bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Vocal reporting of echolocation targets: Dolphins often report before click trains end
Authors: Ridgway S. H. , Elsberry W. R. , Blackwood D. J. , Kamolnick T. , Todd M. , Carder D. A. , Chaplin Monica , Cranford T. W.
Published: January 2012

Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) wore opaque suction cups over their eyes while stationing behind an acoustically opaque door. This put the dolphins in a known position and orientation. When the door opened, the dolphin clicked to detect targets. Trainers specified that Dolphin S emit a whistle if the target was a 7.5 cm water filled sphere, or a pulse burst if the target was a rock. S remained quiet if there was no target. Dolphin B whistled for the sphere. She remained quiet for rock and for no target. Thus, S had to choose between three different responses, whistle, pulse burst, or remain quiet. B had to choose between two different responses, whistle or remain quiet. S gave correct vocal responses averaging 114 ms after her last echolocation click (range 182 ms before and 219 ms after the last click). Average response for B was 21 ms before her last echolocation click (range 250 ms before and 95 ms after the last click in the train). More often than not, B began her whistle response before her echolocation train ended. The findings suggest separate neural pathways for generation of response vocalizations as opposed to echolocation clicks.
Single-lobed frequency-dependent beam shape in an echolocating false killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens)
Authors: Kloepper Laura N. , Nachtigall Paul E. , Quintos Christopher , Vlachos Stephanie A.
Published: January 2012

Recent studies indicate some odontocetes may produce echolocation beams with a dual-lobed vertical structure. The shape of the odontocete echolocation beam was further investigated in a false killer whale performing an echolocation discrimination task. Clicks were recorded with an array of 16 hydrophones and frequency-dependent amplitude plots were constructed to assess beam shape. The majority of the echolocation clicks were single-lobed in structure with most energy located between 20 and 80 kHz. These data indicate the false killer whale does not produce a dual-lobed structure, as has been shown in bottlenose dolphins, which may be a function of lowered frequencies in the emitted signal due to hearing loss.
Topographic effects on infrasound propagation
Authors: McKenna Mihan H. , Gibson Robert G. , Walker Bob E. , McKenna Jason , Winslow Nathan W. , Kofford Aaron S.
Published: January 2012

Infrasound data were collected using portable arrays in a region of variable terrain elevation to quantify the effects of topography on observed signal amplitude and waveform features at distances less than 25 km from partially contained explosive sources during the Frozen Rock Experiment (FRE) in 2006. Observed infrasound signals varied in amplitude and waveform complexity, indicating propagation effects that are due in part to repeated local maxima and minima in the topography on the scale of the dominant wavelengths of the observed data. Numerical simulations using an empirically derived pressure source function combining published FRE accelerometer data and historical data from Project ESSEX, a time-domain parabolic equation model that accounted for local terrain elevation through terrain-masking, and local meteorological atmospheric profiles were able to explain some but not all of the observed signal features. Specifically, the simulations matched the timing of the observed infrasound signals but underestimated the waveform amplitude observed behind terrain features, suggesting complex scattering and absorption of energy associated with variable topography influences infrasonic energy more than previously observed.
Analyses of vocal tract cross-distance to area mapping: An investigation of a set of vowel images
Authors: McGowan Richard S. , Jackson Michel T-T. , Berger Michael A.
Published: January 2012

Traditional models of mappings from midsagittal cross-distances to cross-sectional areas use only local cross-distance information. These are not the optimal models on which to base the construction of a mapping between the two domains. This can be understood because phonemic identity can affect the relation between local cross-distance and cross-sectional area. However, phonemic identity is not an appropriate independent variable for the control of an articulatory synthesizer. Two alternative approaches for constructing cross-distance to area mappings that can be used for articulatory synthesis are presented. One is a vowel height-sensitive model and the other is a non-parametric model called loess. These depend on global cross-distance information and generally perform better than the traditional models.
Perceptually optimized gain function for cochlear implant signal-to-noise ratio based noise reduction
Authors: Mauger Stefan J. , Dawson Pam W. , Hersbach Adam A.
Published: January 2012

Noise reduction in cochlear implants has achieved significant speech perception improvements through spectral subtraction and signal-to-noise ratio based noise reduction techniques. Current methods use gain functions derived through mathematical optimization or motivated by normal listening psychoacoustic experiments. Although these gain functions have been able to improve speech perception, recent studies have indicated that they are not optimal for cochlear implant noise reduction. This study systematically investigates cochlear implant recipients’ speech perception and listening preference of noise reduction with a range of gain functions. Results suggest an advantageous gain function and show that gain functions currently used for noise reduction are not optimal for cochlear implant recipients. Using the cochlear implant optimised gain function, a 27% improvement over the current advanced combination encoder (ACE) stimulation strategy in speech weighted noise and a 7% improvement over current noise reduction strategies were observed in babble noise conditions. The optimized gain function was also most preferred by cochlear implant recipients. The CI specific gain function derived from this study can be easily incorporated into existing noise reduction strategies, to further improve listening performance for CI recipients in challenging environments.
Fast estimation of sparse doubly spread acoustic channels
Authors: Zeng Wen-Jun , Xu Wen
Published: January 2012

The estimation of doubly spread underwater acoustic channels is addressed. By exploiting the sparsity in the delay-Doppler domain, this paper proposes a fast projected gradient method (FPGM) that can handle complex-valued data for estimating the delay-Doppler spread function of a time-varying channel. The proposed FPGM formulates the sparse channel estimation as a complex-valued convex optimization using an ℓ1-norm constraint. Conventional approaches to complex-valued optimization split the complex variables into their real and imaginary parts; this doubles the dimension compared with the original problem and may break the special data structure. Unlike the conventional methods, the proposed method directly handles the complex variables as a whole without splitting them into real numbers; hence the dimension will not increase. By exploiting the block Toeplitz-like structure of the coefficient matrix, the computational complexity of the FPGM is reduced to O(LNlogN), where L is the dimension of the Doppler shift and N is the signal length. Simulation results verify the accuracy and efficiency of the FPGM, indicating that is robust to parameter selection and is orders-of-magnitude faster than standard convex optimization algorithms. The Kauai experimental data processing results are also provided to demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithm.
Perception of across-frequency asynchrony and the role of cochlear delays
Authors: Wojtczak Magdalena , Beim Jordan A. , Micheyl Christophe , Oxenham Andrew J.
Published: January 2012

Cochlear filtering results in earlier responses to high than to low frequencies. This study examined potential perceptual correlates of cochlear delays by measuring the perception of relative timing between tones of different frequencies. A brief 250-Hz tone was combined with a brief 1-, 2-, 4-, or 6-kHz tone. Two experiments were performed, one involving subjective judgments of perceived synchrony, the other involving asynchrony detection and discrimination. The functions relating the proportion of “synchronous” responses to the delay between the tones were similar for all tone pairs. Perceived synchrony was maximal when the tones in a pair were gated synchronously. The perceived-synchrony function slopes were asymmetric, being steeper on the low-frequency-leading side. In the second experiment, asynchrony-detection thresholds were lower for low-frequency rather than for high-frequency leading pairs. In contrast with previous studies, but consistent with the first experiment, thresholds did not depend on frequency separation between the tones, perhaps because of the elimination of within-channel cues. The results of the two experiments were related quantitatively using a decision-theoretic model, and were found to be highly correlated. Overall the results suggest that frequency-dependent cochlear group delays are compensated for at higher processing stages, resulting in veridical perception of timing relationships across frequency.
Effects of noise suppression on intelligibility: Dependency on signal-to-noise ratios
Authors: Hilkhuysen Gaston , Gaubitch Nikolay , Brookes Mike , Huckvale Mark
Published: January 2012

The effects on speech intelligibility of three different noise reduction algorithms (spectral subtraction, minimal mean squared error spectral estimation, and subspace analysis) were evaluated in two types of noise (car and babble) over a 12 dB range of signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Results from these listening experiments showed that most algorithms deteriorated intelligibility scores. Modeling of the results with a logit-shaped psychometric function showed that the degradation in intelligibility scores was largely congruent with a constant shift in SNR, although some additional degradation was observed at two SNRs, suggesting a limited interaction between the effects of noise suppression and SNR.
Perceptual interaction of the harmonic source and noise in voice
Authors: Kreiman Jody , Gerratt Bruce R.
Published: January 2012

Although the amount of inharmonic energy (noise) present in a human voice is an important determinant of vocal quality, little is known about the perceptual interaction between harmonic and inharmonic aspects of the voice source. This paper reports three experiments investigating this issue. Results indicate that perception of the harmonic slope and of noise levels are both influenced by complex interactions between the spectral shape and relative levels of harmonic and noise energy in the voice source. Just-noticeable differences (JNDs) for the noise-to-harmonics ratio (NHR) varied significantly with the NHR and harmonic spectral slope, but NHR had no effect on JNDs for NHR when harmonic slopes were steepest, and harmonic slope had no effect when NHRs were highest. Perception of changes in the harmonic source slope depended on NHR and on the harmonic source slope: JNDs increased when spectra rolled off steeply, with this effect in turn depending on NHR. Finally, all effects were modulated by the shape of the noise spectrum. It thus appears that, beyond masking, understanding perception of individual parameters requires knowledge of the acoustic context in which they function, consistent with the view that voices are integral patterns that resist decomposition.
Modification of the loop filter design for a plucked string instrument
Authors: Cho Sangjin , Han Hyungseob , Kim Jongmyon , Chong Uipil , Cho Sangbock
Published: January 2012

A modified loop filter design method for plucked string instruments is introduced. Previous loop filter designs do not properly represent the frequency-dependent damping of a silk stringed instrument. To solve this problem, the modified method evaluates how many harmonics are required and which portion of the sound should be chosen to effectively replicate the instrument. Then, the most reasonable filter parameters are determined based on the frequency signal-to-noise ratio of the synthesized sound.
A Sweet Spot in the FGFR Signal Transduction Pathway
Authors: Ghabrial Amin S.
Published: January 2012

Signaling through the fibroblast growth factor receptors Heartless and Breathless requires O-GlcNAcylation of an adaptor protein.
Intracranial stenting as monotherapy in subarachnoid hemorrhage and sickle cell disease
Authors: Ediriwickrema Asiri , Williamson Theresa , Hebert Ryan , Matouk Charles , Johnson Michele H , Bulsara Ketan R
Published: January 2012

Introduction

Although there have been a few reports of coiling intracranial aneurysms in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD), there are no reports of intracranial stent placement in this patient population. A patient in whom stent placement was utilized as monotherapy to treat a blister-like aneurysm is described and the implications of SCD and endovascular treatment are discussed.

Case report

A 37-year-old man with SCD presented with diffuse subarachnoid hemorrhage. Angiography confirmed a 2 mm irregular aneurysm on the posterior cerebral artery which was treated with an oversized Neuroform 3 stent that was placed across the aneurysm neck by the senior author (KRB). Follow-up CT angiography showed no residual aneurysmal filling. The patient was discharged home in a stable condition, and he continues to do well 4 weeks following the procedure with no recurrence of the aneurysm.

Discussion

This report reviews hypercoagulability in SCD and the treatment options for intracranial aneurysms in patients with SCD. Additionally, the reported case suggests that intracranial stent placement may be a viable option for treating complex intracranial aneurysms in SCD patients.
SPIN-ORBIT COUPLED QUANTUM GASES
Authors: ZHAI HUI
Published: January 2012

In this review we will discuss the experimental and theoretical progresses in studying spin–orbit coupled degenerate atomic gases during the last two years. We shall first review a series of pioneering experiments in generating synthetic gauge potentials and spin–orbit coupling in atomic gases by engineering atom-light interaction. Realization of spin–orbit coupled quantum gases opens a new avenue in cold atom physics, and also brings out a lot of new physical problems. In particular, the interplay between spin–orbit coupling and inter-atomic interaction leads to many intriguing phenomena. By reviewing recent theoretical studies of both interacting bosons and fermions with isotropic Rashba spin–orbit coupling, the key message delivered here is that spin–orbit coupling can enhance the interaction effects, and make the interaction effects much more dramatic even in the weakly interacting regime.
Effect of lipophilicity on biological properties of109Pd-porphyrin complexes: a preliminary investigation
Authors: Chakraborty Sudipta , Das Tapas , Sarma Haladhar D. , Banerjee Sharmila
Published: January 2012

The present study is designed to investigate the effect of lipophilicity of109Pd-porphyrin complexes on their biological properties which were evaluated in tumor-bearing animal model. The insight obtained could be utilized to develop other radiometalated porphyrin complexes with optimum tumor uptake and tumor to background ratio as potential agents for targeted tumor therapy.109Pd was produced by thermal neutron bombardment on enriched (in109Pd) metallic palladium target at a flux of 3 × 1013n/cm2.s for 3 d.109Pd complexes of three different porphyrin derivatives, namely, 5,10,15,20-tetrakis[3,4- bis(carboxymethyleneoxy)phenyl]porphyrin(I), 5,10,15,20-tetrakis[3,4-bis(carboethoxymethyleneoxy)phenyl]porphyrin(II) and 5,10,15,20-tetrakis[4-carboxymethyleneoxyphenyl]porphyrin(III), which differ in their peripheral substituents, were synthesized. The biological behavior of the complexes was studied in Swiss mice bearing fibrosarcoma tumors.109Pd was produced with a specific activity of ~1.85 GBq/mg (50 mCi/mg) and radionuclidic purity of 100%. All the109Pd complexes were obtained in high yield (>97%) and they exhibited satisfactory in vitro stability at room temperature. The lipophilicity of the complexes follows the order109Pd-II ≫109Pd-III >109Pd-I. Biodistribution studies revealed that the most lipophilic109Pd-II complex exhibited highest initial tumor uptake but poor tumor/liver ratio, while109Pd-III complex exhibited the best tumor/liver ratio with reasonably good tumor accumulation. The lipophilicity of109Pd-porphyrin complexes was found to have considerable effect on their biological characteristics and radiometal-porphyrin complexes with optimum tumor uptake and adequately high tumor to background ratio could be synthesized by optimization of the lipophilicity through proper selection of peripheral substituents.
Tetra and octa(2,6-di-iso-propylphenoxy)-substituted phthalocyanines: a comparative study among their photophysicochemical properties
Authors: Tuhl Ahmad , Chidawanayika Wadzanai , Ibrahim Hamada Mohamed , Al-Awadi Nouria , Litwinski Christian , Nyokong Tebello , Behbehani Haider , Manaa Hacene , Makhseed Saad
Published: January 2012

This work reports on the synthesis of novel metal free, zinc, aluminum, gallium and indium tetra and octa (2,6-di-iso-propylphenoxy)-substituted phthalocyanine derivatives. UV-visible and 1H NMR analyses confirm that a non-planar conformation, adapted by the phenoxy substituents due to steric interaction in both derivative series, perfectly discourage cofacial aggregation. Fluorescence quantum yields vary as a function of the number of substituents on the ring periphery, while the fluorescence lifetimes display no distinct trend. Triplet quantum yields are significantly larger for the tetra 2,6-di-iso-propylphenoxy- substituted derivatives relative to their corresponding octa-substituted species. However there was no overall trend in the triplet lifetime values. For almost all of the phthalocyanine derivatives, singlet oxygen was produced with relatively good quantum yields. This study explores the possibility of fine-tuning their physicochemical properties by simple structural modification.
Finding resource-release omission faults in Linux
Authors: Saha Suman , Lawall Julia , Muller Gilles
Published: January 2012

The management of the releasing of allocated resources is a continual problem in ensuring the robustness of systems code. Missing resource-releasing operations lead to memory leaks and deadlocks. A number of approaches have been proposed to detect such problems, but they often have a high rate of false positives, or focus only on commonly used functions. In this paper we observe that resource-releasing operations are often found in error-handling code, and that the choice of resource-releasing operation may depend on the context in which it is to be used. We propose an approach to finding resource-release omission faults in C code that takes into account these issues. We use our approach to find over 100 faults in the drivers directory of Linux 2.6.34, with a false positive rate of only 16%, well below the 30% that has been found to be acceptable to developers.
Assessing the scalability of garbage collectors on many cores
Authors: Gidra Lokesh , Thomas Gaël , Sopena Julien , Shapiro Marc
Published: January 2012

Managed Runtime Environments (MRE) are increasingly used for application servers that use large multi-core hardware. We find that the garbage collector is critical for overall performance in this setting. We explore the costs and scalability of the garbage collectors on a contemporary 48-core multiprocessor machine. We present experimental evaluation of the parallel and concurrent garbage collectors present in OpenJDK, a widely-used Java virtual machine. We show that garbage collection represents a substantial amount of an application's execution time, and does not scale well as the number of cores increases. We attempt to identify some critical scalability bottlenecks for garbage collectors.
Utilizing green energy prediction to schedule mixed batch and service jobs in data centers
Authors: Aksanli Baris , Venkatesh Jagannathan , Zhang Liuyi , Rosing Tajana
Published: January 2012

As brown energy costs grow, renewable energy becomes more widely used. Previous work focused on using immediately available green energy to supplement the non-renewable, or brown energy at the cost of canceling and rescheduling jobs whenever the green energy availability is too low [16]. In this paper we design an adaptive data center job scheduler which utilizes short term prediction of solar and wind energy production. This enables us to scale the number of jobs to the expected energy availability, thus reducing the number of cancelled jobs by 4x and improving green energy usage efficiency by 3x over just utilizing the immediately available green energy.
Optimizing index scans on flash memory SSDs
Authors: Lee Eun-Mi , Lee Sang-Won , Park Sangwon
Published: January 2012

Unlike harddisks, flash memory SSDs have very fast latency in random reads and thus the relative bandwidth gap between sequential and random read is quite small, though not negligible. For this reason, it has been believed that index scan would become more attractive access method in flash memory storage devices. In reality, however, the existing index scan can outperform the full table scan only in very selective predicates.

In this paper, we investigate how to optimize the index scan on flash memory SSDs. First, we empirically show that the index scan underperforms the full table scan even when the selectivity of selection predicate is less than 5% and explain its reason. Second, we revisit the idea of sorted index scan and demonstrate that it can outperform the full table scan even when the selectivity is larger than 30%. However, one drawback of the sorted index scan is that it loses the sortedness of the retrieved records. Third, in order to efficiently resort the result from the sorted index scan, we propose a new external index-based sort algorithm, partitioned sort, which exploits the information of key value distribution in the index leaf nodes. It can sort data in one pass regardless of the available sort memory size.
SAP HANA database
Authors: Färber Franz , Cha Sang Kyun , Primsch Jürgen , Bornhövd Christof , Sigg Stefan , Lehner Wolfgang
Published: January 2012

The SAP HANA database is positioned as the core of the SAP HANA Appliance to support complex business analytical processes in combination with transactionally consistent operational workloads. Within this paper, we outline the basic characteristics of the SAP HANA database, emphasizing the distinctive features that differentiate the SAP HANA database from other classical relational database management systems. On the technical side, the SAP HANA database consists of multiple data processing engines with a distributed query processing environment to provide the full spectrum of data processing -- from classical relational data supporting both row- and column-oriented physical representations in a hybrid engine, to graph and text processing for semi- and unstructured data management within the same system.

From a more application-oriented perspective, we outline the specific support provided by the SAP HANA database of multiple domain-specific languages with a built-in set of natively implemented business functions. SQL -- as the lingua franca for relational database systems -- can no longer be considered to meet all requirements of modern applications, which demand the tight interaction with the data management layer. Therefore, the SAP HANA database permits the exchange of application semantics with the underlying data management platform that can be exploited to increase query expressiveness and to reduce the number of individual application-to-database round trips.
On the use of code mobility mechanisms in real-time systems
Authors: Ferreira Luis Lino , Nogueira Luís
Published: January 2012

Applications with soft real-time requirements can benefit from code mobility mechanisms, as long as those mechanisms support the timing and Quality of Service requirements of applications. In this paper, a generic model for code mobility mechanisms is presented. The proposed model gives system designers the necessary tools to perform a statistical timing analysis on the execution of the mobility mechanisms that can be used to determine the impact of code mobility in distributed real-time applications.
Quantifying the channel quality for interference-aware wireless sensor networks
Authors: Noda Claro , Prabh Shashi , Alves Mário , Boano Carlo Alberto , Voigt Thiemo
Published: January 2012

Reliability of communications is key to expand application domains for sensor networks. Since Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) operate in the license-free Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM) bands and hence share the spectrum with other wireless technologies, addressing interference is an important challenge. In order to minimize its effect, nodes can dynamically adapt radio resources provided information about current spectrum usage is available.

We present a new channel quality metric, based on availability of the channel over time, which meaningfully quantifies spectrum usage. We discuss the optimum scanning time for capturing the channel condition while maintaining energy-efficiency. Using data collected from a number of Wi-Fi networks operating in a library building, we show that our metric has strong correlation with the Packet Reception Rate (PRR). This suggests that quantifying interference in the channel can help in adapting resources for better reliability. We present a discussion of the usage of our metric for various resource allocation and adaptation strategies.
Factors influencing college students' confidence in using electronic books as learning tools
Authors: Booker Queen E. , Kitchens Fred L.
Published: January 2012

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2011 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS) at Saint Xavier University in Chicago, Illinois (and printed in the 2011 ISTAS proceedings).

This paper examines factors in college student confidence in using electronic books as learning tools between 2007 and 2009. The study was done in response to the growing concern over the cost of textbooks and the increase in the use of e-textbooks to counteract that cost. This study shows that despite a lack of a gap between comfort of use of computers, students whose parents income is above the national median income are more confident in learning from electronic books than students whose parents income is not. Not only is this gap existent but it widened between 2007 and 2009 despite the growing confidence in the use of electronic books by both groups. The results of this study suggests that this gap, and its concomitant widening, could be associated with exposure to computer classes in high school and the choice of major.
An interdisciplinary approach to address identity theft education
Authors: Helser S.
Published: January 2012

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2011 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS) at Saint Xavier University in Chicago, Illinois (and printed in the 2011 ISTAS proceedings).

The focus of this paper is to present observations related to information assurance (IA) in rural and urban populations. Based on our experience teaching college students in these environments, we have noted that on entering school, generally, individuals demonstrate limited background knowledge of a variety of computer related technologies. Students begin with a technical disadvantage that represents a readily exploitable attack vector for
identity thieves
. Because of the experience deficit, the hazard of
identity theft
is significant with possible severe detrimental outcomes for the student victim. In addition, the negative impact on the society as a whole is substantial. Methods that reach beyond traditional formal computer or network security instruction in the classroom and extend information assurance education across disciplines are needed. We have explored this direction at the university and have worked on strategies to educate students about
identity theft
. The interdisciplinary programs outlined here span the curriculum. In addition, we suggest community outreach programs that extend the scope of influence of information assurance education beyond the university to include surrounding at risk populations.
Improving classroom visual accessibility with cooperative smartphone recordings
Authors: Kushalnagar Raja S. , Trager Brian P.
Published: January 2012

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2011 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS) at Saint Xavier University in Chicago, Illinois (and printed in the 2011 ISTAS proceedings).

We propose a cooperative approach by students in recording lecture activities such that the classroom becomes more visually accessible for everyone, especially for deaf, hard of hearing and low-vision students. Students utilize their personal camera-equipped smart phones to capture and share their views of a visually inaccessible classroom to students' devices. We show this approach virtually retrofits a classroom to make it a more visually accessible learning environment. This approach can be used in meetings to get and share optimal views of the meeting for all participants.
Analyzing IT-enabled effectiveness in government sector
Authors: Kanungo Shivraj , Jain Vikas
Published: January 2012

Government organizations in developing countries are increasingly being held to the same or even higher standards of efficiency as their counterparts in the developed countries. IT has played a significant role in enhancing the efficiency of government organizations in developed countries; however, government organizations in developing countries have so far failed to fully exploit IT to support improvements envisaged by e-governance. In this study, we respond to the empirical gap in the understanding of IT-enabled effectiveness in the government organizations in developing countries. We report the findings of an exploratory case study conducted at the Directorate of Income Tax (DIT) in India. We use RBV and dynamic capabilities perspective of the firm in addition to notions of complementarity and simultaneity as theoretical lenses to analyze the case. Our findings and analysis indicate that the strong capabilities in matching, choosing, assessing, and executing IT opportunities affect IT-enabled value in government organizations. Our study also highlights the significance of complementary and simultaneous development and execution of IT related capabilities. These findings have practical implications for government organizations that are currently in the process of digitally enabling themselves.
Termination combinators forever
Authors: Bolingbroke Maximilian , Peyton Jones Simon , Vytiniotis Dimitrios
Published: January 2012

We describe a library-based approach to constructing termination tests suitable for controlling termination of symbolic methods such as partial evaluation, supercompilation and theorem proving. With our combinators, all termination tests are correct by construction. We show how the library can be designed to embody various optimisations of the termination tests, which the user of the library takes advantage of entirely transparently.
A library writer's guide to shortcut fusion
Authors: Harper Thomas
Published: January 2012

There are now a variety of shortcut fusion techniques in the wild for removing intermediate data structures in Haskell. They are often presented, however, specialised to a specific data structure and interface. This can make it difficult to transfer these techniques to other settings. In this paper, we give a roadmap for a library writer who would like to implement fusion for his own library. We explain shortcut fusion without reference to any specific implementation by treating it as an instance of data refinement. We also provide an example application of our framework using the features available in the Glasgow Haskell Compiler.
Flexible dynamic information flow control in Haskell
Authors: Stefan Deian , Russo Alejandro , Mitchell John C. , Mazières David
Published: January 2012

We describe a new, dynamic, floating-label approach to language-based information flow control, and present an implementation in Haskell. A labeled IO monad, LIO, keeps track of a
current label
and permits restricted access to IO functionality, while ensuring that the current label exceeds the labels of all data observed and restricts what can be modified. Unlike other language-based work, LIO also bounds the current label with a
current clearance
that provides a form of discretionary access control. In addition, programs may encapsulate and pass around the results of computations with different labels. We give precise semantics and prove confidentiality and integrity properties of the system.
Leveraging Zipf's law for traffic offloading
Authors: Sarrar Nadi , Uhlig Steve , Feldmann Anja , Sherwood Rob , Huang Xin
Published: January 2012

Internet traffic has Zipf-like properties at multiple aggregation levels. These properties suggest the possibility of offloading most of the traffic from a complex controller (e.g., a software router) to a simple forwarder (e.g., a commodity switch), by letting the forwarder handle a very limited set of flows; the heavy hitters. As the volume of traffic from a set of flows is highly dynamic, maintaining a reliable set of heavy hitters over time is challenging. This is especially true when we face a volume limit in the non-offloaded traffic in combination with a constraint in the size of the heavy hitter set or its rate of change. We propose a set selection strategy that takes advantage of the properties of heavy hitters at different time scales. Based on real Internet traffic traces, we show that our strategy is able to offload most of the traffic while limiting the rate of change of the heavy hitter set, suggesting the feasibility of alternative router designs.
Modeling on quicksand
Authors: Gill Phillipa , Schapira Michael , Goldberg Sharon
Published: January 2012

Researchers studying the interdomain routing system, its properties and new protocols, face many challenges in performing realistic evaluations and simulations. Modeling decisions with respect to AS-level topology, routing policies and traffic matrices are complicated by a scarcity of ground truth for each of these components. Moreover, scalability issues arise when attempting to simulate over large (although still incomplete) empirically-derived AS-level topologies. In this paper, we discuss our approach for analyzing the robustness of our results to incomplete empirical data. We do this by (1) developing fast simulation algorithms that enable us to (2) running multiple simulations with varied parameters that test the sensitivity of our research results.
Getting started with GENI
Authors: Duerig Jonathon , Ricci Robert , Stoller Leigh , Strum Matt , Wong Gary , Carpenter Charles , Fei Zongming , Griffioen James , Nasir Hussamuddin , Reed Jeremy , Wu Xiongqi
Published: January 2012

GENI, the Global Environment for Network Innovations, is a National Science Foundation project to create a "virtual laboratory at the frontiers of network science and engineering for exploring future internets at scale." It provides researchers, educators, and students with resources that they can use to build their own networks that span the country and---through federation---the world. GENI enables experimenters to try out bold new network architectures and designs for networked systems, and to deploy and evaluate these systems on a diverse set of resources over a large footprint.

This tutorial is a starting point for running experiments on GENI. It provides an overview of GENI and covers the process of creating a network and running a simple experiment using two tools: the Flack GUI and the INSTOOLS instrumentation service.
On the Charting Procedures: T2 Chart and DD‐Diagram
Authors: Hajlaoui Mekki
Published: January 2012

Multivariate analysis is increasingly used to include all dimensions of quality concept, in
light of rapid development of customer requirements. With the recent advances in information
technology and in recording, large amounts of multivariate data are now needed to be analyzed.
Many charting procedures are based on Mahalanobis distance, but their applicability relies heavily
on the requirement of normality and their performance is related to the choice of a type I
error rate. An alternative charting scheme based on data depth is pursued and its performance
is assessed through a real example. This performance and that of a T2 chart for individual
observations are discussed. Using the centre‐outward ranking, this new method named DD‐diagram
is used to detect any multivariate quality datum that one of its components exceeds
its limiting variation interval. For a given error‐free sample, the DD‐diagram can be used to
signal out any point of another observed sample taken from a multivariate quality process. This
new scheme based on data depth uses a properly chosen limiting variation line or Lvalue in
order to evaluate the outlyingness of every point in the observed sample in all directions of the
considered P‐variates of quality process.
Adverse Drug Reactions in a Complementary Medicine Hospital: A Prospective, Intensified Surveillance Study
Authors: Süsskind M. , Thürmann P. A. , Lüke C. , Jeschke E. , Tabali M. , Matthes H. , Ostermann T.
Published: January 2012

Background. Anthroposophic medicine is one of the widely used approaches of complementary and alternative medicine. However, few prospective studies have generated safety data on its use.Objectives. We aimed to assess adverse drug reactions (ADRs) caused by anthroposophical medicines (AMEDs) in the anthroposophical Community Hospital Havelhoehe, GERMANY. Study Design and Methods. Between May and November 2007, patients of six medical wards were prospectively assessed for ADRs. Suspected ADRs occurring during hospitalization were documented and classified in terms of organ manifestation (WHO SOC-code), causality (according to the Uppsala Monitoring Centre WHO criteria), and severity. Only those ADRs with a severity of grade 2 and higher according to the CTCAE classification system are described here. Results. Of the 3,813 patients hospitalized, 174 patients (4.6%) experienced 211 ADRs (CTCAE grade 2/3n=191, 90.5%, CTCAE grade 4/5n=20, 9.5%) of which 57 ADRs (27.0%) were serious. The median age of patients with ADRs (62.1% females) was 72.0 (IQR: 61.0; 80.0). Six patients (0.2%) experienced six ADRs (2.8% of ADRs) caused by eight suspected AMEDs, all of which were mild reactions (grade 2).Conclusion. Our data show that ADRs caused by AMEDs occur rarely and are limited to mild symptoms.
The Orbital Dynamics of Synchronous Satellites: Irregular Motions in the 2 : 1 Resonance
Authors: Sampaio Jarbas Cordeiro , Vilhena de Moraes Rodolpho , da Silva Fernandes Sandro
Published: January 2012

The orbital dynamics of synchronous satellites is studied. The 2 : 1 resonance is considered; in other words, the satellite completes two revolutions while the Earth completes one. In the development of the geopotential, the zonal harmonics J20 and J40 and the tesseral harmonics J22 and J42 are considered. The order of the dynamical system is reduced through successive Mathieu transformations, and the final system is solved by numerical integration. The Lyapunov exponents are used as tool to analyze the chaotic orbits.
Electrochemical Degradation Characteristics of Refractory Organic Pollutants in Coking Wastewater on Multiwall Carbon Nanotube‐Modified Electrode
Authors: Wang Yan , Sun Shujing , Ding Guifu , Wang Hong
Published: January 2012

The multiwall carbon nanotube‐mollified electrode (MWCNT‐ME) was fabricated and its electrocatalytic activity of refractory organic pollutants of coking wastewater was investigated. The surface morphology, absorption properties, and the electrochemical behavior of phenol and aniline at the MWCNT‐ME were analyzed. Using ultraviolet‐visible adsorption spectroscopy (UV‐vis), Gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) test, the electrochemical oxidation properties of refractory organic pollutants of coking wastewater using the MWCNT‐ME and the IrSnSb/Ti electrode were analyzed. Compared with the powder adsorption media, the MWCNT‐ME was proved to have weaker adsorption activity, which means electrochemical degradation is the decisive factor of the removal of organic pollutants. The MWCNT‐ME shows high electrochemical reactivity with oxidation peaks of 0.18 A and 0.12 A for phenol and aniline, respectively. Under the same working conditions, the MWCNT‐ME COD removal rate 51% is higher than IrSnSb/Ti electrode’s rate 35%. The MWCNT‐ME has application potential of electrochemical oxidation of refractory organic pollutants of coking wastewater.
Pegylated Arginine Deiminase Downregulates Colitis in Murine Models
Authors: Oz Helieh S. , Zhong Jian , de Villiers Willem J. S.
Published: January 2012

Arginine deiminase (ADI), an arginine-metabolizing enzyme involved in cell signaling, is dysregulated in multiple inflammatory diseases and cancers. We hypothesized that pegylated ADI (ADI-PEG) provide protection against colitis.Methods. Dextran sodium sulfate colitis was induced in IL-10-deficient and BALB/c (WT) mice. ADI-PEG was administeredi.p., and inflammatory mediators and pathology were evaluated.Results. Acute colitis in mice was manifested by increases in inflammatory biomarkers, such as serum amyloid A (SAA,P<0.001), IL-12 p40, and disease index (3-Fold). In contrast, ADI-PEG significantly decreased clinical disease index, SAA levels, and inflammatory cytokines in blood as well as in colonic explants. Animals developed moderate (2.2±0.3 WT) to severe (3.6±0.5 IL-10 deficient) colonic pathology; and ADI-PEG treatment significantly improved the severity of colitis (P<0.05). Marked infiltration of CD68+macrophages and iNOS expression were detected in colonic submucosa in colitic animals but not detected in ADI-PEG-treated animals.Conclusion. ADI-PEG attenuated inflammatory responses by suppression of macrophage infiltration and iNOS expression in colitic animals. ADI-PEG can serve as a potential therapeutic value in IBD.
Metastasis-Associated Protein 1/Nucleosome Remodeling and Histone Deacetylase Complex in Cancer
Authors: Li Da-Qiang , Pakala Suresh B. , Nair Sujit S. , Eswaran Jeyanthy , Kumar Rakesh
Published: January 2012

Cancer cells frequently exhibit deregulation of coregulatory molecules to drive the process of growth and metastasis. One such group of ubiquitously expressed coregulators is the metastasis-associated protein (MTA) family, a critical component of the nucleosome remodeling and histone deacetylase (NuRD) complex. MTA1 occupies a special place in cancer biology because of its dual corepressor or coactivator nature and widespread overexpression in human cancers. Here, we highlight recent advances in our understanding of the vital roles of MTA1 on transformation, epithelial–mesenchymal transition, and the functions of key cancer-relevant molecules such as a nexus of multiple oncogenes and tumor suppressors. In addition to its paramount role in oncogenesis, we reveal several new physiologic functions of MTA1 related to DNA damage, inflammatory responses, and infection, in which MTA1 functions as a permissive “gate keeper” for cancer-causing parasites. Further, these discoveries unraveled the versatile multidimensional modes of action of MTA1, which are independent of the NuRD complex and/or transcription. Given the emerging roles of MTA1 in DNA repair, inflammation, and parasitism, we discuss the possibility of MTA1-targeted therapy for use not only in combating cancer but also in other inflammation and pathogen-driven pathologic conditions. Cancer Res; 72(2); 387–94. ©2012 AACR.
Association of HER2/ErbB2 Expression and Gene Amplification with Pathologic Features and Prognosis in Esophageal Adenocarcinomas
Authors: Yoon Harry H. , Shi Qian , Sukov William R. , Wiktor Anne E. , Khan Maliha , Sattler Christopher A. , Grothey Axel , Wu Tsung-Teh , Diasio Robert B. , Jenkins Robert B. , Sinicrope Frank A.
Published: January 2012

Purpose: We examined the frequency, tumor characteristics, and prognostic impact of HER2 protein expression and gene amplification in patients with curatively resected esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC).

Experimental Design: HER2 expression was analyzed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in surgical EAC specimens (n = 713). Gene amplification was examined by FISH in a large subset (n = 344). Most tumors were T3–4 (66%) or node positive (72%); 95% were located in the esophagus or gastroesophageal junction. No patient received neoadjuvant therapy. Cox models were used.

Results: Overall, 17% of EACs were HER2 positive (i.e., IHC3+ or IHC2+ with amplification), with strong agreement between HER2 amplification (HER2/CEP17 ratio ≥2) and expression (κ = 0.83). HER2 positivity was significantly associated with lower tumor grade, less invasiveness, fewer malignant nodes, and the presence of adjacent Barrett's esophagus (BE). EACs with BE had higher odds of HER2 positivity than EACs without BE, independent of pathologic features [OR = 1.8 (95% CI: 1.1–2.8), P = 0.014]. Among all cases, HER2 positivity was significantly associated with disease-specific survival (DSS) in a manner that differed by the presence or absence of BE (Pinteraction = 0.0047). In EACs with BE, HER2 positivity was significantly associated with improved DSS [HR = 0.54 (95% CI: 0.35–0.84), P = 0.0065] and overall survival (P = 0.0022) independent of pathologic features, but was not prognostic among EACs without BE.

Conclusions: HER2 positivity was shown in 17% of resected EACs and associated with reduced tumor aggressiveness. EACs with BE had nearly twice the odds of being HER2 positive and, within this subgroup, HER2 positivity was independently associated with improved survival. Clin Cancer Res; 18(2); 546–54. ©2012 AACR.
Serum Testosterone Concentration in Combat-Related Chronic Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Authors: Karlović Dalibor , Serretti Alessandro , Marčinko Darko , Martinac Marko , Silić Ante , Katinić Križo
Published: January 2012

Aim: The primary aim of this study was to assess the testosterone levels of soldiers with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), without considering their comorbid conditions, compared with the ones in the control group with combat experience. The secondary aim was to determine whether there was a difference in testosterone levels when the same group of soldiers with PTSD was divided according to their comorbid conditions into those with major depressive disorder (MDD) or alcohol dependence (ETOH) compared to the soldiers with PTSD with no comorbid conditions and the controls. Methods: We analyzed serum testosterone in soldiers with PTSD without the division according to comorbid conditions (n = 66) in comparison to the controls (n = 34). We also analyzed testosterone in pure PTSD (n = 17), PTSD comorbid with MDD (n = 18), PTSD comorbid with ETOH (n = 31), and in the controls. Results: Soldiers with PTSD, without considering comorbid conditions, did not show any difference in testosterone levels in comparison to the controls. However, when we divided the same PTSD sample based on comorbid conditions, pure PTSD showed significantly higher serum testosterone levels in comparison to PTSD comorbid with MDD, comorbid with ETOH, or controls. Also, there was no difference in testosterone levels between the PTSD groups with comorbid MDD, with comorbid ETOH, and the controls. Conclusions: We did not find any differences in testosterone levels between the soldiers with PTSD without considering comorbid conditions and the controls. Considering comorbid conditions, soldiers with PTSD without comorbid conditions had higher testosterone levels compared to soldiers with PTSD with comorbid MDD or ETOH, or the controls.