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  • Articles  (82,475)
  • Hindawi  (45,234)
  • Public Library of Science (PLoS)
  • 2015-2019  (82,475)
  • 1945-1949
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  • 1
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    Contribution of Atmospheric Advection to the Amplified Winter Warming in the Arctic North Atlantic Region (2017)
    Hindawi
    In:  EPIC3Advances in Meteorology, Hindawi, (492862), ISSN: 1687-9317
    Details
    Publication Date: 2020-03-05
    Description: Arctic Amplification of climate warming is caused by various feedback processes in the atmosphere-ocean-ice system and yields the strongest temperature increase during winter in the Arctic North Atlantic region. In our study, we attempt to quantify the advective contribution to the observed atmospheric warming in the Svalbard area. Based on radiosonde measurements from Ny-Ålesund, a strong dependence of the tropospheric temperature on the synoptic flow direction is revealed. Using FLEXTRA backward trajectories, an increase of advection from the lower latitude Atlantic region towards Ny-Ålesund is found that is attributed to a change in atmospheric circulation patterns. We find that about one-quarter (0.45 K per decade) of the observed atmospheric winter near surface warming trend in the North Atlantic region of the Arctic (2 K per decade) is due to increased advection of warm and moist air from the lower latitude Atlantic region, affecting the entire troposphere.
    Repository Name: EPIC Alfred Wegener Institut
    Type: Article , isiRev
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  • 2
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    Geochemical and Isotopic Characterisation of Actual Lacustrine Sediments from the Hydrothermal Lake Specchio di Venere, Pantelleria Island (Italy) (2016)
    Hindawi
    Details
    Publication Date: 2017-04-04
    Description: Hydrothermal lakes are a very common feature in volcanic environments, and among these lake Specchio di Venere (Pantelleria island, Italy) has attracted the interest of several researchers due to its peculiar characteristics. With the aim of improving the knowledge of its mineralogy, our work pointed out the characterisation of the bottom lake sediments. We collected and analysed 5 sediments cores around the shoreline, determining the mineralogical phases, concentration of major, minor, and trace elements, and the isotopic composition of carbon and oxygen in the carbonate phases. Our findings remarked a general compositional homogeneity in both the vertical and horizontal distribution of mineral phases, with the exception of peculiar geological niches connoted by biological and hydrothermal activities.
    Description: Published
    Description: ID 8414581
    Description: 4V. Vulcani e ambiente
    Description: JCR Journal
    Description: open
    Keywords: Pantelleria ; Sediments ; Geochemistry ; 04. Solid Earth::04.04. Geology::04.04.08. Sediments: dating, processes, transport
    Repository Name: Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
    Type: article
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  • 3
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    A Customizable Quantum-Dot Cellular Automata Building Block for the Synthesis of Classical and Reversible Circuits (2015)
    Hindawi
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-10
    Description: Quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) are nanoscale digital logic constructs that use electrons in arrays of quantum dots to carry out binary operations. In this paper, a basic building block for QCA will be proposed. The proposed basic building block can be customized to implement classical gates, such as XOR and XNOR gates, and reversible gates, such as CNOT and Toffoli gates, with less cell count and/or better latency than other proposed designs.
    Electronic ISSN: 1537-744X
    Topics: Natural Sciences in General
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  • 4
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    Performance Improvement of Inertial Navigation System by Using Magnetometer with Vehicle Dynamic Constraints (2015)
    Hindawi
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-11
    Description: A navigation algorithm is proposed to increase the inertial navigation performance of a ground vehicle using magnetic measurements and dynamic constraints. The navigation solutions are estimated based on inertial measurements such as acceleration and angular velocity measurements. To improve the inertial navigation performance, a three-axis magnetometer is used to provide the heading angle, and nonholonomic constraints (NHCs) are introduced to increase the correlation between the velocity and the attitude equation. The NHCs provide a velocity feedback to the attitude, which makes the navigation solution more robust. Additionally, an acceleration-based roll and pitch estimation is applied to decrease the drift when the acceleration is within certain boundaries. The magnetometer and NHCs are combined with an extended Kalman filter. An experimental test was conducted to verify the proposed method, and a comprehensive analysis of the performance in terms of the position, velocity, and attitude showed that the navigation performance could be improved by using the magnetometer and NHCs. Moreover, the proposed method could improve the estimation performance for the position, velocity, and attitude without any additional hardware except an inertial sensor and magnetometer. Therefore, this method would be effective for ground vehicles, indoor navigation, mobile robots, vehicle navigation in urban canyons, or navigation in any global navigation satellite system-denied environment.
    Print ISSN: 1687-725X
    Electronic ISSN: 1687-7268
    Topics: Electrical Engineering, Measurement and Control Technology
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  • 5
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    Study on the Weak Decays (2015)
    Hindawi
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-11
    Description: Motivated by the prospects of the potential particle at high-luminosity heavy-flavor experiments, we studied the weak decays, where = , , . The nonfactorizable contributions to hadronic matrix elements are taken into consideration with the QCDF approach. It is found that the CKM-favored decay has branching ratio of , which might be measured promisingly by the future experiments.
    Print ISSN: 1687-7357
    Electronic ISSN: 1687-7365
    Topics: Physics
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  • 6
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    Pareto-Ranking Based Quantum-Behaved Particle Swarm Optimization for Multiobjective Optimization (2015)
    Hindawi
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-11
    Description: A study on pareto-ranking based quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization (QPSO) for multiobjective optimization problems is presented in this paper. During the iteration, an external repository is maintained to remember the nondominated solutions, from which the global best position is chosen. The comparison between different elitist selection strategies (preference order, sigma value, and random selection) is performed on four benchmark functions and two metrics. The results demonstrate that QPSO with preference order has comparative performance with sigma value according to different number of objectives. Finally, QPSO with sigma value is applied to solve multiobjective flexible job-shop scheduling problems.
    Print ISSN: 1024-123X
    Electronic ISSN: 1563-5147
    Topics: Mathematics , Technology
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  • 7
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    Pressure Prediction of Coal Slurry Transportation Pipeline Based on Particle Swarm Optimization Kernel Function Extreme Learning Machine (2015)
    Hindawi
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-11
    Description: For coal slurry pipeline blockage prediction problem, through the analysis of actual scene, it is determined that the pressure prediction from each measuring point is the premise of pipeline blockage prediction. Kernel function of support vector machine is introduced into extreme learning machine, the parameters are optimized by particle swarm algorithm, and blockage prediction method based on particle swarm optimization kernel function extreme learning machine (PSOKELM) is put forward. The actual test data from HuangLing coal gangue power plant are used for simulation experiments and compared with support vector machine prediction model optimized by particle swarm algorithm (PSOSVM) and kernel function extreme learning machine prediction model (KELM). The results prove that mean square error (MSE) for the prediction model based on PSOKELM is 0.0038 and the correlation coefficient is 0.9955, which is superior to prediction model based on PSOSVM in speed and accuracy and superior to KELM prediction model in accuracy.
    Print ISSN: 1024-123X
    Electronic ISSN: 1563-5147
    Topics: Mathematics , Technology
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  • 8
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    The Role of Liver in Determining Serum Colon-Derived Uremic Solutes (2015)
    Public Library of Science (PLoS)
    In: PLoS ONE
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-11
    Description: by Cheng-Jui Lin, Tai-Cherng Liou, Chi-Feng Pan, Pei-Chen Wu, Fang-Ju Sun, Hsuan-Liang Liu, Han-Hsiang Chen, Chih-Jen Wu Evidence has shown that indoxyl sulfate (IS) and p-cresyl sulfate (PCS) may be alternative predictors of clinical outcomes in chronic kidney disease (CKD). Both toxins are derived from the gastrointestinal tract and metabolised in the liver. However, it is unclear whether the liver affects the production of IS and PCS. Here, we explore the association between IS and PCS levels in liver cirrhosis and a CKD-based cohort (N = 115). Liver and kidney function was assessed and classified by a Child-Pugh score (child A–C) and a modified version of the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) equation (Stages 1–4), respectively. An animal model was also used to confirm the two toxin levels in a case of liver fibrosis. In patients with early liver cirrhosis (child A), IS and PCS were significantly associated with CKD stages. In contrast, serum IS and PCS did not significantly change in advanced liver cirrhosis (child C). A stepwise multiple linear regression analysis also showed that T-PCS was significantly associated with stages of liver cirrhosis after adjusting for other confounding factors (B = -2.29, p = 0.012). Moreover, the serum and urine levels of T-PCS and T-IS were significantly lower in rats with liver failure than in those without ( p
    Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
    Topics: Medicine , Natural Sciences in General
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  • 9
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    MicroRNA and Transcription Factor Mediated Regulatory Network Analysis Reveals Critical Regulators and Regulatory Modules in Myocardial Infarction (2015)
    Public Library of Science (PLoS)
    In: PLoS ONE
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-11
    Description: by Guangde Zhang, Hongbo Shi, Lin Wang, Meng Zhou, Zhenzhen Wang, Xiaoxia Liu, Liang Cheng, Weimin Li, Xueqi Li Myocardial infarction (MI) is a severe coronary artery disease and a leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. However, the molecular mechanisms of MI have yet to be fully elucidated. In this study, we compiled MI-related genes, MI-related microRNAs (miRNAs) and known human transcription factors (TFs), and we then identified 1,232 feed-forward loops (FFLs) among these miRNAs, TFs and their co-regulated target genes through integrating target prediction. By merging these FFLs, the first miRNA and TF mediated regulatory network for MI was constructed, from which four regulators (SP1, ESR1, miR-21-5p and miR-155-5p) and three regulatory modules that might play crucial roles in MI were then identified. Furthermore, based on the miRNA and TF mediated regulatory network and literature survey, we proposed a pathway model for miR-21-5p, the miR-29 family and SP1 to demonstrate their potential co-regulatory mechanisms in cardiac fibrosis, apoptosis and angiogenesis. The majority of the regulatory relations in the model were confirmed by previous studies, which demonstrated the reliability and validity of this miRNA and TF mediated regulatory network. Our study will aid in deciphering the complex regulatory mechanisms involved in MI and provide putative therapeutic targets for MI.
    Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
    Topics: Medicine , Natural Sciences in General
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  • 10
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    CD73 Activity is Dispensable for the Polarization of M2 Macrophages (2015)
    Public Library of Science (PLoS)
    In: PLoS ONE
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-11
    Description: by Dominik Eichin, Juha P. Laurila, Sirpa Jalkanen, Marko Salmi The ectoenzyme CD73 catalyzes the hydrolysis of AMP, and is one of the most important producers of extracellular adenosine. On regulatory T cells, CD73 is necessary for immunosuppressive functions, and on Th17 cells CD73-generated adenosine exerts anti-inflammatory effects. However, the expression and function of CD73 in pro-inflammatory M1 and in immunosuppressive M2 macrophages is largely unknown. Here we show that CD73 expression and enzyme activity were induced in in vitro polarized pro-inflammatory human M(LPS+TNF) monocytes/macrophages, while CD73 was absent from immunosuppressive M(IL-4+M-CSF)-polarized macrophages. Inhibition of CD73 activity with the inhibitor AMPCP did not affect the polarization of human monocytes. In mice, CD73 was present on resident peritoneal macrophages. In striking contrast, elicited peritoneal macrophages remained CD73 negative regardless of their polarization towards either a pro-inflammatory M(LPS) or anti-inflammatory M(IL-4c) direction. Finally, the ability of peritoneal macrophages to polarize to pro- and anti-inflammatory cells was perfectly normal in CD73-deficient mice in vivo . These data indicate that, in contrast to other major leukocyte subpopulations, CD73 activity on macrophages does not play a major role in their polarization and that in mice host CD73 on any cell type is not required in vivo for peritoneal macrophage polarization towards either a pro- or an anti-inflammatory direction.
    Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
    Topics: Medicine , Natural Sciences in General
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  • 11
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    DNA Tetrominoes: The Construction of DNA Nanostructures Using Self-Organised Heterogeneous Deoxyribonucleic Acids Shapes (2015)
    Public Library of Science (PLoS)
    In: PLoS ONE
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-11
    Description: by Hui San Ong, Mohd Syafiq Rahim, Mohd Firdaus-Raih, Effirul Ikhwan Ramlan The unique programmability of nucleic acids offers alternative in constructing excitable and functional nanostructures. This work introduces an autonomous protocol to construct DNA Tetris shapes (L-Shape, B-Shape, T-Shape and I-Shape) using modular DNA blocks. The protocol exploits the rich number of sequence combinations available from the nucleic acid alphabets, thus allowing for diversity to be applied in designing various DNA nanostructures. Instead of a deterministic set of sequences corresponding to a particular design, the protocol promotes a large pool of DNA shapes that can assemble to conform to any desired structures. By utilising evolutionary programming in the design stage, DNA blocks are subjected to processes such as sequence insertion, deletion and base shifting in order to enrich the diversity of the resulting shapes based on a set of cascading filters. The optimisation algorithm allows mutation to be exerted indefinitely on the candidate sequences until these sequences complied with all the four fitness criteria. Generated candidates from the protocol are in agreement with the filter cascades and thermodynamic simulation. Further validation using gel electrophoresis indicated the formation of the designed shapes. Thus, supporting the plausibility of constructing DNA nanostructures in a more hierarchical, modular, and interchangeable manner.
    Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
    Topics: Medicine , Natural Sciences in General
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  • 12
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    The Influence of Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy on Local Postural Muscle and Central Sensory Feedback Balance Control (2015)
    Public Library of Science (PLoS)
    In: PLoS ONE
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-11
    Description: by Nima Toosizadeh, Jane Mohler, David G. Armstrong, Talal K. Talal, Bijan Najafi Poor balance control and increased fall risk have been reported in people with diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). Traditional body sway measures are unable to describe underlying postural control mechanism. In the current study, we used stabilogram diffusion analysis to examine the mechanism under which balance is altered in DPN patients under local-control (postural muscle control) and central-control (postural control using sensory cueing). DPN patients and healthy age-matched adults over 55 years performed two 15-second Romberg balance trials. Center of gravity sway was measured using a motion tracker system based on wearable inertial sensors, and used to derive body sway and local/central control balance parameters. Eighteen DPN patients (age = 65.4±7.6 years; BMI = 29.3±5.3 kg/m 2 ) and 18 age-matched healthy controls (age = 69.8±2.9; BMI = 27.0±4.1 kg/m 2 ) with no major mobility disorder were recruited. The rate of sway within local-control was significantly higher in the DPN group by 49% (healthy local-control slope = 1.23±1.06×10 -2 cm 2 /sec, P
    Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
    Topics: Medicine , Natural Sciences in General
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  • 13
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    Collective Attention and Stock Prices: Evidence from Google Trends Data on Standard and Poor's 100 (2015)
    Public Library of Science (PLoS)
    In: PLoS ONE
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-11
    Description: by Raphael H. Heiberger Today´s connected world allows people to gather information in shorter intervals than ever before, widely monitored by massive online data sources. As a dramatic economic event, recent financial crisis increased public interest for large companies considerably. In this paper, we exploit this change in information gathering behavior by utilizing Google query volumes as a "bad news" indicator for each corporation listed in the Standard and Poor´s 100 index. Our results provide not only an investment strategy that gains particularly in times of financial turmoil and extensive losses by other market participants, but reveal new sectoral patterns between mass online behavior and (bearish) stock market movements. Based on collective attention shifts in search queries for individual companies, hence, these findings can help to identify early warning signs of financial systemic risk. However, our disaggregated data also illustrate the need for further efforts to understand the influence of collective attention shifts on financial behavior in times of regular market activities with less tremendous changes in search volumes.
    Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
    Topics: Medicine , Natural Sciences in General
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  • 14
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    Targeted Intracellular Delivery of Resveratrol to Glioblastoma Cells Using Apolipoprotein E-Containing Reconstituted HDL as a Nanovehicle (2015)
    Public Library of Science (PLoS)
    In: PLoS ONE
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-11
    Description: by Sea H. Kim, Birendra Babu Adhikari, Siobanth Cruz, Michael P. Schramm, Joe A. Vinson, Vasanthy Narayanaswami The objective of this study is to transport and deliver resveratrol to intracellular sites using apolipoprotein E3 (apoE3). Reconstituted high-density lipoprotein (rHDL) bearing resveratrol (rHDL/res) was prepared using phospholipids and the low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLr)-binding domain of apoE3. Biophysical characterization revealed that resveratrol was partitioned into the phospholipid bilayer of discoidal rHDL/res particles (~19 nm diameter). Co-immunoprecipitation studies indicated that the LDLr-binding ability of apoE3 was retained. Cellular uptake of resveratrol to intracellular sites was evaluated in glioblastoma A-172 cells by direct fluorescence using chemically synthesized NBD-labeled resveratrol (res/NBD) embedded in rHDL/res. Competition and inhibition studies indicate that the uptake is by receptor mediated endocytosis via the LDLr, with co-localization of apoE3 and res/NBD in late endosomes/lysosomes. We propose that rHDL provides an ideal hydrophobic milieu to sequester resveratrol and that rHDL containing apoE3 serves as an effective “nanovehicle” to transport and deliver resveratrol to targeted intracellular sites.
    Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
    Topics: Medicine , Natural Sciences in General
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  • 15
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    Combined Oral Administration of Bovine Collagen Peptides with Calcium Citrate Inhibits Bone Loss in Ovariectomized Rats (2015)
    Public Library of Science (PLoS)
    In: PLoS ONE
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-11
    Description: by JunLi Liu, YiHu Wang, ShuJun Song, XiJie Wang, YaYa Qin, ShaoYan Si, YanChuan Guo Purpose Collagen peptides (CPs) and calcium citrate are commonly used as bone health supplements for treating osteoporosis. However, it remains unknown whether the combination of oral bovine CPs with calcium citrate is more effective than administration of either agent alone. Methods Forty 12-week-old Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into five groups ( n = 8) for once-daily intragastric administration of different treatments for 3 months at 3 months after ovariectomy (OVX) as follows: sham + vehicle; OVX + vehicle; OVX + 750 mg/kg CP; OVX + CP-calcium citrate (75 mg/kg); OVX + calcium citrate (75 mg/kg). After euthanasia, the femurs were removed and analyzed by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry and micro-computed tomography, and serum samples were analyzed for bone metabolic markers. Results OVX rats supplemented with CPs or CP-calcium citrate showed osteoprotective effects, with reductions in the OVX-induced decreases in their femoral bone mineral density. Moreover, CP-calcium citrate prevented trabecular bone loss, improved the microarchitecture of the distal femur, and significantly inhibited bone loss with increased bone volume, connectivity density, and trabecular number compared with OVX control rats. CP or CP-calcium citrate administration significantly increased serum procollagen type I N-terminal propeptide levels and reduced serum bone-specific alkaline phosphatase, osteocalcin, and C-telopeptide of type I collagen levels. Conclusions Our data indicate that combined oral administration of bovine CPs with calcium citrate inhibits bone loss in OVX rats. The present findings suggest that combined oral administration of bovine CPs with calcium citrate is a promising alternative for reducing bone loss in osteopenic postmenopausal women.
    Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
    Topics: Medicine , Natural Sciences in General
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  • 16
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    Tyrosine Kinase Ligand-Receptor Pair Prediction by Using Support Vector Machine (2015)
    Hindawi
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-12
    Description: Receptor tyrosine kinases are essential proteins involved in cellular differentiation and proliferation in vivo and are heavily involved in allergic diseases, diabetes, and onset/proliferation of cancerous cells. Identifying the interacting partner of this protein, a growth factor ligand, will provide a deeper understanding of cellular proliferation/differentiation and other cell processes. In this study, we developed a method for predicting tyrosine kinase ligand-receptor pairs from their amino acid sequences. We collected tyrosine kinase ligand-receptor pairs from the Database of Interacting Proteins (DIP) and UniProtKB, filtered them by removing sequence redundancy, and used them as a dataset for machine learning and assessment of predictive performance. Our prediction method is based on support vector machines (SVMs), and we evaluated several input features suitable for tyrosine kinase for machine learning and compared and analyzed the results. Using sequence pattern information and domain information extracted from sequences as input features, we obtained 0.996 of the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. This accuracy is higher than that obtained from general protein-protein interaction pair predictions.
    Print ISSN: 1687-8027
    Electronic ISSN: 1687-8035
    Topics: Biology , Computer Science
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  • 17
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    Experimental and Theoretical Investigations on Frost Heave in Porous Media (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-12
    Description: For the construction in cold regions, frost heave and thaw settlement are the two factors which must be taken care of. Considered that a saturated soil column was subjected to an overburden pressure to model the ice lens growing process. A typical process, which coupled water, heat, and stress that happened in a saturated freezing soil column, was simulated by the finite element software. We did the numerical simulation under the same conditions as the experiment tests and then compared the results from temperature, frost heave, frozen structure, water content, and water intake. Result shows that the simulation results match well with the experimental results, and the correctness of the mathematical model is validated. On that basis, frost heave amount under different conditions by changing the temperature boundary and loading boundary is obtained. The frost heave has an optimum temperature gradient. Under the optimum value, the frost heave amount increases with increasing temperature gradient. Above the optimum value, frost heave decreases with increasing temperature gradient. Increasing the overburden pressure, frost heave amount always decreases. These results can provide references for the constrictions in cold regions.
    Print ISSN: 1024-123X
    Electronic ISSN: 1563-5147
    Topics: Mathematics , Technology
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  • 18
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    An Unconditionally Stable Method for Solving the Acoustic Wave Equation (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-12
    Description: An unconditionally stable method for solving the time-domain acoustic wave equation using Associated Hermit orthogonal functions is proposed. The second-order time derivatives in acoustic wave equation are expanded by these orthogonal basis functions. By applying Galerkin temporal testing procedure, the time variable can be eliminated from the calculations. The restriction of Courant-Friedrichs-Levy (CFL) condition in selecting time step for analyzing thin layer can be avoided. Numerical results show the accuracy and the efficiency of the proposed method.
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  • 19
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    Complete Bilateral Teleoperation System for a Rotorcraft UAV with Time-Varying Delay (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-12
    Description: This paper proposes the use of simple proportional plus damping injection (P+d) controllers for delayed bilateral teleoperation of a rotorcraft UAV. The proposed control scheme involves P+d remote and local controllers, considers master and slave dynamics, and takes into account asymmetric time-varying delays. The stability of the proposed teleoperation system is analyzed using Lyapunov-Krasovskii functionals and delay-dependent stability criteria are obtained under linear-matrix-inequalities conditions. The performance of the teleoperation scheme is tested driving a virtual nonlinear 6DOF dynamic model of a minihelicopter in a human-in-the-loop simulation.
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  • 20
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    Application of the Periodic Average System Model in Dam Deformation Analysis (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-12
    Description: Dams are among the most important hydraulic engineering facilities used for water supply, flood control, and hydroelectric power. Monitoring of dams is crucial since deformation might have occurred. How to obtain the deformation information and then judge the safe conditions is the key and difficult problem in dam deformation monitoring field. This paper proposes the periodic average system model and creates the concept of “settlement activity” based on the dam deformation issue. Long-term deformation monitoring data is carried out in a pumped-storage power station, this model combined with settlement activity is used to make the single point deformation analysis, and then the whole settlement activity profile is drawn by clustering analysis. Considering the cumulative settlement value of every point, the dam deformation trend is analyzed in an intuitive effect way. The analysis mode of combined single point with multipoints is realized. The results show that the key deformation information of the dam can be easily grasped by the application of the periodic average system model combined with the distribution diagram of settlement activity. And, above all, the ideas of this research provide an effective method for dam deformation analysis.
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  • 21
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    The Heat Transfer Coefficient of Recycled Concrete Bricks Combination with EPS Insulation Board Wall (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-12
    Description: Four tectonic forms samples were conducted to test their heat transfer coefficients. By analyzing and comparing the test values and theoretical values of the heat transfer coefficient, a corrected-value calculation method for determining the heat transfer coefficient was proposed; the proposed method was proved to be reasonably correct. The results indicated that the recycled concrete brick wall heat transfer coefficient is higher than that of the clay brick wall, the heat transfer coefficient of recycled concrete brick wall could be effectively reduced when combined with the EPS insulation board, and the sandwich insulation type was better than that of external thermal insulation type.
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  • 22
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    Viewing Complex, Dynamic Scenes “Through the Eyes” of Another Person: The Gaze-Replay Paradigm (2015)
    Public Library of Science (PLoS)
    In: PLoS ONE
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-09
    Description: by Jennifer Choe Bush, Peter Christopher Pantelis, Xavier Morin Duchesne, Sebastian Alexander Kagemann, Daniel Patrick Kennedy We present a novel “Gaze-Replay” paradigm that allows the experimenter to directly test how particular patterns of visual input—generated from people’s actual gaze patterns—influence the interpretation of the visual scene. Although this paradigm can potentially be applied across domains, here we applied it specifically to social comprehension. Participants viewed complex, dynamic scenes through a small window displaying only the foveal gaze pattern of a gaze “donor.” This was intended to simulate the donor’s visual selection, such that a participant could effectively view scenes “through the eyes” of another person. Throughout the presentation of scenes presented in this manner, participants completed a social comprehension task, assessing their abilities to recognize complex emotions. The primary aim of the study was to assess the viability of this novel approach by examining whether these Gaze-Replay windowed stimuli contain sufficient and meaningful social information for the viewer to complete this social perceptual and cognitive task. The results of the study suggested this to be the case; participants performed better in the Gaze-Replay condition compared to a temporally disrupted control condition, and compared to when they were provided with no visual input. This approach has great future potential for the exploration of experimental questions aiming to unpack the relationship between visual selection, perception, and cognition.
    Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
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    Oral Migalastat HCl Leads to Greater Systemic Exposure and Tissue Levels of Active α-Galactosidase A in Fabry Patients when Co-Administered with Infused Agalsidase (2015)
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    In: PLoS ONE
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-09
    Description: by David G. Warnock, Daniel G. Bichet, Myrl Holida, Ozlem Goker-Alpan, Kathy Nicholls, Mark Thomas, Francois Eyskens, Suma Shankar, Mathews Adera, Sheela Sitaraman, Richie Khanna, John J. Flanagan, Brandon A. Wustman, Jay Barth, Carrolee Barlow, Kenneth J. Valenzano, David J. Lockhart, Pol Boudes, Franklin K. Johnson Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01196871
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    LTBP-2 Has a Single High-Affinity Binding Site for FGF-2 and Blocks FGF-2-Induced Cell Proliferation (2015)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-12
    Description: by Clementine Menz, Mahroo K. Parsi, Julian R. J. Adams, Mohamed A. Sideek, Zlatko Kopecki, Allison J. Cowin, Mark A. Gibson Latent transforming growth factor-beta-1 binding protein-2 (LTBP-2) belongs to the fibrillin-LTBP superfamily of extracellular matrix proteins. LTBPs and fibrillins are involved in the sequestration and storage of latent growth factors, particularly transforming growth factor β (TGF-β), in tissues. Unlike other LTBPs, LTBP-2 does not covalently bind TGF-β, and its molecular functions remain unclear. We are screening LTBP-2 for binding to other growth factors and have found very strong saturable binding to fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) (Kd = 1.1 nM). Using a series of recombinant LTBP-2 fragments a single binding site for FGF-2 was identified in a central region of LTBP-2 consisting of six tandem epidermal growth factor-like (EGF-like) motifs (EGFs 9–14). This region was also shown to contain a heparin/heparan sulphate-binding site. FGF-2 stimulation of fibroblast proliferation was completely negated by the addition of 5-fold molar excess of LTBP-2 to the assay. Confocal microscopy showed strong co-localisation of LTBP-2 and FGF-2 in fibrotic keloid tissue suggesting that the two proteins may interact in vivo. Overall the study indicates that LTBP-2 is a potent inhibitor of FGF-2 that may influence FGF-2 bioactivity during wound repair particularly in fibrotic tissues.
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    Promoter Hypomethylation of Maspin Inhibits Migration and Invasion of Extravillous Trophoblast Cells during Placentation (2015)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-12
    Description: by Xinwei Shi, Hao Liu, Jing Cao, Qing Liu, Guiju Tang, Wanlu Liu, Haiyi Liu, Dongrui Deng, Fuyuan Qiao, Yuanyuan Wu Objective Extravillous trophoblast (EVT) cells invade the endometrium and the maternal spiral arterioles during the first trimester. Mammary Serine Protease Inhibitor (Maspin, SERPINB5) plays a putative role in regulating the invasive activity of cytotrophoblasts. The maspin gene is silenced in various cancers by an epigenetic mechanism that involves aberrant cytosine methylation. We investigated the effect of the methylation status of the maspin promoter on the maspin expression and the aggressiveness of EVT cells. Methods Western blotting was used to detect the maspin protein expression in EVT cells upon hypoxia. The proliferative ability, the apoptosis rate and the migration and invasiveness were measured with Cell Counting Kit-8 assay, Flow Cytometry technology and Transwell methods. Subsequently, we treated cells with recombinant maspin protein. The methylation degree of maspin promoter region upon hypoxia/ decitabine was detected by bisulfite sequencing PCR and methylation-specific PCR. Finally, we explored the effects of decitabine on maspin protein expression and the aggressiveness of EVT cells. Results Hypoxia effectively increased maspin protein expression in EVT cells and significantly inhibited their aggressiveness. The addition of recombinant maspin protein inhibited this aggressiveness. Decitabine reduced the methylation in the maspin promoter region and effectively increased the maspin protein expression, which significantly weakened the migration and invasiveness of EVT cells. Discussion The methylation status of the maspin promoter is an important factor that affects the migration and invasion of EVT cells during early pregnancy. A decrease in the methylation status can inhibit the migration and invasion of EVT cells to affect placentation and can result in the ischemia and hypoxia of placenta.
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    Extracellular Matrix Stiffness Regulates Osteogenic Differentiation through MAPK Activation (2015)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-12
    Description: by Jun-Ha Hwang, Mi Ran Byun, A. Rum Kim, Kyung Min Kim, Hang Jun Cho, Yo Han Lee, Juwon Kim, Mi Gyeong Jeong, Eun Sook Hwang, Jeong-Ho Hong Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) differentiation is regulated by the extracellular matrix (ECM) through activation of intracellular signaling mediators. The stiffness of the ECM was shown to be an important regulatory factor for MSC differentiation, and transcriptional coactivator with PDZ-binding motif (TAZ) was identified as an effector protein for MSC differentiation. However, the detailed underlying mechanism regarding the role of ECM stiffness and TAZ in MSC differentiation is not yet fully understood. In this report, we showed that ECM stiffness regulates MSC fate through ERK or JNK activation. Specifically, a stiff hydrogel matrix stimulates osteogenic differentiation concomitant with increased nuclear localization of TAZ, but inhibits adipogenic differentiation. ERK and JNK activity was significantly increased in cells cultured on a stiff hydrogel. TAZ activation was induced by ERK or JNK activation on a stiff hydrogel because exposure to an ERK or JNK inhibitor significantly decreased the nuclear localization of TAZ, indicating that ECM stiffness-induced ERK or JNK activation is important for TAZ-driven osteogenic differentiation. Taken together, these results suggest that ECM stiffness regulates MSC differentiation through ERK or JNK activation.
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    120 Years of U.S. Residential Housing Stock and Floor Space (2015)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-12
    Description: by Maria Cecilia P. Moura, Steven J. Smith, David B. Belzer Residential buildings are a key driver of energy consumption and also impact transportation and land-use. Energy consumption in the residential sector accounts for one-fifth of total U.S. energy consumption and energy-related CO 2 emissions, with floor space a major driver of building energy demands. In this work a consistent, vintage-disaggregated, annual long-term series of U.S. housing stock and residential floor space for 1891–2010 is presented. An attempt was made to minimize the effects of the incompleteness and inconsistencies present in the national housing survey data. Over the 1891–2010 period, floor space increased almost tenfold, from approximately 24,700 to 235,150 million square feet, corresponding to a doubling of floor space per capita from approximately 400 to 800 square feet. While population increased five times over the period, a 50% decrease in household size contributed towards a tenfold increase in the number of housing units and floor space, while average floor space per unit remains surprisingly constant, as a result of housing retirement dynamics. In the last 30 years, however, these trends appear to be changing, as household size shows signs of leveling off, or even increasing again, while average floor space per unit has been increasing. GDP and total floor space show a remarkably constant growth trend over the period and total residential sector primary energy consumption and floor space show a similar growth trend over the last 60 years, decoupling only within the last decade.
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    Efficient Generation of Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell from Common Lymphoid Progenitors by Flt3 Ligand (2015)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-12
    Description: by Yi-Ling Chen, Shiun Chang, Ting-Ting Chen, Chien-Kuo Lee Dendritic cells (DCs), including conventional DCs (cDCs) and plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) are critical for initiating and controlling the immune response. However, study of DC, particularly pDC, function is hampered by their low frequency in lymphoid organs, and existing methods for in vitro DC generation preferentially favor the production of cDCs over pDCs. Here, we demonstrated that pDCs could be efficiently generated in vitro from common lymphoid progenitors (CLPs) using Flt3 ligand (FL) in three different culture systems, namely feeder-free, BM-feeder and AC-6-feeder. This was in stark contrast to common DC progenitors (CDPs), in which cDCs were prominently generated under the same conditions. Moreover, the efficiency and function of pDCs generated from these three systems varied. While AC-6 system showed the greatest ability to support pDC development from CLPs, BM-feeder system was able to develop pDCs with better functionality. pDCs could also be expanded in vivo using hydrodynamic gene transfer of FL, which was further enhanced by the combined treatment of FL and IFN-α. Interestingly, IFN-α selectively promoted the proliferation of CLPs and not CDPs, which might contribute to enhanced pDC development. Together, we have defined conditions for in vitro and in vivo generation of pDCs, which may be useful for investigating the biology of pDCs.
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    A Haptic Feedback Scheme to Accurately Position a Virtual Wrist Prosthesis Using a Three-Node Tactor Array (2015)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-12
    Description: by Andrew Erwin, Frank C. Sup In this paper, a novel haptic feedback scheme, used for accurately positioning a 1DOF virtual wrist prosthesis through sensory substitution, is presented. The scheme employs a three-node tactor array and discretely and selectively modulates the stimulation frequency of each tactor to relay 11 discrete haptic stimuli to the user. Able-bodied participants were able to move the virtual wrist prosthesis via a surface electromyography based controller. The participants evaluated the feedback scheme without visual or audio feedback and relied solely on the haptic feedback alone to correctly position the hand. The scheme was evaluated through both normal (perpendicular) and shear (lateral) stimulations applied on the forearm. Normal stimulations were applied through a prototype device previously developed by the authors while shear stimulations were generated using an ubiquitous coin motor vibrotactor. Trials with no feedback served as a baseline to compare results within the study and to the literature. The results indicated that using normal and shear stimulations resulted in accurately positioning the virtual wrist, but were not significantly different. Using haptic feedback was substantially better than no feedback. The results found in this study are significant since the feedback scheme allows for using relatively few tactors to relay rich haptic information to the user and can be learned easily despite a relatively short amount of training. Additionally, the results are important for the haptic community since they contradict the common conception in the literature that normal stimulation is inferior to shear. From an ergonomic perspective normal stimulation has the potential to benefit upper limb amputees since it can operate at lower frequencies than shear-based vibrotactors while also generating less noise. Through further tuning of the novel haptic feedback scheme and normal stimulation device, a compact and comfortable sensory substitution device for upper limb amputees might be created.
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    Anti-Retroviral Lectins Have Modest Effects on Adherence of Trichomonas vaginalis to Epithelial Cells In Vitro and on Recovery of Tritrichomonas foetus in a Mouse Vaginal Model (2015)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-09
    Description: by Aparajita Chatterjee, Daniel M. Ratner, Christopher M. Ryan, Patricia J. Johnson, Barry R. O’Keefe, W. Evan Secor, Deborah J. Anderson, Phillips W. Robbins, John Samuelson Trichomonas vaginalis causes vaginitis and increases the risk of HIV transmission by heterosexual sex, while Tritrichomonas foetus causes premature abortion in cattle. Our goals were to determine the effects, if any, of anti-retroviral lectins, which are designed to prevent heterosexual transmission of HIV, on adherence of Trichomonas to ectocervical cells and on Tritrichomonas infections in a mouse model. We show that Trichomonas Asn-linked glycans ( N -glycans), like those of HIV, bind the mannose-binding lectin (MBL) that is part of the innate immune system. N -glycans of Trichomonas and Tritrichomonas bind anti-retroviral lectins (cyanovirin-N and griffithsin) and the 2G12 monoclonal antibody, each of which binds HIV N -glycans. Binding of cyanovirin-N appears to be independent of susceptibility to metronidazole, the major drug used to treat Trichomonas . Anti-retroviral lectins, MBL, and galectin-1 cause Trichomonas to self-aggregate and precipitate. The anti-retroviral lectins also increase adherence of ricin-resistant mutants, which are less adherent than parent cells, to ectocervical cell monolayers and to organotypic EpiVaginal tissue cells. Topical application of either anti-retroviral lectins or yeast N -glycans decreases by 40 to 70% the recovery of Tritrichomonas from the mouse vagina. These results, which are explained by a few simple models, suggest that the anti-retroviral lectins have a modest potential for preventing or treating human infections with Trichomonas .
    Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
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    Educational Inequalities in Exit from Paid Employment among Dutch Workers: The Influence of Health, Lifestyle and Work (2015)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-09
    Description: by Suzan J. W. Robroek, Anne Rongen, Coos H. Arts, Ferdy W. H. Otten, Alex Burdorf, Merel Schuring Background Individuals with lower socioeconomic status are at increased risk of involuntary exit from paid employment. To give sound advice for primary prevention in the workforce, insight is needed into the role of mediating factors between socioeconomic status and labour force participation. Therefore, it is aimed to investigate the influence of health status, lifestyle-related factors and work characteristics on educational differences in exit from paid employment. Methods 14,708 Dutch employees participated in a ten-year follow-up study during 1999–2008. At baseline, education, self-perceived health, lifestyle (smoking, alcohol, sports, BMI) and psychosocial (demands, control, rewards) and physical work characteristics were measured by questionnaire. Employment status was ascertained monthly based on tax records. The relation between education, health, lifestyle, work-characteristics and exit from paid employment through disability benefits, unemployment, early retirement and economic inactivity was investigated by competing risks regression analyses. The mediating effects of these factors on educational differences in exit from paid employment were tested using a stepwise approach. Results Lower educated workers were more likely to exit paid employment through disability benefits (SHR:1.84), unemployment (SHR:1.74), and economic inactivity (SHR:1.53) but not due to early retirement (SHR:0.92). Poor or moderate health, an unhealthy lifestyle, and unfavourable work characteristics were associated with disability benefits and unemployment, and an unhealthy lifestyle with economic inactivity. Educational differences in disability benefits were explained for 40% by health, 31% by lifestyle, and 12% by work characteristics. For economic inactivity and unemployment, up to 14% and 21% of the educational differences could be explained, particularly by lifestyle-related factors. Conclusions There are educational differences in exit from paid employment, which are partly mediated by health, lifestyle and work characteristics, particularly for disability benefits. Health promotion and improving working conditions seem important measures to maintain a productive workforce, particularly among workers with a low education.
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    Security Analysis and Improvement of ‘a More Secure Anonymous User Authentication Scheme for the Integrated EPR Information System’ (2015)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-12
    Description: by SK Hafizul Islam, Muhammad Khurram Khan, Xiong Li Over the past few years, secure and privacy-preserving user authentication scheme has become an integral part of the applications of the healthcare systems. Recently, Wen has designed an improved user authentication system over the Lee et al.’s scheme for integrated electronic patient record (EPR) information system, which has been analyzed in this study. We have found that Wen’s scheme still has the following inefficiencies: (1) the correctness of identity and password are not verified during the login and password change phases; (2) it is vulnerable to impersonation attack and privileged-insider attack; (3) it is designed without the revocation of lost/stolen smart card; (4) the explicit key confirmation and the no key control properties are absent, and (5) user cannot update his/her password without the help of server and secure channel. Then we aimed to propose an enhanced two-factor user authentication system based on the intractable assumption of the quadratic residue problem (QRP) in the multiplicative group. Our scheme bears more securities and functionalities than other schemes found in the literature.
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    GDSCalc: A Web-Based Application for Evaluating Discrete Graph Dynamical Systems (2015)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-12
    Description: by Sherif H. Elmeligy Abdelhamid, Chris J. Kuhlman, Madhav V. Marathe, Henning S. Mortveit, S. S. Ravi Discrete dynamical systems are used to model various realistic systems in network science, from social unrest in human populations to regulation in biological networks. A common approach is to model the agents of a system as vertices of a graph, and the pairwise interactions between agents as edges. Agents are in one of a finite set of states at each discrete time step and are assigned functions that describe how their states change based on neighborhood relations. Full characterization of state transitions of one system can give insights into fundamental behaviors of other dynamical systems. In this paper, we describe a discrete graph dynamical systems (GDSs) application called GDSCalc for computing and characterizing system dynamics. It is an open access system that is used through a web interface. We provide an overview of GDS theory. This theory is the basis of the web application; i.e., an understanding of GDS provides an understanding of the software features, while abstracting away implementation details. We present a set of illustrative examples to demonstrate its use in education and research. Finally, we compare GDSCalc with other discrete dynamical system software tools. Our perspective is that no single software tool will perform all computations that may be required by all users; tools typically have particular features that are more suitable for some tasks. We situate GDSCalc within this space of software tools.
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    Depth-Dependent Mineral Soil CO2 Production Processes: Sensitivity to Harvesting-Induced Changes in Soil Climate (2015)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-12
    Description: by Lisa Kellman, Amy Myette, Hugo Beltrami Forest harvesting induces a step change in the climatic variables (temperature and moisture), that control carbon dioxide ( CO 2 ) production arising from soil organic matter decomposition within soils. Efforts to examine these vertically complex relationships in situ within soil profiles are lacking. In this study we examined how the climatic controls on CO 2 production change within vertically distinct layers of the soil profile in intact and clearcut forest soils of a humid temperate forest system of Atlantic Canada. We measured mineral soil temperature (0, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 cm depth) and moisture (0–15 cm and 30–60 cm depth), along with CO 2 surface efflux and subsurface concentrations (0, 2.5, 5, 10, 20, 35, 50, 75 and 100 cm depth) in 1 m deep soil pits at 4 sites represented by two forest-clearcut pairs over a complete annual cycle. We examined relationships between surface efflux at each site, and soil heat, moisture, and mineral soil CO 2 production. Following clearcut harvesting we observed increases in temperature through depth (1–2°C annually; often in excess of 4°C in summer and spring), alongside increases in soil moisture (30%). We observed a systematic breakdown in the expected exponential relationship between CO 2 production and heat with mineral soil depth, consistent with an increase in the role moisture plays in constraining CO 2 production. These findings should be considered in efforts to model and characterize mineral soil organic matter decomposition in harvested forest soils.
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    Protective Effect of Sevoflurane Postconditioning against Cardiac Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury via Ameliorating Mitochondrial Impairment, Oxidative Stress and Rescuing Autophagic Clearance (2015)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-12
    Description: by Peng Yu, Jing Zhang, Shuchun Yu, Zhenzhong Luo, Fuzhou Hua, Linhui Yuan, Zhidong Zhou, Qin Liu, Xiaohong Du, Sisi Chen, Lieliang Zhang, Guohai Xu Background and Purpose Myocardial infarction leads to heart failure. Autophagy is excessively activated in myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) in rats. The aim of this study is to investigate whether the protection of sevoflurane postconditioning (SPC) in myocardial I/R is through restored impaired autophagic flux. Methods Except for the sham control (SHAM) group, each rat underwent 30 min occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary (LAD) followed by 2 h reperfusion. Cardiac infarction was determined by 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride triazole (TTC) staining. Cardiac function was examined by hemodynamics and echocardiography. The activation of autophagy was evaluated by autophagosome accumulation, LC3 conversion and p62 degradation. Potential molecular mechanisms were investigated by immunoblotting, real-time PCR and immunofluorescence staining. Results SPC improved the hemodynamic parameters, cardiac dysfunction, histopathological and ultrastructural damages, and decreased myocardial infarction size after myocardial I/R injury ( P 〈 0.05 vs. I/R group). Compared with the cases in I/R group, myocardial ATP and NAD + content, mitochondrial function related genes and proteins, and the expressions of SOD2 and HO-1 were increased, while the expressions of ROS and Vimentin were decreased in the SPC group ( P 〈 0.05 vs. I/R group). SPC significantly activated Akt/mTOR signaling, and inhibited the formation of Vps34/Beclin1 complex via increasing expression of Bcl2 protein ( P 〈 0.05 vs. I/R group). SPC suppressed elevated expressions of LC3 II/I ratio, Beclin1, Atg5 and Atg7 in I/R rat, which indicated that SPC inhibited over-activation of autophagy, and promoted autophagosome clearance. Meanwhile, SPC significantly suppressed the decline of Opa1 and increases of Drp1 and Parkin induced by I/R injury ( P 〈 0.05 vs. I/R group). Moreover, SPC maintained the contents of ATP by reducing impaired mitochondria. Conclusion SPC protects rat hearts against I/R injury via ameliorating mitochondrial impairment, oxidative stress and rescuing autophagic clearance.
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    Influential Factors on the Relative Age Effect in Alpine Ski Racing (2015)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-09
    Description: by Lisa Müller, Erich Müller, Carolin Hildebrandt, Elmar Kornexl, Christian Raschner The relative age effect (RAE), which refers to an over-representation of selected athletes born early in the selection year, was proven to be present in alpine ski racing in all age categories at both national and international levels. However, the influential factors on, or the causal mechanisms of, the RAE are still unknown. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to examine three possible influential factors on the relative age effect in alpine skiing: physical performance, anthropometric characteristics and biological maturational status. The study included the investigation of 282 elite Austrian youth ski racers and 413 non-athletes (comparison group) of the same age (10–13 years) and region. Six physical performance tests were performed, body mass and height were assessed, and the age at peak height velocity (APHV) was calculated. A significant RAE was present in the ski racers. No differences were shown in the physical performance characteristics or in the calculated APHV between the relative age quarters. These results suggest that ski racers born in the last quarter can counteract the relative age disadvantages if they already present the same level of physical performance and maturational status as those born at the beginning of the year. The height and weight of ski racers born at the beginning of the year were significantly higher compared to the non-athletes, and ski racers born in relative age quarter 1 were taller and heavier compared to the ski racers of the other quarters. This indicates that the anthropometric characteristics influence the selection process in alpine ski racing, and that relatively older athletes are more likely to be selected if they exhibit advanced anthropometric characteristics.
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    Intrinsic Functional Connectivity in Salience and Default Mode Networks and Aberrant Social Processes in Youth at Ultra-High Risk for Psychosis (2015)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-09
    Description: by Andrea Pelletier-Baldelli, Jessica A. Bernard, Vijay A. Mittal Social processes are key to navigating the world, and investigating their underlying mechanisms and cognitive architecture can aid in understanding disease states such as schizophrenia, where social processes are highly impacted. Evidence suggests that social processes are impaired in individuals at ultra high-risk for the development of psychosis (UHR). Understanding these phenomena in UHR youth may clarify disease etiology and social processes in a period that is characterized by significantly fewer confounds than schizophrenia. Furthermore, understanding social processing deficits in this population will help explain these processes in healthy individuals. The current study examined resting state connectivity of the salience (SN) and default mode networks (DMN) in association with facial emotion recognition (FER), an integral aspect of social processes, as well as broader social functioning (SF) in UHR individuals and healthy controls. Consistent with the existing literature, UHR youth were impaired in FER and SF when compared with controls. In the UHR group, we found increased connectivity between the SN and the medial prefrontal cortex, an area of the DMN relative to controls. In UHR youth, the DMN exhibited both positive and negative correlations with the somatosensory cortex/cerebellum and precuneus, respectively, which was linked with better FER performance. For SF, results showed that sensory processing links with the SN might be important in allowing for better SF for both groups, but especially in controls where sensory processing is likely to be unimpaired. These findings clarify how social processing deficits may manifest in psychosis, and underscore the importance of SN and DMN connectivity for social processing more generally.
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    UAV Recharging Opportunities and Policies for Sensor Networks (2015)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-12
    Description: Recharging sensor networks using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) provides a possible method for increasing network lifetime. In this paper, we evaluate that approach, determining how much of a benefit it provides and under what conditions. We base our simulations and field experiments on data collected from charging with our UAV-based wireless power transfer system, which has similar transfer ranges and efficiencies as other such systems. We determine that a UAV can increase the network lifetime up to 290% compared to no recharging, that the UAV should recharge 30% of the sensor node battery capacity at one time for the maximum benefit, and that the UAV should recharge the lowest powered node until the network reaches a size of approximately 306 nodes at which point it should recharge the sink. We also examine how the sensor network can aid this through sink selection. The policy varies as network size increases, with a static approach working well until 200 nodes, and then either a perimeter or heuristic approach works best. These results inform future use of UAVs in recharging and working with sensor networks.
    Print ISSN: 1550-1329
    Electronic ISSN: 1550-1477
    Topics: Electrical Engineering, Measurement and Control Technology
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    An Intelligent Wireless Sensing and Control System to Improve Indoor Air Quality: Monitoring, Prediction, and Preaction (2015)
    Hindawi
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-12
    Description: The aim of this study is to construct an intelligent wireless sensing and control system to address health issues. We combine three technologies including (1) wireless sensing technology to develop an extendable system for monitoring environmental indicators such as temperature, humidity and CO2 concentration, (2) ARIMA (autoregressive integrated moving average) to predict air quality trends and take action before air quality worsens, and (3) fuzzy theory which is applied to build an energy-saving mechanism for feedback control. Experimental results show the following. (1) A longer historical data collected time interval will reduce the effects of abnormal surges on prediction results. We find the ARIMA prediction model accuracy improving from 3.19 ± 3.47% for a time interval of 10 minutes to 1.71 ± 1.45% for a time interval of 50 minutes. (2) The stability experiment shows that the error rate of prediction model is also less than 7.5%. (3) In the energy-saving experiment, fuzzy logic-based decision model can reduce the 55% energy while maintaining adequate air quality.
    Print ISSN: 1550-1329
    Electronic ISSN: 1550-1477
    Topics: Electrical Engineering, Measurement and Control Technology
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    Conformal Array Pattern Synthesis and Activated Elements Selection Strategy Based on PSOGSA Algorithm (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-12
    Description: The pattern synthesis and activated element selection for conformal array is investigated based on hybrid particle swarm optimization-gravitational search algorithm (PSOGSA) in this paper. With the introduction of PSOGSA algorithm which is a novel hybrid optimization technique, the element excitations are optimized to obtain the desired pattern for conformal array in the case of considering uncoupled and coupled element pattern. Numerical simulation and full-wave electromagnetic calculation verify the advantage and efficiency of our method. Then, a novel strategy of activated element selection based on PSOGSA algorithm is proposed for saving the energy consumption in conformal array.
    Print ISSN: 1687-5869
    Electronic ISSN: 1687-5877
    Topics: Electrical Engineering, Measurement and Control Technology
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    Four-Channel Teleoperation with Time-Varying Delays and Disturbance Observers (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-13
    Description: This paper addresses the robust stability of teleoperated systems under the four-channel architecture, affected by time-varying communication delays and using disturbance observers. It is based on our previous work which provides a framework for robust stability against delays with bounded variation and a bounded time-derivative, using structured singular values (SSV). The main new feature here is the inclusion of disturbance observers (DOBs). The DOB concept is well-documented and relevant to many applications, since only position (but not force) measurements are usually available. In this paper, we adapt two DOBs (master and slave) to our generic framework, by representing them as stable, fast filters affected by the uncertainty in the plant modelling. Our main result is an SSV test to verify robust stability. The simulation results confirm the usefulness of this approach.
    Print ISSN: 1024-123X
    Electronic ISSN: 1563-5147
    Topics: Mathematics , Technology
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    Torsion Wave Solutions in Yang-Mielke Theory of Gravity (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-13
    Description: The approach of metric-affine gravity initially distinguishes it from Einstein’s general relativity. Using an independent affine connection produces a theory with 10 + 64 unknowns. We write down the Yang-Mills action for the affine connection and produce the Yang-Mills equation and the so-called complementary Yang-Mills equation by independently varying with respect to the connection and the metric, respectively. We call this theory the Yang-Mielke theory of gravity. We construct explicit spacetimes with pp-metric and purely axial torsion and show that they represent a solution of Yang-Mills theory. Finally we compare these spacetimes to existing solutions of metric-affine gravity and present future research possibilities.
    Print ISSN: 1687-7357
    Electronic ISSN: 1687-7365
    Topics: Physics
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    Hom--Operators and Hom-Yang-Baxter Equations (2015)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-13
    Description: In Hom-Lie set, we introduce the concept of Hom--operators and study its relation with classical Hom-Yang-Baxter equation, as well as left-symmetric Hom-algebras. We construct the corresponding relation between left-symmetric Hom-algebras and Hom-1-cocycles, which are both related to classical Hom-Yang-Baxter equation. Moreover, in Hom-algebra setting, we establish the equivalent relationship between AHYBE (associative Hom-Yang-Baxter equations) and -operators on Frobenius monoidal Hom-algebras.
    Print ISSN: 1687-9120
    Electronic ISSN: 1687-9139
    Topics: Mathematics , Physics
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    Heat and Mass Transfer for MHD Viscoelastic Fluid Flow over a Vertical Stretching Sheet with Considering Soret and Dufour Effects (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-13
    Description: The homotopy analysis method (HAM) with two auxiliary parameters is employed to examine heat and mass transfer in a steady two-dimensional magneto hydrodynamic viscoelastic fluid flow over a stretching vertical surface by considering Soret and Dufour effects. The two-dimensional boundary-layer governing partial differential equations are derived by considering the Boussinesq approximation. The highly nonlinear ordinary differential forms of momentum, energy, and concentration equations are obtained by similarity transformation. These equations are solved analytically in the presence of buoyancy force. The effects of different involved parameters such as magnetic field parameter, Prandtl number, buoyancy parameter, Soret number, Dufour number, and Lewis number on velocity, temperature, and concentration profiles are plotted and discussed. The effect of the second auxiliary parameter is also illustrated. Results show that the effect of increasing Soret number or decreasing Dufour number tends to decrease the velocity and temperature profiles (increase in Sr cools the fluid and reduces the temperature) while enhancing the concentration distribution.
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    Application of the Preview Control Method to the Optimal Tracking Control Problem for Continuous-Time Systems with Time-Delay (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-13
    Description: This paper considers the application of the preview control method to the optimal tracking control problem for a class of continuous-time systems with state and input delays. First, through a transformation, the system is transformed into a nondelayed one. Then, the tracking problem of the time-delay system is transformed into one of a nondelayed system via processing of the reference signal. We then apply preview control theory to derive an augmented system for the nondelayed system and design a controller with preview function assuming that the reference signal is previewable. Finally, we obtain the optimal control law of the augmented error system and thus obtain that of the original system by letting the preview length of the reference signal go to zero. Numerical simulations are provided to illustrate the effectiveness and validity of our conclusions.
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    Rotation and Magnetic Field Effect on Surface Waves Propagation in an Elastic Layer Lying over a Generalized Thermoelastic Diffusive Half-Space with Imperfect Boundary (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-13
    Description: The aim of the present investigation is to study the effects of magnetic field, relaxation times, and rotation on the propagation of surface waves with imperfect boundary. The propagation between an isotropic elastic layer of finite thickness and a homogenous isotropic thermodiffusive elastic half-space with rotation in the context of Green-Lindsay (GL) model is studied. The secular equation for surface waves in compact form is derived after developing the mathematical model. The phase velocity and attenuation coefficient are obtained for stiffness, and then deduced for normal stiffness, tangential stiffness and welded contact. The amplitudes of displacements, temperature, and concentration are computed analytically at the free plane boundary. Some special cases are illustrated and compared with previous results obtained by other authors. The effects of rotation, magnetic field, and relaxation times on the speed, attenuation coefficient, and the amplitudes of displacements, temperature, and concentration are displayed graphically.
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    Numerical Investigation of Non-Newtonian Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics in Rectangular Tubes with Protrusions (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-13
    Description: Flow characteristics and heat transfer performances in rectangular tubes with protrusions are numerically investigated in this paper. The thermal heat transfer enhancement of composite structures and flow resistance reduction of non-Newtonian fluid are taken advantage of to obtain a better thermal performance. Protrusion channels coupled with different CMC concentration solutions are studied, and the results are compared with that of smooth channels with water flow. The comprehensive influence of turbulence effects, structural effects, and secondary flow effects on the CMC’s flow in protrusion tubes is extensively investigated. The results indicate that the variation of flow resistance parameters of shear-thinning power-law fluid often shows a nonmonotonic trend, which is different from that of water. It can be concluded that protrusion structure can effectively enhance the heat transfer of CMC solution with low pressure penalty in specific cases. Moreover, for a specific protrusion structure and a fixed flow velocity, there exists an optimal solution concentration showing the best thermal performance.
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    Research on Conflict Behavior of Top Management Team in Family Enterprises: A Complex Network Perspective (2015)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-13
    Description: At present time, methods of research about top management team’s conflict become more and more prosperous with the help of complex system theory and evolutionary game. Taking family enterprise as an example, this paper makes an attempt on exploring complex network modeling to study data processing method and abstraction method of complex network of TMT conflict. And the paper will consider the attribute and relational mapping of top management team as nodes and edges in complex network to discuss the direct correspondence between complex network structure and management team characteristics. Besides that, according to the multiple attribute decision making, the method to dig into core members of the top management team will be created on the basis of the degree, closeness, cluster coefficient, and betweenness. And then the article will devote to studying the impact of attributes to the inner mechanism of TMT conflict and team cohesion through the network characteristic analysis.
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    Length-Based Assessment of Coral Reef Fish Populations in the Main and Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (2015)
    Public Library of Science (PLoS)
    In: PLoS ONE
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-13
    Description: by Marc O. Nadon, Jerald S. Ault, Ivor D. Williams, Steven G. Smith, Gerard T. DiNardo The coral reef fish community of Hawaii is composed of hundreds of species, supports a multimillion dollar fishing and tourism industry, and is of great cultural importance to the local population. However, a major stock assessment of Hawaiian coral reef fish populations has not yet been conducted. Here we used the robust indicator variable “average length in the exploited phase of the population (L¯)”, estimated from size composition data from commercial fisheries trip reports and fishery-independent diver surveys, to evaluate exploitation rates for 19 Hawaiian reef fishes. By and large, the average lengths obtained from diver surveys agreed well with those from commercial data. We used the estimated exploitation rates coupled with life history parameters synthesized from the literature to parameterize a numerical population model and generate stock sustainability metrics such as spawning potential ratios (SPR). We found good agreement between predicted average lengths in an unfished population (from our population model) and those observed from diver surveys in the largely unexploited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Of 19 exploited reef fish species assessed in the main Hawaiian Islands, 9 had SPRs close to or below the 30% overfishing threshold. In general, longer-lived species such as surgeonfishes, the redlip parrotfish ( Scarus rubroviolaceus ), and the gray snapper ( Aprion virescens ) had the lowest SPRs, while short-lived species such as goatfishes and jacks, as well as two invasive species ( Lutjanus kasmira and Cephalopholis argus ), had SPRs above the 30% threshold.
    Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
    Topics: Medicine , Natural Sciences in General
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    Performance of Dutch Children on the Bayley III: A Comparison Study of US and Dutch Norms (2015)
    Public Library of Science (PLoS)
    In: PLoS ONE
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-13
    Description: by Leonie J. P. Steenis, Marjolein Verhoeven, Dave J. Hessen, Anneloes L. van Baar Background The Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development-third edition (Bayley-III) are frequently used to assess early child development worldwide. However, the original standardization only included US children, and it is still unclear whether or not these norms are adequate for use in other populations. Recently, norms for the Dutch version of the Bayley-III (The Bayley-III-NL) were made. Scores based on Dutch and US norms were compared to study the need for population-specific norms. Methods Scaled scores based on Dutch and US norms were compared for 1912 children between 14 days and 42 months 14 days. Next, the proportions of children scoring 〈 1-SD and 〈 -2 SD based on the two norms were compared, to identify over- or under-referral for developmental delay resulting from non-population-based norms. Results Scaled scores based on Dutch norms fluctuated around values based on US norms on all subtests. The extent of the deviations differed across ages and subtests. Differences in means were significant across all five subtests (p 〈 .01) with small to large effect sizes ( η p 2 ) ranging from .03 to .26). Using the US instead of Dutch norms resulted in over-referral regarding gross motor skills, and under-referral regarding cognitive, receptive communication, expressive communication, and fine motor skills. Conclusions The Dutch norms differ from the US norms for all subtests and these differences are clinically relevant. Population specific norms are needed to identify children with low scores for referral and intervention, and to facilitate international comparisons of population data.
    Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
    Topics: Medicine , Natural Sciences in General
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    A Pilot Study on Clinical and Neuroimaging Characteristics of Chinese Posterior Cortical Atrophy: Comparison with Typical Alzheimer’s Disease (2015)
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    In: PLoS ONE
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-13
    Description: by Xiao-Dan Wang, Hui Lu, Zhihong Shi, Li Cai, Shuai Liu, Shuling Liu, Tong Han, Ying Wang, Yuying Zhou, Xinping Wang, Shuo Gao, Yong Ji Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is a clinicoradiologic neurodegenerative syndrome characterized by predominant impairment of higher visual functions. Neuroimaging and neuropathological studies show that PCA is probably an atypical presentation of Alzheimer’s disease. However, in China PCA has rarely been studied and remains largely unknown. Our study therefore aimed to analyze the clinical manifestations and patterns of cerebral atrophy, amyloid beta deposition and regional glucose metabolism in Chinese PCA patients, comparing them directly with those of typical Alzheimer’s disease (TAD). Seven PCA patients, 6 TAD patients and 5 controls underwent neuropsychological assessment, MRI scan, 11 C-PIB PET scan and 18 F-FDG PET scan. Cerebral atrophy including ventricular enlargement, posterior atrophy and medial temporal lobe atrophy were evaluated with MRI. The uptake of 11 C-PIB was quantified at the voxel level using the standardized uptake value ratio. Comparisons of regional cerebral glucose metabolism were calculated with statistical parametric mapping. PCA patients showed significant impairment on visuospatial function in neuropsychological assessment. And PCA patients showed more severe posterior atrophy and less severe left medial temporal lobe atrophy compared with TAD patients. The data from 11 C-PIB PET scanning showed that amyloid beta deposition in PCA was comparable to TAD. Moreover, in PCA the results from 18 F-FDG PET scanning revealed significant hypometabolism in the temporoparietooccipital region and identified specific hypometabolism in the right occipital lobe, compared with TAD. Our study thus provides a preliminary view of PCA in Chinese patients. A further study with a larger number of subjects would be recommended to confirm these findings.
    Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
    Topics: Medicine , Natural Sciences in General
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    Reliability and Validity Study of Clinical Ultrasound Imaging on Lateral Curvature of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (2015)
    Public Library of Science (PLoS)
    In: PLoS ONE
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-13
    Description: by Q. Wang, M. Li, Edmond H. M. Lou, M. S. Wong Background Non-ionizing radiation imaging assessment has been advocated for the patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). As one of the radiation-free methods, ultrasound imaging has gained growing attention in scoliosis assessment over the past decade. The center of laminae (COL) method has been proposed to measure the spinal curvature in the coronal plane of ultrasound image. However, the reliability and validity of this ultrasound method have not been validated in the clinical setting. Objectives To evaluate the reliability and validity of clinical ultrasound imaging on lateral curvature measurements of AIS with their corresponding magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements. Methods Thirty curves (ranged 10.2°–68.2°) from sixteen patients with AIS were eligible for this study. The ultrasound scan was performed using a 3-D ultrasound unit within the same morning of MRI examination. Two researchers were involved in data collection of these two examinations. The COL method was used to measure the coronal curvature in ultrasound image, compared with the Cobb method in MRI. The intra- and inter-rater reliability of the COL method was evaluated by intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). The validity of this method was analyzed by paired Student’s t -test, Bland–Altman statistics and Pearson correlation coefficient. The level of significance was set as 0.05. Results The COL method showed high intra- and inter-rater reliabilities (both with ICC (2, K) 〉0.9, p
    Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
    Topics: Medicine , Natural Sciences in General
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    Robust Gene-Gene Interaction Analysis in Genome Wide Association Studies (2015)
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    In: PLoS ONE
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-13
    Description: by Yongkang Kim, Taesung Park Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have successfully discovered hundreds of associations between genetic variants and complex traits. Most GWAS have focused on the identification of single variants. It has been shown that most of the variants that were discovered by GWAS could only partially explain disease heritability. The explanation for this missing heritability is generally believed to be gene-gene (GG) or gene-environment (GE) interactions and other structural variants. Generalized multifactor dimensionality reduction (GMDR) has been proven to be reasonably powerful in detecting GG and GE interactions; however, its performance has been found to decline when outlying quantitative traits are present. This paper proposes a robust GMDR estimation method (based on the L-estimator and M-estimator estimation methods) in an attempt to reduce the effects caused by outlying traits. A comparison of robust GMDR with the original MDR based on simulation studies showed the former method to outperform the latter. The performance of robust GMDR is illustrated through a real GWA example consisting of 8,577 samples from the Korean population using the Homeostasis Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) level as a phenotype. Robust GMDR identified the KCNH1 gene to have strong interaction effects with other genes on the function of insulin secretion.
    Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
    Topics: Medicine , Natural Sciences in General
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    Item Anomaly Detection Based on Dynamic Partition for Time Series in Recommender Systems (2015)
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    In: PLoS ONE
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-13
    Description: by Min Gao, Renli Tian, Junhao Wen, Qingyu Xiong, Bin Ling, Linda Yang In recent years, recommender systems have become an effective method to process information overload. However, recommendation technology still suffers from many problems. One of the problems is shilling attacks-attackers inject spam user profiles to disturb the list of recommendation items. There are two characteristics of all types of shilling attacks: 1) Item abnormality: The rating of target items is always maximum or minimum; and 2) Attack promptness: It takes only a very short period time to inject attack profiles. Some papers have proposed item anomaly detection methods based on these two characteristics, but their detection rate, false alarm rate, and universality need to be further improved. To solve these problems, this paper proposes an item anomaly detection method based on dynamic partitioning for time series. This method first dynamically partitions item-rating time series based on important points. Then, we use chi square distribution (χ 2 ) to detect abnormal intervals. The experimental results on MovieLens 100K and 1M indicate that this approach has a high detection rate and a low false alarm rate and is stable toward different attack models and filler sizes.
    Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
    Topics: Medicine , Natural Sciences in General
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    Budgetary Impact of Treating Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia Patients with First-Line Arsenic Trioxide and Retinoic Acid from an Italian Payer Perspective (2015)
    Public Library of Science (PLoS)
    In: PLoS ONE
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-13
    Description: by Morgan Kruse, Rebecca Wildner, Gisoo Barnes, Monique Martin, Udo Mueller, Francesco Lo-Coco, Ashutosh Pathak The objective of this study was to estimate the net cost of arsenic trioxide (ATO) added to all- trans retinoic acid (ATRA) compared to ATRA plus chemotherapy when used in first-line acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) treatment for low to intermediate risk patients from the perspective of the overall Italian healthcare systemA Markov model was developed with 3 health states: stable disease, disease event and death. Each month, patients could move from stable to disease event or die from either state. After a disease event, patients discontinued initial treatment and switched to the other regimen as second-line therapy. Treatment regimens, efficacy and adverse events were derived from published sources and expert opinion; unit costs were collected from standard Italian sources. Clinical outcomes and costs for pre-ATO and post-ATO scenarios were combined with population and product utilization information to calculate the total budgetary impact using a 3-year time horizon; one-way sensitivity analyses were conducted. Three-year cumulative pharmacy costs for ATO+ATRA were €46,700 per-patient versus €6,500 for ATRA+chemotherapy; however, medical costs for ATO+ATRA were €12,300 per-patient versus €30,200 for ATRA+chemotherapy. The total budgetary impact was estimated to be an additional €127,300, €312,500 and €477,800 in the first, second and third years, respectively. The model was most sensitive to changes in the cost of the ATO+ATRA regimen during the consolidation phase. Budgetary impact models are valuable to payers making formulary decisions regarding the access and affordability of new medicines. The cost of treatment analysis showed that pharmacy costs for ATO+ATRA were higher than for ATRA+chemotherapy, while all other evaluated costs were lower for ATO+ATRA treated patients. The average budgetary impact was €305,900 per year overall, representing a 3.5% increase. Further research is needed to determine the cost-effectiveness of ATO+ATRA compared to the current first-line standard of care in APL.
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    DAPK1 Promoter Methylation and Cervical Cancer Risk: A Systematic Review and a Meta-Analysis (2015)
    Public Library of Science (PLoS)
    In: PLoS ONE
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-13
    Description: by Antonella Agodi, Martina Barchitta, Annalisa Quattrocchi, Andrea Maugeri, Manlio Vinciguerra Objective The Death-Associated Protein Kinase 1 ( DAPK1 ) gene has been frequently investigated in cervical cancer (CC). The aim of the present study was to carry out a systematic review and a meta-analysis in order to evaluate DAPK1 promoter methylation as an epigenetic marker for CC risk. Methods A systematic literature search was carried out. The Cochrane software package Review Manager 5.2 was used. The fixed-effects or random-effects models, according to heterogeneity across studies, were used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% Confidence Intervals (CIs). Furthermore, subgroup analyses were conducted by histological type, assays used to evaluate DAPK1 promoter methylation, and control sample source. Results A total of 20 papers, published between 2001 and 2014, on 1929 samples, were included in the meta-analysis. DAPK1 promoter methylation was associated with an increased CC risk based on the random effects model (OR: 21.20; 95%CI = 11.14–40.35). Omitting the most heterogeneous study, the between study heterogeneity decreased and the association increased (OR: 24.13; 95% CI = 15.83–36.78). The association was also confirmed in all the subgroups analyses. Conclusions A significant strong association between DAPK1 promoter methylation and CC was shown and confirmed independently by histological tumor type, method used to evaluate methylation and source of control samples. Methylation markers may have value in early detection of CC precursor lesions, provide added reassurances of safety for women who are candidates for less frequent screens, and predict outcomes of women infected with human papilloma virus.
    Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
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    Molecular Basis of Gene-Gene Interaction: Cyclic Cross-Regulation of Gene Expression and Post-GWAS Gene-Gene Interaction Involved in Atrial Fibrillation (2015)
    Public Library of Science (PLoS)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-13
    Description: by Yufeng Huang, Chuchu Wang, Yufeng Yao, Xiaoyu Zuo, Shanshan Chen, Chengqi Xu, Hongfu Zhang, Qiulun Lu, Le Chang, Fan Wang, Pengxia Wang, Rongfeng Zhang, Zhenkun Hu, Qixue Song, Xiaowei Yang, Cong Li, Sisi Li, Yuanyuan Zhao, Qin Yang, Dan Yin, Xiaojing Wang, Wenxia Si, Xiuchun Li, Xin Xiong, Dan Wang, Yuan Huang, Chunyan Luo, Jia Li, Jingjing Wang, Jing Chen, Longfei Wang, Li Wang, Meng Han, Jian Ye, Feifei Chen, Jingqiu Liu, Ying Liu, Gang Wu, Bo Yang, Xiang Cheng, Yuhua Liao, Yanxia Wu, Tie Ke, Qiuyun Chen, Xin Tu, Robert Elston, Shaoqi Rao, Yanzong Yang, Yunlong Xia, Qing K. Wang Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia at the clinic. Recent GWAS identified several variants associated with AF, but they account for
    Print ISSN: 1553-7390
    Electronic ISSN: 1553-7404
    Topics: Biology
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    Effect of a CO2 Laser on the Inhibition of Root Surface Caries Adjacent to Restorations of Glass Ionomer Cement or Composite Resin: An In Vitro Study (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-13
    Description: This study investigated the effect of CO2 laser irradiation on the inhibition of secondary caries on root surfaces adjacent to glass ionomer cement (GIC) or composite resin (CR) restorations. 40 dental blocks were divided into 4 groups: G1 (negative control): cavity preparation + adhesive restoration with CR; G2: (positive control) cavity preparation + GIC restoration; G3: equal to group 1 + CO2 laser with 6 J/cm2; G4: equal to group 2 + CO2 laser. The blocks were submitted to thermal and pH cycling. Dental demineralization around restorations was quantified using microhardness analyses and Light-Induced Fluorescence (QLF). The groups showed no significant differences in mineral loss at depths between 20 μm and 40 μm. At 60 μm, G2 and G3 ≠ G1, but G4 = G1, G2 and G3. At 80 μm, G4 ≠ G1, and at 100 μm, G4 = G2 = G1. At 140 and 220 μm, G2, G3, and G4 = G1. The averages obtained using QFL in groups 1, 2, 3, and 4 were 0.637, 0.162, 0.095, and 0.048, respectively. QLF and microhardness analyses showed that CO2 laser irradiation reduced mineral loss around the CR restorations but that it did not increase the anticariogenic effect of GIC restorations.
    Electronic ISSN: 1537-744X
    Topics: Natural Sciences in General
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    Trend Change Study of Climate Variables in Xin’anjiang-Fuchunjiang Watershed, China (2015)
    Hindawi
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-14
    Description: This study emphasizes the precipitation and the maximum and minimum temperature trend and presents the results of study in temporal and spatial scales, after performing statistical analysis of the Xin’anjiang-Fuchunjiang watershed. Statistical Mann Kendall and Theil Sen techniques were used to determine the trend and its magnitude, respectively, and for determining the start and abrupt change in the trend, Sequential Mann Kendall test has been performed. Furthermore, statistical tests were performed to determine the overall trend in the area at a regional basis. For the removal of the serial effect of the data, prewhitening technique is applied. In this study, statistical tests were performed at 1901–2013 precipitation and temperature series and then after detection of the change year precipitation data were divided into two different scenarios of 1901–1960 period and 1961–2013 period. The results showed that precipitation trend is insignificant while maximum and minimum temperature have increased during 1901–2013 period except for some stations of autumn and summer seasons.
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    Topics: Geosciences , Physics
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    Feature Extraction in Densely Sensed Environments: Extensions to Multiple Broadcast Domains (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-13
    Description: The vision of the Internet of Things (IoT) includes large and dense deployment of interconnected smart sensing and monitoring devices. This vast deployment necessitates collection and processing of large volume of measurement data. However, collecting all the measured data from individual devices on such a scale may be impractical and time-consuming. Moreover, processing these measurements requires complex algorithms to extract useful information. Thus, it becomes imperative to devise distributed information processing mechanisms that identify application-specific features in a timely manner and with low overhead. In this paper, we present a feature extraction mechanism for dense networks that takes advantage of dominance-based medium access control (MAC) protocols to (i) efficiently obtain global extrema of the sensed quantities, (ii) extract local extrema, and (iii) detect the boundaries of events, by using simple transforms that nodes employ on their local data. We extend our results for a large dense network with multiple broadcast domains (MBD). We discuss and compare two approaches for addressing the challenges with MBD and we show through extensive evaluations that our proposed distributed MBD approach is fast and efficient at retrieving the most valuable measurements, independent of the number sensor nodes in the network.
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    A Grid-Based Linear Least Squares Self-Localization Algorithm in Wireless Sensor Network (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-14
    Description: Self-localization is one of the key technologies in the wireless sensor networks (WSN). Some traditional self-localization algorithms can provide a reasonable positioning accuracy only in a uniform and dense network, while for a nonuniform network the performance is not acceptable. In this paper, we presented a novel grid-based linear least squares (LLS) self-localization algorithm. The proposed algorithm uses the grid method to screen the anchors based on the distribution characteristic of a nonuniform network. Furthermore, by taking into consideration the quasi-uniform distribution of anchors in the area, we select suitable anchors to assist the localization. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can greatly enhance the localization accuracy of the anonymous nodes and impose less computation burden compared to traditional Trilateration and Multilateration.
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    CTLL: A Cell-Based Transfer Learning Method for Localization in Large Scale Wireless Sensor Networks (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-14
    Description: Localization is emerging as a fundamental component in wireless sensor network and is widely used in the field of environmental monitoring, national and military defense, transportation monitoring, and so on. Current localization methods, however, focus on how to improve accuracy without considering the robustness. Thus, the error will increase rapidly when nodes density and SNR (signal to noise ratio) have changed dramatically. This paper introduces CTLL, Cell-Based Transfer Learning Method for Localization in WSNs, a new way for localization which is robust to the variances of nodes density and SNR. The method combines samples transfer learning and SVR (Support Vector Regression) regression model to get a better performance of localization. Unlike past work, which considers that the nodes density and SNR are invariable, our design applies regional division and transfer learning to adapt to the variances of nodes density and SNR. We evaluate the performance of our method both on simulation and realistic deployment. The results show that our method increases accuracy and provides high robustness under a low cost.
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    On Minimum-Latency Broadcast in Multichannel Duty-Cycled Wireless Sensor Networks (2015)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-14
    Description: Broadcast has critical significance for wide application of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Minimum-latency broadcast (MLB) studies how to devise a broadcast schedule, which can achieve minimum broadcast latency with no signal interference. In multichannel duty-cycled WSNs, nodes can exploit multiple channels to communicate and periodically fall asleep after working for some time. Nevertheless, most solutions to the MLB problem either focus on nonsleeping scenarios or only exploit one single channel. Therefore, we investigate the MLB problem in multichannel duty-cycled WSNs in this paper and call this problem as MLBCD problem. We prove that MLBCD problem is NP-hard. We propose a new concept of active interference graph (AIG). Based on AIG, we present one novel approximation broadcast algorithm called NAB to solve the MLBCD problem. We prove that our proposed NAB algorithm achieves provable performance guarantee. The results of our extensive evaluations show that NAB algorithm can significantly improve the broadcast latency.
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    A Group Mining Method for Big Data on Distributed Vehicle Trajectories in WAN (2015)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-14
    Description: A distributed parallel clustering method MCR-ACA is proposed by integrating the ant colony algorithm with the computing framework Map-Combine-Reduce for mining groups with the same or similar features from big data on vehicle trajectories stored in Wide Area Network. The heaviest computing burden of clustering is conducted in parallel at local nodes, of which the results are merged to small size intermediates. The intermediates are sent to the central node and clusters are generated adaptively. The great overhead of transferring big volume data is avoided by MCR-ACA, which improves the computing efficiency and guarantees the correctness of clustering. MCR-ACA is compared with an existing parallel clustering algorithm on practical big data collected by the traffic monitoring system of Jiangsu province in China. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is effective for group mining by clustering.
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    Kalman Filter-Based Indoor Position Tracking with Self-Calibration for RSS Variation Mitigation (2015)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-14
    Description: This paper investigates the indoor position tracking problem under the variation of received signal strength (RSS) characteristic from the changes of device statuses and environmental factors. A novel indoor position tracking algorithm is introduced to provide reliable position estimates by integrating motion sensor-based positioning (i.e., dead-reckoning) and RSS-based fingerprinting positioning with Kalman filter. In the presence of the RSS variation, RSS-based fingerprinting positioning provides unreliable results due to different characteristics of RSS measurements in the offline and online phases, and the tracking performance is degraded. To mitigate the effect of the RSS variation, a recursive least square estimation-based self-calibration algorithm is proposed that estimates the RSS variation parameters and provides the mapping between the offline and online RSS measurements. By combining the Kalman filter-based tracking algorithm with the self-calibration, the proposed algorithm can achieve higher tracking accuracy even in severe RSS variation conditions. Through extensive computer simulations, we have shown that the proposed algorithm outperforms other position tracking algorithms without self-calibration.
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    A Self-Adaptive Particle Swarm Optimization Based Multiple Source Localization Algorithm in Binary Sensor Networks (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-14
    Description: With the development of wireless communication and sensor techniques, source localization based on sensor network is getting more attention. However, fewer works investigate the multiple source localization for binary sensor network. In this paper, a self-adaptive particle swarm optimization based multiple source localization method is proposed. A detection model based on Neyman-Pearson criterion is introduced. Then the maximum likelihood estimator is employed to establish the objective function which is used to estimate the location of sources. Therefore, the multiple-source localization problem is transformed into optimization problem. In order to improve the ability of global search of particle swarm optimization, the self-adaptive particle swarm optimization is used to solve this problem. Various simulations have been conducted, and the results show that the proposed method owns higher localization accuracy in comparison with other methods.
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    Localization Algorithm in Wireless Sensor Networks Based on Multiobjective Particle Swarm Optimization (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-14
    Description: Based on multiobjective particle swarm optimization, a localization algorithm named multiobjective particle swarm optimization localization algorithm (MOPSOLA) is proposed to solve the multiobjective optimization localization issues in wireless sensor networks. The multiobjective functions consist of the space distance constraint and the geometric topology constraint. The optimal solution is found by multiobjective particle swarm optimization algorithm. Dynamic method is adopted to maintain the archive in order to limit the size of archive, and the global optimum is obtained according to the proportion of selection. The simulation results show considerable improvements in terms of localization accuracy and convergence rate while keeping a limited archive size by a method using the global optimal selection operator and dynamically maintaining the archive.
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    Lightweight Anomaly Detection for Wireless Sensor Networks (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-14
    Description: Anomaly detection in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is critical to ensure the quality of senor data, secure monitoring, and reliable detection of interesting and critical events. The main challenge of anomaly detection algorithm in WSNs is identifying anomalies with high accuracy while consuming minimal resource of the network. In this paper two lightweight anomaly detection algorithms LADS and LADQA are proposed for WSNs. Both algorithms utilize the one-class quarter-sphere support vector machine (QSSVM) and convert the linear optimization problem of QSSVM to a sort problem for the reduced computational complexity. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithms can keep the lower computational complexity without reducing the accuracy for anomaly detection, compared to QSSVM.
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    Robust Observer-Based Feedback Control for Lipschitz Singularly Perturbed Systems (2015)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-14
    Description: The observer-based feedback control for singularly perturbed systems (SPSs) with Lipschitz constraint is addressed. A sufficient condition, independent of the perturbation parameter, for a full-order observer is presented in terms of linear matrix inequality (LMI) such that observation error is exponentially stable for all sufficiently small perturbation parameters. Then, for observer-based feedback control, a proper controller is constructed to guarantee the input-to-state stability of the system with regard to the observation error. Considering the convergence of observation error, the stability of the system can be obtained based on the input-to-state stability property. It is shown that the proposed method is simple and easy to operate. Moreover, the upper bound of the small perturbation parameter for stability of systems can be explicitly estimated with a workable computation way. Finally, two numerical examples show the effectiveness of the proposed method.
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    Direction of Arrival Estimation Based on DDOA and Self-Organizing Map (2015)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-14
    Description: An effective two-level self-organizing map (SOM) neural network for direction of arrival (DOA) of sound signals estimation is proposed. The approach is based on the distance difference of arrival (DDOA) and a uniform linear sensor array in a 2D plane; it performs a nonlinear mapping between the DDOA vectors and angles of arrival (AOA). We found that the topological order of DDOA vectors and AOAs of same signals is uniform; thus, the topological order preserving of SOM network makes it valid to estimate AOA through DDOA. From the results of simulations and lake experiments, it is shown that the network has the advantage of accuracy and robustness, can be trained in advance, and is easy to implement.
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    A Max-Term Counting Based Knowledge Inconsistency Checking Strategy and Inconsistency Measure Calculation of Fuzzy Knowledge Based Systems (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-14
    Description: The task of finding all the minimal inconsistent subsets plays a vital role in many theoretical works especially in large knowledge bases and it has been proved to be a NP-complete problem. In this work, at first we propose a max-term counting based knowledge inconsistency checking strategy. And, then, we put forward an algorithm for finding all minimal inconsistent subsets, in which we establish a Boolean lattice to organize the subsets of the given knowledge base and use leaf pruning to optimize the algorithm efficiency. Comparative experiments and analysis also show the algorithm’s improvement over past approaches. Finally, we give an application for inconsistency measure calculation of fuzzy knowledge based systems.
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    On Galileo’s Tallest Column (2015)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-13
    Description: The height at which an unloaded column will fail under its own weight was calculated for first time by Galileo for cylindrical columns. Galileo questioned himself if there exists a shape function for the cross section of the column with which it can attain a greater height than the cylindrical column. The problem is not solved since then, although the definition of the so named “constant maximum strength” solids seems to give an affirmative answer to Galileo’s question, in the form of shapes which seem to attain infinite height, even when loaded with a useful load at the top. The main contribution of this work is to show that Galileo’s problem is (i) an important problem for structural design theory of buildings and other structures, (ii) not solved by the time being in any sense, and (iii) an interesting problem for mathematicians involved in related but very different problems (as Euler’s tallest column). A contemporary formulation of the problem is included as a result of a research on the subject.
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    Relative Risk of Acute Myocardial Infarction in People with Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder: A Population-Based Cohort Study (2015)
    Public Library of Science (PLoS)
    In: PLoS ONE
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-14
    Description: by Shu-I Wu, Su-Chiu Chen, Shen-Ing Liu, Fang-Ju Sun, Jimmy J. M. Juang, Hsin-Chien Lee, Kai-Liang Kao, Michael E. Dewey, Martin Prince, Robert Stewart Objective Despite high mortality associated with serious mental illness, risk of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) remains unclear, especially for patients with bipolar disorder. The main objective was to investigate the relative risk of AMI associated with schizophrenia and bipolar disorders in a national sample. Method Using nationwide administrative data, an 11-year historic cohort study was assembled, comprised of cases aged 18 and above who had received a diagnosis of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, compared to a random sample of all other adults excluding those with diagnoses of serious mental illness. Incident AMI as a primary diagnosis was ascertained. Hazard ratios stratified by age and gender were calculated and Cox regression models were used to adjust for other covariates. Results A total of 70,225 people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder and 207,592 people without serious mental illness were compared. Hazard ratios in men adjusted for age, income and urbanization were 1.15 (95% CI 1.01~1.32) for schizophrenia and 1.37 (1.08~1.73)for bipolar disorder, and in women, 1.85 (1.58~2.18) and 1.88(1.47~2.41) respectively. Further adjustment for treated hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipidaemia attenuated the hazard ratio for men with schizophrenia but not the other comparison groups. Hazard ratios were significantly stronger in women than men and were stronger in younger compared to older age groups for both disorders; however, gender modification was only significant in people with schizophrenia, and age modification only significant in people with bipolar disorder. Conclusions In this large national sample, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder were associated with raised risk of AMI in women and in the younger age groups although showed differences in potential confounding and modifying factors.
    Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
    Topics: Medicine , Natural Sciences in General
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    Fat Metaplasia on Sacroiliac Joint Magnetic Resonance Imaging at Baseline Is Associated with Spinal Radiographic Progression in Patients with Axial Spondyloarthritis (2015)
    Public Library of Science (PLoS)
    In: PLoS ONE
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-14
    Description: by Kwi Young Kang, In Je Kim, Min A Yoon, Yeon Sik Hong, Sung-Hwan Park, Ji Hyeon Ju Objective To study the relationship between inflammatory and structural lesions in the sacroiliac joints (SIJs) on MRI and spinal progression observed on conventional radiographs in patients with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA). Methods One hundred and ten patients who fulfilled the ASAS axSpA criteria were enrolled. All underwent SIJ MRI at baseline and lumbar spine radiographs at baseline and after 2 years. Inflammatory and structural lesions on SIJ MRI were scored using the SPondyloArthritis Research Consortium of Canada (SPARCC) method. Spinal radiographs were scored using the Stoke AS Spinal Score (SASSS). Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to identify predictors of spinal progression. Results Among the 110 patients, 25 (23%) showed significant radiographic progression (change of SASSS≥2) over 2 years. There was no change in the SASSS over 2 years according to the type of inflammatory lesion. Patients with fat metaplasia or ankyloses on baseline MRI showed a significantly higher SASSS at 2 years than those without (p
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    Three-Dimensional Finite Element Analysis of Anterior Single Implant-Supported Prostheses with Different Bone Anchorages (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-14
    Description: The aim of this study was to evaluate the stress distribution of monocortical and bicortical implant placement of external hexagon connection in the anterior region of the maxilla by 3D finite element analysis (FEA). 3D models were simulated to represent a bone block of anterior region of the maxilla containing an implant (4.0 × 10.0 mm) and an implant-supported cemented metalloceramic crown of the central incisor. Different techniques were tested (monocortical, bicortical, and bicortical associated with nasal floor elevation). FEA was performed in FEMAP/NeiNastran software using loads of 178 N at 0°, 30°, and 60° in relation to implant long axis. The von Mises, maximum principal stress, and displacement maps were plotted for evaluation. Similar stress patterns were observed for all models. Oblique loads increased the stress concentration on fixation screws and in the cervical area of the implants and bone around them. Bicortical technique showed less movement tendency in the implant and its components. Cortical bone of apical region showed increase of stress concentration for bicortical techniques. Within the limitations of this study, oblique loading increased the stress concentrations for all techniques. Moreover, bicortical techniques showed the best biomechanical behavior compared with monocortical technique in the anterior maxillary area.
    Electronic ISSN: 1537-744X
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    Convexity of Ruin Probability and Optimal Dividend Strategies for a General Lévy Process (2015)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-14
    Description: We consider the optimal dividends problem for a company whose cash reserves follow a general Lévy process with certain positive jumps and arbitrary negative jumps. The objective is to find a policy which maximizes the expected discounted dividends until the time of ruin. Under appropriate conditions, we use some recent results in the theory of potential analysis of subordinators to obtain the convexity properties of probability of ruin. We present conditions under which the optimal dividend strategy, among all admissible ones, takes the form of a barrier strategy.
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    Position Prediction Based Frequency Control of Beacons in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-17
    Description: In VANETs, frequent beacon broadcasting can lead to high bandwidth consumption and channel congestion. In this paper, a position prediction based beacon approach is proposed to reduce beacon frequency and decrease bandwidth consumption. Vehicles track their neighbors using the predicted position instead of using periodic beacon broadcasting. Only when the prediction error is higher than a predefined tolerance will a beacon broadcasting be triggered. For improving the prediction accuracy, we classify the motion of vehicles into two typical patterns: a constant speed pattern and a maneuvering pattern. A maneuver detection module is responsible for recognizing current motion patterns, and a variable dimension filter that can switch dynamically between the two patterns is employed to generate high accurate position prediction. The simulation results show the proposed scheme can reduce significantly the number of beacons than three existing beacon approaches.
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    Mobile Device Based Dynamic Key Management Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-17
    Description: In recent years, wireless sensor network (WSN) applications have tended to transmit data hop by hop, from sensor nodes through cluster nodes to the base station. As a result, users must collect data from the base station. This study considers two different applications: hop by hop transmission of data from cluster nodes to the base station and the direct access to cluster nodes data by mobile users via mobile devices. Due to the hardware limitations of WSNs, some low-cost operations such as symmetric cryptographic algorithms and hash functions are used to implement a dynamic key management. The session key can be updated to prevent threats of attack from each communication. With these methods, the data gathered in wireless sensor networks can be more securely communicated. Moreover, the proposed scheme is analyzed and compared with related schemes. In addition, an NS2 simulation is developed in which the experimental results show that the designed communication protocol is workable.
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    Electronic ISSN: 1687-7268
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    Energy Efficient Cooperative Sleep Control Using Small Cell for Wireless Networks (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-17
    Description: The demand for higher throughput and more reliable quality of service (QoS) explosive increases the number of base stations in future wireless networks, which causes severe energy waste problems in wireless networks, especially when base stations are in low traffic load status. This paper has two main contributions: first of all, we propose a semistatic energy efficient method to find out the optimal on-off pattern considering the interference from adjacent base stations using integer convex optimization, from which the optimal on-off proportion of base stations could be obtained; then we propose a novel energy efficient cooperative heuristic algorithm in dynamic scenario, by separating the waiting time into two independent Markov processes using the new method; the total power consumption could be reduced significantly by adopting the novel method. Compared with reference method, simulation results indicate that in semistatic scenario, the total system power consumption could be reduced up to 26%, and, in dynamic scenario, the system power consumption could be reduced up to 40%.
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    Determining Sensor Locations in Wireless Sensor Networks (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-17
    Description: Network lifetime plays an important role in the design of wireless sensor networks. This paper studies the problem of prolonging the wireless sensor network’s lifetime, through introducing additional sensors at proper locations to achieve the goal of minimizing the length of the longest edge in the network. The problem is in fact the bottleneck Steiner tree problem, trying to find a Steiner tree minimizing the length of the longest edges for the given terminals in the Euclidean plane by introducing at most Steiner points. A restricted bottleneck Steiner tree problem is studied in this paper, which requires that only degree 3 Steiner points are not allowed to be adjacent in the optimal solution. We show that the restricted problem is MAX-SNP hard and cannot be approximated within performance ratio in polynomial time unless = NP; we first propose a polynomial time -approximation algorithm and then improve the ratio to for any given , by presenting a polynomial time randomized approximation algorithm, which is almost optimal to the restricted problem.
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    A Task Allocation Algorithm Based on Score Incentive Mechanism for Wireless Sensor Networks (2015)
    Hindawi
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-17
    Description: A wireless sensor network (WSN) consists of many resource constraint sensor nodes, which are always deployed in unattended environment. Therefore, the sensor nodes are vulnerable to failure and malicious attacks. The failed nodes have a heavily negative impact on WSNs’ real-time services. Therefore, we propose a task allocation algorithm based on score incentive mechanism (TASIM) for WSNs. In TASIM, the score is proposed to reward or punish sensor nodes’ task execution in cluster-based WSNs, where cluster heads are responsible for task allocation and scores’ calculation. Based on the task scores, cluster members can collaborate with each other to complete complex tasks. In addition, the uncompleted tasks on failed nodes can be timely migrated to other cluster members for further execution. Furthermore, the uncompleted tasks on death nodes can be reallocated by cluster heads. Simulation results demonstrate that TASIM is quite suitable for real-time task allocation. In addition, the performance of the TASIM is clearly better than that of conventional task allocation algorithms in terms of both network load balance and energy consumption.
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    Research on Solving Systems of Nonlinear Equations Based on Improved PSO (2015)
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    Publication Date: 2015-08-17
    Description: Solving systems of nonlinear equations is perhaps one of the most difficult problems in all of numerical computations, especially in a diverse range of engineering applications. The convergence and performance characteristics can be highly sensitive to the initial guess of the solution for most numerical methods such as Newton’s method. However, it is very difficult to select reasonable initial guess of the solution for most systems of nonlinear equations. Besides, the computational efficiency is not high enough. Aiming at these problems, an improved particle swarm optimization algorithm (imPSO) is proposed, which can overcome the problem of selecting reasonable initial guess of the solution and improve the computational efficiency. The convergence and performance characteristics of this method are demonstrated through some standard systems. The results show that the improved PSO for solving systems of nonlinear equations has reliable convergence probability, high convergence rate, and solution precision and is a successful approach in solving systems of nonlinear equations.
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    Multiparametric Cell Cycle Analysis Using the Operetta High-Content Imager and Harmony Software with PhenoLOGIC (2015)
    Public Library of Science (PLoS)
    In: PLoS ONE
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-07-29
    Description: by Andrew J. Massey High-content imaging is a powerful tool for determining cell phenotypes at the single cell level. Characterising the effect of small molecules on cell cycle distribution is important for understanding their mechanism of action especially in oncology drug discovery but also for understanding potential toxicology liabilities. Here, a high-throughput phenotypic assay utilising the PerkinElmer Operetta high-content imager and Harmony software to determine cell cycle distribution is described. PhenoLOGIC, a machine learning algorithm within Harmony software was employed to robustly separate single cells from cell clumps. DNA content, EdU incorporation and pHH3 (S10) expression levels were subsequently utilised to separate cells into the various phases of the cell cycle. The assay is amenable to multiplexing with an additional pharmacodynamic marker to assess cell cycle changes within a specific cellular sub-population. Using this approach, the cell cycle distribution of γH2AX positive nuclei was determined following treatment with DNA damaging agents. Likewise, the assay can be multiplexed with Ki67 to determine the fraction of quiescent cells and with BrdU dual labelling to determine S-phase duration. This methodology therefore provides a relatively cheap, quick and high-throughput phenotypic method for determining accurate cell cycle distribution for small molecule mechanism of action and drug toxicity studies.
    Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
    Topics: Medicine , Natural Sciences in General
    Published by Public Library of Science (PLoS)
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    In Vivo Measurement of Mesokinesis in Gekko gecko: The Role of Cranial Kinesis during Gape Display, Feeding and Biting (2015)
    Public Library of Science (PLoS)
    In: PLoS ONE
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-02
    Description: by Stéphane J. Montuelle, Susan H. Williams Cranial kinesis refers to movements of skeletal sub-units relative to one another at mobile sutures within the skull. The presence and functional significance of cranial kinesis has been investigated in various vertebrates, with much of our understanding coming from comparative studies and manipulation of ligamentous specimens. Drawing on these studies, cranial kinesis in lizards has been modeled as a four-bar linkage system involving streptostyly (rotation of the quadrate), hypokinesis (dorsoventral flexion and extension of the palato-maxillary sub-unit), mesokinesis (dorsoventral flexion and extension of the snout at the fronto-parietal suture) and metakinesis (sliding movements between parietal and supraocciptal bones). In vivo studies, although limited, suggest that cranial kinesis serves an important role during routine behaviors such as feeding. Here, we use X-ray Reconstruction Of Moving Morphology to further quantify mesokinesis in vivo in Gekko gecko during three routine behaviors: gape display, biting and post-ingestion feeding. During gape display, the snout rotates dorsally above rest position, with mesokinesis accounting for a 10% increase in maximum gape over that achieved solely by the depression of the lower jaw. During defensive biting, the snout rotates ventrally below rest position to participate in gape closure. Finally, ventroflexion of the snout also occurs during post-ingestion feeding, accounting for 42% of gape closure during intra-oral transport, 86% during puncture-crushing, and 61% during pharyngeal packing. Mesokinesis thus appears to facilitate prey puncturing by allowing the snout to rotate ventrally so that the upper teeth pierce the prey item, thus limiting the need for large movements of the lower jaw. This is suggested to maintain a firm grip on the prey and reduce the possibility of prey escape. More generally, this study demonstrates that mesokinesis is a key component of defensive biting and gape display behaviors, as well as post-ingestion feeding, all of which are linked to organismal fitness.
    Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
    Topics: Medicine , Natural Sciences in General
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    A Mechanistic Assessment of the Discordance between Normal Serum Alanine Aminotransferase Levels and Altered Liver Histology in Chronic Hepatitis B (2015)
    Public Library of Science (PLoS)
    In: PLoS ONE
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-02
    Description: by Xianqiong Gong, Jiaen Yang, Jinmo Tang, Chong Gu, Lijian Huang, Ying Zheng, Huiqing Liang, Min Wang, Chuncheng Wu, Yue Chen, Manying Zhang, Zhijian Yu, Qianguo Mao To understand the mechanisms underlying the discordance between normal serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels and significant alterations in liver histology of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection with persistent normal ALT (PNALT) or minimally elevated ALT. A total of 300 treatment-naive chronic HBV-infected patients with PNALT (ALT ≤ upper limit of normal [ULN, 40 U/ml]) or minimally elevated ALT (1-2×ULN) were retrospectively enrolled. All patients underwent liver biopsy and histological changes were analyzed along with biochemical and HBV markers. Among 300 participants, 177 were HBeAg-positive and 123 HBeAg-negative. Significant histologic abnormalities were found in 42.9% (76/177) and 52.8% (65/123) of HBeAg-positive and HBeAg-negative patients, respectively. Significant fibrosis, which is a marker of prior injury, was more frequently detected than significant necroinflammation (suggesting active liver injury) in both HBeAg-positive and -negative groups, suggesting that liver injury occurred intermittently in our cohort. No significant differences were noticed in the percentage of patients with severe fibrosis between HBeAg-positive and negative phases or between ages 30 and 40 and over 40, suggesting that the fibrosis was possibly carried over from an early phase. Finally, lowering ALT ULN (30 U/L for men, 19 U/L for women) alone was not adequate to increase the sensitivity of ALT detection of liver injury. However, the study was limited to a small sample size of 13 HBeAg-positive patients with ALT in the revised normal range. We detected significant liver pathology in almost 50% of chronic HBV infected patients with PNALT (ALT ≤ 40 U/ml) or minimally elevated ALT. We postulated that small-scale intermittent liver injury was possibly responsible for the discordance between normal serum ALT and significant liver changes in our cohort.
    Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
    Topics: Medicine , Natural Sciences in General
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    Kalman Filter Sensor Fusion for Mecanum Wheeled Automated Guided Vehicle Localization (2015)
    Hindawi
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-07-30
    Description: The Mecanum automated guided vehicle (AGV), which can move in any direction by using a special wheel structure with a LIM-wheel and a diagonally positioned roller, holds considerable promise for the field of industrial electronics. A conventional method for Mecanum AGV localization has certain limitations, such as slip phenomena, because there are variations in the surface of the road and ground friction. Therefore, precise localization is a very important issue for the inevitable slip phenomenon situation. So a sensor fusion technique is developed to cope with this drawback by using the Kalman filter. ENCODER and StarGazer were used for sensor fusion. StarGazer is a position sensor for an image recognition device and always generates some errors due to the limitations of the image recognition device. ENCODER has also errors accumulating over time. On the other hand, there are no moving errors. In this study, we developed a Mecanum AGV prototype system and showed by simulation that we can eliminate the disadvantages of each sensor. We obtained the precise localization of the Mecanum AGV in a slip phenomenon situation via sensor fusion using a Kalman filter.
    Print ISSN: 1687-725X
    Electronic ISSN: 1687-7268
    Topics: Electrical Engineering, Measurement and Control Technology
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    Network Coding for Severe Packet Reordering in Multihop Wireless Networks (2015)
    Hindawi
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-04
    Description: Network coding is known to be effective in overcoming packet losses and packet reordering in multihop wireless networks. Despite the benefits, network coding is hard to deploy without being compatible with TCP. To address this problem, a seminal paper proposed a network coding scheme that adopts an ACK-based sliding-widow network coding approach. In this paper we show that the previous scheme may not suffice to mitigate the effects of packets received out of order in multipath wireless networks where severe packet reordering persists. We propose a modified network coding layer where the receiver acknowledges every degree of freedom by using the sequence number of a newly seen packet instead of using that of the oldest unseen packet so that the network coding layer can be compatible with a TCP variant for severe packet reordering. To reduce the decoding matrix size and the coding buffer size, our scheme allows retransmission at the network coding layer. Simulation results show that our scheme outperforms the exiting scheme in multipath wireless networks particularly when severe packet reordering persists.
    Print ISSN: 1550-1329
    Electronic ISSN: 1550-1477
    Topics: Electrical Engineering, Measurement and Control Technology
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    A Compact Experimental Planar Antenna with a USB Connector for Mobile Phone Application (2015)
    Hindawi
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-04
    Description: A practical antenna design combined with a universal serial bus (USB) connector in close vicinity is proposed. In the proposed arrangement, the antenna unit consisted of two planar inverted F antennas (PIFAs) placed on the two sides of the USB connector. The antenna is located at the bottom of the mobile phone to avoid the crowded space on the top side of the phone where various mobile phone accessories are usually assigned. A diplexer is incorporated in the unit to alleviate the adverse effect of the metal USB connector on the radiating efficiency of the antenna. A prototype antenna was fabricated and tested and showed good coverage for GSM850/900/1800/1900, UMTS2100, and LTE700/2500 multibands operation. The overall performances demonstrated the good design of the proposed unit for mobile phone application.
    Print ISSN: 1687-5869
    Electronic ISSN: 1687-5877
    Topics: Electrical Engineering, Measurement and Control Technology
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    Localization in an Industrial Environment: A Case Study on the Difficulties for Positioning in a Harsh Environment (2015)
    Hindawi
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-04
    Description: While indoor localization has become a highly growing application domain in the last few years, it is hardly investigated in industrial environments. Interferences of magnetic fields, shadowing, and multipath propagation discourage positioning system vendors from porting their techniques to these harsh environments. However, the actual influence of these interferences on the positioning accuracy and the differences between an industrial and a nonindustrial environment have never been evaluated. This paper analyzes the actual differences for a positioning technique that is based on Wi-Fi fingerprinting, map matching, dead reckoning, filtering, and a plausibility determination. An investigation of the Wi-Fi signal strengths and compass sensor values in an industrial and a nonindustrial environment thereby showed that the differences between them are significant. In fact, it shows that more interferences and shadowing in the industrial environment resulted in even more accurate positioning.
    Print ISSN: 1550-1329
    Electronic ISSN: 1550-1477
    Topics: Electrical Engineering, Measurement and Control Technology
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    Design and Testing of a Shell-Encapsulated Solar Collector with the Compound Surface Concentrators (2015)
    Hindawi
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-04
    Description: This paper presents design and testing of a shell-encapsulated solar collector which can be used in north area of China for wall-amounting installation. The designed solar collector is based on the combination of a novel compound curved surface concentrator and an aluminum concentric solar receiver, which is contained in a glass evacuated-tube. As there is no perforative joint between the double-skin glass evacuated-tube and the aluminum concentric solar receiver, the difficulty of vacuum keeping for a glass-metal joint is avoided. The cavity shell provides an additional thermal insulation to reduce heat loss of the designed solar collector. The working principle of the compound curved surface concentrator is described. The ray-tracing results are given to show the effect of deviation angle of the concentrator on its optical efficiency, hence determining its maximum acceptance angle. A prototype of the designed solar collector has been constructed and tested under the sunny winter weather condition. The experimental results indicate that the hot water temperature higher than 80°C with a daily average efficiency of about 45~50% has been achieved at the average ambient temperature below 0°C, so the designed solar collector can produce hot water at a useful temperature in winter.
    Print ISSN: 1110-662X
    Electronic ISSN: 1687-529X
    Topics: Electrical Engineering, Measurement and Control Technology , Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
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    Asymptotic Behavior of Weak Solutions to the Generalized Nonlinear Partial Differential Equation Model (2015)
    Hindawi
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-07-30
    Description: This paper investigates the asymptotic behavior of weak solutions to the generalized nonlinear partial differential equation model. It is proved that every perturbed weak solution of the perturbed generalized nonlinear partial differential equations asymptotically converges to the solution of the original system under the large perturbation.
    Print ISSN: 1024-123X
    Electronic ISSN: 1563-5147
    Topics: Mathematics , Technology
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    Normal Forms of Hopf Bifurcation for a Reaction-Diffusion System Subject to Neumann Boundary Condition (2015)
    Hindawi
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-04
    Description: A reaction-diffusion system coupled by two equations subject to homogeneous Neumann boundary condition on one-dimensional spatial domain with is considered. According to the normal form method and the center manifold theorem for reaction-diffusion equations, the explicit formulas determining the properties of Hopf bifurcation of spatially homogeneous and nonhomogeneous periodic solutions of system near the constant steady state are obtained.
    Print ISSN: 1110-757X
    Electronic ISSN: 1687-0042
    Topics: Mathematics
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    Development of an Inexpensive Sensor Network for Recognition of Sitting Posture (2015)
    Hindawi
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-03
    Description: The aim of this work is the development of a network of wireless devices to determine, along with a time-stamp, postural changes of users that are to be used in personalized learning environments. For this purpose, we have designed a basic low-cost pressure sensor that can be built from components easily available. Several of these basic sensors (of sizes and shapes chosen specifically for the task) are integrated into a posture sensor cushion, which is electronically controlled by an Arduino microcontroller board. This accounts for experiments involving either a single cushion to be used by an individual end-user setting approach or classroom approaches where several of these cushions make up a sensor network via ZigBee wireless connections. The system thus formed is an excellent alternative to other more expensive commercial systems and provides a low-cost, easy-to-use, portable, scalable, autonomous, flexible solution with free hardware and software, which can be integrated with other sensing devices into a larger affect detection system, customizable to cope with postural changes at required time intervals and support single and collective oriented experimentation approaches.
    Print ISSN: 1550-1329
    Electronic ISSN: 1550-1477
    Topics: Electrical Engineering, Measurement and Control Technology
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    A Building-Block Favoring Method for the Topology Optimization of Internal Antenna Design (2015)
    Hindawi
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-03
    Description: This paper proposes a new design technique for internal antenna development. The proposed method is based on the framework of topology optimization incorporated with three effective mechanisms favoring the building blocks of associated optimization problems. Conventionally, the topology optimization of antenna structures discretizes a design space into uniform and rectangular pixels. However, the defining length of the resultant building blocks is so large that the problem difficulty arises; furthermore, the order of the building blocks becomes extremely high, so genetic algorithms (GAs) and binary particle swarm optimization (BPSO) are not more efficient than the random search algorithm. In order to form tight linkage groups of building blocks, this paper proposes a novel approach to handle the design details. In particular, a nonuniform discretization is adopted to discretize the design space, and the initialization of GAs is assigned as orthogonal arrays (OAs) instead of a randomized population; moreover, the control map of GAs is constructed by ensuring the schema growth based on the generalized schema theorem. By using the proposed method, two internal antennas are thus successfully developed. The simulated and measured results show that the proposed technique significantly outperforms the conventional topology optimization.
    Print ISSN: 1687-5869
    Electronic ISSN: 1687-5877
    Topics: Electrical Engineering, Measurement and Control Technology
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    Design of Pd-Based Bimetallic Catalysts for ORR: A DFT Calculation Study (2015)
    Hindawi
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-04
    Description: Developing Pd-lean catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is the key for large-scale application of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). In the present paper, we have proposed a multiple-descriptor strategy for designing efficient and durable ORR Pd-based alloy catalysts. We demonstrated that an ideal Pd-based bimetallic alloy catalyst for ORR should possess simultaneously negative alloy formation energy, negative surface segregation energy of Pd, and a lower oxygen binding ability than pure Pt. By performing detailed DFT calculations on the thermodynamics, surface chemistry and electronic properties of Pd-M alloys, Pd-V, Pd-Fe, Pd-Zn, Pd-Nb, and Pd-Ta, are identified theoretically to have stable Pd segregated surface and improved ORR activity. Factors affecting these properties are analyzed. The alloy formation energy of Pd with transition metals M can be mainly determined by their electron interaction. This may be the origin of the negative alloy formation energy for Pd-M alloys. The surface segregation energy of Pd is primarily determined by the surface energy and the atomic radius of M. The metals M which have smaller atomic radius and higher surface energy would tend to favor the surface segregation of Pd in corresponding Pd-M alloys.
    Print ISSN: 2090-9063
    Topics: Chemistry and Pharmacology
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    Distributed Software-Attestation Defense against Sensor Worm Propagation (2015)
    Hindawi
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-03
    Description: Wireless sensor networks are vulnerable to sensor worm attacks in which the attacker compromises a few nodes and makes these compromised nodes initiate worm spread over the network, targeting the worm infection of the whole nodes in the network. Several defense mechanisms have been proposed to prevent worm propagation in wireless sensor networks. Although these proposed schemes use software diversity technique for worm propagation prevention under the belief that different software versions do not have common vulnerability, they have fundamental drawback in which it is difficult to realize the aforementioned belief in sensor motes. To resolve this problem, we propose on-demand software-attestation based scheme to defend against worm propagation in sensor network. The main idea of our proposed scheme is to perform software attestations against sensor nodes in on-demand manner and detect the infected nodes by worm, resulting in worm propagation block in the network. Through analysis, we show that our proposed scheme defends against worm propagation in efficient and robust manner. Through simulation, we demonstrate that our proposed scheme stops worm propagation at the reasonable overhead while preventing a majority of sensor nodes from being infected by worm.
    Print ISSN: 1687-725X
    Electronic ISSN: 1687-7268
    Topics: Electrical Engineering, Measurement and Control Technology
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    A Self-Adaptive Wireless Sensor Network Coverage Method for Intrusion Tolerance Based on Trust Value (2015)
    Hindawi
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-04
    Description: The sensor is quite easily attacked or invaded during the process of the node coverage optimization. It is a great challenge to make sure that the wireless sensor network could still carry out a secure communication and reliable coverage under the condition of being attacked. Therefore, this paper proposes a network coverage method for intrusion tolerance based on trust value of nodes by combining the trust value model with the reliable coverage optimization. It first estimates trust value of nodes through which to regulate the perception radius and decision-making radius. Furthermore, this algorithm also combines the classical methods of wireless network coverage, such as GSO and PSO, to realize the networks coverage of invasive tolerant sensor. After comparing with the conventional single cover mechanism, it can improve the security and coverage rate of network under the condition of invasion. The simulation results verify the effectiveness of the algorithm.
    Print ISSN: 1687-725X
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    Topics: Electrical Engineering, Measurement and Control Technology
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    Accurately Identifying New QoS Violation Driven by High-Distributed Low-Rate Denial of Service Attacks Based on Multiple Observed Features (2015)
    Hindawi
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-04
    Description: We propose using multiple observed features of network traffic to identify new high-distributed low-rate quality of services (QoS) violation so that detection accuracy may be further improved. For the multiple observed features, we choose F feature in TCP packet header as a microscopic feature and, P feature and D feature of network traffic as macroscopic features. Based on these features, we establish multistream fused hidden Markov model (MF-HMM) to detect stealthy low-rate denial of service (LDoS) attacks hidden in legitimate network background traffic. In addition, the threshold value is dynamically adjusted by using Kaufman algorithm. Our experiments show that the additive effect of combining multiple features effectively reduces the false-positive rate. The average detection rate of MF-HMM results in a significant 23.39% and 44.64% improvement over typical power spectrum density (PSD) algorithm and nonparametric cumulative sum (CUSUM) algorithm.
    Print ISSN: 1687-725X
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    Trust-Aware and Low Energy Consumption Security Topology Protocol of Wireless Sensor Network (2015)
    Hindawi
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-04
    Description: Wireless sensor network (WSN) is a kind of distributed and self-organizing networks, in which the sensor nodes have limited communication bandwidth, memory, and limited energy. The topology construction of this network is usually vulnerable when attacked by malicious nodes. Besides, excessive energy consumption is a problem that can not be ignored. Therefore, this paper proposes a secure topology protocol of WSN which is trust-aware and of low energy consumption, called TLES. The TLES considers the trust value as an important factor affecting the behavior of node. In detail, the TLES would take trust value, residual energy of the nodes, and node density into consideration when selecting cluster head nodes. Then, TLES constructs these cluster head nodes by choosing the next hop node according to distance to base station (BS), nodes’ degrees, and residual energy, so as to establish a safe, reliable, and energy saving network. Experimental results show that the algorithm can effectively isolate the malicious node in the network and reduce the consumption of energy of the whole network.
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    Topics: Electrical Engineering, Measurement and Control Technology
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    Anticorrosion Nanocrystalline Beta Zeolite Thin Film for Advanced Applications (2015)
    Hindawi
    Details
    Publication Date: 2015-08-03
    Description: Steel alloys corrosion is ubiquitous and is conventionally protected by anticorrosion chromate coatings. However, the process suffers from the release of carcinogenic hexavalent chromium ions that needs to be replaced by an ecofriendly alternative. In this context, the need for the development of satisfactory ecofriendly chromium-free coating with superior corrosion performance is highly desirable. In the present study, we synthesized fully dispersible nanocrystalline Beta zeolite seeds and coated on steel alloys followed by steaming. The samples were characterized by XRD, FE-SEM, and DLS analyses. The anticorrosion behavior of the synthesized nanoparticle coatings on steel alloys was investigated by electrochemical measurements (DC polarization) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in NaCl and acid and alkaline media under identical experimental conditions. The present study demonstrated that the nanozeolite coating can be a potential alternative for toxic and carcinogenic chromate coating.
    Print ISSN: 2090-9063
    Topics: Chemistry and Pharmacology
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