bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
ESES Syndrome with Acquired Aphasia
Authors: Yamashita Sumimasa , Yamada Michiko , Iwamoto Hiroko
Published: August 2005

Case Report: A 7‐year‐old boy presented with a 2‐year history of convulsions. Birth history was unremarkable. His motor and mental development were normal until the onset of partial seizures of his face at the age of 5.3 years, usually upon awakening. CBZ failed to control seizures. At 6.3 years he began to display slow speech, drooling, and reading difficulties. Absence attacks began at age 7. Upon examination, muscle weakness and cerebellar ataxia and paresis were absent. He showed sudden loss of tone in the arms when eating or writing, considered to represent negative myoclonus. Laboratory examination including CBC, blood chemistry, CSF studies, and MRI all were normal. EEG showed continuous diffuse spike and wave bursts associated with focal spikes at mid‐temporal and central area in the sleep record. Overnight sleep EEG showed continuous diffuse spike and wave bursts during slow wave sleep. The spike wave index was about 30% among slow wave sleep stages. During REM sleep, rapid eye movements disturbed the discharges of the diffuse spike and wave complex on EEG. His intelligent quotient was about 73 in the Tanaka‐Binnet test. Attention was limited and he could not copy figures accurately due to pour eye‐hand coordination. Speech therapy evaluation found word finding difficulty, paraphasia, slow speech, misuse of different consonants, distortion of vowels, and motor articulatory disturbance or motor aphasia. He lacked oral dyspraxia. During a hospital admission, ACTH‐2 was administered intramuscularly 2 I times in addition to oral administration of valproate, phenytoin, and carbamazepine. Convulsions were controlled, and he gradually recovered from the motor aphasia. Diffuse abnormalities of EEG resolved, but focal spikes remained over centro‐temporal areas during sleep. Cognitive function and vocabulary improved. Negative myoclonus of his hand disappeared. Several months after ACTH therapy, however, he suffered from moderate difficulties with word finding and the EEG deteriorated.

Conclusions: ESES syndrome consists of “electrical status epilepticus during sleep”, “nonconvulsive status epilepticus with epileptic negative myoclonus”, “atypical benign partial epilepsy”, and “LandauKleffner syndrome“. According to Ohtahara, Landau‐Kleffner syndrome is characteristic of auditory agnosia. There have been no reports of motor aphasia associated with this syndrome. The present case does not meet criteria for “electrical status epilepticus during sleep” because of the low spike‐wave index but may be considered a variant of ESES. The distinctive features of this case are motor aphasia and negative myoclonus, as well as diffuse spike‐waves during slow wave sleep. Long‐term prognosis of this patient is not presently known.
Prognostic factors for alveolar regeneration: effect of space provision
Authors: Polimeni Giuseppe , Albandar Jasim M. , Wikesjö Ulf M. E.
Published: August 2005

Objectives: The role of space provision as an independent prognostic factor for periodontal regeneration remains to be established. The objective of this study was to evaluate the role of space provision on alveolar bone regeneration in periodontal sites.

Methods: Critical size, supra‐alveolar, periodontal defects were created in 11 young adult Beagle dogs. Six animals received a porous ePTFE device to provide for space provision. Five animals received sham surgery. The animals were euthanized at 8 weeks post‐surgery. A histometric analysis assessed vertical regeneration of alveolar bone and the width of the alveolar crest at the base of the defect. Because of the correlation of within‐dog measurements, a mixed model anova/ancova was used to analyse the data.

Results: A significant relationship between the width of the alveolar crest at the base of the defect and bone regeneration was observed with no significant difference between sites receiving the different treatments (p=0.84). Bone regeneration at sites treated with the space‐providing device was significantly greater compared with that at sites treated with sham surgery (p=0.0003), and the difference remained significant after adjusting for bone width (p=0.0001).

Conclusions: Space provision has a significant effect on alveolar bone regeneration in periodontal sites. The width of the alveolar bone appears to influence space provision effectively supporting bone regeneration.
Evaluation of dentin abrasion during professional tooth cleaning in an in vitro model
Authors: Zimmer S. , Barthel C. R. , Coffman L. , Raab W. H.‐M. , Hefferren J. J.
Published: August 2005

Objectives: Professional tooth cleaning (PTC) may lead to loss of exposed dentin. The aim of the present study was to determine the absolute loss of dentin during PTC using various product combinations with an in vitro model.

Material and Methods: Dentin specimens (72) were randomly assigned to nine groups. In four groups each, prophy brushes and prophy cups were used in combination with four different abrasives (calcium pyrophosphate, pumice, Hawe cleanic, Nupro coarse). In the ninth group, a rubber cup with embedded fluoride and abrasives was used (pasteless prophy cup). The treatment time was 37 s. Surface loss was determined by profilometry.

Results: The surface loss in the nine groups was as following: (1) brush/calcium pyrophosphate: 6.18 μm (a); (2) brush/pumice: 5.51 μm; (3) brush/Nupro coarse: 10.10 μm (b); (4) brush/Hawe cleanic: 1.88 (a, b); (5) prophy cup/calcium pyrophosphate 2.07 (c); (6) prophy cup/pumice: 6.07 μm; (7) prophy cup/Nupro coarse: 5.93 μm (c); (8) prophy cup/Hawe cleanic: 4.93 μm (c); (9) pasteless prophy cup: 11.86 μm (c). Groups with the same letter in parentheses are statistically significant different at p<0.05. In a pooled analysis, no statistically significant difference between brushes and prophy cups was found.

Conclusion: In the present study, the surface loss of about eight PTC procedures was simulated. Hence, the dentin loss ranged between 0.24 and 1.48 μm per PTC. Therefore, PTC does not seem to be a main factor in dentin loss.
The natural history of periodontal disease in humans: risk factors for tooth loss in caries‐free subjects receiving no oral health care
Authors: Neely Anthony L. , Holford Theodore R. , Löe Harald , Ånerud Åge , Boysen Hans
Published: August 2005

Aim: No long‐term studies have reported on risk factors for tooth loss in subjects without home or professional dental care. The purpose of this report is to identify potential risk factors for tooth loss among male Sri Lankan tea labourers who participated in a 20‐year investigation of the natural history of periodontal disease.

Material and Methods: Data for this report were obtained from the 455 subjects who participated in multiple examinations over the 20‐year period from 1970 to 1990. Analyses included data from interim examinations in 1971, 1973, 1977, 1982 and 1985. Oral health assessments included the following: (1) attachment levels in millimetres on all mesial and mesio‐buccal surfaces, excluding third molars; (2) plaque index; (3) gingival index; (4) calculus index; (5) caries index; and (6) missing teeth. Other variables included age, history of smoking and betel nut use. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics and multivariate repeated‐measures modelling with generalized estimating equations.

Results: Tooth loss was significantly dependent upon interactions between the mean attachment loss and betel nut use (Z=3.40; p=0.0007) and history of missing teeth (Z=−3.70; p=0.0002). The effect of attachment loss on tooth loss was increased in the presence of betel nut and diminished when teeth were already missing at baseline.

Conclusion: History of missing teeth, betel nut use and increasing attachment loss were significant predictors of tooth loss over time. Betel nut use increased the effect of attachment loss on loss of teeth, while history of missing teeth diminished the effect of attachment loss on tooth loss.
ONION FLAVOR RECOVERY IN THE PROCESS OF ADSORPTION AND SUPERCRITICAL CARBON DIOXIDE DESORPTION
Authors: GUYER DANIEL E. , SAENGCHAROENRAT CHULAPORN , LIRA CARL T.
Published: August 2005

Recovery of onion oil from onion juice was accomplished by adsorption of onion oil onto a polymeric adsorbent prior to supercritical carbon dioxide desorption. At 20.7 MPa, 37C, with a carbon dioxide flow rate of 1 L standard temperature and pressure (STP) per minute, an increase in the amount of onion juice used to load the adsorbent from 1 to 6 L resulted in an increase in the gravimetric yield of onion oil desorbed by weight. Additionally, the weight of onion oil desorbed per volume of carbon dioxide used increased. However, the gravimetric yield of onion oil by percentage with respect to the amount of onion juice fed through the adsorbent decreased.
WEIGHT LOSS OF PRECOOKED CHICKEN BREAST COOLED BY VACUUM APPLICATION
Authors: HUBER E. , LAURINDO J.B.
Published: August 2005

Good manufacturing practices in the food industries that process meat demand fast cooling after cooking. Vacuum cooling is a good alternative for this purpose, in spite of the weight loss associated with water evaporation. The influence of pressure drop on this weight loss was investigated for precooked chicken breast pieces. It was observed that lower evacuation rates reduced the weight losses during vacuum‐cooling experiments. A simple numerical simulation was able to predict weight losses of breast chicken, whose results agreed very well with experimental results, showing that it is possible to monitor indirectly the weight losses by means of time–temperature data. The chicken breast samples were cooled from about 90C to about 20C in no more than 10 min by applying vacuum. Therefore, vacuum cooling may be a good technique for the integration of the cooking and cooling processes and saving energy and processing time.
On Realization of Spherical Joints In RSSR Mechanisms
Authors: Ting Kwun-Lon , Zhu Jianmin
Published: August 2005

A spherical joint must allow adequate mobility between the ball and socket. Unless the specific geometric requirement of the spherical joint, namely the trajectory of the ball stem in the socket, is known, the realization of a synthesized mechanism containing a spherical joint can become an endless trial and error process or even a fruitless attempt. Typical examples can be found in RSSR mechanisms. For a synthesized RSSR mechanism, this paper presents the closed form equation describing the spherical trajectory of the ball in the socket and the design and manufacturing issues of the spherical joints. It offers the classification scheme of spherical joints based on the required ball rotatability in the socket and shows how the necessary socket opening of the spherical joints is affected. The size and location of the socket in a spherical joint must be properly determined to meet the rotatability requirement and in many situations, a conventional spherical joint with a circular socket opening cannot be used. Essential geometric and location information regarding to the use of non-circular socket opening, spherical grooved pair, as well as revolute joints to replace the conventional spherical joints to realize a synthesized RSSR mechanism is presented. The proposed concept and method can be extrapolated to other mechanisms containing spherical joints.
Formation Damage Issues Impacting the Productivity of Low Permeability, Low Initial Water Saturation Gas Producing Formations
Authors: Bennion D. Brant , Thomas F. Brent
Published: August 2005

Very low in situ permeability gas reservoirs (Kgas<0.1mD) are very common and represent a major portion of the current exploitation market for unconventional gas production. Many of these reservoirs exist regionally in Canada and the United States and also on a worldwide basis. A considerable fraction of these formations appear to exist in a state of noncapillary equilibrium (abnormally low initial water saturation given the pore geometry and capillary pressure characteristics of the rock). These reservoirs have many unique challenges associated with the drilling and completion practices required in order to obtain economic production rates. Formation damage mechanisms affecting these very low permeability gas reservoirs, with a particular emphasis on relative permeability and capillary pressure effects (phase trapping) will be discussed in this article. Examples of reservoirs prone to these types of problems will be reviewed, and techniques which can be used to minimize the impact of formation damage on the productivity of tight gas reservoirs of this type will be presented.
Impact of Brine Flow and Mixing in the Reservoir on Scale Control Risk Assessment and Subsurface Treatment Options: Case Histories
Authors: Mackay Eric J. , Jordan Myles M.
Published: August 2005

As offshore production environments become ever more complex, particularly in deepwater regions, the risks associated with formation damage due to precipitation of inorganic scales may increase to the point that production by conventional waterflooding may cease to be viable. The ability to predict and control such formation damage can thus become critical to project success under such circumstances. The work described in this paper presents how the risk may be managed from early in the CAPEX phase of projects through to the OPEX phase by use of reservoir simulation tools to better understand the scaling potential in a reservoir and the possibilities for effective scale control. This process is illustrated by reference to a number of field examples where specific scaling problems have been identified, and the ability to implement effective scale management has been impacted by detailed fluid flow and brine-mixing calculations.
Visibility Analysis for Assembly Fixture Calibration Using Screen Space Transformation
Authors: Kong Zhenyu , Huang Wenzhen , Ceglarek Dariusz
Published: August 2005

In a number of manufacturing processes—tooling installation, calibration, and maintenance—guarantee the precision of fixtures and play important roles toward the overall quality of products. Recently, a new type of measurement equipment called a “laser tracker” was developed and utilized for assembly fixture calibration to shorten calibration time and improve the accuracy of the currently used theodolite systems. Though calibration of the assembly fixture is critical for product quality, as such, calibration time creates a significant burden for productivity of multistation assembly processes. In order to shorten calibration lead time, the number of necessary setups, determined by visibility analysis, needs to be minimized. This paper presents a screen space transformation-based visibility analysis that allows minimizing the number of setups. The screen space transformation is applied to transform the visibility problem from three- to two-dimensional space, thus, efficiently solving the visibility problem. A case study illustrates the procedure and verifies the validity of the proposed methodology. This methodology can be applied not only for manufacturing processes, such as in-line fixture calibration, but also toward analysis and optimization of AGVs, robot navigation systems, and building security.
The Self-Excitation Damping Ratio: A Chatter Criterion for Time-Domain Milling Simulations
Authors: Sims Neil D.
Published: August 2005

Regenerative chatter is known to be a key factor that limits the productivity of high speed machining. Consequently, a great deal of research has focused on developing predictive models of milling dynamics, to aid engineers involved in both research and manufacturing practice. Time-domain models suffer from being computationally intensive, particularly when they are used to predict the boundary of chatter stability, when a large number of simulation runs are required under different milling conditions. Furthermore, to identify the boundary of stability each simulation must run for sufficient time for the chatter effect to manifest itself in the numerical data, and this is a major contributor to the inefficiency of the chatter prediction process. In the present article, a new chatter criterion is proposed for time-domain milling simulations, that aims to overcome this drawback by considering the transient response of the modeled behavior, rather than the steady-state response. Using a series of numerical investigations, it is shown that in many cases the new criterion can enable the numerical prediction to be computed more than five times faster than was previously possible. In addition, the analysis yields greater detail concerning the nature of the chatter vibrations, and the degree of stability that is observed.
Crystal Structure of the Bacterial YhcH Protein Indicates a Role in Sialic Acid Catabolism
Authors: Teplyakov Alexey , Obmolova Galina , Toedt John , Galperin Michael Y. , Gilliland Gary L.
Published: August 2005

The
yhcH
gene is part of the
nan
operon in bacteria that encodes proteins involved in sialic acid catabolism. Determination of the crystal structure of YhcH from
Haemophilus influenzae
was undertaken as part of a structural genomics effort in order to assist with the functional assignment of the protein. The structure was determined at 2.2-Å resolution by multiple-wavelength anomalous diffraction. The protein fold is a variation of the double-stranded β-helix. Two antiparallel β-sheets form a funnel opened at one side, where a putative active site contains a copper ion coordinated to the side chains of two histidine and two carboxylic acid residues. A comparison to other proteins with a similar fold and analysis of the genomic context suggested that YhcH may be a sugar isomerase involved in processing of exogenous sialic acid.
Identification of a 123-Kilodalton Protein (Gli123) Involved in Machinery for Gliding Motility of
Mycoplasma mobile
Authors: Uenoyama Atsuko , Miyata Makoto
Published: August 2005

Mycoplasma mobile
glides on a glass surface in the direction of its tapered end by an unknown mechanism. Two large proteins, Gli349 and Gli521, were recently reported to be involved in glass binding and force generation/transmission, respectively, in
M. mobile
gliding. These proteins are coded tandemly with two other open reading frames (ORFs) in the order
p123-gli349-gli521-p42
on the genome. In the present study, reverse transcriptase PCR analysis suggested that these four ORFs are transcribed cistronically. To characterize the
p123
gene coding a 123-kDa protein (Gli123) of 1,128 amino acids, we raised polyclonal antibody against the Gli123 protein. Immunoblotting for Gli123 revealed that Gli123 was missing in a mutant strain, m12, which was previously isolated and characterized by a deficiency in glass binding. Sequencing analysis showed a nonsense mutation at the 523rd amino acid of the protein in the m12 mutant. Immunofluorescence microscopy with the polyclonal antibody showed that Gli123 is localized at the head-like protrusion's base, the cell neck, which is specialized for gliding, as observed for Gli349 and Gli521. Localization of the gliding proteins, Gli349 and Gli521, was disturbed in the m12 mutant, suggesting that Gli123 is essential for the positioning of gliding proteins in the cell neck.
The Lipopolysaccharide of
Brucella abortus
BvrS/BvrR Mutants Contains Lipid A Modifications and Has Higher Affinity for Bactericidal Cationic Peptides
Authors: Manterola Lorea , Moriyón Ignacio , Moreno Edgardo , Sola-Landa Alberto , Weiss David S. , Koch Michel H. J. , Howe Jörg , Brandenburg Klaus , López-Goñi Ignacio
Published: August 2005

The two-component BvrS/BvrR system is essential for
Brucella abortus
virulence. It was shown previously that its dysfunction abrogates expression of some major outer membrane proteins and increases bactericidal peptide sensitivity. Here, we report that BvrS/BvrR mutants have increased surface hydrophobicity and susceptibility to killing by nonimmune serum. The
bvrS
and
bvrR
mutant lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) bound more polymyxin B, chimeras constructed with
bvrS
mutant cells and parental LPS showed augmented polymyxin B resistance, and, conversely, parental cells and
bvrS
mutant LPS chimeras were more sensitive and displayed polymyxin B-characteristic outer membrane lesions, implicating LPS as being responsible for the phenotype of the BvrS/BvrR mutants. No qualitative or quantitative changes were detected in other envelope and outer membrane components examined: periplasmic β(1-2) glucans, native hapten polysaccharide, and phospholipids. The LPS of the mutants was similar to parental LPS in O-polysaccharide polymerization and fine structure but showed both increased underacylated lipid A species and higher acyl-chain fluidity that correlated with polymyxin B binding. These lipid A changes did not alter LPS cytokine induction, showing that in contrast to other gram-negative pathogens, recognition by innate immune receptors is not decreased by these changes in LPS structure. Transcription of
Brucella
genes required for incorporating long acyl chains into lipid A (
acpXL
and
lpxXL
) or implicated in lipid A acylation control (
bacA
) was not affected. We propose that in
Brucella
the outer membrane homeostasis depends on the functioning of BvrS/BvrR. Accordingly, disruption of BvrS/BvrR damages the outer membrane, thus contributing to the severe attenuation manifested by
bvrS
and
bvrR
mutants.
Important Role for Methionine Sulfoxide Reductase in the Oxidative Stress Response of
Xanthomonas campestris
pv. phaseoli
Authors: Vattanaviboon Paiboon , Seeanukun Chotirote , Whangsuk Wirongrong , Utamapongchai Supa , Mongkolsuk Skorn
Published: August 2005

A methionine sulfoxide reductase gene (
msrA
) from
Xanthomonas campestris
pv. phaseoli has unique expression patterns and physiological function.
msrA
expression is growth dependent and is highly induced by exposure to oxidants and
N
-ethylmaleimide in an OxyR- and OhrR-independent manner. An
msrA
mutant showed increased sensitivity to oxidants but only during stationary phase.
Aggregate operators in probabilistic databases
Authors: Ross Robert , Subrahmanian V. S. , Grant John
Published: August 2005

Though extensions to the relational data model have been proposed in order to handle probabilistic information, there has been very little work to date on handling aggregate operators in such databases. In this article, we present a very general notion of an aggregate operator and show how classical aggregation operators (such as COUNT, SUM, etc.) as well as statistical operators (such as percentiles, variance, etc.) are special cases of this general definition. We devise a formal linear programming based semantics for computing aggregates over probabilistic DBMSs, develop algorithms that satisfy this semantics, analyze their complexity, and introduce several families of approximation algorithms that run in polynomial time. We implemented all of these algorithms and tested them on a large set of data to help determine when each one is preferable.
20
th
century vs. 21
st
century C&C
Authors: Patterson David A.
Published: August 2005

As technologists, we must confront the current weaknesses and deliver on the potential opportunities of computer and communication technologies in the 21
st
century. Consider this a call to arms for tackling that challenge.
Context is key
Authors: Coutaz Joëlle , Crowley James L. , Dobson Simon , Garlan David
Published: August 2005

Context is not simply the state of a predefined environment with a fixed set of interaction resources. It's part of a process of interacting with an ever-changing environment composed of reconfigurable, migratory, distributed, and multiscale resources.
What makes the differences: benchmarking XML database implementations
Authors: Lu Hongjun , Yu Jeffrey Xu , Wang Guoren , Zheng Shihui , Jiang Haifeng , Yu Ge , Zhou Aoying
Published: August 2005

XML is emerging as a major standard for representing data on the World Wide Web. Recently, many XML storage models have been proposed to manage XML data. In order to assess an XML database's abilities to deal with XML queries, several benchmarks have also been proposed, including XMark and XMach. However, no reported studies using those benchmarks were found that can provide users with insights on the impacts of a variety of storage models on XML query performance. In this article, we report our first set of results on benchmarking a set of XML database implementations using two XML benchmarks. The selected implementations represent a wide range of approaches, including RDBMS-based systems with document-independent and document-dependent XML-relational schema mapping approaches, and XML native engines based on an Object-Oriented Model and the Document Object Model. Comprehensive experiments were conducted to study relative performance of different approaches and the important issues that affect XML query performance, such as path expression query processing, effectiveness of various partitioning, label-path, and indexing structures.
Incentive-based modeling and inference of attacker intent, objectives, and strategies
Authors: Liu Peng , Zang Wanyu , Yu Meng
Published: August 2005

Although the ability to model and infer attacker intent, objectives, and strategies (AIOS) may dramatically advance the literature of risk assessment, harm prediction, and predictive or proactive cyber defense, existing AIOS inference techniques are ad hoc and system or application specific. In this paper, we present a general incentive-based method to model AIOS and a game-theoretic approach to inferring AIOS. On one hand, we found that the concept of incentives can unify a large variety of attacker intents; the concept of utilities can integrate incentives and costs in such a way that attacker objectives can be practically modeled. On the other hand, we developed a game-theoretic AIOS formalization which can capture the inherent interdependency between AIOS and defender objectives and strategies in such a way that AIOS can be automatically inferred. Finally, we use a specific case study to show how attack strategies can be inferred in real-world attack--defense scenarios.
Performance benefits through integration hubs
Authors: Christiaanse Ellen
Published: August 2005

Some recent integration hubs provide configurations that facilitate optimization beyond the buyer-supplier dyad provided by traditional point-to-point integration. We argue that coordination so far has been preliminary dyadic but that a new era of network-level optimization is possible, providing future benefits beyond dyadic coordination and optimization mechanisms through the use of integration hubs and B2B marketplaces.
Optimizing aggregate array computations in loops
Authors: Liu Yanhong A. , Stoller Scott D. , Li Ning , Rothamel Tom
Published: August 2005

An aggregate array computation is a loop that computes accumulated quantities over array elements. Such computations are common in programs that use arrays, and the array elements involved in such computations often overlap, especially across iterations of loops, resulting in significant redundancy in the overall computations. This article presents a method and algorithms that eliminate such overlapping aggregate array redundancies and shows analytical and experimental performance improvements. The method is based on incrementalization, that is, updating the values of aggregate array computations from iteration to iteration rather than computing them from scratch in each iteration. This involves maintaining additional values not maintained in the original program. We reduce various analysis problems to solving inequality constraints on loop variables and array subscripts, and we apply results from work on array data dependence analysis. For aggregate array computations that have significant redundancy, incrementalization produces drastic speedup compared to previous optimizations; when there is little redundancy, the benefit might be offset by cache effects and other factors. Previous methods for loop optimizations of arrays do not perform incrementalization, and previous techniques for loop incrementalization do not handle arrays.
Equivalences among aggregate queries with negation
Authors: Cohen Sara , Sagiv Yehoshua , Nutt Werner
Published: August 2005

Query equivalence is investigated for disjunctive aggregate queries with negated subgoals, constants and comparisons. A full characterization of equivalence is given for the aggregation functions
count, max, sum, prod, top2
and
parity
. A related problem is that of determining, for a given natural number
N
, whether two given queries are equivalent over all databases with at most
N
constants. This problem is called
bounded equivalence
. A complete characterization of decidability of bounded equivalence is given. In particular, it is shown that this problem is decidable for all the above aggregation functions as well as for
cntd
(count distinct) and
avg
. For quasilinear queries (i.e., queries in which predicates that occur positively are not repeated), it is shown that equivalence can be decided in polynomial time for the aggregation functions
count, max, sum, prty, prod, top2
and
avg
. A similar result holds for
cntd
provided that a few additional conditions hold. The results are couched in terms of abstract characteristics of aggregation functions, and new proof techniques are used. Finally, the results above also imply that equivalence, under bag-set semantics, is decidable for nonaggregate queries with negation.
Trusting in transparency
Authors: Mercuri Rebecca T.
Published: August 2005

In providing security assurances, transparency and trust are inherently intertwined concepts, but their relationship is not well understood.
Software reuse for scientific computing through program generation
Authors: Erwig Martin , Fu Zhe
Published: August 2005

We present a program-generation approach to address a software-reuse challenge in the area of scientific computing. More specifically, we describe the design of a program generator for the specification of subroutines that can be generic in the dimensions of arrays, parameter lists, and called subroutines. We describe the application of that approach to a real-world problem in scientific computing which requires the generic description of inverse ocean modeling tools. In addition to a compiler that can transform generic specifications into efficient Fortran code for models, we have also developed a type system that can identify possible errors already in the specifications. This type system is important for the acceptance of the program generator among scientists because it prevents a large class of errors in the generated code.
What's hot and what's not: tracking most frequent items dynamically
Authors: Cormode Graham , Muthukrishnan S.
Published: August 2005

Most database management systems maintain statistics on the underlying relation. One of the important statistics is that of the “hot items” in the relation: those that appear many times (most frequently, or more than some threshold). For example, end-biased histograms keep the hot items as part of the histogram and are used in selectivity estimation. Hot items are used as simple outliers in data mining, and in anomaly detection in many applications.We present new methods for dynamically determining the hot items at any time in a relation which is undergoing deletion operations as well as inserts. Our methods maintain small space data structures that monitor the transactions on the relation, and, when required, quickly output all hot items without rescanning the relation in the database. With user-specified probability, all hot items are correctly reported. Our methods rely on ideas from “group testing.” They are simple to implement, and have provable quality, space, and time guarantees. Previously known algorithms for this problem that make similar quality and performance guarantees cannot handle deletions, and those that handle deletions cannot make similar guarantees without rescanning the database. Our experiments with real and synthetic data show that our algorithms are accurate in dynamically tracking the hot items independent of the rate of insertions and deletions.
Fast multi-level adaptation for interactive autonomous characters
Authors: Dinerstein Jonathan , Egbert Parris K.
Published: August 2005

Adaptation (online learning) by autonomous virtual characters, due to interaction with a human user in a virtual environment, is a difficult and important problem in computer animation. In this article we present a novel multi-level technique for fast character adaptation. We specifically target environments where there is a cooperative or competitive relationship between the character and the human that interacts with that character.In our technique, a distinct learning method is applied to each layer of the character's behavioral or cognitive model. This allows us to efficiently leverage the character's observations and experiences in each layer. This also provides a convenient temporal distinction between what observations and experiences provide pertinent lessons for each layer. Thus the character can quickly and robustly learn how to better interact with any given unique human user, relying only on observations and natural performance feedback from the environment (no explicit feedback from the human). Our technique is designed to be general, and can be easily integrated into most existing behavioral animation systems. It is also fast and memory efficient.
A fragment-based approach for efficiently creating dynamic web content
Authors: Challenger Jim , Dantzig Paul , Iyengar Arun , Witting Karen
Published: August 2005

This article presents a publishing system for efficiently creating dynamic Web content. Complex Web pages are constructed from simpler fragments. Fragments may recursively embed other fragments. Relationships between Web pages and fragments are represented by object dependence graphs. We present algorithms for efficiently detecting and updating Web pages affected after one or more fragments change. We also present algorithms for publishing sets of Web pages consistently; different algorithms are used depending upon the consistency requirements.Our publishing system provides an easy method for Web site designers to specify and modify inclusion relationships among Web pages and fragments. Users can update content on multiple Web pages by modifying a template. The system then automatically updates all Web pages affected by the change. Our system accommodates both content that must be proofread before publication and is typically from humans as well as content that has to be published immediately and is typically from automated feeds.We discuss some of our experiences with real deployments of our system as well as its performance. We also quantitatively present characteristics of fragments used at a major deployment of our publishing system including fragment sizes, update frequencies, and inclusion relationships.
Creating successful entrepreneurial ventures in IT
Authors: Umesh U. N. , Huynh Minh Q. , Jessup Len
Published: August 2005

Four critical success factors are evaluated and applied.
An incentive system for reducing malware attacks
Authors: McHugh James A. M. , Deek Fadi P.
Published: August 2005

Providing hackers an environment---other than the Net---to test and exhibit theirmalware talents has its rewards.
Agents in e-supply chains
Authors: Singh Rahul , Salam A. F. , Iyer Lakshmi
Published: August 2005

Realizing the potential of intelligent infomediary-based e-marketplaces.
The Bible and multilingual optical character recognition
Authors: Kanungo Tapas , Resnik Philip , Mao Song , Kim Doe-Wan , Zheng Qigong
Published: August 2005

The Bible---an unlikely resource for language technology research---proves ideal for evaluating OCR techniques.
Shape-based retrieval and analysis of 3d models
Authors: Funkhouser Thomas , Kazhdan Michael , Min Patrick , Shilane Philip
Published: August 2005

The number of 3D geometric models available in online repositories is growing dramatically. Examples include: the Protein Data Bank [1], which stores the 3D atomic coordinates for 29,000 protein molecules; the National Design Repository [9], which stores 3D computer-aided design (CAD) models for tens of thousands of mechanical parts; and the Princeton Shape Database [5], which stores polygonal surface models for 36,000 everyday objects crawled from the Web. Since graphics hardware is getting faster and 3D scanning hardware cheaper, there is every reason to believe that demand for and supply of 3D models will continue to increase into the future, leading to an online environment in which 3D models are as plentiful as images, videos, and audio files today.
Enterprise-Grade Wireless
Authors: Zenel Bruce
Published: August 2005

We have been working in the wireless space in one form or another in excess of 10 years and have participated in every phase of its maturation process. We saw wireless progress from a toy technology before the dot-com boom, to something truly promising during the boom, only to be left wanting after the bubble when the technology was found to be not ready for prime time. Fortunately, it appears that we have finally reached the point where the technology and the enterprise’s expectations have finally converged.
You Don’t Know Jack about Network Performance
Authors: Fall Kevin , McCanne Steve
Published: August 2005

Why does an application that works just fine over a LAN come to a grinding halt across the wide-area network? You may have experienced this firsthand when trying to open a document from a remote file share or remotely logging in over a VPN to an application running in headquarters. Why is it that an application that works fine in your office can become virtually useless over the WAN? If you think it’s simply because there’s not enough bandwidth in the WAN, then you don’t know jack about network performance.
Metadata lessons from the iLumina digital library
Authors: Heath Barbara P. , McArthur David J. , McClelland Marilyn K. , Vetter Ronald J.
Published: August 2005

They follow from the five-year effort to implement metadata standards for learning objects in the iLumina digital library of undergraduate teaching resources in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education.
Scientific web intelligence
Authors: Thelwall Mike
Published: August 2005

Methods for analyzing university Web sites demonstrate strong patterns that can reveal interconnections between research fields.
The internet-based education bandwagon
Authors: Hirschheim Rudy
Published: August 2005

Online students may perform as well as those in traditional classrooms, but what about the quality of their learning experience?
Introduction
Authors: Holtzblatt Karen
Published: August 2005

New computing and communication platforms create the possibility for new business models and new applications to support and enhance our lives. But new platforms also challenge us to reinvent design methods and principles. As new technology becomes mainstream, designs and business models that work for the target user population and business are a critical success factor. Mobile devices are opening up new business opportunities, new conveniences for users, and new design challenges.
Contextual and cultural challenges for user mobility research
Authors: Blom Jan , Chipchase Jan , Lehikoinen Jaakko
Published: August 2005

Personal, mobile synchronous and asynchronous communication has proven to be very desirable for all types of users, with estimates of more than a half-billion mobile phones sold each year [2]. Nokia Research Center's User Experience Group, working with other user practitioners in Nokia, seeks to understand why people do the things they do with their mobile communication devices and proposes solutions that best address their wants and needs. In accordance with the principles of user-centric product concept design [4], the solutions are designed to inform and inspire the product creation process within Nokia. Given that the group works three to eight years ahead of what appears on the market, confidentiality concerns restrict disclosure of many of these concepts and the findings on which these concepts are based. Instead, in this article we share some of the essential lessons learned from our projects centering on the early stages of product concept development. Two areas have proved to be particularly challenging in this respect: coping with multiple contexts and multiple cultures in the study of mobility.
For mobile applications, branding is experience
Authors: Rondeau David B.
Published: August 2005

Mobile technology is everywhere---with new types of mobile devices appearing regularly. While branding of the devices themselves can draw upon a long history of product branding, the branding of mobile applications presents new questions and challenges. I became aware of some of these challenges during InContext Enterprises' development of the mSports mobile sports application, which allows users to follow the play-by-play action of Major League Baseball on a variety of mobile phones. We gathered customer data to develop the concepts and designed application interfaces for a variety of devices. Focusing on baseball for mobile phones, we tested and iterated the design with users. The design was implemented and released in 2003 in partnership with Sports Illustrated.com under the ScoreCast brand.
Attack Trends: 2004 and 2005
Authors: Schneier Bruce
Published: August 2005

Counterpane Internet Security Inc. monitors more than 450 networks in 35 countries, in every time zone. In 2004 we saw 523 billion network events, and our analysts investigated 648,000 security “tickets.” What follows is an overview of what’s happening on the Internet right now, and what we expect to happen in the coming months.
An extended fault class hierarchy for specification-based testing
Authors: Lau Man F. , Yu Yuen T.
Published: August 2005

Kuhn, followed by Tsuchiya and Kikuno, have developed a hierarchy of relationships among several common types of faults (such as variable and expression faults) for specification-based testing by studying the corresponding fault detection conditions. Their analytical results can help explain the relative effectiveness of various fault-based testing techniques previously proposed in the literature. This article extends and complements their studies by analyzing the relationships between variable and literal faults, and among literal, operator, term, and expression faults. Our analysis is more comprehensive and produces a richer set of findings that interpret previous empirical results, can be applied to the design and evaluation of test methods, and inform the way that test cases should be prioritized for earlier detection of faults. Although this work originated from the detection of faults related to specifications, our results are equally applicable to program-based predicate testing that involves logic expressions.
Reasoning about inconsistencies in natural language requirements
Authors: Gervasi Vincenzo , Zowghi Didar
Published: August 2005

The use of logic in identifying and analyzing inconsistency in requirements from multiple stakeholders has been found to be effective in a number of studies. Nonmonotonic logic is a theoretically well-founded formalism that is especially suited for supporting the evolution of requirements. However, direct use of logic for expressing requirements and discussing them with stakeholders poses serious usability problems, since in most cases stakeholders cannot be expected to be fluent with formal logic. In this article, we explore the integration of natural language parsing techniques with default reasoning to overcome these difficulties. We also propose a method for automatically discovering inconsistencies in the requirements from multiple stakeholders, using both theorem-proving and model-checking techniques, and show how to deal with them in a formal manner. These techniques were implemented and tested in a prototype tool calledCARL. The effectiveness of the techniques and of the tool are illustrated by a classic example involving conflicting requirements from multiple stakeholders.
Design and evaluation of dynamic optimizations for a Java just-in-time compiler
Authors: Suganuma Toshio , Yasue Toshiaki , Kawahito Motohiro , Komatsu Hideaki , Nakatani Toshio
Published: August 2005

The high performance implementation of Java Virtual Machines (JVM) and Just-In-Time (JIT) compilers is directed toward employing a dynamic compilation system on the basis of online runtime profile information. The trade-off between the compilation overhead and performance benefit is a crucial issue for such a system. This article describes the design and implementation of a dynamic optimization framework in a production-level Java JIT compiler, together with two techniques for profile-directed optimizations: method inlining and code specialization. Our approach is to employ a mixed mode interpreter and a three-level optimizing compiler, supporting level-1 to level-3 optimizations, each of which has a different set of trade-offs between compilation overhead and execution speed. A lightweight sampling profiler operates continuously during the entire period while applications are running to monitor the programs' hot spots. Detailed information on runtime behavior can be collected by dynamically generating instrumentation code that is installed to and uninstalled from the specified recompilation target code. Value profiling with this instrumentation mechanism allows fully automatic profile-directed method inlining and code specialization to be performed on the basis of call site information or specific parameter values at the higher optimization levels. The experimental results show that our approach offers high performance and low compilation overhead in both program startup and steady state measurements in comparison to the previous systems. The two profile-directed optimization techniques contribute significant portions of the improvements.
Software as art
Authors: Bond Gregory W.
Published: August 2005

Encouraging a greater appreciation of the interplay between software and fine art.
WiFi attack vectors
Authors: Berghel Hal , Uecker Jacob
Published: August 2005

The security risks of WiFi connectivity have been established---the reasons for these risks of intrusion are not as well understood.
Spyware was inevitable
Authors: Gibson Steve
Published: August 2005

That which begins as minor nuisances and curiosities enabled by the subversion of new technological capabilities has always evolved into invasive problems once someone has found a way to profit from their application.
IGF-1 induces rat glomerular mesangial cells to accumulate triglyceride
Authors: Berfield Anne K. , Chait Alan , Oram John F. , Zager Richard A. , Johnson Ali C. , Abrass Christine K.
Published: August 2005

Rat glomerular mesangial cells (MC) become lipid-laden foam cells when they are exposed to IGF-1. IGF-1 increased accumulation of triglyceride (TG) 2.5-fold in MC after 7 days. TG accumulation resulted from enhanced macropinocytosis and decreased efflux secondary to a 40–50% reduction in peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)-δ (PPARδ). There was no evidence of primary or secondary changes in cholesterol or TG synthesis, increased uptake by LDL or scavenger receptors, or reduced efflux via ATP-binding cassette A-1. Although the lipid moiety taken up can be influenced by the concentration of cholesterol or TG in the medium, in standard medium MC preferentially accumulate TG. TG-rich MC foam cells fail to contract in response to angiotensin II (Berfield AK, Andress DL, and Abrass CK. Kidney Int 62: 1229–1237, 2002); however, their migratory response to IGF binding protein-5 is unaffected. This differs from cholesterol loading, which impairs both phagocytosis and migration. These findings have important implications for understanding the mechanisms that contribute to lipid accumulation in MC and the functional consequences of different forms of foam cells. These observations are relevant to understanding vascular disease and progressive renal diseases that are accelerated by abnormalities in lipid metabolism.