bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cost-effective printing of 3D objects with skin-frame structures
Authors: Wang Weiming , Wang Tuanfeng Y. , Yang Zhouwang , Liu Ligang , Tong Xin , Tong Weihua , Deng Jiansong , Chen Falai , Liu Xiuping
Published: November 2013

3D printers have become popular in recent years and enable fabrication of custom objects for home users. However, the cost of the material used in printing remains high. In this paper, we present an automatic solution to design a skin-frame structure for the purpose of reducing the material cost in printing a given 3D object. The frame structure is designed by an optimization scheme which significantly reduces material volume and is guaranteed to be physically stable, geometrically approximate, and printable. Furthermore, the number of struts is minimized by solving an
l
0
sparsity optimization. We formulate it as a multi-objective programming problem and an iterative extension of the preemptive algorithm is developed to find a compromise solution. We demonstrate the applicability and practicability of our solution by printing various objects using both powder-type and extrusion-type 3D printers. Our method is shown to be more cost-effective than previous works.
On-the-fly multi-scale infinite texturing from example
Authors: Vanhoey Kenneth , Sauvage Basile , Larue Frédéric , Dischler Jean-Michel
Published: November 2013

In computer graphics, rendering visually detailed scenes is often achieved through texturing. We propose a method for on-the-fly non-periodic infinite texturing of surfaces based on a single image. Pattern repetition is avoided by defining patches within each texture whose content can be changed at runtime. In addition, we consistently manage multi-scale using one input image per represented scale. Undersampling artifacts are avoided by accounting for fine-scale features while colors are transferred between scales. Eventually, we allow for relief-enhanced rendering and provide a tool for intuitive creation of height maps. This is done using an ad-hoc local descriptor that measures feature self-similarity in order to propagate height values provided by the user for a few selected texels only.

Thanks to the patch-based system, manipulated data are compact and our texturing approach is easy to implement on GPU. The multi-scale extension is capable of rendering finely detailed textures in real-time.
Sphere-Meshes
Authors: Thiery Jean-Marc , Guy Émilie , Boubekeur Tamy
Published: November 2013

Shape approximation algorithms aim at computing simple geometric descriptions of dense surface meshes. Many such algorithms are based on mesh decimation techniques, generating coarse triangulations while optimizing for a particular metric which models the distance to the original shape. This approximation scheme is very efficient when enough polygons are allowed for the simplified model. However, as coarser approximations are reached, the intrinsic piecewise linear point interpolation which defines the decimated geometry fails at capturing even simple structures. We claim that when reaching such extreme simplification levels, highly instrumental in shape analysis, the approximating representation should explicitly and progressively model the volumetric extent of the original shape. In this paper, we propose
Sphere-Meshes
, a new shape representation designed for extreme approximations and substituting a
sphere
interpolation for the classic point interpolation of surface meshes. From a technical point-of-view, we propose a new shape approximation algorithm, generating a sphere-mesh at a prescribed level of detail from a classical polygon mesh. We also introduce a new metric to guide this approximation, the
Spherical Quadric Error Metric
in R
4
, whose minimizer finds the sphere that best approximates a set of tangent planes in the input and which is sensitive to surface orientation, thus distinguishing naturally between the
inside
and the
outside
of an object. We evaluate the performance of our algorithm on a collection of models covering a wide range of topological and geometric structures and compare it against alternate methods. Lastly, we propose an application to deformation control where a sphere-mesh hierarchy is used as a convenient rig for altering the input shape interactively.
Modeling and estimation of internal friction in cloth
Authors: Miguel Eder , Tamstorf Rasmus , Bradley Derek , Schvartzman Sara C. , Thomaszewski Bernhard , Bickel Bernd , Matusik Wojciech , Marschner Steve , Otaduy Miguel A.
Published: November 2013

Force-deformation measurements of cloth exhibit significant hysteresis, and many researchers have identified internal friction as the source of this effect. However, it has not been incorporated into computer animation models of cloth. In this paper, we propose a model of internal friction based on an augmented reparameterization of Dahl's model, and we show that this model provides a good match to several important features of cloth hysteresis even with a minimal set of parameters. We also propose novel parameter estimation procedures that are based on simple and inexpensive setups and need only sparse data, as opposed to the complex hardware and dense data acquisition of previous methods. Finally, we provide an algorithm for the efficient simulation of internal friction, and we demonstrate it on simulation examples that show disparate behavior with and without internal friction.
Projective analysis for 3D shape segmentation
Authors: Wang Yunhai , Gong Minglun , Wang Tianhua , Cohen-Or Daniel , Zhang Hao , Chen Baoquan
Published: November 2013

We introduce
projective analysis
for semantic segmentation and labeling of 3D shapes. The analysis treats an input 3D shape as a collection of 2D projections, labels each projection by transferring knowledge from existing labeled images, and back-projects and fuses the labelings on the 3D shape. The image-space analysis involves matching projected binary images of 3D objects based on a novel
bi-class Hausdorff distance
. The distance is topology-aware by accounting for internal holes in the 2D figures and it is applied to
piecewise-linearly warped
object projections to compensate for part scaling and view discrepancies. Projective analysis simplifies the processing task by working in a lower-dimensional space, circumvents the requirement of having complete and well-modeled 3D shapes, and addresses the data challenge for 3D shape analysis by leveraging the massive available image data. A large and dense labeled set ensures that the labeling of a given projected image can be inferred from closely matched labeled images. We demonstrate semantic labeling of imperfect (e.g., incomplete or self-intersecting) 3D models which would be otherwise difficult to analyze without taking the projective analysis approach.
Designing and fabricating mechanical automata from mocap sequences
Authors: Ceylan Duygu , Li Wilmot , Mitra Niloy J. , Agrawala Maneesh , Pauly Mark
Published: November 2013

Mechanical figures that mimic human motions continue to entertain us and capture our imagination. Creating such automata requires expertise in motion planning, knowledge of mechanism design, and familiarity with fabrication constraints. Thus, automaton design remains restricted to only a handful of experts. We propose an automatic algorithm that takes a motion sequence of a humanoid character and generates the design for a mechanical figure that approximates the input motion when driven with a single input crank. Our approach has two stages. The
motion approximation
stage computes a motion that approximates the input sequence as closely as possible while remaining compatible with the geometric and motion constraints of the mechanical parts in our design. Then, in the
layout
stage, we solve for the sizing parameters and spatial layout of all the elements, while respecting all fabrication and assembly constraints. We apply our algorithm on a range of input motions taken from motion capture databases. We also fabricate two of our designs to demonstrate the viability of our approach.
Structure-preserving image smoothing via region covariances
Authors: Karacan Levent , Erdem Erkut , Erdem Aykut
Published: November 2013

Recent years have witnessed the emergence of new image smoothing techniques which have provided new insights and raised new questions about the nature of this well-studied problem. Specifically, these models separate a given image into its structure and texture layers by utilizing non-gradient based definitions for edges or special measures that distinguish edges from oscillations. In this study, we propose an alternative yet simple image smoothing approach which depends on covariance matrices of simple image features, aka the region covariances. The use of second order statistics as a patch descriptor allows us to implicitly capture local structure and texture information and makes our approach particularly effective for structure extraction from texture. Our experimental results have shown that the proposed approach leads to better image decompositions as compared to the state-of-the-art methods and preserves prominent edges and shading well. Moreover, we also demonstrate the applicability of our approach on some image editing and manipulation tasks such as image abstraction, texture and detail enhancement, image composition, inverse halftoning and seam carving.
Fast simulation of mass-spring systems
Authors: Liu Tiantian , Bargteil Adam W. , O'Brien James F. , Kavan Ladislav
Published: November 2013

We describe a scheme for time integration of mass-spring systems that makes use of a solver based on block coordinate descent. This scheme provides a fast solution for classical linear (Hookean) springs. We express the widely used implicit Euler method as an energy minimization problem and introduce spring directions as auxiliary unknown variables. The system is globally linear in the node positions, and the non-linear terms involving the directions are strictly local. Because the global linear system does not depend on run-time state, the matrix can be pre-factored, allowing for very fast iterations. Our method converges to the same final result as would be obtained by solving the standard form of implicit Euler using Newton's method. Although the asymptotic convergence of Newton's method is faster than ours, the initial ratio of work to error reduction with our method is much faster than Newton's. For real-time visual applications, where speed and stability are more important than precision, we obtain visually acceptable results at a total cost per timestep that is only a fraction of that required for a single Newton iteration. When higher accuracy is required, our algorithm can be used to compute a good starting point for subsequent Newton's iteration.
Halftone QR codes
Authors: Chu Hung-Kuo , Chang Chia-Sheng , Lee Ruen-Rone , Mitra Niloy J.
Published: November 2013

QR code is a popular form of barcode pattern that is ubiquitously used to tag information to products or for linking advertisements. While, on one hand, it is essential to keep the patterns machine-readable; on the other hand, even small changes to the patterns can easily render them unreadable. Hence, in absence of any computational support, such QR codes appear as random collections of black/white modules, and are often visually unpleasant. We propose an approach to produce high quality visual QR codes, which we call
halftone QR codes
, that are still machine-readable. First, we build a pattern readability function wherein we learn a probability distribution of what modules can be replaced by which other modules. Then, given a text tag, we express the input image in terms of the learned dictionary to encode the source text. We demonstrate that our approach produces high quality results on a range of inputs and under different distortion effects.
Joint importance sampling of low-order volumetric scattering
Authors: Georgiev Iliyan , Křivánek Jaroslav , Hachisuka Toshiya , Nowrouzezahrai Derek , Jarosz Wojciech
Published: November 2013

Central to all Monte Carlo-based rendering algorithms is the construction of light transport paths from the light sources to the eye. Existing rendering approaches sample path vertices
incrementally
when constructing these light transport paths. The resulting probability density is thus a product of the
conditional
densities of each local sampling step, constructed without explicit control over the form of the final
joint
distribution of the complete path. We analyze why current incremental construction schemes often lead to high variance in the presence of participating media, and reveal that such approaches are an unnecessary legacy inherited from traditional surface-based rendering algorithms. We devise
joint importance sampling
of path vertices in participating media to construct paths that explicitly account for the product of all scattering and geometry terms along a sequence of vertices instead of just locally at a single vertex. This leads to a number of practical importance sampling routines to explicitly construct single-and double-scattering subpaths in anisotropically-scattering media. We demonstrate the benefit of our new sampling techniques, integrating them into several path-based rendering algorithms such as path tracing, bidirectional path tracing, and many-light methods. We also use our sampling routines to generalize deterministic shadow connections to
connection subpaths
consisting of two or three random decisions, to efficiently simulate higher-order multiple scattering. Our algorithms significantly reduce noise and increase performance in renderings with both isotropic and highly anisotropic, low-order scattering.
Robust realtime physics-based motion control for human grasping
Authors: Zhao Wenping , Zhang Jianjie , Min Jianyuan , Chai Jinxiang
Published: November 2013

This paper presents a robust physics-based motion control system for realtime synthesis of human grasping. Given an object to be grasped, our system automatically computes physics-based motion control that advances the simulation to achieve realistic manipulation with the object. Our solution leverages prerecorded motion data and physics-based simulation for human grasping. We first introduce a data-driven synthesis algorithm that utilizes large sets of prerecorded motion data to generate realistic motions for human grasping. Next, we present an online physics-based motion control algorithm to transform the synthesized kinematic motion into a physically realistic one. In addition, we develop a performance interface for human grasping that allows the user to act out the desired grasping motion in front of a single
Kinect
camera. We demonstrate the power of our approach by generating physics-based motion control for grasping objects with different properties such as shapes, weights, spatial orientations, and frictions. We show our physics-based motion control for human grasping is robust to external perturbations and changes in physical quantities.
Anatomy transfer
Authors: Ali-Hamadi Dicko , Liu Tiantian , Gilles Benjamin , Kavan Ladislav , Faure François , Palombi Olivier , Cani Marie-Paule
Published: November 2013

Characters with precise internal anatomy are important in film and visual effects, as well as in medical applications. We propose the first semi-automatic method for creating anatomical structures, such as bones, muscles, viscera and fat tissues. This is done by transferring a reference anatomical model from an input template to an arbitrary target character, only defined by its boundary representation (skin). The fat distribution of the target character needs to be specified. We can either infer this information from MRI data, or allow the users to express their creative intent through a new editing tool. The rest of our method runs automatically: it first transfers the bones to the target character, while maintaining their structure as much as possible. The bone layer, along with the target skin eroded using the fat thickness information, are then used to define a volume where we map the internal anatomy of the source model using harmonic (Laplacian) deformation. This way, we are able to quickly generate anatomical models for a large range of target characters, while maintaining anatomical constraints.
Data-driven hallucination of different times of day from a single outdoor photo
Authors: Shih Yichang , Paris Sylvain , Durand Frédo , Freeman William T.
Published: November 2013

We introduce "time hallucination": synthesizing a plausible image at a different time of day from an input image. This challenging task often requires dramatically altering the color appearance of the picture. In this paper, we introduce the first data-driven approach to automatically creating a plausible-looking photo that appears as though it were taken at a different time of day. The time of day is specified by a semantic time label, such as "night".

Our approach relies on a database of time-lapse videos of various scenes. These videos provide rich information about the variations in color appearance of a scene throughout the day. Our method transfers the color appearance from videos with a similar scene as the input photo. We propose a
locally affine model
learned from the video for the transfer, allowing our model to synthesize new color data while retaining image details. We show that this model can hallucinate a wide range of different times of day. The model generates a large sparse linear system, which can be solved by off-the-shelf solvers. We validate our methods by synthesizing transforming photos of various outdoor scenes to four times of interest: daytime, the golden hour, the blue hour, and nighttime.
Linear efficient antialiased displacement and reflectance mapping
Authors: Dupuy Jonathan , Heitz Eric , Iehl Jean-Claude , Poulin Pierre , Neyret Fabrice , Ostromoukhov Victor
Published: November 2013

We present Linear Efficient Antialiased Displacement and Reflectance (LEADR) mapping, a reflectance filtering technique for displacement mapped surfaces. Similarly to LEAN mapping, it employs two mipmapped texture maps, which store the first two moments of the displacement gradients. During rendering, the projection of this data over a pixel is used to compute a noncentered anisotropic Beckmann distribution using only simple, linear filtering operations. The distribution is then injected in a new, physically based, rough surface microfacet BRDF model, that includes masking and shadowing effects for both diffuse and specular reflection under directional, point, and environment lighting. Furthermore, our method is compatible with animation and deformation, making it extremely general and flexible. Combined with an adaptive meshing scheme, LEADR mapping provides the very first seamless and hardware-accelerated multi-resolution representation for surfaces. In order to demonstrate its effectiveness, we render highly detailed production models in real time on a commodity GPU, with quality matching supersampled ground-truth images.
Interactive localized liquid motion editing
Authors: Pan Zherong , Huang Jin , Tong Yiying , Zheng Changxi , Bao Hujun
Published: November 2013

Animation techniques for controlling liquid simulation are challenging: they commonly require carefully setting initial and boundary conditions or performing a costly numerical optimization scheme against user-provided keyframes or animation sequences. Either way, the whole process is laborious and computationally expensive.

We introduce a novel method to provide intuitive and interactive control of liquid simulation. Our method enables a user to locally edit selected keyframes and automatically propagates the editing in a nearby temporal region using geometric deformation. We formulate our local editing techniques as a small-scale nonlinear optimization problem which can be solved interactively. With this uniformed formulation, we propose three editing metaphors, including (i) sketching local fluid features using a few user strokes, (ii) dragging a local fluid region, and (iii) controlling a local shape with a small mesh patch. Finally, we use the edited liquid animation to guide an offline high-resolution simulation to recover more surface details. We demonstrate the intuitiveness and efficacy of our method in various practical scenarios.
Understanding latent interactions in online social networks
Authors: Jiang Jing , Wilson Christo , Wang Xiao , Sha Wenpeng , Huang Peng , Dai Yafei , Zhao Ben Y.
Published: November 2013

Popular online social networks (OSNs) like Facebook and Twitter are changing the way users communicate and interact with the Internet. A deep understanding of user interactions in OSNs can provide important insights into questions of human social behavior and into the design of social platforms and applications. However, recent studies have shown that a majority of user interactions on OSNs are
latent interactions
, that is, passive actions, such as profile browsing, that cannot be observed by traditional measurement techniques.

In this article, we seek a deeper understanding of both active and latent user interactions in OSNs. For quantifiable data on latent user interactions, we perform a detailed measurement study on Renren, the largest OSN in China with more than 220 million users to date. All friendship links in Renren are public, allowing us to exhaustively crawl a connected graph component of 42 million users and 1.66 billion social links in 2009. Renren also keeps detailed, publicly viewable visitor logs for each user profile. We capture detailed histories of profile visits over a period of 90 days for users in the Peking University Renren network and use statistics of profile visits to study issues of user profile popularity, reciprocity of profile visits, and the impact of content updates on user popularity. We find that latent interactions are much more prevalent and frequent than active events, are nonreciprocal in nature, and that profile popularity is correlated with page views of content rather than with quantity of content updates. Finally, we construct
latent interaction graphs
as models of user browsing behavior and compare their structural properties, evolution, community structure, and mixing times against those of both active interaction graphs and social graphs.
Keeping the vehicle on the road
Authors: Yenikaya Sibel , Yenikaya Gökhan , Düven Ekrem
Published: November 2013

The development of wireless sensor networks, such as researchers Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) requires the ability to analyze the road scene just like a human does. Road scene analysis is an essential, complex, and challenging task and it consists of: road detection (which includes the localization of the road, the determination of the relative position between vehicle and road, and the analysis of the vehicle's heading direction) and obstacle detection (which is mainly based on localizing possible obstacles on the vehicle's path). The detection of the road borders, the estimation of the road geometry, and the localization of the vehicle are essential tasks in this context since they are required for the lateral and longitudinal control of the vehicle. Within this field, on-board vision has been widely used since it has many advantages (higher resolution, low power consumption, low cost, easy aesthetic integration, and nonintrusive nature) over other active sensors such as RADAR or LIDAR. At first glance the problem of detecting the road geometry from visual information seems simple and early works in this field were quickly rewarded with promising results. However, the large variety of scenarios and the high rates of success demanded by the industry have kept the lane detection research work alive. In this article a comprehensive review of vision-based road detection systems vision is presented.
Binary-code obfuscations in prevalent packer tools
Authors: Roundy Kevin A. , Miller Barton P.
Published: November 2013

The first steps in analyzing defensive malware are understanding what obfuscations are present in real-world malware binaries, how these obfuscations hinder analysis, and how they can be overcome. While some obfuscations have been reported independently, this survey consolidates the discussion while adding substantial depth and breadth to it. This survey also quantifies the relative prevalence of these obfuscations by using the Dyninst binary analysis and instrumentation tool that was recently extended for defensive malware analysis. The goal of this survey is to encourage analysts to focus on resolving the obfuscations that are most prevalent in real-world malware.
Self-organizing maps with a time-varying structure
Authors: Araujo Aluizio F. R. , Rego Renata L. M. E.
Published: November 2013

A number of research studies considering a self-organizing map have been developed since such a map was proposed by Kohonen [1982]. Some of these studies concern SOM-based models that do not use pre-defined structures to produce their mappings. We call these models Self-Organizing Maps with Time-Varying Structure (SOM-TVS). Despite the large number of SOM-TVS models there is not a standard way to describe them. In this article, we propose a framework to describe SOM-TVS models, which we use to describe some of these models and to compare their algorithms, and we present some real-world applications of the models presented.
Object class detection
Authors: Zhang Xin , Yang Yee-Hong , Han Zhiguang , Wang Hui , Gao Chao
Published: November 2013

Object class detection, also known as category-level object detection, has become one of the most focused areas in computer vision in the new century. This article attempts to provide a comprehensive survey of the recent technical achievements in this area of research. More than 270 major publications are included in this survey covering different aspects of the research, which include: (i) problem description: key tasks and challenges; (ii) core techniques: appearance modeling, localization strategies, and supervised classification methods; (iii) evaluation issues: approaches, metrics, standard datasets, and state-of-the-art results; and (iv) new development: particularly new approaches and applications motivated by the recent boom of social images. Finally, in retrospect of what has been achieved so far, the survey also discusses what the future may hold for object class detection research.
The family of mapreduce and large-scale data processing systems
Authors: Sakr Sherif , Liu Anna , Fayoumi Ayman G.
Published: November 2013

In the last two decades, the continuous increase of computational power has produced an overwhelming flow of data which has called for a paradigm shift in the computing architecture and large-scale data processing mechanisms. MapReduce is a simple and powerful programming model that enables easy development of scalable parallel applications to process vast amounts of data on large clusters of commodity machines. It isolates the application from the details of running a distributed program such as issues on data distribution, scheduling, and fault tolerance. However, the original implementation of the MapReduce framework had some limitations that have been tackled by many research efforts in several followup works after its introduction. This article provides a comprehensive survey for a
family
of approaches and mechanisms of large-scale data processing mechanisms that have been implemented based on the original idea of the MapReduce framework and are currently gaining a lot of momentum in both research and industrial communities. We also cover a set of introduced systems that have been implemented to provide declarative programming interfaces on top of the MapReduce framework. In addition, we review several large-scale data processing systems that resemble some of the ideas of the MapReduce framework for different purposes and application scenarios. Finally, we discuss some of the future research directions for implementing the next generation of MapReduce-like solutions.
Trust management of services in cloud environments
Authors: Noor Talal H. , Sheng Quan Z. , Zeadally Sherali , Yu Jian
Published: November 2013

Trust management is one of the most challenging issues in the emerging cloud computing area. Over the past few years, many studies have proposed different techniques to address trust management issues. However, despite these past efforts, several trust management issues such as identification, privacy, personalization, integration, security, and scalability have been mostly neglected and need to be addressed before cloud computing can be fully embraced. In this article, we present an overview of the cloud service models and we survey the main techniques and research prototypes that efficiently support trust management of services in cloud environments. We present a generic analytical framework that assesses existing trust management research prototypes in cloud computing and relevant areas using a set of assessment criteria. Open research issues for trust management in cloud environments are also discussed.
Web browsing behavior analysis and interactive hypervideo
Authors: Leiva Luis A. , Vivó Roberto
Published: November 2013

Processing data on any sort of user interaction is well known to be cumbersome and mostly time consuming. In order to assist researchers in easily inspecting fine-grained browsing data, current tools usually display user interactions as mouse cursor tracks, a video-like visualization scheme. However, to date, traditional online video inspection has not explored the full capabilities of hypermedia and interactive techniques. In response to this need, we have developed SMT2ϵ, a Web-based tracking system for analyzing browsing behavior using feature-rich hypervideo visualizations. We compare our system to related work in academia and the industry, showing that ours features unprecedented visualization capabilities. We also show that SMT2ϵ efficiently captures browsing data and is perceived by users to be both helpful and usable. A series of prediction experiments illustrate that raw cursor data are accessible and can be easily handled, providing evidence that the data can be used to construct and verify research hypotheses. Considering its limitations, it is our hope that SMT2ϵ will assist researchers, usability practitioners, and other professionals interested in understanding how users browse the Web.
Semantic contextual advertising based on the open directory project
Authors: Lee Jung-Hyun , Ha Jongwoo , Jung Jin-Yong , Lee Sangkeun
Published: November 2013

Contextual advertising seeks to place relevant textual ads within the content of generic webpages. In this article, we explore a novel semantic approach to contextual advertising. This consists of three tasks: (1) building a well-organized hierarchical taxonomy of topics, (2) developing a robust classifier for effectively finding the topics of pages and ads, and (3) ranking ads based on the topical relevance to pages. First, we heuristically build our own taxonomy of topics from the Open Directory Project (ODP). Second, we investigate how to increase classification accuracy by taking the unique characteristics of the ODP into account. Last, we measure the topical relevance of ads by applying a link analysis technique to the similarity graph carefully derived from our taxonomy. Experiments show that our classification method improves the performance of Ma-
F
1
by as much as 25.7% over the baseline classifier. In addition, our ranking method enhances the relevance of ads substantially, up to 10% in terms of precision at
k
, compared to a representative strategy.
Demo hour
Authors: Rinott Michal , Gal-Or Eran , Geiger Shachar , Or Luka , Mueller Stefanie , Lopes Pedro , Kaefer Konstantin , Kruck Bastian , Baudisch Patrick , Kasahara Shunichi , Niiyama Ryuma , Heun Valentin , Ishii Hiroshi , Katsumoto Yuichiro , Tokuhisa Satoru , Inakage Masa
Published: November 2013

Demo Hour highlights new prototypes and projects that exemplify innovation and novel forms of interaction.

Audrey Desjardins, Editor

During the 2013 TEI conference attendees showcased and experienced more than 50 demos. The projects featured novel interactions and tangible experiences in the form of installations, objects, and art pieces. We selected interactive works that explore new types of relations with objects and materials---for example, using water, textiles, and cutters---and pieces that promote discovering novel interactions and reflecting on the technologies that support them.
---Anna Carreras, Chema Blanco, and Marti Sánchez Fibla
, TEI Demo, Poster, and Video Chairs
A fast and scalable multidimensional multiple-choice knapsack heuristic
Authors: Shojaei Hamid , Basten Twan , Geilen Marc , Davoodi Azadeh
Published: November 2013

Many combinatorial optimization problems in the embedded systems and design automation domains involve decision making in multidimensional spaces. The multidimensional multiple-choice knapsack problem (MMKP) is among the most challenging of the encountered optimization problems. MMKP problem instances appear for example in chip multiprocessor runtime resource management and in global routing of wiring in circuits. Chip multiprocessor resource management requires solving MMKP under real-time constraints, whereas global routing requires scalability of the solution approach to extremely large MMKP instances. This article presents a novel MMKP heuristic, CPH (for Compositional Pareto-algebraic Heuristic), which is a parameterized compositional heuristic based on the principles of Pareto algebra. Compositionality allows incremental computation of solutions. The parameterization allows tuning of the heuristic to the problem at hand. These aspects make CPH a very versatile heuristic. When tuning CPH for computation time, MMKP instances can be solved in real time with better results than the fastest MMKP heuristic so far. When tuning CPH for solution quality, it finds several new solutions for standard benchmarks that are not found by any existing heuristic. CPH furthermore scales to extremely large problem instances. We illustrate and evaluate the use of CPH in both chip multiprocessor resource management and in global routing.
There is more to IXPs than meets the eye
Authors: Chatzis Nikolaos , Smaragdakis Georgios , Feldmann Anja , Willinger Walter
Published: November 2013

Internet eXchange Points (IXPs) are generally considered to be the successors of the four Network Access Points (NAPs) that were mandated as part of the decommissioning of the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) in 1994/95 to facilitate the transition from the NSFNET to the "public Internet" as we know it today. While this popular view does not tell the whole story behind the early beginnings of IXPs, what is true is that since around 1994, the number of operational IXPs worldwide has grown to more than 300 (as of May 2013), with the largest IXPs handling daily traffic volumes comparable to those carried by the largest Tier-1 ISPs. However, IXPs have never really attracted much attention from the networking research community. At first glance, this lack of interest seems understandable as IXPs have apparently little to do with current "hot" topic areas such as data centers and cloud services or Software Defined Networking (SDN) and mobile communication. However, we argue in this article that, in fact, IXPs are all about data centers and cloud services and even SDN and mobile communication and should be of great interest to networking researchers interested in understanding the current and future Internet ecosystem. To this end, we survey the existing but largely fragmented sources of publicly available information about IXPs to describe their basic technical and operational aspects and highlight the critical differences among the various IXPs in the different regions of the world, especially in Europe and North America. More importantly, we illustrate the important role that IXPs play in today's Internet ecosystem and discuss how IXP-driven innovation in Europe is shaping and redefining the Internet marketplace, not only in Europe but increasingly so around the world.
Feature interview with Ranveer Chandra
Authors: Camp Joseph D.
Published: November 2013

Ranveer Chandra is a Senior Researcher in the Mobility & Networking Research Group at Microsoft Research. His research is focused on mobile devices, with particular emphasis on wireless communications and energy efficiency. Ranveer is leading the white space networking project at Microsoft Research. He was invited to the FCC to present his work, and spectrum regulators from India, China, Brazil, Singapore and US (including the FCC chairman) have visited the Microsoft campus to see his deployment of the world's first urban white space network. The following interview captures the essence of his work on white spaces by focusing on his work published in ACM SIGCOMM 2009, which received the Best Paper Award.
Effects of isoproterenol on aquaporin 5 levels in the parotid gland of mice in vivo
Authors: Chen Gang , Yao Chenjuan , Hasegawa Takahiro , Akamatsu Tetsuya , Yoshimura Hiroshi , Hosoi Kazuo
Published: November 2013

In the membrane fraction of mouse parotid gland (PG), the protein level of aquaporin 5 (AQP5), a member of the water channel family, was increased by injection (ip) of isoproterenol (IPR), a β-adrenergic agonist, at 1 h, and stayed at high levels until 6 h; this change occurred simultaneously as amylase secretion. The AQP5 level then decreased and returned toward the original level at 12–48 h. After IPR injection, the AQP5 mRNA gradually increased and reached a maximum at 24 h. The facts suggest a rapid appearance of AQP5 at plasma membrane by IPR and subsequent degradation/metabolism by activation of proteolytic systems. Pretreatment of animals with two calpain inhibitors, N-Ac-Leu-Leu-methininal (ALLM) and calpeptin, as well as a protein synthesis inhibitor, cycloheximide (CHX), significantly suppressed the IPR-induced AQP5 degradation in the PG membrane fraction; such suppression was not observed by two proteasome inhibitors, MG132 and lactacystin, or the lysosome denaturant chloroquine, although most of these inhibitors increased AQP5 protein levels in unstimulated mice. The AQP5 protein was also degraded by μ-calpain in vitro. Furthermore, we demonstrated that μ-calpain was colocalized with AQP5 in the acinar cells by immunohistochemistry, and its activity in the PG was increased at 6 h after IPR injection. These results suggest that the calpain system was responsible for IPR-induced AQP5 degradation in the parotid gland and that such a system was coupled to the secretory-restoration cycle of amylase in the PG.
Unmasking of proteinuria in the course of genetic dissection of nonproteinuric diabetic nephropathy
Authors: Yagil Yoram , Roif Diana , Sapojnikov Marina , Ben-Dor David , Tobar Ana , Rosenmann Eliezer , Yagil Chana
Published: November 2013

We previously described the development of nonproteinuric diabetic nephropathy (NPDN) in the Cohen diabetic rat (CDs), a model that simulates Type 2 diabetes in humans. Using linkage analysis in an F2 cross, we currently set out to investigate the mechanisms underlying NPDN. We crossbred between CDs and SBN/y, a nondiabetic rat strain, generated F1 and F2 progenies, fed them diabetogenic diet that elicits diabetes and NPDN in CDs but not in SBN/y, and determined metabolic and renal phenotypes. Over 5 mo, ∼75% of F2 developed a diabetic phenotype. In parallel, a nephropathy developed in F2, with glomerular filtration rate (GFR) declining in ∼25% and, unexpectedly, significant proteinuria appearing in ∼75%. We scanned the F2 genome with microsatellite markers and used linkage analysis to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs). We detected diabetes-related QTLs on RNO4 and 13. We also detected two QTLs for the decline in GFR on RNO4 and 13 and another QTL for proteinuria on RNO13. The metabolic and renal-related QTLs overlapped. These results suggest that the mechanisms underlying the nephropathy in F2 are related to genes that map to RNO4 and 13, as well as a common genetic background for the development of diabetes and the renal disease. Our findings further indicate that proteinuria is inhibited in parental diabetic CDs, thus accounting for the nonproteinuric phenotype, but “unmasked” in diabetic F2 whose genome has been modified. Identifying the nature of the factor inhibiting proteinuria in diabetic CDs but not in F2 may provide a clue to treatment and prevention of proteinuria in diabetes.
MAP: Towards Authentication for Multiple Tags
Authors: Yao Qingsong , Han Jinsong , Qi Saiyu , Liu Zhuo , Chang Shan , Ma Jianfeng
Published: November 2013

The prevalence of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology requires Privacy-Preserving Authentication (PPA) protocols to prevent privacy leakage during authentication. Existing PPA protocols employ the per-tag authentication, in which the reader has to sequentially authenticate the tags within the detecting region. Such a processing pattern becomes a bottleneck in current RFID enabled systems, especially for those batch-type processing applications. In this paper, we propose an efficient authentication protocol, which leverages the collaboration among multiple tags for accelerating the authentication speed. We also find that the collision, usually being considered as a negative factor, is helpful media to enable collaborative authentication among tags. Our protocol, termed as Multiple-tags privacy-preserving Authentication Protocol (MAP), authenticates a batch of tags concurrently with strong privacy and high efficiency. The analytical and simulation results show that the efficiency of MAP is better than O([Formula: see text]) and asymptotically approaches O(1).
Effectiveness and Safety of Intensive Triplet Chemotherapy Plus Bevacizumab, FIr-B/FOx, in Young-Elderly Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Patients
Authors: Bruera Gemma , Cannita Katia , Giordano Aldo Victor , Vicentini Roberto , Ficorella Corrado , Ricevuto Enrico
Published: November 2013

Four-drug regimens, such as FIr-B/FOx schedule, can improve efficacy of first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (MCRC) patients. The present study specifically evaluates feasibility of FIr-B/FOx first-line intensive regimen in fit young-elderly MCRC patients, representing approximately 40% of overall MCRC patients. Activity, efficacy, and safety were equivalent to overall MCRC patients, not significantly different according toKRASgenotype. Clinical outcome was significantly prolonged in liver-limited compared to other/multiple metastatic disease. Safety evaluation of the individual young-elderly patient showed that limiting toxicity syndromes (LTS) in multiple sites were significantly increased, compared to LTS in single site, with respect to non-elderly patients.
Alterations in Sensitivity to Estrogen, Dihydrotestosterone, and Xenogens in B-Lymphocytes from Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Unaffected Twins/Siblings
Authors: Sharpe Martyn A. , Gist Taylor L. , Baskin David S.
Published: November 2013

It has been postulated that androgen overexposure in a susceptible person leads to excessive brain masculinization and the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) phenotype. In this study, the responses to estradiol (E2), dihydrotestosterone (DHT), and dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE) on B-lymphocytes from ASD subjects and controls are compared. B cells were obtained from 11 ASD subjects, their unaffected fraternal twins, and nontwin siblings. Controls were obtained from a different cell bank. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and sodium 2,3-bis(2-methoxy-4-nitro-5-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium-5-carboxanilide (XTT) reduction levels were measured after incubation with different concentrations of E2, DHT, and DDE. XTT/LDH ratio, representative of mitochondria number per cell, was calculated. E2, DHT, and DDE all cause “U”-shaped growth curves, as measured by LDH levels. ASD B cells show less growth depression compared to siblings and controls (P<0.01). They also have reduced XTT/LDH ratios (P<0.01) when compared to external controls, whereas siblings had values of XTT/LDH between ASD and external controls. B-lymphocytes from people with ASD exhibit a differential response to E2, DHT, and hormone disruptors in regard to cell growth and mitochondrial upregulation when compared to non-ASD siblings and external controls. Specifically, ASD B-lymphocytes show significantly less growth depression and less mitochondrial upregulation when exposed to these effectors. A mitochondrial deficit in ASD individuals is implied.
Isorhynchophylline Protects PC12 Cells Against Beta-Amyloid-Induced Apoptosis via PI3K/Akt Signaling Pathway
Authors: Xian Yan-Fang , Lin Zhi-Xiu , Mao Qing-Qiu , Chen Jian-Nan , Su Zi-Ren , Lai Xiao-Ping , Ip Paul Siu-Po
Published: November 2013

The neurotoxicity of amyloid-β(Aβ) has been implicated as a critical cause of Alzheimer’s disease. Isorhynchophylline (IRN), an oxindole alkaloid isolated fromUncaria rhynchophylla,exerts neuroprotective effect againstAβ25–35-induced neurotoxicityin vitro. However, the exact mechanism for its neuroprotective effect is not well understood. The present study aimed to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying the protective action of IRN againstAβ25–35-induced neurotoxicity in cultured rat pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells. Pretreatment with IRN significantly increased the cell viability, inhibited the release of lactate dehydrogenase and the extent of DNA fragmentation inAβ25–35-treated cells. IRN treatment was able to enhance the protein levels of phosphorylated Akt (p-Akt) and glycogen synthase kinase-3β(p-GSK-3β). Lithium chloride blockedAβ25–35-induced cellular apoptosis in a similar manner as IRN, suggesting that GSK-3βinhibition was involved in neuroprotective action of IRN. Pretreatment with LY294002 completely abolished the protective effects of IRN. Furthermore, IRN reversedAβ25–35-induced attenuation in the level of phosphorylated cyclic AMP response element binding protein (p-CREB) and the effect of IRN could be blocked by the PI3K inhibitor. These experimental findings unambiguously suggested that the protective effect of IRN againstAβ25–35-induced apoptosis in PC12 cells was associated with the enhancement of p-CREB expression via PI3K/Akt/GSK-3βsignaling pathway.
Sympathomimetic Activity of aHoodia gordoniiProduct: A Possible Mechanism of Cardiovascular Side Effects
Authors: Roza Orsolya , Lovász Norbert , Zupkó István , Hohmann Judit , Csupor Dezső
Published: November 2013

Hoodia gordonii, a popular appetite suppressant, is widely used as an ingredient in many food supplements despite the fact that supporting scientific evidence is scarce. Recently alarming side effects ofH. gordoniiproducts (increased blood pressure and elevated pulse rate) have been reported. The aim of our study was to elucidate the underlying mechanism of these symptoms. AH. gordonii-containing product was tested for sympathomimetic activity. Isolated organ experiments on rat uterine rings revealed smooth muscle relaxant effect with a substantial component mediated throughβ-adrenergic receptors. Chromatographic comparison of the analyzed product and authentic plant material confirmed that the herbal product containedHoodiaspp. extract, and its cardiovascular effects may be linked to the compounds of the plant.
Internal Reflectance Modelling of Hordeum vulgare Leaves During Drying
Authors: Kvíčala Miroslav , Lacková Eva , Štamborská Michaela
Published: November 2013

Spectral reflectance, or indexes that characterize spectral reflectance at concrete wavelength, is commonly used as an indicator of plant stress, or its photosynthetic apparatus status. In this paper, new leaf optical model is presented. Within this paper, experimental determination of surface and internal reflectance of Spring barley leaves and mathematical‐physical modelling of internal reflectance were performed. It was proven that a new proposed theoretical model and the experimental spectra of internal reflectance are strongly correlated. It can be concluded that the total reflectance is not a function of epidermis condition, but it testifies about overall functional condition of Spring barley leaves.