: Haskett Timothy , Wang Penghao , Ramsay Joshua , O'Hara Graham , Reeve Wayne , Howieson John , Terpolilli Jason 
Published: June 2016

ABSTRACT

We report the complete genome sequence of
Mesorhizobium ciceri
bv. biserrulae strain WSM1284, a nitrogen-fixing microsymbiont of the pasture legume
Biserrula pelecinus
. The genome consists of 6.88 Mb distributed between a single chromosome (6.33 Mb) and a single plasmid (0.55 Mb).
Genome Sequences of Multiresistant Staphylococcus capitis Pulsotype NRCS-A and Methicillin-Susceptible
S. capitis
Pulsotype NRCS-C
Authors: Lemriss H. , Dumont Y. , Lemriss S. , Martins-Simoes P. , Butin M. , Lahlou L. , Rasigade J. P. , El Kabbaj S. , Laurent F. , Ibrahimi A. 
Published: June 2016

ABSTRACT

Here, we report the draft genome sequences of methicillin-susceptible
Staphylococcus captis
pulsotype NCRS-C (CR02 strain) and multiresistant
Staphylococcus captis
pulsotype NCRS-A (CR07 strain).
Draft Genome Sequence of Dietzia maris DSM 43672, a Gram-Positive Bacterium of the Mycolata Group
Authors: Ganguly Sonalli , Jimenez-Galisteo Guadalupe , Pletzer Daniel , Winterhalter Mathias , Benz Roland , Viñas Miguel 
Published: June 2016

ABSTRACT

Here, we report the draft genome sequence of
Dietzia maris
, known previously as
Rhodococcus maris
. It is 3,505,372 bp in size with a G+C content of 73%. The draft genome sequence will improve our understanding of
Dietzia maris
related to other mycolata species and constitutes a basic tool for exploring the cell wall proteins.
Schrödinger-like quantum dynamics in loop quantized black holes
Authors: Gambini Rodolfo , Olmedo Javier , Pullin Jorge 
Published: June 2016

We show, following a previous quantization of a vacuum spherically symmetric spacetime carried out in [R. Gambini, J. Olmedo and J. Pullin, Class. Quantum Grav. 31 (2014) 095009.] that this setting admits a Schrödinger-like picture. More precisely, the technique adopted there for the definition of parametrized Dirac observables (that codify local information of the quantum theory) can be extended in order to accommodate different pictures. In this new picture, the quantum states are parametrized in terms of suitable gauge parameters and the observables constructed out of the kinematical ones on this space of parametrized states.
How to Build Static Checking Systems Using Orders of Magnitude Less Code
Authors: Brown Fraser , Nötzli Andres , Engler Dawson 
Published: June 2016

Modern static bug finding tools are complex. They typically consist of hundreds of thousands of lines of code, and most of them are wedded to one language (or even one compiler). This complexity makes the systems hard to understand, hard to debug, and hard to retarget to new languages, thereby dramatically limiting their scope. This paper reduces checking system complexity by addressing a fundamental assumption, the assumption that checkers must depend on a full-blown language specification and compiler front end. Instead, our program checkers are based on drastically incomplete language grammars ("micro-grammars") that describe only portions of a language relevant to a checker. As a result, our implementation is tiny-roughly 2500 lines of code, about two orders of magnitude smaller than a typical system. We hope that this dramatic increase in simplicity will allow people to use more checkers on more systems in more languages.
We implement our approach in μchex, a language-agnostic framework for writing static bug checkers. We use it to build micro-grammar based checkers for six languages (C, the C preprocessor, C++, Java, JavaScript, and Dart) and find over 700 errors in real-world projects.
NVWAL
Authors: Kim Wook-Hee , Kim Jinwoong , Baek Woongki , Nam Beomseok , Won Youjip 
Published: June 2016

Emerging byte-addressable non-volatile memory is considered an alternative storage device for database logs that require persistency and high performance. In this work, we develop NVWAL (NVRAM Write-Ahead Logging) for SQLite. The contribution of NVWAL consists of three elements: (i) byte-granularity differential logging that effectively eliminates the excessive I/O overhead of filesystem-based logging or journaling, (ii) transaction-aware lazy synchronization that reduces cache synchronization overhead by two-thirds, and (iii) user-level heap management of the NVRAM persistent WAL structure, which reduces the overhead of managing persistent objects.
We implemented NVWAL in SQLite and measured the performance on a Nexus 5 smartphone and an NVRAM emulation board - Tuna. Our performance study shows the following: (i) the overhead of enforcing strict ordering of NVRAM writes can be reduced via NVRAM-aware transaction management. (ii) From the application performance point of view, the overhead of guaranteeing failure atomicity is negligible; the cache line flush overhead accounts for only 0.8~4.6% of transaction execution time. Therefore, application performance is much less sensitive to the NVRAM performance than we expected. Decreasing the NVRAM latency by one-fifth (from 1942 nsec to 437 nsec), SQLite achieves a mere 4% performance gain (from 2517 ins/sec to 2621 ins/sec). (iii) Overall, when the write latency of NVRAM is 2 usec, NVWAL increases SQLite performance by at least 10x compared to that of WAL on flash memory (from 541 ins/sec to 5812 ins/sec).