bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
4‐Substituted thieno[2,3‐d]pyrimidines as potent antibacterial agents: Rational design, microwave‐assisted synthesis, biological evaluation and molecular docking studies
Authors: Gill Rupinder K. , Singh Harpreet , Raj Tilak , Sharma Anuradha , Singh Gagandeep , Bariwal Jitender 
Published: May 2017

In an attempt to discover a new class of antibacterial agents with improved efficacy and to overcome the drug‐resistant problems, some novel 4‐substituted thieno[2,3‐d]pyrimidines have been synthesized via microwave‐assisted methodology and evaluated for their in vitro antibacterial activity against various pathogenic bacterial strains. Compounds 12b and 13c showed the promising inhibitory potencies against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli with MICs ranging from 2 to 10 μg/ml. Compound 13c was also found to be highly potent against methicillin‐resistant S. aureus (MRSA) with MIC value of 4 μg/ml. Docking simulation studies have been performed to unravel the mode of action and association study indicate the binding of potent compounds with DHPS enzyme. In silico ADME studies suggest the drug‐like characteristics of the potent compounds.
Noise Reduction on G‐Buffers for Monte Carlo Filtering
Authors: Moon Bochang , Iglesias‐Guitian Jose A. , McDonagh Steven , Mitchell Kenny 
Published: May 2017

AbstractWe propose a novel pre‐filtering method that reduces the noise introduced by depth‐of‐field and motion blur effects in geometric buffers (G‐buffers) such as texture, normal and depth images. Our pre‐filtering uses world positions and their variances to effectively remove high‐frequency noise while carefully preserving high‐frequency edges in the G‐buffers. We design a new anisotropic filter based on a per‐pixel covariance matrix of world position samples. A general error estimator, Stein's unbiased risk estimator, is then applied to estimate the optimal trade‐off between the bias and variance of pre‐filtered results. We have demonstrated that our pre‐filtering improves the results of existing filtering methods numerically and visually for challenging scenes where depth‐of‐field and motion blurring introduce a significant amount of noise in the G‐buffers.
Loss of retinoblastoma in pleomorphic fibroma: An immunohistochemical and genomic analysis
Authors: Hinds Brian , Agulló Pérez Alfredo D. , LeBoit Philip E. , McCalmont Timothy H. , North Jeffrey P. 
Published: May 2017

BackgroundPleomorphic fibroma is a curious neoplasm that exhibits striking cytologic atypia, yet behaves in benign fashion. The cytologic features include single cells with pleomorphic nuclei and scattered giant cells resembling the neoplastic cells of pleomorphic lipoma, a tumor with known retinoblastoma (Rb) loss.MethodsWe assessed the demographic and histopathologic features of a cohort of 26 pleomorphic fibromas, including assessment with immunostaining for Rb, p16 and Ki‐67. Array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) was used to assess a limited number of tumors for genomic aberrations.ResultsOf the 26 pleomorphic fibromas analyzed, 19 occurred in women and 7 in men, with a mean age of 47 years. The anatomic locations were variable. Immunostaining showed loss of Rb protein expression in all cases and diffuse p16 expression in 85%. Ki‐67 labeling rate was below 10% in 85%. Chromosome 13q loss was found in 7 of 7 pleomorphic fibromas assessed with aCGH. Recurrent loss of 17p, 16q and 10q were also found.ConclusionWe report recurrent loss of
RB1
on chromosome 13q in pleomorphic fibromas, confirmed by both protein expression loss and loss of 13q by aCGH. This result indicates pleomorphic fibroma shares the same genetic abnormalities as spindle cell and pleomorphic lipomas.
First report of Hymenoscyphus fraxineus on Fraxinus excelsior in Montenegro
Authors: Milenković I. , Jung T. , Stanivuković Z. , Karadžić D. 
Published: May 2017

SummaryDuring the monitoring of the mycological complex on different forest tree species in the Biogradska Gora National Park in north‐east Montenegro, symptoms indicative of ash dieback caused by Hymenoscyphus fraxineus were observed on young Fraxinus excelsior trees in the protected virgin forest, including dieback of plants and branches, wilting of leaves and shoots leading to a “flag‐like” habitus, premature shedding of leaves and longitudinal bark necroses. Using standard isolation methods, slow‐growing cultures with numerous phialides, typical of the asexual phase of the ash dieback fungus, were obtained. In addition, petioles with numerous characteristic apothecia were also recorded. This is the first report of H. fraxineus on common ash in Montenegro. Possible pathways of introduction and implications of the findings are discussed.
CEO personal investment decisions and firm risk
Authors: Cen Wei , Doukas John A. 
Published: May 2017

AbstractWe develop a novel method of measuring CEO risk preference based on their personal allocation of deferred compensation funds, and find CEOs holding more volatile deferred compensation portfolios lead riskier firms. We also use the 2008 financial crisis as a natural experiment to check the robustness of this new method and find consistent evidence in support of a positive association between CEO risk‐taking and firm risk. Moreover, the evidence shows that risk‐taking CEOs pursue risky financial and investment policies. Our results, in accord with the behavioural consistency theory, demonstrate that CEOs act consistently across personal and professional choices.
The diagnosis of equine insulin dysregulation
Authors: Bertin F. R. , de Laat M. A. 
Published: May 2017

SummaryInsulin dysregulation is the hallmark of equine metabolic syndrome and has received attention because of its direct association with laminitis. In the absence of an adequate treatment for laminitis, a focus on prophylaxis is needed, making early detection of individuals at risk of developing laminitis one of the main challenges in equine endocrinology. Recent studies have shown that insulin dysregulation goes beyond tissue insulin resistance and it is now demonstrated that the equine enteroinsular axis plays a major role in insulin secretion and equine hyperinsulinaemia. In this review, we discuss the different tests currently available to diagnose insulin dysregulation in horses: the ones investigating tissue insulin resistance and those investigating the enteroinsular axis, detailing their goals, practicalities and limitations. This review supports the contention that the diagnosis of equine insulin dysregulation should now be based on the investigation of both tissue insulin resistance and the equine enteroinsular axis. Regardless of the tests used many factors of variation, such as breed, diet, fasting state or season, have been identified and could potentially confound the results of a specific test. Therefore, careful interpretation of the results of a given test in each individual situation is required to optimise the detection of horses at risk of laminitis.
Assessment of horse owners’ ability to recognise equine laminitis: A cross‐sectional study of 93 veterinary diagnosed cases in Great Britain
Authors: Pollard D. , Wylie C. E. , Verheyen K. L. P. , Newton J. R. 
Published: May 2017

SummaryBackgroundUse of owner‐reported data could further epidemiological knowledge of equine laminitis. However, owner recognition of laminitis has not previously been assessed.ObjectivesThe primary objective was to establish whether cases of owner‐suspected laminitis would be confirmed as laminitis by the attending veterinary surgeon. Secondary objectives were to compare owner‐ and veterinary‐reported information from veterinary‐confirmed cases of equine laminitis.Study designCross‐sectional study.MethodsTwenty‐five British veterinary practices were invited to submit laminitis reporting forms (LRFs) for active laminitis cases attended between January 2014 and October 2015; detailing 27 clinical signs, 5 underlying conditions and 7 risk factors associated with laminitis. Owners were invited to independently complete a modified LRF if reason for the veterinary visit was suspicion of laminitis. Differences between paired veterinary and owner LRFs, and between cases where owners did and did not recognise laminitis, were assessed using McNemar's and Fisher's Exact tests, respectively.ResultsVeterinary LRFs were received for 93 veterinary‐diagnosed laminitis cases. All 51 owner‐suspected cases were confirmed by veterinary diagnosis, with the remaining 42 (45.2%) not recognised as laminitis by owners. Undefined lameness, foot abscesses, colic and stiffness were common reasons for owner‐requested veterinary visits in owner‐unrecognised cases. ‘Divergent growth rings’ (prevalence difference: +27.3%, P = 0.01) and ‘breed type’ (prevalence difference: +21.2%, P = 0.04) were more commonly reported by veterinary surgeons in owner‐recognised compared to owner‐unrecognised cases. ‘Difficulty turning’, ‘shifting weight’ and risk factor ‘body condition’ were more frequently reported by veterinary surgeons whilst ‘increased hoof temperature’ was reported more frequently by owners.Main limitationsThe limited clinical data restricted statistical inferences regarding the secondary objectives.ConclusionsAll owner‐suspected laminitis cases were confirmed upon veterinary examination, showing validity for the inclusion of owner‐reported cases in future epidemiological studies. However, failure of laminitis recognition by owners highlights further need for evidence‐based education to ensure early disease detection.
Electroencephalography‐based feature extraction using complex network for automated epileptic seizure detection
Authors: Artameeyanant Patcharin , Sultornsanee Sivarit , Chamnongthai Kosin 
Published: May 2017

AbstractElectroencephalography signals are typically used for analyzing epileptic seizures. These signals are highly nonlinear and nonstationary, and some specific patterns exist for certain disease types that are hard to develop an automatic epileptic seizure detection system. This paper discussed statistical mechanics of complex networks, which inherit the characteristic properties of electroencephalography signals, for feature extraction via a horizontal visibility algorithm in order to reduce processing time and complexity. The algorithm transforms a time series signal into a complex network, which some features are abbreviated. The statistical mechanics are calculated to capture distinctions pertaining to certain diseases to form a feature vector. The feature vector is classified by multiclass classification via a k‐nearest neighbor classifier, a multilayer perceptron neural network, and a support vector machine with a 10‐fold cross‐validation criterion. In performance evaluation of proposed method with healthy, seizure‐free interval, and seizure signals, firstly, input data length is regarded among some practical signal samples by optimizing between accuracy‐processing time, and the proposed method yields outstanding performance on the average classification accuracy for 3‐class problems mainly for detection of seizure‐free interval and seizure signals and acceptable results for 2‐class and 5‐class problems comparing with conventional methods. The proposed method is another tool that can be used for classifying signal patterns, as an alternative to time/frequency analyses.
Performance evaluation of rule‐based expert systems: An example from medical billing domain
Authors: Abdullah Umair , Ligęza Antoni , Zafar Kashif 
Published: May 2017

AbstractMost of the research in the area of performance evaluation of rule‐based expert systems (RBESs) is focused on verification and validation issues. Many researchers discuss usability, usefulness, portability, and response time for the evolution of RBES. The final goal of all such studies is to construct a system with optimal, accurate knowledge base. Arguably, a system with best knowledge base is actually worthless if it is never utilized in the real world. We have proposed “benefit” as a measure of evaluation and suggested some guidelines for performance evaluation of RBESs. The proposed measure has been demonstrated for performance evaluation of an RBES applied in the medical billing domain. Results showed that the system has saved hundreds of working hours during the evaluation period of 3 months. Moreover, other associated measures have also been considered. Associated measures in the medical billing domain are “claim rejection rate”—reduced by 54%—and “claim aging,” which has decreased from 34 to 28 days due to the RBES. Guidelines proposed by this research can be applied for the evaluation of expert systems implemented in other application domains, including in the first place business decision support systems.
Further analysis of acute antinociceptive and anti‐inflammatory actions of 4‐phenylselenyl‐7‐chloroquinoline in mice
Authors: Silva Vanessa D. G. , Reis Angélica S. , Pinz Mikaela P. , da Fonseca Caren A. R. , Duarte Luis Fernando B. , Roehrs Juliano A. , Alves Diego , Luchese Cristiane , Wilhelm Ethel A. 
Published: May 2017

AbstractA new quinoline containing selenium, 4‐phenylselenyl‐7‐chloroquinoline (4‐PSQ), was described and synthetized by our research group. Recently, we demonstrated the potential antinociceptive and anti‐inflammatory of 4‐PSQ. For this reason, the first objective of this study was to expand our previous findings by investigating the contribution of glutamatergic, serotonergic, and nitrergic systems to the acute antinociceptive action of this compound. Pretreatment with 4‐PSQ (0.01–25 mg/kg, p.o.) reduced the nociception induced by glutamate. MK‐801 (an uncompetitive antagonist of the N‐Methyl‐d‐aspartate (NMDA) receptor) blocked the antinociceptive effect exerted by 4‐PSQ (25 mg/kg, p.o.) in the acetic acid‐induced abdominal writhing test. The pretreatment with WAY100635 (a selective antagonist of 5‐HT1A receptor), ketanserin (a selective antagonist of 5‐HT2A/2C receptor), and pindolol (a nonselective antagonist of 5‐HT1A/1B receptors) partially blocked the antinociceptive effect caused by 4‐PSQ (25 mg/kg, per oral, p.o.) in the acetic acid‐induced abdominal writhing test. Nitric oxide precursor, l‐arginine hydrochloride, partially reversed antinociception caused by 4‐PSQ or ω‐nitro‐l‐arginine (l‐NOARG). Treatments did not modify the locomotor and exploratory activities of mice. Additionally, the acute anti‐inflammatory effect of 4‐PSQ in a model of pleurisy induced by carrageenan in mice was investigated. 4‐PSQ reduced the cellular migration, pleural exudate accumulation, and myeloperoxidase activity induced by carrageenan exposure. 4‐PSQ protected against the increase in reactive species levels and reduction of nonprotein thiol levels induced by carrageenan. Data presented here showed that the modulation of serotonergic, nitrergic, and glutamatergic systems contributed to the antinociceptive effect of 4‐PSQ and it reinforced the therapeutic potential of this quinolinic compound for acute inflammation.
MODIS VCF should not be used to detect discontinuities in tree cover due to binning bias. A comment on Hanan et al. (2014) and Staver and Hansen (2015)
Authors: Gerard France , Hooftman Danny , van Langevelde Frank , Veenendaal Elmar , White Steven M. , Lloyd Jon 
Published: May 2017

AbstractIn their recent paper, Staver and Hansen (Global Ecology and Biogeography, 2015, 24, 985–987) refute the case made by Hanan et al. (Global Ecology and Biogeography, 2014, 23, 259–263) that the use of classification and regression trees (CARTs) to predict tree cover from remotely sensed imagery (MODIS VCF) inherently introduces biases, thus making the resulting tree cover unsuitable for showing alternative stable states through tree cover frequency distribution analyses. Here we provide a new and equally fundamental argument for why the published frequency distributions should not be used for such purposes. We show that the practice of pre‐average binning of tree cover values used to derive cover values to train the CART model will also introduce errors in the frequency distributions of the final product. We demonstrate that the frequency minima found at tree covers of 8–18%, 33–45% and 55–75% can be attributed to numerical biases introduced when training samples are derived from landscapes containing asymmetric tree cover distributions and/or a tree cover gradient. So it is highly likely that the CART, used to produce MODIS VCF, delivers tree cover frequency distributions that do not reflect the real world situation.
Trends and approaches in the analysis of ecosystem services provided by grazing systems: A review
Authors: D'Ottavio P. , Francioni M. , Trozzo L. , Sedić E. , Budimir K. , Avanzolini P. , Trombetta M. F. , Porqueddu C. , Santilocchi R. , Toderi M. 
Published: May 2017

AbstractThe ecosystem services (ES) approach is a framework for describing the benefits of nature to human well‐being, and this has become a popular instrument for assessment and evaluation of ecosystems and their functions. Grazing lands can provide a wide array of ES that depend on their management practices and intensity. This article reviews the trends and approaches used in the analysis of some relevant ES provided by grazing systems, in line with the framework principles of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA). The scientific literature provides reports of many studies on ES in general, but the search here focused on grazing systems, which returned only sixty‐two papers. This review of published papers highlights that: (i) in some papers, the concept of ES as defined by the MA is misunderstood (e.g., lack of anthropocentric vision); (ii) 34% of the papers dealt only with one ES, which neglects the need for the multisectoral approach suggested by the MA; (iii) few papers included stakeholder involvement to improve local decision‐making processes; (iv) cultural ES have been poorly studied despite being considered the most relevant for local and general stakeholders; and (v) stakeholder awareness of well‐being as provided by ES in grazing systems can foster both agri‐environmental schemes and the willingness to pay for these services.
The origin and expansion of regional value chains: the case of Kenyan horticulture
Authors: KRISHNAN AARTI 
Published: May 2017

AbstractRegional value chains (RVCs), involving regional lead firms that trade within a single world region, are increasingly prominent within the Global South. Yet, emerging analyses of RVCs have not adequately interrogated how the expansion of RVCs relates to global value chains (GVCs), how actors in RVCs interact with overlapping chains, or the implications for development. Through a case study of horticulture value chains in Kenya, two main types of RVC–GVC interactions are identified. First, opportunistic RVCs emerged when suppliers found their produce rejected from GVCs for lack of standards compliance and began selling spillover produce in regional markets. Second, a more independent targeted RVC has evolved since suppliers began selling produce directly to regional supermarkets that had established their own regional procurement strategies and private standards. Some suppliers are also involved in hybrid interactions – participating in both opportunistic spillovers and targeted RVCs. The analysis concludes that the expansion of RVCs must be considered in the context of GVCs, leading to more nuanced understandings of the characteristics and development implications of RVCs.
Applying Quantitative Molecular Tools for Virus Transport Studies: Opportunities and Challenges
Authors: Wong Kelvin , Molina Marirosa 
Published: May 2017

AbstractBacteriophages have been used in soil column studies for the last several decades as surrogates to study the fate and transport behavior of enteric viruses in groundwater. However, recent studies have shown that the transport behavior of bacteriophages and enteric viruses in porous media can be very different. The next generation of virus transport science must therefore provide more data on mobility of enteric viruses and the relationship between transport behaviors of enteric viruses and bacteriophages. To achieve this new paradigm, labor intensity devoted to enteric virus quantification method must be reduced. Recent studies applied quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) to column filtration experiments to study the transport behavior of human adenovirus (HAdV) in porous media under a variety of conditions. A similar approach can be used to study the transport of other enteric viruses such as norovirus. Analyzing the column samples with both qPCR and culture assays and applying multiplex qPCR to study cotransport behavior of more than one virus will provide information to under‐explored areas in virus transport science. Both nucleic acid extraction kits and one‐step lysis protocols have been used in these column studies to extract viral nucleic acid for qPCR quantification. The pros and cons of both methods are compared herein and solutions for overcoming problems are suggested. As better understanding of the transport behavior of enteric viruses is clearly needed, we strongly advocate for application of rapid molecular tools in future studies as well as optimization of protocols to overcome their current limitations.
Calibration of a Land Subsidence Model Using InSAR Data via the Ensemble Kalman Filter
Authors: Li Liangping , Zhang Meijing , Katzenstein Kurt 
Published: May 2017

AbstractThe application of interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) has been increasingly used to improve capabilities to model land subsidence in hydrogeologic studies. A number of investigations over the last decade show how spatially detailed time‐lapse images of ground displacements could be utilized to advance our understanding for better predictions. In this work, we use simulated land subsidences as observed measurements, mimicking InSAR data to inversely infer inelastic specific storage in a stochastic framework. The inelastic specific storage is assumed as a random variable and modeled using a geostatistical method such that the detailed variations in space could be represented and also that the uncertainties of both characterization of specific storage and prediction of land subsidence can be assessed. The ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF), a real‐time data assimilation algorithm, is used to inversely calibrate a land subsidence model by matching simulated subsidences with InSAR data. The performance of the EnKF is demonstrated in a synthetic example in which simulated surface deformations using a reference field are assumed as InSAR data for inverse modeling. The results indicate: (1) the EnKF can be used successfully to calibrate a land subsidence model with InSAR data; the estimation of inelastic specific storage is improved, and uncertainty of prediction is reduced, when all the data are accounted for; and (2) if the same ensemble is used to estimate Kalman gain, the analysis errors could cause filter divergence; thus, it is essential to include localization in the EnKF for InSAR data assimilation.