bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Sinogram restoration in computed tomography with an edge‐preserving penalty
Authors: Little Kevin J. , La Rivière Patrick J. 
Published: February 2015

Purpose:With the goal of producing a less computationally intensive alternative to fully iterative penalized‐likelihood image reconstruction, our group has explored the use of penalized‐likelihood sinogram restoration for transmission tomography. Previously, we have exclusively used a quadratic penalty in our restoration objective function. However, a quadratic penalty does not excel at preserving edges while reducing noise. Here, we derive a restoration update equation for nonquadratic penalties. Additionally, we perform a feasibility study to extend our sinogram restoration method to a helical cone‐beam geometry and clinical data.Methods:A restoration update equation for nonquadratic penalties is derived using separable parabolic surrogates (SPS). A method for calculating sinogram degradation coefficients for a helical cone‐beam geometry is proposed. Using simulated data, sinogram restorations are performed using both a quadratic penalty and the edge‐preserving Huber penalty. After sinogram restoration, Fourier‐based analytical methods are used to obtain reconstructions, and resolution‐noise trade‐offs are investigated. For the fan‐beam geometry, a comparison is made to image‐domain SPS reconstruction using the Huber penalty. The effects of varying object size and contrast are also investigated. For the helical cone‐beam geometry, we investigate the effect of helical pitch (axial movement/rotation). Huber‐penalty sinogram restoration is performed on 3D clinical data, and the reconstructed images are compared to those generated with no restoration.Results:We find that by applying the edge‐preserving Huber penalty to our sinogram restoration methods, the reconstructed image has a better resolution‐noise relationship than an image produced using a quadratic penalty in the sinogram restoration. However, we find that this relatively straightforward approach to edge preservation in the sinogram domain is affected by the physical size of imaged objects in addition to the contrast across the edge. This presents some disadvantages of this method relative to image‐domain edge‐preserving methods, although the computational burden of the sinogram‐domain approach is much lower. For a helical cone‐beam geometry, we found applying sinogram restoration in 3D was reasonable and that pitch did not make a significant difference in the general effect of sinogram restoration. The application of Huber‐penalty sinogram restoration to clinical data resulted in a reconstruction with less noise while retaining resolution.Conclusions:Sinogram restoration with the Huber penalty is able to provide better resolution‐noise performance than restoration with a quadratic penalty. Additionally, sinogram restoration with the Huber penalty is feasible for helical cone‐beam CT and can be applied to clinical data.
Effects of Manipulating Volume and Intensity Training in Masters Swimmers
Authors: Pugliese Lorenzo , Porcelli Simone , Bonato Matteo , Pavei Gaspare , La Torre Antonio , Maggioni Martina A. , Bellistri Giuseppe , Marzorati Mauro 
Published: February 2015

Purpose:
Recently, some studies have suggested that overall training intensity may be more important than training volume for improving swimming performance. However, those studies focused on very young subjects, and/or the difference between high-volume and high-intensity training was blurred. The aim of this study was to investigate in masters swimmers the effects of manipulation of training volume and intensity on performance and physiological variables.

Methods:
A group of 10 male masters swimmers (age 32.3 ± 5.1 y) performed 2 different 6-wk training periods followed by 1 wk of tapering. The first period was characterized by high training volume performed at low intensity (HvLi), whereas the second period was characterized by low training volume performed at high intensity (LvHi). Peak oxygen consumption (V̇O2peak) during incremental arm exercise, individual anaerobic threshold (IAT), and 100-m, 400-m, and 2000-m-freestyle time were evaluated before and at the end of both training periods.

Results:
HvLi training significant increased V̇O2peak (11.9% ± 4.9% [mean change ± 90%CL], P = .002) and performance in the 400-m (–2.8% ± 1.8%, P = .002) and 2000-m (–3.4% ± 2.9%, P = .025), with a likely change in IAT (4.9% ± 4.7%, P > .05). After LvHi training, speed at IAT (12.4% ± 5.3%, P = .004) and 100-m performance (–1.2% ± 0.8%, P = .001) also improved, without any significant changes in V̇O2peak, 2000-m, and 400-m.

Conclusions:
These findings indicate that in masters swimmers an increase of training volume may lead to an improvement of V̇O2peak and middle- to long-distance performance. However, a subsequent period of LvHi training maintains previous adjustments and positively affects anaerobic threshold and short-distance performance.
Effects of Altitude on Performance of Elite Track-and-Field Athletes
Authors: Hamlin Michael J. , Hopkins Will G. , Hollings Stephen C. 
Published: February 2015

Purpose:
Lower barometric air pressure at altitude can affect competitive performance of athletes in some sports. Reported here are the effects of various altitudes on elite track-and-field athletes’ performance.

Methods:
Lifetime track-and-field performances of athletes placed in the top 16 in at least 1 major international competition between 2000 and 2009 were downloaded from the database at tilastopaja.org. There were 132,104 performances of 1889 athletes at 794 venues. Performances were logtransformed and analyzed using a mixed linear model with fixed effects for 6 levels of altitude and random quadratic effects to adjust for athlete age.

Results:
Men’s and women’s sprint events (100–400 m) showed marginal improvements of ~0.2% at altitudes of 500–999 m, and above 1500 m all but the 100- and 110-m hurdles showed substantial improvements of 0.3–0.7%. Some middle- and long-distance events (800–10,000 m) showed marginal impairments at altitudes above 150 m, but above 1000 m the impairments increased dramatically to ~2–4% for events >800 m. There was no consistent trend in the effects of altitude on field events up to 1000 m; above 1000 m, hammer throw showed a marginal improvement of ~1% and discus was impaired by 1–2%. Above 1500 m, triple jump and long jump showed marginal improvements of ~1%.

Conclusions:
In middle- and long-distance runners, altitudes as low as 150 to 299 m can impair performance. Higher altitudes (≥1000 m) are generally required before decreases in discus performance or enhancements in sprinting, triple and long jump, or hammer throw are seen.
Effect of Custom Foot Insoles on Postural Stability in Figure Skaters While on Ice
Authors: Grewal Gurtej S. , Baisch Rachel , Lee-Eng Jacqueline , Wu Stephaine , Jarrett Beth , Humble Neil , Najafi Bijan 
Published: February 2015

Context:Improvements in postural stability in figure skaters can play a significant role in performance, as well as reducing fall risk.Objective:To explore the effect of custom foot insoles on postural stability in advanced figure skaters.Design:Exploratory study.Setting:Out of laboratory.Participants:Nine advanced figure skaters were recruited and 7 completed the study (age 38 ± 18.5 y, body-mass index 25 ± 3.6 kg/m2).Intervention:Custom foot insoles.Main Outcome Measures:Primary outcome of changes in postural stability (PS) quantified by center-of-mass sway with secondary outcomes of ankleand hip-joint sway and joint range of motion. Sway measurements were assessed using body-worn sensors while participants wore skates on ice. PS was assessed in single-leg stance, as well as during gliding on the dominant foot.Results:A significant improvement in static PS was observed after 6-wk use of custom insoles. Center-of-mass sway reduced significantly on average by 48.44% (P = .023), and ankle-joint sway reduced by 45.7% (P = .05) during single-leg-stance balance measurements. During the gliding maneuver nonsignificant changes were observed for both ankle- and knee-joint range of motion.Conclusion:The results of this study suggest proof of concept toward benefits of custom insoles in improving postural stability in advanced figure skaters. To generalize the findings, randomized controlled trials with larger sample sizes are warranted.
Individual Differences in Learning Talker Categories: The Role of Working Memory
Authors: Levi Susannah V. 
Published: February 2015

Abstract
The current study explores the question of how an auditory category is learned by having school-age listeners learn to categorize speech not in terms of linguistic categories, but instead in terms of talker categories (i.e., who is talking). Findings from visual-category learning indicate that working memory skills affect learning, but the literature is equivocal: sometimes better working memory is advantageous, and sometimes not. The current study examined the role of different components of working memory to test which component skills benefit, and which hinder, learning talker categories. Results revealed that the short-term storage component positively predicted learning, but that the Central Executive and Episodic Buffer negatively predicted learning. As with visual categories, better working memory is not always an advantage.
Directions of Change in Japanese Religiosity
Authors: Lewis David C. 
Published: February 2015

Assertions about ‘secularisation’ in Japan are dependent on the accuracy of attempts to measure religiosity. Most indices try to measure observable religious practices, some also trying to assess levels of belief, but very few studies have attempted to measure the prevalence of religious experience. Measurements in each of these dimensions is problematic to some extent, so it is very difficult to know whether or not Japanese religiosity overall is increasing, declining or staying about the same, albeit with some surface changes. It is probably premature to assert too confidently that there is secularisation in Japan, or that religion is increasing or staying the same.
This paper reviews some of the different dimensions of religiosity that need to be considered when trying to measure changes in religious behaviour. Statistics on alleged beliefs or observable practices need to be understood from the perspective of the motivations and attitudes behind them. In many cases, they are best understood in the perspective of the life-cycle, whereby expressions of religiosity change at different stages in a person’s life and are influenced by a variety of personal factors that affect whether or not an individual might participate in certain forms of religious practices.
Dialect Contact and the Production of Contaminated Forms — A Reconstruction of the History of Chinese Words for “Knee”
Authors: IWATA Ray 
Published: February 2015

This paper attempts to reconstruct the history of Chinese words for “knee” by using the methodology of linguistic geography. Word forms are classified into five major types according to morphological features, and then their geographical distributions are observed. Observation suggests that dialect contact produces various types of “contaminated” forms (linguistic blends) in Chinese dialects.
Three types of blend formations are discernible: prefixed, infixed and suffixed types. As a rule, the dialects accept part of the new form, which is transmitted from the adjacent areas, as conforming to the morphology of the original form. The suffixed-type blending is currently distributed along the Changjiang basin. The infixed-type is typical of the Wu dialects, which is assumed to have accepted the northern form [kʰɑ] as the second component of a trisyllabic structure. The prefixed-type is currently observable in some northern dialects, and it is assumed that the same process might have once occurred in the northern area, where the unaspirated prefix [kɑk] changed to the aspirated one, i.e., [kʰɑk], due to contamination by the form [kʰɑ]. The etymology and historical formation of the newest type, “p-l-k” > “k-l-p”, is also discussed. Finally, historical changes of the “knee” forms are reconstructed.
Languages and Genes in China and In East Asia
Authors: Peyraube Alain 
Published: February 2015

This article poses two main questions: can the history of genes help us understand better what the Chinese linguistic situation was some 5,000 years B.P., not to mention the population distribution in China? Consequently can the history of genes helps us in grouping the languages of China and East Asia into families and macro-families?
Languages and genes have two different histories and two different types of evolution – one being natural, the other one largely cultural – with different mechanisms of origin and reproduction. Nonetheless, there are indeed many clear analogies in the mechanisms of transmission: mutation, natural selection, migration, and chance. These have lead population geneticists and linguists to look for any congruence in genetic and linguistic evolution, in order to correlate genetic and linguistic distance.
In light of these congruences, but also of non-correlations existing between the genetic classification of populations and the classification of languages, the different hypotheses concerning the traditional grouping of languages (Sino-Tibetan, Austronesian, Austro-Asiatic, Tai-Kadai , Miao-Yao or Hmong-Mjen, Altaic), as well as the new groupings in macro-families (Austric, Austro-Tai, Sino-Tibetan-Austronesian, Sino-Indo-European, Sino-Caucasian, Proto-East-Asian, etc.) will be discussed.
It will be concluded that while we have various hypotheses, we are not sure of anything. The considerable accumulation of data in population genetics has rendered the landscape much less simple, all the more so since the theoretical models of evolution necessary to interpret the genetic data in historical context are still being refined.
First Lanuginellinae (Porifera, Hexactinellida, Rossellidae) from the NE Pacific and first species of Doconesthes from the Pacific Ocean
Authors: REISWIG HENRY M. 
Published: February 2015

A new sac-shaped hexactinellid collected from western Canada bearing long lateral prostal spicules was first thought to be a typical Rossellinae. Subsequent examination of its spiculation proved it to have distinctive strobiloplumicomes, typical of the subfamily Lanuginellinae. Other spicules showed it to be a member of the monospecific genus Doconesthes, known previously only from the North Atlantic Ocean. The new species described here as Doconesthes dustinchiversi is only the second known species of the genus and the first to be found in the Pacific Ocean.
Causal Counterfactual Theory for the Attribution of Weather and Climate-Related Events
Authors: Hannart A. , Pearl J. , Otto F. E. L. , Naveau P. , Ghil M. 
Published: February 2015

Abstract
The emergence of clear semantics for causal claims and of a sound logic for causal reasoning is relatively recent, with the consolidation over the past decades of a coherent theoretical corpus of definitions, concepts, and methods of general applicability that is anchored into counterfactuals. The latter corpus has proved to be of high practical interest in numerous applied fields (e.g., epidemiology, economics, and social science). In spite of their rather consensual nature and proven efficacy, these definitions and methods are to a large extent not used in detection and attribution (D&A). This article gives a brief overview of the main concepts underpinning the causal theory and proposes some methodological extensions for the causal attribution of weather and climate-related events that are rooted into the latter. Implications for the formulation of causal claims and their uncertainty are finally discussed.
Probabilistic 0–1-h Convective Initiation Nowcasts that Combine Geostationary Satellite Observations and Numerical Weather Prediction Model Data
Authors: Mecikalski John R. , Williams John K. , Jewett Christopher P. , Ahijevych David , LeRoy Anita , Walker John R. 
Published: February 2015

AbstractThe Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-R convective initiation (CI) algorithm predicts CI in real time over the next 0–60 min. While GOES-R CI has been very successful in tracking nascent clouds and obtaining cloud-top growth and height characteristics relevant to CI in an object-tracking framework, its performance has been hindered by elevated false-alarm rates, and it has not optimally combined satellite observations with other valuable data sources. Presented here are two statistical learning approaches that incorporate numerical weather prediction (NWP) input within the established GOES-R CI framework to produce probabilistic forecasts: logistic regression (LR) and an artificial-intelligence approach known as random forest (RF). Both of these techniques are used to build models that are based on an extensive database of CI events and nonevents and are evaluated via cross validation and on independent case studies. With the proper choice of probability thresholds, both the LR and RF techniques incorporating NWP data produce substantially fewer false alarms than when only GOES data are used. The NWP information identifies environmental conditions (as favorable or unfavorable) for the development of convective storms and improves the skill of the CI nowcasts that operate on GOES-based cloud objects, as compared with when the satellite IR fields are used alone. The LR procedure performs slightly better overall when 14 skill measures are used to quantify the results and notably better on independent case study days.
Delayed Impacts of Tropical Cyclones Irene 2011 and Isaac 2012 in the Caribbean Antilles
Authors: Jury Mark R. 
Published: February 2015

AbstractThis study considers tropical cyclones Irene in Puerto Rico from 2011 and Isaac in the Dominican Republic from 2012. Impacts trailed more than a day after the storm in both cases. Irene passed Puerto Rico on 22 August 2011, yet bands of heavy rainfall caused floods and disruption on 23 August. In the second case, Isaac passed Hispaniola on 24 August 2012, but stormy weather continued on 25 August. Onshore winds, 4-m waves, and associated tides and river outflow closed the harbor of Santo Domingo. Emergency managers and maritime operators should be aware of the delayed impacts of tropical cyclones in the Caribbean Sea region.
Diurnal and Seasonal Lightning Variability over the Gulf Stream and the Gulf of Mexico
Authors: Virts Katrina S. , Wallace John M. , Hutchins Michael L. , Holzworth Robert H. 
Published: February 2015

Recent observations from the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) reveal a pronounced lightning maximum over the warm waters of the Gulf Stream that exhibits distinct diurnal and seasonal variability. Lightning is most frequent during summer (June–August). During afternoon and early evening, lightning is enhanced just onshore of the coast of the southeastern United States because of daytime heating of the land surface and the resulting sea-breeze circulations and convection. Near-surface wind observations from the Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) satellite indicate divergence over the Gulf of Mexico and portions of the Gulf Stream at 1800 LT, at which time lightning activity is suppressed there. Lightning frequency exhibits a broad maximum over the Gulf Stream from evening through noon of the following day, and QuikSCAT wind observations at 0600 LT indicate low-level winds blowing away from the continent and converging over the Gulf Stream. Over the northern Gulf of Mexico, lightning is most frequent from around sunrise through late morning. During winter, lightning exhibits a weak diurnal cycle over the Gulf Stream, with most frequent lightning during the evening. Precipitation rates from a 3-hourly gridded dataset that incorporates observations from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), as well as other satellites, exhibit a diurnal cycle over the Gulf Stream that lags the lightning diurnal cycle by several hours.
Contraction of the Northern Hemisphere, Lower-Tropospheric, Wintertime Cold Pool over the Past 66 Years
Authors: Martin Jonathan E. 
Published: February 2015

Abstract
Employing reanalysis datasets, several threshold temperatures at 850 hPa are used to measure the wintertime [December–February (DJF)] areal extent of the lower-tropospheric, Northern Hemisphere, cold-air pool over the past 66 cold seasons. The analysis indicates a systematic contraction of the cold pool at each of the threshold temperatures. Special emphasis is placed on analysis of the trends in the extent of the −5°C air.
Composite differences in lower-tropospheric temperature, midtropospheric geopotential height, and tropopause level jet anomalies between the five coldest and five warmest years are considered. Cold years are characterized by an equatorward expansion of the jet in the Pacific and Atlantic sectors of the hemisphere and by invigorated cold-air production in high-latitude Eurasia and North America. Systematic poleward encroachment of the −5°C isotherm in the exit regions of the storm tracks accounts for nearly 50% of the observed contraction of the hemispheric wintertime cold pool since 1948. It is suggested that this trend is linked to displacement of the storm tracks associated with global warming.
Correlation analyses suggest that the interannual variability of the areal extent of the 850-hPa cold pool is unrelated to variations in hemispheric snow cover, the Arctic Oscillation, or the phase and intensity of ENSO. A modest statistical connection with the East Asian winter monsoon, however, does appear to exist. Importantly, there is no evidence that a resurgent trend in cold Northern Hemisphere winters is ongoing. In fact, the winter of 2013/14, though desperately cold in North America, was the warmest ever observed in the 66-yr time series.
Topographic Coupling of the Atlantic Overturning and Gyre Circulations
Authors: Yeager Stephen 
Published: February 2015

AbstractThe vorticity dynamics associated with the mean and time-varying gyre and overturning circulations of the Atlantic Ocean are examined in a realistic ocean model hindcast simulation of the late twentieth century. Abyssal flow interaction with sloping bottom bathymetry gives rise to the bottom pressure torque (BPT) term of the vertically integrated vorticity equation. The dominance of this term in the closure of the barotropic gyre circulation noted in previous studies is corroborated here for both non-eddy-resolving and eddy-resolving versions of the Parallel Ocean Program (POP) model. This study shows that BPT is also a dominant term in the vorticity balance of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) and therefore represents a key dynamical link between the overturning and gyre streamfunctions. The interannual variability of the Atlantic circulation over the last several decades, viewed in terms of time-varying integral vorticity balances, demonstrates the fundamental role played by BPT in coupling the large-scale barotropic and baroclinic flows. Forcing perturbation experiments show how flow–bathymetry interactions mediate buoyancy-driven changes in the gyre circulation and momentum-driven changes in the AMOC. Examples of topographic coupling of the overturning and gyre circulations that this analysis elucidates include the covariation of the high-latitude AMOC and subpolar gyre flows on decadal time scales, buoyancy-forced variance of the Gulf Stream, and large wind-driven variations in AMOC at subtropical latitudes.