bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Modeling and simulation of size effects in metallic glasses with a nonlocal continuum mechanics theory
Authors: Klusemann Benjamin , Bargmann Swantje 
Published: May 2013

AbstractThe present contribution is concerned with the modeling and computation of size effects in metallic glasses. For the underlying model description, we resort to a thermodynamically consistent, gradient-extended continuum mechanics approach. The numerical implementation is carried out with the help of the finite element method. Numerical examples are presented and compared with existing experimental findings to illustrate the performance of the constitutive model. In this regard, the influence of the material length scale is investigated. It is shown that with decreasing sample size or decreasing material length scale, a delay of the shear localization is obtained. In addition, the tension-compression asymmetry observed in experiments is captured by the proposed model. Further, the rate-dependent behavior as well as the influence of the results to initial local defects are investigated.
The role of rhythm class, speaking rate, and F0 in language discrimination
Authors: Arvaniti Amalia , Rodriquez Tara 
Published: May 2013

AbstractThe division of languages into stress-, syllable-, and mora-timing is said to be supported by experiments showing that languages are discriminated only if they belong to different rhythm classes, a distinction said to be reflected in the duration and variability of consonantal and vocalic intervals (timing). The role of rhythm classes in discrimination is tested here along with the alternative that discrimination is due to speaking rate and
Toward nanotechnology-based solutions for a particular disease: ovarian cancer as an example
Authors: Youkhanna Joseph , Syoufjy Joan , Rhorer Mary , Oladeinde Oyebola , Zeineldin Reema 
Published: May 2013

AbstractRecent nanotechnology research has been enhancing or creating new applications that have the potential to advance the diagnosis or therapy of diseases. These contributions to the field of nanomedicine have so far been focused on creating the new technologies rather than focusing on particular diseases in order to improve their outcomes. For the latter to occur, we recommend the following: (1) creation of interdisciplinary research funding that awards collaborations between biological, medical, clinical, and pharmaceutical scientists with their colleagues in engineering, physics, and chemistry, (2) increasing the training of bio- and medical students in the field of nanotechnology, and (3) focusing on specific diseases for creating nano-based solutions. In this review, we focus on ovarian cancer as an example of a disease that could benefit from advances in nanotechnology to enhance its understanding, diagnosis, and therapy. We also stress the need to train biological, medical, clinical, and pharmaceutical students in the field of nanotechnology with presenting results on such training in USA pharmacy schools.
Morphology control of bimetallic nanostructures for electrochemical catalysts
Authors: Zhang Weiqing , Lu Xianmao 
Published: May 2013

AbstractBimetallic nanostructures with well-defined shapes have shown distinct and advantageous catalytic properties compared to their monometallic counterparts. The use of bimetallic electrocatalysts may improve activity and durability, in addition to the possibility of reducing the loading of precious metals. A variety of bimetallic nanocrystals with different shapes has been reported in recent years. Their activities toward electrochemical catalytic reactions such as oxygen reduction and alcohol oxidations have been intensively studied. In this review, we discuss some latest developments in the morphology-controlled synthesis of Pt- and Pd-based bimetallic nanocrystals with shapes such as nanodendrites, polyhedra, porous hollow structures, and core shells, as well as their applications as electrochemical catalysts.
The diverse biological functions of glutathione S-transferase omega in Drosophila
Authors: Kim Kiyoung , Yim Jeongbin 
Published: May 2013

Abstract
Glutathione S-transferase omega (GSTO) genes in eukaryotic organisms encode proteins that are important for cell defense. However, the physiological roles of GSTOs have not been fully elucidated yet. Recently, genetic and molecular studies with Drosophila demonstrated that CG6781 is the structural gene of the eye color mutant sepia and that CG6673 is a novel genetic suppressor of the parkin mutant. These results provide valuable insight into the diverse functions of GSTOs in vivo. In this review, we briefly introduce recent studies and summarize the novel biological functions of GSTOs in Drosophila.
Possible involvement of matrix metalloproteinase-3 in the pathogenesis of macroprolactinaemia in some patients with rheumatoid arthritis
Authors: Adachi Takashi , Hattori Naoki , Ishihara Takashi , Iida Hirokazu , Saito Takanori , Miyashima Shigeo , Shimatsu Akira 
Published: May 2013

ObjectiveMacroprolactin primarily comprises a complex of prolactin (PRL) and IgG molecules, particularly anti-PRL autoantibodies. However, it is unknown why autoantibodies against PRL develop in certain subjects. This study aimed to elucidate post-translational modifications in the PRL molecule that may be involved in the pathogenesis of macroprolactinaemia.MethodsMacroprolactinaemia was screened with a polyethylene glycol method in 238 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and 302 control subjects and confirmed by gel chromatography. We examined the relationship between macroprolactinaemia and several RA-related laboratory tests including matrix metalloproteinase-3 (MMP-3) and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP) antibody titres. The effect of MMP-3 on the PRL molecule was examined by western blotting.ResultsPatients with RA exhibited a significantly higher prevalence of macroprolactinaemia (15/238; 6.3%) than the young control subjects (5/219 subjects; 2.3%), but the prevalence was not different from that observed in the elderly control subjects (5/83 subjects; 6.0%). The prevalence of macroprolactinaemia in patients with elevated MMP-3 levels (9.68%) was significantly higher than that in those with normal MMP-3 levels (2.63%). Digestion of PRL with MMP-3 produced vasoinhibins with several molecular species. Serum total and free PRL levels in RA patients were higher than those in the age- and gender-matched control subjects. The levels of macroprolactin were not significantly correlated with those of RA-specific anti-CCP antibody.ConclusionsWe speculate that elevated MMP-3 levels may lead to the formation of new epitopes on the PRL molecule that might trigger an immune response to produce anti-PRL autoantibodies in some patients with RA. Such post-translational modifications may possibly contribute to the increased prevalence of macroprolactinaemia in elderly subjects.
The assessment of potential operation of wastewater treatment plant by dynamic simulations
Authors: Pijáková Ivana , Derco Ján 
Published: May 2013

Abstract
In this study, Activated Sludge Model No. 1 (ASM1) was used for modelling of wastewater treatment plant. The operational data of municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) were collected and treated. Experimental data and biological treatment technology were structured according to the mathematical model requirements. They were implemented into computer scheme of the plant. Very good agreement between the experimental and calculated MLSS and effluent concentrations of the monitored pollution indicators was obtained after calibration of the model. The calibrated model was used to analyze the influence of oxygen concentration in the reactor and the influence of the prepared substitution of anaerobic sludge stabilization by aerobic technology on effluent quality. Changes of oxygen concentration significantly influenced the effluent values of ammonium nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen. Considerable increase of MLSS resulted from dynamic simulations performed for biological treatment with aerobic sludge stabilization. In both cases the results of dynamic simulation indicate that the WWTP will comply with the effluent standard values.
Effi ciency of dye sensitized solar cells with various compositions of TiO2 based screen printed photoactive electrodes
Authors: Gemeiner Pavol , Mikula Milan 
Published: May 2013

Abstract
The TiO2 electrode has a key role in dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) technology in the charge generation and charge transportation. The properties of TiO2 layer affect resulting efficiency of DSSC and can be controlled by printing process and chemical composition of printing paste. TiO2 pastes with different compositions of TiO2 nanoparticles, ethanol, ethyl cellulose, water, acetic acid, α-terpineol were prepared and screen printed onto the glass substrate with fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO). The TiO2 pastes for screen printing were characterized by rheological measurements and screen printed TiO2 electrodes by atomic force microscopy and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The photocurrent - voltage characteristics and efficiencies of DSSC were evaluated and compared. All prepared TiO2 pastes were suitable for screen printing with ideal rheological characteristics. The highest efficiency 0.68 % and current density ISC = 1.21 mA/cm2 reached by the DSSC based on TiO2 electrode with thickness 1.5 μm, with amount of absorbed dye 1.1 × 10-8 mol/cm2 and without visible cracks and particles aggregation. This TiO2 electrode was prepared from the paste containing 5.4 wt. % of TiO2, 65.3 wt. % of ethanol, 1.8 wt. % of ethyl cellulose, 23 wt. % of H2O and 4.5 wt. % of CH3COOH.
Solvation enthalpies of the proton in polar and non-polar solvents: Theoretical study
Authors: Rottmannová Lenka , Škorňa Peter , Rimarčík Ján , Lukeš Vladimír , Klein Erik 
Published: May 2013

Abstract
In spite of the importance of proton transfer in solution-phase processes, there is still no systematic theoretical study of proton solvation enthalpies. We have investigated the solvation enthalpies of the proton in seven solvents of various polarities (benzene, chloroform, acetone, methanol, ethanol, DMSO, water) using the Integral Equation Formalism Polarized Continuum Model (IEF-PCM). All computations were performed at the B3LYP and BHLYP levels of theory with aug-cc-pVDZ, aug-cc-pVTZ and aug-cc-pVQZ basis sets. Our calculations have shown that the B3LYP and BHLYP functionals provide similar solvation enthalpies. Finally, differences in the solvation enthalpy of the proton values stemming from the various basis sets do not exceed 6 kJ mol-1, with exception of DMSO and chloroform. Distance between H+ and the acceptor atom of the solvent molecule is the shortest in the case of water. It has been also found that the B3LYP distances are slightly longer.
Synergetic effects of Cu2O photocatalyst with titania and enhanced photoactivity under visible irradiation
Authors: Zhang Dongfang 
Published: May 2013

Abstract
Heterogeneous TiO2/Cu2O nanocomposite was synthesized for photocatalysis through surface impregnation in conjunction with the environmentally friendly soft chemical reduction strategy. The detailed structural, compositional, optical and photoelectrochemical properties of the obtained products are analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-Vis DRS), photoluminescence spectra (PL) and electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy techniques. Moreover, methyl orange (MO) dye was chosen as the probe molecule for evaluation of the photocatalytic activities of the samples under visible light (λ > 420 nm) irradiation. The experiments demonstrated that MO in aqueous solution was more efficiently photodegraded using TiO2/Cu2O composite photocatalysts than pure Cu2O alone. This was attributed to the good crystallinity, wide visible-light absorption range, and the efficient electron-hole pair separation properties of the TiO2/Cu2O nanoheterostructures. In this photocatalyst, visiblelight- active Cu2O component was used as a medium to absorb photons and convert them into photogenerated charges, and TiO2 nanoparticles were used as charge collectors to transport the photoinduced charges. The TiO2/Cu2O hybrid material showed improved separation of photoinduced electron-hole pairs owing to the potential-energy differences between Cu2O and TiO2, and therefore exhibited enhanced photocatalytic activity.
Reorganization in Multi-Agent Architectures: An Active Graph Grammar Approach
Authors: Schatten Markus 
Published: May 2013

Abstract

Background: Organizational architecture is a holistic approach to design of humane organizations and studies an organization from five perspectives: structure, culture, processes, strategy and individuals. In this paper, the concept of organizational architecture is firstly formalized using the fractal principle and then applied to multi-agent systems’ (MAS) organizations. Objectives: Providing a holistic framework for modeling all aspects of MAS reorganization. Methods/Approach: MAS organizations are formalized using graph theoryand a new active graph rewriting formalism inspired by active database theory is intoduced. Results: The newly developed framework is graphical, event-driven and applicable in a distributed MAS environment. Conclusions: By defining organizational units, processes, strategies and cultural artefacts in a recursive way, it is shown that labeled graphs andhypergraphs can be used to model various levels of organizational architecture while active graph grammars allow one to model reorganization of each of the architectural perspectives.
Monitoring SOA Applications with SOOM Tools: A Competitive Analysis
Authors: Zoraja Ivan , Trlin Goran , Matijević Marko 
Published: May 2013

Abstract

Background: Monitoring systems decouple monitoring functionality from application and infrastructure layers and provide a set of tools that can invoke operations on the application to be monitored. Objectives: Our monitoring system is a powerful yet agile solution that is able to online observe and manipulate SOA (Service-oriented Architecture) applications. The basic monitoring functionality is implemented via lightweight components inserted into SOA frameworks thereby keeping the monitoring impact minimal. Methods/Approach: Our solution is software that hides the complexity of SOA applications being monitored via an architecture where its designated components deal with specific SOA aspects such as distribution and communication. Results: We implement an application-level and end-to-end monitoring with the end user experience in focus. Our tools are connected to a single monitoring system which provides consistent operations, resolves concurrent requests, and abstracts away the underlying mechanisms that cater for the SOA paradigm. Conclusions: Due to its flexible architecture and design our monitoring tools are capable of monitoring SOA application in Cloud environments without significant modifications. In comparisons with related systems we proved that our agile approaches are the areas where our monitoring system excels
On a New Csiszar’s f-Divergence Measure
Authors: Bhatia P. K. , Singh Surender 
Published: May 2013

Abstract
A new parametric probabilistic measure of information and a corresponding symmetric divergence (distance) measure is proposed. The information measure is useful to study the uncertainty and the corresponding divergence measure is useful for comparing two probability distributions. The proposed parametric divergence measure belongs to the family of Csiszar’s f-divergence measures. The bounds of this divergence measures are obtained in terms of some well known divergence measures. Some properties of the proposed information and divergence measures are studied.
Active Battery Balancing for Battery Packs
Authors: Gallardo-Lozano Javier , Lateef Abdul , Romero-Cadaval Enrique , Milanés-Montero M. Isabel 
Published: May 2013

AbstractIn electric vehicle applications, it is necessary to use series strings of batteries since the required voltage is higher than the one that can be obtained from a single battery. Due to several factors, imbalance of batteries in these battery systems is usual and an important factor that has to be taken into account. Many balancing methods have been developed with a lot of different advantages, but all of them also have a lot of disadvantages such as complexity and/or high cost, which are the common problems that can be found in most of these equalization methods. In the present work, a low cost and very simple equalization method is proposed, in which a novel control is applied to a shunting transistor topology. It allows the transistors to regulate the amount of current that goes through each battery cell in the string depending on their State of Charge (SOC), during the charging process. This control ensures that the least charged cells to be charged faster, and the most charged ones to be charged more slowly. Design criteria are discussed and simulation results are carried out in a generic battery low power application which proves the control method. Fast equalization with a low complexity and cost is obtained
Internet Between Utopia and Dystopia
Authors: Hetland Per 
Published: May 2013

Abstract
The Internet has often been envisioned as a technological utopia, framed by the rhetoric of hope. However, after studying the popular discourse, three meta-narratives are identified: utopian narratives containing the pro-innovation position; dystopian narratives containing the anti-diffusion position; technology-as-risk narratives containing the control position. While narratives of anti-diffusion are more or less invisible, narratives of control are surprisingly absent from the scientific discourse about the Internet. The present article sets out to explore narratives of control as they were presented in the Norwegian press during the 1995-2006 period. We have also studied how the expectancy cycles of the Internet fluctuate over time within this period. The study supports two general conclusions: (1) the expectancy cycles for the Internet in the mass media fluctuate in a manner comparable with the stages of the innovation-decision process and; (2) the control position promotes individual, social, technological and institutional control, and is more prominent when the Internet is lower on the media agenda.
The Self and the Institution
Authors: Kaare Birgit Hertzberg 
Published: May 2013

Abstract
Media researchers have not been much preoccupied with a genre named Digital Storytelling. Since its origin in the early 90s, it has spread from California to the rest of the United States and has been evolving for several years now as a media practice around the globe. I therefore want to draw more attention to digital storytelling, here understood as a specific genre developed at the Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS) in California and defined as a short, first-person video narrative that combines voice recordings, still and moving images, and music or other sounds (www.storycenter.org). Such storytelling is regarded as both a movement and a method; and it is in its idea a short personal story, about the self. In the subtitle of his book Digital Storytelling, the leader of the center, Joe Lambert, highlights that this type of narratives are Creating Community through Capturing Lives of individuals (Lambert 2009). This genre is embedded in a democratic and empowering ideology. Along these lines, the main concern of this article is to discuss whether a change can be observed in the digital storytelling genre from an individualistic perspective to a more collective perspective - a shift from narrating selves to narrating communities. In examining this question, this work draws upon 45 films produced by bachelor students at the University of Oslo in 2010 and 2011.
A Study in Polish Housing Conditions. Methodology and Building Typology Characteristics
Authors: Stachura Ewa 
Published: May 2013

Abstract
The attributes of the housing environment constitute an important part of the quality of living. Flats and houses, as other products, fulfill the complex needs of users, starting with the provision of shelter and a sense of safety, to satisfaction associated with the social context of occupancy and the perception of its aesthetic values. The housing environment, more than other functional aspects of architecture, shapes the structure of modern cities, and its high quality standards are reflected in the urban potential that promotes economic growth.
The new paradigm of sustainable consumption, which is becoming widely popular all over the world, affects housing needs and modifies the housing preferences in Poland. Changes should be monitored in reference to current housing needs in Poland, to have a better view on new trends, as present-day housing conditions affect consumers’ needs and preferences. Knowledge of the relations between the qualitative aspects of housing conditions and expectations should support architects, urban planners and local authorities in creating a functional and aesthetic housing environment endowed with the attributes attractive to occupants.
The paper is focused on presenting certain aspects of the present-day housing conditions in Poland. Out of extensive research material resulting from empirical studies, issues that concern the types of settlements, occupancy period, form of ownership (flats or houses) and utilized space have been selected. The derived information enables the evaluation and interpretation of the quality of the housing environment and the occupants’ aspirations.
Using Forecasts in Developers Investing Activities
Authors: Salachna Daniel 
Published: May 2013

Abstract
The number of future sales of residential real estate in the primary developer depends mainly on the factor of demand, consumer needs for housing in established market conditions. One way to determine the future market capacity for the construction of residential demand forecasts.
The company is in a very favorable position, having a reliable forecast of future demand. Forecast has an impact on the ability to achieve the intended purpose of building and as a result allows you to minimize the risk of return on invested capital at the same time ensuring a profit.
Placed forecast future sales of apartments in the time horizon of two years in advance, taking into account a series of standardized construction, contains processed numerical data on a quarterly sale by X developer in the years from 2008 to 2012.
Erected on the basis of forecast model and found very useful model to predict seasonal fluctuations in demand numerical sale in the test development company.
Primary and Secondary Residential Real Estate Markets in Poland – Analogies in Offer and Transaction Price Development
Authors: Dittmann Iwona 
Published: May 2013

Abstract
The paper presents the results of a comparison of the development of mean offer and transaction prices per 1m2 in primary and secondary residential real estate markets in 16 provincial capital cities in Poland, during the time period from the 3rd quarter of 2006 to the 3rd quarter of 2012. The quarterly data came from the residential real estate price database of the National Bank of Poland (NBP). The research concerns the dependencies in the residential real estate market between the following four price categories: offer prices in the primary market, transaction prices in the primary market, offer prices in the secondary market and transaction prices in the secondary market. For each city, the dynamics of each price category per 1m2, the existence of a linear correlation between the individual mean price categories in chosen subintervals and their convergence and variability in time were studied and compared.