bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Profile of plasma amino acids values as a predictor of sepsis in patients following living donor liver transplantation: Special reference to sarcopenia and postoperative early nutrition
Authors: Toshima Takeo , Shirabe Ken , Kurihara Takeshi , Itoh Shinji , Harimoto Norifumi , Ikegami Toru , Yoshizumi Tomoharu , Kawanaka Hirofumi , Ikeda Tetsuo , Maehara Yoshihiko 
Published: January 2015

AimSarcopenia is an independent predictor of mortality and sepsis after living donor liver transplantation (LDLT). However, the exact mechanisms by which sarcopenia affects poor prognosis or worse immunity against postoperative sepsis are unclear, particularly regarding muscular amino acid metabolism, and the authors aimed to identify the role of plasma amino acids in sarcopenia by retrospective study.MethodsThe area of the psoas muscle in 228 recipients of LDLT was retrospectively measured by dynamic computed tomography. Additionally, plasma amino acid levels were measured both pre‐ and postoperatively. The impact of plasma amino acids for postoperative sepsis and the relationship between sarcopenia and early nutrition after LDLT were analyzed.ResultsAmong the plasma amino acids, only leucine, isoleucine and glutamine in patients with sarcopenia were significantly lower than those without sarcopenia (each, P < 0.05). Multivariate analysis identified the lower plasma glutamine levels as a risk factor of postoperative sepsis after LDLT (odds ratio 5.371, P = 0.002). In sarcopenia patients, plasma glutamine levels after LDLT were significantly decreased compared with before LDLT in patients both with and without postoperative early nutrition. However, in non‐sarcopenia patients with early nutrition, plasma glutamine levels after LDLT were comparable with those before LDLT.ConclusionThis is the first report to study the profile of plasma amino acid change before and after LDLT. Low preoperative glutamine values were an independent risk factor for predicting postoperative sepsis. The efficacy of postoperative early nutrition may prevent postoperative sepsis by improving glutamine levels.
Wheat Yield as Affected by Length of Exposure to Waterlogging During Stem Elongation
Authors: Marti J. , Savin R. , Slafer G. A. 
Published: January 2015

AbstractWaterlogging, if occurring within the stem elongation period (SE), is particularly critical for yield determination. We quantified for the first time the effect of waterlogging duration during SE on yield and studied whether the effects were only direct on resource capture or whether there were feed‐forward effects as well. We grew wheat (cv. Soissons) outdoors in long tubes (1.25 m deep) forming a normal canopy and imposed different treatments in SE to finish simultaneously around anthesis (0, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24 days) plus two complementary treatments (8 and 16 days) starting 10 days after the onset of SE. Yield was reduced linearly with the duration of waterlogging c. 2 % dwaterlogging−1. Treatments mainly affected pre‐anthesis spike growth reducing the number of fertile florets and grains, not affecting fruiting efficiency. The magnitude of grain number loss was inversely proportional to the hierarchy of the spikes and spikelets. Grain weight was more marginally reduced, likely through the effects on the size of the ovaries of the developing florets. This reveals a direct effect of waterlogging on the capture of resources with no major feed‐forward effects. Losses were in agreement with those from other studies for particular durations of waterlogging.
Conception and Design of Mobile Driving Simulators
Authors: Wagner Paul , Betz Alexander , Winner Hermann 
Published: January 2015

Driving simulators (DS) are an indispensable developmental tool in the automotive industry. Versatile areas of application all profit from the high degree of reproducibility and safety of DS. The upcoming demands for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) with respect to urban traffic situations result in increasing DS requirements in regard to motion envelope and system dynamics [1]. To fulfill those increased requirements, modern-day DS show up to 12 degrees of freedom (DOF) whilst comprising multiple drive mechanisms. These improvements come with the disadvantage of creating a complex system with increased moving mass of about 80 t. Thus, a link between moving mass and motion envelope is caused, limiting either motion envelope or system dynamics.
Mobile dynamic DS solve the core problem of the increased moving mass. The proposed design of a Wheeled Mobile Driving Simulators (WMDS) shows three self-propelled and active steerable wheels that allow translational motion and yaw [2]. The main idea is based on the assumption that a wheeled system, whose propulsion is limited by friction forces, is suitable to simulate dynamics of vehicles that are also limited by tire friction forces. An additional system provides cabin tilt. Avoiding the conventional rail systems, which mainly cause the moving mass increase, results in a light weight concept [3]. The design and construction of the WMDS are carried out at the Institute of Automotive Engineering (Fahrzeugtechnik Darmstadt: FZD), Germany since 2010.
This paper shows the evaluation of a suitable design — by the standards of modern product development — in general for mobile dynamic DS and specifically for WMDS. Furthermore, this paper shows the selection of the individual components and overall properties as well as limitations of the prototype.
Energy and Resource Efficiency in the Abrasive Flow Machining Process: An Assessment of Environmental and Economic Viability Within a UK Precision Machining SME
Authors: Howard Mitchell J. , Cheng Kai 
Published: January 2015

Environmental performance of the abrasive flow machining (AFM) process is currently not well understood. Its flexibility as a manufacturing process has only recently been realised in SMEs (Small to Medium Enterprise) as a feasible automated alternative to deburring and polishing of complex geometry by hand, and as an alternative to honing and grinding using semi-automated machinery. [1–3]
Economic benefit is still the main driver in the commercial uptake of environmentally-sustainable technologies [4, 5]; despite AFM’s known flexibility and capability, this paper presents systematic research by focusing on AFM including, 1) assessing and comparing the requirements of competing processes (values sourced from [6]), 2) their power consumption, 3) operating conditions, 4) cost of pre-requisite ancillary equipment and 5) embodied energy and recyclability of machine structures and consumables. Three workpiece scenarios are laid out (distinguished by feature-count, processing time, tolerance-demands and setup-count) for comparison purposes — the trade-off between environmental and economic cost is described with reference to industrially-significant quality measures such as repeatability, accuracy, precision and uniformity. Key findings in this research include the comparatively high energy demand from natural gas-fired warm air blow-heaters, a requirement for the heating of spaces for human labour activity. Performance is shown to be limited by design — the AFM machine in this study operates with only an additional 22% of current between idle mode and production mode [7] suggesting sub-assembly redesign may be of benefit. To conclude, the AFM process offers a clear route to sustainable part-finishing, low-maintenance and high potential for ‘greening’ considering factors in addition to running cost.
Design and Fatigue Life Analysis of a Motorcycle Frame
Authors: Gobbi Massimiliano , Previati Giorgio , Mastinu Giampiero 
Published: January 2015

An off-road motorcycle frame has been analyzed and modified to optimize its fatigue life. The fatigue life of the frame is very important to define the service life of the motorcycle.
The strain levels on key parts of the frame were collected during experimental tests. It has been possible to locate the areas where the maximum stress level is reached.
A finite element (FE) model of the frame has been developed and used for estimating its fatigue life. Static test bench results have been used to validate the FE model. The accuracy of the finite element model is good, the errors are always below 5% with respect to measured data.
The mission profile of the motorcycle is dominated by off-road use, with stress levels close to yield point, so a strain-life approach has been applied for estimating the fatigue life of the frame.
Particular attention has been paid to the analysis of the welded connections. A shell and a 3D FE model have been combined to simulate the stress histories at the welds. Two reference maneuvers have been considered as loading conditions. The computed stresses have been used to assess the life of the frame according to the notch stress approach (Radaj & Seeger). The method correlates the stress range in a idealized notch, characterized by a fictitious radius in the weld toe or root, to the fatigue life by using a single S-N curve.
New technical frame layouts have been proposed and verified by means of the developed finite element model.
The considered approach allows to speed up the design process and to reduce the testing phase.
Eco-Design Platform Within an Extended Enterprise: How to Implement It?
Authors: Germani Michele , Mandolini Marco , Marconi Marco , Morbidoni Alessandro , Rossi Marta 
Published: January 2015

Nowadays, the environmental issue has become increasingly important and has taken a leading role in the product design process. The product sustainability pass through the use of specific software tools supporting the design phase. Their integration, to build up a platform, is a key aspect toward the implementation of an effective eco-design approach.
Even if the approaches presented in literature to create an eco-design platform aim to integrate environmental aspects during the design process, a proper tools integration is not existing.
To overcome these limitations, the paper presents an eco-design platform in which tools for the improvement of the product environmental characteristics are contained. The tools of the platform are used to calculate the environmental impact of a product for each product life cycle phase: manufacturing, transportation, use and End of Life. The platform is completed by a tool containing the eco-design guidelines, also specific for the industrial sector of the company, used to suggest the designers how to improve the product eco-sustainability.
The end users of the platform consist of designers from the design office but also from every department relevant for the project, mainly R&D, production, purchasing department, and quality. In particular, the following roles have been considered as users: designer, product manager, environmental manager and buyer.
Designers and company experts use the same workspace, made of different tools. They can detail all the product life cycle phases, quantify the product performances, modify its characteristics and verify the improvements obtained without change the traditional design process in a radical way.
On the Applicability of Analytical Supply Chain Disruption Models for Selecting the Optimum Contingency Strategies for Electronic Supply Chain Disruption Management: A Comparison With Simulation
Authors: Allison Hannah , Sandborn Peter , Eriksson Bo 
Published: January 2015

Due to the nature of the manufacturing and support activities associated with long life cycle products, the parts that products required need to be dependably and consistently available. However, the parts that comprise long lifetime products are susceptible to a variety of supply chain disruptions. In order to minimize the impact of these unavoidable disruptions to production, manufacturers can implement proactive mitigation strategies. Two mitigation strategies in particular have been proven to decrease the penalty costs associated with disruptions: second sourcing and buffering. Second sourcing involves selecting two distinct suppliers from which to purchase parts over the life of the part’s use within a product or organization. Second sourcing reduces the probability of part unavailability (and its associated penalties), but at the expense of qualification and support costs for multiple suppliers. An alternative disruption mitigation strategy is buffering (also referred to as hoarding). Buffering involves stocking enough parts in inventory to satisfy the forecasted part demand (for both manufacturing and maintenance requirements) for a fixed future time period so as to offset the impact of disruptions. Careful selection of the mitigation strategy (second sourcing, buffering, or a combination of the two) is key, as it can dramatically impact a part’s total cost of ownership.
This paper studies the effectiveness of traditional analytical models compared to a simulation-based approach for the selection of an optimal disruption mitigation strategy. A verification case study was performed to check the accuracy and applicability of the simulation-based model. The case study results show that the simulation model is capable of replicating results from operations research models, and overcomes significant scenario restrictions that limit the usefulness of analytical models as decision-making tools. Four assumptions, in particular, severely limit the realism of most analytical models but do not constrain the simulation-based model. These limiting assumptions are: 1) no fixed costs associated with part orders, 2) infinite-horizon, 3) perfectly reliable backup supplier, and 4) disruptions lasting full ordering periods (as opposed to fractional periods).
Modeling Information Gathering Decisions in Systems Engineering Projects
Authors: Hsiao Chuck , Malak Richard 
Published: January 2015

Decisions in systems engineering projects commonly are made under significant amounts of uncertainty. This uncertainty can exist in many areas such as the performance of subsystems, interactions between subsystems, or project resource requirements such as budget or personnel. System engineers often can choose to gather information that reduces uncertainty, which allows for potentially better decisions, but at the cost of resources expended in acquiring the information. However, our understanding of how to analyze situations involving gathering information is limited, and thus heuristics, intuition, or deadlines are often used to judge the amount of information gathering needed in a decision. System engineers would benefit from a better understanding of how to determine the amount of information gathering needed to support a decision.
This paper introduces Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs) as a formalism for modeling information-gathering decisions in systems engineering. A POMDP can model different states, alternatives, outcomes, and probabilities of outcomes to represent a decision maker’s beliefs about his situation. It also can represent sequential decisions in a compact format, avoiding the combinatorial explosion of decision trees and similar representations. The solution of a POMDP, in the form of value functions, prescribes the best course of action based on a decision maker’s beliefs about his situation. The value functions also determine if more information gathering is needed. Sophisticated computational solvers for POMDPs have been developed in recent years, allowing for a straightforward analysis of different alternatives, and determining the optimal course of action in a given situation. This paper demonstrates using a POMDP to model a systems engineering problem, and compares this approach with other approaches that account for information gathering in decision making.
Energy Efficiency of Industrial Systems: A Design Research Perspective
Authors: Farel Romain , Bekhradi Alborz 
Published: January 2015

Beyond the usual energy efficiency of buildings, industrial energy efficiency involves major politico-economical and environmental challenges, among which the emergence of eco-industrial parks and symbioses. Solving these challenges require reliable methodologies and tools. Having interviewed some major industrial energy stakeholders, it appeared that despite of their motivation, energy efficiency projects were not really successful because of the difficulty in identifying adequate simulation methodologies and/or tools. Moreover, in spite of multiple research projects in industrial energy efficiency, it seems that previous research works do not sufficiently support a systematic and integration view.
In this paper, we propose a critical review and a categorization of energy efficiency research methodologies and tools. The analysis of these solutions results in the building of an inventory of more than 50 modeling and simulation software tools. Furthermore, a positing matrix is designed in order to map energy efficiency solutions according to identified granularity levels of industrial systems as well as their marketing maturity level.
Energetic and Socioeconomic Justification for Solar-Powered Desalination Technology for Rural Indian Villages
Authors: Wright Natasha C. , Winter Amos G. 
Published: January 2015

This paper provides justification for solar-powered electrodialysis desalination systems for rural Indian villages. It is estimated that 11% of India’s 800 million people living in rural areas do not have access to an improved water source. If the source’s quality in regards to biological, chemical, or physical contaminants is also considered, this percentage is even higher. User interviews conducted by the authors and in literature reveal that users judge the quality of their water source based on its aesthetic quality (taste, odor, and temperature). Seventy-three percent of Indian villages rely on groundwater as their primary drinking supply. However, saline groundwater underlies approximately 60% of the land area in India. Desalination is necessary in order to improve the aesthetics of this water (by reducing salinity below the taste threshold) and remove contaminants that cause health risks.
Both technical and socioeconomic factors were considered to identify the critical design requirements for inland water desalination in India. An off-grid power system is among those requirements due to the lack of grid access or intermittent supply, problems faced by half of Indian villages. The same regions in India that have high groundwater salinity also have the advantage of high solar potential, making solar a primary candidate. Within the salinity range of groundwater found in inland India, electrodialysis would substantially reduce the energy consumption to desalinate compared to reverse osmosis, which is the standard technology used for village-level systems. This energy savings leads to a smaller solar array required for electrodialysis systems, translating to reduced capital costs.
Novel Design of a Precision Planter for a Robotic Assistant Farmer
Authors: Aminzadeh Reza , Fotouhi Reza 
Published: January 2015

Farming consumes considerable energy, natural resources and intensive human labor. Robotic assisted farmer can make farming activities more precise and more efficient; particularly it may remedy shortage of farmers in the future. A planter is a mechanism which performs precision seeding. Design of a planter in the optimum manner that needs minimum draft force when attached to a mobile robot, was the main objective of this work. A planter was developed, fabricated and tested in the course of a research project.
The main motivation for this research is the fact that a mobile robot, is an electric powered vehicle with limited power and pulling force. Thus, a customized planter with a customized connection mechanism should be designed that can be pulled by mobile robot. The developed planter should have the same efficiency as the existing planters in seeding.
To study the interaction between soil engagement tool (disc coulter) and soil, experiments were performed in the Linear Soil Bin. Different parameters of the disc coulter were changed and the draft force, vertical force and side force were measured. The results of the experiments were used to find the optimum parameters of the disc that caused minimum draft force. A novel planter was designed and fabricated; it was attached to a mobile robot, and field tested. Tests performed in outdoor and indoor settings showed satisfactory results. Draft force developed on the planter was close to analytical value and performance of the planter in other aspects was as expected.
Streptococcus pyogenes Malate Degradation Pathway Links pH Regulation and Virulence
Authors: Paluscio Elyse , Caparon Michael G. 
Published: January 2015

ABSTRACT

The ability of
Streptococcus pyogenes
to infect different niches within its human host most likely relies on its ability to utilize alternative carbon sources. In examining this question, we discovered that all sequenced
S. pyogenes
strains possess the genes for the malic enzyme (ME) pathway, which allows malate to be used as a supplemental carbon source for growth. ME is comprised of four genes in two adjacent operons, with the regulatory two-component MaeKR required for expression of genes encoding a malate permease (
maeP
) and malic enzyme (
maeE
). Analysis of transcription indicated that expression of
maeP
and
maeE
is induced by both malate and low pH, and induction in response to both cues is dependent on the MaeK sensor kinase. Furthermore, both
maePE
and
maeKR
are repressed by glucose, which occurs via a CcpA-independent mechanism. Additionally, malate utilization requires the PTS transporter EI enzyme (PtsI), as a PtsI
–
mutant fails to express the ME genes and is unable to utilize malate. Virulence of selected ME mutants was assessed in a murine model of soft tissue infection. MaeP
–
, MaeK
–
, and MaeR
–
mutants were attenuated for virulence, whereas a MaeE
–
mutant showed enhanced virulence compared to that of the wild type. Taken together, these data show that ME contributes to
S. pyogenes
' carbon source repertory, that malate utilization is a highly regulated process, and that a single regulator controls ME expression in response to diverse signals. Furthermore, malate uptake and utilization contribute to the adaptive pH response, and ME can influence the outcome of infection.
Sun Protection Practices and Sun Exposure among Children with a Parental History of Melanoma
Authors: Glenn Beth A. , Lin Tiffany , Chang L. Cindy , Okada Ashley , Wong Weng Kee , Glanz Karen , Bastani Roshan 
Published: January 2015

Abstract
Background: First-degree relatives of melanoma survivors have a substantially higher lifetime risk for melanoma than individuals with no family history. Exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is the primary modifiable risk factor for the disease. Reducing UV exposure through sun protection may be particularly important for children with a parental history of melanoma. Nonetheless, limited prior research has investigated sun protection practices and sun exposure among these children.
Methods: The California Cancer Registry was used to identify melanoma survivors eligible to participate in a survey to assess their children's sun protection practices and sun exposure. The survey was administered by mail, telephone, or web to Latino and non-Latino white melanoma survivors with at least one child (0–17 years; N = 324).
Results: Sun exposure was high and the rate of sunburn was equivalent to or higher than estimates from average-risk populations. Use of sun protection was suboptimal. Latino children were less likely to wear sunscreen and hats and more likely to wear sunglasses, although these differences disappeared in adjusted analyses. Increasing age of the child was associated with lower sun protection and higher risk for sunburn, whereas higher objective risk for melanoma predicted improved sun protection and a higher risk for sunburns. Perception of high barriers to sun protection was the strongest modifiable correlate of sun protection.
Conclusions: Interventions to improve sun protection and reduce sun exposure and sunburns in high-risk children are needed.
Impact: Intervening in high-risk populations may help reduce the burden of melanoma in the United States. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 24(1); 169–77. ©2015 AACR.