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Stretch marks: treatment using the 1,064-nm Nd:YAG laser. | BACKGROUND
Striae are frequent skin lesions that cause considerable aesthetic concern. The 1,064-nm long-pulsed Nd:YAG laser has been used to promote an increase in dermal collagen and is known to be a laser that has a high affinity for vascular chromophores.
OBJECTIVE
This study aims to verify the efficacy of the long-pulsed Nd:YAG laser in the treatment of immature striae.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Twenty patients who had immature striae, i.e., red striae, were treated using the 1,064-nm long-pulsed Nd:YAG laser. The analysis of treatment efficacy was performed by the comparison between the images taken before and after each treatment session as well as through a subjective assessment carried out by the patients themselves.
RESULTS
Results were considered satisfactory to both patients and doctors. A higher number of patients (55%) considered the results excellent when compared to the same assessment made by the doctor (40%).
CONCLUSION
The clinical improvement of immature striae can be obtained with the use of the 1,064-nm long-pulsed Nd:YAG laser. The low incidence of side effects makes this laser a good alternative in the treatment of these common skin lesions. |
Augmented reality in informal learning environments: A field experiment in a mathematics exhibition | Recent advances in mobile technologies (esp., smart phones and tablets with built-in cameras, GPS and Internet access) made augmented reality (AR ) applications available for the broad public. While many researchers have examined the af fordances and constraints of AR for teaching and learning, quantitative evidence for it s effectiveness is still scarce. To contribute to filling this research gap, we designed and condu cted a pretest-posttest crossover field experiment with 101 participants at a mathematics exh ibition to measure the effect of AR on acquiring and retaining mathematical knowledge in a n informal learning environment. We hypothesized that visitors acquire more knowledge f rom augmented exhibits than from exhibits without AR. The theoretical rationale for our h ypothesis is that AR allows for the efficient and effective implementation of a subset of the des ign principles defined in the cognitive theory of multimedia. The empirical results we obtaine d show that museum visitors performed better on knowledge acquisition and retention tests related to augmented exhibits than to nonaugmented exhibits and that they perceived AR as a valuable and desirable add-on for museum exhibitions. |
Bone regeneration in critical-sized bone defect enhanced by introducing osteoinductivity to biphasic calcium phosphate granules. | OBJECTIVES
Biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP) is frequently used as bone substitute and often needs to be combined with autologous bone to gain an osteoinductive property for guided bone regeneration in implant dentistry. Given the limitations of using autologous bone, bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP2)-coprecipitated, layer-by-layer assembled biomimetic calcium phosphate particles (BMP2-cop.BioCaP) have been developed as a potential osteoinducer. In this study, we hypothesized that BMP2-cop.BioCaP could introduce osteoinductivity to BCP and so could function as effectively as autologous bone for the repair of a critical-sized bone defect.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
We prepared BMP2-cop.BioCaP and monitored the loading and release kinetics of BMP2 from it in vitro. Seven groups (n = 6 animals/group) were established: (i) Empty defect; (ii) BCP; (iii) BCP mixed with biomimetic calcium phosphate particles (BioCaP); (iv) BCP mixed with BMP2-cop.BioCaP; (v) BioCaP; (vi) BMP2-cop.BioCaP; (vii) BCP mixed with autologous bone. They were implanted into 8-mm-diameter rat cranial critical-sized bone defects for an in vivo evaluation. Autologous bone served as a positive control. The osteoinductive efficacy and degradability of materials were evaluated using micro-CT, histology and histomorphometry.
RESULTS
The combined application of BCP and BMP2-cop.BioCaP resulted in significantly more new bone formation than BCP alone. The osteoinductive efficacy of BMP2-cop.BioCaP was comparable to the golden standard use of autologous bone. Compared with BCP alone, significantly more BCP degradation was found when mixed with BMP2-cop.BioCaP.
CONCLUSION
The combination of BCP and BMP2-cop.BioCaP showed a promising potential for guided bone regeneration clinically in the future. |
Inparanoid: a comprehensive database of eukaryotic orthologs | The Inparanoid eukaryotic ortholog database (http://inparanoid.cgb.ki.se/) is a collection of pairwise ortholog groups between 17 whole genomes; Anopheles gambiae, Caenorhabditis briggsae, Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster, Danio rerio, Takifugu rubripes, Gallus gallus, Homo sapiens, Mus musculus, Pan troglodytes, Rattus norvegicus, Oryza sativa, Plasmodium falciparum, Arabidopsis thaliana, Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Complete proteomes for these genomes were derived from Ensembl and UniProt and compared pairwise using Blast, followed by a clustering step using the Inparanoid program. An Inparanoid cluster is seeded by a reciprocally best-matching ortholog pair, around which inparalogs (should they exist) are gathered independently, while outparalogs are excluded. The ortholog clusters can be searched on the website using Ensembl gene/protein or UniProt identifiers, annotation text or by Blast alignment against our protein datasets. The entire dataset can be downloaded, as can the Inparanoid program itself. |
Casual Information Visualization: Depictions of Data in Everyday Life | Information visualization has often focused on providing deep insight for expert user populations and on techniques for amplifying cognition through complicated interactive visual models. This paper proposes a new subdomain for infovis research that complements the focus on analytic tasks and expert use. Instead of work-related and analytically driven infovis, we propose casual information visualization (or casual infovis) as a complement to more traditional infovis domains. Traditional infovis systems, techniques, and methods do not easily lend themselves to the broad range of user populations, from expert to novices, or from work tasks to more everyday situations. We propose definitions, perspectives, and research directions for further investigations of this emerging subfield. These perspectives build from ambient information visualization (Skog et al., 2003), social visualization, and also from artistic work that visualizes information (Viegas and Wattenberg, 2007). We seek to provide a perspective on infovis that integrates these research agendas under a coherent vocabulary and framework for design. We enumerate the following contributions. First, we demonstrate how blurry the boundary of infovis is by examining systems that exhibit many of the putative properties of infovis systems, but perhaps would not be considered so. Second, we explore the notion of insight and how, instead of a monolithic definition of insight, there may be multiple types, each with particular characteristics. Third, we discuss design challenges for systems intended for casual audiences. Finally we conclude with challenges for system evaluation in this emerging subfield. |
Breaking Mifare DESFire MF3ICD40: Power Analysis and Templates in the Real World | With the advent of side-channel analysis, implementations of mathematically secure ciphers face a new threat: by exploiting the physical characteristics of a device, adversaries are able to break algorithms such as AES or Triple-DES (3DES), for which no efficient analytical or brute-force attacks exist. In this paper, we demonstrate practical, noninvasive side-channel attacks on the Mifare DESFire MF3ICD40 contactless smartcard, a 3DES-based alternative to the cryptanalytically weak Mifare Classic [9, 25]. We detail on how to recover the complete 112-bit secret key of the employed 3DES algorithm, using non-invasive power analysis and template attacks. Our methods can be put into practice at a low cost with standard equipment, thus posing a severe threat to many real-world applications that employ the DESFire MF3ICD40 smartcard. |
Comparison of conventional and real-time RT-PCR for the quantitation of jun protooncogene mRNA and analysis of junB mRNA expression in synovial membranes and isolated synovial fibroblasts from rheumatoid arthritis patients | AP-1 dependent genes, e.g., matrix-metallo-proteinases, are involved in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Therefore, the transcription factor AP-1 and its subunits, proteins of the Jun and Fos proto-oncogene families, are interesting targets for analysis in RA. In this study, we analyzed the mRNA expression of junB in synovial membrane (SM) samples and isolated synovial fibroblasts of patients with RA, osteoarthritis (OA), and normal, non-inflammatory controls. To address the suitability of real-time RT-PCR for the quantitation of Jun proto-oncogene family members, conventional RTPCR and real-time PCR were comparatively applied for junD, a gene representing a major challenge because of its high GC-content (70%, increasing the probability of secondary structures interfering with the PCR) and its sequence homology to other Jun proto-oncogenes. In addition, a comparison was performed concerning the precision, reproducibility, costs, as well as labor and time consumption of the two PCR methods. Real-time RT-PCR proved superior to conventional PCR in terms of precision (mean deviation of measured from employed concentration 58% for real-time PCR vs 225% for conventional PCR), reproducibility, as well as labor and time consumption (4 times less for real-time RT-PCR). Experimental cDNA normalization for equivalent cDNA concentrations by sample dilution was more reliable than mathematical cDNA normalization. However, real-time PCR was 3.6-fold more expensive. Applying the more reliable real-time RT-PCR for the ex vivo analysis of junB mRNA-expression, no significantly different expression of junB was observed in SM or isolated synovial fibroblasts from RA as compared to OA. Interestingly, however, junBmRNA expression was significantly lower in RA SM and borderline significantly lower in OA SM than in normal/non-inflammatory SM, with potential effects on the functional properties of the resulting AP-1 complexes. Immunohistochemical staining of the SM with JunB-specific antibodies showed comparable JunB protein expression in SFB (collagen III mRNA-positive) of RA and OA samples. Thus, real-time RT-PCR appears suitable and time-saving for the quantitation of jun proto-oncogene mRNA-expression in tissue and cell samples with high precision and reproducibility. AP-1-abhängige Gene, z. B. Matrix-Metallo- Proteinasen, sind an der Pathogenese der rheumatoiden Arthritis (RA) beteiligt. Deshalb sind der Transkriptionsfaktor AP-1 und seine Untereinheiten – die Proteine der Jun- und Fos-Proto-Onkogen-Familien – interessante Ziele für die Analyse in der RA. In dieser Studie wurde die mRNA-Expression von JunB in Synovialmembran-Gewebeproben (SM) und primären synovialen Fibroblasten von Patienten mit RA und Osteoarthritis (OA), sowie normalen, nicht entzündlichen Kontrollen analysiert. Um die Eignung der Real-time PCR für die Quantifizierung von Mitgliedern der Jun-Genfamilie zu überprüfen, wurde ein Vergleich der konventionellen RT-PCR mit der Real-time PCR für das Gen junD durchgeführt. Dieses stellt aufgrund seines hohen GC-Gehaltes (70%, wodurch die mögliche Bildung von mit der Polymerase- Reaktion interferierenden Sekundärstrukturen deutlich erhöht wird) und der Sequenzhomologien zu anderen Jun-Genen eine große methodische Herausforderung dar. Außerdem wurde in die Untersuchung ein Vergleich in Hinblick auf die Präzision, die Reproduzierbarkeit, die Kosten, sowie den Arbeits- und Zeitaufwand der beiden Methoden einbezogen. Die Real-time PCR erwies sich der konventionellen PCR in den Punkten Präzision (die mittlere Abweichung der gemessenen von der eingesetzten Konzentration betrug bei der Real-time PCR 58% gegenüber 225% bei der konventionellen PCR), Reproduzierbarkeit und Arbeits-/Zeitaufwand (4-fach geringer bei der Real-time RT-PCR) überlegen. Eine experimentelle Normalisierung durch Verdünnung der untersuchten cDNA-Proben auf äquivalente cDNA-Konzentrationen stellte sich gegenüber einer rein mathematischen Normalisierung als genauer heraus. Allerdings waren die Kosten der Realtime PCR 3,6-mal so hoch wie die der konventionellen PCR. Die zuverlässigere Real-time PCR wurde anschließend zur Ex-vivo- Analyse der junB mRNA-Expression eingesetzt. Dabei konnten keine signifikanten Unterschiede zwischen den Expressionsniveaus von junB in SM oder primären synovialen Fibroblasten von RA- und OA-Patienten nachgewiesen werden. Interessanterweise wurde allerdings eine signifikant niedrigere junB-Expression in der RA-SM und eine grenzwertig signifikant niedrigere junB-Expression in der OA-SM im Vergleich zu den Normalkontrollen beobachtet, was die Funktion der resultierenden AP-1 Komplexe beeinflussen könnte. Die immunhistologische Färbung der SM mit JunB-spezifischen Antikörpern zeigte eine vergleichbare JunB Proteinexpression in SFB (Kollagen III mRNA positiv) bei RA- und OA-Proben. Insgesamt erwies sich die Realtime RT-PCR in dieser Studie als eine geeignete und zeitsparende Methode für die Quantifizierung der mRNA-Expression von jun- Proto-Onkogenen in Gewebe und Zellproben mit hoher Präzision und Reproduzierbarkeit. |
Probabilistic Models for Unified Collaborative and Content-Based Recommendation in Sparse-Data Environments | Recommendersystems leverage product and community information to target products to consumers. Researchershave developed collaborati ve recommenders, content-basedrecommenders,and a few hybrid systems. We proposea unifiedprobabilisticframework for merging collaborati ve andcontent-basedrecommendations. We extend Hofmann’s (1999) aspect model to incorporatethree-way co-occurrence dataamongusers,items,anditem content.The relative influence of collaborationdata versus contentdatais not imposedasanexogenousparameter , but ratheremergesnaturally from the givendatasources.However, globalprobabilistic modelscoupledwith standardEM learningalgorithmstendto drasticallyoverfit in thesparsedatasituationstypical of recommendationapplications. We show that secondarycontent information can often be usedto overcomesparsity. Experimentson datafrom the ResearchIndex library of ComputerSciencepublications show that appropriatemixture modelsincorporatingsecondarydataproducesignificantlybetter quality recommendersthan -nearestneighbors ( -NN). Global probabilisticmodelsalsoallow moregeneralinferencesthanlocal methodslike -NN. |
A low-power fully-integrated SP10T-RF-switch-IC | A new architecture has been designed and demonstrated for a low-power SP10T-RF-Switch-IC using 0.18μm SOI-CMOS, implementing an RF-Switch, negative voltage generator, and MIPI in a chip. Clock frequency of the negative voltage generator is controlled to increase only in a switch transition and drop at other times in order to reduce power consumption. Results of an evaluation of a trial chip confirmed a 33% reduction in power consumption compared with conventional architecture while RF performance is maintained. |
Small-scale intermittency in anisotropic turbulence. | Isotropic, rotating, and stratified turbulent flows are analyzed using a scale- and direction-dependent flatness. The anisotropy of the spatial fluctuations of the energy distribution can hereby be quantified for different length scales. This measure allows one to distinguish between longitudinal and transversal intermittency as well as between horizontal and vertical intermittency. The difference between longitudinal and transversal intermittency is argued to be related to the incompressiblity constraint. A large difference between horizontal and vertical intermittency for stratified turbulence can be explained by an energy depletion of the horizontal plane in Fourier space. |
Operator Valued Hardy Spaces | We give a systematic study on the Hardy spaces of functions with values in the non-commutative L-spaces associated with a semifinite von Neumann algebra M. This is motivated by the works on matrix valued Harmonic Analysis (operator weighted norm inequalities, operator Hilbert transform), and on the other hand, by the recent development on the non-commutative martingale inequalities. Our non-commutative Hardy spaces are defined by the non-commutative Lusin integral function. The main results of this paper include: (i) The analogue in our setting of the classical Fefferman duality theorem between H and BMO. (ii) The atomic decomposition of our non-commutative H. (iii) The equivalence between the norms of the non-commutative Hardy spaces and of the non-commutative L-spaces (1 < p <∞). (iv) The non-commutative Hardy-Littlewood maximal inequality. (v) A description of BMO as an intersection of two dyadic BMO. (vi) The interpolation results on these Hardy spaces. 1 |
Temporal analysis of clusters of supermarket customers: conventional versus interval set approach | Temporal data mining is the application of data mining techniques to data that takes the time dimension into account. This paper studies changes in cluster characteristics of supermarket customers over a 24 week period. Such an analysis can be useful for formulating marketing strategies. Marketing managers may want to focus on specific groups of customers. Therefore they may need to understand the migrations of the customers from one group to another group. The marketing strategies may depend on the desirability of these cluster migrations. The temporal analysis presented here is based on conventional and modified Kohonen self organizing maps (SOM). The modified Kohonen SOM creates interval set representations of clusters using properties of rough sets. A description of an experimental design for temporal cluster migration studies 0020-0255/$ see front matter 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ins.2004.12.007 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 902 420 5798; fax: +1 902 420 5035. E-mail address: [email protected] (P. Lingras). 216 P. Lingras et al. / Information Sciences 172 (2005) 215–240 including, data cleaning, data abstraction, data segmentation, and data sorting, is provided. The paper compares conventional and non-conventional (interval set) clustering techniques, as well as temporal and non-temporal analysis of customer loyalty. The interval set clustering is shown to provide an interesting dimension to such a temporal analysis. 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. |
Market Access, Investment, And Heterogeneous Firms | This article presents a model of international trade in which heterogeneous firms can expand through capital acquisitions. I show that demand elasticities are a crucial element in predicting which firms invest, in what location, and for what reason. High-productivity firms, who tend to sell goods at a low elasticity, invest for market access (tariff jumping). Middle productivity firms, who tend to sell at a higher elasticity, invest for productivity improvement. The relative value of trade costs dictates which incentive is larger. In equilibrium, trade liberalization can reduce aggregate productivity by reducing an important source of investment demand: foreign firms. |
Effect of relaxation-breathing training on anxiety and asthma signs/symptoms of children with moderate-to-severe asthma: a randomized controlled trial. | BACKGROUND
Emotional stress triggers and exacerbates asthma in children. Reducing anxiety in adults by relaxation-breathing techniques has been shown in clinical trials to produce good asthma outcomes. However, more evidence is needed on using this intervention with asthmatic children.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effectiveness of combined self-management and relaxation-breathing training for children with moderate-to-severe asthma compared to self-management-only training.
DESIGN
Two-group experimental design.
SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS
Pediatric outpatient clinic of a medical center in central Taiwan. Participants were 48 children, ages 6-14 years, with moderate-to-severe asthma and their parents.
METHODS
Participants were randomly assigned to an experimental or comparison group and matched by gender, age, and asthma severity. Both groups participated in an asthma self-management program. Children in the experimental group were also given 30 min of training in a relaxation-breathing technique and a CD for home practice. Data on anxiety levels, self-perceived health status, asthma signs/symptoms, peak expiratory flow rate, and medication use were collected at baseline and at the end of the 12-week intervention. Effects of group, time, and group-time interaction were analyzed using the Mixed Model in SPSS (12.0).
RESULTS
Anxiety (especially state anxiety) was significantly lower for children in the experimental group than in the comparison group. Differences in the other four physiological variables were also noted between pre- and post-intervention, but these changes did not differ significantly between groups.
CONCLUSIONS
A combination of self-management and relaxation-breathing training can reduce anxiety, thus improving asthmatic children's health. These results can serve as an evidence base for psychological nursing practice with asthmatic children. |
Automated Robotic Monitoring and Inspection of Steel Structures and Bridges | This paper presents visual and 3D structure inspection for steel structures and bridges using a developed climbing robot. The robot can move freely on a steel surface, carry sensors, collect data and then send to the ground station in real-time for monitoring as well as further processing. Steel surface image stitching and 3D map building are conducted to provide a current condition of the structure. Also, a computer vision-based method is implemented to detect surface defects on stitched images. The effectiveness of the climbing robot’s inspection is tested in multiple circumstances to ensure strong steel adhesion and successful data collection. The detection method was also successfully evaluated on various test images, where steel cracks could be automatically identified, without the requirement of some heuristic reasoning. |
Blind detection of photomontage using higher order statistics | We investigate the prospect of using bicoherence features for blind image splicing detection. Image splicing is an essential operation for digital photomontaging, which in turn is a technique for creating image forgery. We examine the properties of bicoherence features on a data set, which contains image blocks of diverse image properties. We then demonstrate the limitation of the baseline bicoherence features for image splicing detection. Our investigation has led to two suggestions for improving the performance of bicoherence features, i.e., estimating the bicoherence features of the authentic counterpart and incorporating features that characterize the variance of the feature performance. The features derived from the suggestions are evaluated with support vector machine (SVM) classification and is shown to improve the image splicing detection accuracy from 62% to about 70%. |
Recursive Bayesian Recurrent Neural Networks for Time-Series Modeling | This paper develops a probabilistic approach to recursive second-order training of recurrent neural networks (RNNs) for improved time-series modeling. A general recursive Bayesian Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm is derived to sequentially update the weights and the covariance (Hessian) matrix. The main strengths of the approach are a principled handling of the regularization hyperparameters that leads to better generalization, and stable numerical performance. The framework involves the adaptation of a noise hyperparameter and local weight prior hyperparameters, which represent the noise in the data and the uncertainties in the model parameters. Experimental investigations using artificial and real-world data sets show that RNNs equipped with the proposed approach outperform standard real-time recurrent learning and extended Kalman training algorithms for recurrent networks, as well as other contemporary nonlinear neural models, on time-series modeling. |
Virtual Talk for Deaf, Mute, Blind and Normal Humans | In the today's world there are many disabled people (deaf, mute, blind, etc) who face lot of problems when they try to communicate with other. Previously developed devices did not implement any general solution. This paper describes a new method of developing wearable sensor gloves for detecting hand gestures which uses British and Indian sign language system. The outputs are produced in the text format using LCD and audio format using APR9600 module. The hand gesture or the hand signs are converted to electrical signals using flex sensor. These electrical signals are processed to produce appropriate audio and text output. Previously designed devices were not accurate in tracing the hand gestures. The paper employs method of tuning in order to improve the accuracy of detecting hand gesture. |
Similarity of Color Images | We describe two new color indexing techniques. The rst one is a more robust version of the commonly used color histogram indexing. In the index we store the cumulative color histograms. The L 1-, L 2-, or L 1-distance between two cumulative color histograms can be used to deene a similarity measure of these two color distributions. We show that while this method produces only slightly better results than color histogram methods, it is more robust with respect to the quantization parameter of the histograms. The second technique is an example of a new approach to color indexing. Instead of storing the complete color distributions, the index contains only their dominant features. We implement this approach by storing the rst three moments of each color channel of an image in the index, i.e., for a HSV image we store only 9 oating point numbers per image. The similarity function which is used for the retrieval is a weighted sum of the absolute diierences between corresponding moments. Our tests clearly demonstrate that a retrieval based on this technique produces better results and runs faster than the histogram-based methods. |
A circuit representation technique for automated circuit design | We present a method of automatically generating circuit designs using evolutionary search and a set of circuit-constructing primitives arranged in a linear sequence. This representation has the desirable property that virtually all sets of circuit-constructing primitives result in valid circuit graphs. While this representation excludes certain circuit topologies, it is capable of generating a rich set of them including many of the useful topologies seen in hand-designed circuits. Our system allows circuit size (number of devices), circuit topology, and device values to be evolved. Using a parallel genetic algorithm and circuit simulation software, we present experimental results as applied to three analog filter and two amplifier design tasks. In all tasks, our system is able to generate circuits that achieve the target specifications. Although the evolved circuits exist as software models, detailed examinations of each suggest that they are electrically well behaved and thus suitable for physical implementation. The modest computational requirements suggest that the ability to evolve complex analog circuit representations in software is becoming more approachable on a single engineering workstation. |
Enabling efficient OS paging for main-memory OLTP databases | Even though main memory is becoming large enough to fit most OLTP databases, it may not always be the best option. OLTP workloads typically exhibit skewed access patterns where some records are hot (frequently accessed) but many records are cold (infrequently or never accessed). Therefore, it is more economical to store the coldest records on a fast secondary storage device such as a solid-state disk. However, main-memory DBMS have no knowledge of secondary storage, while traditional disk-based databases, designed for workloads where data resides on HDD, introduce too much overhead for the common case where the working set is memory resident.
In this paper, we propose a simple and low-overhead technique that enables main-memory databases to efficiently migrate cold data to secondary storage by relying on the OS's virtual memory paging mechanism. We propose to log accesses at the tuple level, process the access traces offline to identify relevant access patterns, and then transparently re-organize the in-memory data structures to reduce paging I/O and improve hit rates. The hot/cold data separation is performed on demand and incrementally through careful memory management, without any change to the underlying data structures. We validate experimentally the data re-organization proposal and show that OS paging can be efficient: a TPC-C database can grow two orders of magnitude larger than the available memory size without a noticeable impact on performance. |
The Difference-Bit Cache | The difference-bit cache is a two-way set-associative cache with an access time that is smaller than that of a conventional one and close or equal to that of a direct-mapped cache. This is achieved by noticing that the two tags for a set have to differ at least by one bit and by using this bit to select the way. In contrast with previous approaches that predict the way and have two types of hits (primary of one cycle and secondary of two to four cycles), all hits of the difference-bit cache are of one cycle. The evaluation of the access time of our cache organization has been performed using a recently proposed on-chip cache access model. |
A Survey on Requirements and Design Methods for Secure Software Development | State Machine Language (AsmL) AsmL is an extended finite state machine-based executable software specification language which has also been used to specify attack scenarios [41]. The authors argue that due to the extended finite state machine-based nature of AsmL, attacks with multiple steps can be specified in AsmL. Such attack scenarios can be automatically translated into Snort rules which can then be used with an extension of the IDS Snort [41]. Such attack scenarios are able to capture more attacks with multiple steps using context information. Snort rules, the standard input for Snort, cannot represent attacks with multiple steps. |
Learning personal + social latent factor model for social recommendation | Social recommendation, which aims to systematically leverage the social relationships between users as well as their past behaviors for automatic recommendation, attract much attention recently. The belief is that users linked with each other in social networks tend to share certain common interests or have similar tastes (homophily principle); such similarity is expected to help improve the recommendation accuracy and quality. There have been a few studies on social recommendations; however, they almost completely ignored the heterogeneity and diversity of the social relationship.
In this paper, we develop a joint personal and social latent factor (PSLF) model for social recommendation. Specifically, it combines the state-of-the-art collaborative filtering and the social network modeling approaches for social recommendation. Especially, the PSLF extracts the social factor vectors for each user based on the state-of-the-art mixture membership stochastic blockmodel, which can explicitly express the varieties of the social relationship. To optimize the PSLF model, we develop a scalable expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm, which utilizes a novel approximate mean-field technique for fast expectation computation. We compare our approach with the latest social recommendation approaches on two real datasets, Flixter and Douban (both with large social networks). With similar training cost, our approach has shown a significant improvement in terms of prediction accuracy criteria over the existing approaches. |
Topic Modeling based on Keywords and Context | Current topic models often suffer from discovering topics not matching human intuition, unnatural switching of topics within documents and high computational demands. We address these shortcomings by proposing a topic model and an inference algorithm based on automatically identifying characteristic keywords for topics. |
ROS and Rosbridge: Roboticists out of the loop | The advent of ROS, the Robot Operating System, has finally made it possible to implement and use state-of-the-art navigation and manipulation algorithms on widely-available, inexpensive standard robot platforms. With the addition of the Rosbridge application programming interface, interface designers and applications programmers can create robot interfaces and behaviors without venturing into the specialized world of robotics engineers. This tutorial introduces ROS and Rosbridge, and shows how quickly and easily these tools can be used to design and conduct large-scale online HRI experiments, access algorithms for autonomous robot behavior, and leverage the huge ecosystem of general-purpose web-based and application-oriented software engineering for robotics and HRI research. Tutorial attendees will learn the basics of autonomous and teleoperated navigation and manipulation, as well as interface design for online interaction with robots. During the tutorial they will design and write their own remote presence application, as well as develop strategies for incorporating autonomy and dealing with data collection. |
Oboe: auto-tuning video ABR algorithms to network conditions | Most content providers are interested in providing good video delivery QoE for all users, not just on average. State-of-the-art ABR algorithms like BOLA and MPC rely on parameters that are sensitive to network conditions, so may perform poorly for some users and/or videos. In this paper, we propose a technique called Oboe to auto-tune these parameters to different network conditions. Oboe pre-computes, for a given ABR algorithm, the best possible parameters for different network conditions, then dynamically adapts the parameters at run-time for the current network conditions. Using testbed experiments, we show that Oboe significantly improves BOLA, MPC, and a commercially deployed ABR. Oboe also betters a recently proposed reinforcement learning based ABR, Pensieve, by 24% on average on a composite QoE metric, in part because it is able to better specialize ABR behavior across different network states. |
Computer Security Incident Response Team Effectiveness: A Needs Assessment | Computer security incident response teams (CSIRTs) respond to a computer security incident when the need arises. Failure of these teams can have far-reaching effects for the economy and national security. CSIRTs often have to work on an ad hoc basis, in close cooperation with other teams, and in time constrained environments. It could be argued that under these working conditions CSIRTs would be likely to encounter problems. A needs assessment was done to see to which extent this argument holds true. We constructed an incident response needs model to assist in identifying areas that require improvement. We envisioned a model consisting of four assessment categories: Organization, Team, Individual and Instrumental. Central to this is the idea that both problems and needs can have an organizational, team, individual, or technical origin or a combination of these levels. To gather data we conducted a literature review. This resulted in a comprehensive list of challenges and needs that could hinder or improve, respectively, the performance of CSIRTs. Then, semi-structured in depth interviews were held with team coordinators and team members of five public and private sector Dutch CSIRTs to ground these findings in practice and to identify gaps between current and desired incident handling practices. This paper presents the findings of our needs assessment and ends with a discussion of potential solutions to problems with performance in incident response. |
Dynamic Load-Balancing via a Genetic Algorithm | We produce a GA scheduling routine, which with often relatively low cost finds well-balanced schedules. Incoming tasks (of varying durations) accumulate, then are periodically scheduled, in small batches, to the available processors. Two important priorities for our scheduling work are that loads on the processors are well balanced, and that scheduling per seremains cheap in comparison to the actual productive work of the processors. We also include experimental results, exploring a variety of distributions of task durations, which show that our scheduler consistently produces well-balanced schedules, and quite often does so at relatively low cost. |
Fast Text Searching Allowing Errors | T h e string-matching problem is a very c o m m o n problem. We are searching for a string P = PtP2. . "Pro i n s i d e a la rge t ex t f i le T = t l t2. . . t . , b o t h sequences of characters from a f i n i t e character set Z. T h e characters may be English characters in a text file, DNA base pairs, lines of source code, angles between edges in polygons, machines or machine parts in a production schedule, music notes and tempo in a musical score, and so fo r th . We w a n t to f i n d a l l occurrences of P i n T; n a m e l y , we are searching for the set of starting posit ions F = {i[1 --i--n m + 1 s u c h t h a t titi+ l " " t i + m 1 = P } " T h e two most famous algorithms for this problem are t h e B o y e r M o o r e algorithm [3] and t h e K n u t h Morris Pratt algorithm [10]. There are many extensions to t h i s problem; for example, we may be looking for a set of patterns, a pattern w i t h "wi ld cards," or a regular expression. String-matching tools are included in every reasonable text editor, word processor, and many other applications. |
Semi-supervised Outlier Detection using Generative And Adversary Framework | In many outlier detection tasks, only training data belonging to one class, i.e., the positive class, is available. The task is then to predict a new data point as belonging either to the positive class or to the negative class, in which case the data point is considered an outlier. For this task, we propose a novel corrupted Generative Adversarial Network (CorGAN). In the adversarial process of training CorGAN, the Generator generates outlier samples for the negative class, and the Discriminator is trained to distinguish the positive training data from the generated negative data. The proposed framework is evaluated using an image dataset and a real-world network intrusion dataset. Our outlier-detection method achieves state-of-the-art performance on both tasks. Keywords—Outlier detection, generative adversary networks, semi-supervised learning. |
Low-firing, temperature stable and improved microwave dielectric properties of ZnO TiO2Nb2O5 composite ceramics | Abstract This article presents low-firing, low-loss and temperature stable ZnO TiO 2 Nb 2 O 5 microwave dielectric composite ceramics with the assistance of lithium borosilicate (LBS) and zinc borosilicate (ZBS) glass frits. There is a liquid phase (eutectic mixture) generated by LBS (ZBS) glass, and solid particles could be wetted and dissolved. Therefore, the migrations and rearrangements of particles could be performed. Besides, compared with ceramics undoped with glass frits, lower activation energies (E a ) of ceramics doped with LBS and ZBS glass suggest that the low-temperature sintering behavior is easier to carry out. The results indicated that LBS and ZBS glass both are effective sintering aids to accelerate the sintering process and improve the microwave dielectric properties of composite ceramics by controlling the phase compositions under low temperature. Combination great properties of ZnO TiO 2 Nb 2 O 5 ceramics were obtained when sintered at 900 °C for 4 h: e r = 36.7, Q × f = 20,000 GHz, τ f = 7 ppm/ o C. |
Combatting Online Fraud in Saudi Arabia Using General Deterrence Theory (GDT) | Online fraud, described as dubious business transactions and deceit carried out electronically, has reached an alarming rate worldwide and has become a major challenge to organizations and governments. In the Gulf region, particularly Saudi Arabia, where there is high Internet penetration and many online financial transactions, the need to put effective measures to deter, prevent and detect online fraud, has become imperative. This paper examines how online fraud control measures in financial institutions in Saudi Arabia are organized and managed. Through qualitative interviews with experts in Saudi Arabia, the study found that people’s perceptions (from their moral, social, cultural and religious backgrounds) have significant effect on awareness and fraud prevention and detection. It also argues that technological measures alone may not be adequate. Deterrence, prevention, detection and remedy activities, together making General Deterrence Theory (GDT) as an approach for systematically and effectively combatting online fraud in Saudi. |
Pregnancy Outcomes after Treatment for Cervical Cancer Precursor Lesions: An Observational Study | OBJECTIVE
To examine whether surgical procedures involving the uterine cervix were associated with pregnancy outcomes, including preterm birth, low birth weight, cesarean delivery and pregnancy loss.
DESIGN
Population-based observational study nested in retrospective matched cohort.
SETTING
Kaiser Permanente Northwest integrated health plan in Oregon/Washington, U.S.A.
POPULATION
Female health plan members age 14-53 years with documented pregnancies from 1998-2009. Women with prior excisional and ablative cervical surgical procedures (N = 322) were compared to women unexposed to cervical procedures (N = 4,307) and, separately, to those having undergone only diagnostic/biopsy procedures (N = 847).
METHODS
Using log-linear regression models, we examined risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes in relation to prior excisional or ablative cervical surgical procedures. We stratified excisional procedures by excision thickness. We evaluated for confounding by age, body mass index, race, smoking history, previous preterm birth, and parity.
RESULTS
We found a positive association between excisional treatment > = 1.0 cm and the outcomes preterm birth and low birth weight (preterm birth unadjusted risk ratio [RR] = 2.15, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.16-3.98 for excisions ≥1.0 cm compared to unexposed women), particularly in women who delivered within one year of surgery (RR = 3.26, 95% CI 1.41-7.53). There was no clear association between excisional treatment and cesarean delivery, and treated women did not have a substantially higher risk of dysfunctional labor. Ablative treatment was not associated with low birth weight, preterm birth, or cesarean delivery but was associated with pregnancy loss (RR = 1.43, 95% CI 1.05-1.93 vs. unexposed women). Analyses using the diagnostic procedures comparison group produced similar results.
CONCLUSION
Women with > = 1.0 cm excisional treatment had elevated risk of preterm birth and low birth weight when compared to unexposed women and women with cervical diagnostic procedures. This suggests that increased risk derives from the treatment itself, not from other characteristics. The observed association between pregnancy loss and ablative surgical treatment requires further investigation. |
Social rules and attributions in the personnel selection interview | The study investigated the social rules applicable to selection interviews, and the attributions ions made by interviewers in response to rule-breaking behaviours by candidates. Sixty personnel specialists (31 males and 29 females) participated in the main study which examined their perceptions of social rules and attributions about rule breaking in their work experience. They listened to audiotapes of actual selection interviews, and made judgments about hireability communication competence, and specific social rules. Results indicated that interview rules could be categorized into two groups: specific interview presentation skills and general interpersonal competence. While situational attributions were more salient in explaining the breaking of general interpersonal competence rules, internal attributions (ability, effort) were more salient explanations for the breaking of more specific interview rules (with the exception of the preparation rule where lack of effort was the most likely explanation for rule breaking). Candidates previously judged as competent communicators were rated more favourably on both global and specific measures of rule-following competence, as well as on hireability. The theoretical and practical implications of combining social rules and attribution theory in the study of selection interviews are discussed. |
A novel delay-aware routing algorithm (DARA) for a hybrid wireless-optical broadband access network (WOBAN) | A hybrid wireless-optical broadband access network (WOBAN) is a promising architecture for future access networks. Recently, the WOBAN has been gaining increasing attention, and early versions are being deployed as municipal access solutions. This architecture saves on network deployment cost because fiber need not penetrate to each end user. However, a major research opportunity exists in developing an efficient routing algorithm for the wireless front-end of the WOBAN. We propose and investigate the characteristics of the delay-aware routing algorithm (DARA) that minimizes the average packet delay in the wireless front-end of a WOBAN. In DARA we model wireless routers as queues and predict wireless link states periodically. Our performance studies show that DARA achieves less delay and congestion, and improved load balancing compared to traditional approaches such as the minimum-hop routing algorithm, shortest-path routing algorithm, and predictive throughput routing algorithm. |
A New Battery/UltraCapacitor Hybrid Energy Storage System for Electric, Hybrid, and Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles | In this paper, a new battery/ultracapacitor hybrid energy storage system (HESS) is proposed for electric drive vehicles including electric, hybrid electric, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Compared to the conventional HESS design, which uses a larger dc/dc converter to interface between the ultracapacitor and the battery/dc link to satisfy the real-time peak power demands, the proposed design uses a much smaller dc/dc converter working as a controlled energy pump to maintain the voltage of the ultracapacitor at a value higher than the battery voltage for the most city driving conditions. The battery will only provide power directly when the ultracapacitor voltage drops below the battery voltage. Therefore, a relatively constant load profile is created for the battery. In addition, the battery is not used to directly harvest energy from the regenerative braking; thus, the battery is isolated from frequent charges, which will increase the life of the battery. Simulation and experimental results are presented to verify the proposed system. |
MYO5B and bile salt export pump contribute to cholestatic liver disorder in microvillous inclusion disease. | UNLABELLED
Microvillous inclusion disease (MVID) is a congenital disorder of the enterocyte related to mutations in the MYO5B gene, leading to intractable diarrhea often necessitating intestinal transplantation (ITx). Among our cohort of 28 MVID patients, 8 developed a cholestatic liver disease akin to progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (PFIC). Our aim was to investigate the mechanisms by which MYO5B mutations affect hepatic biliary function and lead to cholestasis in MVID patients. Clinical and biological features and outcome were reviewed. Pretransplant liver biopsies were analyzed by immunostaining and electron microscopy. Cholestasis occurred before (n = 5) or after (n = 3) ITx and was characterized by intermittent jaundice, intractable pruritus, increased serum bile acid (BA) levels, and normal gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase activity. Liver histology showed canalicular cholestasis, mild-to-moderate fibrosis, and ultrastructural abnormalities of bile canaliculi. Portal fibrosis progressed in 5 patients. No mutation in ABCB11/BSEP or ATP8B1/FIC1 genes were identified. Immunohistochemical studies demonstrated abnormal cytoplasmic distribution of MYO5B, RAB11A, and BSEP in hepatocytes. Interruption of enterohepatic BA cycling after partial external biliary diversion or graft removal proved the most effective to ensure long-term remission.
CONCLUSION
MVID patients are at risk of developing a PFIC-like liver disease that may hamper outcome after ITx. Our results suggest that cholestasis in MVID patients results from (1) impairment of the MYO5B/RAB11A apical recycling endosome pathway in hepatocytes, (2) altered targeting of BSEP to the canalicular membrane, and (3) increased ileal BA absorption. Because cholestasis worsens after ITx, indication of a combined liver ITx should be discussed in MVID patients with severe cholestasis. Future studies will need to address more specifically the effect of MYO5B dysfunction in BA homeostasis. |
Cobalt, nickel, copper and zinc complexes with 1,3-diphenyl-1H-pyrazole-4-carboxaldehyde Schiff bases: antimicrobial, spectroscopic, thermal and fluorescence studies. | Two new Schiff bases of 1,3-diphenyl-1H-pyrazole-4-carboxaldehyde and 4-amino-5-mercapto-3-methyl/H-1,2,4-triazole [HL(1-2)] and their Cobalt, Nickel, Copper and Zinc complexes have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analyses, spectral (UV-vis, IR, (1)H NMR, Fluorescence) studies, thermal techniques and magnetic measurements. A square planar geometry for Cu(II) and octahedral geometry for Co(II), Ni(II) and Zn(II) complexes have been proposed. In order to evaluate the biological activity of Schiff bases and to assess the role of metal ion on biological activity, the pyrazole Schiff bases and their metal complexes have been studied in vitro antibacterial against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and antifungal against Aspergillus niger, and Aspergillus flavus. In most of the cases higher activity was exhibited upon coordination with metal ions. |
Design of Electronic Differential System for an Electric Vehicle with in-wheel motor | This paper presents design of Electronic Differential System (EDS) for an Electric Vehicle (EV) with in-wheel motor. EDS is generally used in EVs due to some drawbacks of mechanical differential such as being heavy systems and mechanical losses caused by the powertrains. According to the turning angle of the wheel, task of EDS for front wheels is to adjust rpm of the wheels. On the contrary for rear wheels, only rpm control is realized due to not steering. Hence, there are less studies on EDS for front wheels of EV in the literature. In this study, an EDS for front wheels of EV is designed. According to steering angle and speed of EV, the speeds of the front wheels are estimated by equations derived from Ackermann-Jeantand model using Codesys Software Package. The estimated speeds are sent to Induction Motor (IM) Drives via Controller Area Network-Bus (CAN-Bus). EDS is also simulated by Matlab/Simulink. Then, the speeds of the front wheels are experimentally measured by a tachometer. Codesys results are verified by both Simulink and experimental results. It is observed that the designed EDS is convenient for EVs with in-wheel motor. |
Sleep microstructure dynamics and neurocognitive performance in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome patients. | The present study examined the relationship between the increment in cyclic alternating patterns (CAPs) in sleep electroencephalography and neurocognitive decline in obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS) patients through source localization of the phase-A of CAPs. All-night polysomnographic recordings of 10 OSAS patients and 4 control subjects along with their cognitive profile using the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination (ACE) test were acquired. The neuropsychological assessment involved five key domains including attention and orientation, verbal fluency, memory, language and visuo-spatial skills. The standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) tool was used to source-localize the phase-A of CAPs in sleep EEG aiming to investigate the correlation between CAP phase-A and cognitive functions. Our findings suggested a significant increase in CAP rates among OSAS subjects versus control subjects. Moreover, sLORETA revealed that CAP phase-A is mostly activated in frontoparietal cortices. As CAP rate increases, the activity of phase-A in such areas is dramatically enhanced leading to arousal instability, lower sleep efficiency and a possibly impaired cortical capacity to consolidate cognitive inputs in frontal and parietal areas during sleep. As such, cognitive domains including verbal fluency, memory and visuo-spatial skills which predominantly relate to frontoparietal areas tend to be affected. Based on our findings, CAP activity may possibly be considered as a predictor of cognitive decline among OSAS patients. |
Building Information Modelling (BIM) for Facilities Management (FM): The Mediacity Case Study Approach | Facilities Management (FM) as the total management of all services supports the core businesses of an organisation in a building. However, today’s buildings are increasingly sophisticated and the need for information to operate and maintain them is vital. Facility Managers have to acquire, integrate, edit, and update diverse facility information ranging from building elements, fabric data, operational costs, contract types, room allocation, logistics, maintenance, etc. However, FM professionals face challenges resulting in cost and time related productivity, efficiency and effectiveness losses. Building Information Modelling (BIM), that seeks to integrate the building lifecycle, can provide improvements and help to overcome those challenges. Thus, the paper explores how BIM can contribute to and improve the FM profession. It uses the MediaCityUK project as a case study, which is a regeneration project aiming to attract media institutions locally and worldwide and establish itself as an international centre for excellence. For this purpose, the key FM tasks are identified and a BIM model for the new university building in MediaCityUK is developed and experimented with the FM tasks by a group of FM experts. As a result, the paper explains how BIM can support FM tasks in an itemised manner. DOI: 10.4018/ij3dim.2012010104 56 International Journal of 3-D Information Modeling, 1(1), 55-73, January-March 2012 Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. sulate built facilities with specific viewpoints of stakeholders (Arayici et al., 2009). It is a methodology to integrate digital descriptions of all the building objects and their relationships to others in a precise manner, so that stakeholders can query, simulate and estimate activities and their effects of the building process as a lifecycle entity (Gillard et al., 2008). BIM incorporates a methodology based around the notion of collaboration between stakeholders using ICT to exchange valuable information throughout the lifecycle. Such collaboration is seen as the answer to the fragmentation that exists within the building industry and has caused various inefficiencies (Jordani, 2008) and it has come to a point where change is now eminent (NBIMS, 2007) because BIM can provide the required valued judgments that create more sustainable infrastructures to satisfy owners and occupants. However, it is necessary to realize that while the users and owners can change over the lifecycle of a building within different intervals, the most important aspect is to minimize the impact to the natural environment. While this can be achieved in a variety of ways using maturated BIM integrated construction methodologies, they are not discussed here due to our specific focus on facilities management. The paper aims to explore and experiment BIM for FM using the MediaCity project, where the University of Salford will have an existence in MediaCity for the conduit of Higher Education, in order to identify the extent to BIM can contribute to the facilities management (Building Maintenance, Building use Management). 2. FACILITIES MANAGEMENT (FM) PRACTICE AND CHALLENGES Facilities Management is a multi-disciplinary field encompassing multi-disciplines to ensure the functionality of built environment by integrating people, place, process and technology (Cotts et al., 2009). In scenarios such as major relocation of organisations into new buildings, FM for the building lifecycle is the key aspects that should be conducted effectively and efficiently (Nazali et al., 2009). However, there are key challenges in the current practice such as building operational life cycle management, some of which revolves around information collection retrieval and sharing (Cardellino & Finch, 2006). The challenges in FM are revealed more when the information exchange challenges are experienced during design/construction are multiplied across the lifecycle of a facility (Jordani, 2010). There is a need for optimising the building use from an FM point of view for effective and efficient building lifecycle management. 85% of the lifecycle cost of a facility occurs after construction is completed and the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Interoperability Study indicated that two-thirds of the estimated cost is lost in the US due to inefficiencies during operations and maintenance phases (Jordani, 2010; Rundell, 2006). The maintenance requirements of a building (hard issues) (Olomolaiye et al., 2004) such as maintenance of window and doors require a managed approach due to the size of the facility. It is also important to identify designed and actual occupant functions (soft issues) (Olomolaiye et al., 2004) and allocate spaces during the building life cycle for operational efficiency. Space reallocation is a consideration that should not be overlooked as the functional requirement of the owner/user may change in time that also underscores building life cycle management. A detailed list of FM tasks against which benefits from BIM is discussed later in the paper. Rundell (2006) suggested that owners and operators can mitigate their portion of the cost by using the high-quality building information from a BIM design process during the longer, more expensive maintenance and operation phase of the building’s lifecycle, while Azhar et al. (2008) states that BIM may allow facility managers to enter the decision-making process at a much earlier stage, where they can influence the design and construction. 17 more pages are available in the full version of this document, which may be purchased using the "Add to Cart" button on the product's webpage: www.igi-global.com/article/building-information-modellingbim-facilities/62570?camid=4v1 This title is available in InfoSci-Journals, InfoSci-Journal Disciplines Engineering, Natural, and Physical Science. Recommend this product to your librarian: www.igi-global.com/e-resources/libraryrecommendation/?id=2 |
Operational semantics of UML activity diagram: An application in project management | With its recent adoption by the International Organization for Standardization, we foresee that UML will be systematically used for object-oriented modeling in industry. UML activity diagrams have been typically used to model software and business processes. Due to its semi-formal semantics and high complexity, its advanced constructs such as expansion regions, interruptible regions, object nodes, time events, and compound activities are rarely used in practice. There has been significant work on formalizing UML activity diagrams in terms of its semantic domain: Petri net. However, none address the recent advanced constructs it offers. In this paper, we define the semantics of UML activity diagram using a rule-based model transformation. Verification and validation of the UML activity diagram model is then achieved by simulating and analyzing the Petri net model. We illustrate our technique by using an extension of UML activity diagram to facilitate project management tasks such as scheduling, cost estimation, and resource allocation. |
Image Labeling and Segmentation using Hierarchical Conditional Random Field Model | The use of hierarchical Conditional Random Field model deal with the problem of labeling images . At the time of labeling a new image, selection of the nearest cluster and using the related CRF model to label this image. When one give input image, one first use the CRF model to get initial pixel labels then finding the cluster with most similar images. Then at last relabeling the input image by the CRF model associated with this cluster. This paper presents a approach to label and segment specific image having correct information. |
An all-inkjet printed flexible capacitor on a textile using a new poly(4-vinylphenol) dielectric ink for wearable applications | This paper reports a flexible capacitor for wearable applications which has been all-inkjet printed on a standard 65/35 polyester cotton textile using a new poly(4-vinylphenol) (PVP) dielectric material. Capacitors form the basis of a variety of sensors, such as for proximity and touch, as well as electronic circuits. This paper reports a general fabrication printing process to realize capacitors on textiles. The parallel plate capacitor design uses a combination of heat curable silver ink and a new UV curable dielectric ink based on PVP, printed on to the textile. This new inkjet printable dielectric ink is ultra-violet (UV) cured for 100 seconds to achieve a thin dielectric film suitable for a textile based capacitor. After printing, the dielectric properties were measured and the cross-sectional film structure was observed using an SEM. The inkjet printed PVP film on the textile exhibited good insulating behavior and similar flexibility to the original textile. |
Dynamic Frame skip Deep Q Network | Deep Reinforcement Learning methods have achieved state of the art performance in learning control policies for the games in the Atari 2600 domain. One of the important parameters in the Arcade Learning Environment (ALE, [Bellemare et al., 2013]) is the frame skip rate. It decides the granularity at which agents can control game play. A frame skip value of k allows the agent to repeat a selected action k number of times. The current state of the art architectures like Deep QNetwork (DQN, [Mnih et al., 2015]) and Dueling Network Architectures (DuDQN, [Wang et al., 2015]) consist of a framework with a static frame skip rate, where the action output from the network is repeated for a fixed number of frames regardless of the current state. In this paper, we propose a new architecture, Dynamic Frame skip Deep Q-Network (DFDQN) which makes the frame skip rate a dynamic learnable parameter. This allows us to choose the number of times an action is to be repeated based on the current state. We show empirically that such a setting improves the performance on relatively harder games like Seaquest. |
A Review on the Effects of Soccer Small-Sided Games | Over the last years there has been a substantial growth in research related to specific training methods in soccer with a strong emphasis on the effects of small-sided games. The increase of research in this topic is coincident with the increase of popularity obtained by specific soccer conditioning, which involves training players to deal with soccer match situations. Given the limited time available for fitness training in soccer, the effectiveness of small-sided games as a conditioning stimulus needs to be optimized to allow players to compete at the highest level. Available studies indicate that physiological responses (e.g. heart rate, blood lactate concentration and rating of perceived exertion), tactical and technical skill requirements can be modified during small-sided games by altering factors such as the number of players, the size of the pitch, the rules of the game, and coach encouragement. However, because of the lack of consistency in small-sided games design, player fitness, age, ability, level of coach encouragement, and playing rules in each of these studies, it is difficult to make accurate conclusions on the influence of each of these factors separately. |
A Computational Framework for Determining Stereo Correspondence from a Set of Linear Spatial Filters | We present a computational framework for stereopsis based on the outputs of linear spatial lters tuned to a range of orientations and scales This approach goes beyond edge based and area based approaches by using a richer image description and incorporating several stereo cues that have previously been neglected in the computer vision literature A technique based on using the pseudo inverse is presented for charac terizing the information present in a vector of lter responses We show how in our framework viewing geometry can be recovered to determine the locations of epipolar lines An assumption that visible surfaces in the scene are piecewise smooth leads to di erential treatment of image regions corre sponding to binocularly visible surfaces surface boundaries and occluded regions that are only monocularly visible The constraints imposed by view ing geometry and piecewise smoothness are incorporated into an iterative algorithm that gives good results on random dot stereograms arti cially generated scenes and natural grey level images |
Neurobiology of decision-making: risk and reward. | Neurological patients with bilateral ventromedial (VM) lesions of the prefrontal cortex often deny, or they are not aware that they have a problem. Furthermore, they often pursue actions that bring some reward in the immediate run, despite severe long-term consequences such as the loss of job, home, and family. The somatic marker hypothesis, which provides an account of this defect in decision-making, posits that the impairment is the result of defective activation of somatic markers that normally function as covert or overt signposts for helping with the process of making choices that are advantageous to the organism. Failure to enact somatic states results from dysfunction in a neural system in which the VM cortex is one critical region. However, other neural regions, including the amygdala, and somatosensory cortices (SI, SII, and insula) are also hypothesized to be components of that same neural system. Recent evidence reveals that substance abusers suffer from decision-making deficit akin to that seen with patients with VM lesions. Thus, the strategies used to study decision-making in neurological patients have direct implications for understanding several neuropsychiatric disorders including addiction and pathological gambling. |
AN ALGORITHMIC APPROACH TO DATA PREPROCESSING IN WEB USAGE MINING | Web usage Mining is an area of web mining which deals with the extraction of interesting knowledge from logging information produced by web server. Different data mining techniques can be applied on web usage data to extract user access patterns and this knowledge can be used in variety of applications such as system improvement, web site modification, business intelligence etc. Web usage mining requires data abstraction for pattern discovery. This data abstraction is achieved through data preprocessing. In this paper we survey about the data preprocessing activities like data cleaning, data reduction and related algorithms. |
Project Selection by Using a Fuzzy TOPSIS Technique | Selection of a project among a set of possible alternatives is a difficult task that the decision maker (DM) has to face. In this paper, by using a fuzzy TOPSIS technique we propose a new method for a project selection problem. After reviewing four common methods of comparing investment alternatives (net present value, rate of return, benefit cost analysis and payback period) we use them as criteria in a TOPSIS technique. First we calculate the weight of each criterion by a pairwise comparison and then we utilize the improved TOPSIS assessment for the project selection. Keywords—Fuzzy Theory, Pairwise Comparison, Project Selection, TOPSIS Technique. |
Physiological Computing: Interfacing with the Human Nervous System | This chapter describes the physiological computing paradigm where electrophysiological changes from the human nervous system are used to interface with a computer system in real time. Physiological computing systems are categorized into five categories: muscle interfaces, brain-computer interfaces, biofeedback, biocybernetic adaptation and ambulatory monitoring. The differences and similarities of each system are described. The chapter also discusses a number of fundamental issues for the design of physiological computing system, these include: the inference between physiology and behaviour, how the system represents behaviour, the concept of the biocybernetic control loop and ethical issues. |
A 3D Dynamic Scene Analysis Framework for Development of Intelligent Transportation Systems | Holistic driving scene understanding is a critical step toward intelligent transportation systems. It involves different levels of analysis, interpretation, reasoning and decision making. In this paper, we propose a 3D dynamic scene analysis framework as the first step toward driving scene understanding. Specifically, given a sequence of synchronized 2D and 3D sensory data, the framework systematically integrates different perception modules to obtain 3D position, orientation, velocity and category of traffic participants and the ego car in a reconstructed 3D semantically labeled traffic scene. We implement this framework and demonstrate the effectiveness in challenging urban driving scenarios. The proposed framework builds a foundation for higher level driving scene understanding problems such as intention and motion prediction of surrounding entities, ego motion planning, and decision making. |
The negative predictive value of ultrasound-guided 14-gauge core needle biopsy of breast masses: a validation study of 339 cases | PURPOSE
To determine the negative predictive value of sonographically guided 14-gauge core needle biopsy of breast masses, with detailed analysis of any false-negative cases.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
We reviewed 669 cases of sonographically guided 14-gauge core needle biopsies that had benign pathologic findings. Given a benign pathology on core biopsy, true-negatives had either benign pathology on surgical excision or at least 2 years of stable imaging and/or clinical follow-up; false-negatives had malignant histology on surgical excision.
RESULTS
Follow-up was available for 339 breast lesions; 117 were confirmed to be benign via surgical excision, and 220 were stable after 2 years or more of imaging or clinical follow-up (mean follow-up time 33.1 months, range 24-64 months). The negative predictive value was determined to be 99.4%. There were 2 false-negative cases, giving a false-negative rate of 0.1%. There was no delay in diagnosis in either case because the radiologist noted discordance between imaging and core biopsy pathology, and recommended surgical excision despite the benign core biopsy pathology.
CONCLUSIONS
Sonographically guided 14-gauge core needle biopsy provides a high negative predictive value in assessing breast lesions. Radiologic/pathologic correlation should be performed to avoid delay in the diagnosis of carcinoma. |
Highly efficient neural conversion of human ES and iPS cells by dual inhibition of SMAD signaling | Current neural induction protocols for human embryonic stem (hES) cells rely on embryoid body formation, stromal feeder co-culture or selective survival conditions. Each strategy has considerable drawbacks, such as poorly defined culture conditions, protracted differentiation and low yield. Here we report that the synergistic action of two inhibitors of SMAD signaling, Noggin and SB431542, is sufficient to induce rapid and complete neural conversion of >80% of hES cells under adherent culture conditions. Temporal fate analysis reveals the appearance of a transient FGF5+ epiblast-like stage followed by PAX6+ neural cells competent to form rosettes. Initial cell density determines the ratio of central nervous system and neural crest progeny. Directed differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem (hiPS) cells into midbrain dopamine and spinal motoneurons confirms the robustness and general applicability of the induction protocol. Noggin/SB431542-based neural induction should facilitate the use of hES and hiPS cells in regenerative medicine and disease modeling and obviate the need for protocols based on stromal feeders or embryoid bodies. |
Semi-Supervised Learning for Optical Flow with Generative Adversarial Networks Supplementary Material | In this supplementary document, we present additional results to complement the paper. First, we provide the detailed configurations and parameters of the generator and discriminator in the proposed Generative Adversarial Network. Second, we present the qualitative comparisons with the state-ofthe-art CNN-based optical flow methods. The complete results and source code are publicly available on http://vllab.ucmerced.edu/wlai24/semiFlowGAN. |
The relationship between physical activity, sedentary behaviour and psychological wellbeing among adolescents | Previous studies examining the relationship between physical activity levels and broad-based measures of psychological wellbeing in adolescents have been limited by not controlling for potentially confounding variables. The present study examined the relationship between adolescents’ self-reported physical activity level, sedentary behaviour and psychological wellbeing; while controlling for a broad range of sociodemographic, health and developmental factors. The study entailed a cross-sectional school-based survey in ten British towns. Two thousand six hundred and twenty three adolescents (aged 13–16 years) reported physical activity levels, patterns of sedentary behaviour (TV/computer/video usage) and completed the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ). Lower levels of self-reported physical activity and higher levels of sedentary behaviour showed graded associations with higher SDQ total difficulties scores, both for boys (P < 0.001) and girls (P < 0.02) after adjustment for age and town. Additional adjustment for social class, number of parents, predicted school examination results, body mass index, ethnicity, alcohol intake and smoking status had little effect on these findings. Low levels of self-reported physical activity are independently associated with diminished psychological wellbeing among adolescents. Longitudinal studies may provide further insights into the relationship between wellbeing and activity levels in this population. Ultimately, randomised controlled trials are needed to evaluate the effects of increasing physical activity on psychological wellbeing among adolescents. |
28 GHz channel modeling using 3D ray-tracing in urban environments | In this paper, we analyze the radio channel characteristics at mmWave frequencies for 5G cellular communications in urban scenarios. 3D-ray tracing simulations in the downtown areas of Ottawa and Chicago are conducted in both the 2 GHz and 28 GHz bands. Each area has two different deployment scenarios, with different transmitter height and different density of buildings. Based on the observations of the ray-tracing experiments, important parameters of the radio channel model, such as path loss exponent, shadowing variance, delay spread and angle spread, are provided, forming the basis of a mmWave channel model. Based on the analysis and the 3GPP 3D-Spatial Channel Model (SCM) framework, we introduce a a preliminary mmWave channel model at 28 GHz. |
An Empirical Evaluation of the MuJava Mutation Operators | Mutation testing is used to assess the fault-finding effectiveness of a test suite. Information provided by mutation testing can also be used to guide the creation of additional valuable tests and/or to reveal faults in the implementation code. However, concerns about the time efficiency of mutation testing may prohibit its widespread, practical use. We conducted an empirical study using the MuClipse automated mutation testing plug-in for Eclipse on the back end of a small web-based application. The first objective of our study was to categorize the behavior of the mutants generated by selected mutation operators during successive attempts to kill the mutants. The results of this categorization can be used to inform developers in their mutant operator selection to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their mutation testing. The second outcome of our study identified patterns in the implementation code that remained untested after attempting to kill all mutants. |
The Dialog State Tracking Challenge | In a spoken dialog system, dialog state tracking deduces information about the user’s goal as the dialog progresses, synthesizing evidence such as dialog acts over multiple turns with external data sources. Recent approaches have been shown to overcome ASR and SLU errors in some applications. However, there are currently no common testbeds or evaluation measures for this task, hampering progress. The dialog state tracking challenge seeks to address this by providing a heterogeneous corpus of 15K human-computer dialogs in a standard format, along with a suite of 11 evaluation metrics. The challenge received a total of 27 entries from 9 research groups. The results show that the suite of performance metrics cluster into 4 natural groups. Moreover, the dialog systems that benefit most from dialog state tracking are those with less discriminative speech recognition confidence scores. Finally, generalization is a key problem: in 2 of the 4 test sets, fewer than half of the entries out-performed simple baselines. 1 Overview and motivation Spoken dialog systems interact with users via natural language to help them achieve a goal. As the interaction progresses, the dialog manager maintains a representation of the state of the dialog in a process called dialog state tracking (DST). For example, in a bus schedule information system, the dialog state might indicate the user’s desired bus route, origin, and destination. Dialog state tracking is difficult because automatic speech ∗Most of the work for the challenge was performed when the second and third authors were with Honda Research Institute, Mountain View, CA, USA recognition (ASR) and spoken language understanding (SLU) errors are common, and can cause the system to misunderstand the user’s needs. At the same time, state tracking is crucial because the system relies on the estimated dialog state to choose actions – for example, which bus schedule information to present to the user. Most commercial systems use hand-crafted heuristics for state tracking, selecting the SLU result with the highest confidence score, and discarding alternatives. In contrast, statistical approaches compute scores for many hypotheses for the dialog state (Figure 1). By exploiting correlations between turns and information from external data sources – such as maps, bus timetables, or models of past dialogs – statistical approaches can overcome some SLU errors. Numerous techniques for dialog state tracking have been proposed, including heuristic scores (Higashinaka et al., 2003), Bayesian networks (Paek and Horvitz, 2000; Williams and Young, 2007), kernel density estimators (Ma et al., 2012), and discriminative models (Bohus and Rudnicky, 2006). Techniques have been fielded which scale to realistically sized dialog problems and operate in real time (Young et al., 2010; Thomson and Young, 2010; Williams, 2010; Mehta et al., 2010). In end-to-end dialog systems, dialog state tracking has been shown to improve overall system performance (Young et al., 2010; Thomson and Young, 2010). Despite this progress, direct comparisons between methods have not been possible because past studies use different domains and system components, for speech recognition, spoken language understanding, dialog control, etc. Moreover, there is little agreement on how to evaluate dialog state tracking. Together these issues limit progress in this research area. The Dialog State Tracking Challenge (DSTC) provides a first common testbed and evaluation |
Creating , Transporting , Cutting , and Merging Liquid Droplets by Electrowetting-Based Actuation for Digital Microfluidic Circuits | This paper reports the completion of four fundamental fluidic operations considered essential to build digital microfluidic circuits, which can be used for lab-on-a-chip or micro total analysis system ( TAS): 1) creating, 2) transporting, 3) cutting, and 4) merging liquid droplets, all by electrowetting, i.e., controlling the wetting property of the surface through electric potential. The surface used in this report is, more specifically, an electrode covered with dielectrics, hence, called electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD). All the fluidic movement is confined between two plates, which we call parallel-plate channel, rather than through closed channels or on open surfaces. While transporting and merging droplets are easily verified, we discover that there exists a design criterion for a given set of materials beyond which the droplet simply cannot be cut by EWOD mechanism. The condition for successful cutting is theoretically analyzed by examining the channel gap, the droplet size and the degree of contact angle change by electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD). A series of experiments is run and verifies the criterion. A smaller channel gap, a larger droplet size and a larger change in the contact angle enhance the necking of the droplet, helping the completion of the cutting process. Creating droplets from a pool of liquid is highly related to cutting, but much more challenging. Although droplets may be created by simply pulling liquid out of a reservoir, the location of cutting is sensitive to initial conditions and turns out unpredictable. This problem of an inconsistent cutting location is overcome by introducing side electrodes, which pull the liquid perpendicularly to the main fluid path before activating the cutting. All four operations are carried out in air environment at 25 Vdc applied voltage. [862] |
Elton Mayo and Carl Rogers: A Tale of Two Techniques. | Abstract This article examines the simultaneous appearance of nonauthoritarian interviewing and nondirective counseling, two highly similar methods introduced by two different people, Elton Mayo and Carl Rogers. The similarities and differences between the methods and their developers are evaluated against the historical context in which they appear. |
Market States and Momentum | We test overreaction theories of short-run momentum and long-run reversal in the cross section of stock returns. Momentum profits depend on the state of the market, as predicted. From 1929 to 1995, the mean monthly momentum profit following positive market returns is 0.93 percent, whereas the mean profit following negative market returns is negative 0.37 percent. The up-market momentum reverses in the long-run. Our results are robust to the conditioning information in macroeconomic factors. Moreover, we find that macroeconomic factors are unable to explain momentum profits after simple methodological adjustments to take account of microstructure concerns. |
Representation Learning for Grounded Spatial Reasoning | The interpretation of spatial references is highly contextual, requiring joint inference over both language and the environment. We consider the task of spatial reasoning in a simulated environment, where an agent can act and receive rewards. The proposed model learns a representation of the world steered by instruction text. This design allows for precise alignment of local neighborhoods with corresponding verbalizations, while also handling global references in the instructions. We train our model with reinforcement learning using a variant of generalized value iteration. The model outperforms state-of-the-art approaches on several metrics, yielding a 45% reduction in goal localization error. |
A Comprehensive Review of One-Dimensional Metal-Oxide Nanostructure Photodetectors | One-dimensional (1D) metal-oxide nanostructures are ideal systems for exploring a large number of novel phenomena at the nanoscale and investigating size and dimensionality dependence of nanostructure properties for potential applications. The construction and integration of photodetectors or optical switches based on such nanostructures with tailored geometries have rapidly advanced in recent years. Active 1D nanostructure photodetector elements can be configured either as resistors whose conductions are altered by a charge-transfer process or as field-effect transistors (FET) whose properties can be controlled by applying appropriate potentials onto the gates. Functionalizing the structure surfaces offers another avenue for expanding the sensor capabilities. This article provides a comprehensive review on the state-of-the-art research activities in the photodetector field. It mainly focuses on the metal oxide 1D nanostructures such as ZnO, SnO(2), Cu(2)O, Ga(2)O(3), Fe(2)O(3), In(2)O(3), CdO, CeO(2), and their photoresponses. The review begins with a survey of quasi 1D metal-oxide semiconductor nanostructures and the photodetector principle, then shows the recent progresses on several kinds of important metal-oxide nanostructures and their photoresponses and briefly presents some additional prospective metal-oxide 1D nanomaterials. Finally, the review is concluded with some perspectives and outlook on the future developments in this area. |
A recurrent neural network approach in predicting daily stock prices an application to the Sri Lankan stock market | Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) is a sub type of neural networks that use feedback connections. Several types of RNN models are used in predicting financial time series. This study was conducted to develop models to predict daily stock prices of selected listed companies of Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) based on Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) Approach and to measure the accuracy of the models developed and identify the shortcomings of the models if present. Feedforward, Simple Recurrent Neural Network (SRNN), Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) and Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) architectures were employed in building models. Closing, High and Low prices of past two days were selected as input variables for each company. Feedforward networks produce the highest and lowest forecasting errors. The forecasting accuracy of the best feedforward networks is approximately 99%. SRNN and LSTM networks generally produce lower errors compared with feedforward networks but in some occasions, the error is higher than feed forward networks. Compared to other two networks, GRU networks are having comparatively higher forecasting errors. |
Physical activity for men receiving androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer: benefits from a 16-week intervention | Prostate cancer patients receiving androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) are vulnerable to a number of potentially debilitating side effects, which can significantly impact quality of life. The role of alternate therapies, such as physical activity (PA), in attenuating these side effects is largely understudied for such a large population. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of PA intervention for men receiving ADT on PA behavior, quality of life, and fitness measures. One hundred participants were randomized into an intervention (n = 53) or a wait-list control group (n = 47), with 11 dropping out of the intervention group and 23 dropping out of the wait-list control group prior to post-testing. The intervention consisted of both an individually tailored home-based aerobic and light resistant training program and weekly group sessions. PA, quality of life, fitness, and physiological outcomes were assessed pre and post the 16-week intervention. Significant increases in PA, supported by changes in girth measures and blood pressure, support the beneficial impact of the intervention. Positive trends were also evident for depression and fatigue. However, due to the high dropout rate, these results must be interpreted with caution. PA effectively attenuates many of the side effects of ADT and should be recommended to prostate survivors as an alternate therapy. Determining the maintenance of this behavior change will be important for understanding how the long-term benefits of increased activity levels may alleviate the late effects of ADT. |
BackTap: robust four-point tapping on the back of an off-the-shelf smartphone | We present BackTap, an interaction technique that extends the input modality of a smartphone to add four distinct tap locations on the back case of a smartphone. The BackTap interaction can be used eyes-free with the phone in a user's pocket, purse, or armband while walking, or while holding the phone with two hands so as not to occlude the screen with the fingers. We employ three common built-in sensors on the smartphone (microphone, gyroscope, and accelerometer) and feature a lightweight heuristic implementation. In an evaluation with eleven participants and three usage conditions, users were able to tap four distinct points with 92% to 96% accuracy. |
Three-Dimensional Face Recognition in the Presence of Facial Expressions: An Annotated Deformable Model Approach | In this paper, we present the computational tools and a hardware prototype for 3D face recognition. Full automation is provided through the use of advanced multistage alignment algorithms, resilience to facial expressions by employing a deformable model framework, and invariance to 3D capture devices through suitable preprocessing steps. In addition, scalability in both time and space is achieved by converting 3D facial scans into compact metadata. We present our results on the largest known, and now publicly available, face recognition grand challenge 3D facial database consisting of several thousand scans. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest performance reported on the FRGC v2 database for the 3D modality |
Development of micromanipulator and haptic interface for networked micromanipulation | In this paper, telemicromanipulation systems with haptic feedback, which are connected through network, are proposed. It is based on scaled bilateral teleoperation systems between different structures. These systems are composed of an original 6 degree of freedom (DOF) parallel link manipulator to carry out micromanipulation and a 6-DOF haptic interface with force feedback. A parallel mechanism is adopted as a slave micromanipulator because of its good features of accuracy and stiffness. The system modeling and control of the parallel manipulator system are conducted. Parallel manipulator feasibility as micromanipulator, positioning accuracy and device control characteristics are investigated. The haptic master interface is developed for micromanipulation systems. System modeling and model reference adaptive controller are conducted to compensate friction force, which spoils free motion performance and force response isotropy of the haptic interface. These systems aim to make the micromanipulation more productive constructing a better human interface through the microenvironment force and scale expansion. |
DeepLogo: Hitting Logo Recognition with the Deep Neural Network Hammer | Recently, there has been a flurry of industrial activity around logo recognition, such as Ditto’s service for marketers to track their brands in user-generated images, and LogoGrab’s mobile app platform for logo recognition. However, relatively little academic or open-source logo recognition progress has been made in the last four years. Meanwhile, deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) have revolutionized a broad range of object recognition applications. In this work, we apply DCNNs to logo recognition. We propose several DCNN architectures, with which we surpass published state-of-art accuracy on a popular logo recognition dataset. |
Charge and discharge characteristics of lead-acid battery and LiFePO4 battery | The charge and discharge characteristics of lead-acid battery and LiFePO4 battery is proposed in this paper. The purpose of this paper lies in offering the pulse current charger of higher peak value which can shorten the charging time to reach the goal of charging fast and also avoids the polarization phenomena produced while charging the voltage and current signal simultaneously, supervising whole charging course of the battery, avoiding the situation of excessive charging, and ensuring the life of battery. The hardware circuit of this pulse current charger adopts the power electronic elements for the main structure, uses Digital Signal Processor as the core of the controller, and substantially decreases the volume of charger and the loss of circuit. Besides, the input power supply of this charger is utility, greatly facilitating its using or carrying, which contributes to the development of variety of electric equipments in the future. |
UNDERSTANDING FLAVOR MIXING IN QUANTUM FIELD THEORY | We report on recent results showing that a rich non-perturbative vacuum structure is associated with flavor mixing in Quantum Field Theory.
We treat explicitly the case of mixing among three generations of Dirac fermions.
Exact oscillation formulas are presented exhibiting new features with respect to the usual ones. CP and T violation are also discussed. |
A Distributed 3D Graphics Library | We present Repo-3D, a general-purpose, object-oriented library developing distributed, interactive 3D graphics applications acr a range of heterogeneous workstations. Repo-3D is designe make it easy for programmers to rapidly build prototypes usin familiar multi-threaded, object-oriented programming paradig All data sharing of both graphical and non-graphical data is do via general-purpose remote and replicated objects, presenting illusion of a single distributed shared memory. Graphical obje are directly distributed, circumventing the “duplicate databas problem and allowing programmers to focus on the applicat details. Repo-3D is embedded in Repo, an interpreted, lexically-scop distributed programming language, allowing entire applications be rapidly prototyped. We discuss Repo-3D’s design, and introd the notion of local variations to the graphical objects, which allow local changes to be applied to shared graphical structures. L variations are needed to support transient local changes, suc highlighting, and responsive local editing operations. Finally, w discuss how our approach could be applied using other progr ming languages, such as Java. |
Bidirectional relighting for 3D-aided 2D face recognition | In this paper, we present a new method for bidirectional relighting for 3D-aided 2D face recognition under large pose and illumination changes. During subject enrollment, we build subject-specific 3D annotated models by using the subjects' raw 3D data and 2D texture. During authentication, the probe 2D images are projected onto a normalized image space using the subject-specific 3D model in the gallery. Then, a bidirectional relighting algorithm and two similarity metrics (a view-dependent complex wavelet structural similarity and a global similarity) are employed to compare the gallery and probe. We tested our algorithms on the UHDB11 and UHDB12 databases that contain 3D data with probe images under large lighting and pose variations. The experimental results show the robustness of our approach in recognizing faces in difficult situations. |
A Deep Network with Visual Text Composition Behavior | While natural languages are compositional, how state-of-the-art neural models achieve compositionality is still unclear. We propose a deep network, which not only achieves competitive accuracy for text classification, but also exhibits compositional behavior. That is, while creating hierarchical representations of a piece of text, such as a sentence, the lower layers of the network distribute their layer-specific attention weights to individual words. In contrast, the higher layers compose meaningful phrases and clauses, whose lengths increase as the networks get deeper until fully composing the sentence. |
Urinary cannabinoid detection times after controlled oral administration of delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol to humans. | BACKGROUND
Urinary cannabinoid excretion and immunoassay performance were evaluated by semiquantitative immunoassay and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis of metabolite concentrations in 4381 urine specimens collected before, during, and after controlled oral administration of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
METHODS
Seven individuals received 0, 0.39, 0.47, 7.5, and 14.8 mg THC/day in this double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, clinical study conducted on a closed research ward. THC doses (hemp oils with various THC concentrations and the therapeutic drug Marinol) were administered three times daily for 5 days. All urine voids were collected over the 10-week study and later tested by Emit II, DRI, and CEDIA immunoassays and by GC/MS. Detection rates, detection times, and sensitivities, specificities, and efficiencies of the immunoassays were determined.
RESULTS
At the federally mandated immunoassay cutoff (50 microg/L), mean detection rates were <0.2% during ingestion of the two low doses typical of current hemp oil THC concentrations. The two high doses produced mean detection rates of 23-46% with intermittent positive tests up to 118 h. Maximum metabolite concentrations were 5.4-38.2 microg/L for the low doses and 19.0-436 micro g/L for the high doses. Emit II, DRI, and CEDIA immunoassays had similar performance efficiencies of 92.8%, 95.2%, and 93.9%, respectively, but differed in sensitivity and specificity.
CONCLUSIONS
The use of cannabinoid-containing foodstuffs and cannabinoid-based therapeutics, and continued abuse of oral cannabis require scientific data for accurate interpretation of cannabinoid tests and for making reliable administrative drug-testing policy. At the federally mandated cannabinoid cutoffs, it is possible but unlikely for a urine specimen to test positive after ingestion of manufacturer-recommended doses of low-THC hemp oils. Urine tests have a high likelihood of being positive after Marinol therapy. The Emit II and DRI assays had adequate sensitivity and specificity, but the CEDIA assay failed to detect many true-positive specimens. |
Breast cancer. Knowledge, attitudes and practices of breast self examination among women in Qassim region of Saudi Arabia. | OBJECTIVE
To determine the knowledge, attitudes and practices of women in Qassim region regarding breast self examination (BSE), and also to explore their level of knowledge regarding breast cancer.
METHODS
We conducted a cross-sectional survey during the period from May to June 2005, among Saudi female patients attending the Primary Health Care Centers of Qassim region. A total of 300 females, 20-70 years of age, were interviewed in 10 randomly selected primary health care centers.
RESULTS
The mean age of the participants was 36.2 +/- 10.2 years, and 70.7% of them were literate. Regarding the knowledge of risk factors, 76% of the respondents had 3 or more correct answers out of the total 7 questions. Twenty-six percent of the respondents did not know the presenting symptom of breast cancer. Whereas, 69.7% of the participants had never heard of BSE. The participants had a positive attitude towards learning BSE. Of the total respondents, 18.7% reported that they practice BSE, majority (57%) of whom had started performing it within the previous year. However, 74% of the respondents did not have access to breast health information.
CONCLUSION
This study concludes that the level of awareness of the females of Qassim region regarding breast cancer and BSE is not adequate and a health education program for this subject should be introduced in the region. |
Local Indicators of Spatial Association | The capabilities for visualization, rapid data retrieval, and manipulation in geographic information systems (GIS) have created the need for new techniques of exploratory data analysis that focus on the "spatial" aspects of the data. The identification of local patterns of spatial association is an important concern in this respect. In this paper, I outline a new general class of local indicators of spatial association (LISA) and show how they allow for the decomposition of global indicators, such as Moran's I, into the contribution of each observation. The LISA statistics serve two purposes. On one hand, they may be interpreted as indicators of local pockets of nonstationarity, or hot spots, similar to the Gi and G; statistics of Getis and Ord (1992). On the other hand, they may be used to assess the influence of individual locations on the magnitude of the global statistic and to identify "outliers," as in Anselin's Moran scatterplot (1993a). An initial evaluation of the properties of a LISA statistic is carried out for the local Moran, which is applied in a study of the spatial pattern of conflict for African countries and in a number of Monte Carlo simulations. |
The effects of a whole grain-enriched hypocaloric diet on cardiovascular disease risk factors in men and women with metabolic syndrome. | BACKGROUND
Whole-grain foods are associated in observational studies with a lower body mass index and lower cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. However, few clinical trials have tested whether incorporating whole grains into a hypocaloric diet increases weight loss and improves CVD risk factors.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to determine whether including whole-grain foods in a hypocaloric (reduced by 500 kcal/d) diet enhances weight loss and improves CVD risk factors.
DESIGN
Obese adults (25 M, 25 F) with metabolic syndrome were randomly assigned to receive dietary advice either to avoid whole-grain foods or to obtain all of their grain servings from whole grains for 12 wk. All participants were given the same dietary advice in other respects for weight loss.
RESULTS
Body weight, waist circumference, and percentage body fat decreased significantly (P<0.001) in both groups over the study period, but there was a significantly (P=0.03) greater decrease in percentage body fat in the abdominal region in the whole-grain group than in the refined-grain group. C-reactive protein (CRP) decreased 38% in the whole-grain group independent of weight loss but was unchanged in the refined-grain group (P=0.01 for group x time interaction). Total, LDL, and HDL cholesterol decreased in both diet groups (P<0.05). Dietary fiber and magnesium intakes increased in the whole-grain but not the refined-grain group (P=0.007 and P<0.001, respectively, for group x time interaction).
CONCLUSIONS
Both hypocaloric diets were effective means of improving CVD risk factors with moderate weight loss. There were significantly (P<0.05) greater decreases in CRP and percentage body fat in the abdominal region in participants consuming whole grains than in those consuming refined grains. |
Pastry: Scalable, distributed object location and routing for large-scale peer-to- | This paper presents the design and evaluation of Pastry, a sc al ble, distributed object location and routing scheme for wide-ar a peer-to-peer applications. Pastry performs application-level routing and ob ject location in a potentially very large overlay network of nodes connected via the Int rnet. It can be used to support a wide range of peer-to-peer applications li ke g obal data storage, global data sharing, and naming. An insert operation in Pastry stores an object at a user-defin ed number of diverse nodes within the Pastry network. A lookup operation reliabl y retrieves a copy of the requested object if one exists. Moreover, a lookup is usu ally routed to the node nearest the client issuing the lookup (by some measure of pro ximity), among the nodes storing the requested object. Pastry is completely de centralized, scalable, and self-configuring; it automatically adapts to the arriva l, departure and failure of nodes. Experimental results obtained with a prototype implementa tion on a simulated network of up to 100,000 nodes confirm Pastry’s scalability, its ability to selfconfigure and adapt to node failures, and its good network loc ality properties. |
The JAK 2 V 617 F activating mutation occurs in chronic myelomonocytic leukemia and acute myeloid leukemia , but not in acute lymphoblastic leukemia or chronic lymphocytic leukemia | Activating mutations in tyrosine kinases have been identified in hematopoietic and nonhematopoietic malignancies. Recently, we and others identified a single recurrent somatic activating mutation (JAK2V617F) in the Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) tyrosine kinase in the myeloproliferative disorders (MPDs) polycythemia vera, essential thrombocythemia, and myeloid metaplasia with myelofibrosis. We used direct sequence analysis to determine if the JAK2V617F mutation was present in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML)/atypical chronic myelogenous leukemia (aCML), myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), T-cell ALL, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Analysis of 222 patients with AML identified JAK2V617F mutations in 4 patients with AML, 3 of whom had a preceding MPD. JAK2V617F mutations were identified in 9 (7.8%) of 116 CMML/a CML samples, and in 2 (4.2%) of 48 MDS samples. We did not identify the JAK2V617F disease allele in B-lineage ALL (n 83), T-cell ALL (n 93), or CLL (n 45). These data indicate that the JAK2V617F allele is present in acute and chronic myeloid malignancies but not in lymphoid malignancies. (Blood. 2005; 106:3377-3379) |
Count Your Eggs Before They Invade: Identifying and Quantifying Egg Clutches of Two Invasive Apple Snail Species (Pomacea) | Winning the war against invasive species requires early detection of invasions. Compared to terrestrial invaders, aquatic species often thrive undetected under water and do not garner notice until too late for early action. However, fortunately for managers, apple snails (Family Ampullariidae, Genus Pomacea) provide their own conspicuous sign of invasion in the form of vibrantly colored egg clutches. Managers can potentially use egg clutches laid in the riparian zone as a means of early detection and species identification. To facilitate such efforts, we quantified differences in characteristics (length, width, depth, mass, egg number) of field-laid clutches for the two most common invasive species of apple snail, P. canaliculata and P. maculata, in native and non-native populations. Pomacea canaliculata native and non-native populations differed noticeably only in width. Native P. maculata clutches possessed significantly greater width, mass and eggs numbers compared with native P. canaliculata. Non-native P. maculata clutches significantly exceeded all other populations in all measured characteristics. Consequently, these traits may successfully distinguish between species. Fecundity data also allowed us to develop models that accurately estimated the number of eggs per clutch for each species based on clutch dimensions. We tested one, two and three dimensional models of clutches, including rendering a clutch as either a complete ellipsoid or an ellipsoid intersected by a cylinder to represent the oviposition site. Model comparisons found the product of length and depth, with a different function for each population, best predicted egg number for both species. Comparisons of egg number to clutch volume and mass implied non-native P. canaliculata may be food limited, while non-native P. maculata appeared to produce such enormous clutches by having access to greater nutrients than the native population. With these new tools, researchers and managers can quickly identify, quantify and begin eradication of new non-native apple snail populations. |
Optimal projector configuration design for 300-Mpixel multi-projection 3D display. | To achieve an immersive natural 3D experience on a large screen, a 300-Mpixel multi-projection 3D display that has a 100-inch screen and a 40° viewing angle has been developed. To increase the number of rays emanating from each pixel to 300 in the horizontal direction, three hundred projectors were used. The projector configuration is an important issue in generating a high-quality 3D image, the luminance characteristics were analyzed and the design was optimized to minimize the variation in the brightness of projected images. The rows of the projector arrays were repeatedly changed according to a predetermined row interval and the projectors were arranged in an equi-angular pitch toward the constant central point. As a result, we acquired very smooth motion parallax images without discontinuity. There is no limit of viewing distance, so natural 3D images can be viewed from 2 m to over 20 m. |
GPU-FV: Realtime Fisher Vector and Its Applications in Video Monitoring | Fisher vector has been widely used in many multimedia retrieval and visual recognition applications with good performance. However, the computation complexity prevents its usage in real-time video monitoring. In this work, we proposed and implemented GPU-FV, a fast Fisher vector extraction method with the help of modern GPUs. The challenge of implementing Fisher vector on GPUs lies in the data dependency in feature extraction and expensive memory access in Fisher vector computing. To handle these challenges, we carefully designed GPU-FV in a way that utilizes the computing power of GPU as much as possible, and applied optimizations such as loop tiling to boost the performance. GPU-FV is about 12 times faster than the CPU version, and 50\% faster than a non-optimized GPU implementation. For standard video input (320*240), GPU-FV can process each frame within 34ms on a model GPU. Our experiments show that GPU-FV obtains a similar recognition accuracy as traditional FV on VOC 2007 and Caltech 256 image sets. We also applied GPU-FV for realtime video monitoring tasks and found that GPU-FV outperforms a number of previous works. Especially, when the number of training examples are small, GPU-FV outperforms the recent popular deep CNN features borrowed from ImageNet. |
Artificial muscle technology: physical principles and naval prospects | The increasing understanding of the advantages offered by fish and insect-like locomotion is creating a demand for muscle-like materials capable of mimicking nature's mechanisms. Actuator materials that employ voltage, field, light, or temperature driven dimensional changes to produce forces and displacements are suggesting new approaches to propulsion and maneuverability. Fundamental properties of these new materials are presented, and examples of potential undersea applications are examined in order to assist those involved in device design and in actuator research to evaluate the current status and the developing potential of these artificial muscle technologies. Technologies described are based on newly explored materials developed over the past decade, and also on older materials whose properties are not widely known. The materials are dielectric elastomers, ferroelectric polymers, liquid crystal elastomers, thermal and ferroelectric shape memory alloys, ionic polymer/metal composites, conducting polymers, and carbon nanotubes. Relative merits and challenges associated with the artificial muscle technologies are elucidated in two case studies. A summary table provides a quick guide to all technologies that are discussed. |
Transcriptional control of fleshy fruit development and ripening. | Fleshy fruits have evolved to be attractive to frugivores in order to enhance seed dispersal, and have become an indispensable part of the human diet. Here we review the recent advances in the understanding of transcriptional regulation of fleshy fruit development and ripening with a focus on tomato. While aspects of fruit development are probably conserved throughout the angiosperms, including the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, it is shown that the likely orthologues of Arabidopsis genes have distinct functions in fleshy fruits. The model for the study of fleshy fruit development is tomato, because of the availability of single gene mutants and transgenic knock-down lines. In other species, our knowledge is often incomplete or absent. Tomato fruit size and shape are co-determined by transcription factors acting during formation of the ovary. Other transcription factors play a role in fruit chloroplast formation, and upon ripening impact quality aspects such as secondary metabolite content. In tomato, the transcription factors NON-RIPENING (NOR), COLORLESS NON-RIPENING (CNR), and RIPENING INHIBITOR (MADS-RIN) in concert with ethylene signalling regulate ripening, possibly in response to a developmental switch. Additional components include TOMATO AGAMOUS-LIKE1 (TAGL1), APETALA2a (AP2a), and FRUITFULL (FUL1 and FUL2). The links between this highly connected regulatory network and downstream effectors modulating colour, texture, and flavour are still relatively poorly understood. Intertwined with this network is post-transcriptional regulation by fruit-expressed microRNAs targeting several of these transcription factors. This important developmental process is also governed by changes in DNA methylation levels and possibly chromatin remodelling. |
Ocimum gratissimum: A Review of its Chemical, Pharmacological andEthnomedicinal Properties | Ocimum gratissimum is a well-known plant used in the Indian system of medicine. Folklore medicine claims its use in headache, fever, diarrhoea, pneumonia etc. Research carried out using different in vitro and in vivo techniques of biological evaluation supports most of the claims. This review presents the ethnobotanical, natural product chemistry, pharmacological, clinical and toxicological data of the plant. |
An Airborne Radar Power Supply With Contactless Transfer of Energy—Part I: Rotating Transformer | Reliability and precision are key requirements for electronic systems in aerospace applications. Transferring electrical energy from a stationary to a moving device involves wearable parts such as slip rings and brushes. This paper examines the possibility of using a rotating transformer for contactless transfer of energy from the base to the revolving platform of an airborne radar system. The first part of the series focuses on the magnetic interface, investigating its electrical properties and their association with the core and windings geometry. The reader will gain an understanding of the merits and limitations of this technology and will be able to assess its suitability for other applications. The effects of the increased leakage and reduced magnetizing inductances of the transformer are investigated, and two winding layouts are proposed and characterized by measurements and finite-element analysis. Some equations are presented along with practical guidelines on designing a rotating transformer with a 0.25-2-mm air gap. The transformer voltage gain and efficiency plots are introduced as performance-assessment tools. The impact of the air-gap stray flux on the winding conduction losses is shown, and some electromagnetic-compatibility considerations are presented. Finally, a mechanical layout for a 1-kW rotating transformer is proposed. |
Efficient Transformerless MOSFET Inverter for a Grid-Tied Photovoltaic System | The unipolar sinusoidal pulse width modulation full-bridge transformerless photovoltaic (PV) inverter can achieve high efficiency by using latest superjunction metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) together with silicon carbide (SiC) diodes. However, the MOSFETs aSiCre limited to use in transformerless PV inverter due to the low reverse-recovery characteristics of the body diode. In this paper, a family of new transformerless PV inverter topology for a single-phase grid-tied operation is proposed using superjunction MOSFETs and SiC diodes as no reverse-recovery issues are required for the main power switches for unity power operation. The added clamping branch clamps the freewheeling voltage at the half of dc input voltage during the freewheeling period. As a result, the common-mode voltage kept constant during the whole grid period that reduces the leakage current significantly. In addition, dead time is not necessary for main power switches at both the high-frequency commutation and the grid zero crossing instant, results low-current distortion at output. Finally, a 1-kW prototype is built and tested to verify the theoretical analysis. The experimental results show 98.5% maximum efficiency and 98.32% European efficiency. Furthermore, to show the effectiveness, the proposed topology is compared with the other transformerless topologies. |
Probabilistic multi-class segmentation for the Amazon Picking Challenge | We present a method for multi-class segmentation from RGB-D data in a realistic warehouse picking setting. The method computes pixel-wise probabilities and combines them to find a coherent object segmentation. It reliably segments objects in cluttered scenarios, even when objects are translucent, reflective, highly deformable, have fuzzy surfaces, or consist of loosely coupled components. The robust performance results from the exploitation of problem structure inherent to the warehouse setting. The proposed method proved its capabilities as part of our winning entry to the 2015 Amazon Picking Challenge. We present a detailed experimental analysis of the contribution of different information sources, compare our method to standard segmentation techniques, and assess possible extensions that further enhance the algorithm's capabilities. We release our software and data sets as open source. |
Views MED 23 : a new Mediator of H 2 B monoubiquitylation | The Mediator multiprotein complex physically links transcription factors to RNA polymerase II and the basal transcription machinery. While the Mediator complex has been shown to be required for transcriptional initiation and elongation, the understanding of its interplay with histone modifying enzymes and posttranslational modifications remains elusive. In this issue of The EMBO Journal, Yao et al (2015) report that the MED23 subunit of the Mediator complex physically associates with the heterodimeric RNF20/40 E3-ligase complex to facilitate the monoubiquitylation of histone H2B on gene bodies of actively transcribed genes. |
Strontium ranelate phase 2 dose-ranging studies: PREVOS and STRATOS studies | The aim of the PREVOS study (PREVention Of early postmenopausal bone loss by Strontium ranelate) and the STRATOS study (STRontium Administration for Treatment of OSteoporosis) was to determine the minimum dose at which strontium ranelate (SR) is effective in, respectively, the prevention of bone loss in early postmenopausal nonosteoporotic women and the treatment of postmenopausal vertebral osteoporosis. Both studies were randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-finding studies in parallel groups and lasted 2 years. In the PREVOS study, 160 early postmenopausal women were randomized to receive placebo, SR 125 mg/day, 500 mg/day or 1 g/day. In the STRATOS study, 353 osteoporotic postmenopausal women with at least one previous vertebral fracture and a lumbar T-score <−2.4 were randomized to receive placebo, SR 500 mg/day, 1 g/day or 2 g/day. In both studies, the primary efficacy parameter was lumbar bone mineral density (BMD) measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Secondary efficacy criteria included incidence of new vertebral deformities (in the STRATOS study only) and biochemical markers of bone metabolism. In the PREVOS study, the increase in lumbar BMD from baseline in the 1 g/day group (+5.53%) was significantly different from the decrease in the placebo group (p<0.001). In the STRATOS study, the annual increase in lumbar BMD in the 2 g/day group (+7.3% per year) was significantly higher than in the placebo group (p<0.001). There was a significant reduction in the number of patients experiencing new vertebral deformities in the second year of treatment in the 2 g/day group (relative risk: 0.56; 95% confidence interval: 0.35, 0.89). In both studies, there was a significant increase in the bone formation marker (bone alkaline phosphatase) in the higher-dose group. Urinary excretion of the marker of bone resorption (cross-linked N-telopeptide) was lower with SR than with placebo in the STRATOS study. SR was very well tolerated in both studies. The minimum dose at which SR is effective in preventing bone loss in early postmenopausal nonosteoporotic women and in the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis is 1 g/day and 2 g/day, respectively. |
Uses and Gratifications Theory in the 21st Century | Some mass communications scholars have contended that uses and gratifications is not a rigorous social science theory. In this article, I argue just the opposite, and any attempt to speculate on the future direction of mass communication theory must seriously include the uses and gratifications approach. In this article, I assert that the emergence of computer-mediated communication has revived the significance of uses and gratifications. In fact, uses and gratifications has always provided a cutting-edge theoretical approach in the initial stages of each new mass communications medium: newspapers, radio and television, and now the Internet. Although scientists are likely to continue using traditional tools and typologies to answer questions about media use, we must also be prepared to expand our current theoretical models of uses and gratifications. Contemporary and future models must include concepts such as interactivity, demassification, hypertextuality, and asynchroneity. Researchers must also be willing to explore interpersonal and qualitative aspects of mediated communication in a more holistic methodology. |
Independence and Bipolarity in the Structure of Current Affect | The independence of positive and negative affect has been heralded as a major and counterintuitive finding in the psychology of mood and emotion. Still, other findings support the older view that positive and negative fall at opposite ends of a single bipolar continuum. Independence versus bipolarity can be reconciled by considering (a) the activation dimension of affect, (b) random and systematic measurement error, and (c) how items are selected to achieve an appropriate test of bipolarity. In 3 studies of self-reported current affect, random and systematic error were controlled through multiformat measurement and confirmatory factor analysis. Valence was found to be independent of activation, positive affect the bipolar opposite of negative affect, and deactivation the bipolar opposite of activation. The dimensions underlying D. Watson, L. A. Clark, and A. Tellegen's (1988) Positive and Negative Affect schedule were accounted for by the valence and activation dimensions. |
The effects of magnetic fields on plant growth and health | De Souza et al. showed that the growth and yield of lettuce could be improved by treatment of its seeds before they were grown, using rectified sinusoidal non-uniform electromagnetic fields.[1] It was observed that magnetism has effects on lettuce at the nursery, vegetative, and maturity stages, including a significant increase in root length and shoot height, a greater growth rate, and a significant increase in plant height, leaf area, and fresh mass. Positive biological effects of magnetism on sunflower and wheat seedlings weights were reported.[2] Further data show that the magnetic field induced by the voltage of a specific waveform enhanced or inhibited mung bean growth, depending on the frequencies,[3] which suggests that the magnetic field on plant growth may be sensitive to the waveform and frequency of the source electrical voltage. The effect of static magnetic field on plant growth has also been studied. Cakmak et al. found that static magnetic field accelerated germination and early growth of wheat and bean seeds.[4] Vashisth et al. obtained similar results with chickpeas; furthermore, they found that the responses of the plant to static magnetic field varied with field strength and duration of exposure with no particular trend.[5] However, as indicated by a literature review, weak magnetic field exhibited negative effects on plant growth, such as inhibition of primary root growth, in some cases.[6] For instance, exposure to magnetic field inhibited early growth of radish seedlings with decrease in the weight and leaf area.[7] An interesting result is that the biological effect of a magnetic field is different between the south and north poles, as illustrated by a study, which showed that radish seedlings had a significant tropic response to the south pole of the magnet, but insignificant response to the north pole. [7] It is theorized that the south pole of the magnet enhances plant and bacterial A study was conducted to test the hypothesis that a magnetic field can affect plant growth and health. The study divided plants into three groups. The first group of plant seeds grew in a low magnetic field. The second group grew in a high magnetic field. The third group grew in the absence of a magnetic field, serving as a control group. Several growth parameters were measured, including the germination rate, plant height, and leaf size. In addition, the health status was measured by leaf color, spots, the stem curvature, and the death rate. Plant growth was observed continuously for four weeks. The results showed that magnetism had a significant positive effect on plant growth. Plant seeds under the influence of the magnetic field had a higher germination rate, and these plants grew taller, larger, and healthier than those in the control group. No adverse effects of magnetism on plant growth were noticed. However, the removal of the magnetic field weakened the plant stem, suggesting the role of magnetism in supplying plants with energy. Edward Fu |
Validation of the Hasford score in a demographic study in chronic granulocytic leukaemia. | Chronic granulocytic leukaemia (CGL) is a rare disease. For most patients the only curative treatment (an allogeneic stem cell transplant) is not available. Survival varies between a few months to many years from diagnosis, and an accurate prediction of the duration of survival could help patients and clinicians make informed decisions about the many treatment options. In 1984, the Sokal score was introduced to stratify patients into risk groups. Recently, a new prognostic scoring system was proposed by Hasford and co-workers for interferon treated patients. We have analysed survival on an unselected population based cohort of patients using both the Hasford and the Sokal scores. In the group overall, neither score was predictive of survival, but in younger patients (< 60 years) treated with interferon, the Hasford score was highly predictive of survival, dividing patients into groups with a five year survival of 77% (45 patients) v 33% (six patients) v 14% (31 patients) (p = 0.01). |
Abnormal behavior detection using hybrid agents in crowded scenes | Please save a copy of this file, complete and upload as the " Confirmation of Authorship " file. 1. This manuscript, or a large part of it, has not been published, was not, and is not being submitted to any other journal. If presented at a conference, the conference is identified. If published in conference proceedings, the publication is identified below and substantial justification for re-publication must be presented. 2. All text and graphics, except for those marked with sources, are original works of the authors, and all necessary permissions for publication were secured prior to submission of the manuscript. 3. All authors each made a significant contribution to the research reported and have read and approved the submitted manuscript. 1. The sentence in lines 266-269 is still not properly written. Please correct to something like "Since SFM only uses interaction information between neighbor agents to detect abnormal behavior, it is not productive to detect abnormal behavior when the interaction among neighbors is not represented by the behavior of foreground objects." Answer) We rephrase the statement according to reviewer's comments Before) Since SFM is only used interaction information between neighbor agents to detect abnormal behavior, it is not productive to detect abnormal behavior when the interaction among neighbors is not represented by the behavior of foreground objects. After) Since SFM only uses interaction information between neighbor agents to detect abnormal behavior, it is not productive to detect abnormal behavior when the interaction among neighbors is not represented by the behavior of foreground objects. 2. Please include in the caption of figure 6 the methods to which the red and blue lines refer to. Answer) We modified the caption in figure 6 as follows (a) PETS 2009 dataset (b) UCSD 2009 dataset Fig. 6. Results of abnormal behavior detection in two datasets (Red line : SFM, Blue line: our method). • We categorize the behaviors of people into individual and group interactive behavior. • We propose a hybrid agent system that includes static and dynamic agents in a scene. • We represent the behavior of a crowd as a bag of words to detect abnormal behavior. *Manuscript [Word or (La)TeX] Click here to download Manuscript [Word or (La)TeX]: paper_revision_final.docx Click here to view linked References Abstract 26 In this paper, we propose a hybrid agent method to detect abnormal behaviors in a crowded 27 scene. In real-life situations, abnormal behavior occurs … |
Making the Transition: Helping Teachers To Teach Online. | Teaching in the cyberspace classroom requires moving beyond old models of. pedagogy into new practices that are more facilitative. It involves much more than simply taking old models of pedagogy and transferring them to a different medium. Unlike the face-to-face classroom, in online distance education, attention needs to be paid to the development of a sense of community within the group of participants in order for the learning process to be successful. The transition to the cyberspace classroom can be successfully achieved if attention is paid to several key areas. These include: ensuring access to and familiarity with the technology in use; establishing guidelines and procedures which are relatively loose and free-flowing, and generated with significant input from participants; striving to achieve maximum participation and "buy-in" from the participants; promoting collaborative learning; and creating a double or triple loop in the learning process to enable participants to reflect on their learning process. All of these practices significantly contribute to the development of an online learning community, a powerful tool for enhancing the learning experience. Each of these is reviewed in detail in the paper. (AEF) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Making the Transition: Helping Teachers to Teach Online Rena M. Palloff, Ph.D. Crossroads Consulting Group and The Fielding Institute Alameda, CA |
Functional outcome after stroke in patients with aphasia and neglect: assessment by the motor and cognitive functional independence measure instrument. | BACKGROUND
The role of neuropsychological deficits in predicting functional outcome in patients with aphasia and neglect at the end of rehabilitation after stroke has been poorly investigated. This was the aim of this prospective study evaluated using a Functional Independence Measure (FIM) instrument.
METHODS
Patients with a primary diagnosis of cerebrovascular accident [125 patients with aphasia, 45 with neglect and 131 without either aphasia or neglect (WAN)] were enrolled. Backward multiple linear regression analysis was used to predict motor and cognitive FIM, discharge destination, and length of stay. The independent variables were age, gender, aphasia, stroke type, stroke lesion size, comorbidity, bladder catheter, stroke severity, trunk control test, initial motor FIM, and committed caregiver identified on admission to rehabilitation.
RESULTS
At the end of rehabilitation, patients with neglect had significantly lower final motor FIM scores and lower daily efficiency improvement in motor FIM scores compared with those with aphasia (both p < 0.001) and WAN (both p < 0.001). Patients with aphasia showed lower final cognitive FIM scores compared with those with neglect (p < 0.001) and those without deficits (p < 0.001). Neglect was a predictor of final motor FIM (β = -0.24) and efficiency in motor FIM (β = -0.29), while aphasia was a predictor of final cognitive FIM (β = -0.54). Neglect and aphasia did not differ and were not predictors of discharge destination and length of stay.
CONCLUSIONS
Patients with neglect have lower motor FIM scores if compared with those with aphasia, while patients with aphasia have lower cognitive FIM scores. Neglect is a predictor of motor FIM, while aphasia is a predictor of cognitive FIM scores. |
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