query dict | pos dict | neg dict |
|---|---|---|
{
"abstract": null,
"corpus_id": 49670868,
"title": "B-link-trees for DB/OS Co-Design"
} | {
"abstract": "In this article, we propose SCANRAW, a novel database meta-operator for in-situ processing over raw files that integrates data loading and external tables seamlessly, while preserving their advantages: optimal performance across a query workload and zero time-to-query. We decompose loading and external table processing into atomic stages in order to identify common functionality. We analyze alternative implementations and discuss possible optimizations for each stage. Our major contribution is a parallel superscalar pipeline implementation that allows SCANRAW to take advantage of the current many- and multicore processors by overlapping the execution of independent stages. Moreover, SCANRAW overlaps query processing with loading by speculatively using the additional I/O bandwidth arising during the conversion process for storing data into the database, such that subsequent queries execute faster. As a result, SCANRAW makes intelligent use of the available system resources—CPU cycles and I/O bandwidth—by switching dynamically between tasks to ensure that optimal performance is achieved. We implement SCANRAW in a state-of-the-art database system and evaluate its performance across a variety of synthetic and real-world datasets. Our results show that SCANRAW with speculative loading achieves the best-possible performance for a query sequence at any point in the processing. Moreover, SCANRAW maximizes resource utilization for the entire workload execution while speculatively loading data and without interfering with normal query processing.",
"corpus_id": 11288322,
"title": "SCANRAW: A Database Meta-Operator for Parallel In-Situ Processing and Loading"
} | {
"abstract": "Microservices become a fast growing and popular architectural style based on service-oriented development. One of the major advantages using component-based approaches is to support reuse. In this paper, we present a study of microservices and how these systems are related to the traditional abstract models of component-based systems. This research focuses on the core properties of microservices including their scalability, availability and resilience, consistency, coupling and cohesion, and data storage capability, while highlighting their limitations and challenges in relation to components. To support our study, we investigated the existing literature and provided potential directions and interesting points in this growing field of research. As a result, using microservices as components is promising and would be a good mechanism for building applications that were used to be built with component-based approaches.",
"corpus_id": 44096875,
"score": -1,
"title": "Microservices as an Evolutionary Architecture of Component-Based Development: A Think-aloud Study"
} |
{
"abstract": "Most social network analyses focus on online social networks. While these networks encode important aspects of our lives they fail to capture many real-world social connections. Most of these connections are, in fact, public and known to the members of the community. Mapping them is a task very suitable for crowdsourcing: it is easily broken down in many simple and independent subtasks. Due to the nature of social networks-presence of highly connected nodes and tightly knit groups-if we allow users to map their immediate connections and the connections between them, we will need few participants to map most connections within a community. To this end, we built the Human Atlas, a web-based tool for mapping social networks. To test it, we partially mapped the social network of the MIT Media Lab. We ran a user study and invited members of the community to use the tool. In 4.6 man-hours, 22 participants mapped 984 connections within the lab, demonstrating the potential of the tool.",
"corpus_id": 1619549,
"title": "Human Atlas: A Tool for Mapping Social Networks"
} | {
"abstract": "A growing amount of scientific research is done in an open collaborative fashion, in projects that are sometimes labeled as “crowd science”, “citizen science”, or “networked science”. This paper se...",
"corpus_id": 11554360,
"title": "Crowd Science: The Organization of Scientific Research in Open Collaborative Projects"
} | {
"abstract": "Transferring the data in the form of multimedia has increasing day by day. So there is a need for better security and protection of proprietary rights. To cover up this, blind watermarking scheme is a wellestablished authentication technique. The scheme is based on DWT-SVD, where DWT has multi resolution property for copyright protection. In this a novel algorithm is used for watermarking videos. The concept uses SD-BPSO for adaptive frame selection of the video to ensure watermark has minimum damaging effects on the video as a complete. Copyright protection, copy control, broadcast monitoring and video authentication are applications of the blind video watermarking. PSNR is used to validate the integrity of the video. The robustness of the algorithm is tested by subjecting the videos to various attacks such as image sharpening, cropping, histogram equalization, rotation, image shift. The efficiency of the system is determined by using BER in retaining the watermark.",
"corpus_id": 384261,
"score": 1,
"title": "Optimised Blind Video Watermarking Technique Using SD-BPSO and DWT-SVD"
} |
{
"abstract": "BACKGROUND\nMedium-chain triglyceride (MCT) supplements are used by clinicians to treat patients with severe hypertriglyceridemia who are at risk of pancreatitis. However, the potential mechanisms underlying the effects of MCT on triglyceride-rich lipoprotein (TRL) metabolism have not yet been thoroughly examined in humans.\n\n\nOBJECTIVE\nThis double-blind randomized crossover study compared the impact of 4 wk of supplementation with 20 g MCT oil/d or 20 g corn oil/d on the kinetics of apolipoprotein (apo) B-48-containing TRLs and apo B-100-containing very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL), as well as on the expression of key intestinal genes involved in lipid metabolism in 28 obese, insulin-resistant men.\n\n\nDESIGN\nThe in vivo kinetics of TRL apo B-48 and VLDL apo B-100 were assessed by using a primed-constant infusion of l-[5,5,5-d3]leucine for 12 h in the fed state. Real-time polymerase chain reaction quantification was performed on duodenal biopsy samples taken at the end of each phase of supplementation.\n\n\nRESULTS\nCompared with corn oil, MCT supplements had no significant effect on plasma lipoprotein profile or TRL apo B-48 and VLDL apo B-100 kinetics. Positive correlations were observed between the intestinal expression of several key genes involved in lipoprotein metabolism in a subgroup of participants (n = 16) after MCT supplementation. However, there was no difference between MCT and the corn oil control supplement in the intestinal messenger RNA expression levels of these key genes.\n\n\nCONCLUSION\nThese data indicate that short-term supplementation with MCT has a neutral effect on TRL apo B-48 and VLDL apo B-100 kinetics and on the intestinal expression of genes involved in lipid and fatty acid metabolism in men with insulin resistance. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01806142.",
"corpus_id": 1233137,
"title": "Dietary medium-chain triglyceride supplementation has no effect on apolipoprotein B-48 and apolipoprotein B-100 kinetics in insulin-resistant men."
} | {
"abstract": "Patients at increased risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) frequently exhibit an atherogenic lipoprotein phenotype characterized by elevated plasma levels of both triglyceride-rich lipoproteins (TRL) and small, dense LDL and low concentrations of HDL cholesterol. Recently, in a large observational study, the calculated non-HDL plasma cholesterol concentration (the sum of the cholesterol contents of LDL, intermediate-density lipoprotein [IDL], and very-low-density lipoprotein [VLDL]) was a stronger predictor of cardiovascular events than plasma cholesterol alone.1–3 Improvement in the predictability of CAD on inclusion of VLDL and IDL cholesterol emphasizes the proatherogenic nature of TRL and their remnant particles.\n\nThe atherogenic lipoprotein phenotype has been defined by Austin et al4 as the presence of a predominance of small, dense LDL particles, elevated plasma triglyceride (TG) levels, and low plasma HDL cholesterol levels in the lipoprotein profile, which is associated with an approximately 3-fold increased risk of atherosclerotic disease.5–8 It is now commonly accepted that small, dense LDL particles are the products of the intravascular remodeling of TG-rich VLDL particles after interaction primarily with lipoprotein lipase, hepatic lipase, and cholesterol ester transfer protein9,10 (Figure). The atherogenic lipoprotein phenotype is strongly linked to obesity, insulin resistance, familial combined hyperlipidemia (FCHL), hypertension, and abnormalities in postprandial lipid metabolism.7,11,12 Epidemiological data from the Framingham study have already revealed that plasma TG concentration is an important independent risk indicator of CAD in women13; additional evidence supporting this observation was obtained by Yarnell et al14 in a 10-year follow-up study and confirmed by others.15,16 In the PROCAM (Prospective Cardiovascular Munster) study,17 this relationship was dependent on plasma HDL cholesterol concentration. Criqui et al,18 however, could not demonstrate an independent relationship between plasma TG and cardiovascular mortality in a North American population participating in the Lipid Research Clinics Follow-up. …",
"corpus_id": 5840858,
"title": "Elevated Remnant-Like Particle Cholesterol Concentration: A Characteristic Feature of the Atherogenic Lipoprotein Phenotype"
} | {
"abstract": "Olive oil is an integral ingredient of the Mediterranean diet and accumulating evidence suggests that it may have health benefits that include reduction of risk factors of coronary heart disease, prevention of several varieties of cancers, and modification of immune and inflammatory responses. Olive oil appears to be an example of a functional food, with varied components that may contribute to its overall therapeutic characteristics. Olive oil is known for its high levels of monounsaturated fatty acids and is also a good source of phytochemicals including polyphenolic compounds, squalene, and alpha-tocopherol.",
"corpus_id": 31577037,
"score": 2,
"title": "Olive oil as a functional food: epidemiology and nutritional approaches."
} |
{
"abstract": "On 19 May 2010, the European Union adopted a Directive stipulating that by the end of 2020, Member States must ensure that all newly constructed buildings consume 'nearly zero' energy. In Germany, drastic reductions of energy demand for space heating have already become a policy target over the last decade, both for new and existing dwellings. In this article, we evaluate the impact of past and future policies on the development of buildings with a very high energy performance (VHEP) and on their primary energy demand and emissions. These dwellings account for 4% of all dwellings which have been constructed since 2001 and 1% of the total building stock. We have defined different policy scenarios, all of which assume a gradual increase of requirements for new and existing buildings and a continuation of the support policies that stimulate both new constructions and ambitious refurbishments. In the most ambitious scenario, the proportion of VHEP dwellings will increase by up to 30% of the total stock in 2020 and the share of nearly zero and zero-energy dwellings will then make up 6%. This will lead to emission reductions of over 50% of the 1990 level and primary energy reductions of 25% compared with today.",
"corpus_id": 153365928,
"title": "Germany's path towards nearly zero-energy buildings—Enabling the greenhouse gas mitigation potential in the building stock"
} | {
"abstract": "The increasing utilization of renewable energy sources (RES) is a major energy policy strategy in many countries worldwide. Germany is a forerunner in the deployment of RES and has ambitious goals for the future. The support and use of renewables affects the economy: It creates business opportunities in sectors producing renewable energy facilities, but comes with costs related to supporting its deployment. This paper analyses and quantifies the net balance of economic effects associated with renewable energy deployment in Germany until 2030. To this end, we use a novel model, the ‘Sectoral Energy-Economic Econometric Model’. This is an econometric multi-country model which, for Germany, contains a detailed representation of industries, including 14 renewable energy technology sectors. Our results show that renewable energy expansion can be achieved without compromising growth or employment. The analysis reveals a positive net effect on economic growth in Germany. Net employment effects are small, but also positive. Their size depends strongly on labour market conditions and policies. Results at the industry level indicate the size and direction of the need for restructuring across the sectors of the Germany economy.",
"corpus_id": 4988130,
"title": "Economic Effects of Renewable Energy Expansion: A Model-Based Analysis for Germany"
} | {
"abstract": "Abstract The reinforcement of natural rubber (NR) with particles and fibres enables their use in even high performance applications, such as in road-racing bicycle tire casings. Here, for the first time, we examine the potential of silk textiles as reinforcements in NR to produce a fully-green, flexible yet strengthened elastomeric composite material. Various material properties were evaluated and compared with similar nylon textile reinforced NR composites. Two types of NR were used: whole and purified natural rubbers. The composite samples were prepared by sandwiching a single layer of textile between layers of NR. NR/silk composites exhibited higher static and dynamic mechanical properties than NR/nylon composites. In addition, silk textiles in whole NR composites performed significantly better than purified NR composites, due to stronger fibre/matrix adhesion and better wettability in the former, as indicated by surface energy measurements and scanning electron microscopy micrographs. Such bio-based natural rubber/silk composites might find interesting applications in soft robotics and as flexible, inflatable tubes.",
"corpus_id": 137738016,
"score": 1,
"title": "Interesting green elastomeric composites: Silk textile reinforced natural rubber"
} |
{
"abstract": "Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) is a zoonotic virus belonging to the genus Flavivirus, in the family Flaviviridae. The virus, which is endemic in Europe and northern parts of Asia, causes severe encephalitis. Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) has been reported in Mongolia since the 1980s, but details about the biological characteristics of the endemic virus are lacking. In this study, 680 ticks (Ixodes persulcatus) were collected in Selenge aimag, northern Mongolia, in 2012. Nine Mongolian TBEV strains were isolated from tick homogenates. A sequence analysis of the envelope protein gene revealed that all isolates belonged to the Siberian subtype of TBEV. Two strains showed similar growth properties in cultured cells, but their virulence in mice differed. Whole genome sequencing revealed only thirteen amino acid differences between these Mongolian TBEV strains. Our results suggest that these naturally occurring amino acid mutations affected the pathogenicity of Mongolian TBEV. Our results may be an important platform for monitoring TBEV to evaluate the epidemiological risk in TBE endemic areas of Mongolia.",
"corpus_id": 1748666,
"title": "Isolation and characterization of tick-borne encephalitis virus from Ixodes persulcatus in Mongolia in 2012."
} | {
"abstract": "Ticks are cosmopolitan vectors of numerous diseases, and detection of various pathogens in ticks can help to assess their distribution. In the current study, 528 adult ticks were collected from grazing animals or the ground in ten different Mongolian provinces. Dermacentor nuttalli constituted 76.1% of them and was found in all ecozones except the eastern desert. Dermacentor marginatus (8.3%), Dermacentor silvarum (1.1%) and Ixodes persulcatus (3.0%) were found in the northern forest areas and Hyalomma asiaticum (11.4%) only in the southern (semi-)desert. Of these, 359 ticks were subjected to DNA extraction and PCR was carried out to detect various pathogens. Anaplasma spp. was found in D. marginatus and D. nuttalli (2.5% positive each), including flagged specimen and identified as Anaplasma phagocytophilum. Borrelia spp. were found in 2.5% of the ticks (mostly in I. persulcatus) and identified as Borrelia garinii. Babesia spp. (40%) identified as Babesia caballi were detected in all five tick species including flagged Dermacentor spp. and I. persulcatus, and 3.5% of the ticks (all species except D. silvarum) were positive for Theileria spp. identified as Theileria equi. The piroplasms were found in all provinces. Tick-borne encephalitis virus was not detected. The results highlight the high risk of equine piroplasmosis in Mongolia, which is a concern for both the nomadic population who rely on horses for transport and for conservation of Przewalski’s horses in Mongolia. In addition, zoonotic agents such as the avian B. garinii and A. phagocytophilum were also detected, outlining a high risk for exposed humans.",
"corpus_id": 52151363,
"title": "Some aspects on tick species in Mongolia and their potential role in the transmission of equine piroplasms, Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Borrelia burgdorferi L."
} | {
"abstract": "In classical mechanics, Galilean covariance and the principle of relativity are completely equivalent and hold for all possible dynamical processes. In contrast, in relativistic physics the situation is much more complex. It will be shown that Lorentz covariance and the principle of relativity are not completely equivalent. The reason is that the principle of relativity actually only holds for the equilibrium quantities that characterize the equilibrium state of dissipative systems. In the light of this fact it will be argued that Lorentz covariance should not be regarded as a fundamental symmetry of the laws of physics.",
"corpus_id": 16217761,
"score": 0,
"title": "On the Meaning of Lorentz Covariance"
} |
{
"abstract": "As the number of academic papers and new technologies soars, it has been increasingly difficult for researchers, especially beginners, to enter a new research field. Researchers often need to study a promising paper in depth to keep up with the forefront of technology. Traditional Query-Oriented study method is time-consuming and even tedious. For a given paper, existent academic search engines like Google Scholar tend to recommend relevant papers, failing to reveal the knowledge structure. The state-of-the-art Map-Oriented study methods such as AMiner and AceMap can structure scholar information, but they're too coarse-grained to dig into the underlying principles of a specific paper. To address this problem, we propose a Study-Map Oriented method and a novel model called RIDP (Reference Injection based Double-Damping PageRank) to help researchers study a given paper more efficiently and thoroughly. RIDP integrates newly designed Reference Injection based Topic Analysis method and Double-Damping PageRank algorithm to mine a Study Map out of massive academic papers in order to guide researchers to dig into the underlying principles of a specific paper. Experiment results on real datasets and pilot user studies indicate that our method can help researchers acquire knowledge more efficiently, and grasp knowledge structure systematically.",
"corpus_id": 3140936,
"title": "From Citation Network to Study Map: A Novel Model to Reorganize Academic Literatures"
} | {
"abstract": "In this paper we present a preliminary analysis over the largest publicly accessible web dataset: the Common Crawl Corpus. We measure nine web characteristics from two levels of granularity using MapReduce and we comment on the initial observations over a fraction of it. To the best of our knowledge two of the characteristics, the language distribution and the HTML version of pages have not been analyzed in previous work, while the specific dataset has been only analyzed on page level.",
"corpus_id": 15475699,
"title": "Exploratory Analysis of a Terabyte Scale Web Corpus"
} | {
"abstract": "Continuing success of research on social and computer networks requires open access to realistic measurement datasets. While these datasets can be shared, generally in the form of social or Internet graphs, doing so often risks exposing sensitive user data to the public. Unfortunately, current techniques to improve privacy on graphs only target specific attacks, and have been proven to be vulnerable against powerful de-anonymization attacks. Our work seeks a solution to share meaningful graph datasets while preserving privacy. We observe a clear tension between strength of privacy protection and maintaining structural similarity to the original graph. To navigate the tradeoff, we develop a differentially-private graph model we call Pygmalion. Given a graph G and a desired level of e-differential privacy guarantee, Pygmalion extracts a graph's detailed structure into degree correlation statistics, introduces noise into the resulting dataset, and generates a synthetic graph G'. G' maintains as much structural similarity to G as possible, while introducing enough differences to provide the desired privacy guarantee. We show that simply applying differential privacy to graphs results in the addition of significant noise that may disrupt graph structure, making it unsuitable for experimental study. Instead, we introduce a partitioning approach that provides identical privacy guarantees using much less noise. Applied to real graphs, this technique requires an order of magnitude less noise for the same privacy guarantees. Finally, we apply our graph model to Internet, web, and Facebook social graphs, and show that it produces synthetic graphs that closely match the originals in both graph structure metrics and behavior in application-level tests.",
"corpus_id": 1905609,
"score": -1,
"title": "Sharing graphs using differentially private graph models"
} |
{
"abstract": "Persistence of microorganisms or reinfections are the main reasons for failure of root canal therapy. Very few studies to date have included culture-independent methods to assess the microbiota, including non-cultivable microorganisms. The aim of this study was to combine culture methods with culture-independent cloning methods to analyze the microbial flora of root-filled teeth with periradicular lesions. Twenty-one samples from previously root-filled teeth were collected from patients with periradicular lesions. Microorganisms were cultivated, isolated and biochemically identified. In addition, ribosomal DNA of bacteria, fungi and archaea derived from the same samples was amplified and the PCR products were used to construct clone libraries. DNA of selected clones was sequenced and microbial species were identified, comparing the sequences with public databases. Microorganisms were found in 12 samples with culture-dependent and -independent methods combined. The number of bacterial species ranged from 1 to 12 in one sample. The majority of the 26 taxa belonged to the phylum Firmicutes (14 taxa), followed by Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes. One sample was positive for fungi, and archaea could not be detected. The results obtained with both methods differed. The cloning technique detected several as-yet-uncultivated taxa. Using a combination of both methods 13 taxa were detected that had not been found in root-filled teeth so far. Enterococcus faecalis was only detected in two samples using culture methods. Combining the culture-dependent and –independent approaches revealed new candidate endodontic pathogens and a high diversity of the microbial flora in root-filled teeth with periradicular lesions. Both methods yielded differing results, emphasizing the benefit of combined methods for the detection of the actual microbial diversity in apical periodontitis.",
"corpus_id": 1461164,
"title": "Comprehensive Analysis of Secondary Dental Root Canal Infections: A Combination of Culture and Culture-Independent Approaches Reveals New Insights"
} | {
"abstract": "Bacteria are involved in the onset and progression of periodontitis. A promising molecular technique, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), to study microbial population dynamics in the subgingival pocket is presented. Twenty-three samples were taken from the subgingival pockets of nine patients and six healthy family members. From four periodontitis patients, 12 samples were evaluated before, 1 day after and 3 months after treatment. Part of the 16S rRNA gene of all bacteria was amplified by PCR and separated by DGGE, creating banding patterns representative of the community structure. Shifts in composition and diversity of the microbial population could be determined semiquantitatively, and this showed that treatment resulted in a decrease in the diversity of the population. After 3 months a microbial population 33-47% different from the population before treatment had re-established. Intense bands representing Exiguobacterium aurantiacum were present in 13 out of 25 samples, indicating that this species may play a role in periodontal disease.",
"corpus_id": 7198844,
"title": "Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis to study bacterial community structure in pockets of periodontitis patients."
} | {
"abstract": "UNLABELLED\nChávez de Paz LE, Dahlén G, Molander A, Möller A, Bergenholtz G. Bacteria recovered from teeth with apical periodontitis after antimicrobial endodontic treatment. International Endodontic Journal, 36, 500-508, 2003.\n\n\nAIM\nTo determine whether there is a pattern for certain bacteria to remain after chemo-mechanical treatment of root canals in teeth with apical periodontitis.\n\n\nMETHODOLOGY\nConsecutive root-canal samples of 200 teeth receiving root-canal treatment, referred from general practitioners and endodontic specialists for analyses of cultivable microbes, were studied prospectively. To be included, samples had to be taken at a treatment session subsequent to the one at which endodontic therapy was initiated. All samples were from teeth that either presented with clinical or radiographic evidence of apical periodontitis or both. Bacteriological findings were linked to clinical and radiographic parameters including status of the root canal prior to treatment, namely, vital pulp, necrotic pulp or root filled.\n\n\nRESULTS\nA total of 248 strains were isolated from 107 teeth giving bacterial growth. Gram-positives predominated (85%). Lactobacillus spp. (22%), nonmutans streptococci (18%), and Enterococcus spp. (12%) were the most common isolates. Gram-negative anaerobes were relatively sporadic. Large radiographic bone lesions, persistent pain and use of intracanal calcium hydroxide dressing correlated with bacterial presence (P < 0.05).\n\n\nCONCLUSIONS\nOnce established, nonmutans streptococci, enterococci and lactobacilli appear to survive commonly following root-canal treatment of teeth with clinical and radiographical signs of apical periodontitis.",
"corpus_id": 13365206,
"score": 2,
"title": "Bacteria recovered from teeth with apical periodontitis after antimicrobial endodontic treatment."
} |
{
"abstract": "Hypertension is one of the major risk factors of cardiovascular diseases, but despite a century of clinical and basic research, the discrete etiology of this disease is still not fully understood. The same is true for obesity, which is recognized as a major global epidemic health problem nowadays. Obesity is associated with an increasing prevalence of the metabolic syndrome, a cluster of risk factors including hypertension, abdominal obesity, dyslipidemia, and hyperglycemia. Epidemiological studies have shown that excess weight gain predicts future development of hypertension, and the relationship between BMI and blood pressure (BP) appears to be almost linear in different populations. There is no doubt that obesity-related hypertension is a multifactorial and polygenic trait, and multiple potential pathogenetic mechanisms probably contribute to the development of higher BP in obese humans. These include hyperinsulinemia, activation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, sympathetic nervous system stimulation, abnormal levels of certain adipokines such as leptin, or cytokines acting at the vascular endothelial level. Moreover, some genetic and epigenetic mechanisms are also in play. Although the full manifestation of both hypertension and obesity occurs predominantly in adulthood, their roots can be traced back to early ontogeny. The detailed knowledge of alterations occurring in the organism of experimental animals during particular critical periods (developmental windows) could help to solve this phenomenon in humans and might facilitate the age-specific prevention of human obesity-related hypertension. In addition, better understanding of particular pathophysiological mechanisms might be useful in so-called personalized medicine.",
"corpus_id": 6343272,
"title": "Obesity-related hypertension: possible pathophysiological mechanisms."
} | {
"abstract": "Genetic studies in humans and rodent models should help to identify altered genes important in the development of cardiovascular diseases, such as hypertension. Despite the considerable research effort, it is still difficult to identify all of the genes involved in altered blood pressure regulation thereby leading to essential hypertension. We should keep in mind that genetic hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases might develop as a consequence of early errors in well-co-ordinated systems regulating cardiovascular homoeostasis. If these early abnormalities in the ontogenetic cascade of expression of genetic information occur in critical periods of development (developmental windows), they can adversely modify subsequent development of the cardiovascular system. The consideration that hypertension and/or other cardiovascular diseases are late consequences of abnormal ontogeny of the cardiovascular system could explain why so many complex interactions among genes and environmental factors play such a significant role in the pathogenesis of these diseases. The detailed description and precise time resolution of major developmental events occurring during particular stages of ontogeny in healthy individuals (including advanced knowledge of gene expression) could facilitate the detection of abnormalities crucial for the development of cardiovascular alterations characteristic of the respective diseases. Transient gene switch-on or switch-off in specific developmental windows might be a useful approach for in vivo modelling of pathological processes. This should help to elucidate the mechanisms underlying cardiovascular diseases (including hypertension) and to develop strategies to prevent the development of such diseases.",
"corpus_id": 728615,
"title": "Developmental windows and environment as important factors in the expression of genetic information: a cardiovascular physiologist's view."
} | {
"abstract": "Qualitative research dominates political science. In the field of international relations (IR), for example, about 70% of scholars primarily employ qualitative methods, compared to 21% favoring formal or quantitative analysis (Jordan et al. 2009). Since nearly all of the latter make secondary use of textual and historical methods, overall over 90% of IR scholars employ qualitative analysis, whereas 48% use any statistical and only 12% any formal methods. This understates the dominance of qualitative analysis, for many statistical data sets rest ultimately on historical work, and IR scholars, when polled, report that qualitative case studies are more relevant for policy than quantitative or formal work. Hardly any major IR debate—whether that over the end of the cold war, American unipolarity, Chinese foreign policy, the nature of European integration, compliance with international law, democratic peace, the causes of war, or the impact of human rights norms—remains untouched by important qualitative contributions.",
"corpus_id": 17000149,
"score": -1,
"title": "Active Citation: A Precondition for Replicable Qualitative Research"
} |
{
"abstract": "The first total syntheses of multifidosides A-C have been achieved. The synthetic strategy is characterized by catalytic site-selective acylation of unprotected glycoside precursors in the final stage of the synthesis. High functional-group tolerance of the site-selective acylation, promoted by an organocatalyst, enabled the conventionally difficult molecular transformation in a predictable and reliable manner. An advantage of this strategy is to avoid the risks of undesired side reactions during the removal of the protecting groups at the final stage of the total synthesis.",
"corpus_id": 7208241,
"title": "Final-stage site-selective acylation for the total syntheses of multifidosides A-C."
} | {
"abstract": "Bioactive natural products and derivatives remain an enduring starting point for the discovery of new cellular targets for disease intervention and lead compounds for the development of new therapeutic agents. The former goal is accomplished through the synthesis of bioactive cellular probes from natural products, enabling insights into the mechanism of action of these natural products by classical affinity chromatography or more recent proteome profiling methods. However, the direct and selective modification of native natural products for these purposes remains a challenge due to the structural complexity and the wide functional group diversity found in these natural substances. The lack of selective synthetic methods available to directly manipulate unprotected complex small molecules, in particular to perform structure-activity relationship studies and prepare appropriate cellular probes, has recently begun to be addressed, benefitting from the broader emerging area of chemoselective synthetic methodology. Thus, new reagents, catalysts and reaction processes are enabling both chemo- and site-selective modifications of complex, native natural products. In this review, we describe selected recent examples of these functionalization strategies in this emerging area.",
"corpus_id": 25815569,
"title": "Chemo- and site-selective derivatizations of natural products enabling biological studies."
} | {
"abstract": "The indirect nuclear spin-spin coupling constants of Ag(+) cation intercalated between imidazole rings in DNA chains are calculated by means of DFT with relativistic effects taken into account by the use of the zeroth-order regular approximation Hamiltonian (DFT-ZORA). The calculations model how the (1)J((15)N,(109)Ag) coupling constant is affected by different types of geometry deformations and by the presence of water, which is simulated by means of the polarizable continuum model and explicitly present water molecules. Calculations for systems containing two and three imidazole pairs are also carried out to model the influence of stacking interactions. The computed (1)J((15)N,(109)Ag) spin-spin coupling constant is in the range of 85-105 Hz (depending on the computational model) and is in good agreement with the experimental value (ca. 92 Hz). This coupling constant is very little affected by the presence of solvent, stacking interactions, and geometry deformations. Such behavior is explained by visualization of the coupling path by means of coupling energy density (CED). Bigger models allow the coupling constant between two adjacent silver ions to be computed, and give a value of approximately 1 Hz, which is probably too small to be of practical interest. The (2)J((15)N,(15)N) value is calculated to be about 2.5 Hz, and is therefore of measurable magnitude.",
"corpus_id": 25778063,
"score": 1,
"title": "Spin-spin coupling constants in [corrected] artificial DNA intercalated with silver cations: theoretical prediction."
} |
{
"abstract": "P. Kawulok, R. Kawulok, I. Schindler, S. Rusz, J. Kliber VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava, Faculty of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Czech Republic P. Unucka Material and Metallurgical Research Ltd., Czech Republic K. M. Čmiel Třinecké železárny a.s., Czech Republic Rolling of round bar made of steel 32CrB4 was simulated physically. The interrupted torsion test led to the fi nal microstructure with coarser grains, however, thanks to comparatively large dimensions of the sample this type of experiment was not so sensitive to the cooling rate of the fi nal cooling as compression test. Too high temperature of the end of controlled cooling of the samples after compression test led to partial self-quenching of the investigated material. Decelerated cooling below the temperature of the start of martensitic transformation led in both applied types of compression tests to the parameters of the resulting microstructure and hardness closest to the parameters obtained after laboratory rolling.",
"corpus_id": 2218536,
"title": "Credibility of various plastometric methods in simulation of hot rolling of the steel round bar"
} | {
"abstract": "Universal plastometer Gleeble 3800, which is installed at the Regional materials science and technology centre at the VSB Technical University of Ostrava was used for investigation of possibility of grain refinement of low-carbon steel. Through dilatometric tests of the investigated steel performed at various heating and cooling rates, the transformation temperatures Ar1, Ar3, Ac1 and Ac3 were determined. These temperatures were employed at the proposal of two following types of experiments, performed to refine a prime grain of the examined steel. The first set of the tests contained an annealing off the examined steel with a cyclical change of the temperature. It was found by metallographic analysis of the annealed samples that the samples annealed at the temperatures of 880 and 530 °C with the dwell of one second at the annealing temperature, and cooled down or heated up at the rate of 10 °C·s-1 showed finer grain even after one cycle. Increase of the number of cycles caused a decrease of ferritic grain. The second set of the test contained a cyclic deformation of the examined steel, which consisted of combination of pressure and tension at the given temperature. The deformation temperature, the size of the absolute strain, the dwell time between the individual cycles and the number of the individual cycles were chosen as variable parameters. Metallographic analysis of each cyclically deformed sample proved that the selected parameters of deformation did not lead to the required refinement of microstructure of the examined steel.",
"corpus_id": 211248806,
"title": "POSSIBILITY OF GRAIN REFINEMENT OF LOW CARBON STEEL BY CYCLING OF TEMPERATURE OR DEFORMATION"
} | {
"abstract": "Thiabendazole (TBZ), has been extensively employed as a pesticide and/or a fungicide in agriculture, while its residues would threaten to public health and safety. Simple, rapid and sensitive probes for detection of TBZ in real food samples is significantly desirable. In present work, a highly selective and sensitive luminescent sensor for monitoring TBZ in oranges has been constructed based on a Tb3+-functionalized Zr-MOF (Tb3+@1). Tb3+@1 exhibited many attractive sensing properties toward TBZ, including broad linear range (0-80 μM), high selectivity, low LOD (0.271 μM) and rapid response time (less than1 min). Moreover, the probe was employed to determine TBZ in real orange samples, in which good recoveries from 98.41 to 104.48% were obtained. It only takes 35 min for the whole process of detection TBZ in real orange samples combined with QuEChERS method. Therefore, this work provided a reliable and rapid method for monitoring the TBZ in real orange samples.",
"corpus_id": 226276612,
"score": 1,
"title": "Highly sensitive and rapid detection of thiabendazole residues in oranges based on a luminescent Tb3+-functionalized MOF."
} |
{
"abstract": "l3mction-points per person-day are a widely accepted measure for productivity in softwaredevelopment. This is roughly a measure of how much software-fimctionality can be developed for given costs Reports from several sources tell us that in conventional host-centric softwaredevelopment 0.75 1.5 function-points per person-day are an average. This experience report is about a development project that achieved more than 75 function-points per person-day. In that project au online multi-user application has been created, that world witb a large hostdatabase and offers a graphical user interface. The reports describes how this excellent productivity has been achieved.",
"corpus_id": 1306103,
"title": "How to achieve 7.52 function-points per person-day with object technology"
} | {
"abstract": "The number of people who develop software at AT&T Bell Laboratories has grown steadily since the 1960's. Major productivity improvements were made, but efforts to reliably measure them were unsuccessful. With more than half of its technical people working on software projects and one in every 12 employees in AT&T now involved in one way or another in the creation of software, a major effort to produce world-class software is underway. The key to this new program is a shift from counting lines of code to using function points to size software projects. Improved predictability, simplified designs, contained feature creep, and reduced redundancy are the direct results of deploying formal function point analysis (FPA). Estimates of the effort required to do a job are twice as accurate with FPA as with conventional methods. This presentation describes: the software initiative at AT&T, the history of usage of FPA in AT&T, source lines of code (SLOC) vs. function points and the best current practices, automation of the function point count and estimation process, changes in AT&T's metrics policy and experiences in measurements based on FPA. The bumpy road of software measurement, the problems in estimating software project size and effort, and some positive results of using a measurement program are also discussed.",
"corpus_id": 46274569,
"title": "Living with function points"
} | {
"abstract": "Modeling intra-individual fluctuations in estradiol and progesterone may provide unique insight into the effects of ovarian hormones on the etiology and treatment of nicotine dependence. This randomized placebo-controlled laboratory study tested the independent and interactive effects of intra-individual ovarian hormone variation and nicotine on suppression of tobacco withdrawal symptoms and smoking behavior. Female smokers randomized to 21 mg nicotine (TNP; n=37) or placebo (PBO; n=43) transdermal patch following overnight abstinence completed three sessions occurring during hormonally distinct menstrual cycle phases. At each session, participants provided saliva for hormone assays and completed repeated self-report measures (ie, tobacco withdrawal symptoms, smoking urge, and negative affect (NA)) followed by an analog smoking reinstatement task for which participants could earn money to delay smoking and subsequently purchase cigarettes to smoke. Higher (vs lower) progesterone levels were associated with greater reductions in NA. Higher (vs lower) progesterone levels and progesterone to estradiol ratios were associated with reducing smoking urges over time to a greater extent with TNP compared to PBO. There was an interaction between Patch and estradiol on NA. With TNP, higher-than-usual estradiol was associated with greater decreases in NA. However with PBO, lower-than-usual estradiol was associated with greater decreases in NA. These results suggest that the effects of TNP on mood- and smoking-related outcomes may vary depending on the ovarian hormone levels.",
"corpus_id": 3229245,
"score": 0,
"title": "Ovarian Hormones and Transdermal Nicotine Administration Independently and Synergistically Suppress Tobacco Withdrawal Symptoms and Smoking Reinstatement in the Human Laboratory"
} |
{
"abstract": "Thirty-five elementary teacher education candidates, three university professors, a school administrator in charge of curriculum and technology, a school principal, a lead teacher, fifteen cooperating teachers, and an IBM educational consultant were engaged in a school/university collaboration designed for candidates to complete teacher education coursework in meaningful contexts of real classrooms in real schools. Evidence from the collaboration demonstrates that the key elements of communication, trust, funding, and sharing responsibility contributed to the success of this collaborative effort.",
"corpus_id": 154900624,
"title": "CONTEXTS FOR COLLABORATION IN TEACHER EDUCATION Contextos colaborativos para la formación de profesores"
} | {
"abstract": "Abstract Dispositions are viable goals for teacher preparation programs (Katz & Raths, 1992). This study examined preservice teachers' perceptions of their own mistakes in order to understand their views toward risk-taking and tendencies toward perfectionism. When given an open-ended survey, 79 preservice secondary teachers predicted 43 different teaching mistakes which were categorized as either instructional or interpersonal. The works of Fuller (1969), Veenman (1984), Fried (1995), and Haberman (1995) provided frameworks for interpreting these findings. Implications for teacher education include the realistic portrayal of teaching, the practical and reflective nature of teacher preparation, and the type of environment created by teacher educators. A conclusion of the investigation is that fallibility fulfills an important role in the preparation of future teachers.",
"corpus_id": 144164332,
"title": "Mistakes as Vehicles for Educating Teachers"
} | {
"abstract": "This paper describes a framework for making sense of the relationship between emotions, cognition, mathematical activity, and mathematical beliefs. Subjects were participants in a special mathematics anxiety program. Beliefs are classified as instrumental and relational approaches to a situation. Emotion is also distinauished as a two-faceted construct which includes the physiological arousal (emotion as state) and the cognitive construction (emotion as acts). Perceptions of participants are described in detail to illustrate the nature of shifts in beliefs about mathematics and to elaborate on a framework for interpreting the relationship between mathematical beliefs and emotional acts. Some cases of individuals who made no change and became more anxious as the program progressed are discussed. Anxiety is not an inherent response to mathematics, but is based on an individual's beliefs about mathematical activity. (YP) ******************A********U******************************************* * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * from the original document. * **********************************A************************************ A CONSTRUCTIVIST PERSPECTIVE ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MATHEMATICAL BELIEFS AND EMOTIONAL ACTS Carolyn S. Carter Educational Studies & Chemistry The Ohio State University 249 Arps Hall 1945 N. High Columbus, OH 43210 Erna Yackel Mathematical Sciences Purdue University Calumet Mathematical Sciences Bldg. Hammond, IN U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Deice of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 4Telis document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it O Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality Points of new or opinions stated in this dOCu men! do not neCeSsahly represent officral OERI position or oohCy \"PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED Erna Yackel TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC).\" Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Frarlisz.2 CA March 30, 1989. 2 tLST COPY AVAILABLE",
"corpus_id": 140893661,
"score": 1,
"title": "A Constructivist Perspective on the Relationship between Mathematical Beliefs and Emotional Acts."
} |
{
"abstract": "This paper presents a portable, assistive, soft robotic glove designed to augment hand rehabilitation for individuals with functional grasp pathologies. The robotic glove utilizes soft actuators consisting of molded elastomeric chambers with fiber reinforcements that induce specific bending, twisting and extending trajectories under fluid pressurization. These soft actuators were mechanically programmed to match and support the range of motion of individual fingers. They demonstrated the ability to generate significant force when pressurized and exhibited low impedance when un-actuated. To operate the soft robotic glove, a control hardware system was designed and included fluidic pressure sensors in line with the hydraulic actuators and a closed-loop controller to regulate the pressure. Demonstrations with the complete system were performed to evaluate the ability of the soft robotic glove to carry out gross and precise functional grasping. Compared to existing devices, the soft robotic glove has the potential to increase user freedom and independence through its portable waist belt pack and open palm design. Soft actuator design and fabrication that mechanically program desired motions.Hand motion study to conform and match actuators to fingers joint motions.Overall system including an open-palm glove and a portable power/control unit.Closed-loop nonlinear controller that regulates the actuator hydraulic pressure.Quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the soft robotic glove.",
"corpus_id": 11579748,
"title": "Soft robotic glove for combined assistance and at-home rehabilitation"
} | {
"abstract": "This paper presents the development of a polymer-based tendon-driven wearable robotic hand, Exo-Glove Poly. Unlike the previously developed Exo-Glove, a fabric-based tendon-driven wearable robotic hand, Exo-Glove Poly was developed using silicone to allow for sanitization between users in multiple-user environments such as hospitals. Exo-Glove Poly was developed to use two motors, one for the thumb and the other for the index/middle finger, and an under-actuation mechanism to grasp various objects. In order to realize Exo-Glove Poly, design features and fabrication processes were developed to permit adjustment to different hand sizes, to protect users from injury, to enable ventilation, and to embed Teflon tubes for the wire paths. The mechanical properties of Exo-Glove Poly were verified with a healthy subject through a wrap grasp experiment using a mat-type pressure sensor and an under-actuation performance experiment with a specialized test set-up. Finally, performance of the Exo-Glove Poly for grasping various shapes of object was verified, including objects needing under-actuation.",
"corpus_id": 9775740,
"title": "Development of a polymer-based tendon-driven wearable robotic hand"
} | {
"abstract": "For supervised automation of multi-throw suturing in Robot-Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery, we present a novel mechanical needle guide and a framework for optimizing needle size, trajectory, and control parameters using sequential convex programming. The Suture Needle Angular Positioner (SNAP) results in a 3x error reduction in the needle pose estimate in comparison with the standard actuator. We evaluate the algorithm and SNAP on a da Vinci Research Kit using tissue phantoms and compare completion time with that of humans from the JIGSAWS dataset [5]. Initial results suggest that the dVRK can perform suturing at 30% of human speed while completing 86% suture throws attempted. Videos and data are available at: berkeleyautomation.github.io/amts.",
"corpus_id": 14151704,
"score": -1,
"title": "Automating multi-throw multilateral surgical suturing with a mechanical needle guide and sequential convex optimization"
} |
{
"abstract": "A rapid and simple method for the simultaneous quantification of AFB1 and OTA in rat plasma, liver and kidney by UHPLC-FLD has been successfully validated according to the following criteria: selectivity, stability, linearity, precision, accuracy, recovery, robustness and limits of quantification and detection. The extraction method, calibration curves and chromatographic conditions are common for the three matrices. Plasma and homogenized tissue samples (100 μL) were extracted with acetonitrile:formic acid mixture (99:1) (300 μL). Chromatographic separation was performed with a mixture of water and acetonitrile:methanol (50:50), both acidified with 0.5% of formic acid using a gradient profile. The method avoids the use of immunoaffinity columns and allows reduction of sample and solvent volumes as well as toxic wastes. The detection is based on a photochemical reaction which enhances the AFB1 response without affecting the OTA signal before reaching the fluorescent detector. The mycotoxin recovery for each matrix was very efficient, between 93% and 96% for AFB1 and between 94% and 96% for OTA. For both mycotoxins the LOQs were 2μg/L in plasma and 8μg/kg in liver and kidney. The method has successfully been applied to rat samples after a single oral administration of a mixture of AFB1 and OTA and it could be a useful tool in toxicokinetic and toxicological studies.",
"corpus_id": 3049083,
"title": "Validation of a UHPLC-FLD analytical method for the simultaneous quantification of aflatoxin B1 and ochratoxin a in rat plasma, liver and kidney."
} | {
"abstract": "We presented a new aptasensor for mycotoxins, which was based on multiplexed fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between multicolor upconversion fluorescent nanoparticles (UCNPs) as donors and graphene oxide (GO) as the entire and effective acceptor. BaY(0.78)F(5):Yb(0.2), Er(0.02) and BaY(0.78)F(5):Yb(0.7), Tm(0.02) upconversion nanoparticles were synthesized and functionalized, respectively, with immobilized ochratoxin A (OTA)-aptamers and fumonisin B(1) (FB(1))-aptamers. On the basis of the strong π-π stacking effect between the nucleobases of the aptamers and the sp(2) atoms of GO, the aptamer modified-UCNPs can be brought in close proximity to the GO surface. The strong upconversion fluorescence both of BaY(0.78)F(5):Yb(0.2), Er(0.02) and BaY(0.78)F(5):Yb(0.2), Tm(0.02) can be completely quenched by the GO, because of a good overlap between the fluorescence emission of multicolor UCNPs and the absorption spectrum of GO. In contrast, in the presence of OTA and FB(1), the aptamers preferred to bind to their corresponding mycotoxins, which led to changes in the formation of aptamers, and therefore, aptamer modified-UCNPs were far away from the GO surface. Our study results showed that the fluorescence intensity of BaYF(5):Yb Er and BaYF(5):Yb Tm were related to the concentration of OTA and FB(1). We therefore developed a sensitive and simple platform for the simultaneous detection of OTA and FB(1) with multicolor UCNPs and GO as the FRET pair. The aptasensor provided a linear range from 0.05 to 100 ng·mL(-1) for OTA and 0.1 to 500 ng·mL(-1) for FB(1); the detection limit of OTA was 0.02 ng·mL(-1) and FB(1) was 0.1 ng·mL(-1). As a practical application, the aptasensor was used to monitor OTA and FB(1) level in naturally contaminated maize samples with the results consistent with that of a classic ELISA method. More importantly, the novel multiplexed FRET was established for the first time based on multiplexed energy donors to the entire energy acceptor; this work was expected to open up a new field of FRET system applications for various targets.",
"corpus_id": 5222449,
"title": "Multiplexed fluorescence resonance energy transfer aptasensor between upconversion nanoparticles and graphene oxide for the simultaneous determination of mycotoxins."
} | {
"abstract": "Polyunsaturated fatty acids can be oxygenated by P450 in different ways--by epoxidation, by hydroxylation of the omega-side chain, by allylic and bis-allylic hydroxylation and by hydroxylation with double bond migration. Major organs for these oxygenations are the liver and the kidney. P450 is an ubiquitous enzyme. It is therefore not surprising that some of these reactions have been found in other organs and tissues. Many observations indicate that P450 oxygenates arachidonic acid in vivo in man and in experimental animals. This is hardly surprising. omega-Oxidation was discovered in vivo 60 years ago. It was more unexpected that biological activities have been associated with many of the P450 metabolites of arachidonic acid, at least in pharmacological doses. Epoxygenase metabolites of arachidonic acid have attracted the largest interest. In their critical review on epoxygenase metabolism of arachidonic acid in 1989, Fitzpatrick and Murphy pointed out some major differences between the PGH synthase, the lipoxygenase and the P450 pathways of arachidonic acid metabolism. Their main points are still valid and have only to be modified slightly in the light of recent results. First, lipoxygenases show a marked regiospecificity and stereospecificity, while many P450 seem to lack this specificity. There are, however, P450 isozymes which catalyse stereospecific epoxidations or hydroxylations. Many hydroxylases and at least some epoxygenases also show regiospecificity, i.e. oxygenate only one double bond or one specific carbon of the fatty acid substrate. In addition, preference for arachidonic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid may occur in the sense that other fatty acids are oxygenated with less regiospecificity. A more important difference is that prostaglandins and leukotrienes affect specific and well characterised receptors in cell membranes, while receptors for epoxides of arachidonic acid or other P450 metabolites have not been characterised. Nevertheless, epoxides of arachidonic acid have been found to induce a large number of different pharmacological effects. In some systems, effects have been noted at pm concentrations which might conceivably be in the physiological concentration range of these epoxides, e.g. after release from phospholipids by phospholipase A2. An intriguing possibility is that the effects of [Ca]i on different ion channels might possibly explain their biological actions. In situations when pharmacological doses are used, metabolism to epoxyprostanoids or other interactions with PGH synthase could also be of importance. Finally, one report on a specific receptor for 14R,15S-EpETrE in mononuclear cell membranes has just been published.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)",
"corpus_id": 23337939,
"score": 2,
"title": "Oxygenation of polyunsaturated fatty acids by cytochrome P450 monooxygenases."
} |
{
"abstract": "A new acylated triterpenoid saponin carrying the rare 2,3-branched glucose at C-28 of the aglycone bayogenin (2 beta, 3 beta, 23-trihydroxyolean-12-en-28-oic acid) was isolated from the whole plants of Bellium bellidioides. The structure was elucidated mainly by high field NMR experiments (1H and 13C NMR, HMBC, HMQC, COSY-45 at 600/150 MHz) as 3-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-28-O-[2-O-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-3-O-beta-D- glucopyranosyl-6-O-acetyl-beta-D-glucopyranosyl]-23-O-acetylbayogenin . Additionally, three acylated derivatives of the known bellissaponin BS1 were obtained.",
"corpus_id": 7301432,
"title": "Triterpenoid saponins from Bellium bellidioides."
} | {
"abstract": "As part of research for treatments to combat oral dryness, our evaluation of the activity of an aqueous extract of Solidago virgaurea (L.) ssp. alpestris (Asteraceae) revealed activity against Candida albicans hyphae, the pathogenic form of this yeast. Systematic bioassay-guided fractionation of this extract gave an active saponin-containing fraction from which six oleanane-type triterpenoid saponins were isolated. Three of these were isolated for the first time, as 3-O-(β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→3)-β-D-glucopyranosyl)-28-O-(β-D-fucopyranosyl-(1→2)-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→3)-β-D-xylopyranosyl-(1→4)-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→2)-β-D-xylopyranosyl)-polygalacic acid (virgaureasaponin 4), 3-O-(β-D-glucopyranosyl)-28-O-(β-D-fucopyranosyl-(1→2)-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→3)-β-D-xylopyranosyl-(1→4)-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→2)-β-D-xylopyranosyl)-polygalacic acid (virgaureasaponin 5) and 3-O-(β-D-glucopyranosyl)-28-O-(α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→3)-β-D-xylopyranosyl-(1→4)-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→2)-[5-O-acetylapiofuranosyl-(1→3)-[4-O-(3-(3-hydroxy-1-oxobutoxy)-1-oxobutyl)]-β-D-fucopyranosyl]-polygalacic acid (virgaureasaponin 6). Their structures were established by carrying out 1D and 2D NMR experiments along with HRMS analyses. All of the six saponins were evaluated to ascertain their inhibition of C. albicans yeast-hyphal conversion, and four of them showed significant inhibition.",
"corpus_id": 3400053,
"title": "Triterpenoid saponins from the aerial parts of Solidago virgaurea alpestris with inhibiting activity of Candida albicans yeast-hyphal conversion."
} | {
"abstract": "Desorption/chemical ionization mass spectrometry (D/CI.-MS.) is a recently developed technique especially indicated for highly polar and non volatile compounds. Various naturally occurring glycosides such as saponins, iridoid and secoiridoid glycosides, cardenolides and flavone-O-glycosides have been investigated by this method. All the measurements were carried out on underivatized compounds. In addition to the structural informations generally furnished by field-desorption mass spectrometry (molecular ion and sugar sequence), the molecular ion and pertinent fragments of the aglycone could also be obtained.",
"corpus_id": 95238813,
"score": 2,
"title": "Desorption/Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometry of Naturally Occurring Glycosides†"
} |
{
"abstract": "Clinical observations on 10 cases of methanol poisoning, with particular reference to ocular manifestations, are reported. Four patients stated that they had blurring of vision, one of these also had a temporary loss of the lower parts of the visual fields and another one visual hallucinations. Hyperaemia or oedema of the optic discs were found in 5 patients. Two of the patients died, another was severely ill and suffered from impaired vision for a long period of time afterwards. In none of the surviving patients detectable remaining damage to the retina could be revealed by recording the a‐ and the b‐waves of the electroretinogram. Recording of the visual evoked responses showed that one patient had transient subnormal amplitudes in one eye. However, on follow‐up registrations all of the patients had values within normal limits. The results of the investigation show a considerable individual variation in susceptibility to methanol poisoning.",
"corpus_id": 2972586,
"title": "CLINICAL OBSERVATIONS ON TEN CASES OF METHANOL POISONING WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO OCULAR MANIFESTATIONS"
} | {
"abstract": "High doses of 4-methylpyrazole (4-MP) could be administered to monkeys in long- and short-term experiments without yielding any general toxicity or any toxic influence on the retinal photoreceptors, the conduction of impulses through the retina or on the activity in the inner nuclear layer detectable by recording the electroretinogram (ERG). Both series included a low dose (20 mg/kg) and a high dose level (100 mg/kg), the former being a tentative therapeutic dose. In the first series the substance was administered for 6 weeks and the toxicity regarding clinical signs, hematology and blood chemistry, and gross and microscopic pathology evaluated. Furthermore ophthalmoscopy with assessment of the fundus structures and recordings of the ERG were performed. The second series was mainly concerned with revealing of any direct effect of 4-MP on the ERG. Because of the low toxicity of 4-MP and its powerful inhibitory capacity on alcohol dehydrogenase, the substance should prove a potential tool in clinical alcohol research and an effective antidote in clinical situations where inhibition of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) is the key to a successful outcome of, for example, methanol and ethylene glycol poisoning.",
"corpus_id": 25214990,
"title": "Normal electroretinogram and no toxicity signs after chronic and acute administration of the alcohol dehydrogenase inhibitor 4-methylpyrazole to the cynomolgus monkey (Macaca fascicularis)--a possible new treatment of methanol poisoning."
} | {
"abstract": "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has estimated that Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157 (0157 STEC) infections cause 73,000 illnesses annually in the United States, resulting in more than 2,000 hospitalizations and 60 deaths. In this study, the economic cost of illness due to O157 STEC infections transmitted by food or other means was estimated based on the CDC estimate of annual cases and newly available data from the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) of the CDC Emerging Infections Program. The annual cost of illness due to O157 STEC was $405 million (in 2003 dollars), including $370 million for premature deaths, $30 million for medical care, and $5 million in lost productivity. The average cost per case varied greatly by severity of illness, ranging from $26 for an individual who did not obtain medical care to $6.2 million for a patient who died from hemolytic uremic syndrome. The high cost of illness due to O157 STEC infections suggests that additional efforts to control this pathogen might be warranted.",
"corpus_id": 23579945,
"score": 1,
"title": "Economic cost of illness due to Escherichia coli O157 infections in the United States."
} |
{
"abstract": "The electric-field integral-equation (EFIE) formulation and its iterative solution by the method of moments (MOM) is a popular choice for analyzing scattering from perfect electrically conducting (PEC) objects in layered media. This approach is limited to small-scale problems especially for 3-dimensional (3-D) objects because of its high computational complexity: The MOM matrix-fill time, memory use, and time per iteration scale as O(N<sup>2</sup>), where N is the number of unknowns. To reduce this complexity, this article extends the adaptive integral method (AIM) [1] to the analysis of scattering from 3-D PEC objects fully embedded inside a single layer of a planar layered medium. Just like for the classical AIM for free-space backgrounds, first, the pertinent integral equations [2] are discretized via the MOM; second, the impedance matrix entries are separated into near- and far-zone terms using an auxiliary regular grid; and third, the impedance matrix entries are approximated using sources and observers on the regular grid while the near-zone terms are pre-corrected using the original MOM matrix entries. Unlike the free-space case, the resulting AIM propagation matrices do not have a 3-level block-Toeplitz structure because the layered-medium Green functions are not translationally invariant in the stratification direction. One possible approach is to revert to 2-D FFTs that exploit the Toeplitz structure along the remaining directions [3],[4]. Although this approach is applicable even when the object resides in multiple layers, it requires O(N<sup>2</sup><inf>c</inf><inf>z</inf> N<inf>cx</inf> N<inf>cy</inf> logN<inf>cx</inf> N<inf>cy</inf>) operations per iteration and O(N<inf>c</inf><sup>2</sup><inf>z</inf> N<inf>cx</inf> N<inf>cy</inf>) memory space, where N<inf>cz</inf>, N<inf>cx</inf>, and N<inf>cy</inf> denote the number of AIM grid points along the stratification direction and the other two Cartesian coordinates, respectively. Instead, here, the Green functions are decomposed to convolution and correlation terms [5]-[7] and two sets of AIM propagation matrices are obtained: One with 3-level block-Toeplitz and the other with Hankel-2-level block-Toeplitz structure. Using 3-D FFTs, both groups of matrices are multiplied with trial vectors in O(N<inf>c</inf> logN<inf>c</inf>) time using O(N<inf>c</inf>) memory space, where N<inf>c</inf> = N<inf>cx</inf>N<inf>cy</inf>N<inf>cz</inf>.",
"corpus_id": 2227160,
"title": "A 3-D adaptive integral method (AIM) for layered media"
} | {
"abstract": "This article presents a detailed comparison of the moment, near‐field, and far‐field matching schemes that are used in precorrected FFT/adaptive integral method solvers to anterpolate currents (interpolate fields) on the nonuniform mesh of a structure of interest in terms of sources (observers) on an auxiliary regular grid. A general error measure is developed to evaluate the matching schemes in free space or layered media and for the high‐ or low‐frequency regime of operation. It is shown that moment matching is the most robust scheme, that far‐field matching is the most accurate scheme for high‐frequency regime but breaks down for low‐frequency regime, and that near‐field matching is more accurate than moment matching but requires the most preprocessing operations. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 53:1368–1372, 2011; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.26006",
"corpus_id": 61246117,
"title": "Comparison of precorrected FFT/adaptive integral method matching schemes"
} | {
"abstract": "From the results of the previous section it is apparent that kernel evaluations by means of interpolation from a pre-existing database is much more time-efficient for computing both the near-interactions and the matrix-vector product. In fact, the Best-MEM method provides completely unacceptable computational time and should not even be considered as an option unless the computational environment possesses severe memory limitations. On the other hand, for large, multiscale geometries involving millions of unknowns, it may not be possible to store the entire kernel database. In these cases, it is our recommendation to select po(p) larger than the radius of near interactions. In this way, the near-matrix-fill time will remain unchanged and both memory levels and MVP times will be acceptable. Obviously, for distributed systems with significant amounts of memory, computational time will benefit if as much of the database is stored as memory permits.",
"corpus_id": 43485864,
"score": 2,
"title": "Parallel Discrete Complex Image Method for Barnes-Hut Accelerated Capacitance Extraction in Multilayered Substrates"
} |
{
"abstract": "Developing procedures to delay the mechanisms of acute liver failure-induced death would increase patients' survival by allowing time for liver regeneration or to receive a liver for transplantation. Hyperammonemia is a main contributor to brain herniation and mortality in acute liver failure (ALF). Acute ammonia intoxication in rats leads to N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor activation in brain. Blocking these receptors prevents ammonia-induced death. Ammonia-induced activation of NMDA receptors could contribute to ALF-induced death. If this were the case, blocking NMDA receptors could prevent or delay ALF-induced death. The aim of this work was to assess 1) whether ALF leads to NMDA receptors activation in brain in vivo and 2) whether blocking NMDA receptors prevents or delays ALF-induced death of rats. It is shown, by in vivo brain microdialysis, that galactosamine-induced ALF leads to NMDA receptors activation in brain. Blocking NMDA receptors by continuous administration of MK-801 or memantine through miniosmotic pumps affords significant protection against ALF-induced death, increasing the survival time approximately twofold. Also, when liver injury is not 100% lethal (1.5 g/kg galactosamine), blocking NMDA receptors increases the survival rate from 23 to 62%. This supports that blocking NMDA receptors could have therapeutic utility to improve survival of patients with ALF.",
"corpus_id": 1858237,
"title": "Acute liver failure-induced death of rats is delayed or prevented by blocking NMDA receptors in brain."
} | {
"abstract": "Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a common complication of cirrhosis, of largely reversible impairment of brain function occurring in patients with acute or chronic liver failure or when the liver is bypassed by portosystemic shunts. The mechanisms causing this brain dysfunction are still largely unclear. The need to avoid complications caused by late diagnosis has attracted interest to understand the mechanisms underlying neuronal damage in order to find markers that will allow timely diagnosis and to propose new therapeutic alternatives to improve the care of patients. One of the experimental approaches to study HE is microdialysis; this technique allows evaluation of different chemical substances in several organs through the recollection of samples in specific places by semi-permeable membranes. In this review we will discuss the contributions of microdialysis in the understanding of the physiological alterations in human hepatic encephalopathy and experimental models and the studies to find novel alternative therapies for this disease.",
"corpus_id": 7555389,
"title": "Contributions of Microdialysis to New Alternative Therapeutics for Hepatic Encephalopathy"
} | {
"abstract": "We propose a neural network using coupled-SQUIDs to solve the N-Queens problem, a combinatorial optimization problem. The N-Queen problem consists of placing N queens on an N × N chess board such that none of the queens are able to capture any other using standard chess moves for a queen. We run a numerical simulation to show that a network consisting of a combination of coupled-SQUIDs can arrive at the solution. However, conditions of the network may be trapped in incorrect answers due to the existence of local minima on the energy function of the network. The Josephson voltage oscillation effect is effective for escaping from such conditions due to the existence of local minima. We investigate network dynamics and discuss the performance of the network on the basis of the parameters of the Nb integration circuit.",
"corpus_id": 33854527,
"score": 0,
"title": "Superconducting Neural Network for Solving a Combinatorial Optimization Problem"
} |
{
"abstract": "A proof-of-principle experiment to investigate the interaction of a proton beam, high magnetic field, and high-Z target is planned for testing at CERN in 2007. The experiment is a multi-laboratory, international endeavor underwritten by the Muon Collider Collaboration. A free-jet mercury target system that interacts with a high-power (1-MW) proton beam in a high magnetic field (15 T) is being designed. The mercury jet target is configured for insertion into the 15-cm-diameter bore of a high-field solenoid. The target features a hermetically sealed primary-containment volume that is enclosed in a secondary containment to ensure isolation of mercury vapors from the surrounding environment. The jet diameter is 1 cm, and the jet velocity will be up to 20 m/s. An optical diagnostic is incorporated into the target design to permit observation of the dispersal of the mercury as a result of interaction with a 24-GeV proton beam with up to 20 x 1012protons per pulse. The target system also includes titanium alloy beam windows for the primary and secondary containments.",
"corpus_id": 8266140,
"title": "A Free-Jet Mercury System for Use in a High-Power Target Experiment"
} | {
"abstract": "of the Dissertation Experimental Investigation of Magnetohydrodynamic Flow For An Intense Proton Target",
"corpus_id": 118744605,
"title": "Experimental investigation of magnetohydrodynamic flow for an intense proton target"
} | {
"abstract": "Abstract By moving the ISOLDE mass separators from the 600 MeV Synchrocyclotron (SC) to the 1 GeV Proton-Synchrotron-Booster (PS) [1] the instantaneous energy density of the proton beam went up by 3 orders of magnitude. The developments of the molten metal target units and the optimization of the PS proton beam to cope with the effects of the thermal shocks induced by the proton beam are described. The energy density of the PS proton beam was reduced by spatial defocusing and time staggered extraction of the four PS-accelerators. The release from lanthanum, lead and tin targets is discussed for different settings of the proton beam and compared to the release observed at ISOLDE-SC. The yields of Hg isotopes are presented.",
"corpus_id": 96639574,
"score": 2,
"title": "Release from ISOLDE molten metal targets under pulsed proton beam conditions"
} |
{
"abstract": "A method has been developed to assay collagenase in ovarian extracts in the presence of tissue inhibitors. Rat ovarian tissue is first extracted with Triton X-100 and then heated to 60 degrees C in 50 mM Tris buffer containing 100 mM CaCl2. This extract contains collagenase activity and putative inhibitor(s). The inhibitory activity is removed by reduction with dithiothreitol and alkylation with iodoacetamide. Collagenase is then activated with aminophenylmercuric acetate and assayed using 3H-acetylated collagen from which the telopeptides have been removed. Identification of this activity as collagenase was performed by using the metalloprotease inhibitors EDTA and o-phenanthroline and by demonstration of the typical collagen cleavage fragments on sodium dodecyl sulfate-gel electrophoresis. To investigate the changes in collagenase activity associated with ovulation, immature rats received 20 IU of pregnant mare's serum gonadotropin and 52 h later 10 IU of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). After hCG administration, ovaries were removed at intervals from 0 to 20 h. Collagenase activity rose from 4.9 +/- 1.4% digestion of the 3H-collagen at 0 time to a maximum of 24.7 +/- 1.5% digestion at 8 h after hCG and remained high at 12 h (time of ovulation) and up to 20 h (18.7 +/- 1.9% and 16.1 +/- 1.6% digestion, respectively). These findings support a role of collagenase in the rupture of the follicle and they suggest a further role for this enzyme in the events following ovulation.",
"corpus_id": 1800953,
"title": "The extraction of a tissue collagenase associated with ovulation in the rat."
} | {
"abstract": "Follicles were dissected from the ovaries of immature rats at intervals after subcutaneous injection of 20 IU of pregnant mare's serum gonadotropin. A surge of luteinizing hormone was observed at 54 h and ovulation occurred at 64-66 h. The follicular volume between 36 and 48 h, then doubled again shortly before ovulation. The collagen content of the follicles increased 3-fold from 35 to 56 h, but decreased significantly (25%) from 61 to 66 h. Follicle homogenates, activated with trypsin or aminophenylmercuric acetate, digested Type I collagen at 28 degrees C to produce typical of a true collagenase. Collagenolytic activity assayed against endogenous collagen at 37 degrees C did not change significantly between 38 and 66 h.",
"corpus_id": 36022779,
"title": "Collagen, collagenase and collagenolytic activity in rat Graafian follicles during follicular growth and ovulation."
} | {
"abstract": "The collagen molecule is a rigid rod 3000 A by 15A composed of three polypeptide chains each wound in a left-handed polyglycine type helix and wrapped about each other in ropelike fashion to form a right-handed superhelix (See review by Harrington and Von Hippel'). It has been known that thermal denaturation (for example, 45OC. for 10 minutes) or treatment with denaturing agents disrupts the collagen structure reducing the molecule to its randomized and separate components. The three chains are of about equal molecular weight (about 100,000), but one of them ( a 2 ) differs from the other two ( a l ) in amino acid As collagen matures, crosslinks form between two of three chains giving rise to two dimers 01-al, called Pl1, and a I a 2 , called PI2. There is also a small proportion of molecules ( y I l 2 ) in which all three chains are crosslinked and some even larger intermolecular aggregates. It has been possible to separate these components by carboxymethyl cellulose chromatography.4 In an effort to monitor the various fractions for homogeneity, we have employed polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis which was recently developed by Davis and Ornstein.\" This paper describes the use of this method for the analysis of collagen fractions.",
"corpus_id": 42059733,
"score": 2,
"title": "DISC ELECTROPHORESIS OF COLLAGEN COMPONENTS"
} |
{
"abstract": "Desertification in areas where traditional pastoral nomadism was common is a phenomenon of this century. Nomads possessed institutions and management practices that avoided excess concentrations of people and animals, rotated grazing pressure seasonally between major pasture zones, protected dry season resources that were critical to their survival, and limited access to pastoral resources. These systems of management and control have broken down and degradation of pastoral lands has been the result. The pressures promoting desertification include agricultural expansion into pastoral zones, the loss of critical dry season pasture, sedentarization of former nomads, the impacts of war and civil conflict, nationalization of pastoral resources, the collapse of traditional common property resource management systems, and social change and economic intensification. These processes have concentrated pastoral pressures into more limited spaces and increased the stress placed on natural resources to the point where land degradation takes place. These adverse changes can be avoided and desertification arrested if principles of proper management are applied. By planning holistically, using the ethnoscientific wisdom of nomadic pastoralists as a basis for development, protecting zones critical to the survival of pastoralists, retaining mobility and flexibility in contemporary pastoral systems, and strengthening common property systems developed by nomadic pastoralists, land degradation in dryland rangelands can be halted.",
"corpus_id": 153445920,
"title": "Nomadism and desertification in Africa and the Middle East"
} | {
"abstract": "Understanding the spatial dynamics of landscape use by free-ranging herbivores is integral for successful ecosystem management. We used binary logistic regression analyses to determine the relative importance of biotic, abiotic and human factors in influencing the distribution (presence ⁄absence) of wild grazers on two Maasai ranches in Kenya’s Amboseli-Tsavo ecosystem. Both ranches had low grass biomass and suffered from regular droughts. We found that grazers consistently located themselves where grass biomass was highest, usually irrespective of grass quality, suggesting that forage quantity may be the limiting factor where grass biomass is generally low. The availability of surface water had no significant effect on the likelihood of grazers being present, even in the dry season.",
"corpus_id": 83485434,
"title": "Factors affecting the distribution patterns of zebra and wildebeest in a resource-stressed environment"
} | {
"abstract": "From 1980–1985, the Turkana District of Kenya experienced both drought and above average rainfall. The effects of a 2-year drought on the livestock population of the nomadic pastoral Ngisonyoka are discussed. Detailed data on mortality rates and offtake are presented for the animals of four herd owners, and the recovery process is followed for the 5-year period for one herd owner. It is concluded that during the drought, 63% of the cattle, 45% of the camels, and 55% of the small stock left the sample herds. The livestock population of one herd had recovered to pre-drought levels 3 years after the drought.",
"corpus_id": 154360338,
"score": 2,
"title": "Drought and recovery: Livestock dynamics among the Ngisonyoka Turkana of Kenya"
} |
{
"abstract": "Introduction : Renal carcinoid tumor is an extremely rare neoplasia. It arises from neuroendocrine cells, which have never been identified within the normal renal parenquima. After diagnosis, which is usually histological and proceeds nephrectomy, it is therefore important to exclude a primary tumor located elsewhere. Somatostatin receptor scintigraphy is a fundamental test in identification of primary tumor/metastases. Presentation of Case : We present a 77 year old man with this rare tumor: a primary carcinoid renal tumor, diagnosed in Portugal. He was asymptomatic and staging revealed no metastases. A partial nephrectomy was performed. After 2 years of follow up there is no evidence of clinic or imagiologic recurrence. Conclusion : There are no neuroendocrine cells within renal parenquima. Thus primary renal carcinoid is still a mystery. Our case confirms the existence of this entity and allows us to know more about its natural history. It is important to disclose all cases of this rare condition, so we can better treat these patients in the future.",
"corpus_id": 1194364,
"title": "Renal Carcinoid Tumor - Primary or Metastatic? A Case Report"
} | {
"abstract": "Carcinoid tumors are low-grade malignant tumors that arise from neuroendocrine cells. Primary renal carcinoid is extremely rare. We present a case of 57-year-old male with primary renal carcinoid tumor. Presently, the patient is on regular follow up and is doing well.",
"corpus_id": 5159031,
"title": "Carcinoid tumor of the kidney: An unusual renal tumor"
} | {
"abstract": "Debates surrounding casino gaming development in the US often are based on the assumption that the opening of a casino is followed by an increase in crime in the host community and surrounding areas. This paper examined crime volume in Detroit, Michigan and neighboring communities before, during and after the three Detroit casinos opened. Findings indicated that total Index Crime offenses did not increase in Detroit. However, it appeared that the volume of certain types of crime slightly increased while others decreased. Based on the analysis, this paper concluded that there is no alarming indication to suggest that the volume of crime has increased when the casinos opened in the city. In addition, this paper offers strategies to overcome some of the problems that are associated with the use of crime data.",
"corpus_id": 11316652,
"score": 0,
"title": "An Assessment of Crime Volume Following Casino Gaming Development in the City of Detroit"
} |
{
"abstract": "Introduction This paper builds on previous work by Oliver, Dobele, Greber and Roberts (2004a, 2004b) that examined the cognitive difficulty of two streams of three courses in an IT degree: a programming stream and a data communications and networking (DCN) stream. Both this study and the earlier study use Bloom's taxonomy as a measure of the cognitive difficulty of a course (Bloom, 1956), which is summarized in Table 2. Its purpose is to provide a classification of the cognitive depth required to perform a given task. It is very widely known and has been used as a reference point in a number of publications in IT including the IS2002 curriculum guidelines (Gorgone, Davis, Valacich, Topi, Feinstein, & Longenecker, 2002) and in academic papers (Box, 2004; Burgess, 2005; Howard, Carver, & Lane, 1996; Lister, 2001; Lister & Leaney 2003; Reynolds & Fox, 1996; Sanders & Mueller, 2000; Scott, 2003). The application of Bloom's Taxonomy adopted in these studies is outlined in more detail in the next section. This study concerns the first year courses of an IT degree offered from our school. The presumption in our first study (Oliver et al., 2004a, 2004b), which we share with other writers as described in more detail subsequently, is that the Bloom rating of courses should progress from low ratings in the initial courses to higher levels in later year courses. Since this study is solely of first year courses, we expected that they would share similar Bloom ratings. As unfolded in our presentation of results later in the paper this expectation was not realized from our data. Possible reasons for why this was the case are explored at the end of the paper. The structure of the paper is as follows. Firstly, we classify and describe a number of prior studies in IT that use Bloom's taxonomy. We then describe how we analyse the data and compute the Bloom rating for a course. Following this we present some sample data from the courses analysed and describe how it was classified according to Bloom's taxonomy. We then present the results of our analysis and discuss their implications. Finally, we make some concluding remarks on the outcomes of the study. Applications of Bloom's Taxonomy As mentioned in the introduction, Bloom's taxonomy is used as a reference point in a number of studies of Information Technology (IT) education. Table 1 shows applications of Bloom's taxonomy extend over a broad range of educational contexts from setting assessments to curriculum guidelines. The Association of Information Systems curriculum guidelines (Gorgone et al., 2002), uses a modified form of the taxonomy to describe the depth of treatment required for different topics in a degree programme. They propose \"A topic may be covered at a low depth of knowledge level as part of an introductory course and in more depth (higher competency) in a subsequent course\" (Gorgone et al., 2002). Reynolds and Fox, (1996) use Bloom's Taxonomy to specify the cognitive difficulty of different educational objectives in subject areas within the ACM Curriculum '91 guidelines. Their intent is to highlight the differing cognitive demands of different topics to ensure that those with higher cognitive demands are given adequate exposure in the curriculum, as they hold the belief that \"objectives tend to concentrate at the lowest levels of mastery because they are the easiest ones to teach and test.\" Sanders and Mueller (2000) describe a curriculum design exercise for an entire degree based upon the principles of Bloom's taxonomy. Their proposal is consistent with that of Gorgone et al.(2002) in that they argue that courses in the early years of the programme should concentrate on achieving objectives set at the lower end of Bloom's taxonomy, whereas those in the final years should be oriented towards skills development at the upper end of the scale. This assumption underpins the work we have done. In Oliver et al. …",
"corpus_id": 2269831,
"title": "First Year Courses in IT: A Bloom Rating"
} | {
"abstract": "This paper presents PAT (Programming Adaptive Testing), a Web-based adaptive testing system for assessing students’ programming knowledge. PAT was used in two high school programming classes by 73 students. The question bank of PAT consists of 443 questions. A question is classified in one out of three difficulty levels. In PAT the levels of difficulties are adapted to Bloom’s taxonomy lower levels and students are examined in their cognitive domain. This means that PAT has been designed according to pedagogical theories in order to be appropriate for the needs of the course “Application Development in a Programming Environment”. If a student answers a question correctly a harder question is presented, otherwise an easier one. Easy questions examine the student’s knowledge, while difficult questions examine the student’s skills to apply prior knowledge to new problems. A student answers a personalized test consisting of 30 questions. PAT classifies a student in one out of three programming skills’ levels. It can predict the corresponding classification of students in Greek National Exams. Furthermore, it can be helpful to both students and teachers. A student could discover his/her programming shortcomings. Similarly, a teacher could objectively assess his/her students as well discover the subjects that need to be repeated.",
"corpus_id": 51856719,
"title": "Adaptive assessment in the class of programming"
} | {
"abstract": "Background Although previous research has demonstrated high rates of inappropriate diagnostic imaging, the potential influence of several physician-level characteristics is not well established. Objective To examine the influence of three types of physician characteristics on inappropriate imaging: experience, specialty training, and self-referral. Design A retrospective analysis of over 70,000 MRI claims submitted for commercially insured individuals. Physician characteristics were identified through a combination of administrative records and primary data collection. Multi-level modeling was used to assess relationships between physician characteristics and inappropriate MRIs. Setting Massachusetts Participants Commercially insured individuals who received an MRI between 2010 and 2013 for one of three conditions: low back pain, knee pain, and shoulder pain. Measurements Guidelines from the American College of Radiology were used to classify MRI referrals as appropriate/inappropriate. Experience was measured from the date of medical school graduation. Specialty training comprised three principal groups: general internal medicine, family medicine, and orthopedics. Two forms of self-referral were examined: (a) the same physician who ordered the procedure also performed it, and (b) the physicians who ordered and performed the procedure were members of the same group practice and the procedure was performed outside the hospital setting. Results Approximately 23% of claims were classified as inappropriate. Physicians with 10 or less years of experience had significantly higher odds of ordering inappropriate MRIs. Primary care physicians were almost twice as likely to order an inappropriate MRI as orthopedists. Self-referral was not associated with higher rates of inappropriate MRIs. Limitations Classification of MRIs was conducted with claims data. Not all self-referred MRIs could be detected. Conclusions Inappropriate imaging continues to be a driver of wasteful health care spending. Both physician experience and specialty training were highly associated with inappropriate imaging.",
"corpus_id": 210865897,
"score": 0,
"title": "Effects of Physician Experience, Specialty Training, and Self-referral on Inappropriate Diagnostic Imaging"
} |
{
"abstract": "How best to improve climate mitigation measures while we wait for an international consensus on climate policy? This is a practical problem raising important normative issues. The problem is the urgent need for better climate mitigation measures that is time-sensitive: conditions can only deteriorate over time rendering the problem and the relevant stakes even more pressing. The normative issues raised include whether a second-best solution is compelling given these non-ideal conditions and what form such a solution ought to take. This article responds to issues raised in Rolf H. Weber’s insightful piece in this special issue, such as the balancing of mitigation policies and securing market competitiveness leading to Weber’s defence of border tax adjustment. This article critically examines Weber’s position on competitiveness and its connection to border tax adjustment as a second-best option from a justice-based perspective. It is argued that strategies based around taxation—such as the Global Resources Dividend, the polluter pays principle and border tax adjustment—are problematic and unconvincing alternatives.",
"corpus_id": 153204195,
"title": "Climate change justice through taxation?"
} | {
"abstract": "Climate change is the biggest challenge for humanity and international climate negotiation have been put in place to deal with the challenge. However, the international climate negotiations have not been able to achieve the global binding climate agreement to limit the warming under 2 C during this century. Previously the literature has covered the impacts, costs, benefits and the efficiency in terms of greenhouse gas emission reduction, sustainable development, climate justice and technology transfer. However less focus has been put on the institutional aspect of international climate negotiations. The aim of the paper is to describe the outcome of the international climate negotiations by institutional analysis and development framework. We conducted a literature review of the international climate negotiations including unilateralism, multilateralism, minilateralism and carbon markets. The results assist to clarify the role of climate governance approaches in tackling climate change.",
"corpus_id": 56231359,
"title": "Institutional Analysis of the Global Climate Change Regime: Literature Review of International Climate Negotiations"
} | {
"abstract": "This paper will examine the volatility of markets returns, dynamic conditional covariance and dynamic conditional correlation between the equity markets of developed countries (US and UK) and the equity markets of developing countries (Kuwait and United Arab Emirates). A multivariate generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (MGARCH) model will be used; Diagonal VEC (DVEC) - MGARCH to identify the source and magnitude of volatility. The results will show the relation between the global mature market of USA and the UK on the emerging markets of Kuwait (K) and UAE.",
"corpus_id": 26407407,
"score": 1,
"title": "The Volatility of Market Returns: A Comparative Study of Emerging versus Mature Markets"
} |
{
"abstract": "This paper presents novel integration options for passive inductor which include: motor-shaped rotational and motor-shaped rotor-less inductor for high speed motor drive system. The novel options have been designed and their performance is compared with the conventional EE core inductor using finite element analysis. It is observed that there is a significant reduction in total losses at fundamental frequency along with substantial reduction in the AC copper loss at 10, 15 and 20 kHz switching frequencies, when the proposed integrated options are utilized. For the motor-shaped rotational inductor, the total losses at fundamental frequency and AC copper loss at different switching frequencies are reduced by 26.1% and 73.8% (at different switching frequencies) respectively. There is a reduction in overall volume by 3.6%, but this comes with 11.7% increase in weight. For the motor-shaped rotor-less inductor, the total losses at fundamental frequency and AC copper loss at different switching frequencies are reduced by 10.4% and 73.8% (at different switching frequencies) respectively. There is a reduction in overall volume by 3.6% but this comes with 6.1% increase in weight. The proposed designs can share the cooling system of the motor thus, eliminating the requirement of separate cooling system.",
"corpus_id": 3598049,
"title": "Novel integrative options for passive filter inductor in high speed AC drives"
} | {
"abstract": "The structural and functional integration of passive components, power electronic converters, heat sinks and mechanical sub-systems is required to make an efficient and power dense electric motor-drive system which is essential for traction, aerospace and marine applications. The Integrated Motor Drives (IMD) has been at focal point with growing interest in power electronics research industry over past few years. Passive components such as filter inductors and capacitors entail significant amount of space in aerospace and automotive drive systems and have added penalties of high losses and weight. The integration of passive components in such systems offer many benefits such as power dense design, reduction in cost, mass, size and eases the manufacturing processes. This paper continues with reviewing available capacitor technologies and their thermal capabilities, selection and sizing of capacitors for drives, a brief overview of filter inductor integration already designed and presents some potential future approaches on integrating the output filter capacitor in the same PMSM drive.",
"corpus_id": 26073580,
"title": "Review on present and future integration techniques for capacitors in motor drives"
} | {
"abstract": "Some trends for power electronic converters are evaluated, with emphasis on component and subcircuit technology, power converter technology, and integrated converter technology. Possible future trends are also considered. It is noted that important advances might come from the use and further development of nonlinear electromagnetic materials that have not been customary to power electronics in the past as well as from novel packaging and integration concepts.<<ETX>>",
"corpus_id": 58738706,
"score": 2,
"title": "Some present and future trends in power electronic converters"
} |
{
"abstract": "Combination antiviral therapy involving sofosbuvir (SOF) and simeprevir (SIM) is a treatment option in patients with genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C; however, the safety of this regimen in patients with decompensated cirrhosis is not established. Data from a combined treatment cohort of 2 large hepatology referral centers were evaluated to assess for safety and efficacy of SIM plus SOF with or without ribavirin (RBV) in patients with Child B or C cirrhosis. All (n = 42) patients included in the analysis had Child B (n = 35) or C (n = 7) cirrhosis and received 400 mg daily of SOF plus 150 mg daily of SIM, with (n = 7) or without (n = 35) RBV, for 12 weeks. Of the 42 patients in this cohort, 31 (74%) were male, 22 (52%) had failed prior treatments, and 28 (67%) were genotype 1a. Prior decompensating events included encephalopathy (57%), fluid overload (88%), or variceal hemorrhage (24%). Median Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease score was 12 (range, 6‐25). Treatment was well tolerated overall with more than one‐half (57%) reporting no adverse events. In those reporting adverse events, the most common were fatigue (n = 6), insomnia (n = 4), headache (n = 5), nausea (n = 4), and grade 1 rash (n = 1). One patient developed chemical pancreatitis that did not require treatment discontinuation. Three of 7 patients who received RBV developed anemia, with 2 requiring blood transfusions and 1 requiring a dose reduction. No episodes of decompensation requiring hospitalization or deaths occurred on treatment. Of 42 patients, 38 (90%) patients had negative viral load at end of treatment (EOT), and 31 of 42 patients (74%) achieved sustained virological response 12 weeks after EOT; 10 of 10 patients (100%) with HCV genotype 1b achieved sustained virological response for 12 weeks (SVR12). In conclusion, SOF plus SIM was very well tolerated in patients with advanced Child B/C decompensated cirrhosis. Overall, 74% of patients achieved SVR12; 100% of patients with genotype 1b decompensated cirrhosis achieved SVR12. Liver Transpl 22:281‐286, 2016. © 2015 AASLD.",
"corpus_id": 3136747,
"title": "Safety and efficacy of simeprevir plus sofosbuvir with or without ribavirin in patients with decompensated genotype 1 hepatitis C cirrhosis"
} | {
"abstract": "BackgroundHyperbilirubinemia is a common side effect of protease inhibitors used to treat chronic hepatitis C (HCV), and most patients do not experience without clinically overt hepatotoxicity. The safety of second-wave protease inhibitors, including simeprevir, has not been well studied in patients with advanced cirrhosis.Materials & MethodsWe report two cases of suspected drug-induced liver injury leading to hepatic decompensation in patients with advanced HCV cirrhosis treated with the combination of simeprevir and sofosbuvir on a compassionate basis. Both patients developed marked hyperbilirubinemia out of proportion to their aminotransferases, despite clearance of hepatitis C RNA. RUCAM scoring was probable and possible, respectively. While other factors may have contributed to the liver injury, including infection and concurrent administration of other medications, we believe that the potentially deleterious hepatic effects of simeprevir on transporters or other key functional components were the main reason for their decompensation.ConclusionsProtease inhibitors should be used with caution, if at all, in patients with cirrhosis, especially in those with the most advanced disease. We await newer, safer, direct-acting antiviral therapies for such patients, especially those on our transplant list.",
"corpus_id": 3229414,
"title": "Hepatic Decompensation Likely Attributable to Simeprevir in Patients with Advanced Cirrhosis"
} | {
"abstract": "Current knowledge suggests that both HIV and antiretroviral drugs are likely to contribute to bone disorders in patients with HIV infection. This article includes a review and update on the part played by the virus and the drugs in the low bone mineral density of HIV-infected patients, and a discussion about their implications in clinical practice. HIV viral proteins may affect osteoblast and osteoclast function, and many clinical studies have shown that during antiretroviral therapy, especially at the beginning, there is an accelerated bone mineral loss associated with bone resorption markers, which may be of differing intensity depending on the HIV drugs used. Vitamin D insufficiency/deficiency is highly prevalent and in some investigations it has been associated with antiretroviral therapy, more often with regimens based on efavirenz. Recent data suggest that immune reconstitution may play a major role in early antiretroviral therapy-related bone loss. Given the complex interaction between HIV and drugs in causing low bone mineral density, optimization of antiretroviral therapy and preemptive strategies aimed to prevent bone loss during therapy may be of paramount importance.",
"corpus_id": 11902792,
"score": 2,
"title": "The role of HIV and antiretroviral therapy in bone disease."
} |
{
"abstract": "BACKGROUND\nSonographic fetal weight estimation is an important component of antenatal care.\n\n\nAIM\nTo sonographically estimate fetal weight at term and to compare estimated with actual birth weights to determine the validity of estimated fetal weights.\n\n\nSUBJECTS AND METHODS\nIn the prospective study, a convenience sample of 282 women was recruited. Ethical approval and informed consent of patients were obtained. An experienced sonographer estimated fetal weights by measuring BPD, HC, AC and FL using a scanner with Hadlock 3 weight estimation model. Actual birth weights were measured with a Crown weighing scale by a midwife. Data was analyzed with SPSS software version 17.0 while descriptive and inferential statistics were used to interpret results. Results were tested at error level set at p≤ 0.05.\n\n\nRESULTS\nMean estimated and actual birth weights were 3378±40g and 3393±60g respectively. Difference between the two means was not significant. Eleven percent of fetuses were sonographically estimated to be microsomic while 14.5% were microsomic at birth; 12.1% were sonographically estimated to be macrosomic but 15.2% were macrosomic at birth. Most macrosomic fetuses were delivered through cesarean section(CS) and fetal weights increased with maternal age and parity.\n\n\nCONCLUSION\nSonographically estimated fetal weight using Hadlock 3 weight estimation model without validation correlated positively with actual birth weight in a Nigerian population.",
"corpus_id": 1701221,
"title": "Correlation of ultrasonographic estimated fetal weight with actual birth weight in a tertiary hospital in Lagos, Nigeria."
} | {
"abstract": "Background: High rate of perinatal mortality is still a major cause for concern in developing countries such as Nigeria. A large portion of this problem is related to birth-weight which remains the single most important parameter that determines neonatal survival. A simple and accurate method of estimating intrauterine fetal weight that can be easily applied to all pregnancies is thus an important means of reducing perinatal mortality and morbidity. Objective: To determine the correlation between ultrasound estimated fetal weight in term pregnancy and actual birth weight amongst pregnant women in Jos, North-Central Nigeria Methods: This research was a prospective cross-sectional hospital based study correlating sonographic estimated fetal weight at term with actual birth weight in Jos, North-Central Nigeria. Ultrasound estimated fetal weight was calculated using a combination of the biparietal diameter (BPD), abdominal circumference (AC), and femoral length (FL) usingHadlock formula, inbuilt in ALOKA SSD-4000 ultrasound machine fitted with 3.5MHz curvilinear transducer. Results: A total of 400 women were recruited for the study. The mean maternal age was 29.35 years, and the mean gestational age at delivery was 38 weeks and 6 days. The mean actual birth weight was 3209.31 ± 497.52g while the mean ultrasound estimated fetal weight was 3177.85 ± 533.01g.There was an overall strong correlation between ultrasound estimated fetal weight and actual birth weight (r=0.835) and the difference was not statistically significant (p>0.001.). Also, 75% of the estimates were within 10% of the actual birth weight. Conclusion: Ultrasound estimated fetal weight correlated strongly with actual birth weight especially for babies with normal birth weight. However, for babies at the extremes of birth weight, ultrasound estimated fetal weight would need to be correlated with physical examination (including clinical estimation) to avoid unnecessary obstetric intervention. Keywords: Correlation, ultrasound, fetal weight, actual weight, term pregnancy",
"corpus_id": 59370570,
"title": "Correlation between ultrasound estimated fetal weight in term pregnancy and actual birth weight amongst pregnant women in Jos"
} | {
"abstract": "Abstract InGaAs/AlGaAs/GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (P-HEMT) structures were grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) on (3 1 1)A GaAs substrates with different well widths, and studied by photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy as a function of temperature and excitation density. The PL spectra are dominated by one or two spectral bands, corresponding, respectively, to one or two populated electron sub-bands in the InGaAs quantum well. An enhancement of PL intensity at the Fermi level energy ( E F ) in the high-energy tail of the PL peak is clearly observed and associated with the Fermi edge singularity (FES). This is practically detected at the same energy for all samples, in contrast with energy transitions in the InGaAs channel, which are shifted to lower energy with increasing channel thickness. PL spectra at low temperature and low excitation density are used to optically determine the density of the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in the InGaAs channel for different thicknesses. The results show an enhancement of the 2DEG density when the well width increases, in good agreement with our previous theoretical study.",
"corpus_id": 98238550,
"score": 0,
"title": "Fermi edge singularity evidence from photoluminescence spectroscopy of AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs pseudomorphic HEMTs grown on (3 1 1)A GaAs substrates"
} |
{
"abstract": "Pathological findings are described in four cases of a new aminoaciduria in which homocystine is excreted in the urine. All the patients were mentally retarded children. Three of them presented diagnostic features of Marfan's syndrome. Necropsy on one case and biopsy findings in the others are described. Fatty change occurs in the liver. The most striking lesions are vascular. Metachromatic medial degeneration of the aorta and of the elastic arteries in the necropsied case are considered in relation to Marfan's syndrome. Other changes, particularly thrombosis which is prevalent in homocystinuria, suggest the possibility of a platelet defect. The findings are discussed in respect of an upset in the metabolism of sulphur-containing amino-acids and with particular reference to Marfan's syndrome.",
"corpus_id": 2501950,
"title": "Pathological findings in homocystinuria"
} | {
"abstract": "It is now becoming generally noted that many diseases of hitherto unknown aetiology are due to inborn errors of metabolism in the sense in which Garrod (1923) used this term. Although these diseases cover the whole of medicine it has been particularly gratifying to note that mental disease, especially mental deficiency which currently is responsible for one of our main medical problems, has been especially involved in these recent discoveries. In particular, a number of inborn errors of metabolism causing mental disease have been described recently in which the disorder concerned the metabolism of one or more of the amino acids. Of these, in addition to phenylketonuria which was described by Folling in 1934, we now have Haitnup disease (Baron, Dent, Harris, Hart and Jepson, 1956), the occulo-cerebro-renal syndrome (Lowe, Terrey and MacLachlan, 1952; Denys, Corbeel, Eggermont and Malbrain, 1958), cystathioninuria (Harris, Penrose and Thomas, 1959), argininosuccinic aciduria (Allan, Cusworth, Dent and Wilson, 1958; Dent, 1959), maple syrup urine disease (Dancis, Levitz and Westall, 1960; Dent and Westall, 1961), hyperglycinaemia (Childs, Nyhan, Borden, Bard and Cooke, 1961), familial hyperprolinaemia (Schafer, Scriver and Efron, 1962) and citrullinuria (McMurray, Mohyuddin, Rossiter, Rathbun, Valentine, Koegler and Zarfas, 1962). Another gross disorder of amino acid metabolism involving histidine (Ghadimi, Partington and Hunter, 1961; Auerbach, Di George, Baldridge, Tourtellotte and Brigham, 1962) is also described but without as yet very tangible clinical consequences, two of the three affected children showing only a mild speech defect. It does not seem too much to",
"corpus_id": 27075184,
"title": "Homocystinuria: A new inborn error of Metabolism associated with Mental Deficiency"
} | {
"abstract": "Summary 1. Crystals which were isolated from sweet peas by a method which had previously yielded a toxic product were found to have the same infrared absorption spectrum as synthetic β-aminopropionitrile sulfate. 2. Synthetic β-aminopropionitrile and β-mercaptoethylamine, when fed to rats as their hydrochlorides, both produced skeletal changes similar to those caused by sweet peas. The mercaptoethylamine was the less effective in producing skeletal changes, although preliminary experiments indicate that it is at least as toxic as aminopropionitrile when judged on the basis of lethality. 3. Some of the implications of these findings are discussed.",
"corpus_id": 44515526,
"score": 2,
"title": "Production of Experimental Lathyrism in the Rat by Two Different Beta-substituted Ethylamines"
} |
{
"abstract": "Transcription is highly regulated both by protein factors and by specific RNA or DNA sequence elements. Central to this regulation is the ability of RNA polymerase (RNAP) to adopt multiple conformational states during elongation. This review focuses on the mechanism of transcription elongation and the role of different conformational states in the regulation of elongation and termination. The discussion centers primarily on data from structural and functional studies on Escherichia coli RNAP. To introduce the players, a brief introduction to the general mechanism of elongation, the regulatory proteins, and the conformational states is provided. The role of each of the conformational states in elongation is then discussed in detail. Finally, an integrated mechanism of elongation is presented, bringing together the panoply of experiments.",
"corpus_id": 2378110,
"title": "The many conformational states of RNA polymerase elongation complexes and their roles in the regulation of transcription."
} | {
"abstract": "The Escherichia coli GreA and GreB proteins induce cleavage of 3' fragments from nascent transcripts in halted transcription complexes. We have overproduced and purified the GreA protein and tested how it affects initiation, pausing, and termination by E. coli RNA polymerase. Recombinant GreA induced cleavage of two to three nucleotide fragments in two promoter-proximal complexes, whereas an apparently endogenous cleavage removed a single larger fragment. Both types of cleavage stopped once the transcript was shortened to approximately 10 nucleotides. However, during initiation, GreA induced cleavage of transcripts as short as four nucleotides, inhibiting their release as abortive products and stimulating both productive initiation and \"primer-shifting\" at a weak promoter. GreA induced repetitive cleavage over a long distance in complexes containing a long G-less nascent transcript. However, reverse translocation was inhibited in transcription complexes that contained a G-rich, C-less nascent transcript. Substituting IMP for GMP in the transcript relieved inhibition. Finally, GreA had little effect on transcription through the his and trp leader pause sites or on termination at nine different p-independent terminators. We propose that transcript cleavage and reverse translocation are controlled in part by backsliding of the nascent transcript through an RNA-binding site.",
"corpus_id": 2271844,
"title": "GreA-induced transcript cleavage in transcription complexes containing Escherichia coli RNA polymerase is controlled by multiple factors, including nascent transcript location and structure."
} | {
"abstract": "CONSIDERABLE doubt exists as to whether silk fibroin (Bombyx mori) contains a small amount of cystine or whether this amino-acid is entirely absent. Apart from any biological significance, even a very small quantity of cystine, depending on its mode of incorporation, could have a considerable influence on the molecular weight of fibroin.",
"corpus_id": 4162503,
"score": 1,
"title": "Isolation of a Cystine Derivative from Silk"
} |
{
"abstract": "A broadband design of substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) to stripline interconnects is presented for the first time. The transition shows a wideband performance and, contrary to microstrip and coplanar waveguide circuitry, interconnects two planar transmission-line media that are both capable of medium-level power handling capabilities. Over a bandwidth of 18 GHz to 28 GHz (43.4 percent), the single interconnect shows a worst-case return loss of 24 dB and maximum insertion losses of 0.44 dB. For a back-to-back connection, the return loss reduces to 19 dB and insertion loss increases to 0.87 dB. All dimensional parameters are specified, and the design is validated by two commercially available field-solver packages. Moreover, field plots are presented that highlight the step-by-step mode conversion from SIW to stripline.",
"corpus_id": 16012592,
"title": "Broadband design of substrate integrated waveguide to stripline interconnect"
} | {
"abstract": "This paper presents a novel transition between a microstrip line and a substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) in a multilayer substrate design environment. In order to achieve a low-loss broadband response, the transition, consisting of a tapered or multisectional ridged SIW and a tapered microstrip line, is modeled and designed by simultaneously considering both impedance matching and field matching. Characteristic impedance and guided wavelength calculated by using closed-form expressions based on a transverse resonant method are used to develop our design procedure. Effective broad bandwidth is obtained in two examples developed in this study, which are validated with simulated and measured results. This transition provides a simple way to design substrate integrated circuits with buried microstrip circuits in the multilayer substrate in which any ratio of impedance transform can be anticipated.",
"corpus_id": 10128073,
"title": "Substrate Integrated Waveguide-to-Microstrip Transition in Multilayer Substrate"
} | {
"abstract": "This paper describes a new radar sensor architecture comprising an array of transceiver modules. Target applications of the sensor are automotive driver assistance systems. In conjunction with a monolithic integration of each transceiver, the concept offers the possibility for a cost-effective realization of digital-beamforming radar sensors at millimeter-wave frequencies. A modulation sequence is investigated based on simultaneously transmitted frequency-modulated continuous-wave signals, which are separated by frequency multiplexing. Appropriate signal processing for the estimation of range, speed, and azimuth angle in multiple object situations is presented. Experimental results with an eight-channel radar sensor in the 76-77-GHz frequency band are presented, which demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed architecture and show the performance of the modulation sequence and signal processing.",
"corpus_id": 18394822,
"score": -1,
"title": "Millimeter-Wave-Radar Sensor Based on a Transceiver Array for Automotive Applications"
} |
{
"abstract": "The present experiments4 were undertaken to investigate the effects of environmental temperatures on growth, abdominal fat content, rate of muscle protein turnover, and heat production in tube-fed intact male broiler chickens. Plasma concentrations of thyroxine (T4), triiodothyronine (T3), and corticosterone (CTC) were also examined. Chicks (15d old) were kept at different environmental temperatures (16,19,22,25,28,31, and 34°) and given the experimental diet (200g crude protein/kg, 13·;57M/kg metabolizable energy) by tube three times daily throughout the 12d experimental period. In the hot conditions, except for 34°, body-weight gain was significantly higher than in the cold conditions. Thus, food conversion ratios (food: gain ratios) were lower when the birds were exposed to the hot conditions other than 34°. Likewise, abdominal fat content was significantly increased, and heat production was lower in the groups kept under the hot conditions other than 34°. The rate of skeletal muscle protein turnover and plasma concentration of CTC were decreased when the birds were exposed to hot conditions other than 34°. suggesting a role of CTC in the regulation of muscle protein turnover. Plasma concentrations of T4 and T3 were significantly decreased as environmental temperature increased. These results clearly show that plasma concentrations of thyroid hormones and CTC are associated with accelerated muscle protein turnover and heat production.",
"corpus_id": 3474312,
"title": "Effect of environmental temperature on muscle protein turnover and heat production in tube-fed broiler chickens"
} | {
"abstract": "Experiments were conducted to compare the effects of an intermittent lighting (IL) schedule with repeated cycles of 1 h light and 2 h darkness with a continuous lighting (CL) schedule on the performance, ME intake, and heat production of male broiler chickens. Body weight gain and feed intake were temporarily reduced after the changing from CL to IL; however, they were significantly higher in IL vs CL chickens during the subsequent period of 3 to 6 wk of age. The IL chickens exhibited a higher ME intake at 6 and 8 wk of age than did CL chickens. Total heat production in IL chickens was higher than for CL chickens, although heat production during the dark period was less than that during the light period for IL chickens. The higher feed intake observed in IL chickens appears to explain the superior body weight gain in IL broilers in simple terms.",
"corpus_id": 3657371,
"title": "The effect of intermittent lighting on metabolizable energy intake and heat production of male broilers."
} | {
"abstract": "Hypocotyl derived protoplasts of B. juncea cv. RLM-198 were fused with mesophyll protoplasts of B. spinescens using polyethylene glycol to produce interspecific hybrids. Fusion products could be microscopically identified by characteristics of the protoplasts of both parents in the hybrid cells; they are colourless and vacuolated like the hypocotyl protoplasts and possess chloroplasts of the mesophyll protoplasts. The heterokaryotic fusion frequency was around 5%. However, the frequency of calli regenerating hybrid shoots was more than 10% of the regenerating calli. Putative somatic hybrids had morphological features characteristic of both the parents. Twelve plants analysed cytologically, possessed 52 chromosomes (26II) at meiosis representing the complete genomes of B. juncea (18II) and B. spinescens (8II). For esterase isozymes, the hybrids had bands of Doth the parents. Hybrid nature of some of the plants was confirmed by their close resemblance to B. juncea, chromosome number and isozyme bands of B. spinescens as in Rsp-19. Somatic hybrids had rudimentary, non-dehiscent anthers and completely sterile pollen. However, on back crossing with B. juncea, 10 out of 12 plants produced seeds and about 100 plants were realized.",
"corpus_id": 25194672,
"score": 1,
"title": "Interspecific hybridization between Brassica juncea and B. spinescens through protoplast fusion"
} |
{
"abstract": "Novel strategies that target the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) have led to the clinical development of monoclonal antibodies, which treat metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) but only subgroups of patients with increased wild type KRAS and EGFR gene copy, respond to these agents. Furthermore, resistance to EGFR blockade inevitably occurred, making future therapy difficult. Novel bio-imaging (BOI) methods may assist in quantization of EGFR in mCRC tissue thus complementing the immunohistochemistry methodology, in guiding the future treatment of these patients. The aim of the present study was to explore the usefulness of near infrared-labeled EGF (EGF-NIR) for bio-imaging of CRC using in vitro and in vivo orthotopic tumor CRC models and ex vivo human CRC tissues. We describe the preparation and characterization of EGF-NIR and investigate binding, using BOI of a panel of CRC cell culture models resembling heterogeneity of human CRC tissues. EGF-NIR was specifically and selectively bound by EGFR expressing CRC cells, the intensity of EGF-NIR signal to background ratio (SBR) reflected EGFR levels, dose-response and time course imaging experiments provided optimal conditions for quantization of EGFR levels by BOI. EGF-NIR imaging of mice with HT-29 orthotopic CRC tumor indicated that EGF-NIR is more slowly cleared from the tumor and the highest SBR between tumor and normal adjacent tissue was achieved two days post-injection. Furthermore, images of dissected tissues demonstrated accumulation of EGF-NIR in the tumor and liver. EGF-NIR specifically and strongly labeled EGFR positive human CRC tissues while adjacent CRC tissue and EGFR negative tissues expressed weak NIR signals. This study emphasizes the use of EGF-NIR for preclinical studies. Combined with other methods, EGF-NIR could provide an additional bio-imaging specific tool in the standardization of measurements of EGFR expression in CRC tissues.",
"corpus_id": 1750901,
"title": "Bio-Imaging of Colorectal Cancer Models Using Near Infrared Labeled Epidermal Growth Factor"
} | {
"abstract": "We have developed infrared fluorescence endoscope (IRFE) and ICG-derivative as infrared fluorescence labeling materials. Specific antibodies tagged with ICG-derivative with the reinforcement agent can label cancer cells and can generate a strong enough fluorescent signal to detect small cancers when examined with an IRFE.",
"corpus_id": 28260243,
"title": "Principle and clinical usefulness of the infrared fluorescence endoscopy"
} | {
"abstract": "The evolution of metastatic colorectal cancer in patients who have had surgical treatment for a primary lesion was studied in relation the progressive changes in the blood levels of carcinembryonic antigen (CEA), to gamma glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) and routine liver function tests (LFTs). Involvement of the liver could ofter be reliably predicted many weeks in advance of clinical diagnosis while metastases to other sites were less likely to be detected early by this test. The association of the extent of disease with the patterns of biochemical changes is discussed with reference to several illustrative examples.",
"corpus_id": 5930603,
"score": 2,
"title": "The contribution of serum enzymes and carcinoembryonic antigen to the early diagnosis of metastatic colorectal cancer."
} |
{
"abstract": "BACKGROUND\nOccipital encephalocoele is the most common cranial dysraphism in the western hemisphere and is often complicated by hydrocephalus. Management of hydrocephalus and reducing the CSF pressure is crucial in preventing dehiscence at the site of the encephalocoele repair.\n\n\nMETHODS\nTwo female patients had presented with occipital encephalocoeles. The first patient (aged 42 days) had undergone repair of the occipital encephalocoele and then developed hydrocephalus with recurrence of the encephalocoele. The second patient (aged 12 months) had hydrocephalus associated with an occipital encephalocoele at initial presentation.Both the patients underwent endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV) through a right frontal burr hole. In the first patient, ETV was performed after shunt dysfunction at the age of 9 months. Because she presented with recurrence of the encephalocoele 15 months later, a repeat endoscopic third ventriculostomy was performed. She required a ventriculoperitoneal shunt during the same admission because of the early failure of the ventriculostomy. In the second patient, it was performed before the encephalocoele repair, both ETV and the repair being conducted under the same anesthesia. ETV was performed using a rigid scope and the perforation in the third ventricular floor was enlarged using a No. 4 Fogarty catheter.\n\n\nRESULTS\nThe first patient had no recurrence of encephalocoele at follow-up of 10 months but she presented with recurrence of the occipital encephalocoele after 15 months. The second patient had no evidence of recurrence at follow-up after 16 months. The lateral and third ventricular volumes had decreased in both the patients at initial follow-up.\n\n\nCONCLUSION\nETV can be an effective treatment option for encephalocoele-associated hydrocephalus, even in children under the age of 1 year. It may obviate the need for placement of CSF shunts that have a risk of infection and dysfunction. However, delayed failure of ETV may occur as seen in our first patient, indicating the need for careful and long-term follow-up.",
"corpus_id": 2383185,
"title": "Management of hydrocephalus associated with occipital encephalocoele using endoscopic third ventriculostomy: report of two cases."
} | {
"abstract": "Background/Aims: Cephaloceles are common malformations of the central nervous system. However, the great majority of clinical experiences in large occipitocervical cephaloceles have not been reported previously. The purpose of this report is to investigate the pathogenetic factors involved in the development of cranial dysraphism and to analyze the clinical and pathological factors that influence the outcome in patients. Methods: Three hundred and twenty infants with craniospinal dysraphism and 12 with large occipitocervical cephaloceles were admitted to our institution in a 10-year interval between 1995 and 2005. Infants with cephaloceles, including newborns and 5 within the first year of life, were all operated by two authors in our institution, and they were analyzed retrospectively. Results: The sex predilection was limited to occipitocervical cephaloceles, where 8 of the 12 cases were females. Hydrocephalus was present in 25% of the patients at the time of diagnosis. Clinical presentation was most often consistent with hydrocephalus, focal neurological findings being a less prominent feature. Associated congenital anomalies were present in 50% of the children. Contemporary neuroimaging techniques including computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging facilitated the diagnosis. Patients were initially managed by posterior fossa or cervical region exploration, followed by sac excision. Three cases died in the early postoperative period, and the surgical mortality in this series was 25%. They were the ones with the largest encephaloceles and microcephaly. The mean follow-up time was 3.4 years. The overall mortality rate for the whole series was 33.3% (4/12). The size of the cephaloceles and the presence or absence of neural tissue in the sac largely determines the outcome for patients with occipitocervical cephaloceles. Conclusion: Infants with lesions greater than 50 mm in diameter, containing a significant amount of neural tissue, have an extremely poor prognosis, especially if associated with microcephaly.",
"corpus_id": 6347943,
"title": "Diagnosis and Management of Large Occipitocervical Cephaloceles: A 10-Year Experience"
} | {
"abstract": "Abstract It is argued in this paper that beneath the superficial analysis of Japanese 'religions' such as Buddhism, Shinto, Confucianism and the New Religions, there is one dominant ideological complex which, following some Japanese scholars, can conveniently be dubbed 'The Japanese Religion' or Nihonkyo. This Japanese religion is a ritual order based on the hierarchical concept of 'ie' and its variations such as 'kigyoushugi' at the level of the company and 'katei' at the domestic level. This ritual order pervades all major institutions in Japan and the main mechanism for its reproduction is the school system. In analysing the latter a distinction between training and education is adopted, and it is argued that the concept of liberal education, which is based on the concept of the autonomous rational and moral individual, is essentially missing from the Japanese school system which is better described as a system of training. It is suggested further that training can be linked conceptually with ritual: training is a form of ritualized behaviour though with a heavily pragmatic content. It is hoped that the approach to Japanese religion which is argued here will prove more fruitful in the Religious Studies context than one which begins with an explicit or implicit concept of religion centred on beliefs about salvation, the supernatural and life after death.",
"corpus_id": 143127794,
"score": 1,
"title": "Japanese Religion as Ritual Order"
} |
{
"abstract": "Introduction : La pratique du depistage neonatal des atresies de l’œsophage ne fait pas l’objet d’un consensus actuellement. L’objectif de cette etude est d’evaluer si les sages-femmes d’Ile-de-France realisent un depistage systematique ou cible. \nMethode : L’etude realisee est transversale descriptive multicentrique, dans 9 maternites d’Ile-de-France entre le 1er octobre 2014 et le 31 decembre 2014. Elle repose sur des questionnaires distribues aux sages-femmes hospitalieres. \nResultats : 60,6% des sages-femmes pratiquent un depistage cible des atresies de l’œsophage, contre 36,6% de depistage systematique. Cette pratique est heterogene entre les niveaux de soins des maternites, entre les maternites d’un meme niveau et au sein meme des maternites. Elle est influencee par des facteurs tels que les recommandations du service. \nConclusion : Un consensus permettrait d’homogeneiser la pratique des sages-femmes. Cependant la generalisation d’un depistage cible necessiterait un approfondissement des connaissances des sages-femmes des signes evocateurs d’atresie de l’œsophage.",
"corpus_id": 163964425,
"title": "Dépistage des atrésies de l’œsophage en salle de naissance : quelles sont les pratiques des sages-femmes ?"
} | {
"abstract": "OBJECTIVE\nTo test the hypothesis that noxious stimulation at birth may increase the long-term risk for developing psychosomatic or functional disorders during later life.\n\n\nSTUDY DESIGN\nMatched case-control study using sibling controls. The birth records were retrieved for the offspring of 494 mothers who, after uncomplicated pregnancies, had delivered two or more children with birth weights at least 2500 g, if at least one child was exposed to a perinatal complication or birth asphyxia. Among their offspring (N=1110), the 108 cases hospitalized for functional intestinal symptoms were identified from nationwide hospital discharge records. Of these, 96 cases were compared with 116 unaffected sibling controls.\n\n\nRESULTS\nFunctional intestinal symptoms occurred more commonly among the 1110 subjects (9.5%) than in the general population (3.4%, chi(2)=124, P<10(-6)). Gastric suction at birth occurred more frequently among the cases compared with their siblings (22.9% vs 11.2%). There were no differences in the number of cases and controls exposed to perinatal trauma or birth asphyxia. Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that gastric suction at birth was associated with functional intestinal disorders during later life (odds ratio, 2.99; 95% confidence interval, 1.32-6.79; P=.009), whereas maternal, perinatal, or other confounding variables were not significant.\n\n\nCONCLUSIONS\nNoxious stimulation caused by gastric suction at birth may promote the development of long-term visceral hypersensitivity and cognitive hypervigilance, leading to an increased prevalence of functional intestinal disorders in later life.",
"corpus_id": 621563,
"title": "Gastric suction at birth associated with long-term risk for functional intestinal disorders in later life."
} | {
"abstract": "BACKGROUND & AIMS\nA history of early adverse life events (EALs) is associated with a poorer outcome and higher levels of distress in adult patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders. An EAL is thought to predispose individuals to develop a range of chronic illnesses by inducing persistent changes in the central stress response systems, including the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. We sought to determine if EALs affect the HPA axis response to a visceral stressor in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients and healthy controls, and to determine if this is affected by sex or related to symptoms or quality of life.\n\n\nMETHODS\nForty-four IBS patients (25 women, 19 men) and 39 healthy controls (21 women, 18 men) were assessed for gastrointestinal and psychological symptoms and EALs by validated questionnaires and interview. All subjects underwent a visceral stressor (sigmoidoscopy). Salivary cortisol was collected at baseline and serially for 1 hour poststressor.\n\n\nRESULTS\nTwenty-one IBS patients and 18 controls had EALs. In subjects with and without IBS, an EAL was associated with higher mean (+/-SD) cortisol levels (0.32 +/- 0.2 vs 0.20 +/- 0.1 microg/dL; P = .003) and higher area under the curve (28.1 +/- 17 vs 18.6 +/- 13 microg x min/dL; P = .005) after the stressor compared with subjects without EALs. In IBS, a faster resolution of cortisol to basal values corresponded to lower symptom severity (r = -0.36, P < .05) and better disease-specific quality of life (r = 0.33, P < .05).\n\n\nCONCLUSIONS\nHPA axis hyperresponsiveness to a visceral stressor is related more to a history of EALs than to the presence of IBS. However, HPA axis reactivity has a moderating effect on IBS symptoms.",
"corpus_id": 5414528,
"score": -1,
"title": "Childhood trauma is associated with hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis responsiveness in irritable bowel syndrome."
} |
{
"abstract": "Due to increasing demand for faster computations, deeply pipelined processor architectures are being employed to meet desired system performance. Functional validation of such pipelined processors is one of the most complex and expensive tasks in the current systems-on-chip design methodology. While language-based validation techniques have proposed several promising ideas, many challenges remain in applying them to realistic pipelined processors. This paper describes two practical challenges in this methodology: test generation and equivalence checking. The time and resources required for test generation using the existing approaches can be extremely large for today's pipelined processors. Similarly, traditional equivalence checkers are not useful in the context of language-driven model generation and functional validation. This paper outlines our plan to address these challenges using satisfiability checking",
"corpus_id": 498751,
"title": "Language-driven Validation of Pipelined Processors using Satisfiability Solvers"
} | {
"abstract": "Increasing complexity coupled with time-to-market pressure create a critical need to raise the abstraction level for System-on-Chip (SoC) designs. Functional validation is widely acknowledged as a major bottleneck due to lack of automated techniques and limited reuse of validation efforts between abstraction levels. Simulation is the most widely used form of validation using random or constrained-random tests. Directed tests are very promising for simulation since only fewer directed tests are required compared to billions of random tests to achieve a coverage goal. Currently, directed test generation is performed manually which is time-consuming and error-prone. This dissertation presents a novel top-down methodology for automatically generating directed tests from high-level specifications and reuse them across different abstraction levels. The objective is to reduce the overall functional validation effort. My research has four major contributions: i) it proposes a method that can extract formal models from high-level SoC specifications; ii) it presents an approach that can automatically derive properties based on fault models; iii) it proposes efficient clustering, learning and decomposition techniques to reduce the directed test generation time; and iv) it provides validation refinement approaches to enable reuse of the system-level validation efforts for low-level implementation validation as well as to check the consistency between different abstraction layers. Our experimental results using both software and hardware benchmarks demonstrate that the proposed approaches can significantly reduce the overall validation effort.",
"corpus_id": 61227965,
"title": "Efficient approaches for functional validation of soc designs using high-level specifications"
} | {
"abstract": "This work utilize Round Robin (RR) mechanism to systematically explore neighbors of solution. RR is one of the simplest scheduling algorithms, which assigns time slices to each process in equal portions and in circular order handling all processes without priority. In this work, we consider five different neighborhood structures. RR gives each neighborhood a certain number of iterations to explore some neighbors of the current solution. Experimental results shows that, our adaptive randomized descent algorithm using round robin algorithm significantly produces good-quality solutions (regarding Socha benchmark datasets), which outperformed the ARDA approach and other single-based meta-heuristics.",
"corpus_id": 14680145,
"score": 1,
"title": "Adaptive randomized descent algorithm using round robin for solving course timetabling problems"
} |
{
"abstract": "Supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) mimic biological membranes and are a versatile platform for a wide range of biophysical research fields including lipid–protein interactions, protein–protein interactions and membrane-based biosensors. The quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) has had a pivotal role in understanding SLB formation on various substrates. As shown by its real-time kinetic monitoring of SLB formation, QCM-D can probe the dynamics of biomacromolecular interactions. We present a protocol for constructing zwitterionic SLBs supported on silicon oxide and titanium oxide, and discuss technical issues that need to be considered when working with charged lipid compositions. Furthermore, we explain a recently developed strategy that uses an amphipathic, α-helical (AH) peptide to form SLBs on gold and titanium oxide substrates. The protocols can be completed in less than 3 h.",
"corpus_id": 2420718,
"title": "Quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring of supported lipid bilayers on various substrates"
} | {
"abstract": "This year’s Biological Surfaces and Interfaces, or Biointerfaces, meeting that took place between the 30th of June and the 5th of July, 2013 in Sant Feliu de Guixols (Spain), [1] was different. It was the latest in the series of meetings covering ... interfaces between synthetic materials and biological systems or within biological systems – biointerfaces.... These meetings took place every other year between 2003 and 2013. By providing a unique interdisciplinary forum for an eclectic group of researchers to exchange ideas, they became an integral part of the process of forging of a new field. Each meeting incorporated a Forward Look session, where the grand challenges facing the field were discussed. The discussion was moderated by a panel of senior and young scientists. With the shifting priorities at the European Science Foundation, a long-time sponsor, the longevity of this very successful and stimulating event is in danger. Indeed, it is only thanks to the quick action of the current chairs, Ralf Richter and Catherine Picart, that the support from FEBS and other sources could be secured for the 2013 meeting. Historically, the biointerfaces community was nucleated by the surface scientists who took the bold step from ultra-high vacuum (UHV) into liquid, [2] driven by the desire to find out at the molecular level what goes on when biological systems encounter artificial surfaces, and by the idea that surface science methodologies could provide a unique perspective on interfaces that occur in the biological world. Over the years, it has crystallized around these two underlying concepts that propelled the field forward, fostering collaborations between biologists and material scientists—the all important human factor—as well as the appearance of new techniques for designing and studying dynamic, hydrated biological interfaces: what could be called “a biosurface science toolbox” [3]. Inspiration came from numerous challenges—organizing molecules and cells at interfaces, understanding how cells interpret chemistry, topography, and stiffness; designing selective sensors; controlling/ restricting non-specific interactions between surfaces and biomolecules; and understanding biocompatibility—to name a few. An insightful historical perspective can be found in M. Grunze’s editorial written for the opening of a new journal, Biointerphases [2]. Similarly, B. Kasemo’s review Biological Surface Science continues to inspire generations of young scientists [3]. I have also selected several references to illustrate how some of the techniques and approaches from the toolbox gained wider acceptance [4-12] and fostered conceptual advances in disparate research areas; [13-17] the selection is meant to be illustrative rather than exhaustive. In previous years, artificial surfaces, bio/non-bio interfaces, and the surrounding tools, were very much present as a unifying concept of the meetings. They did not make such a center stage appearance in 2013. Featured prominently in their stead were the concepts surrounding the extracellular matrix, intercellular communication, and the interactions between cells and the extracellular matrix. What is behind this shift in focus? Have we solved all the problems, is it time to move on and do something else? Not likely. The Forward Look session of 2011 focused on a number of challenges that included 3D cell culture tools, interactive, “smart” interfaces, quantifying biological responses, [18] uncovering the simple underlying principles (the “Bohr atom” or the “Ising model”) of biointerfaces, water structure at interfaces, and biocompatibility. These challenges are still there. Blood compatibility catastrophe [19,20] is still exactly that, [21] modern interfaces are as simplistic as ever (as opposed to intelligent/self-healing/ self-replicating), and any discussion of interfacial water brings smiles to the faces of most scientists. Yet the community appears to be melting in the process of searching for a new identity. In my view, there are two currents underlying this process. On the one hand, the surface-science driven approach has reached a plateau of sorts on the technical front. We need new ways of looking at interfaces, ways that will radically change our current views. That will Correspondence: Ilya.Reviakine@kit.edu Institute for Functional Interfaces (IFG), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, 76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany Full list of author information is available at the end of the article",
"corpus_id": 482345,
"title": "The new faces of biointerfaces?"
} | {
"abstract": "ABSTRACT Although the transport of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) through the epithelium is critical for HIV-1 colonization, the mechanisms controlling this process remain obscure. In the present study, we investigated the transcellular migration of HIV-1 as a cell-free virus through primary genital epithelial cells (PGECs). The absence of CD4 on PGECs implicates an unusual entry pathway for HIV-1. We found that syndecans are abundantly expressed on PGECs and promote the initial attachment and subsequent entry of HIV-1 through PGECs. Although CXCR4 and CCR5 do not contribute to HIV-1 attachment, they enhance viral entry and transcytosis through PGECs. Importantly, HIV-1 exploits both syndecans and chemokine receptors to ensure successful cell-free transport through the genital epithelium. HIV-1-syndecan interactions rely on specific residues in the V3 of gp120 and specific sulfations within syndecans. We found no obvious correlation between coreceptor usage and the capacity of the virus to transcytose. Since viruses isolated after sexual transmission are mainly R5 viruses, this suggests that the properties conferring virus replication after transmission are distinct from those conferring cell-free virus transcytosis through the genital epithelium. Although we found that cell-free HIV-1 crosses PGECs as infectious particles, the efficiency of transcytosis is extremely poor (less than 0.02% of the initial inoculum). This demonstrates that the genital epithelium serves as a major barrier against HIV-1. Although one cannot exclude the possibility that limited passage of cell-free HIV-1 transcytosis through an intact genital epithelium occurs in vivo, it is likely that the establishment of infection via cell-free HIV-1 transmigration is a rare event.",
"corpus_id": 43504725,
"score": 2,
"title": "Cell-Free Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Transcytosis through Primary Genital Epithelial Cells"
} |
{
"abstract": "We obtail optional continuity in Sobolev for the Fourior integral operators associated to singular canonical relations, when one of the two projection is a Whitney fold. The regularity depends on the type, K, of the projuction from the canonical relation (k=1 for whitney fold). We prove that one loses of a derivative in the regularity properties. The proof is based on the L2 estimates for oscillatory inntegral operators",
"corpus_id": 1549609,
"title": "Optional regularity of fourier integral operators with one-sided folds"
} | {
"abstract": "We derive certain estimates and asymptotics for oscillatory integral operators with degenerate phase functions, concentrating our attention on the situation when one of the projections from the associated canonical relation is a Whitney fold. We discuss related topics: convexity, higher order degeneracy of canonical relations, and almost orthogonality. In the second part of the paper, we apply the developed technique to the Radon Transform of Melrose-Taylor, a particular degenerate Fourier integral operator which arises in the theory of scattering. We obtain its regularity properties for the scattering on a convex compact domain with a smooth boundary. The result is formulated in terms of the highest order of contact of lines with the boundary. 1 Oscillatory integral operators with singularities 1.",
"corpus_id": 6936348,
"title": "Integral Operators with Singular Canonical Relations"
} | {
"abstract": "Etude de la reconstruction d'une fonction f(x) sur R n a partir de ses integrales sur des plans k-dimensionnels. Cas de k=1",
"corpus_id": 119536840,
"score": 2,
"title": "Nonlocal inversion formulas for the X-ray transform"
} |
{
"abstract": "The partial amino acid sequence of phospholamban from canine cardiac sarcoplasmic reticulum was determined by sequence analysis of the peptides obtained from the protein cleaved by cyanogen bromide and with TPCK-trypsin. The sequence determined initiated with N alpha-acetylated methionine followed by 44 amino acid residues intervening two unidentified residues. This polypeptide would represent a structural unit (protomer) of phospholamban. Analysis of temperature-dependent conversion of phospholamban from 26 kDa to lower molecular weight form (6 kDa) suggested that phospholamban holoprotein is composed of five identical protomers.",
"corpus_id": 1238318,
"title": "Characterization of structural unit of phospholamban by amino acid sequencing and electrophoretic analysis."
} | {
"abstract": "Phosphorylation of purified phospholamban isolated from canine cardiac sarcoplasmic reticulum vesicles decreased the electrophoretic mobility of the protein in sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-polyacrylamide gels. Different mobility forms of phospholamban in SDS gels were visualized both by direct protein staining and by autoradiography. Unphosphorylated phospholamban migrated with an apparent Mr = 25,000 in SDS gels; maximal phosphorylation of phospholamban by cAMP- or Ca2+-calmodulin-dependent protein kinase increased the apparent Mr to 27,000. Partial phosphorylation of phospholamban by either protein kinase gave intermediate mobility forms of molecular weights between 25,000 and 27,000, suggesting that more than one phosphorylation site was present on the holoprotein for each activity. Boiling of phospholamban in SDS dissociated the holoprotein into an apparently homogeneous class of low molecular weight \"monomers.\" Only two mobility forms of monomeric phospholamban were observed in SDS gels after phosphorylation by cAMP-dependent protein kinase, corresponding to 9-kDa dephospho- and 11-kDa phosphoproteins. All of the 9-kDa protein could be phosphorylated and converted into the 11-kDa mobility form, suggesting the presence of only one site of phosphorylation on a single type of monomer for cAMP-dependent protein kinase. Simultaneous phosphorylation of monomeric phospholamban by cAMP-dependent protein kinase and Ca2+-calmodulin-dependent protein kinase gave an additional mobility form of the protein, suggesting that different sites of phosphorylation were present for each activity on each monomer. Incomplete dissociation of the holoprotein by boiling it in a relatively low concentration of SDS facilitated the detection of five major mobility forms of the protein in SDS gels, and the mobilities of all of these forms were decreased by phosphorylation. We propose that the high molecular weight form of phospholamban is a multimer of electrophoretically indistinguishable monomers, each of which contains a different phosphorylation site for cAMP-dependent protein kinase activity and Ca2+-calmodulin-dependent protein kinase activity. Phosphorylation of phospholamban at multiple sites is responsible for the various mobility forms of the holoprotein detected in SDS-polyacrylamide gels.",
"corpus_id": 27620117,
"title": "Phosphorylation-induced mobility shift in phospholamban in sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels. Evidence for a protein structure consisting of multiple identical phosphorylatable subunits."
} | {
"abstract": "In a radiator, force convectional is the important thing that can be considered. The examples of convectional heat transfer fluids are nanofluid, water, glycerol, Ethylene Glycol and nanocellulose. These base fluids have been used widely in automotive radiators and these fluids recently have very low thermal conductivities. In advance, many researches have been done regarding to the study of enhancement of the convective heat transfer performance in nanoparticles. On the other hand, using nanofluids, due to the enhanced heat carrying capacity of the nanofluids; the pumping power required will also be reduced. All of these transfer fluids play an important role in many industrial sectors such as air-conditioning, transportation, microelectronics, power generation and chemical production.",
"corpus_id": 199559633,
"score": 0,
"title": "A review on vehicle radiator using various coolants"
} |
{
"abstract": "Data Integration presents a core issue in the Palestinian e-Government Technical Framework. The currently used data integration model relies on the Integrated Central Database which lacks quality attributes such as: interoperability and flexibility. We purpose a SOA-based approach for data integration that achieves the above attributes. We present and analyze the current architecture and implementation of the Palestinian e-Government Integrated Central Database model. We transform the current model into a SOA framework that is realized using Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) and Web Services. The proposed framework offers database replication and connectivity functionalities for the Central Database. The proposed framework is evaluated using a scenario-based software architecture evaluation method and proves that it achieves the framework goals of quality attributes: interoperability and flexibility. Moreover, a prototype of the framework is implemented and validates the framework correctness. A specific usage is presented and further proves that the framework accomplishes its functionality and quality attributes.",
"corpus_id": 17421066,
"title": "A SOA-Based e-Government Data Integration"
} | {
"abstract": "During the last years, it has been noticed a growing interest of organizations in improving their business processes in order to be more competitive in a globalized economy that passes nowadays through a severe financial crisis with restrictive market conditions and limited profit margins. The first step in achieving this goal is to use an adequate business process modeling language to represent their business processes. For this purpose, an evaluation of the existing business process modeling languages would be very useful in making the right decision. Our research work comes to supplement the previous researches that have evaluated business process modeling languages. The evaluation performed in this paper is focused on the two most widely used graphical notations for business processes: Business Process Modeling and Notation (BPMN) and UML Activity Diagram (UML AD). The evaluation criteria are: capacity of being readily understandable, adequacy of the graphical elements of BPMN and UML AD to represent the real business processes of an organization and mapping to Business Process Execution Languages. The results of evaluating BPMN and UML AD against each of these three criteria are presented in the paper.",
"corpus_id": 15301141,
"title": "BPMN vs. UML Activity Diagram for Business Process Modeling"
} | {
"abstract": "The relationship between hate group activity and hate crime is theoretically ambiguous. Hate groups may incite criminal behavior in support of their beliefs. On the other hand, hate groups may reduce hate crime by serving as a forum for members to verbally vent their frustrations or as protection from future biased violence. I find that the presence of an active white supremacist hate group chapter is associated with an 18.7 percent higher hate crime rate. White supremacist groups are not associated with the level of anti-white hate crimes committed by non-whites, nor do they form in expectation of future hate crimes by non-whites.",
"corpus_id": 53585578,
"score": -1,
"title": "Hate Source: White Supremacist Hate Groups and Hate Crime"
} |
{
"abstract": "The authors investigated the use of slow-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to the unaffected hemisphere to decrease interhemispheric inhibition of the lesioned hemisphere and improve motor function in patients within 12 months of a stroke. Patients showed a significant decrease in simple and choice reaction time and improved performance of the Purdue Pegboard test with their affected hand after rTMS of the motor cortex in the intact hemisphere as compared with sham rTMS.",
"corpus_id": 275627,
"title": "A sham stimulation-controlled trial of rTMS of the unaffected hemisphere in stroke patients"
} | {
"abstract": "We studied motor representation in well-recovered stroke patients. Eighteen right-handed stroke patients and eleven age-matched control subjects underwent functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) while performing unimanual index finger (abduction-adduction) and wrist movements (flexion-extension) using their recovered and non-affected hand. A subset of these patients underwent Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to elicit motor evoked potentials (MEP) in the first dorsal interosseous muscle of both hands. Imaging results suggest that good recovery utilizes both ipsi- and contralesional resources, although results differ for wrist and index finger movements. Wrist movements of the recovered arm resulted in significantly greater activation of the contralateral (lesional) and ipsilateral (contralesional) primary sensorimotor cortex (SM1), while comparing patients to control subjects performing the same task. In contrast, recovered index finger movements recruited a larger motor network, including the contralateral SM1, Supplementary Motor Area (SMA) and cerebellum when patients were compared to control subjects. TMS of the lesional hemisphere but not of the contralesional hemisphere induced MEPs in the recovered hand. TMS parameters also revealed greater transcallosal inhibition, from the contralesional to the lesional hemisphere than in the reverse direction. Disinhibition of the contralesional hemisphere observed in a subgroup of our patients suggests persistent alterations in intracortical and transcallosal (interhemispheric) interactions, despite complete functional recovery.",
"corpus_id": 57634,
"title": "Imaging correlates of motor recovery from cerebral infarction and their physiological significance in well-recovered patients"
} | {
"abstract": "The legislative pressures now dominating the realm of program accountability are moving the mental health system from process to outcome evaluations. While the need for this type of assessment is generally acknowledged, its methodological validity and policy-setting utility are the subject of considerable controversy. Despite these concerns, outcome studies are expected to retain their present priority for some time to come. It is, therefore, essential that administrators, clinicians, and evaluators gain much greater clarity about the outcome study's intrinsic properties and requirements. These include its diverse organizational purposes, the several target populations affected by clinical services, the wide-ranging indices of effectiveness, and the numerous data collection instruments of varying psychometric quality. The outcome study's power to conclude whether causal linkages indeed exist between the clinical intervention and client functioning depends upon the sophistication with which these issues are recognized and resolved.",
"corpus_id": 2144064,
"score": 1,
"title": "Outcome evaluations in the mental health field"
} |
{
"abstract": "Compared with conventional overlapping windings, nonoverlapping windings offer an exclusive advantage of short end-windings, which leads to less copper loss, shorter axial length, and higher slot fill factor particularly when used with segmental stator core. However, it is not so easy to manufacture the stator with nonoverlapping windings, especially when a high slot fill factor with low cost is required. In most existing methods, laminated segments are connected directly to form a complete stator core, so-called laminated-joint core. This requires precise mechanical assembles, and usually results in restrict process with expensive equipments. The goal of this paper is to propose a new segmental stator structure without laminated-joint, where the laminated tooth modules are coupled with a solid back iron. In this paper, existing manufacturing methods of segmental stator core will be reviewed and analyzed. Subsequently, several models are developed and improved, step by step, to achieve the best target, especially taking the iron losses as an evaluation criterion. Some techniques to reduce iron losses in the solid back iron will be proposed and compared. Some practical issues for manufacturing the proposed segmental stator core are discussed. Influence of subsidiary air gap on the iron losses will also be analyzed. And, cost evaluation of the proposed method, as well as the realistic shapes of laminations-solid-joints, is presented.",
"corpus_id": 39597160,
"title": "Analysis and optimization of a modular stator core with segmental teeth and solid back iron for pm electric machines"
} | {
"abstract": "Variable-flux permanent-magnet machines (VFPM) are of great interest and many different machine topologies have been documented. This paper categorizes VFPM machine topologies with regard to the method of flux variation and further, in the case of hybrid excited machines with field coils, with regard to the location of the excitation sources. The different VFPM machines are reviewed and compared in terms of their torque density, complexity and their ability to vary the flux.",
"corpus_id": 3015636,
"title": "Review of variable-flux permanent magnet machines"
} | {
"abstract": "In this paper, simultaneous control of active power and volt/var is explored with photovoltaic (PV) generators in distribution systems. The PV active power output can be controlled in the load-following mode when sufficient solar power is available to supply a local load, or the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) mode when a local load is large or injection to the system is allowed. Two selected control approaches, P-Q control in the load-following mode and P-V control in the MPPT mode, are investigated in this paper. The P-Q control is implemented with a relatively simple approach, while the P-V control demands an extra MPPT logic, which is solved based on a power balance between the dc and ac sides in a two-stage PV configuration. The control algorithms are tested with the IEEE 13-bus distribution feeder with various system conditions like the presence of multiple PV generators, imbalance, harmonics, and faults. The MATLAB and SimPowerSystems simulation results clearly demonstrate the capability of the proposed control in maintaining the P/V bus as either a P-Q or P-V bus depending on different applications.",
"corpus_id": 7702373,
"score": -1,
"title": "P-Q and P-V Control of Photovoltaic Generators in Distribution Systems"
} |
{
"abstract": "Changes in climate and land use are implicated as the main factors in the large-scale loss of carbon from soils in England and Wales over the past 25 years. The same picture is likely to apply much more broadly.Grounds for concernThe possibility of a positive feedback between CO2 release from soils and global warming is one of the most contentious issues in climate research. The concern is that rising temperatures may be causing some of the massive reserves of carbon stored in the soil to be released into the atmosphere as the greenhouse gas CO2, resulting in a further increase in temperature and yet more CO2 release. So far what evidence there is for this feedback mechanism has come from small-scale laboratory and field experiments and mathematical modelling. Now a team from the UK National Soil Resources Institute and Rothamsted Research presents data from a long-term national-scale soil monitoring scheme that reveal extensive carbon losses during the past 25 years: land use has little effect on the rate of carbon loss suggesting a possible link to climate change.",
"corpus_id": 4345985,
"title": "Environmental science: Carbon unlocked from soils"
} | {
"abstract": "We use new swath bathymetry data acquired during the RV Sonne cruise GEOPECO and complement them with swath data from adjacent regions to analyse the morphotectonics of the Peruvian convergent margin. The Nazca plate is not covered with sediments and therefore has a rough surface along the entire Peruvian trench. The styles of roughness differ significantly along the margin with linear morphological features trending in various directions, most of them oblique to the trench and roughness magnitudes of a few to several hundred meters. The lower slope is locally very rough and at the verge of failure throughout the entire Peruvian margin, as a result of subduction erosion causing the lower slope to over-steepen. Using curvature attributes to quantitatively examine the morphology in the Yaquina and Mendana areas revealed that the latter shows a larger local roughness both seaward and landward of the trench. However, the amplitude of morphological roughness is larger in the Yaquina area. We identified a 125 km2 large slump on the Lima middle slope. Morphometric dating suggests an age of 74500 years within 35 to 40% error. Estimated incision rates on the upper slope are between 0.1 and 0.3 mm per year suggesting that landscape evolution on the Peruvian submarine continental slope is similarly slow than that in the Atacama desert.",
"corpus_id": 3666979,
"title": "Morphotectonic and morphometric analysis of the Nazca plate and the adjacent offshore Peruvian continental slope - implications for submarine landscape evolution"
} | {
"abstract": "Thermogravimetry/mass spectrometry has been applied to characterize 16 milled wood lignins isolated from grasses, softwoods and hardwoods. The samples were thermally decomposed in inert atmosphere using a heating rate of 20°C min−1. The effect of acetylation as well as ZnCl2 and NaCl as catalysts on the thermal decomposition has been studied. The weight loss and evolution profiles of the most abundant degradation products were monitored as a function of temperature. Correlation has been found between the intensity of several products and the compositional parameters of lignins determined by wet chemical methods. The modification of OH groups by acetylation changed the decomposition patterns, but the acetic acid produced by thermolysis had no catalytic effect on the formation of monomers. The evolution profiles of H2O and CO2 from the original and acetylated lignins proved that free OH groups promote the scission of COOH groups. The additives ZnCl2 and NaCl have different influence on the product distribution. NaCl promotes dehydration, demethoxylation and recombination of the primarily formed radicals, although the maximum of the evolution profiles is not shifted significantly. However, water and formaldehyde formation shifts to 60–80°C lower temperature in the presence of ZnCl2 indicating the occurrence of ionic decomposition mechanisms.",
"corpus_id": 95129742,
"score": 2,
"title": "Thermal decomposition of milled wood lignins studied by thermogravimetry/mass spectrometry"
} |
{
"abstract": "A temporal extension of the classical factor analysis (FA) (Proceedings of the Berkeley Symposium on Mathematical Statistics andProbability, May 3, Berkeley, University of California, 1956, pp. 111–150.) has been made under the framework of temporal Bayesian Ying–Yang system (Proceedings of the International Conference on Neural Information Processing (ICONIP’98), Vol. 2, 1998, pp. 877–884; IEEE Trans. Signal Process. 48 (7) (2000) 2132 andProceed ings of the 1999 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, Vol. 2, Washington, DC, July 1999, pp. 1071–1076). This temporal FA (TFA) not only extends the independent component analysis to Gaussian process, but also provides a new way for state-space identi%cation without knowledge of the model parameters. In this paper, we implement the TFA algorithm provided in Xu (1998, 2000), andcompare it with non-temporal one to show the importance of consid ering temporal relationship in factor analysis. Furthermore, we set up a connection between the TFA andtrad itional %ltering problems in control theory, andpresent an alternative TFA algorithm. This new algorithm estimates the factors (also called states) andits variance by Kalman %lter as an alternative to the grad ient methodusedin that algorithm of Xu (1998, 2000), resulting in better performance in general. c � 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.",
"corpus_id": 197752,
"title": "Further studies on temporal factor analysis: comparison and Kalman filter-based algorithm"
} | {
"abstract": "The problem of blind estimation of source signals is to estimate the source signals without knowing the characteristics of the transmission channel. It is shown that the minimum-variance unbiased estimates can be obtained if and only if the transmission channel can be identified blindly. It is shown that the channel can be blindly identified if and only if there is not more than one Gaussian source. This condition suggests that waveform-preserving blind estimation can be achieved over a wide range of signal processing applications, including those cases in which the source signals have identical nonGaussian distributions. The constructive proof of the necessary and sufficient condition serves as a foundation for the development of waveform-preserving blind signal estimation algorithms. Examples are presented to demonstrate the applications of the theoretical results. >",
"corpus_id": 31157516,
"title": "Waveform-preserving blind estimation of multiple independent sources"
} | {
"abstract": "This paper develops a theory and econometric method of portfolio performance measurement using a competitive equilibrium version of the Arbitrage Pricing Theory. We show that the Jensen coefficient and the appraisal ratio of Treynor and Black are theoretically compatible with the Arbitrage Pricing Theory. We construct estimators for the two performance measures using a new principal components technique, and describe their asymptotic distributions. The estimators are computationally feasible using a large number of securities. We also suggest a new approach to testing for the correct number of factors.",
"corpus_id": 54620410,
"score": 2,
"title": "Performance Measurement with the Arbitrage Pricing Theory: A New Framework for Analysis"
} |
{
"abstract": null,
"corpus_id": 28309232,
"title": "Leveraging Diverse Lexical Chains to Construct Essays for Chinese College Entrance Examination"
} | {
"abstract": null,
"corpus_id": 17684057,
"title": "A General Framework For Text Semantic Analysis And Clustering On Yelp Reviews"
} | {
"abstract": "Artificial neural networks often achieve high classification accuracy rates, but they are considered as black boxes due to their lack of explanation capability. This paper proposes the new rule extraction algorithm RxREN to overcome this drawback. In pedagogical approach the proposed algorithm extracts the rules from trained neural networks for datasets with mixed mode attributes. The algorithm relies on reverse engineering technique to prune the insignificant input neurons and to discover the technological principles of each significant input neuron of neural network in classification. The novelty of this algorithm lies in the simplicity of the extracted rules and conditions in rule are involving both discrete and continuous mode of attributes. Experimentation using six different real datasets namely iris, wbc, hepatitis, pid, ionosphere and creditg show that the proposed algorithm is quite efficient in extracting smallest set of rules with high classification accuracy than those generated by other neural network rule extraction methods.",
"corpus_id": 15331533,
"score": -1,
"title": "Reverse Engineering the Neural Networks for Rule Extraction in Classification Problems"
} |
{
"abstract": "Domestic homicide (DH) is the most extreme form of domestic violence (DV). There has been a growing worldwide interest in DH offenses and the characteristics of perpetrators and victims, and it is evidenced in part by the increase in the number of primary research studies in this area. The findings of a large number of the available primary literature have already been summarized into several systematic reviews. The principal purposes of this study were to identify what types and aspects of DH have been reviewed systematically (research trends), to synthesize findings from recent systematic reviews of the theoretical and empirical literature on the different types of DH (main findings), and to consider what existing reviews can tell us about the implications for policy and practice as well as future primary research (implications). The current study utilized a systematic review approach to locate systematic reviews of studies on DH. The final sample included 25 systematic review articles published from 2010 to 2020, including 12 on intimate partner homicide, eight on child homicide, and five on familicide. The main research questions varied across systematic reviews, but they included risk factors, statistics on incidence and prevalence, theories, risk assessment tools, punishment and disposition, and prevention strategies. Building on the synthesis findings, the current study concludes with suggestions for future systematic review research and implications for practice and policy efforts.",
"corpus_id": 237493532,
"title": "Domestic Homicide: A Synthesis of Systematic Review Evidence"
} | {
"abstract": "Despite the interest in juvenile homicide offenders, few studies have systematically examined their involvement in incidents involving specific victims. This study focused on one victim type, the killings of siblings. To date, siblicide research has been based primarily on case studies. Bivariate and multivariate techniques were used to systematically investigate offender, victim, and incident characteristics associated with fratricides and sororicides committed by juvenile homicide offenders in single victim, single offender incidents over a 32-year period (1976–2007), as recorded in the Supplementary Homicide Report data base. Juvenile sororicide offenders, relative to juvenile fratricide offenders, were significantly more likely to be female and to kill younger victims. The article concludes with a discussion of the findings in terms of past research, their implications for intervention and prevention, and directions for future research.",
"corpus_id": 29532141,
"title": "Juvenile Involvement in Fratricide and Sororicide: An Empirical Analysis of 32 Years of U.S. Arrest Data"
} | {
"abstract": "This study and its ancillary behavioral health program identified and addressed a Caribbean cultural paradigm that is no longer viable in 21st century Caribbean society. A complex web of cultural and social determinants binds Caribbean men in a depressing scenario of limited educational opportunity, inconsistent seasonal employment, and proclivity toward violence against women. Our study chronicles a Caribbean domestic violence initiative, Partnership for Peace (PFP), with qualitative data from 32 Grenadian male domestic violence offenders and nine of their female counterparts. We found that Caribbean-gendered relations are intrinsically linked, and any attempt to foster behavioral adjustments among male perpetrators will not be sustainable without addressing gendered disparities in education and employment.",
"corpus_id": 144768859,
"score": -1,
"title": "Beyond Behavioral Adjustments: How Determinants of Contemporary Caribbean Masculinities Thwart Efforts to Eliminate Domestic Violence"
} |
{
"abstract": "To investigate patterns of c-Fos and c-Jun expression induced by different frequencies of electroacupuncture (EA) in the brain, goats were stimulated by EA of 0, 2, 60, or 100 Hz at a set of “Baihui, Santai, Ergen, and Sanyangluo” points for 30 min. The pain threshold was measured using the potassium iontophoresis method. The levels of c-Fos and c-Jun were determined with Streptavidin-Biotin Complex immunohistochemistry. The results showed that the pain threshold induced by 60 Hz was 82.2% higher (P < 0.01) than that by 0, 2, or 100 Hz (6.5%, 35.2%, or 40.9%). EA induced increased c-Fos and c-Jun expression in most analgesia-related nuclei and areas in the brain. Sixty Hz EA increased more c-Fos or c-Jun expression than 2 Hz or 100 Hz EA in all the measured nuclei and areas except for the nucleus accumbens, the area septalis lateralis, the caudate nucleus, the nucleus amygdala basalis, and the locus coeruleus, in which c-Fos or c-Jun expressions induced by 60 Hz EA did not differ from those by 2 Hz or 100 Hz EA. It was suggested that 60 Hz EA activated more extensive neural circuits in goats, which may contribute to optimal analgesic effects.",
"corpus_id": 1806487,
"title": "The Expression Patterns of c-Fos and c-Jun Induced by Different Frequencies of Electroacupuncture in the Brain"
} | {
"abstract": "Electroacupuncture (EA) can relieve various pains. However, its mechanism in terms of the transcriptome is still not well-known. To explore the full profile of EA-induced molecular modification in the central nerve system, three twins of goats were selected for a match-paired experiment: EA stimulation (60 Hz, 30 min) and none-EA (control). Goats in the EA group showed an increased (p < 0.05) nociceptive threshold compared with the control goats. Experimental goats were sacrificed at 4 h of the experiment, and the periaqueductal grays were harvested for RNA sequencing. As a result, 2651 differentially expressed genes (1803 up-regulated and 848 down-regulated genes) were found and enriched in 30 Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways and 149 gene ontology terms. EA-regulated five neuropeptide genes (proenkephalin, proopiomelanocortin, preprodynorphin, diazepam-binding inhibitor and proprotein convertase 1 inhibitor) were validated with quantitative PCR. Furthermore, up-regulated glutamate receptors, glutamate transporters, γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors, GABA transporters, synaptotagmins or mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) genes might contribute to EA-induced analgesia through regulating the glutamatergic synapse, GABAergic synapse, MAPKs, ribosome or ubiquitin-proteasome pathways. Our findings reveal a full profile of molecular modification in response to EA and provide a solid experimental framework for exploring the mechanisms underlying EA-induced analgesia.",
"corpus_id": 37149440,
"title": "Exploring the Mechanisms of Electroacupuncture-Induced Analgesia through RNA Sequencing of the Periaqueductal Gray"
} | {
"abstract": "A 2 × 2 factorial experiment was conducted to investigate the interactions between laminarin (LAM; 0 and 300 parts per million (ppm)) and fucoidan (FUC; 0 and 240 ppm) levels on intestinal morphology, selected microbiota and inflammatory cytokine gene expression in the weaned pig. There was an interaction between LAM and FUC supplementation on the Enterobacteriaceae population (P< 0·05) and the abundance of attaching and effacing Escherichia coli (AEEC) strains (P< 0·05) in the colon. Pigs offered the FUC diet had a reduced Enterobacteriaceae population compared with pigs offered the basal diet. However, the effect of FUC on the Enterobacteriaceae population was not observed when combined with LAM. Pigs offered the LAM diet had reduced abundance of AEEC strains compared with pigs offered the basal diet. However, there was no effect of LAM on the abundance of AEEC strains when combined with FUC. There was an interaction between LAM and FUC supplementation on villous height (P< 0·01) and the villous height:crypt depth ratio (P< 0·01) in the duodenum. Pigs offered the LAM or FUC diet had an increased villous height and villous height:crypt depth ratio compared with pigs offered the basal diet. However, there was no effect of the LAM and FUC combination diet on intestinal morphology. Pigs offered the LAM-supplemented diets had a lower IL-6 (P< 0·05), IL-17A (P< 0·01) and IL-1β (P< 0·01) mRNA expression in the colon compared with pigs offered the diets without LAM. In conclusion, supplementation with either LAM or FUC alone modified intestinal morphology and selected intestinal microbiota, but these effects were lost when offered in combination.",
"corpus_id": 2512833,
"score": 1,
"title": "Effect of dietary laminarin and fucoidan on selected microbiota, intestinal morphology and immune status of the newly weaned pig"
} |
{
"abstract": "Nanosecond spark discharges are among the most promising plasmas in view of combustion enhancement. The direct visualization of rotating nanosecond sparks stabilizing a lean swirling flame illustrates the coupling between aerodynamics, plasma, and combustion dynamics. Although it is commonly acknowledged that both thermal and chemical effects of the plasma may play a role, comprehensive understanding of the mechanism by which the discharges affect the flame has not been achieved yet.",
"corpus_id": 6184242,
"title": "Effect of Nanosecond Glow Discharges on a Lean Premixed V-Flame"
} | {
"abstract": "Abstract The stabilization characteristics of laminar premixed bunsen flames have been investigated experimentally by applying AC electric fields at low frequency below 60 Hz together with DC in the single electrode configuration. The blowoff velocity has been measured for varying AC voltage and frequency. A transition frequency between low and high frequency regimes has been identified near 40–50 Hz, where AC electric fields have minimal effect on flame stabilization. In the low frequency regime, the blowoff velocity decreased linearly with AC voltage such that the flames became less stable. This was consistent with the DC result, implying the influence of the ionic wind effect. The variation of blowoff velocity with AC frequency showed a non-monotonic behavior in that the velocity decreased and then increased, exhibiting minimum blowoff velocity near 6–8 Hz. Based on the molecular kinetic theory, the developing degree of ionic wind was derived. By considering the ionic wind effects arising from both positive and negative ions in a flame zone, the bi-ionic wind effect successfully explained the non-monotonic behavior of blowoff velocity with AC frequency in the low frequency regime.",
"corpus_id": 97166063,
"title": "Effect of electric fields on the stabilization of premixed laminar bunsen flames at low AC frequency: Bi-ionic wind effect"
} | {
"abstract": "Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the transport phenomena of liquid helium II in slits and capillaries. The bulk flow through slits and capillaries under the influence of pressure and temperature gradients in the temperature region above 1° K is described. The experiments on the basis of the well-known two-fluid model for liquid helium II are discussed. Although especially at high velocities its validity and application may become doubtful, it is still a convenient starting point. Under the influence of a pressure and/or temperature gradient liquid helium II will flow, this flow being supposed to consist of a contribution from the normal fluid and the superfluid. Besides showing the quantities contributing to an ordinary balance, helium II exhibits the property of the ‘mechanocaloric effect.’ The flow of the superfluid plays the most important role in many of the experiments, in agreement with the hypothesis of the absence of a Poiseuille friction. The flow of the normal fluid can even be suppressed completely by using small slits and low temperatures.",
"corpus_id": 93076824,
"score": 1,
"title": "Chapter III Transport Phenomena of Liquid Helium II in Slits and Capillaries"
} |
{
"abstract": "Novel speech and/or gesture interfaces are candidates for use in future mobile or ubiquitous applications. This paper describes an evaluation of various interfaces for visual navigation of a whole Earth 3D terrain model. A mouse driven interface, a speech interface, a gesture interface, and a multimodal speech and gesture interface were used to navigate to targets placed at various points on the Earth. This study measured each participant's recall of target identity, order, and location as a measure of cognitive load. Timing information as well as a variety of subjective measures including discomfort and user preference were taken. While the familiar and mature mouse interface scored best by most measures, the speech interface also performed well. The gesture and multimodal interface suffered from weaknesses in the gesture modality. Weaknesses in the speech and multimodal modalities are identified and areas for improvement are discussed.",
"corpus_id": 337471,
"title": "Evaluation of a multimodal interface for 3D terrain visualization"
} | {
"abstract": "Recent approaches to providing users with more natural methods of interacting with virtual environment applications have shown that more than one mode of input can be both beneficial and intuitive as a communication medium between humans and computer applications. Although there are many different modes that could be used in these applications, hand gestures and speech appear to be two of the most logical since users will typically be in environments that will have them immersed in a virtual world with limited access to traditional input devices such as the keyboard or mouse. In this paper, we describe a prototype application, MSVT (Multimodal Scientific Visualization Tool), for visualizing fluid flow around a dataset. MSVT uses a multimodal interface which combines whole-hand and voice input to allow users to visualize and interact with the dataset in a natural manner. A discussion of the various interaction techniques, and the results of an informal user evaluation are presented.",
"corpus_id": 9174498,
"title": "Msvt: a virtual reality-based multimodal scientific visualization tool"
} | {
"abstract": "Navigation and interaction in virtual environments that use stereoscopic head-tracked displays and have very large data sets present several challenges beyond those encountered with smaller data sets and simpler displays. First, zooming by approaching or retreating from a target must be augmented by integrating scale as a seventh degree of freedom. Second, in order to maintain good stereoscopic imagery, the interface must: maintain stereo image pairs that the user perceives as a single 3D image, minimize loss of perceived depth since stereoscopic imagery cannot properly occlude the screen's frame, provide maximum depth information, and place objects at distances where they are best manipulated. Finally, the navigation interface must work when the environment is displayed at any scale. This paper addresses these problems for god's-eye-view or third person navigation of a specific large-scale virtual environment: a high-resolution terrain database covering an entire planet.",
"corpus_id": 17956968,
"score": 2,
"title": "Third-person navigation of whole-planet terrain in a head-tracked stereoscopic environment"
} |
{
"abstract": "Purpose – The purpose of this article is to understand alternative African futures as an aid to improved decision‐making and action by governments and by other key agents and stakeholders.Design/methodology/approach – The authors aim is to put the two concepts (“futures” and think tank) into context and explain how they are going to be used in this paper. The aim is not to engage on a prediction exercise about African futures but rather to understand, think about and explore long‐term trends and how they may impact on alternative African futures.Findings – The journey towards a knowledge economy is a difficult one and the experiences elsewhere in the world show that governments on their own can not succeed without assistance from think tanks. This means that as African governments are trying to map out new visions for the future, think tanks can grab the opportunities provided by the current realities to continue playing a meaningful role in shaping African futures.Originality/value – Africa's complex cha...",
"corpus_id": 154501755,
"title": "Shaping African futures: think tanks and the need for endogenous knowledge production in Sub-Saharan Africa"
} | {
"abstract": "This paper, on the institutional, ideological, and intellectual politics of producing historical and social science knowledge in Africa, was prepared as the keynote address for the Conference on 'Historical and Social Science Research in Malawi: Problems and Prospects' held in Zomba in June 2000 from which the papers in this special issue of the Journal of Southern African Studies are drawn. It is reproduced here in the format in which it was presented.",
"corpus_id": 144237008,
"title": "The Politics of Historical and Social Science Research in Africa"
} | {
"abstract": "PURPOSE\nThe myotoxic drug doxorubicin can treat blepharospasm and hemifacial spasm permanently when injected directly into the eyelid of patients. One side effect of this treatment is the dose-related occurrence of injury to the skin overlying the injection site. The purpose of this study was to determine if injection of the immunosuppressive agent cyclosporin into rabbit eyelids before doxorubicin treatment could reduce the occurrence of injury to the overlying skin and to determine the effect of cyclosporin pretreatment on doxorubicin-induced muscle fiber loss.\n\n\nMETHODS\nAnesthetized rabbits received injections of varying doses of cyclosporin 20 minutes before injection of either 0.5, 1, or 2 mg doxorubicin. The rabbits were examined daily, and epithelial changes were recorded as to duration, time of onset, and healing. When the skin was completely healed, the animals were killed and eyelid tissue was prepared for morphometric determination of muscle fiber number. Acute inflammation was quantitatively assessed using an Evans blue assay.\n\n\nRESULTS\nAt specified doses, cyclosporin improved the doxorubicin chemomyectomy protocol in three ways. It delayed the onset of skin injury at the higher doses of doxorubicin, and it markedly decreased the duration of skin injury. At some doses, cyclosporin completely prevented the formation of epithelial defects. The combination, however, did not increase muscle loss compared to doxorubicin alone; in fact, it had a slightly myoprotective effect. A dose range for cyclosporin administration was determined that resulted in a quantitative and dose-dependent reduction in inflammation at the injection site.\n\n\nCONCLUSIONS\nThe injection of cyclosporin into the eyelids before doxorubicin treatment delayed the onset, reduced the duration, and limited the extent of development of eyelid skin injury. Perhaps by limiting cytokine release, cyclosporin decreased the inflammatory reaction compared to that seen with doxorubicin alone. This combination has the potential to improve patient acceptance of doxorubicin chemomyectomy for the treatment of blepharospasm and hemifacial spasm.",
"corpus_id": 1979248,
"score": 0,
"title": "Cyclosporin protects the eyelid skin from injury after injection of doxorubicin."
} |
{
"abstract": "The class QMA(k), introduced by Kobayashi et al., consists of all languages that can be verified using k unentangled quantum proofs. Many of the simplest questions about this class have remained embarrassingly open: for example, can we give any evidence that k quantum proofs are more powerful than one? Can we show any upper bound on QMA(k), besides the trivial NEXP? Does QMA(k)=QMA(2) for kges2? Can QMA(k) protocols be amplified to exponentially small error? In this paper, we make progress on all of the above questions. *We give a protocol by which a verifier can be convinced that a 3SAT formula of size n is satisfiable, with constant soundness, given O tilde(radicn) unentangled quantum witnesses with O(log n) qubits each. Our protocol relies on Dinur's version of the PCP Theorem and is inherently non-relativizing. *We show that assuming the famous Additivity Conjecture from quantum information theory, any QMA(2) protocol can be amplified to exponentially small error, and QMA(k)=QMA(2) for all kges=2. *We give evidence that QMA(2) sube PSPACE, by showing that this would follow from \"strong amplification\" of QMA(2) protocols. *We prove the nonexistence of \"perfect disentanglers\" for simulating multiple Merlins with one.",
"corpus_id": 337035,
"title": "The Power of Unentanglement"
} | {
"abstract": "Quite complex cryptographic machinery has been developed based on the assumption that one-way functions exist, yet we know of only a few possible such candidates. It is important at this time to find alternative foundations to the design of secure cryptography. We introduce a new model of generalized interactive proofs as a step in this direction. We prove that all NP languages have perfect zero-knowledge proof-systems in this model, without making any intractability assumptions.\nThe generalized interactive-proof model consists of two computationally unbounded and untrusted provers, rather than one, who jointly agree on a strategy to convince the verifier of the truth of an assertion and then engage in a polynomial number of message exchanges with the verifier in their attempt to do so. To believe the validity of the assertion, the verifier must make sure that the two provers can not communicate with each other during the course of the proof process. Thus, the complexity assumptions made in previous work, have been traded for a physical separation between the two provers.\nWe call this new model the multi-prover interactive-proof model, and examine its properties and applicability to cryptography.",
"corpus_id": 11008365,
"title": "Multi-prover interactive proofs: how to remove intractability assumptions"
} | {
"abstract": "We use the powerful tools of counting complexity and generic oracles to help understand the limitations of the complexity of quantum computation. We show several results for the probabilistic quantum class BQP. BQP is low for PP, i.e., PP/sup BQP/=PP. There exists a relativized world where P=BQP and the polynomial-time hierarchy is infinite. There exists a relativized world where BQP does not have complete sets. There exists a relativized world where P=BQP but P/spl ne/UP/spl cap/coUP and one-way functions exist. This gives a relativized answer to an open question of Simon.",
"corpus_id": 42516312,
"score": 2,
"title": "Complexity limitations on quantum computation"
} |
{
"abstract": "DNN accelerators are often developed and evaluated in isolation without considering the cross-stack, system-level effects in real-world environments. This makes it difficult to appreciate the impact of Systemon-Chip (SoC) resource contention, OS overheads, and programming-stack inefficiencies on overall performance/energy-efficiency. To address this challenge, we present Gemmini, an open-source, full-stack DNN accelerator generator. Gemmini generates a wide design-space of efficient ASIC accelerators from a flexible architectural template, together with flexible programming stacks and full SoCs with shared resources that capture system-level effects. Gemmini-generated accelerators have also been fabricated, delivering up to three orders-of-magnitude speedups over high-performance CPUs on various DNN benchmarks.",
"corpus_id": 235457040,
"title": "Gemmini: Enabling Systematic Deep-Learning Architecture Evaluation via Full-Stack Integration"
} | {
"abstract": "Hardware acceleration is an enabler for ubiquitous and efficient deep learning. With hardware accelerators being introduced in datacenter and edge devices, it is time to acknowledge that hardware specialization is central to the deep learning system stack. This technical report presents the Versatile Tensor Accelerator (VTA), an open, generic, and customizable deep learning accelerator design. VTA is a programmable accelerator that exposes a RISC-like programming abstraction to describe operations at the tensor level. We designed VTA to expose the most salient and common characteristics of mainstream deep learning accelerators, such as tensor operations, DMA load/stores, and explicit compute/memory arbitration. VTA is more than a standalone accelerator design: it's an end-to-end solution that includes drivers, a JIT runtime, and an optimizing compiler stack based on TVM. The current release of VTA includes a behavioral hardware simulator, as well as the infrastructure to deploy VTA on low-cost FPGA development boards for fast prototyping. By extending the TVM stack with a customizable, and open source deep learning hardware accelerator design, we are exposing a transparent end-to-end deep learning stack from the high-level deep learning framework, down to the actual hardware design and implementation. This forms a truly end-to-end, from software-to-hardware open source stack for deep learning systems.",
"corpus_id": 49672003,
"title": "VTA: An Open Hardware-Software Stack for Deep Learning"
} | {
"abstract": "There is a growing interest in over-the-top (OTT) dynamic adaptive streaming over Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) (DASH) services. In mobile DASH, a client controls the streaming rate and the base station in the mobile network decides on the resource allocation. Different from the majority of previous works that focus on client-based rate adaptation mechanisms, this paper investigates the mobile network potential for enhancing the user quality-of-experience (QoE) in multiuser OTT DASH. Specifically, we first present proactive and reactive QoE optimization approaches for adapting the adaptive HTTP video delivery in an long-term evolution network. We then show, using subjective experiments, that by taking a proactive role in determining the transmission and streaming rates, the network operator can provide a better video quality and a fairer QoE across the streaming users. Furthermore, we consider the playout buffer time of the clients and propose a novel playout buffer-dependent approach that determines for each client the streaming rate for future video segments according to its buffer time and the achievable QoE under current radio conditions. In addition, we show that by jointly solving for the streaming and transmission rates, the wireless network resources are more efficiently allocated among the users and substantial gains in the user perceived video quality can be achieved.",
"corpus_id": 6084715,
"score": -1,
"title": "QoE-Based Traffic and Resource Management for Adaptive HTTP Video Delivery in LTE"
} |
{
"abstract": "BACKGROUND\nAllopurinol reduces oxidative stress and interacts with purinergic signalling systems important in bone metabolism and muscle function. We assessed whether allopurinol use was associated with a reduced incidence of hip fracture in older people.\n\n\nMETHODS\nAnalysis of prospective, routinely-collected health and social care data on patients undergoing health and social work assessment in a single geographical area over a 12year period. Exposure to allopurinol was derived from linked community prescribing data, and hospitalisation for hip fracture and comorbid disease was derived from linked hospitalisation data. Fine and Gray modelling was used to model time to hip fracture accounting for the competing risk of death, incorporating previous use of allopurinol, cumulative exposure to allopurinol as a time dependent variable, and covariate adjustments.\n\n\nRESULTS\n17,308 patients were alive at the time of first social work assessment without previous hip fracture; the mean age was 73years. 10,171 (59%) were female, and 1155 (8%) had at least one exposure to allopurinol. 618 (3.6%) sustained a hip fracture, and 4226 (24%) died during a mean follow-up of 7.2years. In fully-adjusted analyses, each year of allopurinol exposure conferred a hazard ratio of 1.01 (95% CI 0.99, 1.02; p=0.37) for hip fracture and 1.00 (0.99, 1.01; p=0.47) for death. Previous use of allopurinol conferred a hazard ratio of 0.76 (0.45, 1.26; p=0.28) for hip fracture and 1.13 (0.99, 1.29; p=0.07) for death.\n\n\nCONCLUSION\nGreater cumulative use of allopurinol was not associated with a reduced risk of hip fracture or death in this cohort.",
"corpus_id": 3700202,
"title": "Association between allopurinol use and hip fracture in older patients."
} | {
"abstract": "Allopurinol and its active metabolite, oxypurinol are widely used in the treatment of gout and hyperuricemia. They inhibit xanthine oxidase (XO) an enzyme in the purine degradation pathway that converts xanthine to uric acid. This investigation examined the effect of allopurinol and oxypurinol on bone formation, cell number and viability, gene expression and enzyme activity in differentiating and mature, bone-forming osteoblasts. Although mRNA expression remained relatively constant, XO activity decreased over time with mature osteoblasts displaying reduced levels of uric acid (20% decrease). Treatment with allopurinol and oxypurinol (0.1–1 µM) reduced XO activity by up to 30%. At these concentrations, allopurinol and oxypurinol increased bone formation by osteoblasts ~4-fold and ~3-fold, respectively. Cell number and viability were unaffected. Both drugs increased tissue non-specific alkaline phosphatase (TNAP) activity up to 65%. Osteocalcin and TNAP mRNA expression was increased, 5-fold and 2-fold, respectively. Expression of NPP1, the enzyme responsible for generating the mineralisation inhibitor, pyrophosphate, was decreased 5-fold. Col1α1 mRNA expression and soluble collagen levels were unchanged. Osteoclast formation and resorptive activity were not affected by treatment with allopurinol or oxypurinol. Our data suggest that inhibition of XO activity promotes osteoblast differentiation, leading to increased bone formation in vitro.",
"corpus_id": 13186914,
"title": "Allopurinol and oxypurinol promote osteoblast differentiation and increase bone formation"
} | {
"abstract": "Liver transplantation is an expensive surgical procedure. In 1988, the median procedure charge was $145,795. Charges varied according to numerous prognostic variables. Insurance reimbursement often fell short of billed charges. Nonetheless, relative to other medical and surgical procedures, liver transplantation is cost-effective.",
"corpus_id": 5862165,
"score": 1,
"title": "An economic analysis of liver transplantation. Costs, insurance coverage, and reimbursement."
} |
{
"abstract": "The number of studies in the field of adipose tissue biology has increased exponentially over the last decade. This shift in research focus is primarily driven by the tremendous increase in the prevalence of obesity and related chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Adipose tissue is a fascinating and complex organ, with marked effects on whole-body physiology. Intriguingly, expansion of adipose tissue does not necessarily translate into increased metabolic and cardiovascular disease risk. A proportion of obese individuals seems to be relatively protected against worsening of metabolic health (1), suggesting that adipose tissue dysfunction, rather than the amount of fat mass, may be a key factor in the pathophysiology of obesity-related metabolic and cardiovascular diseases (2–4). It is widely accepted that impairments in adipose tissue lipid metabolism, a decreased adipose tissue blood flow (ATBF) and an increased production of pro-inflammatory cytokines by hypertrophic adipocytes and infiltrating adaptive and innate immune cells are characteristics of dysfunctional adipose tissue in obesity (2, 5). These impairments not only induce insulin resistance locally in the adipose tissue but also have detrimental effects at the whole-body level, thereby affecting metabolic health. The reason for this is that adipose tissue dysfunction in obesity is accompanied by lipid spillover in the circulation and subsequent lipid accumulation in non-adipose tissues (ectopic fat storage), and may contribute to systemic low-grade inflammation, thereby accelerating the development and progression of obesity-related insulin resistance and chronic metabolic diseases (Figure (Figure1)1) (2). \n \n \n \nFigure 1 \n \nAdipose tissue dysfunction in obesity is related to impaired metabolic health. A long-term positive energy balance, leading to body weight gain, will increase adipocyte size. Adipocyte hypertrophy in obesity is accompanied by disturbances in lipid metabolism ... \n \n \n \n \nAdipose Tissue Oxygen Tension in Human Obesity \nSince adipose tissue dysfunction has been recognized as a key process in the pathophysiology of obesity-related disorders (2, 5), the number of studies aimed at identifying the trigger of adipose tissue dysfunction in obesity has increased substantially. A prevailing concept is that an insufficient amount of oxygen within adipose tissue, commonly referred to as “adipose tissue hypoxia,” may underlie adipose tissue dysfunction in obesity (6, 7). \n \nAdipose tissue hypoxia in obesity: The concept \nIt has been postulated that adipose tissue angiogenesis is insufficient to maintain normoxia in the entire fat depot during the progressive development of obesity (8). In other words, a reduced supply of oxygen to the tissue has been proposed to instigate adipose tissue dysfunction. Indeed, a lower expression of angiogenic genes (e.g., VEGF) and lower capillary density have been found in abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue of obese as compared to lean individuals (9, 10). The net result of structural and functional properties of the adipose tissue vasculature determines tissue blood flow. A consistent observation made by our lab and others is that fasting and postprandial ATBF is decreased in obese insulin resistant versus lean insulin sensitive subjects (9, 11–13), indicating that oxygen delivery to adipose tissue is indeed impaired in obesity. We have recently demonstrated, for the first time, that both pharmacological (local administration of vasoactive agents into adipose tissue) and physiological (oral glucose drink) manipulation of ATBF induce concomitant alterations in adipose tissue oxygen partial pressure (AT PO2) in humans (9), indicating that adipose tissue oxygen supply indeed affects AT PO2. A second argument that has been put forward to develop the concept of adipose tissue hypoxia in obesity is that the diameter of hypertrophic adipocytes in obesity exceeds the normal diffusion distance of oxygen across tissues (100–200 μm) (14). However, in human adipose tissue, there seems to be only a very small proportion of adipocytes with a diameter >100 μm (9, 15, 16). Therefore, the significance of reduced oxygen diffusion from the capillaries to hypertrophic fat cells in obese humans can be questioned.",
"corpus_id": 1199942,
"title": "Adipose Tissue Dysfunction and Impaired Metabolic Health in Human Obesity: A Matter of Oxygen?"
} | {
"abstract": "Backgroud: Adipose tissue has emerged as an important endocrine regulator by secreting hormones referred to as adipokines. Recent studies showed that adipose tissue considerably responds to hypoxia. Although the impact of white adipose tissue on regulative processes is established, the importance of brown adipose tissue in adults has emerged just recently. Methods: Brown (BA) and white adipocytes (WA) were cultured either in the presence of chemical hypoxia-mimetics or under hypoxic atmosphere of 1% oxygen. Expression of hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) was assessed by western blot. The expression levels of several known HIF-1α-regulated proteins [vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), leptin, adiponectin, and angiotensinogen (AGT)] were quantified. Results: Both chemical hypoxia-mimetics and physical hypoxia led to increased nuclear HIF-1α expression and to decreased cytoplasmatic adiponectin in both cell types. In contrast, VEGF and AGT expression did not change upon hypoxic stimulation. Leptin was exclusively detectable in WA, while uncoupling-protein 1 (UCP-1) was expressed in BA only. Conclusions: WA and BA are sensitive to hypoxia, in which HIF-1α expression is induced. Protein expression of adiponectin is hypoxia-dependent, whereas AGT, VEGF, leptin, and UCP-1 expression do not change secondary to hypoxia.",
"corpus_id": 21181806,
"title": "Adipokine expression in brown and white adipocytes in response to hypoxia"
} | {
"abstract": "Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been suggested to represent the main cause of tumour progression, metastasis and drug resistance. Therefore, these cells can be an appropriate target to improve cancer treatment. A novel biodegradable brush copolymeric micelle was synthesized by the ring-opening polymerization (ROP) and reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. The obtained micelle was used for co-delivery of the anticancer drug docetaxel (DTX) and Chrysin (CHS) as an adjuvant on the CSCs originated from Human colon adenocarcinoma cell line. Cancer stem cells were enriched by MACS technique and characterized by flow cytometry analysis against CD133 marker. Data demonstrated that the micelles harbouring DTX@CHS had potential to reduce cancer stem cell viability compared to free DTX@CHS, single-drug formulations and the control group (p < 0.05). The combination effect of DTX and CHS formulated in micelle was synergistic in CSCs (CI < 1). The reactive oxygen species content was shown to increase after cell treatment with DTX@CHS loaded on micelles (p < 0.05). DTX@CHS-micelles inhibited cancer stem cell migration rate in vitro (p < 0.05), indicating an impaired metastasis activity. In conclusion, the synthesized DOX@CHS-micelles can be applied in the introduction of anticancer agents to resistant cancer population by further investigations.",
"corpus_id": 204850799,
"score": 1,
"title": "Chrysin and Docetaxel Loaded Biodegradable Micelle for Combination Chemotherapy of Cancer Stem Cell"
} |
{
"abstract": "1) The female leadership styles in the 21st century have been established as a major axis. Especially, the fashion of female politicians being exposed to the public during political activities has become a main element of a measure displaying visually female leadership styles in the 21st century and image making as well. Consequently, this study conducted qualitative research through the interview method to figure out regular voters’ thoughts in depth about images being required for female political leaders and the fashion maximizing those images, and drew the de-tailed design elements. Suggesting the clothes design reflecting those elements for female political leaders by 3D virtual clothing works emerging as a new market creating profits related to fashion. The images which female political leaders have to have and were extracted through the interviews in this study, showed as feminine, strong leader, honest, and intelligent images, and al-so it was shown that female political leaders displaying proper images depending on the circum-stances and using those images in politics rather than sticking to a fashion identity were favored by interviewees. The present study intends to contribute to being used as basic data of various research and fashion items of virtual reality and establishment of successful fashion strategy for female political leaders.",
"corpus_id": 157933081,
"title": "A Study about Fashion Designs to Establish the voter’s favored Female Political Leader’s Image through Survey Analysis"
} | {
"abstract": "The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of popular culture in fashion politics phenomenon of leader. As study methods the literature study concerning fashion phenomenon and nature of popular culture were used for theoretical background and visual data from magazine, news paper, and internet were used for exploratory study. The results of this study are as follows. First, fashion politics phenomenon of leader in fashion merchandising through the marketing strategy is characterized as commercial profit. These characteristics enable the fashion industry and popular culture affect the formation to provide opportunity. Second, the fashion politics phenomenon of leader projected through mass media are the fashion icons and strong role models that are copied by consumers, conformity the popular, set a powerful fashion trend. The conformity by the mechanism of the interaction of the public will contribute to the formation of popular culture. Third, Semotics symbolism expressed in the fashion politics phenomenon of the leader, the intended message is communicated to the public by creating a positive image. Positive image of the leader of the public support and acceptance is the power to create.",
"corpus_id": 154394602,
"title": "The Influence of Popular Culture in the Fashion Politics Phenomenon of Leader"
} | {
"abstract": "Publisher Summary The chapter provides a brief glimpse on the various theoretical and empirical approaches taken to study person categories and categorization. The chapter provides a comprehensive and representative survey of the literature on person perception and social cognition emerging from other laboratories. Interest in the issues of category accessibility has been renewed recently as cognitive-social psychologists attempt to understand the person categorization process. The chapter discusses the nature of categories at different level of abstractions. The prototype approach, prototypicality rules (full view and the restricted view), and from prototype to social behavior is also discussed. Knowledge about person prototypes not only makes information processing easier, it also helps the perceiver to plan behavior in social interactions . It is easier to process information about characters that fit well with and are, therefore, prototypical of shared beliefs about various personality types. Character prototypicality was manipulated in a free-recall and personality impression paradigm through variations in the consistency of a character's identification with preexisting beliefs about two personality-type categories-extraversion and introversion. The chapter discusses the purpose, the goals and functions of person categorization, the nature of categories at different levels of abstraction, and determining prototypicality in detail.",
"corpus_id": 143166731,
"score": 2,
"title": "Prototypes in Person Perception1"
} |
{
"abstract": "Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) is a glycoprotein that transmits its signals via a G protein-coupled receptor. As yet, not many targets of FSH have been identified, able to justify the critical role of this hormone on reproductive events. On the other hand, among the biological activities of the endocannabinoid anandamide (AEA), growing interest has been attracted by the regulation of mammalian fertility. Recently, we have shown that treatment of mouse primary Sertoli cells with FSH enhances the activity of the AEA hydrolase (fatty acid amide hydrolase, FAAH), whereas it does not affect the enzymes that synthesize AEA, nor the level of the AEA-binding type-2 cannabinoid and type-1 vanilloid receptors. In addition, diacylglycerol lipase and monoacylglycerol lipase, which, respectively, synthesize and degrade the other major endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoylglycerol, were not regulated by FSH. Interestingly, FAAH stimulation by FSH occurred through protein kinase A and aromatase-dependent pathways that were able to modulate FAAH activity (via phosphorylation of accessory proteins) and faah gene expression (via an estrogen response element on the promoter region). Taken together, these data identify FAAH as the only target of FSH among the elements of the endocannabinoid system, with a critical impact on Sertoli cell proliferation, and thus spermatogenesis and male reproduction.",
"corpus_id": 667370,
"title": "Modulation of the endocannabinoid-degrading enzyme fatty acid amide hydrolase by follicle-stimulating hormone."
} | {
"abstract": "Spermatogenesis is a complex process in which male germ cells undergo a mitotic phase followed by meiosis and by a morphogenetic process to form mature spermatozoa. Spermatogenesis is under the control of gonadotropins, steroid hormones and it is modulated by a complex network of autocrine and paracrine factors. These modulators ensure the correct progression of germ cell differentiation to form mature spermatozoa. Recently, it has been pointed out the relevance of endocannabinoids as critical modulators of male reproduction. Endocannabinoids are natural lipids able to bind to cannabinoid receptors and whose levels are regulated by specific biosynthetic and degradative enzymes. Together with their receptors and metabolic enzymes, they form the “endocannabinoid system” (ECS). In male reproductive tracts, they affect Sertoli cell activities, Leydig cell proliferation, germ cell differentiation, sperm motility, capacitation, and acrosome reaction. The ECS interferes with the pituitary-gonadal axis, and an intricate crosstalk between ECS and steroid hormones has been highlighted. This mini-review will focus on the involvement of the ECS in the control of spermatogenesis and on the interaction between ECS and steroid hormones.",
"corpus_id": 18245698,
"title": "The Endocannabinoid System and Spermatogenesis"
} | {
"abstract": "Ovarian steroids, estrogen and progesterone, influence the sensitivity of certain neural processes to cannabinoid treatment by modulation of brain dopaminergic activity. We examined the effects of the active ingredient of cannabis, Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), on sexual behavior in female rats and its influence on steroid hormone receptors and neurotransmitters in the facilitation of sexual receptivity. Our results revealed that the facilitatory effect of THC was inhibited by antagonists to both progesterone and dopamine D(1) receptors. To test further the idea that progesterone receptors (PR) and/or dopamine receptors (D(1)R) in the hypothalamus are required for THC-facilitated sexual behavior in rodents, antisense and sense oligonucleotides to PR and D(1)R were administered intracerebroventricularly (ICV) into the third cerebral ventricle of ovariectomized, estradiol benzoate-primed rats. Progesterone- and THC-facilitated sexual behavior was inhibited in animals treated with antisense oligonucleotides to PR or to D(1)R. Antagonists to cannabinoid receptor-1 subtype (CB(1)), but not to cannabinoid receptor-2 subtype (CB(2)) inhibited progesterone- and dopamine-facilitated sexual receptivity in female rats. Our studies indicate that THC acts on the CB(1) cannabinoid receptor to initiate a signal transduction response that requires both membrane dopamine and intracellular progesterone receptors for effective induction of sexual behavior.",
"corpus_id": 8342296,
"score": 2,
"title": "Progesterone receptor and dopamine receptors are required in Delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol modulation of sexual receptivity in female rats."
} |
{
"abstract": "Background The comparatively evaluate the three surgical treatment modalities namely cryosurgery, diode and CO2 laser surgery in terms of healing outcomes on the day of surgery, first and second week post operatively and recurrence at the end of 18 months was assessed. Material and Methods Thirty selected patients were divided randomly into three groups. Each group comprising of ten patients were subjected to one of the three modalities of treatment namely cryosurgery, diode laser or CO2 laser surgery for ablation of OL. Obtained data was analyzed using mainly using Chi-square and Anova tests. Results Study showed statistical significant differences (p > 0.05) for evaluation parameters like pain, edema and scar. The parameters like infection, recurrence, bleeding showed no statistical significance. Pain was significantly higher in CO2 laser surgery group as compared with diode laser group. There was no recurrence observed at the end of the 6 months follow up period in all the three study groups. Conclusions Observations from the study highlights that all three surgical modalities used in this study were effective for treatment of OL, and the overall summation of the results of the study showed that laser therapy (CO2 and Diode) seems to offer better clinically significant results than cryotherapy. Key words:Oral premalignant lesion, leukoplakia, cryosurgery, CO2 laser surgery, diode laser surgery.",
"corpus_id": 2045789,
"title": "A comparative evaluation: Oral leukoplakia surgical management using diode laser, CO2 laser, and cryosurgery"
} | {
"abstract": "The lack of myofibroblasts, cells responsible for wound contraction, has been suggested to be the underlying factor to the clinically observed minimal contraction in CO2 laser wounds. However, the histologic background to this phenomenon in laser excisions has not been thoroughly clarified. Therefore, we analyzed the expression of myofibroblasts in healing laser excisions and control excisions made by scalpel.",
"corpus_id": 19123846,
"title": "Myofibroblasts in healing laser excision wounds"
} | {
"abstract": "Capillary proliferation and inflammatory cell infiltration were evaluated in healing laser and scalpel incision wounds in rat tongue mucosa in 22 Sprague-Dawley rats for a period of 28 days. The incisions were made in parallel on both sides of the midline of the tongue. Specimens for immunohistochemical and histologic examination were taken immediately, 6 h, 2, 11, and 28 days after the surgery. The microscopic inspection of the sections stained immunohistologically for factor VIII-related antigen, a marker for endothelial cells, suggested a smaller amount of capillaries immediately and during the early healing phase in the vicinity of the laser incisions when compared with the scalpel incisions. The proliferation of capillaries during healing was also retarded at the lasered sites. The microscopic inspection of the histologic specimens showed that the inflammatory cell infiltration appeared slower but was more prominent in the healing laser wounds than in the healing scalpel incision wounds.",
"corpus_id": 23254468,
"score": 2,
"title": "A comparative study of healing of laser and scalpel incision wounds in rat oral mucosa."
} |
{
"abstract": "High-specific-power electrical machines are a key enabling technology of electric aircraft propulsion. The machine specific power (power-to-weight ratio) is usually constrained by the thermal and mechanical properties of material. To maximize machine specific power, electrical, thermal and mechanical capabilities have to be considered together. In this paper, an efficient multi-physics model of a high-frequency air-core Halbach-array PM motor, has been developed for the use of a large-scale genetic-algorithm-based optimization. The detailed electromagnetic (EM) and thermal models, and finite-element-analysis (FEA) validation, are presented and discussed. Effects of key machine sizing parameters, such as speed, rotor volume, magnetic loading, and electric loading, in the multi-disciplines and objectives optimization, will be presented and discussed.",
"corpus_id": 40535476,
"title": "Multi-physics optimization for high-frequency air-core permanent-magnet motor of aircraft application"
} | {
"abstract": "This paper presents a practical approach to model thermal effects in directly cooled electric machines. The main focus is put on modeling the heat transfer in the stator winding and to the cooling system, which are the two critical parts of the studied machines from a thermal point of view. A multisegment structure is proposed that divides the stator, winding, and cooling system into a number of angular segments. Thereby, the circumferential temperature variation due to the nonuniform distribution of the coolant in the cooling channels can be predicted. Additionally, partial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are carried out to model the coolant flow in the cooling channels and also on the outer surface of the end winding bodies. The CFD simulation results are used as input to the analytical models describing the convective heat transfer to the coolant. The modeling approach is attractive due to its simplicity since CFD simulations of the complete machine are avoided. The proposed thermal model is evaluated experimentally on two directly cooled induction machines where the stator winding is impregnated using varnish and epoxy, respectively. A good correspondence between the predicted and measured temperatures under different cooling conditions and loss levels is obtained.",
"corpus_id": 28013698,
"title": "Thermal Modeling of Directly Cooled Electric Machines Using Lumped Parameter and Limited CFD Analysis"
} | {
"abstract": "In this paper, an advanced High Voltage (HV) IGBT technology, which is focused on low loss and is the ultimate device concept for HV IGBT, is presented. CSTBTTM technology utilizing “ULSI technology” and “Light Punch-Through (LPT) II technology” (i.e. narrow Wide Cell Pitch LPT(II)-CSTBT(III)) for the first time demonstrates breaking through the limitation of HV IGBT's characteristics with voltage ratings ranging from 2500 V up to 6500 V. The improved significant trade-off characteristic between on-state voltage (V CE (sat)) and turn-off loss (E OFF ) is achieved by means of a “narrow Wide Cell Pitch CSTBT(III) cell”. In addition, this device achieves a wide operating junction temperature (@218 ∼ 448K) and excellent short circuit behavior with the new cell and vertical designs. The LPT(II) concept is utilized for ensuring controllable IGBT characteristics and achieving a thin N− drift layer. Our results cover design of the Wide Cell Pitch LPT(II)-CSTBT(III) technology and demonstrate high total performance with a great improvement potential.",
"corpus_id": 1452181,
"score": -1,
"title": "Wide Cell Pitch LPT(II)-CSTBT™(III) technology rating up to 6500 V for low loss"
} |
{
"abstract": "Quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) methods are being adopted in statistical applications due to the increasingly challenging nature of numerical integrals that are now routinely encountered. For integrands with $d$-dimensions and derivatives of order $\\alpha$, an optimal QMC rule converges at a best-possible rate $O(N^{-\\alpha/d})$. However, in applications the value of $\\alpha$ can be unknown and/or a rate-optimal QMC rule can be unavailable. Standard practice is to employ $\\alpha_L$-optimal QMC where the lower bound $\\alpha_L \\leq \\alpha$ is known, but in general this does not exploit the full power of QMC. One solution is to trade-off numerical integration with functional approximation. This strategy is explored herein and shown to be well-suited to modern statistical computation. A challenging application to robotic arm data demonstrates a substantial variance reduction in predictions for mechanical torques.",
"corpus_id": 1566022,
"title": "Control Functionals for Quasi-Monte Carlo Integration"
} | {
"abstract": "Despite the fundamental nature of the inhomogeneous Poisson process in the theory and application of stochastic processes, and its attractive generalizations (e.g. Cox process), few tractable nonparametric modeling approaches of intensity functions exist, especially when observed points lie in a high-dimensional space. In this paper we develop a new, computationally tractable Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space (RKHS) formulation for the inhomogeneous Poisson process. We model the square root of the intensity as an RKHS function. Whereas RKHS models used in supervised learning rely on the so-called representer theorem, the form of the inhomogeneous Poisson process likelihood means that the representer theorem does not apply. However, we prove that the representer theorem does hold in an appropriately transformed RKHS, guaranteeing that the optimization of the penalized likelihood can be cast as a tractable finite-dimensional problem. The resulting approach is simple to implement, and readily scales to high dimensions and large-scale datasets.",
"corpus_id": 4829100,
"title": "Poisson intensity estimation with reproducing kernels"
} | {
"abstract": "A number of compute-intensive applications suffer from performance loss due to the lack of instruction-level parallelism in sequences of dependent instructions. This is particularly accurate on wide-issue architectures with large register banks, when the memory hierarchy (locality and bandwidth) is not the dominant bottleneck. We consider two real applications from computational biology and from cryptanalysis, characterized by long sequences of dependent instructions, irregular control-flow and intricate scalar and array dependence patterns. Although these applications exhibit excellent memory locality and branch-prediction behavior, state-of-the-art loop transformations and back-end optimizations are unable to exploit much instruction-level parallelism. We show that good speedups can be achieved through deep jam, a new transformation of the program control- and data-flow. Deep jam combines scalar and array renaming with a generalized form of recursive unroll-and-jam; it brings together independent instructions across irregular control structures, removing memory-based dependences. This optimization contributes to the extraction of fine-grain parallelism in irregular applications. We propose a feedback-directed deep jam algorithm, selecting a jamming strategy, function of the architecture and application characteristics.",
"corpus_id": 10325232,
"score": 1,
"title": "Deep jam: conversion of coarse-grain parallelism to instruction-level and vector parallelism for irregular applications"
} |
{
"abstract": "Franz cells (2-chambered, air/fluid phase static diffusion devices, previously used for the study of drugs across viable human skin) are utilized for the first time to investigate the process of infection of human skin by Schistosoma mansoni cercariae. Skin obtained from cosmetic surgery sources was used in the Franz cells to describe the temporal dynamics of the early interaction of cercariae with skin. At 38 °C, about 50% of cercariae applied in water to the epidermal surface of the skin were irreversibly attached within 1 min and after 5 min about 85% were similarly irrecoverable. The technique also provides the means of following the early penetration path of cercariae by histological methods. Franz cell results on the dynamics of attachment/early penetration have been compared with those obtained using artificial skin equivalents and non-human mammalian skin models in the context of the physical and chemical differences between these systems and viable human skin. It is concluded that Franz cells provide a convenient system for directly investigating the early phases of S. mansoni cercariae interaction with human skin.",
"corpus_id": 2268474,
"title": "The infection of human skin by schistosome cercariae: studies using Franz cells"
} | {
"abstract": "Background Schistosomiasis is one of the most disabling neglected tropical diseases, ranking second in terms of years lived with disability. While treatment with the drug praziquantel can have immediate beneficial effects, reinfection can occur rapidly if people are in contact with cercaria-infested water. Water treatment for schistosomiasis control seeks to eliminate viable cercariae from water, thereby providing safe alternative water supplies for recreational and domestic activities including laundry and bathing. This provision may reduce contact with infested water, which is crucial for reducing reinfection following chemotherapy and cutting schistosome transmission. Methodology A qualitative systematic review was carried out to summarize the existing knowledge on the effectiveness of water treatment in removing or inactivating human schistosome cercariae. Four online databases were searched. Studies were screened and categorized into five water treatment processes: storage, heating, chlorination, filtration, and ultraviolet (UV) disinfection. Conclusions All five water treatment methods can remove or inactivate cercariae in water, and hence produce cercaria-free water. However, reliable design guidelines for treating water do not exist as there are insufficient data. Overall, the review found that cercariae are inactivated when storing water for 10–72 hours (depending on temperature), or with chlorination values of 3–30 mg-min/l. UV fluences between 3–60 mJ/cm2 may significantly damage or kill cercariae, and sand filters with 0.18–0.35 mm grain size have been shown to remove cercariae. This systematic review identified 67 studies about water treatment and schistosomiasis published in the past 106 years. It highlights the many factors that influence the results of water treatment experiments, which include different water quality conditions and methods for measuring key parameters. Variation in these factors limit comparability, and therefore currently available information is insufficient for providing complete water treatment design recommendations.",
"corpus_id": 4929797,
"title": "The effectiveness of water treatment processes against schistosome cercariae: A systematic review"
} | {
"abstract": "Different static properties have been calculated with COMPASS force field for polyacrylamide, poly(2-hydroxyethylacrylate) (HEA), poly(2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate) (HEMA), poly(glycidylmethacrylate) (GMA), polyethylene glycol (PEG), and poly(2,2,2-trifluoroethylmethacrylate) (TFEM). For each polymers, the calculated values were averaged on five equilibrated configurations of amorphous cell composed of one atactic chain containing 100 repeat units. The ranking obtained from the densities calculated at 300 K is TFEM > HEA ≈ xpolycrylamide > HEMA ≈ GMA > PEG. Concerning the glass transition temperature we have obtained polyacrylamide > HEMA ≈ GMA ≈ HEA > PEG, and polyacrylamide > HEMA ≈ HEA > GMA ≈ PEG > TFEM for the bulk modulus. The calculated results, when available, have been compared with experimental data coming from literature.",
"corpus_id": 35274192,
"score": 0,
"title": "Computing thermomechanical properties of dry homopolymers used as raw materials for formulation of biomedical hydrogels"
} |
{
"abstract": "Stem cells have been touted as a potential source of replacement cells for the treatment of severe-to-profoundly deaf individuals, including possible combined therapy with a cochlear implant. The success of such a therapy is dependent on a number of factors, but of critical importance is the functional incorporation of transplanted cells into the peripheral and central auditory systems. In a major breakthrough, Chen and colleagues recently reported the restoration of hearing thresholds by up to 46% following the transplantation of human pluripotent stem cells in a rodent auditory neuropathy model. Improved function was matched with new synapse formation in the peripheral and central aspects of the auditory system. The findings have promising clinical implications for patients with auditory neuropathy. Still to be elucidated are the long-term survival and function of transplanted cells, the precise mechanism by which hearing is restored, and whether further improvement is possible when combined with electrical stimulation from a cochlear implant.",
"corpus_id": 717776,
"title": "Human stem cells ameliorate auditory evoked responses in a model of neuropathy"
} | {
"abstract": "Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) can undergo unlimited self-renewal and are pluripotent, retaining the ability to differentiate into all cell types in the body. As a renewable source of various types of human cells, hESCs hold great therapeutic potential. Although significant advances have been achieved in defining the conditions needed to differentiate hESCs into various types of biologically active cells, many challenges remain in the clinical development of hESC-based cell therapy, such as the immune rejection of allogeneic hESC-derived cells by recipients. Breakthroughs in the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which are reprogrammed from somatic cells with defined factors, raise the hope that autologous cells derived from patient-specific iPSCs can be transplanted without immune rejection. However, recent genomic studies have revealed epigenetic and genetic abnormalities associated with induced pluripotency, a risk of teratomas, and immunogenicity of some iPSC derivatives. These findings have raised safety concerns for iPSC-based therapy. Here, we review recent advances in understanding the genomic and functional stability of human pluripotent stem cells, current challenges to their clinical application and the progress that has been made to overcome these challenges.",
"corpus_id": 12685614,
"title": "Challenges to the clinical application of pluripotent stem cells: towards genomic and functional stability"
} | {
"abstract": "Opsonic activity in sera from 27 military recruits vaccinated with the Norwegian meningococcal serogroup B outer membrane vesicle vaccine was measured as respiratory burst with polymorphonuclear leukocytes as the effector cells and meningococci of the epidemic strain as the target. The results were compared with antimeningococcal IgG antibodies against an outer membrane vesicle coat in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and with serum bactericidal activity. The vaccinees were immunized twice, with a 6-week interval between the two. The serum samples studied were collected at day zero, after 6 weeks, and after 12 weeks. Both serum bactericidal activity and respiratory burst were measured by adding external serum as the complement source. The results revealed a significant increase in specific IgG response, serum bactericidal activity, and respiratory burst after vaccination. We found a highly significant correlation between the responses in all three assays (P < 0.0001). The highest correlation was found between respiratory burst and antimeningococcal IgG response (r = 0.93). This result strongly indicates that respiratory burst is mediated almost exclusively by IgG antibodies. The correlation between antimeningococcal IgG response and serum bactericidal activity was slightly lower (r = 0.83). The correlation between respiratory burst and serum bactericidal activity was further reduced (r = 0.78), and some of the sera revealed a marked preference for only one of the activities. This result means that respiratory burst and serum bactericidal activity in part are induced by different mediators, and to obtain a more complete picture of the potential protective activity, both assays should be applied to survey a vaccine trial.",
"corpus_id": 13034587,
"score": 1,
"title": "Comparison among opsonic activity, antimeningococcal immunoglobulin G response, and serum bactericidal activity against meningococci in sera from vaccinees after immunization with a serogroup B outer membrane vesicle vaccine"
} |
{
"abstract": "Age affects the immune response to vaccination, with individuals at the extremes of age responding poorly. The initial inflammatory response to antigenic materials shapes the subsequent adaptive response and so understanding is required about the effect of age on the profile of acute inflammatory mediators. In this study we measured the local and systemic inflammatory response after influenza vaccination or infection in neonatal, young adult and aged mice. Mice were immunized intramuscularly with inactivated influenza vaccine with and without the adjuvant MF59 and then challenged with H1N1 influenza. Age was the major factor affecting the inflammatory profile after vaccination: neonatal mice had more interleukin‐1α (IL‐1α), C‐reactive protein (CRP) and granulocyte–macrophage colony‐stimulating factor (GMCSF), young adults more tumour necrosis factor‐α (TNF), and elderly mice more interleukin‐1 receptor antagonist (IL‐1RA), IL‐2RA and interferon‐γ‐induced protein 10 (IP10). Notably the addition of MF59 induced IL‐5, granulocyte colony‐stimulating factor (G‐CSF), Keratinocyte Chemotractant (KC) and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP1) in all ages of animals and levels of these cytokines correlated with antibody responses. Age also had an impact on the efficacy of vaccination: neonatal and young adult mice were protected against challenge, but aged mice were not. There were striking differences in the localization of the cytokine response depending on the route of exposure: vaccination led to a high serum response whereas intranasal infection led to a low serum response but a high lung response. In conclusion, we demonstrate that age affects the inflammatory response to both influenza vaccination and infection. These age‐induced differences need to be considered when developing vaccination strategies for different age groups.",
"corpus_id": 207827,
"title": "Inflammatory responses to influenza vaccination at the extremes of age"
} | {
"abstract": "\n Abstract\n \n Organisms respond in multiple ways to microbial infections. Pathogen invasion tipically triggers an inflammatory response where acute phase proteins (APP) have a key role. Pentraxins (PTX) are a family of highly conserved APP that play a part in the host defense against infection. The larger proteins of the family are simply named pentraxins, while c-reactive proteins (CRP) and serum amyloid proteins (SAA, SAP) are known as short pentraxins. Although high APP levels have been broadly associated with bacterial infections, there is a growing body of evidence revealing increased PTX, CRP and SAP expression upon viral infection. Furthermore, CRP, PTX and SAP have shown their potential as diagnostic markers and predictors of disease outcome. Likewise, the measurement of APP levels can be valuable to determine the efficacy of antiviral therapies and vaccines. From the practical point of view, the ability of APP to reduce viral infectivity has been observed in several virus-host models. This has prompted investigation efforts to assess the role of acute phase response proteins as immunoregulatory molecules and their potential as therapeutic reagents. This work aims to present an overview of the APP response to viral infections reviewing the current knowledge in the field.\n \n",
"corpus_id": 198134792,
"title": "Acute phase protein response to viral infection and vaccination"
} | {
"abstract": "We hypothesized that brain activation during encoding and retrieval of visual material differed between epilepsy patients with hippocampal sclerosis (HS) and healthy controls. Eleven patients with epilepsy and HS and nine age- and education-matched control subjects were tested during functional MRI recording. A three-block design for visuospatial memory encoding and retrieval and an interference interval longer than 1 minute without memory tasks were used. All subjects revealed parietal, occipital, and prefrontal activation patterns during encoding. Interference revealed parietal more than occipital activation, whereas retrieval revealed asymmetrical frontal and parietal activation. Patients demonstrated a relative increase in occipitoparietal versus frontal cortical activation as compared with controls. Memory performance did not differ between patients and controls. The increased activation in occipitoparietal versus frontal areas in the patients suggests cortical reorganization of visuospatial recognition memory in epilepsy patients with HS. The study is limited by other factors that may contribute to the results, for example, antiepileptic drugs, effects of greater cognitive effort allocated in patients than controls, and possibly subclinical epileptic activity. However, normal visuospatial memory performance in our patients with HS suggests successful network plasticity.",
"corpus_id": 1780008,
"score": 1,
"title": "Frontoparietal activation during delayed visuospatial recall in patients with epilepsy due to hippocampal sclerosis"
} |
{
"abstract": "Benzene series (BTEX) pollutants are toxic and can pose high ecological and human health risk. BTEX pollutants can accumulate on urban road surfaces during dry periods and then be washed-off by stormwater runoff into receiving waters, degrading water quality. In this context, designing effective stormwater treatment systems to remove BTEX pollutants before entering urban water bodies is essential to safeguard urban water environment and this is closely dependent on an in-depth understanding of characteristics of pollutant loads accumulated on urban catchment surfaces. This study investigated BTEX pollutant load characteristics through collecting samples on 17 urban roads and three petrol station sites using dry and wet vacuuming method. The research outcomes showed that petrol station sites had the highest BTEX pollutant loads (mean value was 8.41μg/g) than common urban roads (6.61μg/g, 4.38μg/g and 4.60μg/g for industrial, commercial and residential roads). This highlighted a high potential of petrol station areas to export BTEX pollutants to stormwater runoff. It is also noted that industrial development plays the more important role in influencing BTEX pollutant loads than other factors including total daily traffic volume, daily heavy-duty vehicle volume, daily light-duty vehicle volume, residential development, commercial development and road texture depth. Higher industrial land use fraction led to higher BTEX pollutant loads while the spatial variability of BTEX pollutant loads generally decreased with increasing industrial land use fraction. These outcomes can assist on improving stormwater quality modelling approaches and adequately understanding the modelling results.",
"corpus_id": 13683478,
"title": "Understanding benzene series (BTEX) pollutant load characteristics in the urban environment."
} | {
"abstract": "Benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene isomers (BTEX) are volatile organic air pollutants of concern which arise from natural and anthropogenic sources. This study aims to determine and evaluate the BTEX levels in ambient air in selected areas of Malaysia, namely: Kuala Lumpur (KL-urban), Penang (PG-urban), Bangi (BG-suburban), Langkawi (LGK-suburban) and the Danum Valley (DV-rural). Active sampling with sorbent tubes was applied in this study and samples were analysed using thermal desorption (TD) coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The results show that the urban area of KL had the highest ΣBTEX (40.36 ± 6.99 μg/m3) followed by PG (30.82 ± 8.06 μg/m3). ΣBTEX concentrations in the suburban areas of LGK and BG were measured as 20.22 ± 11.42 μg/m3 and 12.36 ± 2.26 μg/m3, respectively. The rural area of DV had the lowest concentration of ΣBTEX (5.55 ± 2.54 μg/m3). The average toluene to benzene (T:B) ratio at KL, PG and LG were found to be within the range of 2.00–5.00 thus indicating vehicle emissions as the main source. The benzene level at both KL (7.43 μg/m3) and PG (5.12 μg/m3) were found to be slightly higher than the annual benchmark of 5 μg/m3 as suggested by the European Union (EU). The results of health risk assessments found that the cancer risk (CR) based on benzene concentrations in urban, suburban and rural areas was > 10−6 thus indicating a link between human cancer risks and ambient benzene exposure.",
"corpus_id": 104412734,
"title": "Ambient BTEX levels over urban, suburban and rural areas in Malaysia"
} | {
"abstract": "The paper presents a novel concept of lightweight and inherently safe robotic systems for assisting the locomotion recovery therapy and training. This concept, referred to as STRING-MAN, is established on string-puppet idea and utilizes modular wire robot components and advanced artificial muscles drives. An overview of the system's fundamental components, such as mechanical structure, patient-machine interface, sensory systems, control algorithms, etc., is given in the paper. The results of initial experiments clearly demonstrate the benefits and potential of new concept. Finally further development of STRING-MAN idea towards practical and inherently safe robotic rehabilitation assistants has also been presented.",
"corpus_id": 14197482,
"score": 1,
"title": "STRING-MAN: Wire-robot technology for safe, flexible and human-friendly gait rehabilitation"
} |
{
"abstract": "The seemingly unending series of papers from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study and now the report of the Million Women Study (MWS) from the UK1 have raised serious concerns about the merits of adding progestogen to estrogen in hormone therapy (HT) regimens. Before the WHI study, there was strong evidence that HT was associated with a risk of breast cancer, but there were few data on the possible different effects of estrogen and progestogen and the various combinations or routes of administration. The combined estrogen and progestogen (CEPT) arm of the WHI study was stopped in June 2002 because of an unacceptable increased risk of breast cancer2, but the unopposed arm (conjugated equine estrogens (CEE) 0.625 mg daily) continues without apparently a significant increase in breast cancer risk. Further reports from the WHI this year have indicated that CEPT use was associated with the development of larger and more advanced tumors than in the placebo group3, which is contrary to some previous reports. The MWS is a large, observational study that examines the effects of specific types of HT on the incidence of and mortality from breast cancer in 828 923 postmenopausal women in the UK over a 5-year period. The National Health Service Breast Screening Programme, which invites all women in the UK aged 50–64 years for routine screening once every 3 years, was used to recruit the women. The average age of the women at recruitment was 55.9 years, with a mean follow-up period of 2.6 years for analysis of the cancer instance and 4.1 years for analyses of mortality. Overall, 50% of the women were ever-users of HT. The relative risk of breast cancer was significantly raised for current users of estrogen-only preparations (1.30, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.21–1.40; p < 0.0001), estrogen/progestogen combinations (2.00, 95% CI 1.88–2.12; p < 0.0001), and tibolone (1.45, 95% CI 1.25–1.68; p < 0.0001). However, the magnitude of the relative risk of breast cancer varied significantly between these three HT types (p < 0.0001) and was substantially greater in users of CEPT than for other preparations. As with previous reports, the risk for current users was increased with total duration of HT, but was evident earlier than in previous reports at 1–2 years from starting treatment and past users were not at increased risk. The risk of dying from breast cancer was also increased (1.22, 95% CI 1.00–1.48; p < 0.05). Because this study was so large, it was able to analyze the effects of different types of HT. There was no difference in the risk of cancer with the type of estrogen (CEE or estradiol) or the route of administration – oral, transdermal or subcutaneous implant, or with progestogen – medroxyprogesterone acetate, norethisterone, norgestrel or levonorgestrel. There was no difference in risk between sequential and continuous combined regimens. As with the WHI reports, much emphasis and publicity have been given to the relative risks and percentage increases of 30–200%, whereas absolute figures provide a more suitable perspective of the risk. The additional cancers associated with estrogen-only were 1.5 after 5 years and 5 after 10 years, and for CEPT the figures are 6 and 19, respectively per 1000 women by the age of 65 years. Or put another way, a doctor would need to give CEPT to 116 women for 5 years, or 53 women for 10 years, to see one extra case of breast cancer. These figures were derived, not by comparing breast cancer incidence in users and non-users in the study, but by estimating the cumulative incidence of cancers from previously published historical rates of cancer in developed countries. As all women in the MWS had mammography and CLIMACTERIC 2003;6:177–179",
"corpus_id": 1125071,
"title": "Is combined estrogen/progestogen hormone therapy worth the risk?"
} | {
"abstract": "ZusammenfassungDie Indikationen für die Messungen der Knochendichte bei der Frau während der Postmenopause aus Vorgeschichte und Befund werden eingehend erörtert. Die verschiedenen Möglichkeiten der quantitativen Messverfahren wie DXA, periphere Computertomographie und Ultraschallmethodik werden in ihrer klinischen Brauchbarkeit für die gynäkologische Praxis und in ihrem prädiktiven Wert für das reale Frakturrisiko gewürdigt.AbstractThe indications for a measurement of bone density in women during peri-postmenopause and senium on the basis of anamnesis and clinical findings are discussed. The different possibilities for making quantitative bone density measurements, such as DXA, peripheral computer tomography and ultrasonography, are considered in terms of their clinical usefulness in gynaecological practice and for their predictive value of the real risk of future fractures.",
"corpus_id": 35046543,
"title": "Knochendichtebestimmung in der Menopause"
} | {
"abstract": "One-hundred-and-seventy-one patients with invasive lobular carcinomas have been matched with 342 patients with non-lobular invasive carcinomas for lymph node stage, tumour differentiation and patient age on a one to two basis. The two groups were investigated for differences in prognostic factors, survival, disease-free interval, metastatic patterns, receptor status, response to endocrine therapy after distant metastases and bilateral cancer rates. Patients with lobular carcinomas survived significantly longer than patients with carcinomas of no specific type, particularly in survival from the time of diagnosis of distant metastases; lobular carcinomas more often responded to endocrine treatment for systemic disease. Lobular cancers had a significantly higher rate of local recurrence, particularly after treatment by excision and breast irradiation. No differences were found between the two groups with respect to regional or distant recurrence rates, distant organ involvement patterns, distant metastatic free intervals and receptor status. Bilateral cancer was more frequent in patients with lobular carcinoma.",
"corpus_id": 21906414,
"score": 2,
"title": "An evaluation of differences in prognosis, recurrence patterns and receptor status between invasive lobular and other invasive carcinomas of the breast."
} |
{
"abstract": "We construct an explicit algorithm of the static-preserving bijection between the rigged configurations and the highest weight paths of the form (B2,1)⊗L in the G (1) 2 adjoint crystals.",
"corpus_id": 233324156,
"title": "An Explicit Algorithm of Rigged Configuration Bijection for the Adjoint Crystal of Type $G_{2}^{(1)}$"
} | {
"abstract": "We present a uniform construction of level 1 perfect crystals $\\mathcal B$ for all affine Lie algebras. We also introduce the notion of a crystal algebra and give an explicit description of its multiplication. This allows us to determine the energy function on $\\mathcal B \\otimes \\mathcal B$ completely and thereby give a path realization of the basic representations at $q=0$ in the homogeneous picture.",
"corpus_id": 5930102,
"title": "Level 1 perfect crystals and path realizations of basic representations at q = 0"
} | {
"abstract": "Let W ( k) be the finite-dimensional irreducible module over a quantized affine algebra U ′ q(g) with the fundamental weight k as an extremal weight. We show that its crystal B(W ( k)) is isomorphic to the Demazure crystal B (−Λ0 + k). This is derived from the following general result: for a dominant integral weight λ and an integral weight μ, there exists a unique homomorphism U− q (g)(uλ ⊗ uμ) → V (λ+ μ) that sends uλ ⊗ uμ to uλ+μ. Here V (λ) is the extremal weight module with λ as an extremal weight, and uλ ∈ V (λ) is the extremal weight vector of weight λ. §",
"corpus_id": 18070297,
"score": -1,
"title": "Level Zero Fundamental Representations over Quantized Affine Algebras and Demazure Modules"
} |
{
"abstract": "An iron-catalyzed chemo- and diastereoselective reduction of α,β-unsaturated ketones into the corresponding saturated ketones in mild reaction conditions is reported herein. DFT calculations and experimental work underline that transfer hydride reduction is a more facile process than hydrogenation, unveiling the fundamental role of the base.",
"corpus_id": 3551340,
"title": "Iron-Catalyzed Chemoselective Reduction of α,β-Unsaturated Ketones."
} | {
"abstract": "Herein we have developed a Ni-catalyzed protocol for the synthesis of linear ketones. Aryl, alkyl, and heteroaryl ketones as well as alcohols yielded the monoselective ketones in up to 90% yield. The catalytic protocol was successfully applied in to a gram-scale synthesis. For a practical utility, applications of a steroid derivative, oleyl alcohol, and naproxen alcohol were employed. Preliminary catalytic investigations involving the isolation of a Ni intermediate and defined Ni-H species as well as a series of deuterium-labeling experiments were performed.",
"corpus_id": 56483756,
"title": "Nickel-Catalyzed Alkylation of Ketone Enolates: Synthesis of Monoselective Linear Ketones."
} | {
"abstract": "Transfer hydrogenation catalyzed by an iridium catalyst with 4,4'-dihydroxy-2,2'-bipyridine (DHBP) in an aqueous formate solution exhibits highly pH-dependent catalytic activity and chemoselectivity. The substantial change in the activity is due to the electronic effect based on the acid-base equilibrium of the phenolic hydroxyl group of DHBP. Under basic conditions, high turnover frequency values of the DHBP complex, which can be more than 1000 times the value of the unsubstituted analogue, are obtained (up to 81 000 h(-1) at 80 degrees C). In addition, the DHBP catalyst exhibits pH-dependent chemoselectivity for alpha,beta-unsaturated carbonyl compounds. Selective reduction of the C=C bond of enone with high activity are observed under basic conditions. The ketone moieties can be reduced with satisfactory activity under acidic conditions. In particular, pH-selective chemoselectivity of the C=O versus C=C bond reduction was observed in the transfer hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde.",
"corpus_id": 27600326,
"score": 2,
"title": "pH-Dependent catalytic activity and chemoselectivity in transfer hydrogenation catalyzed by iridium complex with 4,4'-dihydroxy-2,2'-bipyridine."
} |
{
"abstract": "Many theoretical and experimental models indicate that androgen receptors can play an important role as prognostic factors in breast cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlations between the presence of androgen receptors on cancer cells and other selected prognostic and predictive factors with established clinical significance in women with breast cancer after radical surgical treatment. 488 adult females were included in the study, who underwent primary radical surgery for breast cancer. 428 patients (87.7%) had Patey's conservative radical mastectomy and 60 (12.3%) Halsted's radical mastectomy. The mean age at operation was 54.3, ranging from 32 to 79. The mean length of hospitalization was 7.2 days for the patients after Patey's mastectomy and 9.8 days for those after Halsted's mastectomy. The androgen receptor is the most frequently detected steroid receptor on breast cancer cells. Therapeutic efficacy of adjuvant hormone therapy was higher in the group of androgen receptor-positive patients than in androgen receptor-negative ones. The prognosis for androgen receptor-positive patients who underwent adjuvant hormone therapy was better than for those androgen receptor-positive patients who did not receive hormone therapy after primary radical surgery for breast cancer. Assessment of androgen receptor levels on cancer cells should become a routine procedure with patients undergoing primary radical surgery for breast cancer, as it seems to be an important predictive factor.",
"corpus_id": 2474747,
"title": "Androgen receptors as a prognostic and predictive factor in breast cancer."
} | {
"abstract": "This study investigated the effect of sex steroids and tamoxifen on primate mammary epithelial proliferation and steroid receptor gene expression. Ovariectomized rhesus monkeys were treated with placebo, 17β estradiol (E2) alone or in combination with progesterone (E2/P) or testosterone (E2/T), or tamoxifen for 3 days. E2 alone increased mammary epithelial proliferation by ~sixfold (P<0.0001) and increased mammary epithelial estrogen receptor (ERα) mRNA expression by ~50% (P<0.0001; ERβ mRNA was not detected in the primate mammary gland). Progesterone did not alter E2's proliferative effects, but testosterone reduced E2‐induced proliferation by —40% (P< 0.002) and entirely abolished E2‐induced augmentation of ERα expression. Tamoxifen had a significant agonist effect in the ovariectomized monkey, producing a ~threefold increase in mammary epithelial proliferation (P<0.01), but tamoxifen also reduced ERα expression below placebo level. Androgen receptor (AR) mRNA was detected in mammary epithelium by in situ hybridization. AR mRNA levels were not altered by E2 alone but were significantly reduced by E2/T and tamoxifen treatment. Because combined E2/T and tamoxifen had similar effects on mammary epithelium, we investigated the regulation of known sex steroid‐responsive mRNAs in the primate mammary epithelium. E2 alone had no effect on apolipoprotein D (ApoD) or IGF binding protein 5 (IGFBP5) expression, but E2/T and tamoxifen treatment groups both demonstrated identical alterations in these mRNAs (ApoD was decreased and IGFBP5 was increased). These observations showing androgen‐induced down‐regulation of mammary epithelial proliferation and ER expression suggest that combined estrogen/androgen hormone replacement therapy might reduce the risk of breast cancer associated with estrogen replacement. In addition, these novel findings on tamoxifen's androgen‐like effects on primate mammary epithelial sex steroid receptor expression suggest that tamoxifen's protective action on mammary gland may involve androgenic effects.— Zhou, J., Ng, S., Adesanya‐Famuiya, O., Anderson, K., Bondy, C. A. Testosterone inhibits estrogen‐induced mammary epithelial proliferation and suppresses estrogen receptor expression. FASEB J. 14, 1725–1730 (2000)",
"corpus_id": 17172449,
"title": "Testosterone inhibits estrogen‐induced mammary epithelial proliferation and suppresses estrogen receptor expression"
} | {
"abstract": "Rice is the leading staple food for more than half of the world's population, and approximately 160 million hectares of agricultural area worldwide are under rice cultivation. Therefore, it is essential to fulfil the global demand for rice while maintaining food safety. Rice acts as a sink for potentially toxic metals such as arsenic (As), selenium (Se), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), and chromium (Cr) in paddy soil-rice systems due to the natural and anthropogenic sources of these metals that have developed in the last few decades. This review summarizes the sources and basic chemical behaviours of these trace elements in the soil system and their contamination status, uptake, translocation, and accumulation mechanisms in paddy soil-rice systems in major rice-growing countries. Several human health threats are significantly associated with these toxic and potentially toxic metals not only due to their presence in the environment (i.e., the soil, water, and air) but also due to the uptake and translocation of these metals via different transporters. Elevated concentrations of these metals are toxic to plants, animals, and even humans that consume them regularly, and the uniform deposition of metals causes a severe risk of bioaccumulation. Furthermore, the contamination of rice in the global rice trade makes this a critical problem of worldwide concern. Therefore, the global consumption of contaminated rice causes severe human health effects that require rapid action. Finally, this review also summarizes the available management/remediation measures and future research directions for addressing this critical issue.",
"corpus_id": 218583395,
"score": 0,
"title": "Comprehensive review of the basic chemical behaviours, sources, processes, and endpoints of trace element contamination in paddy soil-rice systems in rice-growing countries."
} |
{
"abstract": null,
"corpus_id": 29413494,
"title": "An OLAP Endpoint for RDF Data Analysis Using Analysis Graphs"
} | {
"abstract": "Enterprises Information Systems (EIS) have been applied for decades in Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) and Computer-Aided Design (CAD), where huge amount of increasing data is stored in the heterogeneous and distributed systems. As systems evaluating, system redesign and reengineering are demanded. A facing challenge is how to interoperate among different systems by overcoming the gap of conceptual heterogeneity. In this article, an enlarged data representation called semantic information layer (SIL) is described for facilitating heterogeneous systems interoperable. SIL plays a role as mediation media and knowledge representation among heterogeneous systems. The SIL building process is based on ontology engineering, including ontology extraction from relational database (RDB), ontology enrichment and ontology alignment. Mapping path will maintain the links between SIL and data source, and query implementation and user interface are for retrieving data and interacting with end users. We described fully a practical ontology-driven framework for building SIL and introduced extensively relevant standards and techniques for implementing the framework. In the core part of ontology development, a dynamic multi-strategies ontology alignment with automatic matcher selection and dynamic similarity aggregation is proposed. A demonstration case study in the scenario of mobile phone industry is used to illustrate the proposed framework.",
"corpus_id": 10169561,
"title": "An ontology-driven framework towards building enterprise semantic information layer"
} | {
"abstract": "Current state-of-the-art action detection systems are tailored for offline batch-processing applications. However, for online applications like human-robot interaction, current systems fall short, either because they only detect one action per video, or because they assume that the entire video is available ahead of time. In this work, we introduce a real-time and online joint-labelling and association algorithm for action detection that can incrementally construct space-time action tubes on the most challenging action videos in which different action categories occur concurrently. In contrast to previous methods, we solve the detection-window association and action labelling problems jointly in a single pass. We demonstrate superior online association accuracy and speed (2.2ms per frame) as compared to the current state-of-the-art offline systems. We further demonstrate that the entire action detection pipeline can easily be made to work effectively in real-time using our action tube construction algorithm.",
"corpus_id": 17062535,
"score": -1,
"title": "Incremental Tube Construction for Human Action Detection"
} |
{
"abstract": "BackgroundNeonatal tetanus (NT) is still considered as one of the major causes of neonatal death in many developing countries. The aim of the present study was to assess the characteristics of sixty-seven infants with the diagnosis of neonatal tetanus followed-up in the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Ward of Dicle University Hospital, Diyarbakir, between 1991 and 2006, and to draw attention to factors that may contribute (or may have contributed) to the elimination of the disease in Diyarbakir.MethodsThe data of sixty-seven infants whose epidemiological and clinical findings were compatible with neonatal tetanus were reviewed. Patients were stratified into two groups according to whether they survived or not to assess the effect of certain factors in the prognosis. Factors having a contribution to the higher rate of tetanus among newborn infants were discussed.ResultsA total of 55 cases of NT had been hospitalized between 1991 and 1996 whereas only 12 patients admitted in the last decade. All of the infants had been delivered at home by untrained traditional birth attendants (TBA), and none of the mothers had been immunized with tetanus toxoid during her pregnancy. Twenty-eight (41.8%) of the infants died during their follow-up. Lower birth weight, younger age at onset of symptoms and at the time admission, the presence of opisthotonus, risus sardonicus and were associated with a higher mortality rate.ConclusionAlthough the number of neonatal tetanus cases admitted to our clinic in recent years is lower than in the last decade efforts including appropriate health education of the masses, ensurement of access to antenatal sevices and increasing the rate of tetanus immunization among mothers still should be made in our region to achieve the goal of neonatal tetanus elimination.",
"corpus_id": 3230898,
"title": "Neonatal tetanus in Turkey; what has changed in the last decade?"
} | {
"abstract": "objective Neonatal tetanus (NNT) is the leading cause of neonatal deaths in developing countries. The objective of this study was to determine prognostic indicators in NNT.methods We reviewed the clinical records of all neonates (n= 174) admitted to Ife State Hospital with the diagnosis of NNT from 1991 through 1995.results Delivery had occurred at home in 73.3% of cases. Only 37/164 of the mothers had had adequate immunization with tetanus toxoid. The umbilical cord appeared to be the portal of entry in 58.6% of cases. Mean age of infants at presentation was 7.2 days. Mortality was 57.5%; non‐survivors succumbed after mean stay in the hospital of 5.0 days. Mortality was significantly associated with an incubation period of 6 days or less (P= 0.0026), infant's weight of less than 2.5 kg (P= 0.0113), lack of antenatal care in a health facility (P= 0.0279), birth at home (P= 0.0455), but not with lack of adequate maternal immunization (P = 0.2081; not significant). Multivariable analysis showed that a short (6 d) incubation period was the strongest predictor of mortality (OR = 3.11, P= 0.0030) while low infant weight (< 2.5 kg) was also a significant predictor (OR = 2.46, P= 0.0408).conclusions Hygienic deliveries and adequate cord care are very important for the prevention of neonatal tetanus deaths, and universal prenatal care, including education programmes on appropriate perinatal and cord care, can significantly reduce NNT incidence and mortality in developing countries.",
"corpus_id": 28036424,
"title": "Prognostic factors in neonatal tetanus"
} | {
"abstract": "OBJECTIVE\nDesigning surgical strategies for ossified lesions in the upper cervical spine is challenging owing to the complex anatomic structures. The present study aimed to clarify the prevalence of ossified lesions in the upper cervical spine in patients with ossification in the posterior longitudinal ligament and illustrate the clinical features, radiological findings, and surgical outcomes of this abnormality.\n\n\nMETHODS\nDemographic and clinical data were collected for all patients preoperatively and included age, gender, body mass index, alcohol and tobacco use, history of diabetes, visual analog score, and Japanese Orthopaedic Association score. The cervical angle, morphology of ossification in the posterior longitudinal ligament, K-line, occupation ratio, space available for the spinal cord, high-intensity zone, and compression ratio of the spinal cord were calculated. The operative approach, technique used, and complications were recorded.\n\n\nRESULTS\nA total of 38 patients were enrolled. The upper cervical segment in 23 patients was not surgically addressed. In the group with the upper cervical segment addressed surgically, 10 patients were treated with C3-C6 open-door laminoplasty and C2 partial laminectomy, 1 with C1-C7 laminoplasty, 1 with C2-C7 laminoplasty, 2 with C3-C6 total and C2 partial laminectomy, and 1 with C1-C5 laminectomy and occipitocervical fusion.\n\n\nCONCLUSIONS\nThe development of ossified lesions in the upper cervical spine has a high incidence. Decompressive surgery for upper cervical spine segments should be recommended for patients with severe narrowing of the spinal canal and a high signal intensity that extends to the upper cervical segment of the spinal cord. We hope that the findings from the present study will aid in clinical decision-making and provide useful information that can be incorporated into future guidelines.",
"corpus_id": 102350142,
"score": 1,
"title": "Radiological Characteristics and Surgical Outcome of Patients with Long Ossification of the Posterior Longitudinal Ligament Resulting in Ossified Lesions in the Upper Cervical Spine."
} |
{
"abstract": "It has become increasingly clear that glucocorticoid (GC) signaling not only comprises classic nuclear receptor binding—that is, glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) to their response element in the nucleus—but also involves rapid, non-genomic efforts to regulate signaling cascades and other cell functions in the cytoplasm as well as other cell organelles. In a recent study, we found that GRs form a complex with B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2), translocate to mitochondria in response to corticosterone (CORT), and modulate mitochondrial calcium and oxidation in an inverted U–shaped manner. It is also well-established that steroid and thyroid hormone receptors regulate mitochondrial function to protect cells against various challenges and modulate synaptic plasticity. Here, we explore how such work reveals a fundamental mechanism whereby GCs regulate mitochondrial functions, and provides a mechanistic basis for therapeutic methods to rescue mitochondrial dysfunction during chronic stress or related psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.",
"corpus_id": 243199,
"title": "Glucocorticoid receptors modulate mitochondrial function"
} | {
"abstract": "&NA; Conducting polymers such as polypyrrole (PPy) can be used as electrically responsive drug delivery systems typically prepared by electrochemical polymerisation, however, the amount of drug that can be delivered is typically low. To increase drug delivery capacity and prepare larger amounts of polymer, PPy nanoparticles were produced by chemical polymerisation over drug‐loaded micelles. Two forms of dexamethasone were included to increase total drug loading and to explore the mechanisms of loading and release. The particles produced were approximately 50 nm in size and their conductivity and reversible redox activity were demonstrated. Loading of the hydrophobic dexamethasone base was more efficient than for the more hydrophilic phosphate salt. After pressing the particles into the desired form, electrically‐responsive drug release was achieved with a pulsed potential signal being the most effective way to trigger release. Notably, the anionic phosphate salt of the drug was more sensitive to electrically stimulated release than the uncharged base of dexamethasone, highlighting the role of electrostatic forces in driving drug release. This system has potential to be loaded with different drugs widening the scope of application of these smart particles to treat a range of disease states. Graphical abstract Figure. No caption available.",
"corpus_id": 5006538,
"title": "Micelle directed chemical polymerization of polypyrrole particles for the electrically triggered release of dexamethasone base and dexamethasone phosphate"
} | {
"abstract": "Multiple molecular chaperones, including Hsp90 and p23, interact with members of the intracellular receptor (IR) family. To investigate p23 function, we compared the effects of three p23 proteins on IR activities, yeast p23 (sba1p) and the two human p23 homologs, p23 and tsp23. We found that Sba1p was indistinguishable from human p23 in assays of seven IR activities in both animal cells and in yeast; in contrast, certain effects of tsp23 were specific to that homolog. Transcriptional activation by two IRs was increased by expression of any of the p23 species, whereas activation by five other IRs was decreased by Sba1p or p23, and unaffected by tsp23. p23 was expressed in all tissues examined except striated and cardiac muscle, whereas tsp23 accumulated in a complementary pattern; hence, p23 proteins might contribute to tissue-specific differences in IR activities. Unlike Hsp90, which acts on IR aporeceptors to stimulate ligand potency (i.e., hormone-binding affinity), p23 proteins acted on IR holoreceptors to alter ligand efficiencies (i.e., transcriptional activation activity). Moreover, the p23 effects developed slowly, requiring prolonged exposure to hormone. In vitro, p23 interacted preferentially with hormone-receptor-response element ternary complexes, and stimulated receptor-DNA dissociation. The dissociation was reversed by addition of a fragment of the GRIP1 coactivator, suggesting that the two reactions may be in competition in vivo. Our findings suggest that p23 functions at one or more late steps in IR-mediated signal transduction, perhaps including receptor recycling and/or reversal of the response.",
"corpus_id": 13104207,
"score": 2,
"title": "The p23 molecular chaperones act at a late step in intracellular receptor action to differentially affect ligand efficacies."
} |
{
"abstract": "Anemia, a risk factor for cardiovascular events in patients with CKD, is a common problem following transplantation and has been reported in up to 40% of kidney transplant recipients (KTRs).1–3 It is well established that post-transplant anemia (PTA) is associated with poor clinical outcomes. PTA is associated with increased mortality (18% versus 10% over 4 years), an increased risk of acute rejection (24% versus 12% over 4 years), and an increased risk of graft loss (17% versus 6% over 4 years).4–6 Despite such a high prevalence and association with adverse sequelae, only a small minority of KTRs with anemia are treated with erythrocyte stimulating agents (ESAs).1–3,7 Undertreatment of PTA may be secondary to a lack of convincing evidence regarding the risks and benefits of treatment in this particular population, as few randomized controlled trials have examined the safety and efficacy of ESAs for treatment of PTA. \n \nSmall studies in KTRs show improvements in levels of hemoglobin and quality of life with ESA-based correction of PTA.8,9 In addition, a small single-center retrospective study by Becker et al.10 suggested that treatment of PTA with ESAs may delay progression of renal allograft dysfunction. In nontransplant patients with CKD, however, recent trials (Correction of Hemoglobin and Outcomes in Renal Insufficiency [CHOIR], Trial to Reduce Cardiovascular Events with Aranesp Therapy) demonstrate increased rates of adverse cardiovascular outcomes with ESAs targeting normal or higher hemoglobin levels.11,12 Whether these findings can be extrapolated to KTRs is unclear, as the pathogenesis of anemia and response to ESAs in this population is likely to be different from the general CKD population, given the presence of an allograft and the ongoing need for immunosuppressive therapy. In a retrospective study of 1794 KTRs, Heinze et al.13 reported higher mortality in patients receiving ESAs compared with patients who did not. When specifically examining the ESA group, however, the authors found that mortality was increased at levels of hemoglobin above and below 12.5 g/dl.13 As in the general population of patients with CKD, the therapeutic target hemoglobin in KTRs has not been established, and the safety of ESA-based correction of anemia is uncertain. \n \nIn this issue of JASN, a study by Choukroun et al.14 challenges current concepts of anemia management with respect to the kidney transplant population. The Correction of Anemia and PRogression of Renal Insufficiency in Transplant Patients (CAPRIT) study is a 2-year, randomized, controlled, open-label, French multicenter trial of epoetin-β (EPO) treatment in anemic kidney transplant recipients with moderate graft dysfunction. The primary endpoint was change in estimated GFR (eGFR; calculated by Cockcroft-Gault) from baseline to 24 months, and secondary outcomes included Nankivell and Modification of Diet in Renal Disease estimation of eGFR, doubling of serum creatinine (Cr), and proteinuria. In addition, graft survival and progression to ESRD, cardiovascular event rate, and patient survival were analyzed. One hundred twenty-five patients with an eGFR between 20 and 50 ml/min and hemoglobin < 11.5 g/dl were randomized to either achieve a hemoglobin target of 13.0–15.0 g/dl (complete correction of anemia) or 10.5–11.5 g/dl (partial correction of anemia) and were followed for progression of renal disease. The baseline characteristics and immunosuppressive regimens of both groups were similar. The higher target group achieved hemoglobins of 12.9±2.1 g/dl and the lower target group achieved hemoglobins of 11.3±1.1 g/dl by the end of the study at 24 months. As expected, more patients used EPO in the higher target group (89.1% versus 60.9%; P<0.05). The mean weekly EPO dose was higher in the higher target group throughout the study. The investigators found that patients randomized to the lower hemoglobin target suffered a greater reduction in renal function over the 2-year follow-up period compared with the group of patients randomized to the higher hemoglobin target (eGFR decline of 5.9±1.1 versus 2.4±1.1 ml/min; P=0.03). Furthermore, fewer patients in the higher hemoglobin group progressed to ESRD (4.8% versus 21.0%; P<0.01). Importantly, there was no difference in mortality or overall adverse events between groups, but the low hemogloblin target group experienced an increased number of cardiac disorders (specifically acute cardiac failure, arrhythmia, and myocardial infarction, 8% versus 0%; P=0.03), which is in stark contrast to studies of normalizing hemoglobin in nontransplant patients with CKD and similar to hemodialysis patients with naturally high hemoglobins.15 The authors conclude that targeting hemoglobin ≥13 g/dl is associated with a reduction in the rate of progression to chronic allograft nephropathy in kidney transplant recipients. \n \nThe findings of the CAPRIT study are perhaps unexpected, but undoubtedly provocative in the current climate of black box warnings for ESAs. Thus far, national and international guidelines for anemia management have grouped kidney transplant recipients with the general CKD population. The results of the CAPRIT study, however, pose a challenge to the one size fits all approach of anemia management in CKD. The kidney transplant population may represent a unique cohort of patients that may benefit from individualized therapy. While encouraging, the results of CAPRIT must be interpreted with caution given the underlying limitations of the study. The sample size of the study was quite small compared with studies of ESAs in the general CKD population, and the overall rate of death and cardiovascular events in the study population was low. In comparison, the CHOIR study reported a nearly 30% overall mortality in the 16 months of median follow-up for all patients enrolled.11 Hence, CAPRIT may be underpowered to adequately assess cardiovascular events and mortality, or the patients in the study may simply represent a relatively healthier, “low-risk” group. These findings may not be generalizable to a population at higher risk for cardiovascular events, such as the CKD or kidney transplant population in the United States. \n \nFurthermore, the underlying mechanism by which correction of anemia with ESAs preserves renal function is unclear, because no mechanistic or functional studies were performed. The CAPRIT investigators postulate that correction of anemia minimizes hypoxia and thus hypoxia-induced tissue injury to the graft. Other potential mechanisms by which correction of anemia may delay graft dysfunction include correction of left ventricular hypertrophy and improved cardiac function. While it has been assumed that any beneficial impact of ESAs is due to their known effects on stimulating red blood cell production, erythropoietin receptors are widely expressed,16–18 and recent evidence suggests that EPO has immunomodulatory functions. Several animal models and suggestive human data indicate that EPO is inhibitory toward immune responses,19–21 a phenomenon that would be highly relevant in the context of a transplanted organ. Further studies will be required to investigate these possibilities. \n \nNonetheless, the idea of potentially prolonging graft survival in kidney transplant recipients by correcting anemia is exciting. Despite advances in immunosuppression over the last 2 decades, long-term kidney transplant survival has not improved.22 Strategies to prolong allograft survival, including the use of ESAs to treat PTA, warrant aggressive investigation.",
"corpus_id": 1233175,
"title": "ESAs in transplant anemia: one size does not \"fit all\"."
} | {
"abstract": "BACKGROUND\nRecent data suggests that erythropoietin therapy may actually retard the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Transplant recipients with evidence of chronic allograft dysfunction could respond in a similar manner to erythropoietin.\n\n\nMETHODS\nWe evaluated 166 individuals who initiated erythropoietin therapy after at least 18 days of transplant function. One hundred and nine individuals received erythropoietin between days 18 and 294 of transplant function (group 1-early epoietin alfa) while 57 individuals received erythropoietin on or after day 294 of transplant function (group 2-late epoietin alfa). The slope of serum creatinine (Scr) (Deltaslope Scr) prior to and following the start of erythropoietin therapy and calculated glomerular filtration rates (GFR) were used to assess renal function over time.\n\n\nRESULTS\nThe average haematocrit rose 6.6% in group 1 patients and 2.1% in group 2 patients during the first 100 days of erythropoietin therapy. The Deltaslope Scr was not significantly altered in group 1 patients. However, for group 2 individuals who continued to have graft function (n=35), the Deltaslope Scr became negative during erythropoietin treatment. This indicated a deceleration in the rate of loss of renal function (day 200 Deltaslope Scr -0.0033, P=0.00091; day 300 Deltaslope Scr -0.0014, P=0.05; day 400 Deltaslope Scr -0.0066, N.S., P=0.066). GFR remained stable in both cohorts. Finally, group 2-late epoietin alfa patients treated with erythropoietin demonstrated a marked trend towards longer graft survival than a group of similar control patients (N.S., P=0.064).\n\n\nCONCLUSIONS\nThe data in a group of renal transplant recipients with chronic allograft dysfunction reinforce data from the CKD realm suggesting that erythropoietin may be of benefit in slowing the rate of loss of function over time. However, this renal response is not evident in all patients. Prospective studies of erythropoietin or erythropoietin-like medications are warranted in this population to better discriminate those who may respond well to administration of these drugs.",
"corpus_id": 16863998,
"title": "Erythropoietin therapy may retard progression in chronic renal transplant dysfunction."
} | {
"abstract": "1 Recent investigations have shown that the glycoprotein erythropoietin (Epo) and its specific receptor (EpoR) are present in the mammalian brain including human, monkey and mouse. These findings suggest a local action of Epo in the nervous system. The aim of this study was to elucidate a possible functional interaction of Epo with neuronal cells. 2 To examine the influence of externally applied Epo on Ca2+ homeostasis the human neuroblastoma cell line SK‐N‐MC was chosen as a suitable in vitro model for undifferentiated neuronal cells. 3 Expression of the EpoR in SK‐N‐MC cells was detected by reverse transcription‐PCR, Western blot and immunofluorescence analysis. 4 Patch‐clamp studies of SK‐N‐MC cells confirmed the expression of T‐type Ca2+ channels, whose peak macroscopic current was increased by the addition of recombinant human Epo (rhEpo) to the bathing medium. 5 Confocal laser scanning microscopy analysis of SK‐N‐MC cells confirmed a transient increase in intracellular free [Ca2+] in response to externally applied rhEpo. 6 The transient response to Epo was dependent on external Ca2+ and remained even after depletion of internal Ca2+ stores by caffeine or thapsigargin. However, after depletion the response to Epo was absent when cells were superfused with the T‐type Ca2+ channel blocker flunarizine. 7 This study demonstrates that Epo can interact with neuronal cells by affecting Ca2+ homeostasis through an increase in Ca2+ influx via plasma membrane T‐type voltage‐dependent Ca2+ channels.",
"corpus_id": 31611578,
"score": 2,
"title": "Erythropoietin modulates intracellular calcium in a human neuroblastoma cell line"
} |
{
"abstract": "Similar to mechanisms of legislative response in the domestic context, Article IX:2 of the Agreement Establishing the WTO grants Members the exclusive right to adopt \"authoritative interpretations.\" However, the practice of consensus decision-making within the WTO has led to the non-use of authoritative interpretations. As a result, the Appellate Body effectively enjoys interpretive autonomy but is also deprived of constructive normative guidance. In this article, we propose a functional substitute for authoritative interpretations, namely an increase in Members’ use of expression of views prior to report adoption within the Dispute Settlement Body. In light of the Dispute Settlement Mechanism’s responsibility of deliberative engagement with Members, we argue that it should be able to consider the interpretive preferences of a representative sample of the WTO Membership. We specify how our proposal would work in practice and address potential limitations and obstacles to its implementation.",
"corpus_id": 155963788,
"title": "Deliberative Engagement within the World Trade Organization: A Functional Substitute for Authoritative Interpretations"
} | {
"abstract": "This bibliography provides information on books, articles, notes, and other materials dealing with international law in Asia, broadly defined. Only English language publications are listed. Most of the materials can be listed under multiple categories, but to save space each item is listed under a single category. Edited books, however, may appear more than once if multiple chapters from the book are listed under different categories. Readers are advised to refer to all categories relevant to their research. The bibliography is limited to new materials published in 2016 or previously published materials that have updated editions in 2016. The headings used in this year’s bibliography are as follows:",
"corpus_id": 203378848,
"title": "International Law in Asia: A Bibliographic Survey – 2016"
} | {
"abstract": "Emergency department personnel frequently encounter violent patients. Effective management depends on early recognition of clues of potential violence and a response that will defuse the threat. The author presents an evaluation schema which emphasizes diagnostic categories and behavior as predictors of violence. A specific hierarchy of treatment intervention is proposed, with special emphasis on the interpersonal dynamics between staff and patient. The author also discusses general steps that can be taken to reduce the risk of violence in an emergency department setting.",
"corpus_id": 26580549,
"score": 1,
"title": "Evaluating and managing the violent patient."
} |
{
"abstract": "Acoustic noise in the linear switched reluctance motor (LSRM) is caused primarily by the deformation of the stator lamination stack. Acoustic noise is most severe when the periodic excitation of the LSRM phases excites a natural vibration mode of the stack. Noise and vibration are usually high in LSRM because of doubly salient structures. The natural vibration modes and frequencies of a three-phase LSRM are examined. Structural finite element analysis (FEA) is used to compute the natural modes and frequencies. A harmonic analysis to identify the range of speeds producing high vibration and noise that should be skipped over quickly during acceleration is studied. Apart from vibration, noise and harmonic analysis, a detailed electromagnetic and thermal analysis of the proposed LSRM using FEA are presented.",
"corpus_id": 7890326,
"title": "Acoustic noise, vibration, harmonics, thermal of three phase linear switched reluctance machines"
} | {
"abstract": "In order to design a quiet electrical machine, an accurate determination of the resonant frequencies and vibrational characteristics of the stator is essential. This paper presents both a fundamental theoretical and experimental study which is designed to explore the manner in which the values of the resonant frequencies and vibrational behavior of a stator are affected by the presence of the windings, frame, and impregnation. Following a brief description of the method of analysis for the free vibrations of stators of encased construction, which is an energy method based on the theory of elasticity, details of the various models are given. It is found that the effects of both the windings and the frame are in general predictable and beneficial in so far as they tend to suppress the magnitude of the resonant amplitudes. Impregnation, however, has the opposite effect on these amplitudes but is found to play a desirable role in so far as it helps to eliminate unwanted parasitic resonances from the frequency spectrum.",
"corpus_id": 109728928,
"title": "The effect of windings, frame and impregnation upon the resonant frequencies and vibrational behavior of an electrical machine stator"
} | {
"abstract": "Modern communications heavily rely on cryptography to ensure data integrity and privacy. Over the past two decades, very efficient, secure, and featureful cryptographic schemes have been built on top of abelian varieties defined over finite fields. This thesis contributes to several computational aspects of ordinary abelian varieties related to their endomorphism ring structure. This structure plays a crucial role in the construction of abelian varieties with desirable properties. For instance, pairings have recently enabled many advanced cryptographic primitives; generating abelian varieties endowed with efficient pairings requires selecting suitable endomorphism rings, and we show that more such rings can be used than expected. We also address the inverse problem, that of computing the endomorphism ring of a prescribed abelian variety, which has several applications of its own. Prior state-of-the-art methods could only solve this problem in exponential time, and we design several algorithms of subexponential complexity for solving it in the ordinary case. For elliptic curves, our algorithms are very effective and we demonstrate their practicality by solving large problems that were previously intractable. Additionally, we rigorously bound the complexity of our main algorithm assuming solely the extended Riemann hypothesis. As an alternative to one of our subroutines, we also consider a generalization of the subset sum problem in finite groups, and show how it can be solved using little memory. Finally, we generalize our method to higher-dimensional abelian varieties, for which we rely on further heuristic assumptions. Practically speaking, we develop a library enabling the computation of isogenies between abelian varieties; using this important building block in our main algorithm, we apply our generalized method to compute several illustrative and record examples.",
"corpus_id": 220667827,
"score": 0,
"title": "Endomorphism Rings in Cryptography"
} |
{
"abstract": "This paper introduces the settlement generation competition for Minecraft, the first part of the Generative Design in Minecraft challenge. The settlement generation competition is about creating Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents that can produce functional, aesthetically appealing and believable settlements adapted to a given Minecraft map---ideally at a level that can compete with human created designs. The aim of the competition is to advance procedural content generation for games, especially in overcoming the challenges of adaptive and holistic PCG. The paper introduces the technical details of the challenge, but mostly focuses on what challenges this competition provides and why they are scientifically relevant.",
"corpus_id": 4711344,
"title": "Generative Design in Minecraft (GDMC), Settlement Generation Competition"
} | {
"abstract": "This paper proposes a model for designing games around Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI-based games put AI in the foreground of the player experience rather than in a supporting role as is often the case in many commercial games. We analyze the use of AI in a number of existing games and identify design patterns for AI in games. We propose a generative ideation technique to combine a design pattern with an AI technique or capacity to make new AI-based games. Finally, we demonstrate this technique through two examples of AI-based game prototypes created using these patterns.",
"corpus_id": 3099158,
"title": "AI-based Game Design Patterns"
} | {
"abstract": "Cosmetic items do not provide functional advantages in games, but, nevertheless, they play an important role in the overall player experience. Possessing predominantly socially-constructed dimensions of value, cosmetic items are chosen, discussed, assessed, and valuated in an ongoing iterative collaborative process by communities of players. In our study, we explore the case of Dota 2 and apply Topic Modeling to community-discussions data gathered from Reddit.com. We describe social experiences related to the valuation of cosmetic items in interaction and collision of various logics, including artificial scarcity, decomposition of visual effects, and connectedness to the game lore. Our findings connect the collective experience of players in the game and on online community platforms, suggesting that non-utility-based social value construction becomes an important part of game experience.",
"corpus_id": 9478830,
"score": -1,
"title": "Deconstructing Cosmetic Virtual Goods Experiences in Dota 2"
} |
{
"abstract": "Typical approaches for fashion retrieval rank clothing images according to the similarity to a user-provided query image. Similarity is usually assessed by encoding images in terms of visual elements such as color, shape and texture. In this work, we proceed differently and consider that the semantics of an outfit is mainly comprised of environmental and cultural concepts such as occasion, style and season. Thus, instead of retrieving outfits using strict visual elements, we find semantically similar outfits that fall into similar clothing styles and are adequate for the same occasions and seasons. We propose a compositional approach for fashion retrieval by arguing that the semantics of an outfit can be recognised by their constituents (i.e., clothing items and accessories). Specifically, we present a semantic compositional network (Comp-Net) in which clothing items are detected from the image and the probability of each item is used to compose a vector representation for the outfit. Comp-Net employs a normalization layer so that weights are updated by taking into consideration the previously known co-occurrence patterns between clothing items. Further, Comp-Net minimizes a cost-sensitive loss function as errors have different costs depending on the clothing item that is misclassified. This results in a space in which semantically related outfits are placed next to each other, enabling to find semantically similar outfits that may not be visually similar. We designed an evaluation setup that takes into account the association between different styles, occasions and seasons, and show that our compositional approach significantly outperforms a variety of recently proposed baselines.",
"corpus_id": 52987220,
"title": "Effective Fashion Retrieval Based on Semantic Compositional Networks"
} | {
"abstract": "Driven by the increasing popular image-dominated social networks, such as Instagram, Pinterest and Chictopica, sharing of daily-life street photos now plays an influential role in fashion adoption between fashion trend-setters and followers. In this work, we propose a deep learning based fine-grained embedding learning approach for street fashion analysis by leveraging user-generated street fashion data. Specifically, we present QuadNet, an effective CNN based image embedding network driven by both multi-task classification loss and neighbor-constrained similarity loss. The latter loss function is computed with a novel quadruplet loss function, which considers both hard and soft positive neighbors as well as a negative neighbor for each anchor image. The embedded feature learned from co-optimization is effective for both fine-grained classification task and image retrieval task. Quantitative evaluation on a newly collected large-scale multi-task street photo dataset shows that our QuadNet outperforms the state-of-the-art triplet network by a significant margin. In order to further evaluate the effectiveness of the learned embedding, we analyze and trace the fashion trends of New York City from 2011 to 2016. In our analysis, we are able to identify some short-term and long-term fashion styles.",
"corpus_id": 23167282,
"title": "Understanding Fashion Trends from Street Photos via Neighbor-Constrained Embedding Learning"
} | {
"abstract": "Photo aesthetics assessment is challenging. Deep convolutional neural network (ConvNet) methods have recently shown promising results for aesthetics assessment. The performance of these deep ConvNet methods, however, is often compromised by the constraint that the neural network only takes the fixed-size input. To accommodate this requirement, input images need to be transformed via cropping, scaling, or padding, which often damages image composition, reduces image resolution, or causes image distortion, thus compromising the aesthetics of the original images. In this paper, we present a composition-preserving deep Con-vNet method that directly learns aesthetics features from the original input images without any image transformations. Specifically, our method adds an adaptive spatial pooling layer upon the regular convolution and pooling layers to directly handle input images with original sizes and aspect ratios. To allow for multi-scale feature extraction, we develop the Multi-Net Adaptive Spatial Pooling ConvNet architecture which consists of multiple sub-networks with different adaptive spatial pooling sizes and leverage a scene–based aggregation layer to effectively combine the predictions from multiple sub-networks. Our experiments on the large-scale aesthetics assessment benchmark (AVA [29]) demonstrate that our method can significantly improve the state-of-the-art results in photo aesthetics assessment.",
"corpus_id": 12862472,
"score": -1,
"title": "Composition-Preserving Deep Photo Aesthetics Assessment"
} |
{
"abstract": "Molecular analysis of the mutation status for EGFR and KRAS are now routine in the management of non-small cell lung cancer. Radiogenomics, the linking of medical images with the genomic properties of human tumors, provides exciting opportunities for non-invasive diagnostics and prognostics. We investigated whether EGFR and KRAS mutation status can be predicted using imaging data. To accomplish this, we studied 186 cases of NSCLC with preoperative thin-slice CT scans. A thoracic radiologist annotated 89 semantic image features of each patient’s tumor. Next, we built a decision tree to predict the presence of EGFR and KRAS mutations. We found a statistically significant model for predicting EGFR but not for KRAS mutations. The test set area under the ROC curve for predicting EGFR mutation status was 0.89. The final decision tree used four variables: emphysema, airway abnormality, the percentage of ground glass component and the type of tumor margin. The presence of either of the first two features predicts a wild type status for EGFR while the presence of any ground glass component indicates EGFR mutations. These results show the potential of quantitative imaging to predict molecular properties in a non-invasive manner, as CT imaging is more readily available than biopsies.",
"corpus_id": 1957565,
"title": "Predictive radiogenomics modeling of EGFR mutation status in lung cancer"
} | {
"abstract": "OBJECTIVES\nOur study investigates the added value of computed tomography (CT) characteristics, histologic subtype classification of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC)/the American Thoracic Society (ATS)/the European Respiratory Society (ERS), and genetic mutation for predicting postoperative prognoses of patients who received curative surgical resections for lung adenocarcinoma.\n\n\nMATERIALS AND METHODS\nWe retrospectively enrolled 988 patients who underwent curative resection for invasive lung adenocarcinoma between October 2007 and December 2013. Cox's proportional hazard model was used to explore the risk of recurrence-free survival, based on the combination of conventional prognostic factors, CT characteristics, IASLC/ATS/ERS histologic subtype, and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations. Incremental prognostic values of CT characteristics, histologic subtype, and EGFR mutations over conventional risk factors were measured by C-statistics.\n\n\nRESULTS\nDuring median follow-up period of 44.7 months (25th to 75th percentile 24.6-59.7 months), postoperative recurrence occurred in 248 patients (25.1%). In univariate Cox proportion hazard model, female sex, tumor size and stage, CT characteristics, and predominant histologic subtype were associated with tumor recurrence (P < 0.05). In multivariate Cox regression model adjusted for tumor size and stage, both CT characteristics and histologic subtype were independent tumor recurrence predictors (P < 0.05). Cox proportion hazard models combining CT characteristics or histologic subtype with size and tumor stage showed higher C-indices (0.763 and 0.767, respectively) than size and stage-only models (C-index 0.759, P > 0.05).\n\n\nCONCLUSION\nCT characteristics and histologic subtype have relatively limited added prognostic values over tumor size and stage in surgically resected lung adenocarcinomas.",
"corpus_id": 13696578,
"title": "Added prognostic value of CT characteristics and IASLC/ATS/ERS histologic subtype in surgically resected lung adenocarcinomas."
} | {
"abstract": "This volume focuses on the human rights norm of gender discrimination and violence as embodied in the CEDAW, processes of building and international negotiation which produced the final CEDAW text, process of and problems associated with transferring CEDAW principles into local legal structures and national setting. There are two core arguments central to the author’s larger theme of law and gender violence: namely international gender norms of human rights are considered universal but in order to transcend abstraction, IHRL must be adopted and given localized frames which can become understandable to populaces and a tool for social change. Second is that international human rights norms face a myriad of obstacles when coming into contact with national/local culture, politics of power/aid/ funding/trade and must be contextualized without sacrificing its universal normative legitimacy to be effective in triggering changing conceptions of social justice locally. Merry a transactional framework to justify her thesis that international human rights norms, embedded in treaties are meta level frameworks that run into problems when transposed into localized settings. She considers three interconnected ways in which gender based human rights interact with culture thus negotiating the global to local dichotomy:",
"corpus_id": 144779500,
"score": 0,
"title": "Human Rights and Gender Violence: Translating International Law into Local Justice"
} |
{
"abstract": "XML-S Our reference: BPS 12999 P-authorquery-vx AUTHOR QUERY FORM Please e-mail your responses and any corrections to: Journal: BPS Article Number: 12999 E-mail: a.norwitz@elsevier.com Dear Author, Please check your proof carefully and mark all corrections at the appropriate place in the proof (e.g., by using on-screen annotation in the PDF file) or compile them in a separate list. Note: if you opt to annotate the file with software other than Adobe Reader then please also highlight the appropriate place in the PDF file. To ensure fast publication of your paper please return your corrections within 48 hours. For correction or revision of any artwork, please consult http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions. Any queries or remarks that have arisen during the processing of your manuscript are listed below and highlighted by flags in the proof. Click on the Q link to go to the location in the proof. Location in article Query / Remark: click on the Q link to go Please insert your reply or correction at the corresponding line in the proof Q1 Please confirm that given names and surnames have been identified correctly and are presented in the desired order. Q2 Author: If there are any drug dosages in your article, please verify them and indicate that you have done so by initialing this query. Q3 Please review and confirm the accuracy and completeness of any affiliations. Q4 AUTHOR: Please confirm that gene symbols are formatted in the correct style throughout your Commentary (human genes in all caps and italicized and mouse/rat genes in initial cap and italicized). Thank you. Thank you for your assistance. Please check this box or indicate your approval if you have no corrections to make to the PDF file Z Q B X",
"corpus_id": 3516640,
"title": "Sleep and Mood: Chicken or Egg?"
} | {
"abstract": "Whether insomnia, a known correlate of depression, predicts depression longitudinally warrants elucidation. The authors examined 555 Wisconsin Sleep Cohort Study participants aged 33-71 years without baseline depression or antidepressant use who completed baseline and follow-up overnight polysomnography and had complete questionnaire-based data on insomnia and depression for 1998-2006. Using Poisson regression, they estimated relative risks for depression (Zung scale score > or =50) at 4-year (average) follow-up according to baseline insomnia symptoms and polysomnographic markers. Twenty-six participants (4.7%) developed depression by follow-up. Having 3-4 insomnia symptoms versus none predicted depression risk (age-, sex-, and comorbidity-adjusted relative risk (RR) = 3.2, 95% confidence interval: 1.1, 9.6). After multiple adjustments, frequent difficulty falling asleep (RR = 5.3, 95% confidence interval: 1.1, 27.9) and polysomnographically assessed (upper or lower quartiles) sleep latency, continuity, and duration (RRs = 2.2-4.7; P's < or = 0.05) predicted depression. Graded trends (P-trend < or = 0.05) were observed with increasing number of symptoms, difficulty falling asleep, and difficulty returning to sleep. Given the small number of events using Zung > or =50 (depression cutpoint), a limitation that may bias multivariable estimates, continuous depression scores were analyzed; mean values were largely consistent with dichotomous findings. Insomnia symptoms or markers increased depression risk 2.2- to 5.3-fold. These results support prior findings based on self-reported insomnia and may extend similar conclusions to objective markers. Heightened recognition and treatment of insomnia may prevent subsequent depression.",
"corpus_id": 6818433,
"title": "Prospective associations of insomnia markers and symptoms with depression."
} | {
"abstract": "The significance of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) Apolipoprotein E (APOE) level and whether it might have differential effects on brain function due to the presence of APOE ε4 allele(s) in HIV-infected patients are unknown. However, APOE ε4 allele has been associated with greater incidence of HIV-associated dementia and accelerated progression of HIV infection. Here, we show further evidence for the role of APOE ε4 in promoting cognitive impairment. We measured the APOE levels in the CSF of HIV-infected individuals. HIV+ subjects showed lower CSF APOE proteins than SN controls (−19%, p = 0.03). While SN subjects with or without ε4 allele showed no difference in CSF APOE levels, ε4+ HIV+ subjects had similar levels to the SN subjects but higher levels than ε4− HIV+ subjects (+34%, p = 0.01). Furthermore, while HIV+ subjects with ε2 or ε3 allele(s) showed a positive relationship between their CSF APOE levels and cognitive performance on the speed of processing domain (r = +0.35, p = 0.05), ε4+ HIV+ subjects, in contrast, exhibited a negative relationship such that those with higher levels of CSF APOE(4) performed worse on the HIV Dementia Scale (r = −0.61, p = 0.02), had lower Global Cognitive Scores (r = −0.57, p = 0.03), and had poorer performance on tests involving learning (ε4 allele x [APOE] interaction, p = 0.01). Our findings also suggest that the relatively higher levels of CSF APOE in ε4+ HIV+ (having primarily APOE4 isoforms) may negatively impact the brain and lead to poorer cognitive outcomes, while those individuals without the ε4 allele (with primarily APOE2 or APOE3 isoforms) may show compensatory responses that lead to better cognitive performance.",
"corpus_id": 13763484,
"score": 0,
"title": "APOE ε4 allele and CSF APOE on Cognition in HIV-Infected Subjects"
} |
{
"abstract": "PURPOSE\nSeveral studies have recently shown that a transition from light to dark is associated with a reduction in choroidal blood flow. The mechanism underlying this effect is unclear but may be related to changes in neural input. In the present study, the authors hypothesized that either the alpha-receptor agonist phenylephrine or the nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor L-NMMA may alter the choroidal blood flow response during a transition from light to dark.\n\n\nMETHODS\nIn 15 healthy male nonsmoking subjects, the response of choroidal perfusion was studied in a randomized placebo-controlled three-way crossover study. Phenylephrine, L-NMMA or placebo was administered on different study days, and the effect of a light/dark transition on choroidal perfusion parameters was studied. Subfoveal choroidal blood flow and fundus pulsation amplitude were assessed with laser Doppler flowmetry and laser interferometry, respectively.\n\n\nRESULTS\nBefore drug administration, a transition from light to dark reduced both choroidal hemodynamic parameters by 11% to 20%. Neither phenylephrine nor placebo altered basal choroidal blood flow or choroidal blood flow responses to the light/dark transitions. By contrast, the NOS inhibitor L-NMMA significantly reduced basal choroidal blood flow by 20.5% +/- 5.9% (P < 0.001) and basal fundus pulsation amplitude by 21.5% +/- 4.8% (P < 0.001). In addition, the response of subfoveal choroidal blood flow (-6.2% +/- 3.2%; P = 0.008) and fundus pulsation amplitude (-4.2% +/- 2.4%; P < 0.001) to the light/dark transition was significantly diminished.\n\n\nCONCLUSIONS\nThe present study indicates that NO plays a role in the choroidal blood flow decrease during a transition from light to dark. Given that L-NMMA is a nonspecific inhibitor of NOS, the present study does not clarify whether this NO is from endothelial or neural sources.",
"corpus_id": 1570383,
"title": "Role of nitric oxide in choroidal blood flow regulation during light/dark transitions."
} | {
"abstract": "Purpose: It has been shown that retinal blood flow is autoregulated, meaning that flow is independent of perfusion pressure within a certain range. We tested the hypothesis that nitric oxide (NO) synthase inhibition alters the response of retinal arterial and venous vessels during isometric exercise.",
"corpus_id": 24059878,
"title": "Effect of NO synthase inhibition on retinal vessel reaction to isometric exercise in healthy humans"
} | {
"abstract": "The cardiovascular effects of an intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) injection of physostigmine were studied using conscious cats. Physostigmine (5-25 micrograms: 5 microliters) caused a dose-dependent increase in mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate (HR). The highest dose (25 micrograms) increased MAP and HR by 32 +/- 3 mmHg and 45 +/- 5 beats/min, respectively (n = 5). Pre-administration of the muscarinic receptor antagonist, atropine (25 micrograms; i.c.v.) blocked the effects of physostigmine (25 micrograms; i.c.v.). Also, the pre-administration of the M2 muscarinic antagonist, methoctramine (25 micrograms; i.c.v.), antagonized the cardiovascular effects of physostigmine without altering the baseline variables. However, the M1 muscarinic antagonist, pirenzepine (100 micrograms; i.c.v.) did not alter baseline MAP or HR, and also failed to inhibit the cardiovascular responses to physostigmine. Similarly, the M3 muscarinic blocker, 4-diphenyl-acetoxy-N-methylpiperidine methiodide (50 micrograms; i.c.v.), neither changed baseline cardiovascular variables nor blocked the effects of physostigmine. When the same cats were anesthetized with intravenous injection of sodium pentobarbital (25-30 mg/kg), physostigmine (25 micrograms; i.c.v.) evoked a decrease in MAP and HR of 13 +/- 6 mmHg and 15 +/- 6 bpm, respectively (n = 5). These results demonstrate that the increases in MAP and HR to the i.c.v. administration of physostigmine in conscious cats are possibly mediated through stimulation of central M2 muscarinic receptors. In addition, anesthesia reverses the effects elicited by the central administration of physostigmine to a decrease in MAP and HR.",
"corpus_id": 15646178,
"score": 2,
"title": "Cardiovascular effects elicited by central administration of physostigmine via M2 muscarinic receptors in conscious cats"
} |
{
"abstract": "The PIT corpus is a German multi-media corpus of multi-party dialogues recorded in a Wizard-of-Oz environment at the University of Ulm. The scenario involves two human dialogue partners interacting with a multi-modal dialogue system in the domain of restaurant selection. In this paper we present the characteristics of the data which was recorded in three sessions resulting in a total of 75 dialogues and about 14 hours of audio and video data. The corpus is available at http://www.uni-ulm.de/in/pit.",
"corpus_id": 830109,
"title": "The PIT Corpus of German Multi-Party Dialogues"
} | {
"abstract": "In this paper we present the setup of an extensive Wizard-of-Oz environment used for the data collection and the development of a dialogue system. The envisioned Perception and Interaction Assistant will act as an independent dialogue partner. Passively observing the dialogue between the two human users with respect to a limited domain, the system should take the initiative and get meaningfully involved in the communication process when required by the conversational situation. The data collection described here involves audio and video data. We aim at building a rich multi-media data corpus to be used as a basis for our research which includes, inter alia, speech and gaze direction recognition, dialogue modelling and proactivity of the system. We further aspire to obtain data with emotional content to perfom research on emotion recognition, psychopysiological and usability analysis.",
"corpus_id": 3146372,
"title": "Wizard-of-Oz Data Collection for Perception and Interaction in Multi-User Environments"
} | {
"abstract": "The ability to understand and manage social signals of a person we are communicating with is the core of social intelligence. Social intelligence is a facet of human intelligence that has been argued to be indispensable and perhaps the most important for success in life. This paper argues that next-generation computing needs to include the essence of social intelligence - the ability to recognize human social signals and social behaviours like turn taking, politeness, and disagreement - in order to become more effective and more efficient. Although each one of us understands the importance of social signals in everyday life situations, and in spite of recent advances in machine analysis of relevant behavioural cues like blinks, smiles, crossed arms, laughter, and similar, design and development of automated systems for social signal processing (SSP) are rather difficult. This paper surveys the past efforts in solving these problems by a computer, it summarizes the relevant findings in social psychology, and it proposes a set of recommendations for enabling the development of the next generation of socially aware computing.",
"corpus_id": 2355696,
"score": -1,
"title": "Social signal processing: Survey of an emerging domain"
} |
{
"abstract": "Sepsis is a health issue that affects millions of people worldwide. It was assumed that erythrocytes were affected by sepsis. However, in recent years, a number of studies have shown that erythrocytes affect sepsis as well. When a pathogen invades the human body, it infects the blood and organs, causing infection and sepsis-related symptoms. Pathogens change the internal environment, increasing the levels of reactive oxygen species, influencing erythrocyte morphology, and causing erythrocyte death, i.e., eryptosis. Characteristics of eryptosis include cell shrinkage, membrane blebbing, and surface exposure of phosphatidylserine (PS). Eryptotic erythrocytes increase immune cell proliferation, and through PS, attract macrophages that remove the infected erythrocytes. Erythrocyte-degraded hemoglobin derivatives and heme deteriorate infection; however, they could also be metabolized to a series of derivatives. The result that erythrocytes play an anti-infection role during sepsis provides new perspectives for treatment. This review focuses on erythrocytes during pathogenic infection and sepsis.",
"corpus_id": 244344787,
"title": "Erythrocyte degradation, metabolism, secretion, and communication with immune cells in the blood during sepsis: A review"
} | {
"abstract": "Objective—In human abdominal aortic aneurysm, the accumulation of blood-derived cells and proteases within the mural thrombus plays a pivotal role in the evolution toward vessel wall rupture. We sought to identify peptides released from abdominal aortic aneurysm specimens, characterized by an intraluminal thrombus. Methods and Results—Intraluminal thrombus samples were analyzed by differential proteomics, using surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. A 1309-Da peptide was detected in larger amounts in the newly formed luminal thrombus layer relative to older layers. It was identified as being LVVYPWTQRF (known as LVV-Hemorphin 7), a peptide generated from hemoglobin by cathepsin D. By immunohistochemical analysis, we showed that Hemorphin 7 (H7) colocalizes with cathepsin D and cathepsin G in the luminal layer of the intraluminal thrombus. In vitro, cathepsin G was able to generate H7 peptides at pH 7.4, whereas cathepsin D was only active in acidic conditions. Finally, H7 peptides were shown to be increased 3- to 4-fold in sera of abdominal aortic aneurysm patients relative to controls, and their levels were positively correlated with the volume of the thrombus. Conclusion—Our results suggest that circulating H7 peptides may reflect proteolysis of hemoglobin in the aneurysmal intraluminal thrombus and may be used as a biological marker of pathological vascular remodeling.",
"corpus_id": 2070035,
"title": "Hemorphin 7 Reflects Hemoglobin Proteolysis in Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm"
} | {
"abstract": "Experiment I examined the role of a reduced rate of responding in the occurrence of behavioral contrast. Four rats and a pigeon were exposed to a two-component multiple schedule in which one component was always a variable-interval schedule. The second component was, at different times, either a variable-time schedule in which food was delivered independently of responding, or extinction. Both extinction and the variable-time schedule reduced the rate of responding in the second component. Behavioral contrast was observed, however, only when extinction was scheduled in the second component. Experiment II examined preference, as measured by time allocation in concurrent schedules for a variable-interval schedule relative to a variable-time schedule. Two rats displayed a lack of preference between the two schedules. The results of these experiments support a preference interpretation of behavioral contrast, which holds that behavioral contrast is the result of the introduction of a less-preferred condition in one component of a multiple schedule.",
"corpus_id": 36364432,
"score": -1,
"title": "Variable-time reinforcement in multiple and concurrent schedules."
} |
{
"abstract": "Article history: Received 6 March 2007 Accepted 29 June 2009",
"corpus_id": 3874798,
"title": "Feature extraction and dimensionality reduction formass spectrometry data"
} | {
"abstract": "Now that the human genome has been determined, the field of proteomics is ramping up to tackle the vast protein networks that both control and are controlled by the information encoded by the genome. The study of proteomics should yield an unparalleled understanding of cancer as well as an invaluable new target for therapeutic intervention and markers for early detection. This rapidly expanding field attempts to track the protein interactions responsible for all cellular processes. By careful analysis of these systems, a detailed understanding of the molecular causes and consequences of cancer should emerge. A brief overview of some of the cutting edge technologies employed by this rapidly expanding field is given, along with specific examples of how these technologies are employed. Soon cellular protein networks will be understood at a level that will permit a totally new paradigm of diagnosis and will allow therapy tailored to individual patients and situations.",
"corpus_id": 14788820,
"title": "Cancer Proteomics: The State of the Art"
} | {
"abstract": "Aimed at monitoring and assessing sea use landscape pattern by satellite remote sensing, Huludao sea area was chosen as test regionin this paper. Firstly, a sea use classification system for satellite remote sensing was established and monitoring methods for all sea use types bysatellite remote sensing were structured. Then the sea use landscape pattern of Huludao test region was monitored and assessed based on satelliteRemote Sensing images of SPOT5, Geographical Information System and Global Position System. The result showed that satellite Remote Sensingassociating with Geographic Information System and Global Position System was a good tool in sea use monitoring and assessment. Sea use forindustry-mining and fishery were two main types in Huludao region. Most of industry-mining sea use patches were big and clustering in northcoastline, while fishery sea use patches were small and scattering along the southern coastline. In sea use landscape pattern, it was dominated byindustry-mining in Huludao sub-region and was dominated by industry-mining and fishery in Xingcheng sub-region, while the sea field was dominatedby fishery in Suizhong sub-region. The sea use landscape pattern shows obviously spatial differences.",
"corpus_id": 131062656,
"score": 0,
"title": "Monitoring and Assessment of Sea Use Landscape Pattern Based on Satellite Remote Sensing: A Case in Huludao Test Region"
} |
{
"abstract": "Peripheral viewing is characterized by poor resolution and distortions as compared to central viewing; nevertheless, when we move our gaze around, the visual scene does not appear to change. One possible mechanism leading to perceptual uniformity would be that peripheral appearance is extrapolated based on foveal information. Here we investigate foveal-to-peripheral extrapolation in the case of the perceived brightness of an object's surface. While fixating a spot on the rendered object, observers were asked to adjust the brightness of a disc to match a peripherally viewed target area on the surface of the same object. Being forced to fixate a better illuminated point led to brighter matches as compared to fixating points in the shadow, indicating that foveal brightness information was extrapolated. When observers fixated additional points outside of the object on the scene's background, fixated brightness had no effect on the brightness match. Results indicate that our visual system uses the brightness of the foveally viewed surface area to estimate the brightness of areas in the periphery. However, this mechanism is selectively applied within an object's boundary.",
"corpus_id": 164418,
"title": "Foveal to peripheral extrapolation of brightness within objects."
} | {
"abstract": "Due to the inhomogenous visual representation across the visual field, humans use peripheral vision to select objects of interest and foveate them by saccadic eye movements for further scrutiny. Thus, there is usually peripheral information available before and foveal information after a saccade. In this study we investigated the integration of information across saccades. We measured reliabilities--i.e., the inverse of variance-separately in a presaccadic peripheral and a postsaccadic foveal orientation--discrimination task. From this, we predicted trans-saccadic performance and compared it to observed values. We show that the integration of incongruent peripheral and foveal information is biased according to their relative reliabilities and that the reliability of the trans-saccadic information equals the sum of the peripheral and foveal reliabilities. Both results are consistent with and indistinguishable from statistically optimal integration according to the maximum-likelihood principle. Additionally, we tracked the gathering of information around the time of the saccade with high temporal precision by using a reverse correlation method. Information gathering starts to decline between 100 and 50 ms before saccade onset and recovers immediately after saccade offset. Altogether, these findings show that the human visual system can effectively use peripheral and foveal information about object features and that visual perception does not simply correspond to disconnected snapshots during each fixation.",
"corpus_id": 16361727,
"title": "Trans-saccadic integration of peripheral and foveal feature information is close to optimal."
} | {
"abstract": "Object of this paper is the performance analysis of a six degrees of freedom measuring device based on a modified Stewart platform structure. Because of the device studied in this work represents a novel application of a Stewart like platform, an investigation about its performance has been done, in order to evaluate both behaviour and characteristics of this device in different geometrical configurations. In particular, sensitivity analysis has been carried on about geometrical characteristics and displacements amplitude. To calculate the sensitivity, the inverse kinematic equations of the device have been obtained.",
"corpus_id": 109781407,
"score": 0,
"title": "Sensitivity analysis of a six degrees of freedom displacement measuring device"
} |
{
"abstract": "(1) Background: Few reports of necrotizing pneumonia in patients with COVID-19 have been published. We have observed an elevated incidence at two hospitals in our city, suggesting this complication is not uncommon, and may have been overlooked. (2) Methods: This article presents a retrospective, descriptive cohort study that was undertaken from 22 March 2020 to 15 June 2021 in two tertiary care hospitals in Medellín, Colombia. All adult patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) for respiratory failure related to confirmed COVID-19, on invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV), with imaging or surgical findings documenting necrotizing pneumonia (NP) were included. (3) Results: Of 936 patients with COVID-19 that required IMV, 42 (4.5%) developed NP. Overall mortality was 57% and in-hospital mortality was 71%, occurring 15–79 days after COVID-19 diagnosis. NP was diagnosed at a median of 27 days after COVID-19 symptom onset and 15.5 days after initiation of IMV. Infections were polymicrobial in 52.4% of patients. Klebsiella pneumoniae (57%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (33%) were the most common etiologic agents. Pulmonary embolism (PE) was documented in 13 patients overall (31%), and in 50% of patients who underwent an angioCT. Drainage and/or surgical procedures were performed on 19 patients (45.2%) with a 75% mortality rate. (4) Conclusions: In our experience, NP is a relatively common, albeit neglected, complication in mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients, possibly originating in poorly vascularized areas of lung parenchyma. Associated mortality is high. Although drainage procedures did not seem to favorably impact patient outcomes, diagnosis and treatment were late events in the overall disease course, suggesting that early recognition and timely treatment could have a positive impact on prognosis.",
"corpus_id": 237636512,
"title": "Post-COVID-19 Necrotizing Pneumonia in Patients on Invasive Mechanical Ventilation"
} | {
"abstract": "We report an unusual presentation of pulmonary embolism (PE) where a 58-year-old man first developed symptoms of community-acquired pneumonia. Despite antibiotic therapy, he remained unwell with rising inflammatory markers, general malaise and persistent cough. He developed stony dull percussion and absent breath sounds to his left mid to lower zones. Serial chest x-rays showed progression from lobar consolidation to a large loculated left-sided pleural collection. CT chest showed left-sided lung abscess, empyema and bronchopleural fistulation. Incidentally, the scan revealed acute left-sided PE and its distribution corresponded with the location of the left lung abscess and empyema. The sequence of events likely started with PE leading to infarction, cavitation, abscess formation and bronchopleural fistulation. This patient was managed with a 6-month course of rivaroxaban. After completing 2 weeks of intravenous meropenem, he was converted to 4-week course of oral co-amoxiclav and metronidazole and attained full recovery.",
"corpus_id": 3240614,
"title": "An unusual presentation of pulmonary embolism leading to infarction, cavitation, abscess formation and bronchopleural fistulation"
} | {
"abstract": "Abstract Background. Nitric oxide has been identified as an endothelium-derived relaxing factor in blood vessels. We tried to determine whether it is involved in the relaxation of the corpus cavernosum that allows penile erection. The relaxation of this smooth muscle is known to occur in response to stimulation by nonadrenergic, noncholinergic neurons. Methods. We studied strips of corpus cavernosum tissue obtained from 21 men in whom penile prostheses were inserted because of impotence. The mounted smooth-muscle specimens were pretreated with guanethidine and atropine and submaximally contracted with phenylephrine. We then studied the smooth-muscle relaxant responses to stimulation by an electrical field and to nitric oxide. Results. Electrical-field stimulation caused a marked, transient, frequency-dependent relaxation of the corpus cavernosum that was inhibited in the presence of N-nitro-L-arginine and N-amino-L-arginine, which selectively inhibit the biosynthesis of nitric oxide from L-arginine. The a...",
"corpus_id": 72798529,
"score": -1,
"title": "Nitric Oxide as a Mediator of Relaxation of the Corpus Cavernosum in Response to Nonadrenergic, Noncholinergic Neurotransmission"
} |
{
"abstract": "The emergence of Application Service Providers (ASP) hosting Internet-based data mining services is being seen as a viable alternative for organisations that value their knowledge resources but are constrained by the high cost of data mining software. Response time is an important Quality of Service (QoS) metric for web-based data mining service providers. The ability to estimate the response time of data mining algorithms apriori benefits both clients and service providers. The advantage for the clients is that it helps to impose QoS constraints on the service level agreements and the benefit for the service-providers is that it facilitates optimising resource utilisation and scheduling. In this paper we present a novel rough sets based technique for identifying similarity templates to estimate application run times. We also present experimental results and analysis of this technique.",
"corpus_id": 474804,
"title": "Application run time estimation: a quality of service metric for web-based data mining services"
} | {
"abstract": "Distributed Data Mining (DDM) is the process of mining distributed and heterogeneous datasets. DDM is widely seen as a means of addressing the scalability issue of mining large data sets. Consequently, there is an emerging focus on optimisation of the DDM process. In this paper we present cost formulae for estimating the communication and computation time for different distributed data mining scenarios.",
"corpus_id": 18688374,
"title": "Techniques for Estimating the Computation and Communication Costs of Distributed Data Mining"
} | {
"abstract": "The Cornell Theory Center serves a large and heterogeneous community of users. We have recently installed an IBM POWERParallel™ SP2™ that is similarly large and functionally heterogeneous. We expect that as machine utilization increases, stresses will occur in our scheduling environment that will tax our ability to maintain an efficient mapping between processes and processors. The system and workload of the Theory Center will be outlined. We also discuss our current scheduling system and our future requirements for a robust and efficient resource management/process scheduling system.",
"corpus_id": 39670900,
"score": 2,
"title": "Requirements of the Cornell Theory Center for Resource Management and Process Scheduling"
} |
{
"abstract": "In this paper, we present our ongoing work towards an OWL-based framework for extracting a variety of information (including patient history) from clinical texts. Our framework integrates a well-known natural language processing (NLP) system by converting its ontology and output logical form interpretation into the Web Ontology Language (OWL). The OWL-based Semantic Query-Enhanced Web Rule Language (SQWRL) is then used as a platform for authoring Semantic Web-aware rules for extracting information of interest from the OWL knowledge based created from parsing a clinical report. We also describe our ongoing work on using this system for extracting a timeline-based patient medical record from the history of present illness section of clinical texts.",
"corpus_id": 17616816,
"title": "Towards an OWL-based framework for extracting information from clinical texts"
} | {
"abstract": "Narrative reports in medical records contain a wealth of information that may augment structured data for managing patient information and predicting trends in diseases. Pertinent negatives are evident in text but are not usually indexed in structured databases. The objective of the study reported here was to test a simple algorithm for determining whether a finding or disease mentioned within narrative medical reports is present or absent. We developed a simple regular expression algorithm called NegEx that implements several phrases indicating negation, filters out sentences containing phrases that falsely appear to be negation phrases, and limits the scope of the negation phrases. We compared NegEx against a baseline algorithm that has a limited set of negation phrases and a simpler notion of scope. In a test of 1235 findings and diseases in 1000 sentences taken from discharge summaries indexed by physicians, NegEx had a specificity of 94.5% (versus 85.3% for the baseline), a positive predictive value of 84.5% (versus 68.4% for the baseline) while maintaining a reasonable sensitivity of 77.8% (versus 88.3% for the baseline). We conclude that with little implementation effort a simple regular expression algorithm for determining whether a finding or disease is absent can identify a large portion of the pertinent negatives from discharge summaries.",
"corpus_id": 6315215,
"title": "A Simple Algorithm for Identifying Negated Findings and Diseases in Discharge Summaries"
} | {
"abstract": "The most notable trend in manufacturing over the past five years is probably the move towards networks at all levels. At lower levels in the factory infrastructure, networks provide higher reliability, visibility, and diagnosability, and enable capabilities such as distributed control, diagnostics, safety, and device interoperability. At higher levels, networks can leverage internet services to enable factory-wide automat- ed scheduling, control, and diagnostics; improve data storage and visibility; and open the door to e-manufacturing. This paper explores current trends in the use of networks for distributed, multilevel control, diagnostics, and safety. Network performance characteristics such as delay, delay variability, and determinism are evaluated in the context of networked control applications. This paper also discusses future network- ing trends in each of these categories and describes the actual application of all three categories of networks on a reconfigur- able factory testbed (RFT) at the University of Michigan. Control, diagnostics, and safety systems are all enabled in the RFT utilizing multitier networked technology including Device- Net, PROFIBUS, OPC, wired and wireless Ethernet, and Safe- tyBUS p. This paper concludes with a discussion of trends in industrial networking, including the move to wireless for all categories, and the issues that must be addressed to realize these trends.",
"corpus_id": 6933117,
"score": -1,
"title": "The Emergence of Industrial Control Networks for Manufacturing Control, Diagnostics, and Safety Data"
} |
{
"abstract": "Tomographic images taken inside and outside a compaction band in a field specimen of Aztec sandstone are analyzed by using numerical methods such as graph theory, level sets, and hybrid lattice Boltzmann/finite element techniques. The results reveal approximately an order of magnitude permeability reduction within the compaction band. This is less than the several orders of magnitude reduction measured from hydraulic experiments on compaction bands formed in laboratory experiments and about one order of magnitude less than inferences from two‐dimensional images of Aztec sandstone. Geometrical analysis concludes that the elimination of connected pore space and increased tortuosities due to the porosity decrease are the major factors contributing to the permeability reduction. In addition, the multiscale flow simulations also indicate that permeability is fairly isotropic inside and outside the compaction band.",
"corpus_id": 13435606,
"title": "Connecting microstructural attributes and permeability from 3D tomographic images of in situ shear‐enhanced compaction bands using multiscale computations"
} | {
"abstract": "An Arlequin poromechanics model is introduced to simulate the hydro‐mechanical coupling effects of fluid‐infiltrated porous media across different spatial scales within a concurrent computational framework. A two‐field poromechanics problem is first recast as the twofold saddle point of an incremental energy functional. We then introduce Lagrange multipliers and compatibility energy functionals to enforce the weak compatibility of hydro‐mechanical responses in the overlapped domain. To examine the numerical stability of this hydro‐mechanical Arlequin model, we derive a necessary condition for stability, the twofold inf–sup condition for multi‐field problems, and establish a modified inf–sup test formulated in the product space of the solution field. We verify the implementation of the Arlequin poromechanics model through benchmark problems covering the entire range of drainage conditions. Through these numerical examples, we demonstrate the performance, robustness, and numerical stability of the Arlequin poromechanics model. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.",
"corpus_id": 14352898,
"title": "Mixed Arlequin method for multiscale poromechanics problems"
} | {
"abstract": "Influenza A viruses are spherical particles that attach to cells through bonds between hemagglutinin and specific cellular receptors. Numerous studies performed have recently revealed that Sialic acid (SA) is a crucial component of influenza A virus receptors. This brief review summarizes recent advances in our understanding of influenza A virus receptors. The introduction describes the classification of influenza A virus receptors and the review continues with a survey of the distribution of SA in different tissue and host. This is followed by research applications of influenza A virus receptors, and explanation of why receptor studies are so important on a world-wide scale.",
"corpus_id": 5288841,
"score": 0,
"title": "An overview of Influenza A virus receptors"
} |
{
"abstract": "SUMMARY We demonstrate an all-optical picosecond pulse durationtunable nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ)-to-return-to-zero (RZ) data format conversion using a Raman amplifier-based compressor and a fiber-based fourwave mixing (FWM) switch. A NRZ data signal is injected into the fiberbased FWM switch (AND gate) with a compressed RZ clock by the Raman amplifier-based compressor, and convert to RZ data signal by the fiberbased FWM switch. The compressed RZ clock train acts as a pump signal in the fiber-based FWM switch to perform the NRZ-to-RZ data format conversion. By changing the Raman pump power of the Raman amplifierbased compressor, it is possible to tune the pulse duration of the converted RZ data signal from 15 ps to 2 ps. In all the tuning range, the receiver sensitivity at bit error rate (BER) of 10 −9 for the converted RZ data signal was about 1.3 ∼1.7 dB better than the receiver sensitivity of the input NRZ data signal. Moreover, the pulse pedestal of the converted RZ data signals is well suppressed owing to the FWM process in the fiber-based FWM",
"corpus_id": 8711756,
"title": "All-Optical NRZ-to-RZ Data Format Conversion with Picosecond Duration-Tunable and Pedestal Suppressed Operations"
} | {
"abstract": "We present a polarization-insensitive non-return-to-zero (NRZ) to return-to-zero (RZ) conversion. In this scheme, the pulsewidth of the converted RZ signal can be flexibly tuned from 10 ps to 2 ps.",
"corpus_id": 28411495,
"title": "Polarization-insensitive NRZ-to-RZ conversion with pulsewidth tunability"
} | {
"abstract": "A wavelength and pulse duration tunable source of subpicosecond pulses has been demonstrated at a repetition rate of 10 GHz using adiabatic Raman compression of 10 ps pulses from an external cavity laser and an electro-absorption modulator.",
"corpus_id": 110738991,
"score": 2,
"title": "Wavelength and duration tunable subpicosecond source using adiabatic Raman compression"
} |
{
"abstract": "BACKGROUND\nPregnancy dating in the South African public healthcare setting is mainly based on clinical assessment. However, the accuracy of this approach is unknown.\n\n\nAIM\nTo compare the accuracy of different pregnancy dating methods.\n\n\nMETHODS\nWe performed a prospective comparison of 2 ultrasound policies involving consecutive low-risk women in a midwife clinic in the Metro East region, Cape Town, Western Cape. Information on the last menstrual period (LMP), the 1st symphysis-to-fundal height measurement (FH) and average gestation by ultrasonographic (US) fetal biometry was recorded. Five dating methods: LMP, FH, US and their combinations, were assessed against the actual day of delivery (ADD). The main outcome measures were: (i) the days between the ADD and estimated date of delivery in pregnancies where spontaneous labour occurred and the baby had a normal birth weight; (ii) the incidence of gestational age-related outcomes; and (iii) the influence of clinical variables on dating discrepancies.\n\n\nRESULTS\nA total of 1 342 pregnancies were analysed. The accuracy of dating was similar for certain and uncertain LMP. FH was less accurate with increasing obesity. US-based dating was most accurate (for 85% of predictions within 14 days) and similarly accurate at 20 - 24 weeks and at >24 weeks. US reduced the number of assumed pre-and post-term deliveries and, in addition, was better at detecting small-for-gestational age infants (p<0.001).\n\n\nCONCLUSION\nPregnancy dating by US, including those in more advanced pregnancies than currently permitted, is recommended since all non-ultrasound-based estimations of gestational age were considerably less accurate.",
"corpus_id": 1091435,
"title": "A comparison of pregnancy dating methods commonly used in South Africa: a prospective study."
} | {
"abstract": "Evidence from large epidemiological studies has supported concern that being born light for gestational age (LiGA) may be detrimental. The incidence of LiGA babies is an important indicator of the health of women of reproductive age in deprived communities. In the assessment of LiGA in the Western Cape, centile charts constructed for populations in other parts of the world are generally used. These charts, however, may not be appropriate. Patients residing in the area served by the Tygerberg Hospital obstetric service, who booked early with singleton pregnancies, had their gestational age confirmed by early ultrasound and delivered between 1 March 1989 and 28 February 1990 were included in the study. The sample consisted of 3,643 patients. The mean birth weight was 2,995 g (SD 573 g) and the range 760-5,080 g. The distribution of birth weight at each week of gestation from 28 to 42 weeks was not normal. The 4-parameter Johnson family of densities was used to model the distribution of birth weight at each gestational age. A comparison of the distribution of birth weight in the study relative to the perinatal growth chart for international reference constructed by Dunn was also made. In addition to considering an overall chart, the sample was subdivided according to a number of characteristics (e.g. gender, firstborn and latter-born babies, smoking habit, hypertensive disorders and induction of labour) in order to explore their impact on the distribution of birth weight. Having explored the potential impact of all these factors, it was concluded that a single chart including all patients could be constructed.",
"corpus_id": 28648368,
"title": "A centile chart for birth weight for an urban population of the Western Cape."
} | {
"abstract": "We here report the first case of cholangiolocellular carcinoma (CoCC) visualized with contrast‐enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) using a second‐generation contrast agent, Sonazoid. A 76‐year‐old man was admitted to our hospital for evaluation of a hepatic tumor. The tumor was described as having hyper‐enhancement in the early phase and persistent enhancement in the late phase by contrast‐enhanced computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), as well as hypervascularity by angiography. CEUS assessment of the nodule showed diffuse and homogeneous enhancement in the pure arterial phase, which became progressively hypoechoic relative to the adjacent liver parenchyma during the portal vein and late phases (mixed vascular phase), and showed a contrast defect with an unclear border in the Kupffer phase. Histologically we diagnosed this hepatic tumor as CoCC. In light of the above findings and the rarity of CoCC, it is helpful to incorporate the results of several imagings, such as CT, MRI, angiography and CEUS with a second‐generation contrast agent when clinically diagnosing CoCC.",
"corpus_id": 205988974,
"score": 1,
"title": "A case of well‐differentiated cholangiolocellular carcinoma visualized with contrast‐enhanced ultrasonography using Sonazoid"
} |
{
"abstract": "The case histories of 33 stone‐forming cystinurics were analysed with respect to the time taken for the diagnosis of cystinuria to be made. Stone analysis showed that 17 patients were diagnosed at the time of first stone formation, but the other 16 patients were not diagnosed until they had suffered repeated episodes of calculi. There were 25 episodes of renal colic in 14 patients before any stone formation, and there was no case of cystinuria diagnosed as the result of a search for the cause of the renal colic.",
"corpus_id": 783290,
"title": "POOR DIAGNOSIS OF CYSTINURIA IN NEW SOUTH WALES"
} | {
"abstract": "Because of the wide acceptability of the nitroprusside test for the diagnosis of cystinuria, an analysis of 525 consecutive urine tests performed at this laboratory was undertaken, the nitroprusside test result being correlated with the urinary cystine excretion as determined by paper chromatography, high‐voltage electrophoresis and chemical tests. It was found that the nitroprusside test clearly separated urine samples into categories of cystine excretion within the normal, heterozygote and homozygote range (P<0·001). However, 7 (1·33%) urine specimens from homozygous cystinurics gave a negative nitroprusside result. If properly performed on a concentrated urine specimen, tins test is a very accurate means of diagnosing cystinuria (expected error approximately 1%), but it is not infallible.",
"corpus_id": 45261228,
"title": "EVALUATION OF THE NITROPRUSSIDE TEST FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF CYSTINURIA"
} | {
"abstract": "To test the validity of the presymptomatic diagnosis of cystinuria and to learn more of the long term history of the condition and the value of prophylactic treatment, a register of known symptomatic cystinurics and presymptomatic cysti‐ nurics has been established. It is hoped to maintain a long‐term follow up of these patients.",
"corpus_id": 2775964,
"score": 2,
"title": "THE NEW SOUTH WALES REGISTER OF CYSTINURICS: FIRST REPORT JANUARY TO DECEMBER, 1971"
} |
{
"abstract": "Background. Approximately 60% of patients suffering from acute spinal cord injury (SCI) develop pain within days to weeks after injury, which ultimately persists into chronic stages. To date, the consequences of pain after SCI have been largely examined in terms of interfering with quality of life. Objective. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of pain and pain management on neurological recovery after SCI. Methods. We analyzed clinical data in a prospective multicenter observational cohort study in patients with SCI. Using mixed effects regression techniques, total motor and sensory scores were modelled at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months postinjury. Results. A total of 225 individuals were included in the study (mean age: 45.8 ± 18 years, 80% male). At 1 month postinjury, 28% of individuals with SCI reported at- or below-level neuropathic pain. While pain classification showed no effect on neurological outcomes, individuals administered anticonvulsant medications at 1 month postinjury showed significant reductions in pain intensity (2 points over 1 year; P < .05) and greater recovery in total motor scores (7.3 points over 1 year; P < .05). This drug effect on motor recovery remained significant after adjustment for injury level and injury severity, pain classification, and pain intensity. Conclusion. While initial pain classification and intensity did not reveal an effect on motor recovery following acute SCI, anticonvulsants conferred a significant beneficial effect on motor outcomes. Early intervention with anticonvulsants may have effects beyond pain management and warrant further studies to evaluate the therapeutic effectiveness in human SCI.",
"corpus_id": 5096906,
"title": "Effects of Pain and Pain Management on Motor Recovery of Spinal Cord–Injured Patients"
} | {
"abstract": "&NA; Two studies were designed to examine important predictors of pain following spinal cord injury (SCI), and the impact of pain on self‐reported quality of life (QOL). Pain was defined as ‘interference in day‐to‐day activities secondary to pain’. In order to determine risk factors associated with the development of pain interference, Study 1 examined the predictive validity of multiple demographic, medical, and QOL variables at year 1 post‐SCI to self‐reported pain interference 2 years post‐injury. Results showed that middle age (30–59‐year‐olds), lower self‐reported mental health, and pain interference at 1 year post‐SCI were the most important unique predictors of pain interference 2 years post‐SCI. In Study 2, participants were separated into four groups; (1) those pain‐free at years 1 and 2, (2) those pain‐free at year 1 and in pain at year 2, (3) those in pain at year 1 and pain‐free at year 2, and (4) those in pain at years 1 and 2. Results showed that only those experiencing a change in pain interference status reported a change in QOL. More specifically, those developing pain interference (group 2) from year 1 to year 2 reported decreased life satisfaction, physical health, and mental health, whereas, those with resolving pain interference from year 1 to year 2 reported an increase in these same domains. Unexpectedly, change in pain interference status was unrelated to change in self‐reported handicap. Implications and future directions are discussed.",
"corpus_id": 1600721,
"title": "Interference due to pain following spinal cord injury: important predictors and impact on quality of life"
} | {
"abstract": "Over the past 30 years, behavioral and experimental economists and psychologists have made great strides in identifying phenomena that cannot be explained by the classical model of rational choice—anomalies in the discounting of future wealth, present bias, loss aversion, the endowment effect, and aversion to ambiguity, for example. In response to these findings, there has been an enormous amount of research by behavioral scientists aimed at modeling and understanding the nature of these biases1. However, these models, typically assuming situation-specific psychological processes, have shed limited light on the conditions for and boundaries of the different biases, substantially neglecting their relative importance and joint effect. Much less attention has been paid to the investigation of the links between different biases. As a consequence of this approach, it is not always clear which model should be used to predict behavior in a new setting, and maybe a more general theory is needed. We believe that the field of neuroeconomics, which has experienced a rapid growth over the past decade, can play an important role in bridging these gaps, contributing to the building of a general theoretical framework for judgment and decision-making behaviors.",
"corpus_id": 510822,
"score": -1,
"title": "Toward a general theoretical framework for judgment and decision-making"
} |
{
"abstract": "Advances in high-resolution prenatal ultrasound and fetal magnetic resonance (MR) imaging have changed the practice of obstetrics by allowing better visualization of intrathoracic and neck structures and better estimation of lung volumes. More accurate prenatal diagnosis has increased options for pregnancy management and treatment, delivery planning, and postnatal care. Anyone who is interested in the fascinating field of fetology should become familiar with the current state of fetal imaging of the chest as well as potential advances in technology and research.",
"corpus_id": 2620465,
"title": "Fetal chest ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging: recent advances and current clinical applications."
} | {
"abstract": "Fetal MRI is now a well-established imaging modality for the diagnostic evaluation of fetuses with congenital anomalies. In this article, the authors provide a brief overview of the physical principles involved in fetal MRI imaging, the sequences that are used in clinical practice today, current indications, and limitations. A review of current evidence supports the following indications for fetal MRI: suspected central nervous system anomalies, neck and oropharyngeal masses, diaphragmatic hernia, abdominal masses or bowel pathology not fully characterized by ultrasonography, and suspected fetal infection. Other indications should be decided on a case-by-case basis with close collaboration between the departments of maternal-fetal medicine and radiology. More research is needed to determine the role of fetal MRI in functional neuroimaging at higher magnetic field strengths (3T).",
"corpus_id": 11743604,
"title": "Techniques, terminology, and indications for MRI in pregnancy."
} | {
"abstract": "Pulmonary arterial (PA) blood flow patterns, changes in pulmonary blood flow, and pulmonary vascular responses to graded hypoxemia and intravenous acetylcholine (ACh) were studied in IS fetal lambs in utero 3–12 days after surgical implantation of an electromagnetic flow transducer and PA catheter. Phasic PA flow in the fetus was forward only during the first third of systole, almost zero during midsystole, and backward during late systole and early diastole. In contrast, neonatal lambs showed forward PA flow throughout systole. The constriction of the fetal pulmonary vasculature in response to progressive hypoxemia varied with gestational age. At 103 days there was no significant drop in PA flow and only a small increase in pulmonary vascular resistance (Rp) with hypoxemia. The greatest increase in Rp w\"s seen in fetuses after 121 days of gestation. This response was unaffected by α- and β-sympathetic and parasympathetic blockade. Similarly, the pulmonary vascular response to ACh injected into the fetal jugular vein depended on gestational age. Little or no increase in pulmonary flow was noted in the youngest fetus, whereas ACh produced a marked increase in pulmonary flow in fetuses over 120 days of gestation. These data suggest that the mechanisms by which hypoxemia constricts and ACh relaxes the pulmonary vascular smooth muscle are not fully developed in fetal lambs at 100 days of gestation and furthermore, that these mechanisms progressively develop during the last third of gestation.",
"corpus_id": 20303073,
"score": 2,
"title": "Gestational Changes in Pulmonary Vascular Responses in Fetal Lambs in Utero"
} |
{
"abstract": null,
"corpus_id": 27954457,
"title": "Predicting Time Series with Space-Time Convolutional and Recurrent Neural Networks"
} | {
"abstract": "In this paper, we systematically analyse the connecting architectures of recurrent neural networks (RNNs). Our main contribution is twofold: first, we present a rigorous graph-theoretic framework describing the connecting architectures of RNNs in general. Second, we propose three architecture complexity measures of RNNs: (a) the recurrent depth, which captures the RNN's over-time nonlinear complexity, (b) the feedforward depth, which captures the local input-output nonlinearity (similar to the\"depth\"in feedforward neural networks (FNNs)), and (c) the recurrent skip coefficient which captures how rapidly the information propagates over time. Our experimental results show that RNNs might benefit from larger recurrent depth and feedforward depth. We further demonstrate that increasing recurrent skip coefficient offers performance boosts on long term dependency problems, as we improve the state-of-the-art for sequential MNIST dataset.",
"corpus_id": 14499411,
"title": "Architectural Complexity Measures of Recurrent Neural Networks"
} | {
"abstract": "Many recent advancements in Computer Vision are attributed to large datasets. Open-source software packages for Machine Learning and inexpensive commodity hardware have reduced the barrier of entry for exploring novel approaches at scale. It is possible to train models over millions of examples within a few days. Although large-scale datasets exist for image understanding, such as ImageNet, there are no comparable size video classification datasets. ::: In this paper, we introduce YouTube-8M, the largest multi-label video classification dataset, composed of ~8 million videos (500K hours of video), annotated with a vocabulary of 4800 visual entities. To get the videos and their labels, we used a YouTube video annotation system, which labels videos with their main topics. While the labels are machine-generated, they have high-precision and are derived from a variety of human-based signals including metadata and query click signals. We filtered the video labels (Knowledge Graph entities) using both automated and manual curation strategies, including asking human raters if the labels are visually recognizable. Then, we decoded each video at one-frame-per-second, and used a Deep CNN pre-trained on ImageNet to extract the hidden representation immediately prior to the classification layer. Finally, we compressed the frame features and make both the features and video-level labels available for download. ::: We trained various (modest) classification models on the dataset, evaluated them using popular evaluation metrics, and report them as baselines. Despite the size of the dataset, some of our models train to convergence in less than a day on a single machine using TensorFlow. We plan to release code for training a TensorFlow model and for computing metrics.",
"corpus_id": 11241677,
"score": -1,
"title": "YouTube-8M: A Large-Scale Video Classification Benchmark"
} |
{
"abstract": "SummaryCultured human epithelial cells stained with antibody to desmosomal proteins by indirect immunofluorescence showed linear arrays of desmosomes en face between stratified cells. To confirm that an extensive linear pattern existed on the cell surface, subconfluent cultures were viewed using scanning electron microscopy. Aligned arrays of blunt protrusions lying parallel to each other and extending in the direction of the long axis of the cell were observed on the surface of groups of superficial cells in intact cultures. That this pattern was indeed related to desmosomal distribution was verified by transmission microscopy of thin sections cut in a plane between the upper and lower surfaces of flattened stratified cells to view desmosomes directly. A similar arrangement of desmosomes was seen in intact tissue, using epidermal sheets separated from newborn foreskin. The same pattern found in flattened cells was sometimes apparent in more rounded basal cells where the cytoplasm was beginning to extend. Since desmosomal plaques are associated with keratin filaments, the alignment of desmosomes must occur in association with cytoskeletal changes as cells become flattened toward the distal epithelial surface. The primary initiation of desmosomal alignment remains to be investigated. However, the present findings demonstrate an increasingly regular membrane-cytoskeletal spatial interaction as stratified epithelial cells of skin mature.",
"corpus_id": 1593457,
"title": "Alignment of desmosomes in stratifying human epidermis"
} | {
"abstract": "The purpose of this in vivo study was to investigate, non‐invasively on human subjects, xerotic skin and its physiological evolution over time, compared to normal skin. Two groups of 17 female subjects were studied during the winter season, one made up of subjects with normal skin and the other subjects with xerotic skin. A clinical assessment and biometrological measurements of hydration and transepidermal water loss (TEWL) were performed on the same area of the external antero‐lateral surface of the leg at the start of the study then after three weeks. At the end of the study, the ultrastructure of stratum corneum samples taken from the same area was examined by transmission electron microscopy.",
"corpus_id": 45421981,
"title": "A Clinical, Biometrological and Ultrastructural Study of Xerotic Skin"
} | {
"abstract": "Cell distribution and the effects of 12 daily injections of 80 mg/kg pilocarpine or 5 mg/kg atropine were studied in rat tracheal epithelium. Ciliated, periodic‐acid‐Schiff‐positive (PAS+), Alcian blue‐positive (AB+), nonstaining, and basal cells were counted and their order of occurrence was recorded. Pilocarpine caused a decrease in ciliated and an increase in PAS+, basal, and nonstaining cell numbers. Atropine caused similar changes, although to a much lesser extent. AB+ cells were rare. Cell occurrence was randomized by computer, and comparisons with nonrandomized counts were made to discern between 1) differences in cell arrangement owed to variations in cell numbers, and 2) actual biases in cell distribution. In general, ciliated areas amounted to a few cells and were separated by nonciliated patches of comparable size. The grouping characteristics of cells supported the notion that basal cells were surrounded by their progeny and that daughter cells were displaced by siblings. It was concluded that the cells were not randomly distributed. Basal cells were dispersed, and probably immediately related to PAS+ cells but not to ciliated cells. A bias toward grouping implied concurrent differentiation of clusters of sibling cells. With drug treatment, a substantial increase in PAS+ cells without increase in cell concentration suggested a decrease in ciliated cell differentiation. Larger groups of secretory cells with treatment suggested cell division without differentiation through the basal cell pathway. Cholinergic agents were not the predominant modulators of this epithelium, and their effect was probably secondary to influence over mucociliary function.",
"corpus_id": 9744583,
"score": 1,
"title": "Cell distribution in tracheal surface epithelium and the effects of long‐term pilocarpine and atropine administration"
} |
{
"abstract": "Traditional data warehousing technologies and On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) are unable to analyze textual data. Moreover, as OLAP queries of a decision-maker are generally related to a context, contextual information must be taken into account during the exploitation of data warehouses. Thus, we propose a contextual text cube model denoted CXT-Cube which considers several contextual factors during the OLAP analysis in order to better consider the contextual information associated with textual data. CXT-Cube is characterized by several contextual dimensions, each one related to a contextual factor. In addition, we extend our aggregation OLAP operator for textual data ORank (OLAP-Rank) to consider all the contextual factors defined in our CXT-Cube model. To validate our model, we perform an experimental study and the preliminary results show the importance of our approach for integrating textual data into a data warehouse and improving the decision-making.",
"corpus_id": 14192702,
"title": "CXT-cube: contextual text cube model and aggregation operator for text OLAP"
} | {
"abstract": "With the rise of social media in our life, several decision makers have worked on these networks to make better decisions. In order to benefit from the data issued from these media, many researchers focused on helping companies understand how to perform a social media competitive analysis and transform these data into knowledge for decision makers. A high number of users interact at any time on different ways in social media such as by expressing their opinions about products, services or transaction related to the organization which can prove very helpful for making better projections. In this paper, we provide a literature review on data warehouse design approaches from social media. More precisely, we start by introducing the main concepts of data warehouse and social media. We also propose two classes of data warehouse design approaches from social media (behavior analysis and integration of sentiment analysis in data warehouse schema) and expose for each one the most representative existing works. Afterward, we propose a comparative study of the existing works.",
"corpus_id": 7827450,
"title": "Data warehouse design approaches from social media: review and comparison"
} | {
"abstract": "We examine the problems with automated recommendation systems when information about user preferences is limited. We equate the problem to one of content similarity measurement and apply techniques from Natural Language Processing to the domain of movie recommendation. We describe two algorithms, a naive word-space approach and a more sophisticated approach using topic signatures, and evaluate their performance compared to baseline, gold standard, and commercial systems.",
"corpus_id": 6447353,
"score": -1,
"title": "Recommendations without user preferences: a natural language processing approach"
} |
{
"abstract": "Adhesion of bacteria onto minerals is a ubiquitous process that plays a central role in many biogeochemical, microbiology and environmental processes in soil and sediment. Although bacterial adhesion onto soil minerals such as phyllosilicates and Fe-oxides have been investigated extensively, little is known about the mechanisms for bacterial attachment onto Al-oxides. Here, we explored the adhesion of Bacillus subtilis onto gibbsite (γ-AlOOH) under various ionic strengths (1, 10, 50, and 100 mM NaCl) and pHs (pH 4, 7, and 9) by in-situ attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy. The time evolution of the peak intensities of the attached bacteria suggested that the adhesion underwent an initial rapid reaction followed by a slow pseudo-first-order kinetic stage. Spectral comparison between the attached and free cells, together with the interaction energy calculated with the Derjaguin, Landau, Verwey, and Overbeek (DLVO) theory and the micro-morphology of bacteria-gibbsite complexes, indicated that both electrostatic and chemical (bacterial groups such as phosphate and carboxyl covalently bind to gibbsite) interactions participated in the adhesion processes. Both solution ionic strength (IS) and pH impacted the spectra of attached bacteria, but the peak intensity of different bands changed differently with these two factors, showing a preferential adhesion of surface groups (phosphate, carboxyl, and amide groups) on gibbsite at different conditions. The diverse responses to IS and pH alteration of the forces (chemical bonds, electrostatic attractions, and the hydrophobic interactions) that essentially govern the adhesion might be responsible for the preferential adhesion. These results may help to better understand how bacteria adhere onto soil oxides at molecular scales.",
"corpus_id": 4593296,
"title": "Preferential adhesion of surface groups of Bacillus subtilis on gibbsite at different ionic strengths and pHs revealed by ATR-FTIR spectroscopy."
} | {
"abstract": "Attenuated total reflectance (ATR) Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy has been used to probe the binding of bacteria to hematite (α-Fe2O3) and goethite (α-FeOOH). In situ ATR-FTIR experiments with bacteria (Pseudomonas putida, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli), mixed amino acids, polypeptide extracts, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), and a suite of model compounds were conducted. These compounds represent carboxyl, catecholate, amide, and phosphate groups present in siderophores, amino acids, polysaccharides, phospholipids, and DNA. Due in part to the ubiquitous presence of carboxyl groups in biomolecules, numerous IR peaks corresponding to outer-sphere or unbound (1400 cm(-1)) and inner-sphere (1310-1320 cm(-1)) coordinated carboxyl groups are noted following reaction of bacteria and biomolecules with α-Fe2O3 and α-FeOOH. However, the data also reveal that the presence of low-level amounts (i.e., 0.45-0.79%) of biomolecular phosphorous groups result in strong IR bands at ∼1043 cm(-1), corresponding to inner-sphere Fe-O-P bonds, underscoring the importance of bacteria associated P-containing groups in biomolecule and cell adhesion. Spectral comparisons also reveal slightly greater P-O-Fe contributions for bacteria (Pseudomonad, E. coli) deposited on α-FeOOH, as compared to α-Fe2O3. This data demonstrates that slight differences in bacterial adhesion to Fe oxides can be attributed to bacterial species and Fe-oxide minerals. However, more importantly, the strong binding affinity of phosphate in all bacteria samples to both Fe-oxides results in the formation of inner-sphere Fe-O-P bonds, signifying the critical role of biomolecular P in the initiation of bacterial adhesion.",
"corpus_id": 3035840,
"title": "ATR-FTIR spectroscopic evidence for biomolecular phosphorus and carboxyl groups facilitating bacterial adhesion to iron oxides."
} | {
"abstract": "High activity and stability are crucial for the practical use of electrocatalysts in fuel cells, metal-air batteries, and water electrolysis, including the oxygen reduction reaction, hydrogen evolution reaction, oxygen evolution reaction, and oxidation reactions of formic acid and alcohols. Electrocatalysts based on nitrogen-containing carbon (N-C) materials show promise in catalyzing these reactions; however, there is no systematic review of strategies for the engineering of active and stable N-C-based electrocatalysts. Herein, a comprehensive comparison of recently reported N-C-based electrocatalysts regarding both electrocatalytic activity and long-term stability is presented. In the first part of this review, the relationships between the electrocatalytic reactions and selection of the element to modify the N-C-based materials are discussed. Afterwards, synthesis methods for N-C-based electrocatalysts are summarized, and strategies for the synthesis of highly stable N-C-based electrocatalysts are presented. Multiple tables containing data on crucial parameters for both electrocatalytic activity and stability are displayed in this review. Finally, constructing M-Nx moieties is proposed as the most promising engineering strategy for stable N-C-based electrocatalysts.",
"corpus_id": 21706864,
"score": 1,
"title": "Stable and Efficient Nitrogen-Containing Carbon-Based Electrocatalysts for Reactions in Energy-Conversion Systems."
} |
{
"abstract": "This paper is concerned with a design methodology of an Interval Type-2FCM-based fuzzy neural network classifier. The hidden layer of the proposed architecture is realized by interval type-2 FCM clustering to deal with uncertainties remaining in input space. This interval type-2 FCM clustering run using two values of the fuzzification coefficient resulting in interval type-2 membership functions and then the membership grades of IT2 FCM are used as the output of the hidden layer. Local LSE-based learning is applied to adjust the connection weights depicted as linear functions between the hidden layer and the output layer. The effectiveness of the proposed classifier is discussed and analyzed with the aid of a diversity of machine learning data sets.",
"corpus_id": 1560009,
"title": "Design of Interval Type-2 FCM-Based Neural Networks"
} | {
"abstract": "This paper presents a methodology that uses the central composite design and the radial basis function neural networks in type-1 or in interval type-2 model to generate a network that evaluates quality features in an industrial image processing. The methodology includes a couple of radial basis functions as Huygen’s tractrix and triangular membership functions as complementary contributions that have not been reported in literature as radial basis functions. The advantage of using this proposal is that the training is not required to get an accurate result, also the generation of the IT2 RBFNN fuzzy rule base for evaluating quality characteristics is simplified by using the central composite design method and statistical indicators extracted from the product specification data. Experimental results show an error reduction of 90% when the interval type-2 Mandami Radial basis function neural network was compared against its type-1 counterpart using the Gaussian membership functions onto a radial basis function network. On the other hand, the implementation of the Huygen’s tractrix, found a reduction error of 50% in comparison to the Gaussian function.",
"corpus_id": 239695554,
"title": "Type-1 and type-2 radial basis function neural networks Mandami system to evaluate quality features"
} | {
"abstract": "This paper presents a dynamic image-query creation and metadata extraction method with semantic correlation computation between color-combinations and impressions of multiple image data. The main features of our method are (1) to create an image-query which reflects user's intention dynamically according to the color-based combinations of images with common features selected by a user as context, (2) to extract appropriate impression by each image collection which cannot be easily extracted from a single image, (3) to provide users an image retrieval environment reflecting historical and cultural semantics and impression of color especially for cultural properties, and (4) to enable an image retrieval environment for the collection of images by time, culture, author e.t.c.. The queries are created by the combination of multiple image sets and operations, which are intersection, accumulation, average, difference of color elements of sample images. First, a set of multiple images with common features is set as sample data for a query creation. Second, color histograms are extracted from the image sets for creating feature vector of a query. Third, the correlations between an image-query vector and target image vectors are calculated on a space which represents the relationship between color and the impression according to historical and cultural semantics of color. This image-query creation method representing impression of color makes it possible to expand the range of image retrieval for a large number of image data of cultural property in digital archives, such as electronic library and electronic museum, automatically.",
"corpus_id": 34288471,
"score": 1,
"title": "An Image-Query Creation Method for Representing Impression by Color-based Combination of Multiple Images"
} |
{
"abstract": "Faces automatically draw attention, allowing rapid assessments of personality and likely behaviour. How we respond to people is, however, highly dependent on whether we know who they are. According to face processing models person knowledge comes from an extended neural system that includes structures linked to episodic memory. Here we use scalp recorded brain signals to demonstrate the specific role of episodic memory processes during face processing. In two experiments we recorded Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) while participants made identify, familiar or unknown responses to famous faces. ERPs revealed neural signals previously associated with episodic recollection for identify but not familiar faces. These findings provide novel evidence suggesting that recollection is central to face processing, providing one source of person knowledge that can be used to moderate the initial impressions gleaned from the core neural system that supports face recognition.",
"corpus_id": 2476863,
"title": "Elements of person knowledge: Episodic recollection helps us to identify people but not to recognize their faces"
} | {
"abstract": "Previous research has suggested that faces and words are processed and remembered differently as reflected by different ERP patterns for the two types of stimuli. Specifically, face stimuli produced greater late positive deflections for old items in anterior compared to posterior regions, while word stimuli produced greater late positive deflections in posterior compared to anterior regions. Given that words have existing representations in subjects׳ long-term memories (LTM) and that face stimuli used in prior experiments were of unknown individuals, we conducted an ERP study that crossed face and letter stimuli with the presence or absence of a prior (stable or existing) memory representation. During encoding, subjects judged whether stimuli were known (famous face or real word) or not known (unknown person or pseudo-word). A surprise recognition memory test required subjects to distinguish between stimuli that appeared during the encoding phase and stimuli that did not. ERP results were consistent with previous research when comparing unknown faces and words; however, the late ERP pattern for famous faces was more similar to that for words than for unknown faces. This suggests that the critical ERP difference is mediated by whether there is a prior representation in LTM, and not whether the stimulus involves letters or faces.",
"corpus_id": 1513599,
"title": "ERP profiles for face and word recognition are based on their status in semantic memory not their stimulus category"
} | {
"abstract": "Abstract A dense grid of continuous seismic reflection profiles, partly calibrated with drilling results, has allowed construction of a structural outline of the entire Aegean Sea. In the North Aegean we observe a clear difference between the thickly sedimented northern margin basins and the steep slopes of the trough margin of the southern North Aegean. The trough itself comprises a series of separate tectonic depressions resulting from an apparent transtensional motion. The Central Aegean consists of a complex tectonic puzzle caused by the prevailing extension; incipient strike-slip faulting (sub-parallel to the North Aegean trough trend) may, however, affect its eastern (Anatolian) domain. Three main structural areas characterize the Southern Aegean. Comparable structural directions cut across this chiefly extensional basin, but one fault system may be prevailing over the others, depending on the area. The Central Cretan Sea results from the interaction of at least two distinct extensions. These were superimposed on previous, mostly E-W structural trends generated during the inception of the southern Hellenic subduction and led to the present-day predominant SW-NE trending extension. As a hypothesis we propose that the overall Late Miocene-present evolution of the Aegean Sea is directly dependent on two geodynamic processes: to the southeast of the area, collision between Arabia and Turkey leads to the lateral (westward) expulsion of the Aegean continental crust, and to the west, Hellenic subduction is still active.",
"corpus_id": 129451194,
"score": 0,
"title": "Shallow structure and recent evolution of the Aegean Sea: A synthesis based on continuous reflection profiles"
} |
{
"abstract": "The first contribution to the horse gene map was identification of linkage between 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase and the K blood group system (Sandberg 1974). During the next 20 years, additional linkage groups were identified and the map was periodically reviewed (Sandberg and Andersson 1993). Gene mapping discoveries were incidental to studies of new genetic systems for parentage analyses in horses. The concept of creating a comprehensive gene map for the horse appeared to be too expensive, requiring more resources than were available for research on horses. This changed in the early 1990s with advances in biotechnology and as the successes associated with the human genome project became publicized. During the early 1990s, inexpensive techniques became widely available for identifying, sequencing, and mapping large numbers of genes. This area of research became known as \"genomics.\" Cattle, pigs, chickens, and sheep were among the first species for which scientists developed comprehensive gene maps. These maps were developed through efforts by individual laboratories as well as through collaborative efforts between laboratories. Following the successes of those programs and inspired by potential applications of gene maps for horses, scientists conducted a workshop in October 1995 to collaborate on constructing a gene map for the horse. This workshop marked the beginning of genomics research on horses.",
"corpus_id": 8297994,
"title": "The Horse Gene Map."
} | {
"abstract": "The map of the horse genome has undergone unprecedented expansion during the past six years. Beginning from a modest collection of ∼300 mapped markers scattered on the 31 pairs of autosomes and the X chromosome in 2001, today the horse genome is among the best-mapped in domestic animals. Presently, high-resolution linearly ordered gene maps are available for all autosomes as well as the X and the Y chromosome. The approximately 4350 mapped markers distributed over the ∼2.68 Gbp long equine genome provide on average 1 marker every 620 kb. Among the most remarkable developments in equine genome analysis is the availability of the assembled sequence (EquCab2) of the female horse genome and the generation ∼1.5 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from diverse breeds. This has triggered the creation of new tools and resources like the 60K SNP-chip and whole genome expression microarrays that hold promise to study the equine genome and transcriptome in ways not previously envisaged. As a result of these developments it is anticipated that, during coming years, the genetics underlying important monogenic traits will be analyzed with improved accuracy and speed. Of larger interest will be the prospects of dissecting the genetic component of various complex/multigenic traits that are of vital significance for equine health and welfare. The number of investigations recently initiated to study a multitude of such traits hold promise for improved diagnostics, prevention and therapeutic approaches for horses.",
"corpus_id": 22246668,
"title": "The Horse Genome Derby: racing from map to whole genome sequence"
} | {
"abstract": "Three multivariate calibration methods, partial least squares (PLS-1 and PLS-2) and principal component regression (PCR), were applied to the simultaneous determination of the three pesticides atrazine, diuron and chlorpyrifos, in mixtures, by ultraviolet–visible absorption spectrophotometry. The absorption and first-derivative absorption spectra of the ternary mixtures were used to perform the optimization of the calibration matrices by the PLS and PCR methods. The results obtained by the application of the different chemometric approaches are discussed and compared. No significant advantages were found for the prior differentiation step. The proposed method was applied satisfactorily to the determination of atrazine, diuron and chlorpyrifos in groundwaters and soils.",
"corpus_id": 95092194,
"score": 1,
"title": "Multicomponent determination of atrazine, diuron and chlorpyrifos in groundwaters and soils by spectrophotometry using multivariate calibration"
} |
{
"abstract": "Abstract Primary Eurostat data of EU imports of agricultural products from selected southern hemisphere countries—namely, South Africa, Argentina, Chile, Australia and New Zealand -was used to compare the exports from those countries to the EU for the period 1988 to 2000. The study starts with a general overview of the total and agricultural export performance of these selected countries in a global context and their specialization indexes for food. This is followed by a comparison of the total value, total mass and value per tonne of agricultural exports to the EU and of their exploitation of seasonal differences with the northern hemisphere in terms of relative emphasis on particular product groups and value/mass ratios of their major products. Comparison is made of the impact of their location relative to EU ports in terms of transport cost and duration of trips and the efficiency of their own ports. The conclusions reached is that in order to remain competitive, South Africa will have to add value to carefully selected non-seasonal products. Seasonal production will have to expand with a sharper focus on market windows becoming narrower due to research and development conducted by both northern and southern hemisphere competitors. The overview motivates an even more aggressive research and development (R&D) programme by South African agriculture and food industries in order to remain competitive on export markets, especially given the rapidly changing environment. For example, the introduction of much faster ships which will decrease South Africa's present advantage of having the shortest distance to the EU among the other southern hemisphere competitors.",
"corpus_id": 154475288,
"title": "A COMPARISON BETWEEN SOUTH AFRICAN AGRICULTURAL EXPORTS TO THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THOSE OF OTHER SELECTED SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE COUNTRIES"
} | {
"abstract": "This article examines the effects of transaction costs on the choice of marketing channel by smallholder banana producers (i.e. travel to the market to sell their produce versus selling at the farmgate). A probit analysis is used to identify the factors which determine the choice of a selling point. Variables capturing transaction costs are used in the analysis and these relate to searching for a trading partner, gathering information about the transaction, contracting, negotiating, monitoring and enforcing of contracts. The findings reveal that collective action, gender of household head, degree of dependence on the crop, geographical location and access to price information significantly affect the choice of selling point. This suggests that policies aimed at establishing market information systems, promotion of collective action among smallholder farmers, increased investment in rural infrastructure and achieving gender balance in trade are important.",
"corpus_id": 218654848,
"title": "Agrekon 50 (3) 2011.indb"
} | {
"abstract": "From the mid-1950s to 1990, sub-Saharan Africa's share of global exports fell from 3.1 to under 1.2 percent, a decline that implies associated export earning losses of about $65 billion annually. Previous studies show that foreign trade barriers do not account for this poor performance. Indeed, African exports enjoy OECD tariff preferences. In the sub-Saharan African countries, too high a proportion of foreign exchange earnings is paying for Africa's high export transport costs. The authors demonstrate that relatively high transportation costs - especially for processed products - often place African exporters at a serious competitive disadvantage. African countries must use a far larger share of their foreign exchange earnings to pay for international transport services than other developing countries do - and the relative importance of those payments has been increasing. Why are Africa's transport costs so high? Ill-advised policies on the part of some African governments seem to have played a role, as their cargo reservation policies produced high\"rents\"for lines that have been shielded from the effects of competition. The failure to maintain or improve port and transport infrastructure has also played a role.",
"corpus_id": 166333872,
"score": 2,
"title": "Have transport costs contributed to the relative decline of sub-Saharan African exports? Some preliminary empirical evidence"
} |
{
"abstract": "In this paper, global exponential stability for a class of generalized state-space time-delay systems is considered. Delay-dependent criteria are proposed to guarantee the exponential stability and estimate the convergence rate for the generalized state-space systems with two cases of uncertainties. Finally, some numerical examples are illustrated to show the usefulness of the theory.",
"corpus_id": 4984396,
"title": "Exponential estimation of generalized state-space time-delay systems"
} | {
"abstract": "Brain-like information processing has become a challenge to modern computer science and chip technology. The CNN (Cellular Neural Network) Universal Chip is the first fully programmable industrial-sized brain-like stored-program dynamic array computer which dates back to an invention of Leon O. Chua and Lin Yang in Berkeley in 1988. Since then, many papers have been written on the mathematical foundations and technical applications of CNN chips. They are already used to model artificial, physical, chemical, as well as living biological systems. CNN is now a new computing paradigm of interdisciplinary interest. In this state of development a textbook is needed in order to recruit new generations of students and researchers from different fields of research. Thus, Chua's and Roska's textbook is a timely and historic publication. On the background of their teaching experience, they have aimed at undergraduate students from engineering, physics, chemistry, as well as biology departments. But, actually, it offers more. It is a brilliant introduction to the foundations and applications of CNN which is distinguished with conceptual and mathematical precision as well as with detailed explanations of applications in visual computing.",
"corpus_id": 207122662,
"title": "Cellular Neural Networks and Visual Computing"
} | {
"abstract": "We are concerned with Runge-Kutta-Nyström methods for the integration of second order systems of the special formd2y/dt2=f(y). If the functionf is the gradient of a scalar field, then the system is Hamiltonian and it may be advantageous to integrate it by a so-called canonical Runge-Kutta-Nyström formula. We show that the equations that must be imposed on the coefficients of the method to ensure canonicity are simplifying assumptions that lower the number of independent order conditions. We count the number of order conditions, both for general and for canonical Runge-Kutta-Nyström formulae.",
"corpus_id": 121407927,
"score": 1,
"title": "Order conditions for canonical Runge-Kutta-Nyström methods"
} |
{
"abstract": "The reactivity and regioselectivity of the electrophilic chlorination, nitration, and alkylation of benzene derivatives were rationalized by comparing literature data for the partial rate factors (ln f) for these S(E)Ar processes with theoretical reactivity parameters. The Electrophile Affinity (Ealpha), a new quantity, is introduced to characterize reactivity and positional selectivity. Ealpha is evaluated theoretically by the energy change associated with formation of an arenium ion by attachment of a model electrophile to the aromatic ring. The dependence between Ealpha and ln f values for chlorination for 11 substitutions of benzene and methyl benzenes had a high correlation coefficient (r = 0.992). Quite satisfactory correlations between Ealpha values and partial rate factors also were obtained for the nitration of substituted benzenes (r = 0.971 for 12 processes) and benzylation of benzene and halobenzenes (r = 0.973 for 13 processes). These results provide clear evidence for the usefulness of the electrophile affinity in quantifying reactivity and regiochemistry. Satisfactory relationships (r >0.97) also were found between EPN (electrostatic potential at nuclei) values, which reflect the variations of electron density at the different arene ring positions, and the experimental partial rate factors (ln f) for the chlorination and nitration reactions, but not for the benzylation. This disaccord is attributed to strong steric influences on the reaction rates for substitutions involving the bulky benzyl moiety.",
"corpus_id": 5510885,
"title": "Electrophile affinity: a reactivity measure for aromatic substitution."
} | {
"abstract": "Density functional theory computations at the B3LYP/6-311+G(2d,2p) and BPW91/6-311G(d,p) levels were carried out for a series of 15 monosubstituted benzene derivatives to study dependencies between electronic structure parameters and experimental reactivity constants. An efficient and accurate computational approach for the evaluation of sigma(0) substituent constants for substituted benzene systems is outlined. It is based on the excellent linear correlation between the experimental reactivity constants and the theoretical electrostatic potential values (EPN) at the carbon atoms in the para and meta positions. The results underline the usefulness of the EPN as a local reactivity descriptor. Theoretical computations to assess the influence of water solvent using the SCIPCM method showed that the solvent enhances the overall effect of polar substituents by about 30%. The results obtained indicate also that the relative values of the sigma(0) constants are predominantly determined by intramolecular influences.",
"corpus_id": 6885392,
"title": "An efficient computational approach for the evaluation of substituent constants."
} | {
"abstract": "The axes of the T p gears in Tp,MX are coextensive with the C(9)-M bonds to form a pyramidal array with M a t the apex. In 2 the three bevel gear axes are coplanar, and their extensions intersect at the center of the molecule. This compound was readily prepared from bis(9-anthryl)cyclopropenone:'0 addition of benzyne gave bis(9-triptycyl)cyclopropenone,4 and addition of TpLi to the latter followed by reaction with HCIO4 afforded Z4 The number of signals and their relative intensities in the I3C and 'H NMR spectra\" are consistent only with a statically geared triskelion (C3,,) conformation which is also adopted by the molecule in the solid state (Figure I).'* There is no evidence of signal broadening up to 80 OC (acetonitrile), and the lower limit for site exchange is therefore ca. 17 kcal mol-'. In sum, torsional motion of the three T p rotors in 1 and 2 is frozen because uncorrelated as well as correlated rotation is mechanically disallowed in a closed cyclic array consisting of an odd number of securely meshed gears. Further studies of these and related compounds are in progress.",
"corpus_id": 96187742,
"score": 1,
"title": "2-phosphino- and 2-phosphinylbenzenethiols: new ligand types"
} |
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