bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Optical properties of composite heterophase objects with liquid crystal material for different display applications
Authors: Belyaev Victor V. , Solomatin Alexey S. , Chausov Denis N. , Suarez Douglas A. , Smirnov Aliaksandr G. , Kuleshova Julia D. 
Published: November 2017

AbstractLiquid crystal (LC) director distribution and optical transmission for different types of heterophase systems with different LC boundary conditions is simulated. The first type is a transparent isotropic material with spherical or cylindrical liquid crystalline objects. There are polymer dispersed liquid crystal, LC fiber, lyotropic LC in polarizing films, LC in microgroove and nanogrooves and pores. The second type is an LC layer incorporating an isotropic transparent or non‐transparent object like microparticles and nanoparticles, spacers, protrusions in multi‐domain vertical alignment LC display et al. The system parameters' influence on LC display performances is discussed.
Quality evaluation of raw and processed Crataegi Fructus by color measurement and fingerprint analysis
Authors: Fei Chenghao , Dai Hui , Wu Xiaoyan , Li Lin , Lu Tulin , Li Weidong , Cai Baochang , Yin Wu , Yin Fangzhou 
Published: November 2017

AbstractCrataegi Fructus and its processed products have been used as a traditional medicine for a long time, and numerous active components are responsible for their curative effects. However, a comprehensive and fast method for the quality control of its processed products is still lacking. In this study, two analytical methods based on color measurements and fingerprint analysis are established. In the color measurements, the color values of the peel and flesh of Crataegi Fructus were evaluated spectrophotometrically. Based on the results, a color reference range was established using percentiles, and the standard color difference value was established using the median color values. Then, the color values of Crataegi Fructus and its processed products were analyzed using Bayes linear discriminant analysis and mathematical functions were built in order to predict the degree of processing. Moreover, high‐performance liquid chromatography fingerprint analysis was performed on a Hibar C18 column, and a high‐performance liquid chromatography fingerprint pattern was obtained, from which nine peaks were identified. Chemometric methods were successfully applied to differentiate raw and processed Crataegi Fructus.
Making sense of antisense oligonucleotides: A narrative review
Authors: Goyal Neelam , Narayanaswami Pushpa 
Published: November 2017

ABSTRACTSynthetic nucleic acid sequences that bind to ribonucleic acid (RNA) through Watson‐Crick base pairing are known as antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) because they are complementary to “sense strand” nucleic acids. ASOs bind to selected sequences of RNA and regulate the expression of genes by several mechanisms depending on their chemical properties and targets. They can be used to restore deficient protein expression, reduce the expression of a toxic protein, modify functional effects of proteins, or reduce toxicity of mutant proteins. Two ASOs were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2016: eteplirsen for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and nusinersen for spinal muscular atrophy. Clinical trials in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and familial amyloid polyneuropathy are ongoing. We review the chemistry, pharmacology, and mechanisms of action of ASOs, preclinical data, and clinical trials in neuromuscular diseases and discuss some ethical, regulatory, and policy considerations in the clinical development and use of ASOs.Muscle Nerve57: 356–370, 2018
Modeling of self‐desiccation in a cemented backfill structure
Authors: Cui Liang , Fall Mamadou 
Published: November 2017

SummaryAfter placement of cemented tailings backfill (CTB), which is a mixture of tailings (man‐made soil), water, and binder, into underground mined‐out voids (stopes), the hydration reaction of the binder converts the capillary water into chemically bound water, which results in the reduction of the water content in the pores of the CTB, thereby causing a reduction in the pore‐water pressure in the CTB (self‐desiccation). Self‐desiccation has a significant impact on the pore‐water pressure and effective stress development in CTB and paramount and practical importance for the stability assessment and design of CTB structures and barricades. However, self‐desiccation in CTB structures is complex because it is a function of the multiphysics or coupled (i.e., thermal, hydraulic, mechanical, and chemical) processes that occur in CTB. To understand the self‐desiccation behavior of CTB, an integrated multiphysics model of self‐desiccation is developed in this study, which fully considers the coupled thermal, hydraulic, mechanical, and chemical processes and the consolidation process in CTB. All model coefficients are determined in measurable parameters. Moreover, the predictive ability of the model is verified with extensive case studies. A series of engineering issues are examined with the validated model to investigate the self‐desiccation process in CTB structures with respect to the changes in the mixture recipe, backfilling, and the surrounding rock and curing conditions. The obtained results provide in‐depth insight into the self‐desiccation behavior of CTB structures. The developed multiphysics model is therefore a potential tool for assessing and predicting self‐desiccation in CTB structures.
In vivo detection and automatic analysis of GABA in the mouse brain with MEGA‐PRESS at 9.4 T
Authors: Guo Jia , Gang Zhu , Sun Yanping , Laine Andrew , Small Scott A. , Rothman Douglas L. 
Published: November 2017

The goals of this study were to develop an acquisition protocol and the analysis tools for Meshcher–Garwood point‐resolved spectroscopy (MEGA‐PRESS) in mouse brain at 9.4 T, to allow the in vivo detection of γ‐aminobutyric acid (GABA) and to examine whether isoflurane alters GABA levels in the thalamus during anesthesia. We implemented the MEGA‐PRESS sequence on a Bruker 94/20 system with ParaVision 6.0.1, and magnetic resonance spectra were acquired from nine male wild‐type C57BL/6 J mice at the thalamus. Four individual scans were obtained for each mouse in a 2‐h time course whilst the mouse was anesthetized with isoflurane. We developed an automated analysis program with improved correction for frequency and phase drift compared with the standard creatine (Cr) fitting‐based method and provided automatic quantification. During MEGA‐PRESS acquisition, a single voxel with a size of 5 × 3 × 3 mm3 was placed at the thalamus to evaluate GABA to Cr (GABA/Cr) ratios during anesthesia. Detection and quantitative analysis of thalamic GABA levels were successfully achieved. We noticed a significant decrease in GABA/Cr during the 2‐h anesthesia (by linear regression analysis: slope < 0, p < 0.0001). In summary, our findings demonstrate that MEGA‐PRESS is a feasible technique to measure in vivo GABA levels in the mouse brain at 9.4 T.
Does Paid Family Leave Reduce Nursing Home Use? The California Experience
Authors: Arora Kanika , Wolf Douglas A. 
Published: November 2017

AbstractThe intent of Paid Family Leave (PFL) is to make it financially easier for individuals to take time off from paid work to care for children and seriously ill family members. Given the linkages between care provided by family members and the usage of paid services, we examine whether California's PFL program influenced nursing home utilization in California during the 1999 to 2008 period. This is the first empirical study to examine the effects of PFL on long‐term care patterns. Multivariate difference‐in‐difference estimates across alternative comparison groups provide consistent evidence that the implementation of PFL reduced the proportion of the elderly population in nursing homes by 0.5 to 0.7 percentage points. Our preferred estimate, employing an empirically‐matched group of control states, finds that PFL reduced nursing home usage by about 0.65 percentage points. For California, this represents an 11 percent relative decline in elderly nursing home utilization.
School counseling: Partnering with a school district to provide postsecondary opportunities for first generation, low income, and students of color
Authors: Pérusse Rachelle , DeRonck Nicole , Parzych Jennifer 
Published: November 2017

AbstractA classroom activity led by district school counselors was conducted in a K‐12 school district to ensure educational equity for students in relation to postsecondary attendance. This took place in a school setting that has a large population of students of color, predominately Latino and African American students, as well as low‐income students. As part of their practicum field experience, university school counseling students were supervised by school counselors at their sites to help provide a readily available and modified curriculum to instruct students about their options related to postsecondary awareness, planning, and attendance, as well as demonstrate career pathways that engender high expectations and college and career readiness. Instruction took place in the classroom as well as in small group settings.
Blends of linear and peroxide‐modified branched polylactide for extrusion coating
Authors: Khajeheian M.B. , Kuusipalo J. , Rosling A. 
Published: November 2017

The purpose of the present work was to improve melt rheological properties of linear poly(L‐lactide) (PLLA) by melt blending with peroxide‐modified branched PLLA for extrusion coating. Peroxide‐modified PLLA, ie, PLLA melt extruded with 0.3 wt% of tert‐Butyl‐peroxybenzoate (TBPB); 2,5‐dimethyl‐2,5‐(tert‐butylperoxy)‐hexane (Lupersol 101 [LOL1]); and benzoyl peroxide was added to linear PLLA in ratios of 5, 15, and 30 wt%. All blends showed increased zero shear viscosity, elastic feature (storage modulus, decreased tan delta), and shear sensitivity. The blends' properties were mostly dependent on the peroxide applied for the modification and, to some extent, on the amount of added peroxide‐modified PLLA. Rheological models suggest that all blend compositions are mainly immiscible. Thermal properties were unchanged; all materials remained amorphous, though the enthalpy of cold crystallization was slightly increased. Extrusion coating on paperboard was conducted with PLLA and peroxide‐modified PLLA blends (90:10). All blends were processable; however, only that made with 2,5‐dimethyl‐2,5‐(tert‐butylperoxy)‐hexane (LOL1) afforded a smooth high‐quality coating surface with improved line speed. Adhesion levels between fibre and plastic and heat seal performance were marginally reduced compared with pure PLLA (3051D). The water vapour transmission measurements with 2,5‐dimethyl‐2,5‐(tert‐butylperoxy)‐hexane (LOL1) showed acceptable water transmission levels, being only slightly higher than for neat PLLA coating.
Nonlinear formation control strategies for agents without relative measurements under heterogeneous networks
Authors: Sen Arijit , Sahoo Soumya Ranjan , Kothari Mangal 
Published: November 2017

SummaryThis paper proposes cooperative control protocols for a group of unmanned vehicles to make a stable formation around a maneuvering target. The control protocols are proposed on the basis of heterogeneous communication networks, which represents more challenging and generalized situations. Two different scenarios are considered. Separate control protocols are developed for each case. In both scenarios, agents do not have relative position, velocity, and acceleration measurements as feedback. In the first scenario, each agent uses its own position and velocity measurement in a consensus algorithm. In the second scenario, each agent needs only its own position information for the consensus algorithm. For both protocols, agents compute virtual estimates of a target's position and velocity and exchange these among the neighbors. Three different communication networks are used for exchanging two virtual estimates calculated by each agent and a time derivative of one virtual estimate. Each interagent communication network is represented by a fixed, undirected, and connected graph. Furthermore, it is considered that at least one agent receives the position, velocity, and acceleration information of the maneuvering target. It is not necessary that the agent receiving the target's position and the agent receiving the velocity and/or the acceleration information of the target be the same. However, the target does not receive any information about any agent. Stability of the formation is analyzed by using Barbalat's lemma. It is also shown that, despite the large difference in received information, the acceleration of the agents remains bounded for all time. The performance of the proposed formation control protocols is illustrated through numerical simulations.
Evaluation of (‐)‐[18F]Flubatine‐specific binding: Implications for reference region approaches
Authors: Bhatt Shivani , Hillmer Ansel T. , Nabulsi Nabeel , Matuskey David , Lim Keunpoong , Lin Shu‐Fei , Esterlis Irina , Carson Richard E. , Huang Yiyun , Cosgrove Kelly P. 
Published: November 2017

AbstractWe aimed to characterize changes in binding of (‐)‐[18F]Flubatine to α4β2*‐nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (α4β2*‐nAChRs) during a tobacco cigarette smoking challenge. Displacement of (‐)‐[18F]Flubatine throughout the brain was quantified as change in (‐)‐[18F]Flubatine distribution volume (VT), with particular emphasis on regions with low VT. Three tobacco smokers were imaged with positron emission tomography (PET) during a 210 min bolus‐plus‐constant infusion of (‐)‐[18F]Flubatine. A tobacco cigarette was smoked in the PET scanner ∼125 min after the start of (‐)‐[18F]Flubatine injection. Equilibrium analysis was used to estimate VT at baseline (90‐120 min) and after cigarette challenge (180‐210 min), at the time of greatest receptor occupancy by nicotine. Smoking reduced VT by 21 ± 9% (average ±SD) in corpus callosum, 17 ± 9% in frontal cortex, 36 ± 11% in cerebellum, and 22 ± 10% in putamen. The finding of displaceable (‐)‐[18F]Flubatine binding throughout the brain is an important consideration for reference region‐based quantification approaches with this tracer. We observed displacement of (‐)‐[18F]Flubatine binding to α4β2*‐nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in corpus callosum by a tobacco cigarette challenge. We conclude that reference region approaches utilizing corpus callosum should first perform careful characterization of displaceable (‐)‐[18F]Flubatine binding and nondisplaceable kinetics in this putative reference region.
In Praise of the “Ologies”: A Discussion of and Framework for Using Soft Skills to Sense and Influence Emergent Behaviors in Sociotechnical Systems
Authors: Donaldson William 
Published: November 2017

ABSTRACTSystems engineering has at its core the elucidation and instantiation of certain life‐cycle properties that help to define the system of interest. System engineers refer to these life‐cycle properties as the “ilities.” The ilities—repeatability, predictability, auditability, quality, reliability, flexibility, scalability, etc.—are nonfunctional requirements and properties that are usually used to evaluate the performance of the system, often after the system is in use. In sociotechnical systems the ilities are important, but there is another set of properties, concepts, and constructs which is derived from the social sciences and are at least as important, if not more so, than the ilities—the “ologies.” Sociotechnical enterprises represent a microsociological construct. The ologies emerge from the interaction of people in the systems and have profound implications for systems engineers and managers analyzing, designing, maintaining, and transforming such systems. Therefore, systems engineers must have an understanding of the disciplines from the social sciences, such as sociology and philosophy. This article serves as an introduction to the prevalence and importance of the social sciences to the discipline of systems engineering, offers one proposed framework for understanding the connected nature of the ologies, and provides systems‐relevant background and context provided by these sciences.
Formation of adult organs through metamorphosis in ascidians
Authors: Sasakura Yasunori , Hozumi Akiko 
Published: November 2017

The representative characteristic of ascidians is their vertebrate‐like, tadpole shape at the larval stage. Ascidians lose the tadpole shape through metamorphosis to become adults with a nonmotile, sessile body and a shape generally considered distinct from that of vertebrates. Solitary ascidians including Ciona species are extensively studied to understand the developmental mechanisms of ascidians, and to compare these mechanisms with their counterparts in vertebrates. In these ascidian species, the digestive and circulatory systems are not well developed in the larval trunk and the larvae do not take food. This is in contrast with the inner conditions of vertebrate tadpoles, which have functional organs comparable to those of adults. The adult organs and tissues of these ascidians become functional during metamorphosis that is completed quickly, suggesting that the ascidian larvae of solitary species are a transient stage of development. We here discuss how the cells and tissues in the ascidian larval body are converted into those of adults. The hearts of ascidians and vertebrates use closely related cellular and molecular mechanisms that suggest their shared origin. Hox genes of ascidians are essential for forming adult endodermal structures. To fully understand the development and evolution of chordates, a complete elucidation of the mechanisms underlying the adult tissue/organ formation of ascidians will be needed. WIREs Dev Biol 2018, 7:e304. doi: 10.1002/wdev.304This article is categorized under:

Comparative Development and Evolution > Body Plan Evolution
Early Embryonic Development > Development to the Basic Body Plan
Reliable benchmarking: requirements and solutions
Authors: Beyer Dirk , Löwe Stefan , Wendler Philipp 
Published: November 2017

AbstractBenchmarking is a widely used method in experimental computer science, in particular, for the comparative evaluation of tools and algorithms. As a consequence, a number of questions need to be answered in order to ensure proper benchmarking, resource measurement, and presentation of results, all of which is essential for researchers, tool developers, and users, as well as for tool competitions. We identify a set of requirements that are indispensable for reliable benchmarking and resource measurement of time and memory usage of automatic solvers, verifiers, and similar tools, and discuss limitations of existing methods and benchmarking tools. Fulfilling these requirements in a benchmarking framework can (on Linux systems) currently only be done by using the cgroup and namespace features of the kernel. We developedBenchExec, a ready-to-use, tool-independent, and open-source implementation of a benchmarking framework that fulfills all presented requirements, making reliable benchmarking and resource measurement easy. Our framework is able to work with a wide range of different tools, has proven its reliability and usefulness in the International Competition on Software Verification, and is used by several research groups worldwide to ensure reliable benchmarking. Finally, we present guidelines on how to present measurement results in a scientifically valid and comprehensible way.
Genetic analysis of tropical quality protein maize (Zea mays L.) germplasm
Authors: Njeri Susan G. , Makumbi Dan , Warburton Marilyn L. , Diallo Alpha , Jumbo MacDonald B. , Chemining’wa George 
Published: November 2017

AbstractMaize (Zea maysL.) is an important source of carbohydrates and protein in the diet in sub-Saharan Africa. The objectives of this study were to (i) estimate general (GCA) and specific combining abilities (SCA) of 13 new quality protein maize (QPM) lines in a diallel under stress and non-stress conditions, (ii) compare observed and predicted performance of QPM hybrids, (iii) characterize genetic diversity among the 13 QPM lines using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers and assess the relationship between genetic distance and hybrid performance, and (iv) assess diversity and population structure in 116 new QPM inbred lines as compared to eight older tropical QPM lines and 15 non-QPM lines. The GCA and SCA effects were significant for most traits under optimal conditions, indicating that both additive and non-additive genetic effects were important for inheritance of the traits. Additive genetic effects appeared to govern inheritance of most traits under optimal conditions and across environments. Non-additive genetic effects were more important for inheritance of grain yield but additive effects controlled most agronomic traits under drought stress conditions. Inbred lines CKL08056, CKL07292, and CKL07001 had desirable GCA effects for grain yield across drought stress and non-stress conditions. Prediction efficiency for grain yield was highest under optimal conditions. The classification of 139 inbred lines with 95 SNPs generated six clusters, four of which contained 10 or fewer lines, and 16 lines of mixed co-ancestry. There was good agreement between Neighbor Joining dendrogram and Structure classification. The QPM lines used in the diallel were nearly uniformly spread throughout the dendrogram. There was no relationship between genetic distance and grain yield in either the optimal or stressed environments in this study. The genetic diversity in mid-altitude maize germplasm is ample, and the addition of the QPM germplasm did not increase it measurably.
Comparing the Roles of Regulatory Oversight Bodies in Central and Eastern European Countries
Authors: STAROŇOVÁ Katarína 
Published: November 2017

AbstractCurrently, there is ongoing discussion about the role of regulatory oversight bodies in relation to the implementation of regulatory impact assessments (RIAs). In fact, one can witness a diffusion of regulatory oversight systems, including in CEE countries, where introduction of an RIA oversight body became part of the modernisation of the overall RIA process to become more effective. In fact, the regulatory oversight mechanism is seen as a tool for the instrumental role of regulation governance. However, this approach does not adequately explain the rationale behind setting up such a body; strategic and symbolic roles may be significant as well. This article first compares the manner in which oversight mechanisms have been institutionalised in five Central and East European countries: the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia. Second, it explores how differences in institutionalisation and operation shed light on understanding what stakeholders expect and understand in relation to control of RIA quality. The paper concludes that there are marked differences in regulatory oversight set-up and roles across Central and Eastern Europe, notably as a consequence of the presence or absence of internal learning.