bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Demonstration of opsonizing antibodies to Francisella tularensis by leukocyte chemiluminescence
Authors: Löfgren S , Tärnvik A , Carlsson J
Published: June 2021

Twenty-three individuals were vaccinated with a viable attenuated strain of Francisella tularensis, and blood was collected at various time intervals during 4 weeks. To demonstrate opsonizing antibodies, a mixture of serum and vaccine bacteria was incubated, whereafter the chemiluminescence response of polymorphonuclear (PMN) leukocytes to this mixture was recorded. No opsonizing antibodies against F. tularensis were found in sera obtained before vaccination. Eleven days after vaccination, sera from nine individuals, and 21 days after vaccination, sera from all 23 individuals contained antibodies. Antibodies were demonstrated earlier with the chemiluminescent technique that with the agglutination reaction. Heat treatment (56 degrees C, 30 min) or removal of complement component C3 from immune serum reduced the chemiluminescent response of the leukocytes. A high chemiluminescent response of the leukocytes was induced by immunoglobulin G (IgG)- and IgM-enriched fractions of immune serum in the presence of complement. In the absence of complement, the IgG fraction induced a low chemiluminescent response; the IgM fraction induced no response at all.
Generation and Maintenance of Immune Interferon-Producing Cells Induced by Allogeneic Stimulation in Mice
Authors: Ito Yasuhiko , Aoki Hiizu , Kimura Yoshinobu , Takano Michiko , Maeno Koichiro , Shimokata Kaoru
Published: June 2021

When spleen cells derived from C57BL/6 mice immunized with L cells 7 days previously were cocultured with antigenic cells, immune interferon appeared in the culture fluid. We analyzed the tissue distribution of the immune interferon-producing cells (IIPC) which appeared in various lymphoid organs after allogeneic stimulation. Although fluid from cocultures of L-cell-sensitized thymocytes and L-cells could not detect interferon activity consistently, small numbers of IIPC could be detected by using the enumeration method of IIPC. The generation, maintenance, and nature of IIPC emerging in the spleen were different depending on how the host mice were immunized. Multiple antigenic stimulations were more effective and induced longer-lasting immune interferon production than a single stimulation. IIPC induced by a single stimulation appeared to be sensitive to cortisone, vinblastine, and cyclophosphamide and were relatively short lived. In contrast, IIPC induced by multiple stimulations seemed to be partially resistant to these drugs and long lived. When mice were immunized with intact L-cells, carrageenan, a known antimacrophage agent, had no effect on immune interferon production. However, when mice were immunized with solubilized L-cell antigen, this drug displayed a suppressive effect on immune interferon production.
Neutralizing Activity Against
Clostridium difficile
Toxin in the Supernatants of Cultured Colostral Cells
Authors: Wada Naoki , Nishida Naomi , Iwaki Susumu , Ohi Hitoshi , Miyawaki Toshio , Taniguchi Noboru , Migita Shunsuke
Published: June 2021

Human colostral specimens were obtained from 60 Japanese postpartum women within the first 3 days after delivery. Neutralizing activity against
Clostridium difficile
toxin was evaluated with Y1 adrenal cells in miniculture. When Y1 adrenal cells were exposed briefly to the toxin, they showed a rounding response in culture, resembling that effected by
Escherichia coli
enterotoxin; however, preincubation of the toxin with aqueous phase of colostrum significantly reduced its cytopathic effect on Y1 adrenal cells. Of 60 colostral specimens, 17 samples had neutralizing activity against the toxin. Cell-free supernatants of colostral cells cultured for 7 days without mitogens contained significant amounts of both immunoglobulin A (IgA) and IgM, but very small amounts of IgG. Neutralizing activity of cell-free supernatants of cultured colostral cells was evaluated as described above. Neutralizing activity against the toxin was identified in five samples of culture supernatants out of 60 colostral cell specimens. In all five cases, the aqueous phase of colostrum also had a neutralizing effect against
C. difficile
toxin. Neutralizing activity against the toxin found in five supernatants of cultured colostral cells was completely abolished only by anti-human IgA antibody as assessed by immune precipitation.
Attachment of SA-11 rotavirus to erythrocyte receptors
Authors: Bastardo J W , Holmes I H
Published: June 2021

Treatment of human group O and sheep erythrocytes with receptor-destroying enzyme rendered them inagglutinable by simian rotavirus SA-11. The erythrocyte receptors were also removed by periodate oxidation and markedly reduced by incubation with a high concentration of trypsin, but they were not altered by infectivity-enhancing concentrations of trypsin, p-hydroxymercuribenzoate, or sodium sulfite (Na2SO3). Hemagglutinating activity of the virus particles was destroyed by periodate oxidation at 37 degrees C, p-hydroxymercuribenzoate, and a high concentration of trypsin and decreased by Na2SOa but was not altered by incubation with receptor-destroying enzyme, infectivity-enhancing concentrations of trypsin, or periodate oxidation at 4 degrees C. These results indicate that neuraminic acid-containing receptor substances are involved in the interaction of the virus with human and sheep erythrocytes, and suggest that SA-11-erythrocyte union involves carbohydrate on the surface of erythrocytes but not on the virion. Sensitivities of the SA-11 hemagglutinin to alcohols and repeated freeze-thaw cycles were also investigated.
Candida albicans group A-specific soluble antigens demonstrated by quantitative immunoelectrophoresis
Authors: Guinet R M , Gabriel S M
Published: June 2021

Soluble cytoplasmic extracts of Candida albicans groups A and B were prepared and compared by quantitative immunoelectrophoresis experiments performed with a commercial anti-C. albicans group A immune serum. Although crossed immunoelectrophoresis, tandem crossed immunoelectrophoresis, and line immunoelectrophoresis revealed many cross-reactions between the two groups, some components seemed to be specific to group A. However, the complexity of the extracts studied did not allow us to demonstrate specific constituents with these methods. Crossed-line immunoelectrophoresis with and without absorption of antibodies in situ was then used, and four specific antigens unique to group A cytoplasmic extract were demonstrated, one of which appeared to be quantitatively important. The value of various quantitative immunoelectrophoretic methods applied to complex antigenic preparations is discussed.
Update on management of atrial fibrillation in heart failure: a focus on ablation
Authors: Mulder Bart A , Rienstra Michiel , Van Gelder Isabelle C , Blaauw Yuri
Published: June 2021

Atrial fibrillation is increasingly encountered in patients with heart failure. Both diseases have seen tremendous rises in incidence in recent years. In general, the treatment of atrial fibrillation is focused on relieving patients from atrial fibrillation-related symptoms and risk reduction for thromboembolism and the occurrence or worsening of heart failure. Symptomatic relief may be accomplished by either (non-)pharmacological rate or rhythm control in combination with optimal therapy of underlying cardiovascular morbidities and risk factors. Atrial fibrillation ablation has been performed in patients without overt heart failure successfully for many years. However, in recent years, attempts have been made for patients with heart failure as well. In this review, we discuss the current literature describing the treatment of atrial fibrillation in heart failure. We highlight the early rate versus rhythm control studies, the importance of addressing underlying conditions and treatment of risk factors. A critical evaluation will be performed of the catheter ablation studies that have been performed so far in light of larger (post-hoc) ablation studies. Furthermore, we will hypothesise the role of patient selection as next step in optimising outcome for patient with atrial fibrillation and heart failure.
Generation and characterization of HLA-A2 transgenic mice expressing the human TCR 1G4 specific for the HLA-A2 restricted NY-ESO-1157-165tumor-specific peptide
Authors: Shenderov Eugene , Kandasamy Matheswaran , Gileadi Uzi , Chen Jili , Shepherd Dawn , Gibbs James , Prota Gennaro , Silk Jonathan D , Yewdell Jonathan W , Cerundolo Vincenzo
Published: June 2021

Background

NY-ESO-1 is a tumor-specific, highly immunogenic, human germ cell antigen of the MAGE-1 family that is a promising vaccine and cell therapy candidate in clinical trial development. The mouse genome does not encode an NY-ESO-1 homolog thereby not subjecting transgenic T-cells to thymic tolerance mechanisms that might impair in-vivo studies. We hypothesized that an NY-ESO-1 T cell receptor (TCR) transgenic mouse would provide the unique opportunity to study avidity of TCR response against NY-ESO-1 for tumor vaccine and cellular therapy development against this clinically relevant and physiological human antigen.

Methods

To study in vitro and in vivo the requirements for shaping an effective T cell response against the clinically relevant NY-ESO-1, we generated a C57BL/6 HLA-A*0201 background TCR transgenic mouse encoding the 1G4 TCR specific for the human HLA-A2 restricted, NY-ESO-1157-165SLLMWITQC (9C), initially identified in an NY-ESO-1 positive melanoma patient.

Results

The HLA-A*0201 restricted TCR was positively selected on both CD4+and CD8+cells. Mouse 1G4 T cells were not activated by endogenous autoimmune targets or a large library of non-cognate viral antigens. In contrast, their activation by HLA-A2 NY-ESO-1157-165complexes was evident by proliferation, CD69 upregulation, interferon-γ production, and interleukin-2 production, and could be tuned using a twofold higher affinity altered peptide ligand, NY-ESO-1157-165V. NY-ESO-1157-165Vrecombinant vaccination of syngeneic mice adoptively transferred with m1G4 CD8+T cells controlled tumor growth in vivo. 1G4 transgenic mice suppressed growth of syngeneic methylcholanthrene (MCA) induced HHD tumor cells expressing the full-length human NY-ESO-1 protein but not MCA HHD tumor cells lacking NY-ESO-1.

Conclusions

The 1G4 TCR mouse model for the physiological human TCR against the clinically relevant antigen, NY-ESO-1, is a valuable tool with the potential to accelerate clinical development of NY-ESO-1-targeted T-cell and vaccine therapies.
Urban green space and happiness in developed countries
Authors: Kwon Oh-Hyun , Hong Inho , Yang Jeasurk , Wohn Donghee Y. , Jung Woo-Sung , Cha Meeyoung
Published: May 2021

Urban green space is thought to contribute to citizen happiness by promoting physical and mental health. Nevertheless, how urban green space and happiness are related across many countries with different socioeconomic conditions has not been explored. By measuring the urban green space score (UGS) from high-resolution satellite imagery of 90 global cities covering 179,168 km2 and 230 million people in 60 developed countries, we find that the amount of urban green space and GDP are correlated with a nation’s happiness level. More specifically, urban green space and GDP are each individually associated with happiness. Yet, only urban green space is related to happiness in the 30 wealthiest countries, whereas GDP alone can explain happiness in the subsequent 30 countries in terms of wealth. We further show that the relationship between urban green space and happiness is mediated by social support and that GDP moderates this relationship. These findings corroborate the importance of maintaining urban green space as a place for social cohesion to support people’s happiness.
Volumetric Video in Augmented Reality Applications for Museological Narratives
Authors: O’dwyer Néill , Zerman Emin , Young Gareth W. , Smolic Aljosa , Dunne Siobhán , Shenton Helen
Published: May 2021

Cross-reality technologies are quickly establishing themselves as commonplace platforms for presenting objects of historical, scientific, artistic, and cultural interest to the public. In this space, augmented reality (AR) is notably successful in delivering cultural heritage applications, including architectural and environmental heritage reconstruction, exhibition data management and representation, storytelling, and exhibition curation. Generally, it has been observed that the nature of information delivery in applications created for narrating exhibitions tends to be informative and formal. Here we report on the assessment of a pilot scene for a prototype AR application that attempts to break this mold by employing a humorous and playful mode of communication. This bespoke AR experience harnessed the cutting-edge live-action capture technique of volumetric video to create a digital tour guide that playfully embellished the museological experience of the museum visitors. This applied research article consists of measuring, presenting, and discussing the appeal, interest, and ease of use of this ludic AR storytelling strategy mediated via AR technology in a cultural heritage context.
SystemC Implementation of Stochastic Petri Nets for Simulation and Parameterization of Biological Networks
Authors: Bombieri Nicola , Scaffeo Silvia , Mastrandrea Antonio , Caligola Simone , Carlucci Tommaso , Fummi Franco , Laudanna Carlo , Constantin Gabriela , Giugno Rosalba
Published: May 2021

Model development and simulation of biological networks is recognized as a key task in Systems Biology. Integrated with in vitro and in vivo experimental data, network simulation allows for the discovery of the dynamics that regulate biological systems. Stochastic Petri Nets (SPNs) have become a widespread and reference formalism to model metabolic networks thanks to their natural expressiveness to represent metabolites, reactions, molecule interactions, and simulation randomness due to system fluctuations and environmental noise. In the literature, starting from the network model and the complete set of system parameters, there exist frameworks that allow for dynamic system simulation. Nevertheless, they do not allow for automatic model parameterization, which is a crucial task to identify, in silico, the network configurations that lead the model to satisfy specific temporal properties. To cover such a gap, this work first presents a framework to implement SPN models into SystemC code. Then, it shows how the framework allows for automatic parameterization of the networks. The user formally defines the network properties to be observed and the framework automatically extrapolates, through Assertion-based Verification (ABV), the parameter configurations that satisfy such properties. We present the results obtained by applying the proposed framework to model the complex metabolic network of the purine metabolism. We show how the automatic extrapolation of the system parameters allowed us to simulate the model under different conditions, which led to the understanding of behavioral differences in the regulation of the entire purine network. We also show the scalability of the approach through the modeling and simulation of four biological networks, each one with different structural characteristics.
Spatial-temporal Regularized Multi-modality Correlation Filters for Tracking with Re-detection
Authors: Lan Xiangyuan , Yang Zifei , Zhang Wei , Yuen Pong C.
Published: May 2021

The development of multi-spectrum image sensing technology has brought great interest in exploiting the information of multiple modalities (e.g., RGB and infrared modalities) for solving computer vision problems. In this article, we investigate how to exploit information from RGB and infrared modalities to address two important issues in visual tracking: robustness and object re-detection. Although various algorithms that attempt to exploit multi-modality information in appearance modeling have been developed, they still face challenges that mainly come from the following aspects: (1) the lack of robustness to deal with large appearance changes and dynamic background, (2) failure in re-capturing the object when tracking loss happens, and (3) difficulty in determining the reliability of different modalities. To address these issues and perform effective integration of multiple modalities, we propose a new tracking-by-detection algorithm called Adaptive Spatial-temporal Regulated Multi-Modality Correlation Filter. Particularly, an adaptive spatial-temporal regularization is imposed into the correlation filter framework in which the spatial regularization can help to suppress effect from the cluttered background while the temporal regularization enables the adaptive incorporation of historical appearance cues to deal with appearance changes. In addition, a dynamic modality weight learning algorithm is integrated into the correlation filter training, which ensures that more reliable modalities gain more importance in target tracking. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
HeGO, a Social Game as a Tool for Cultural Heritage Valorization
Authors: Fontanella F. , Molinara M. , Gallozzi A. , Cigola M. , Senatore L. J. , Florio R. , Clini P. , D’amico F. Celis
Published: May 2021

It has been shown that digital games can help people, especially young people, get the most from cultural heritage. Successful usage of these games includes teaching and learning, as well as virtual reality tools used to simulate historical sites and events. They have also been shown to be a powerful and effective tool to make cultural heritage more attractive, especially for those sites that are less known and visited. In this article, we present HeGO, a digital platform for cultural heritage. It allows photos from cultural sites taken by simple users to be sent and stored on a web server. Then the collected photos can be used for an accurate 3D reconstruction of the site of interest. The HeGO platform can be used to implement a social media game, where players get a score for each photo they take and send to the HeGO web server. We also present the case study of the Atina historical center, where we simulated the usage of the HeGO platform for the 3D reconstruction of portions of the urban fabric of its historical center. The results obtained showed that the HeGO platform obtains good 3D reconstructions, whose quality is comparable with those of the more expensive laser scanner technique.
Automatic Comic Generation with Stylistic Multi-page Layouts and Emotion-driven Text Balloon Generation
Authors: Yang Xin , Ma Zongliang , Yu Letian , Cao Ying , Yin Baocai , Wei Xiaopeng , Zhang Qiang , Lau Rynson W. H.
Published: May 2021

In this article, we propose a fully automatic system for generating comic books from videos without any human intervention. Given an input video along with its subtitles, our approach first extracts informative keyframes by analyzing the subtitles and stylizes keyframes into comic-style images. Then, we propose a novel automatic multi-page layout framework that can allocate the images across multiple pages and synthesize visually interesting layouts based on the rich semantics of the images (e.g., importance and inter-image relation). Finally, as opposed to using the same type of balloon as in previous works, we propose an emotion-aware balloon generation method to create different types of word balloons by analyzing the emotion of subtitles and audio. Our method is able to vary balloon shapes and word sizes in balloons in response to different emotions, leading to more enriched reading experience. Once the balloons are generated, they are placed adjacent to their corresponding speakers via speaker detection. Our results show that our method, without requiring any user inputs, can generate high-quality comic pages with visually rich layouts and balloons. Our user studies also demonstrate that users prefer our generated results over those by state-of-the-art comic generation systems.
Low-Cost Outdoor Air Quality Monitoring and Sensor Calibration
Authors: Concas Francesco , Mineraud Julien , Lagerspetz Eemil , Varjonen Samu , Liu Xiaoli , Puolamäki Kai , Nurmi Petteri , Tarkoma Sasu
Published: May 2021

The significance of air pollution and the problems associated with it are fueling deployments of air quality monitoring stations worldwide. The most common approach for air quality monitoring is to rely on environmental monitoring stations, which unfortunately are very expensive both to acquire and to maintain. Hence, environmental monitoring stations are typically sparsely deployed, resulting in limited spatial resolution for measurements. Recently, low-cost air quality sensors have emerged as an alternative that can improve the granularity of monitoring. The use of low-cost air quality sensors, however, presents several challenges: They suffer from cross-sensitivities between different ambient pollutants; they can be affected by external factors, such as traffic, weather changes, and human behavior; and their accuracy degrades over time. Periodic
re-calibration
can improve the accuracy of low-cost sensors, particularly with machine-learning-based calibration, which has shown great promise due to its capability to calibrate sensors in-field. In this article, we survey the rapidly growing research landscape of low-cost sensor technologies for air quality monitoring and their calibration using machine learning techniques. We also identify open research challenges and present directions for future research.
First-person Cinematographic Videogames
Authors: BlečIć Ivan , Cuccu Sara , Fanni Filippo Andrea , Frau Vittoria , Macis Riccardo , Saiu Valeria , Senis Martina , Spano Lucio Davide , Tola Alessandro
Published: May 2021

We present and explore the fruitfulness of “first-person cinematographic videogames,” a game model we have devised for the promotion of cultural, environmental, and territorial heritage. To support and foster the development of these type of games, we have developed a Web-based user-friendly authoring environment, extensively presented in the article. While employing standard first-person point-and-click game mechanics, the game model's distinctive feature is that the game environment is not based on a digital reconstruction (3D model) of the real-world settings but on cinematographic techniques combining videos and photos of existing places, integrating videoclips of mostly practical effects to obtain the interactivity typical of the first-person point-and-click adventure games. Our goal with such a game model is to mobilise mechanisms of engendering affection for real-world places when they become settings of the game world, arousing in the player forms of affection, attachment, and desire to visit them.
Optimizing One-time and Continuous Subgraph Queries using Worst-case Optimal Joins
Authors: Mhedhbi Amine , Kankanamge Chathura , Salihoglu Semih
Published: May 2021

We study the problem of optimizing one-time and continuous subgraph queries using the new worst-case optimal join plans. Worst-case optimal plans evaluate queries by matching one query vertex at a time using multiway intersections. The core problem in optimizing worst-case optimal plans is to pick an ordering of the query vertices to match. We make two main contributions:

1. A cost-based dynamic programming optimizer for one-time queries that (i) picks efficient query vertex orderings for worst-case optimal plans and (ii) generates
hybrid plans
that mix traditional binary joins with worst-case optimal style multiway intersections. In addition to our optimizer, we describe an
adaptive technique
that changes the query vertex orderings of the worst-case optimal subplans during query execution for more efficient query evaluation. The plan space of our one-time optimizer contains plans that are not in the plan spaces based on tree decompositions from prior work.

2. A cost-based greedy optimizer for continuous queries that builds on the delta subgraph query framework. Given a set of continuous queries, our optimizer decomposes these queries into multiple delta subgraph queries, picks a plan for each delta query, and generates a single combined plan that evaluates all of the queries. Our combined plans share computations across operators of the plans for the delta queries if the operators perform the same intersections. To increase the amount of computation shared, we describe an additional optimization that shares partial intersections across operators.

Our optimizers use a new cost metric for worst-case optimal plans called
intersection-cost
. When generating hybrid plans, our dynamic programming optimizer for one-time queries combines intersection-cost with the cost of binary joins. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our plans, adaptive technique, and partial intersection sharing optimization through extensive experiments. Our optimizers are integrated into GraphflowDB.
A Method for Mining Granger Causality Relationship on Atmospheric Visibility
Authors: Liu Bo , He Xi , Song Mingdong , Li Jiangqiang , Qu Guangzhi , Lang Jianlei , Gu Rentao
Published: May 2021

Atmospheric visibility is an indicator of atmospheric transparency and its range directly reflects the quality of the atmospheric environment. With the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization, the natural environment has suffered some damages. In recent decades, the level of atmospheric visibility shows an overall downward trend. A decrease in atmospheric visibility will lead to a higher frequency of haze, which will seriously affect people's normal life, and also have a significant negative economic impact. The causal relationship mining of atmospheric visibility can reveal the potential relation between visibility and other influencing factors, which is very important in environmental management, air pollution control and haze control. However, causality mining based on statistical methods and traditional machine learning techniques usually achieve qualitative results that are hard to measure the degree of causality accurately. This article proposed the seq2seq-LSTM Granger causality analysis method for mining the causality relationship between atmospheric visibility and its influencing factors. In the experimental part, by comparing with methods such as linear regression, random forest, gradient boosting decision tree, light gradient boosting machine, and extreme gradient boosting, it turns out that the visibility prediction accuracy based on the seq2seq-LSTM model is about 10% higher than traditional machine learning methods. Therefore, the causal relationship mining based on this method can deeply reveal the implicit relationship between them and provide theoretical support for air pollution control.
Digital Technology at the Edge of Capitalism
Authors: Leal Débora De Castro , Krüger Max , Teles Vanessa Teles E. , Teles Carlos Antônio Teles E. , Cardoso Denise Machado , Randall Dave , Wulf Volker
Published: May 2021

It is sometimes argued that there is hardly a place in the world in the 21st century left untouched by global capitalism [111, 112]. Even so, some places remain at the periphery, participating in this system without being fully absorbed by it. In this article, we take a detailed look at the economic life of such a “pericapitalist” [161] community in the Brazilian Amazon region. We detail how the community increasingly participates in global systems and supply chains, yet also organizes economic life around local and traditional values. We pay special attention to the role of digital technologies in the community, including mobile phones and internet. The contribution of the article is as follows: firstly, it provides a detailed analysis of the material practices of a community at the
edge
. Secondly, it draws attention to the heterogeneous nature of responses to global capitalism, formed from the relationship between specific material practices, new technology, and elements of cultural identity. Thirdly, it argues for an increased sensibility towards these different relations to capitalism when considering design implications. We argue that close attention to material practice goes some way towards resolving those tensions and, further, provides for an appeal to a more pluralistic views of culture and development [61].
Does What We See Shape History? Examining Workload History as a Function of Performance and Ambient/Focal Visual Attention
Authors: Devlin Shannon P. , Byham Jennifer K. , Riggs Sara Lu
Published: May 2021

Changes in task demands can have delayed adverse impacts on performance. This phenomenon, known as the workload history effect, is especially of concern in dynamic work domains where operators manage fluctuating task demands. The existing workload history literature does not depict a consistent picture regarding how these effects manifest, prompting research to consider measures that are informative on the operator's process. One promising measure is visual attention patterns, due to its informativeness on various cognitive processes. To explore its ability to explain workload history effects, participants completed a task in an unmanned aerial vehicle command and control testbed where workload transitioned gradually and suddenly. The participants’ performance and visual attention patterns were studied over time to identify workload history effects. The eye-tracking analysis consisted of using a recently developed eye-tracking metric called coefficient
K
, as it indicates whether visual attention is more focal or ambient. The performance results found workload history effects, but it depended on the workload level, time elapsed, and performance measure. The eye-tracking analysis suggested performance suffered when focal attention was deployed during low workload, which was an unexpected finding. When synthesizing these results, they suggest unexpected visual attention patterns can impact performance immediately over time. Further research is needed; however, this work shows the value of including a real-time visual attention measure, such as coefficient
K
, as a means to understand how the operator manages varying task demands in complex work environments.
Exploring BCI Control in Smart Environments
Authors: Yue Lin , Shen Hao , Wang Sen , Boots Robert , Long Guodong , Chen Weitong , Zhao Xiaowei
Published: May 2021

The brain–computer interface (BCI) control technology that utilizes motor imagery to perform the desired action instead of manual operation will be widely used in smart environments. However, most of the research lacks robust feature representation of multi-channel EEG series, resulting in low intention recognition accuracy. This article proposes an EEG2Image based Denoised-ConvNets (called EID) to enhance feature representation of the intention recognition task. Specifically, we perform signal decomposition, slicing, and image mapping to decrease the noise from the irrelevant frequency bands. After that, we construct the Denoised-ConvNets structure to learn the colorspace and spatial variations of image objects without cropping new training images precisely. Toward further utilizing the color and spatial transformation layers, the colorspace and colored area of image objects have been enhanced and enlarged, respectively. In the multi-classification scenario, extensive experiments on publicly available EEG datasets confirm that the proposed method has better performance than state-of-the-art methods.
The Role of Hysteresis in Caching Systems
Authors: Domingues Guilherme , Mendonça Gabriel , Silva Edmundo De Souza E , Leão Rosa M. M. , Menasché Daniel S. , Rottenstreich Ori , Dehghan Mostafa , Towsley Don
Published: May 2021

Caching is a fundamental element of networking systems since the early days of the Internet. By filtering requests toward custodians, caches reduce the bandwidth required by the latter and the delay experienced by clients. The requests that are not served by a cache, in turn, comprise its miss stream. We refer to the dependence of the cache state and miss stream on its history as hysteresis. Although hysteresis is at the core of caching systems, a dimension that has not been systematically studied in previous works relates to its impact on caching systems between misses, evictions, and insertions.

In this article, we propose novel mechanisms and models to leverage hysteresis on cache evictions and insertions. The proposed solutions extend TTL-like mechanisms and rely on two knobs to tune the time between insertions and evictions given a target hit rate. We show the general benefits of hysteresis and the particular improvement of the two thresholds strategy in reducing download times, making the system more predictable and accounting for different costs associated with object retrieval.
Design and Evaluation of a Simple Data Interface for Efficient Data Transfer across Diverse Storage
Authors: Liu Zhengchun , Kettimuthu Rajkumar , Chung Joaquin , Ananthakrishnan Rachana , Link Michael , Foster Ian
Published: May 2021

Modern science and engineering computing environments often feature storage systems of different types, from parallel file systems in high-performance computing centers to object stores operated by cloud providers. To enable easy, reliable, secure, and performant data exchange among these different systems, we propose Connector, a plug-able data access architecture for diverse, distributed storage. By abstracting low-level storage system details, this abstraction permits a managed data transfer service (Globus, in our case) to interact with a large and easily extended set of storage systems. Equally important, it supports third-party transfers: that is, direct data transfers from source to destination that are initiated by a third-party client but do not engage that third party in the data path. The abstraction also enables management of transfers for performance optimization, error handling, and end-to-end integrity. We present the Connector design, describe implementations for different storage services, evaluate tradeoffs inherent in managed vs. direct transfers, motivate recommended deployment options, and propose a model-based method that allows for easy characterization of performance in different contexts without exhaustive benchmarking.
Toward Object-oriented Modeling in SCCharts
Authors: Schulz-Rosengarten Alexander , Smyth Steven , Mendler Michael
Published: May 2021

Object orientation is a powerful and widely used paradigm for abstraction and structuring in programming. Many languages are designed with this principle or support different degrees of object orientation. In synchronous languages, originally developed to design embedded reactive systems, there are only few object-oriented influences. However, especially in combination with a statechart notation, the modeling process can be improved by facilitating object orientation as we argue here. At the same time the graphical representation can be used to illustrate the object-oriented design of a system.

Synchronous statechart dialects, such as the SCCharts language, provide deterministic concurrency for specifying safety-critical systems. Using SCCharts as an example, we illustrate how an object-oriented modeling approach that supports inheritance can be introduced. We further present how external, i.e., host language, objects can be included in the SCCharts language. Specifically, we discuss how the recently developed concepts of
scheduling directives
and
scheduling policies
can be used to ensure the determinism of objects while retaining encapsulation.
Determinism
Authors: Lee Edward A.
Published: May 2021

This article is about deterministic models, what they are, why they are useful, and what their limitations are. First, the article emphasizes that determinism is a property of models, not of physical systems. Whether a model is deterministic or not depends on how one defines the inputs and behavior of the model. To define behavior, one has to define an observer. The article compares and contrasts two classes of ways to define an observer, one based on the notion of “state” and another that more flexibly defines the observables. The notion of “state” is shown to be problematic and lead to nondeterminism that is avoided when the observables are defined differently. The article examines determinism in models of the physical world. In what may surprise many readers, it shows that Newtonian physics admits nondeterminism and that quantum physics may be interpreted as a deterministic model. Moreover, it shows that both relativity and quantum physics undermine the notion of “state” and therefore require more flexible ways of defining observables. Finally, the article reviews results showing that sufficiently rich sets of deterministic models are incomplete. Specifically, nondeterminism is inescapable in any system of models rich enough to encompass Newton’s laws.
Characterizing the Usage Intensity of Public Cloud
Authors: Kannan Aadharsh , LaRiviere Jacob , McAfee R. Preston
Published: May 2021

This article uses precise and novel data on country-level Cloud IaaS and PaaS revenue to measure the intensive margin of technology diffusion across countries and within countries over time. We horse race diffusion models and find that cloud diffusion exhibits both Log-Log and Logistic Growth patterns. We use cross validation on nearly 100 features to determine what correlates with cross-country differences. We find that increases in features impacting Gross Domestic Product, Internet Connectivity, and Human Capital are associated with increases in intensity of cloud adoption. We finally compare the relative impacts of these variables using a random coefficients model. Although correlative, our algorithmic research design motivates data-driven hypothesis generation and further causal work regarding how policymakers can encourage more cloud computing adoption and technology adoption more broadly.
Designing and Engineering Interactive Computing Systems
Authors: Funk Mathias , Liang Rong-Hao , Palanque Philippe , Hu Jun , Markopoulos Panos
Published: May 2021

This issue of the Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction features contributions in the intersection of human-computer interaction and software engineering, with further disciplines blending into a rich set of scientific works. 2021 is the first time the annual conference on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems (EICS) is hosted in the Netherlands and in the context of an Industrial Design department. We take this opportunity to focus on the relations and influence of the design discipline on the work of the EICS community. This resulted in a new set of topics for EICS, which were already partly reflected in the many submissions we received in three extensive review rounds throughout 2020 and the beginning of 2021. In this editorial we offer a perspective on what EICS is not yet, looking at the inclusion of and interplay with design as a related discipline.
EMBody: A Data-Centric Toolkit for EMG-Based Interface Prototyping and Experimentation
Authors: Karolus Jakob , Kiss Francisco , Eckerth Caroline , Viot Nicolas , Bachmann Felix , Schmidt Albrecht , Wozniak Pawel W.
Published: May 2021

Body movements, from a short smile to a marathon run, are driven by muscle activity. Despite the fact that measuring muscle activity with electromyography (EMG) is technically well established, it is highly complex and its use in interfaces has been limited. Easy access to muscle sensing can offer new opportunities to Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research. Off-the-shelf sensors often only provide low-level access, hence requiring expertise in signal processing and widening the gulf of execution for users without engineering skills. To address this challenge, we introduce EMBody, a data-centric toolkit for EMG-based interface prototyping and experimentation. EMBody offers multiple levels of prototyping fidelity for EMG sensing, signal processing, and data interpretation. Our data-centric toolkit encapsulates the different data representation stages, offering a wide range of customization opportunities to experts while also allowing non-technical designers to focus on creating new interaction techniques. EMBody features a lightweight form factor and wireless connectivity. Additionally, the system leverages an exploration-centered workflow by allowing rapid access to measurement data via the accompanying software. Users define a set of motions to be recognized and interactively provide example data points. The toolkit then handles signal processing and classification. The recognized movements are streamed on the local network, ready to be used by interactive applications. This paper reports on how to use EMBody and its implementation. We iteratively developed the toolkit in a series of workshops and example applications. Users who had none or very limited knowledge of EMG could rapidly create engaging functional prototypes, while experts appreciated the modularity of the software component allowing for a high degree of customization. We contribute the software and hardware components of EMBody as a tool for the research community to stimulate creative exploration of EMG systems.
UiLab, a Workbench for Conducting and Reproducing Experiments in GUI Visual Design
Authors: Burny Nicolas , Vanderdonckt Jean
Published: May 2021

With the continuously increasing number and variety of devices, the study of visual design of their Graphical User Interfaces grows in importance and scope, particularly for new devices, including smartphones, tablets, and large screens. Conducting a visual design experiment typically requires defining and building a GUI dataset with different resolutions for different devices, computing visual design measures for the various configurations, and analyzing their results. This workflow is very time- and resource-consuming, therefore limiting its reproducibility. To address this problem, we present UiLab, a cloud-based workbench that parameterizes the settings for conducting an experiment on visual design of Graphical User Interfaces, for facilitating the design of such experiments by automating some workflow stages, and for fostering their reproduction by automating their deployment. Based on requirements elicited for UiLab, we define its conceptual model to delineate the borders of services of the software architecture to support the new workflow. We exemplify it by demonstrating a system walkthrough and we assess its impact on experiment reproducibility in terms of design and development time saved with respect to a classical workflow. Finally, we discuss potential benefits brought by this workbench with respect to reproducing experiments in GUI visual design and existing shortcomings to initiate future avenues. We publicly release UiLab source code on a GitHub repository.
Designing for Recommending Intermediate States in A Scientific Workflow Management System
Authors: Chakroborti Debasish , Roy Banani , Nath Sristy Sumana
Published: May 2021

To process a large amount of data sequentially and systematically, proper management of workflow components (i.e., modules, data, configurations, associations among ports and links) in a Scientific Workflow Management System (SWfMS) is inevitable. Managing data with provenance in a SWfMS to support reusability of workflows, modules, and data is not a simple task. Handling such components is even more burdensome for frequently assembled and executed complex workflows for investigating large datasets with different technologies (i.e., various learning algorithms or models). However, a great many studies propose various techniques and technologies for managing and recommending services in a SWfMS, but only a very few studies consider the management of data in a SWfMS for efficient storing and facilitating workflow executions. Furthermore, there is no study to inquire about the effectiveness and efficiency of such data management in a SWfMS from a user perspective. In this paper, we present and evaluate a GUI version of such a novel approach of intermediate data management with two use cases (Plant Phenotyping and Bioinformatics). The technique we call GUI-RISPTS (Recommending Intermediate States from Pipelines Considering Tool-States) can facilitate executions of workflows with processed data (i.e., intermediate outcomes of modules in a workflow) and can thus reduce the computational time of some modules in a SWfMS. We integrated GUI-RISPTS with an existing workflow management system called SciWorCS. In SciWorCS, we present an interface that users use for selecting the recommendation of intermediate states (i.e., modules' outcomes). We investigated GUI-RISPTS's effectiveness from users' perspectives along with measuring its overhead in terms of storage and efficiency in workflow execution.
Engineering Slidable Graphical User Interfaces with Slime
Authors: Sluÿters Arthur , Vanderdonckt Jean , Vatavu Radu-Daniel
Published: May 2021

Intra-platform plasticity regularly assumes that the display of a computing platform remains fixed and rigid during interactions with the platform in contrast to reconfigurable displays, which can change form depending on the context of use. In this paper, we present a model-based approach for designing and deploying graphical user interfaces that support intra-platform plasticity for reconfigurable displays. We instantiate the model for E3Screen, a new device that expands a conventional laptop with two slidable, rotatable, and foldable lateral displays, enabling slidable user interfaces. Based on a UML class diagram as a domain model and a SCRUD list as a task model, we define an abstract user interface as interaction units with a corresponding master-detail design pattern. We then map the abstract user interface to a concrete user interface by applying rules for the reconfiguration, concrete interaction, unit allocation, and widget selection and implement it in JavaScript. In a first experiment, we determine display configurations most preferred by users, which we organize in the form of a state-transition diagram. In a second experiment, we address reconfiguration rules and widget selection rules. A third experiment provides insights into the impact of the lateral displays on a visual search task.
Coping with Diversity - A System for End-users to Customize Web User Interfaces
Authors: Proença Mailson de Queiroz , Motti Vivian Genaro , Rodrigues Kamila Rios da Hora , Neris Vânia Paula de Almeida
Published: May 2021

To address diverse interaction needs of heterogeneous users' groups, user interfaces must be flexible to accommodate for customization that are specific to each user profile. Although, existing web interfaces provide some flexibility, some problems still remain: a) manual adjustments carried out by end users are required for each web application; b) the flexibility provided by current web interfaces is insufficient to address diverse interaction needs of various users' profiles and c) few users are aware about such options to customize the presentation of web interfaces. To contribute to the customization of user interface according to the needs of diverse users, in this work we asses the suitability of a tool that customize web interfaces based on the needs and preferences of end users. UIFlex is a web-based browser plugin that enables users to define their interaction profile. In this task, users are supported by fifteen web-based design rules that were extracted from the literature and the knowledge of authorities. To customize the presentation of web interfaces, UIFlex relies on a set of rules defined for each individual user and "injects" JavaScript codes, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and in some cases HyperText Markup Language (HTML) codes in any page that follows W3C standards. UIFlex was evaluated by 104 users of diverse interaction profiles. The results obtained are promising and suggest that the solution improves the perception that the interactive system performs as desired by users.