Profiling the Proteome of Exhaled Breath Condensate in Healthy Smokers and COPD Patients by LC-MS/MS

Three pools of exhaled breath condensate (EBC) from non-smokers plus healthy smokers (NS + HS, n = 45); chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) without emphysema (COPD, n = 15) and subjects with pulmonary emphysema associated with α₁-antitrypsin deficiency (AATD, n = 23) were used for an exploratory proteomic study aimed at generating fingerprints of these groups that can be used in future pathophysiological and perhaps even clinical research. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was the platform applied for this hypothesis-free investigation. Analysis of pooled specimens resulted in the production of a “fingerprint” made of 44 proteins for NS/HS; 17 for COPD and 15 for the group of AATD subjects. Several inflammatory cytokines (IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-2; IL-12, α and β subunits, IL-15, interferon α and γ, tumor necrosis factor α); Type I and II cytokeratins; two SP-A isoforms; Calgranulin A and B and α1-antitrypsin were detected and validated through the use of surface enhanced laser-desorption ionization mass spectrometry (SELDI-MS) and/or by Western blot (WB) analysis. These results are the prelude of quantitative studies aimed at identifying which of these proteins hold promise as identifiers of differences that could distinguish healthy subjects from patients.     

Interacting with the Music Paint Machine: Relating the constructs of flow experience and presence

In this paper we report on the results of an experiment on the experience of flow and presence while engaging with an interactive music system, the Music Paint Machine. This music system provides a game-like environment in which a musician can create a digital painting by playing an acoustic musical instrument, by moving the body in different directions, and by selecting colours using a pressure mat. The experiment aimed at getting a better insight into the possible relationship between flow experience and presence. Based on the definition of flow as a combination of the highest level of presence (presence-as-feeling) and a positive emotional state (Riva et al., 2004a), we hypothesized that presence has a predictive value for flow. Sixty-five musicians, both amateur and professional, participated in the experiment. Flow experience was measured with the Flow State Scale (Jackson and Eklund, 2004). Presence was measured with an in-house designed presence questionnaire. Results showed a significantly strong correlation between flow and presence. Moreover, the scores for presence significantly predicted the Flow State Scale, and explained a significant proportion of variance in the Flow State Scale. Furthermore, many significant associations were found between flow and presence variables, among which the most significant were the strong correlation (Spearman’s rank) between the naturalness of using the system and the Flow State Scale and between the feeling of non-mediation and the Flow State Scale.     

Contemporary South African Urbanization Dynamics

The paper provides an overview of urbanization patterns and trends in the current era in South Africa, focusing in particular on the key dynamics and driving forces underlying migration and urbanization. It considers overall demographic trends with regard to migration and urbanization, and points to some of the difficulties with data, and with the analysis of trends and patterns. The paper explores the changing rural context and dynamics, and some of the significant processes in this context: large-scale displacement of black people off farms, the impact of land reform, and conditions in the former homeland areas. Circular migration continues to be an important way in which households in rural areas survive, but some are unable to move, and are falling out of these networks. International migration—the consequence of both conditions in the home country and the draw of the South African economy—is another significant process fuelling mainly urban growth. The paper demonstrates the importance of cities in terms of economic growth and employment, and thus their attractiveness to migrants. Continuing migration to cities is of course a challenge for city management, but important trends towards declining household size and the splitting up of households are also driving the physical growth of cities and demands for housing, services, and infrastructure.     

Solving the mobile mapping van problem: A hybrid metaheuristic for capacitated arc routing with soft time windows

Creating digital maps often requires driving around the streets in a so-called “mapping van”. Tele Atlas, the world leading supplier of maps and map data, uses a fleet of such vehicles to take pictures of streets and road signs. Minimising the number of days that a vehicle needs to traverse all streets in a given region gives rise to a capacitated arc routing problem. A specific characteristic of this problem, however, is the fact that taking pictures in the direction of the sun should be avoided as much as possible. This requirement adds soft time windows to the problem.In this paper we solve the mobile mapping van problem by transforming it into a vehicle routing problem with soft time windows. We then apply a hybrid metaheuristic, consisting of a local search phase to decrease the number of days and an iterated local search phase to minimise the time window violations. An exact linear programming solver is embedded to calculate the ideal starting time of the vehicle in each street.Our method is tested on academic and real-life problem instances and shown to be effective.     

Trends in Trends in Functional Programming 1999/2000 versus 2007/2008

The Trends in Functional Programming Symposia are an annual event dedicated to promoting new research directions in functional programming and to investigating the relationship between functional programming and other branches of Computer Science. The TFP series started in 1999 and the 2008 meeting marked the first decade of the symposium. In this paper we identify and discuss the trends presented at TFP using a macro-vision lens that looks at topics in the first two volumes of TFP and the two most recent volumes of TFP. The goal is to calibrate how trends have changed over a decade instead of analyzing trends with a micro-vision lens that focuses on changes from year to year. The major trends identified are work on parallel functional programming, types, formal verification, implementation of functional languages, and application development.     

Embedding renewable cryptographic keys into noisy data

A fuzzy extractor is a powerful but theoretical tool that can be used to extract uniform strings from (discrete) noisy sources. However, when using a fuzzy extractor in practice, extra features are needed, such as the renewability of the extracted strings and the ability to use the fuzzy extractor directly on continuous input data instead of discrete data. Our contribution is threefold. Firstly, we propose a fuzzy embedder as a generalization of the fuzzy extractor. A fuzzy embedder naturally supports renewability, as it allows a string to be embedded instead of extracted. It also supports direct analysis of quantization effects, as it makes no limiting assumptions about the nature of the input source. Secondly, we give a general construction for fuzzy embedders based on the technique of quantization index modulation (QIM). We show that the performance measures of a QIM, as proposed by the watermarking community, translate directly to the security properties of the corresponding fuzzy embedder. Finally, we show that from the perspective of the length of the embedded string, quantization in two dimensions is optimal. We present two practical constructions for a fuzzy embedder in two-dimensional space. The first construction is optimal from reliability perspective, and the second construction is optimal in the length of the embedded string.     

A toolkit for parallel functional programming

Our toolkit for the design and implementation of parallel functional programs supports the stepwise development of parallel programs from a high level sequential specification to an optimised parallel implementation. The toolkit is used as follows:

• 1 The algorithm to be implemented is specified in a functional language. The program is debugged and tested using an interpreter.
• 2 The program is compiled for a sequential machine. Its performance is analysed and improved.
• 3 Annotation-driven transformations are applied to the program to indicate parallel tasks. Simulations at task level, basic block level and bus transaction level make it possible to analyse the parallel performance of the program at three levels of detail.
• 4 When the performance is optimised using the simulators, the program is executed on a genuine parallel machine.

Several programs have been developed with the toolkit. A program that simulates tidal flow in an estuary of the North sea is presented as a case study to demonstrate the merits of the toolkit when developing complex parallel programs. The toolkit not only supports the design of parallel applications, it also allows the study of important concepts in parallel computer architecture. These include the behaviour of cached memory systems, bus protocols, scheduling algorithms and memory management algorithms.     

Reciprocative sliding friction and wear properties of electrical discharge machined ZrO2‐based composites

Hot‐pressed, laboratory‐made, ZrO₂‐based composites with 40 vol. % WC, TiCN or TiN were surface finished by electrical discharge machining in order to compare their reciprocating sliding friction and wear response against WC–6wt%Co cemented carbide in unlubricated conditions. Sliding experiments were performed using a Plint TE77 pin‐on‐flat wear test rig, revealing a strong impact of the secondary phase on the tribological behaviour of the ZrO₂‐based composites. The worn surfaces and wear debris were characterised by scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X‐ray analysis and surface topography scanning, pointing out abrasion, polishing and adhesion as main wear mechanisms. The most favourable friction and wear characteristics were encountered with ZrO₂–WC composites compared to the other grades with equal amount of volumetric secondary phase. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.