Crackling Noise in Fractional Percolation -- Randomly distributed discontinuous jumps in explosive percolation

Crackling noise is a common feature in many systems that are pushed slowly, the most familiar instance of which is the sound made by a sheet of paper when crumpled. In percolation and regular aggregation clusters of any size merge until a giant component dominates the entire system. Here we establish `fractional percolation' where the coalescence of clusters that substantially differ in size are systematically suppressed. We identify and study percolation models that exhibit multiple jumps in the order parameter where the position and magnitude of the jumps are randomly distributed - characteristic of crackling noise. This enables us to express crackling noise as a result of the simple concept of fractional percolation. In particular, the framework allows us to link percolation with phenomena exhibiting non-self-averaging and power law fluctuations such as Barkhausen noise in ferromagnets.Comment: non-final version, for final see Nature Communications homepag

Modelling of pressure ulcer (PU) risk prediction system

Human skin deformation occurs due to external loading. As a result, blood flow in soft tissue becomes low and also the oxygenation decreases. Tissue under continuous loading results in tissue necrosis and leads to pressure ulcer (PU), also known as bedsore, decubitus ulcer, and ischemia. The amount of external load applied to the body support surface is associated with a subject's BMI (body mass index). Therefore interface pressure (IP) at the skin and the surface is the result of a subject's physical and support surface properties. Interface pressure increases, the blood flow decreases and a subject starts developing stage-1 pressure ulcer. Previous research suggests that interface pressure of 32 mmHg (4.26 kPa) can cause PU, but there is no strong evidence to show at what time that pressure is reached. Also interface pressure changes from subject to subject due to their body compositions. Three risk assessment scales are available to predict overall risk of PU formation. But none of these scales take interaction of body support surface materials into account. Also these do not provide any information at which area a subject is at risk of PU formation. In this work a study is presented where external load at different bony areas are measured using 11 volunteers. By measuring the external load for 11 subjects (age:33 ± 7 yrs and BMI:25.04 ± 3.01 kg/m2) at different bony areas, the relationship with the total body weight was identified. A mathematical model is proposed to predict the risk of PU formation combining the Waterlow risk assessment scales for bony areas and a graphic user interface to predict this is discussed

Predicting and Evaluating Software Model Growth in the Automotive Industry

The size of a software artifact influences the software quality and impacts the development process. In industry, when software size exceeds certain thresholds, memory errors accumulate and development tools might not be able to cope anymore, resulting in a lengthy program start up times, failing builds, or memory problems at unpredictable times. Thus, foreseeing critical growth in software modules meets a high demand in industrial practice. Predicting the time when the size grows to the level where maintenance is needed prevents unexpected efforts and helps to spot problematic artifacts before they become critical. Although the amount of prediction approaches in literature is vast, it is unclear how well they fit with prerequisites and expectations from practice. In this paper, we perform an industrial case study at an automotive manufacturer to explore applicability and usability of prediction approaches in practice. In a first step, we collect the most relevant prediction approaches from literature, including both, approaches using statistics and machine learning. Furthermore, we elicit expectations towards predictions from practitioners using a survey and stakeholder workshops. At the same time, we measure software size of 48 software artifacts by mining four years of revision history, resulting in 4,547 data points. In the last step, we assess the applicability of state-of-the-art prediction approaches using the collected data by systematically analyzing how well they fulfill the practitioners' expectations. Our main contribution is a comparison of commonly used prediction approaches in a real world industrial setting while considering stakeholder expectations. We show that the approaches provide significantly different results regarding prediction accuracy and that the statistical approaches fit our data best

Expression Cloning of TMEM16A as a Calcium-Activated Chloride Channel Subunit

SummaryCalcium-activated chloride channels (CaCCs) are major regulators of sensory transduction, epithelial secretion, and smooth muscle contraction. Other crucial roles of CaCCs include action potential generation in Characean algae and prevention of polyspermia in frog egg membrane. None of the known molecular candidates share properties characteristic of most CaCCs in native cells. Using Axolotl oocytes as an expression system, we have identified TMEM16A as the Xenopus oocyte CaCC. The TMEM16 family of “transmembrane proteins with unknown function” is conserved among eukaryotes, with family members linked to tracheomalacia (mouse TMEM16A), gnathodiaphyseal dysplasia (human TMEM16E), aberrant X segregation (a Drosophila TMEM16 family member), and increased sodium tolerance (yeast TMEM16). Moreover, mouse TMEM16A and TMEM16B yield CaCCs in Axolotl oocytes and mammalian HEK293 cells and recapitulate the broad CaCC expression. The identification of this new family of ion channels may help the development of CaCC modulators for treating diseases including hypertension and cystic fibrosis

Airborne anaphylaxis: highlighting an invisible enemy

Purpose of review Airborne anaphylaxis is a rare disorder defined by the occurrence of anaphylactic reactions to inhaled allergens, which may arise not only in occupational exposure but also in common settings. Foods are the most common cause of airborne anaphylaxis, even organic mixtures scents. The other important cause is represented by drugs, while in the wide range of other causes, there are often reports on unique cases. This review aims to make an overview about the potential causes of airborne anaphylaxis, by analysing what is described in literature on this topic. Recent findings Concerning epidemiology, no data on specific prevalence of airborne allergy in adults are available. To date, only one study evaluated the specific prevalence of airborne allergy with anaphylaxis to foods in children, resulting in 5.9% of reactions due to exposure to aerosolized foods, compared with 78% of reactions caused by food ingestion. In addition to anaphylaxis, airborne-related reactions may also present with symptoms such as rhino-conjunctivitis, wheezing, dyspnoea and asthma. A detailed anamnesis facilitates a correct diagnosis, which allows appropriate therapeutic and preventive interventions, but, similarly to rare diseases in general, only specialized doctors are able to implement it. The assumption of the approach used in emergency medicine for other causes of anaphylaxis, that is referring the patient at discharge to an allergist who will teach the basic notions to recognize symptoms and access the appropriate therapy, would allow the patient to avoid situations of serious danger

Philosophical Foundations for the Concept of Information: Selective and Structural Information

Abstract. The most fundamental question in the philosophy of information "What is information?" has not received yet a definite answer free from commonly recognized deficiencies. In my earlier work I have proposed a definition of information as an identification of the variety. The definition is based on the concept of the one-many relation, a philosophical theme as old as philosophy itself. The rich tradition of the theme established through the centuries of philosophical discourse is in a clear contrast to the common sense concepts such as "uncertainty" usually utilized in attempts to set foundations for the concept of information. An identification of the variety can have two basic forms of a selection of one out many in the variety, or of the structure uniting the variety (many) into one. The distinction of the forms of identification leads to the distinction between the selective and structural information. However, since every occurrence of one type of information is always accompanied by the other, selective and structural information can be considered just different manifestations of the uniform concept of information. The selective information can be easily identified with the concept of information in its usual understanding. The structural manifestation of information has been considered usually in the context of integration of information. In the present paper the analysis of the concept of information based on the one-many relation is being carried out in the three perspectives. First, the philosophical aspects of information are considered. Then, the concept of information is being identified in a selection of very different domains. For instance, Hutcheson's concept of beauty dominating classical aesthetics since 18 th century, understood as "unity in variety," provides an example of an idea very close to structural information. Integration of the neuronal activity in the brain considered as a basis for consciousness by Edelman and his collaborators can be also viewed as an example of structural information in a different domain. Finally, an attempt is being made to identify a mathematical formalism which reflects the distinction of the selective and structural information. ©2005 by MDPI (http://www.mdpi.org). Reproduction for non commercial purposes permitted. 2 Introduction In this article I am revisiting my earlier proposal of an answer to the question "What is information?" in the conceptual framework of the one-many relation In spite of the frequent occurrence of the word "information" in a large variety of contexts, there is no commonly accepted answer to the question about its meaning. Even worse, there is no agreement whether it is possible to provide a uniform answer independent from the context in which the word "information" is used. The views are scattered between the two extreme positions, between the belief that there are as many meanings of the word "information" as domains of its application, and the view that different contexts differentiate only manifestations of the uniform entity which can and should be clearly and properly defined. While I belong to supporters of the latter position, I cannot accept any of the numerous former attempts to define the meaning of this uniform concept of information. In particular, I cannot accept the two most popular formulations of the definition of information as a "resolution, reduction of uncertainty" I have provided several critical arguments against the earlier attempts to define information elsewhere One of the most common errors in the attempts to grasp the meaning of information was an extrapolation of the conceptual and analytic framework of the study of communication (carried within the "conduit metaphor of information&quot

Density of dispersal sources affects to what extent restored habitat is used: A case study on a red-listed wood-dependent beetle

When restoring habitats, an important question is whether the spatial distribution of habitat affects its contribution to biodiversity conservation. In Sweden, high-cut stumps are routinely created at forestry operations. By counting the number of exit holes of a red-listed beetle, Peltis grossa, we assessed occurrence, colonisations and extinctions per high-cut stump and beetle density per clear-cut. We found a threshold, at which the form of the relationship between density of the beetle and density of high-cut stumps per clear-cut changes abruptly. The beetle density was considerably higher where the density of high-cut stumps exceeded 4.5 per hectare. Such thresholds can be explained by colonisation-extinction processes. Observed colonisation-extinction dynamics were consistent with metapopulation theory. For instance, there was a positive relationship between colonisation rate and a connectivity measure that considered beetle abundance and distance for each high-cut stump in the surrounding area. However, the relationship disappeared when using a connectivity measure solely based on the distance of the high-cut stumps. The observed threshold implies that P. grossa benefits from aggregating the same total number of created high-cut stumps into fewer clear-cuts. This is because the total area with a density of high-cut stumps exceeding the threshold increases, and this expands the number and size of dispersal sources. Therefore, P. grossa and other species that reveal thresholds in their distribution patterns, are favoured when conservation measures are more spatially aggregated than what is resulting from current Swedish policy