bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
SPIN EXPANSION FOR HEAD-ON COLLISION OF TWO BLACK HOLES
Authors: CAO ZHOUJIAN , LIU CHENZHOU
Published: February 2011

The spin expansion technique proposed in [L. Boyel, M. Kesden and S. Nissanke, Phys. Rev. Lett.100 (2008) 151101] is very powerful to analyze the relation between the initial state of binary black hole and the final state of the merged black hole. But this technique needs orbital angular momentum to determine the third direction of a triad. Without this triad we cannot get the decomposed components of the involved quantities, and the spin expansion breaks down. The head-on collision of two black holes, whose orbital angular momentum vanishes, falls into this case. In this paper we propose a new method to construct a triad for spin expansion technique. With this new method, we get the same set of equations as in the above-mentioned paper. Furthermore, we use numerical simulations to illustrate the validity of our new method for the head-on collision of two black holes.
CAPTURE OF DARK MATTER BY THE SOLAR SYSTEM: SIMPLE ESTIMATES
Authors: KHRIPLOVICH I. B.
Published: February 2011

We consider the capture of galactic dark matter by the solar system, due to the gravitational three-body interaction of the Sun, a planet, and a dark matter particle. Simple estimates are presented for the capture cross-section, as well as for the density and velocity distributions of captured dark matter particles close to the Earth.
UNIQUENESS OF STATIC SPHERICALLY SYMMETRIC VACUUM SOLUTIONS IN THE IR LIMIT OF HOŘAVA–LIFSHITZ GRAVITY
Authors: HARADA TOMOHIRO , MIYAMOTO UMPEI , TSUKAMOTO NAOKI
Published: February 2011

We investigate static spherically symmetric vacuum solutions in the IR limit of projectable nonrelativistic quantum gravity, including the renormalizable quantum gravity recently proposed by Hořava. It is found that the projectability condition plays an important role. Without the cosmological constant, the spacetime is uniquely given by the Schwarzschild solution. With the cosmological constant, the spacetime is uniquely given by the Kottler (Schwarzschild–(anti) de Sitter) solution for the entirely vacuum spacetime. However, in addition to the Kottler solution, the static spherical and hyperbolic universes are uniquely admissible for the locally empty region, for positive and negative cosmological constants, respectively, if its nonvanishing contribution to the global Hamiltonian constraint can be compensated by the nonempty or nonstatic region. This implies that static spherically symmetric entirely vacuum solutions would not admit the freedom to reproduce the observed flat rotation curves of galaxies. On the other hand, the result for locally empty regions implies that the IR limit of nonrelativistic quantum gravity theories do not simply recover general relativity but include it.
ERRATUM: "INDUCED ELECTROSTATIC SELF-INTERACTION IN THE SPACE–TIME OF A GLOBAL MONOPOLE WITH INNER STRUCTURE"
Authors: BARBOSA D. , SPINELLY J. , DE MELLO E. R. BEZERRA
Published: February 2011

In this paper we correct previous result obtained in published paper.
GRAVITINO PERTURBATIONS IN SCHWARZSCHILD BLACK HOLES
Authors: FERNANDEZ PIEDRA OWEN PAVEL
Published: February 2011

We consider the time-evolution of massless gravitino perturbations in Schwarzschild black holes, and show that as in the case of fields of other values of spin, the evolution comes in three stages. After an initial outburst as a first stage, we observe the damped oscillations characteristic of the quasinormal ringing stage, followed by long time tails. Using the sixth-order WKB method and Prony fitting of time domain data we determine the quasinormal frequencies. There is a good correspondence between the results obtained by the above two methods, and we obtain a considerable improvement with respect to the previously obtained third-order WKB results. We also show that the response of a black hole depends crucially on the spin class of the perturbing field: the quality factor becomes a decreasing function of the spin for boson perturbations, whereas the opposite situation appears for fermion ones. With respect to the late-time behavior, we found numerical evidence of a faster decay of gravitino perturbations, a result in constrast with what is known for other neutral fields.
CALCULATOR FOR FINDING COMPOSITION OF (Me1)x1(Me2)x2(CcHhNnOo)x3(NO3)x4(H2O)x5(Cl)x6 TYPE COMPLEX FROM ELEMENTAL ANALYSIS DATA
Authors: KACZMAREK ANNA M. , KACZMAREK MARIUSZ
Published: February 2011

The paper presents the method and numerical program along with graphical user interface for finding the probable composition of Schiff base complexes based on elemental analysis data. The applied algorithm uses sorting procedure of possible variations of number of groups under condition of electrical neutrality. The program was tested for a few examples and its usefulness was discussed.
PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT IN SPREAD SPECTRUM IMAGE WATERMARKING USING WAVELETS
Authors: MAITY SANTI P. , KUNDU MALAY K.
Published: February 2011

This paper investigates the scope of wavelets for performance improvement in spread spectrum image watermarking. Performance of a digital image watermarking algorithm, in general, is determined by the visual invisibility of the hidden data (imperceptibility), reliability in the detection of the hidden information after various common and deliberate signal processing operations (robustness) applied on the watermarked signals and the amount of data to be hidden (payload) without affecting the imperceptibility and robustness properties. In this paper, we propose a few spread spectrum (SS) image watermarking schemes using discrete wavelet transform (DWT), biorthogonal DWT and M-band wavelets coupled with various modulation, multiplexing and signaling techniques. The performance of the watermarking methods are also reported along with the relative merits and demerits.
PYRAMIDAL HYBRID APPROACH: WAVELET NETWORK WITH OLS ALGORITHM-BASED IMAGE CLASSIFICATION
Authors: JEMAI OLFA , ZAIED MOURAD , BEN AMAR CHOKRI , ALIMI MOHAMED ADEL
Published: February 2011

Taking advantage of both the scaling property of wavelets and the high learning ability of neural networks, wavelet networks have recently emerged as a powerful tool in many applications in the field of signal processing such as data compression, function approximation as well as image recognition and classification. A novel wavelet network-based method for image classification is presented in this paper. The method combines the Orthogonal Least Squares algorithm (OLS) with the Pyramidal Beta Wavelet Network architecture (PBWN). First, the structure of the Pyramidal Beta Wavelet Network is proposed and the OLS method is used to design it by presetting the widths of the hidden units in PBWN. Then, to enhance the performance of the obtained PBWN, a novel learning algorithm based on orthogonal least squares and frames theory is proposed, in which we use OLS to select the hidden nodes. In the simulation part, the proposed method is employed to classify colour images. Comparisons with some typical wavelet networks are presented and discussed. Simulations also show that the PBWN-orthogonal least squares (PBWN-OLS) algorithm, which combines PBWN with the OLS algorithm, results in better performance for colour image classification.
SIGNAL ANALYSIS AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A VEHICLE CRASH TEST WITH A FIXED SAFETY BARRIER BASED ON HAAR WAVELETS
Authors: KARIMI HAMID REZA , ROBBERSMYR KJELL G.
Published: February 2011

This paper deals with the wavelet-based performance analysis of the safety barrier for use in a full-scale test. The test involves a vehicle, a Ford Fiesta, which strikes the safety barrier at a prescribed angle and speed. The vehicle speed before the collision was measured. Vehicle accelerations in three directions at the center of gravity were measured during the collision. The yaw rate was measured with a gyro meter. Using normal speed and high-speed video cameras, the behavior of the safety barrier and the test vehicle during the collision was recorded. Based upon the results obtained, the tested safety barrier has proved to satisfy the requirements for an impact severity level. By taking into account the Haar wavelets, the property of integral operational matrix is utilized to find an algebraic representation form for calculate of wavelet coefficients of acceleration signals. It is shown that Haar wavelets can construct the acceleration signals well.
A proposal for a new porphine substitution motif aimed at advanced materials: introduction of 4-alkoxy-3,5-diisopropylphenyl groups on porphine
Authors: Yamashita Ken-ichi , Akita Yasuhiro , Asano Motoko S. , Tanaka Hiroyuki , Kawai Tomoji , Sugiura Ken-ichi
Published: February 2011

The authors propose 4-alkoxy-3,5-diisopropyl-phenyl (DIPP) group as the most suitable substituent to realize porphyrin based advanced materials (PAMs). Our experiments reveal that DIPP achieved the introduction of the following properties on porphine and/or PAMs: (1) easy synthesis, (2) high solubility, (3) good crystallinity natures, and (4) single molecule visualization by scanning tunneling microscopy.
MEANINGFUL REGRESSION COEFFICIENTS BUILT BY DATA GRADIENTS
Authors: LIPOVETSKY STAN
Published: February 2011

Multiple regression's coefficients define change in the dependent variable due to a predictor's change while all other predictors are constant. Rearranging data to paired differences of observations and keeping only biggest changes yield a matrix of a single variable change, which is close to orthogonal design, so there is no impact of multicollinearity on the regression. A similar approach is used for meaningful coefficients of nonlinear regressions with coefficients of half-elasticity, elasticity, and odds' elasticity due the gradients in each predictor. In contrast to regular linear and nonlinear regressions, the suggested technique produces interpretable coefficients not prone to multicollinearity effects.
SMOOTHING EMPIRICAL MODE DECOMPOSITION: A PATCH TO IMPROVE THE DECOMPOSED ACCURACY
Authors: PAO SUN-HUA , YOUNG CHIEH-NENG , TSENG CHIEN-LUN , HUANG NORDEN E.
Published: February 2011

Hilbert-Huang Transformation (HHT) is designed especially for analyzing data from nonlinear and nonstationary processes. It consists of the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) to generate Intrinsic Mode Function (IMF) components, from which the instantaneous frequency can be computed for the time-frequency Hilbert spectral Analysis. Currently, EMD, based on the cubic spline, is the most efficient and popular algorithm to implement HHT. However, EMD as implemented now suffers from dependence on the cubic spline function chosen as the basis. Furthermore, due to the various stoppage criteria, it is difficult to establish the uniqueness of the decomposition. Consequently, the interpretation of the EMD result is subject to certain degree of ambiguity. As the IMF components from the classic EMD are all approximations from the combinations of piece-wise cubic spline functions, there could also be artificial frequency modulation in addition to amplitude modulation. A novel Smoothing Empirical Mode Decomposition (SEMD) is proposed. Although SEMD is also an approximation, extensive tests on nonlinear and nonstationary data indicate that the smoothing procedure is a robust and accurate approach to eliminate the dependence of chosen spline functional forms. Thus, we have proved the uniqueness of the decomposition under the weak limitation of spline fittings. The natural signal length-of-day 1965–1985 was tested for the performance in nonstationary and nonlinear decomposition. The resulting spectrum by SEMD is quite stable and quantitatively similar to the optimization of EMD.
Modeling and assessing quality of information in multisensor multimedia monitoring systems
Authors: Hossain M. Anwar , Atrey Pradeep K. , Saddik Abdulmotaleb El
Published: February 2011

Current sensor-based monitoring systems use multiple sensors in order to identify high-level information based on the events that take place in the monitored environment. This information is obtained through low-level processing of sensory media streams, which are usually noisy and imprecise, leading to many undesired consequences such as false alarms, service interruptions, and often violation of privacy. Therefore, we need a mechanism to compute the quality of sensor-driven information that would help a user or a system in making an informed decision and improve the automated monitoring process. In this article, we propose a model to characterize such quality of information in a multisensor multimedia monitoring system in terms of certainty, accuracy/confidence and timeliness. Our model adopts a multimodal fusion approach to obtain the target information and dynamically compute these attributes based on the observations of the participating sensors. We consider the environment context, the agreement/disagreement among the sensors, and their prior confidence in the fusion process in determining the information of interest. The proposed method is demonstrated by developing and deploying a real-time monitoring system in a simulated smart environment. The effectiveness and suitability of the method has been demonstrated by dynamically assessing the value of the three quality attributes with respect to the detection and identification of human presence in the environment.
Near-duplicate keyframe retrieval by semi-supervised learning and nonrigid image matching
Authors: Zhu Jianke , Hoi Steven C. H. , Lyu Michael R. , Yan Shuicheng
Published: February 2011

Near-duplicate keyframe (NDK) retrieval techniques are critical to many real-world multimedia applications. Over the last few years, we have witnessed a surge of attention on studying near-duplicate image/keyframe retrieval in the multimedia community. To facilitate an effective approach to NDK retrieval on large-scale data, we suggest an effective Multi-Level Ranking (MLR) scheme that effectively retrieves NDKs in a coarse-to-fine manner. One key stage of the MLR ranking scheme is how to learn an effective ranking function with extremely small training examples in a near-duplicate detection task. To attack this challenge, we employ a semi-supervised learning method, semi-supervised support vector machines, which is able to significantly improve the retrieval performance by exploiting unlabeled data. Another key stage of the MLR scheme is to perform a fine matching among a subset of keyframe candidates retrieved from the previous coarse ranking stage. In contrast to previous approaches based on either simple heuristics or rigid matching models, we propose a novel Nonrigid Image Matching (NIM) approach to tackle near-duplicate keyframe retrieval from real-world video corpora in order to conduct an effective fine matching. Compared with the conventional methods, the proposed NIM approach can recover explicit mapping between two near-duplicate images with a few deformation parameters and find out the correct correspondences from noisy data simultaneously. To evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed approach, we performed extensive experiments on two benchmark testbeds extracted from the TRECVID2003 and TRECVID2004 corpora. The promising results indicate that our proposed method is more effective than other state-of-the-art approaches for near-duplicate keyframe retrieval.
Discrete wavelet transform-based time series analysis and mining
Authors: Chaovalit Pimwadee , Gangopadhyay Aryya , Karabatis George , Chen Zhiyuan
Published: February 2011

Time series are recorded values of an interesting phenomenon such as stock prices, household incomes, or patient heart rates over a period of time. Time series data mining focuses on discovering interesting patterns in such data. This article introduces a wavelet-based time series data analysis to interested readers. It provides a systematic survey of various analysis techniques that use discrete wavelet transformation (DWT) in time series data mining, and outlines the benefits of this approach demonstrated by previous studies performed on diverse application domains, including image classification, multimedia retrieval, and computer network anomaly detection.
The failure detector abstraction
Authors: Freiling Felix C. , Guerraoui Rachid , Kuznetsov Petr
Published: February 2011

A
failure detector
is a fundamental abstraction in distributed computing. This article surveys this abstraction through two dimensions. First we study failure detectors as building blocks to simplify the design of reliable distributed algorithms. In particular, we illustrate how failure detectors can factor out timing assumptions to detect failures in distributed agreement algorithms. Second, we study failure detectors as computability benchmarks. That is, we survey the weakest failure detector question and illustrate how failure detectors can be used to classify problems. We also highlight some limitations of the failure detector abstraction along each of the dimensions.
A survey of combinatorial testing
Authors: Nie Changhai , Leung Hareton
Published: February 2011

Combinatorial Testing (CT) can detect failures triggered by interactions of parameters in the Software Under Test (SUT) with a covering array test suite generated by some sampling mechanisms. It has been an active field of research in the last twenty years. This article aims to review previous work on CT, highlights the evolution of CT, and identifies important issues, methods, and applications of CT, with the goal of supporting and directing future practice and research in this area. First, we present the basic concepts and notations of CT. Second, we classify the research on CT into the following categories: modeling for CT, test suite generation, constraints, failure diagnosis, prioritization, metric, evaluation, testing procedure and the application of CT. For each of the categories, we survey the motivation, key issues, solutions, and the current state of research. Then, we review the contribution from different research groups, and present the growing trend of CT research. Finally, we recommend directions for future CT research, including: (1) modeling for CT, (2) improving the existing test suite generation algorithm, (3) improving analysis of testing result, (4) exploring the application of CT to different levels of testing and additional types of systems, (5) conducting more empirical studies to fully understand limitations and strengths of CT, and (6) combining CT with other testing techniques.
Following the crowd
Authors: Greengard Samuel
Published: February 2011

Crowdsourcing is based on a simple but powerful concept: Virtually anyone has the potential to plug in valuable information.
ACM launches new Digital Library
Authors: Anthes Gary
Published: February 2011

More than 50 years of computing literature is augmented, streamlined, and joined to powerful new tools for retrieval and analysis.
From science to engineering
Authors: Guzdial Mark
Published: February 2011

Exploring the dual nature of computing education research.
The growing harm of not teaching malware
Authors: Ledin George
Published: February 2011

Revisiting the need to educate professionals to defend against malware in its various guises.
Finding usability bugs with automated tests
Authors: Harty Julian
Published: February 2011

Automated usability tests can be valuable companions to in-person tests.
Vision-based hand-gesture applications
Authors: Wachs Juan Pablo , Kölsch Mathias , Stern Helman , Edan Yael
Published: February 2011

Body posture and finger pointing are a natural modality for human-machine interaction, but first the system must know what it's seeing.
Structured data on the web
Authors: Cafarella Michael J. , Halevy Alon , Madhavan Jayant
Published: February 2011

Google's Web Tables and Deep Web Crawler identify and deliver this otherwise inaccessible resource directly to end users.
Still building the memex
Authors: Davies Stephen
Published: February 2011

What would it take for a true personal knowledge base to generate the benefits envisioned by Vannevar Bush?
The sequence memoizer
Authors: Wood Frank , Gasthaus Jan , Archambeau Cédric , James Lancelot , Teh Yee Whye
Published: February 2011

Probabilistic models of sequences play a central role in most machine translation, automated speech recognition, lossless compression, spell-checking, and gene identification applications to name but a few. Unfortunately, real-world sequence data often exhibit long range dependencies which can only be captured by computationally challenging, complex models. Sequence data arising from natural processes also often exhibits power-law properties, yet common sequence models do not capture such properties. The sequence memoizer is a new hierarchical Bayesian model for discrete sequence data that captures long range dependencies and power-law characteristics, while remaining computationally attractive. Its utility as a language model and general purpose lossless compressor is demonstrated.
DRAM errors in the wild
Authors: Schroeder Bianca , Pinheiro Eduardo , Weber Wolf-Dietrich
Published: February 2011

Errors in dynamic random access memory (DRAM) are a common form of hardware failure in modern compute clusters. Failures are costly both in terms of hardware replacement costs and service disruption. While a large body of work exists on DRAM in laboratory conditions, little has been reported on real DRAM failures in large production clusters. In this paper, we analyze measurements of memory errors in a large fleet of commodity servers over a period of 2.5 years. The collected data covers multiple vendors, DRAM capacities and technologies, and comprises many millions of dual in-line memory module (DIMM) days.

The goal of this paper is to answer questions such as the following: How common are memory errors in practice? What are their statistical properties? How are they affected by external factors, such as temperature and utilization, and by chip-specific factors, such as chip density, memory technology, and DIMM age?

We find that DRAM error behavior in the field differs in many key aspects from commonly held assumptions. For example, we observe DRAM error rates that are orders of magnitude higher than previously reported, with 25,000--70,000 errors per billion device hours per Mb and more than 8% of DIMMs affected by errors per year. We provide strong evidence that memory errors are dominated by hard errors, rather than soft errors, which previous work suspects to be the dominant error mode. We find that temperature, known to strongly impact DIMM error rates in lab conditions, has a surprisingly small effect on error behavior in the field, when taking all other factors into account. Finally, unlike commonly feared, we do not observe any indication that newer generations of DIMMs have worse error behavior.
The need for a new graduation rite of passage
Authors: Estell John K. , Christensen Ken
Published: February 2011

The use of computers is pervasive throughout our society. Given the ever-increasing reliance placed upon software, graduates from computing-related degree programs need to be more aware than ever of their responsibilities toward ensuring that society is well served through their creative works. To assist with this effort, a new organization is being proposed for the establishment of a rite-of-passage ceremony for students graduating in the computing sciences that is similar in nature and scope to the Ring Ceremony employed by the Order of the Engineer for students graduating from engineering programs. This new organization is solely intended to promote and recognize the ethical and moral behavior in graduates of computing-related degree programs as they transition to careers of service to society. Two institutions---Ohio Northern University and the University of South Florida---have already experimented with this concept. We seek to start a larger conversation on this concept by soliciting input from the community on what we believe is a significant need for a new organization---an organization that can benefit both our graduates and the computing profession.
Higher-order representation of substructural logics
Authors: Crary Karl
Published: February 2011

We present a technique for higher-order representation of substructural logics such as linear or modal logic. We show that such logics can be encoded in the (ordinary) Logical Framework, without any linear or modal extensions. Using this encoding, metatheoretic proofs about such logics can easily be developed in the Twelf proof assistant.
Bidirectionalizing graph transformations
Authors: Hidaka Soichiro , Hu Zhenjiang , Inaba Kazuhiro , Kato Hiroyuki , Matsuda Kazutaka , Nakano Keisuke
Published: February 2011

Bidirectional transformations provide a novel mechanism for synchronizing and maintaining the consistency of information between input and output. Despite many promising results on bidirectional transformations, these have been limited to the context of relational or XML (tree-like) databases. We challenge the problem of bidirectional transformations within the context of graphs, by proposing a formal definition of a well-behaved bidirectional semantics for UnCAL, i.e., a graph algebra for the known UnQL graph query language. The key to our successful formalization is full utilization of both the recursive and bulk semantics of structural recursion on graphs. We carefully refine the existing forward evaluation of structural recursion so that it can produce sufficient trace information for later backward evaluation. We use the trace information for backward evaluation to reflect in-place updates and deletions on the view to the source, and adopt the universal resolving algorithm for inverse computation and the narrowing technique to tackle the difficult problem with insertion. We prove our bidirectional evaluation is well-behaved. Our current implementation is available online and confirms the usefulness of our approach with nontrivial applications.
Specifying and verifying sparse matrix codes
Authors: Arnold Gilad , Hölzl Johannes , Köksal Ali Sinan , Bodík Rastislav , Sagiv Mooly
Published: February 2011

Sparse matrix formats are typically implemented with low-level imperative programs. The optimized nature of these implementations hides the structural organization of the sparse format and complicates its verification. We define a variable-free functional language (LL) in which even advanced formats can be expressed naturally, as a pipeline-style composition of smaller construction steps. We translate LL programs to Isabelle/HOL and describe a proof system based on parametric predicates for tracking relationship between mathematical vectors and their concrete representations. This proof theory automatically verifies full functional correctness of many formats. We show that it is reusable and extensible to hierarchical sparse formats.
A play on regular expressions
Authors: Fischer Sebastian , Huch Frank , Wilke Thomas
Published: February 2011

Cody, Hazel, and Theo, two experienced Haskell programmers and an expert in automata theory, develop an elegant Haskell program for matching regular expressions: (i) the program is purely functional; (ii) it is overloaded over arbitrary semirings, which not only allows to solve the ordinary matching problem but also supports other applications like computing leftmost longest matchings or the number of matchings, all with a single algorithm; (iii) it is more powerful than other matchers, as it can be used for parsing every context-free language by taking advantage of laziness.

The developed program is based on an old technique to turn regular expressions into finite automata which makes it efficient both in terms of worst-case time and space bounds and actual performance: despite its simplicity, the Haskell implementation can compete with a recently published professional C++ program for the same problem.
A simple inductive synthesis methodology and its applications
Authors: Itzhaky Shachar , Gulwani Sumit , Immerman Neil , Sagiv Mooly
Published: February 2011

Given a high-level specification and a low-level programming language, our goal is to automatically synthesize an efficient program that meets the specification. In this paper, we present a new algorithmic methodology for inductive synthesis that allows us to do this.

We use Second Order logic as our generic high level specification logic. For our low-level languages we choose small application-specific logics that can be immediately translated into code that runs in expected linear time in the worst case.

We explain our methodology and provide examples of the synthesis of several graph classifiers, e.g, linear-time tests of whether the input graph is connected, acyclic, etc. In another set of applications we automatically derive many finite differencing expressions equivalent to ones that Paige built by hand in his thesis [Pai81]. Finally we describe directions for automatically combining such automatically generated building blocks to synthesize efficient code implementing more complicated specifications.

The methods in this paper have been implemented in Python using the SMT solver Z3 [dMB].
Lime
Authors: Auerbach Joshua , Bacon David F. , Cheng Perry , Rabbah Rodric
Published: February 2011

The halt in clock frequency scaling has forced architects and language designers to look elsewhere for continued improvements in performance. We believe that extracting maximum performance will require compilation to highly heterogeneous architectures that include reconfigurable hardware.

We present a new language, Lime, which is designed to be executable across a broad range of architectures, from FPGAs to conventional CPUs. We present the language as a whole, focusing on its novel features for limiting side-effects and integration of the streaming paradigm into an object- oriented language. We conclude with some initial results demonstrating applications running either on a CPU or co- executing on a CPU and an FPGA.
A graph-based approach to API usage adaptation
Authors: Nguyen Hoan Anh , Nguyen Tung Thanh , Wilson Gary , Nguyen Anh Tuan , Kim Miryung , Nguyen Tien N.
Published: February 2011

Reusing existing library components is essential for reducing the cost of software development and maintenance. When library components evolve to accommodate new feature requests, to fix bugs, or to meet new standards, the clients of software libraries often need to make corresponding changes to correctly use the updated libraries. Existing API usage adaptation techniques support simple adaptation such as replacing the target of calls to a deprecated API, however, cannot handle complex adaptations such as creating a new object to be passed to a different API method, or adding an exception handling logic that surrounds the updated API method calls.

This paper presents LIBSYNC that guides developers in adapting API usage code by learning complex API usage adaptation patterns from other clients that already migrated to a new library version (and also from the API usages within the library's test code). LIBSYNC uses several graph-based techniques (1) to identify changes to API declarations by comparing two library versions, (2) to extract associated API usage skeletons before and after library migration, and (3) to compare the extracted API usage skeletons to recover API usage adaptation patterns. Using the learned adaptation patterns, LIBSYNC recommends the locations and edit operations for adapting API usages. The evaluation of LIBSYNC on real-world software systems shows that it is highly correct and useful with a precision of 100% and a recall of 91%.
Supporting dynamic, third-party code customizations in JavaScript using aspects
Authors: Lerner Benjamin S. , Venter Herman , Grossman Dan
Published: February 2011

Web sites and web browsers have recently evolved into platforms on top of which entire applications are delivered dynamically, mostly as JavaScript source code. This delivery format has sparked extremely enthusiastic efforts to customize both individual web sites and entire browsers in ways the original authors never expected or accommodated. Such customizations take the form of yet more script dynamically injected into the application, and the current idioms to do so exploit arcane JavaScript features and are extremely brittle. In this work, we accept the popularity of extensions and seek better linguistic mechanisms to support them.

We suggest adding to JavaScript
aspect-oriented
features that allow straightforward and declarative ways for customization code to modify the targeted application. Compared to most prior aspect-related research, our work has a different motivation and a different target programming environment, both of which lead to novel design and implementation techniques. Our aspect weaving is entirely integrated into a new dynamic JIT compiler, which lets us properly handle advice to first-class functions in the presence of arbitrary aliasing, without resorting to whole-program code transformations. Our prototype demonstrates that an aspect-oriented approach to web-application customization is often more efficient than current idioms while simplifying the entire process.
The spoofax language workbench
Authors: Kats Lennart C.L. , Visser Eelco
Published: February 2011

Spoofax is a language workbench for efficient, agile development of textual domain-specific languages with state-of-the-art IDE support. Spoofax integrates language processing techniques for parser generation, meta-programming, and IDE development into a single environment. It uses concise, declarative specifications for languages and IDE services. In this paper we describe the architecture of Spoofax and introduce idioms for high-level specifications of language semantics using rewrite rules, showing how analyses can be reused for transformations, code generation, and editor services such as error marking, reference resolving, and content completion. The implementation of these services is supported by language-parametric editor service classes that can be dynamically loaded by the Eclipse IDE, allowing new languages to be developed and used side-by-side in the same Eclipse environment.
Pure and declarative syntax definition
Authors: Kats Lennart C.L. , Visser Eelco , Wachsmuth Guido
Published: February 2011

Syntax definitions are pervasive in modern software systems, and serve as the basis for language processing tools like parsers and compilers. Mainstream parser generators pose restrictions on syntax definitions that follow from their implementation algorithm. They hamper evolution, maintainability, and compositionality of syntax definitions. The pureness and declarativity of syntax definitions is lost. We analyze how these problems arise for different aspects of syntax definitions, discuss their consequences for language engineers, and show how the pure and declarative nature of syntax definitions can be regained.
Cancer Immunotherapy Using a Bispecific NK Receptor Fusion Protein that Engages both T Cells and Tumor Cells
Authors: Zhang Tong , Sentman Charles L.
Published: February 2011

T-cell immunotherapy is a promising strategy to treat cancer, but its efficacy, complexity, and costs may pose challenges. In this study, we report the results of an investigation of a new approach to selectively activate a T-cell attack against tumor cells. The immunotherapeutic approach we developed utilizes a bifunctional fusion protein that binds tumor cells through NK (natural killer)–activating receptor NKG2D and that recruits and stimulates T cells through an anti-CD3 single-chain variable fragment (scFv-NKG2D). In vitro, this scFv-NKG2D fusion protein engaged both T cells and tumor cells, stimulating T cells to produce IFN-γ, and cytotoxicity against NKG2D ligand–positive tumor cells. In vivo, expression of scFv-NKG2D by NKG2D ligand–positive tumor cells reduced tumor burden and, in some cases, led to tumor-free survival. Administration of scFv-NKG2D in vivo also promoted survival in a murine lymphoma model. Tumor-free mice were resistant to rechallenge with cognate tumor cells, suggesting that a host-specific immunologic memory response had been generated. Host adaptive immunity including γδ T cells was required for scFv-NKG2D–mediated therapeutic efficacy. ScFv-NKG2D also inhibited the growth of NKG2D ligand–negative B16F10 tumors, reduced the percentage of myeloid-derived suppressor cells and regulatory T cells, and increased the infiltration of T cells, suggesting that scFv-NKG2D may target these immune suppressive cells. Together, these results establish scFv-NKG2D as a promising biological fusion protein to induce effective antitumor immunity. Cancer Res; 71(6); 2066–76. ©2011 AACR.
GPR54 Is a Target for Suppression of Metastasis in Endometrial Cancer
Authors: Kang Hyun Sook , Baba Tsukasa , Mandai Masaki , Matsumura Noriomi , Hamanishi Junzo , Kharma Budiman , Kondoh Eiji , Yoshioka Yumiko , Oishi Shinya , Fujii Nobutaka , Murphy Susan K. , Konishi Ikuo
Published: February 2011

Invasion into deep myometrium and/or lymphovascular space is a well-known risk factor for endometrial cancer metastasis, resulting in poor prognosis. It is therefore clinically important to identify novel molecules that suppress tumor invasion. Reduced expression of the metastasis suppressor, kisspeptin (KISS1), and its endogenous receptor, GPR54, has been reported in several cancers, but the significance of the KISS1/GPR54 axis in endometrial cancer metastasis has not been clarified. Metastin-10 is the minimal bioactive sequence of genetic products of KISS1. Clinicopathological analysis of 92 endometrial cancers revealed overall survival is improved in cancers with high expression of GPR54 (P < 0.05) and that GPR54 expression is associated with known prognostic factors including FIGO stage, grade, and deep myometrial invasion. Through RNAi and microarray analyses, metastin-10 was predicted to suppress metastasis of GPR54-expressing endometrial cancers in vivo. Methylation analysis revealed GPR54 is epigenetically regulated. Metastin-GPR54 axis function was restored following treatment with the DNA hypomethylating agent 5-aza-DC. These data suggest that metastin-10 may be effective at inhibiting the metastatic spread of endometrial cancers in combination with demethylating agents to induce GPR54 expression. Mol Cancer Ther; 10(4); 580–90. ©2011 AACR.
Increased Sensitivity to Thiopurines in Methylthioadenosine Phosphorylase–Deleted Cancers
Authors: Coulthard Sally A. , Redfern Christopher P.F. , Vikingsson Svante , Lindqvist-Appell Malin , Skoglund Karin , Jakobsen-Falk Ingrid , Hall Andrew G. , Taylor Gordon A. , Hogarth Linda A.
Published: February 2011

The thiopurines, 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) and 6-thioguanine (6-TG), are used in the treatment of leukemia. Incorporation of deoxythioguanosine nucleotides (dGs) into the DNA of thiopurine-treated cells causes cell death, but there is also evidence that thiopurine metabolites, particularly the 6-MP metabolite methylthioinosine monophosphate (MeTIMP), inhibit de novo purine synthesis (DNPS). The toxicity of DNPS inhibitors is influenced by methylthioadenosine phosphorylase (MTAP), a gene frequently deleted in cancers. Because the growth of MTAP-deleted tumor cells is dependent on DNPS or hypoxanthine salvage, we would predict such cells to show differential sensitivity to 6-MP and 6-TG. To test this hypothesis, sensitivity to 6-MP and 6-TG was compared in relation to MTAP status using cytotoxicity assays in two MTAP-deficient cell lines transfected to express MTAP: the T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemic cell line, Jurkat, transfected with MTAP cDNA under the control of a tetracycline-inducible promoter, and a lung cancer cell line (A549-MTAP−) transfected to express MTAP constitutively (A549-MTAP+). Sensitivity to 6-MP or methyl mercaptopurine riboside, which is converted intracellularly to MeTIMP, was markedly higher in both cell lines under MTAP− conditions. Measurement of thiopurine metabolites support the hypothesis that DNPS inhibition is a major cause of cell death with 6-MP, whereas dGs incorporation is the main cause of cytotoxicity with 6-TG. These data suggest that thiopurines, particularly 6-MP, may be more effective in patients with deleted MTAP. Mol Cancer Ther; 10(3); 495–504. ©2011 AACR.
Lipoprotein Lipase Links Dietary Fat to Solid Tumor Cell Proliferation
Authors: Kuemmerle Nancy B. , Rysman Evelien , Lombardo Portia S. , Flanagan Alison J. , Lipe Brea C. , Wells Wendy A. , Pettus Jason R. , Froehlich Heather M. , Memoli Vincent A. , Morganelli Peter M. , Swinnen Johannes V. , Timmerman Luika A. , Chaychi Leila , Fricano Catherine J. , Eisenberg Burton L. , Coleman William B. , Kinlaw William B.
Published: February 2011

Many types of cancer cells require a supply of fatty acids (FA) for growth and survival, and interrupting de novo FA synthesis in model systems causes potent anticancer effects. We hypothesized that, in addition to synthesis, cancer cells may obtain preformed, diet-derived FA by uptake from the bloodstream. This would require hydrolytic release of FA from triglyceride in circulating lipoprotein particles by the secreted enzyme lipoprotein lipase (LPL), and the expression of CD36, the channel for cellular FA uptake. We find that selected breast cancer and sarcoma cells express and secrete active LPL, and all express CD36. We further show that LPL, in the presence of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins, accelerates the growth of these cells. Providing LPL to prostate cancer cells, which express low levels of the enzyme, did not augment growth, but did prevent the cytotoxic effect of FA synthesis inhibition. Moreover, LPL knockdown inhibited HeLa cell growth. In contrast to the cell lines, immunohistochemical analysis confirmed the presence of LPL and CD36 in the majority of breast, liposarcoma, and prostate tumor tissues examined (n = 181). These findings suggest that, in addition to de novo lipogenesis, cancer cells can use LPL and CD36 to acquire FA from the circulation by lipolysis, and this can fuel their growth. Interfering with dietary fat intake, lipolysis, and/or FA uptake will be necessary to target the requirement of cancer cells for FA. Mol Cancer Ther; 10(3); 427–36. ©2011 AACR.
Targeting Sarcoplasmic/Endoplasmic Reticulum Ca2+-ATPase 2 by Curcumin Induces ER Stress-Associated Apoptosis for Treating Human Liposarcoma
Authors: Wang Lu , Wang Lingxian , Song Ran , Shen Yan , Sun Yang , Gu Yanhong , Shu Yongqian , Xu Qiang
Published: February 2011

Human liposarcoma is the most common soft tissue sarcoma. There is no effective therapy so far except for surgery. In this study, we report for the first time that curcumin induces endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in human liposarcoma cells via interacting with sarcoplasmic/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase 2 (SERCA2). Curcumin dose-dependently inhibited the cell survival of human liposarcoma cell line SW872 cells, but did not affect that of human normal adipose-derived cells. Curcumin-mediated ER stress via inhibiting the activity of SERCA2 caused increasing expressions of CHOP and its transcription target death receptor 5 (TRAIL-R2), leading to a caspase-3 and caspase-8 cascade-dependent apoptosis in SW872 cells in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, 70% of human liposarcoma tissues showed an elevated SERCA2 expression compared with normal adipose tissues. Curcumin dose-dependently inhibited the activity of SERCA2, and the interaction of molecular docking and colocalization in ER of curcumin with SERCA2 were further observed. These findings suggest that curcumin may serve as a potent agent for curing human liposarcoma via targeting SERCA2. Mol Cancer Ther; 10(3); 461–71. ©2011 AACR.
Impaired Long-Term Potentiation in the Prefrontal Cortex of Huntington’s Disease Mouse Models: Rescue by D1 Dopamine Receptor Activation
Authors: Dallérac G.M. , Vatsavayai S.C. , Cummings D.M. , Milnerwood A.J. , Peddie C.J. , Evans K.A. , Walters S.W. , Rezaie P. , Hirst M.C. , Murphy K.P.S.J.
Published: February 2011

Background: The introduction of gene testing for Huntington’s disease (HD) has enabled the neuropsychiatric and cognitive profiling of human gene carriers prior to the onset of overt motor and cognitive symptoms. Such studies reveal an early decline in working memory and executive function, altered EEG and a loss of striatal dopamine receptors. Working memory is processed in the prefrontal cortex and modulated by extrinsic dopaminergic inputs. Objective: We sought to study excitatory synaptic function and plasticity in the medial prefrontal cortex of mouse models of HD. Methods: We have used 2 mouse models of HD, carrying 89 and 116 CAG repeats (corresponding to a preclinical and symptomatic state, respectively) and performed electrophysiological field recording in coronal slices of the medial prefrontal cortex. Results: We report that short-term synaptic plasticity and long-term potentiation (LTP) are impaired and that the severity of impairment is correlated with the size of the CAG repeat. Remarkably, the deficits in LTP and short-term plasticity are reversed in the presence of a D1 dopamine receptor agonist (SKF38393). Conclusion: In a previous study, we demonstrated that a deficit in long-term depression (LTD) in the perirhinal cortex could also be reversed by a dopamine agonist. These and our current data indicate that inadequate dopaminergic modulation of cortical synaptic function is an early event in HD and may provide a route for the alleviation of cognitive dysfunction.
Heritability of Early Repolarization
Authors: Reinhard Wibke , Kaess Bernhard M. , Debiec Radoslaw , Nelson Christopher P. , Stark Klaus , Tobin Martin D. , Macfarlane Peter W. , Tomaszewski Maciej , Samani Nilesh J. , Hengstenberg Christian
Published: February 2011

Background—

Early repolarization (ER), defined by J-point elevation in 12-lead ECG, was recently associated with increased risk for idiopathic ventricular fibrillation and cardiovascular mortality. The determinants of ER are unknown. We investigated its heritability in a large, family-based cohort.

Methods and Results—

The study sample comprised 1877 individuals from 505 white nuclear families representative of the British general population. Standard 12-lead ECGs were evaluated for the presence of ER, defined as J-point elevation of ≥0.1 mV in at least 2 adjacent inferior (II, III, and aVF) or anterolateral (I, aVL, and V
4
through V
6
) leads. Narrow sense heritability estimates were computed adjusting for age, age
2
, and sex. The prevalence of ER was 7.7% (n=145) in the whole cohort, 5.9% (n=56) in parents, and 9.6% (n=89) in offspring. Heritability estimate for the presence of ER was calculated at h
2
=0.49 (standard error=0.14;
P
=2.7*10
−4
) and was higher when restricted to its presence in inferior leads (h
2
=0.61, standard error=0.18,
P
=4.3*10
−4
) or for the notching ER morphology (h
2
=0.81, standard error=0.19,
P
=2.4*10
−5
). Individuals with at least 1 affected parent had a 2.5-fold increased risk for presenting with ER on ECG (odds ratio, 2.54; 95% confidence interval, 1.33 to 4.84;
P
=0.005). Familial transmission was more frequent when the mother was affected (odds ratio, 3.84; 95% confidence interval, 1.41 to 10.43;
P
=0.008) than when the father was affected (odds ratio, 1.82; 95% confidence interval, 0.82 to 4.03;
P
=0.141), although this difference was not statistically significant (
P
=0.18).

Conclusions—

ER is a heritable phenotype. Offspring of ER-positive parents have a 2.5-fold increased risk of presenting with ER on their ECG.