bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Multiobjective Pareto-Efficient Approaches for Recommender Systems
Authors: Ribeiro Marco Tulio , Ziviani Nivio , Moura Edleno Silva De , Hata Itamar , Lacerda Anisio , Veloso Adriano
Published: January 2015

Recommender systems are quickly becoming ubiquitous in applications such as e-commerce, social media channels, and content providers, among others, acting as an enabling mechanism designed to overcome the information overload problem by improving browsing and consumption experience. A typical task in many recommender systems is to output a ranked list of items, so that items placed higher in the rank are more likely to be interesting to the users. Interestingness measures include how accurate, novel, and diverse are the suggested items, and the objective is usually to produce ranked lists optimizing one of these measures. Suggesting items that are simultaneously accurate, novel, and diverse is much more challenging, since this may lead to a conflicting-objective problem, in which the attempt to improve a measure further may result in worsening other measures. In this article, we propose new approaches for multiobjective recommender systems based on the concept of Pareto efficiency—a state achieved when the system is devised in the most efficient manner in the sense that there is no way to improve one of the objectives without making any other objective worse off. Given that existing multiobjective recommendation algorithms differ in their level of accuracy, diversity, and novelty, we exploit the Pareto-efficiency concept in two distinct manners: (i) the aggregation of ranked lists produced by existing algorithms into a single one, which we call Pareto-efficient ranking, and (ii) the weighted combination of existing algorithms resulting in a hybrid one, which we call Pareto-efficient hybridization. Our evaluation involves two real application scenarios: music recommendation with implicit feedback (i.e., Last.fm) and movie recommendation with explicit feedback (i.e., MovieLens). We show that the proposed Pareto-efficient approaches are effective in suggesting items that are likely to be simultaneously accurate, diverse, and novel. We discuss scenarios where the system achieves high levels of diversity and novelty without compromising its accuracy. Further, comparison against multiobjective baselines reveals improvements in terms of accuracy (from 10.4% to 10.9%), novelty (from 5.7% to 7.5%), and diversity (from 1.6% to 4.2%).
Decomposition of Diagonal Hermitian Quantum Gates Using Multiple-Controlled Pauli Z Gates
Authors: Houshmand Mahboobeh , Zamani Morteza Saheb , Sedighi Mehdi , Arabzadeh Mona
Published: January 2015

Quantum logic decomposition refers to decomposing a given quantum gate to a set of physically implementable gates. An approach has been presented to decompose arbitrary diagonal quantum gates to a set of multiplexed-rotation gates around
z
axis. In this article, a special class of diagonal quantum gates, namely diagonal Hermitian quantum gates, is considered and a new perspective to the decomposition problem with respect to decomposing these gates is presented. It is first shown that these gates can be decomposed to a set that solely consists of multiple-controlled Z gates. Then a binary representation for the diagonal Hermitian gates is introduced. It is shown that the binary representations of multiple-controlled Z gates form a basis for the vector space that is produced by the binary representations of all diagonal Hermitian quantum gates. Moreover, the problem of decomposing a given diagonal Hermitian gate is mapped to the problem of writing its binary representation in the specific basis mentioned previously. Moreover, CZ gate is suggested to be the two-qubit gate in the decomposition library, instead of previously used CNOT gate. Experimental results show that the proposed approach can lead to circuits with lower costs in comparison with the previous ones.
Dynamic Energy, Performance, and Accuracy Optimization and Management Using Automatically Generated Constraints for Separable 2D FIR Filtering for Digital Video Processing
Authors: Llamocca Daniel , Pattichis Marios
Published: January 2015

There is strong interest in the development of dynamically reconfigurable systems that can meet real-time constraints on energy, performance, and accuracy. The generation of real-time constraints will significantly expand the applicability of dynamically reconfigurable systems to new domains, such as digital video processing.

We develop a dynamically reconfigurable 2D FIR filtering system that can meet real-time constraints in energy, performance, and accuracy (EPA). The real-time constraints are automatically generated based on user input, image types associated with video communications, and video content. We first generate a set of Pareto-optimal realizations, described by their EPA values and associated 2D FIR hardware description bitstreams. Dynamic management is then achieved by selecting Pareto-optimal realizations that meet the automatically generated time-varying EPA constraints.

We validate our approach using three different 2D Gaussian filters. Filter realizations are evaluated in terms of the required energy per frame, accuracy of the resulting image, and performance in frames per second. We demonstrate dynamic EPA management by applying a Difference of Gaussians (DOG) filter to standard video sequences. For video frame sizes that are equal to or larger than the VGA resolution, compared to a static implementation, our dynamic system provides significant reduction in the total energy consumption (>30%).
Composable Modular Models for Synthetic Biology
Authors: Misirli Goksel , Hallinan Jennifer , Wipat Anil
Published: January 2015

Modelling and computational simulation are crucial for the large-scale engineering of biological circuits since they allow the system under design to be simulated prior to implementation
in vivo
. To support automated, model-driven design it is desirable that
in silico
models are modular, composable and use standard formats. The synthetic biology design process typically involves the composition of genetic circuits from individual parts. At the most basic level, these parts are representations of genetic features such as promoters, ribosome binding sites (RBSs), and coding sequences (CDSs). However, it is also desirable to model the biological molecules and behaviour that arise when these parts are combined
in vivo
. Modular models of parts can be composed and their associated systems simulated, facilitating the process of model-centred design. The availability of databases of modular models is essential to support software tools used in the model-driven design process. In this article, we present an approach to support the development of composable, modular models for synthetic biology, termed Standard Virtual Parts. We then describe a programmatically accessible and publicly available database of these models to allow their use by computational design tools.
Driving High-Resolution Facial Scans with Video Performance Capture
Authors: Fyffe Graham , Jones Andrew , Alexander Oleg , Ichikari Ryosuke , Debevec Paul
Published: January 2015

We present a process for rendering a realistic facial performance with control of viewpoint and illumination. The performance is based on one or more high-quality geometry and reflectance scans of an actor in static poses, driven by one or more video streams of a performance. We compute optical flow correspondences between neighboring video frames, and a sparse set of correspondences between static scans and video frames. The latter are made possible by leveraging the relightability of the static 3D scans to match the viewpoint(s) and appearance of the actor in videos taken in arbitrary environments. As optical flow tends to compute proper correspondence for some areas but not others, we also compute a smoothed, per-pixel confidence map for every computed flow, based on normalized cross-correlation. These flows and their confidences yield a set of weighted triangulation constraints among the static poses and the frames of a performance. Given a single artist-prepared face mesh for one static pose, we optimally combine the weighted triangulation constraints, along with a shape regularization term, into a consistent 3D geometry solution over the entire performance that is drift free by construction. In contrast to previous work, even partial correspondences contribute to drift minimization, for example, where a successful match is found in the eye region but not the mouth. Our shape regularization employs a differential shape term based on a spatially varying blend of the differential shapes of the static poses and neighboring dynamic poses, weighted by the associated flow confidences. These weights also permit dynamic reflectance maps to be produced for the performance by blending the static scan maps. Finally, as the geometry and maps are represented on a consistent artist-friendly mesh, we render the resulting high-quality animated face geometry and animated reflectance maps using standard rendering tools.
Dehazing Using Color-Lines
Authors: Fattal Raanan
Published: January 2015

Photographs of hazy scenes typically suffer having low contrast and offer a limited visibility of the scene. This article describes a new method for single-image dehazing that relies on a generic regularity in natural images where pixels of small image patches typically exhibit a 1D distribution in RGB color space, known as color-lines. We derive a local formation model that explains the color-lines in the context of hazy scenes and use it for recovering the scene transmission based on the lines' offset from the origin. The lack of a dominant color-line inside a patch or its lack of consistency with the formation model allows us to identify and avoid false predictions. Thus, unlike existing approaches that follow their assumptions across the entire image, our algorithm validates its hypotheses and obtains more reliable estimates where possible.

In addition, we describe a Markov random field model dedicated to producing complete and regularized transmission maps given noisy and scattered estimates. Unlike traditional field models that consist of local coupling, the new model is augmented with long-range connections between pixels of similar attributes. These connections allow our algorithm to properly resolve the transmission in isolated regions where nearby pixels do not offer relevant information.

An extensive evaluation of our method over different types of images and its comparison to state-of-the-art methods over established benchmark images show a consistent improvement in the accuracy of the estimated scene transmission and recovered haze-free radiances.
Lightweight Query Authentication on Streams
Authors: Papadopoulos Stavros , Cormode Graham , Deligiannakis Antonios , Garofalakis Minos
Published: January 2015

We consider a
stream outsourcing
setting, where a data owner delegates the management of a set of disjoint data streams to an untrusted server. The owner authenticates his streams via signatures. The server processes continuous queries on the union of the streams for clients trusted by the owner. Along with the results, the server sends proofs of result correctness derived from the owner's signatures, which are verifiable by the clients. We design novel constructions for a collection of fundamental problems over streams represented as linear algebraic queries. In particular, our basic schemes authenticate dynamic vector sums, matrix products, and dot products. These techniques can be adapted for authenticating a wide range of important operations in streaming environments, including group-by queries, joins, in-network aggregation, similarity matching, and event processing. We also present extensions to address the case of sliding window queries, and when multiple clients are interested in different subsets of the data. These methods take advantage of a novel nonce chaining technique that we introduce, which is used to reduce the verification cost without affecting any other costs. All our schemes are lightweight and offer strong cryptographic guarantees derived from formal definitions and proofs. We experimentally confirm the practicality of our schemes in the performance-sensitive streaming setting.
Seeing is believing
Authors: Monroe Megan
Published: January 2015

Why visualization will play a critical role in bringing big data decision making to a hospital bed near you.
Wearable technologies
Authors: Mazilu Sinziana , Tröster Gerhard
Published: January 2015

Wearable computing has the potential to fundamentally alter healthcare by enabling long-term patient monitoring and rehabilitation outside of the lab.
Smoothed Quadratic Energies on Meshes
Authors: Martinez Esturo Janick , Rössl Christian , Theisel Holger
Published: January 2015

In this article, we study the regularization of quadratic energies that are integrated over discrete domains. This is a fairly general setting, often found in, but not limited to, geometry processing. The standard Tikhonov regularization is widely used such that, for instance, a low-pass filter enforces smoothness of the solution. This approach, however, is independent of the energy and the concrete problem, which leads to artifacts in various applications. Instead, we propose a regularization that enforces a low variation of the energy and is problem specific by construction. Essentially, this approach corresponds to minimization with respect to a different norm. Our construction is generic and can be plugged into any quadratic energy minimization, is simple to implement, and has no significant runtime overhead. We demonstrate this for a number of typical problems and discuss the expected benefits.
Smart transportation networks drive gains
Authors: Greengard Samuel
Published: January 2015

Transportation engineers and city planners are looking to information technology to redefine traffic management in urban areas. With the opportunity, however, comes risks.
Internal access controls
Authors: Sampemane Geetanjali
Published: January 2015

Trust, but verify.
Disambiguating databases
Authors: Richardson Rick
Published: January 2015

Use the database built for your access model.
PIR 2014 The First International Workshop on Privacy-Preserving IR
Authors: Si Luo , Yang Hui
Published: January 2015

On July 11th, 2014 the First International Workshop on Privacy-Preserving IR: When Information Retrieval Meets Privacy and Security (PIR 2013) [1, 2] was held as part of the SIGIR 2014 conference in Gold Coast, Australia. Three invited keynotes were given by Prof. Douglas W. Oard, Prof. Christopher W. Clifton, and Prof. David D. Lewis. There were 6 full papers and 3 short papers presented in the presentation sessions. Finally, there were breakout discussions on determining the future directions of these interdisciplinary fields of IR and privacy/security for our community.
Interactive Exploration of Multi-Dimensional Information Spaces with Preference Support
Authors: Papadakos Panagiotis
Published: January 2015

Users access large amounts of information resources mainly through search functions, where they type a few keywords and the web search or query engine returns a linear list of hits. While this is often satisfactory for focalized search, it does not provide enough support for exploratory information needs. Faceted and Dynamic Taxonomies (FDT) is a highly prevalent model for exploratory search, which allows users to get an overview of the information space and offer them various groupings of the results based on their attributes, metadata, or other dynamically mined information, enabling them to gradually restrict their focus through clicks and locate low ranked resources. The enrichment of such mechanisms with preferences could be proven useful for exploratory tasks. However, the current preference-based approaches seem to ignore the fact that users should be acquainted with the information space and the available choices for describing effectively their preferences.

In this dissertation we extend the interaction model of FDT with preference actions that allow users to express their preferences interactively, gradually, and in a simple way. We introduce a preference framework appropriate for information spaces comprising resources described by attributes whose values can be hierarchically valued and/or multi-valued. We define the language, its semantics and the required algorithms. The framework supports preference inheritance in the hierarchies, automatic conflict resolution, as well as preference composition. Subsequently, we enrich the FDT model with preference actions and we propose logical optimizations and methods for exploiting the intrinsic characteristics of the FDT-based interaction, aiming at making it applicable to large amounts of information. We present the design and the implementation of the web-based system Hippalus, which realizes the extended interaction model. Regarding user benefits, we theoretically analyze user gain in terms of the number and difficulty of choices, and we describe and analyze three user-based evaluations. The first investigates the degree of effectiveness of preferences when users are not aware of the available choices. We found that only 20% of the users managed to express effective preferences without knowing the available choices. The second comparatively evaluates FDT with other exploratory models, and shows that the majority of users preferred FDT, was more satisfied by FDT and achieved higher rates of task completion with FDT. The last one evaluates the preference-enriched FDT as realized by Hippalus. The results were impressive. Even in a very small dataset, with the preference-enriched FDT all users successfully completed all tasks in 1/3 of the time and with 1/3 of the actions in comparison to the plain FDT. Moreover all of the users preferred the preference-enriched interfac.

Available: http://www.ics.forth.gr/_publications/Papadakos_Dissertation.pdf.
Fast conservative garbage collection
Authors: Shahriyar Rifat , Blackburn Stephen M. , McKinley Kathryn S.
Published: January 2015

Garbage collectors are exact or conservative. An
exact
collector identifies all references precisely and may move referents and update references, whereas a
conservative
collector treats one or more of stack, register, and heap references as ambiguous.
Ambiguous references
constrain collectors in two ways. (1) Since they may be pointers, the collectors must retain referents. (2) Since they may be values, the collectors cannot modify them, pinning their referents.

We explore
conservative
collectors for managed languages, with ambiguous stacks and registers. We show that for Java benchmarks they retain and pin remarkably few heap objects: < 0.01% are falsely retained and 0.03% are pinned. The larger effect is collector design. Prior conservative collectors (1) use mark-sweep and unnecessarily forgo moving all objects, or (2) use mostly copying and pin entire pages. Compared to generational collection, overheads are substantial: 12% and 45% respectively. We introduce high performance conservative Immix and reference counting (RC). Immix is a mark-region collector with fine
line
-grain pinning and
opportunistic
copying of unambiguous referents. Deferred RC simply needs an object map to deliver the first conservative RC. We implement six exact collectors and their conservative counterparts. Conservative Immix and RC come within 2 to 3% of their exact counterparts. In particular, conservative RC Immix is slightly
faster
than a well-tuned exact generational collector. These findings show that for managed languages, conservative collection is compatible with high performance.
SurveyMan
Authors: Tosch Emma , Berger Emery D.
Published: January 2015

Surveys can be viewed as programs, complete with logic, control flow, and bugs. Word choice or the order in which questions are asked can unintentionally bias responses. Vague, confusing, or intrusive questions can cause respondents to abandon a survey. Surveys can also have runtime errors: inattentive respondents can taint results. This effect is especially problematic when deploying surveys in uncontrolled settings, such as on the web or via crowdsourcing platforms. Because the results of surveys drive business decisions and inform scientific conclusions, it is crucial to make sure they are correct.

We present
SurveyMan
, a system for designing, deploying, and automatically debugging surveys. Survey authors write their surveys in a lightweight domain-specific language aimed at end users.
SurveyMan
statically analyzes the survey to provide feedback to survey authors before deployment. It then compiles the survey into JavaScript and deploys it either to the web or a crowdsourcing platform.
SurveyMan
's dynamic analyses automatically find survey bugs, and control for the quality of responses. We evaluate
SurveyMan
's algorithms analytically and empirically, demonstrating its effectiveness with case studies of social science surveys conducted via Amazon's Mechanical Turk.
Smten with satisfiability-based search
Authors: Uhler Richard , Dave Nirav
Published: January 2015

Satisfiability (SAT) and Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) have been used in solving a wide variety of important and challenging problems, including automatic test generation, model checking, and program synthesis. For these applications to scale to larger problem instances, developers cannot rely solely on the sophistication of SAT and SMT solvers to efficiently solve their queries; they must also optimize their own orchestration and construction of queries. We present Smten, a high-level language for orchestrating and constructing satisfiability-based search queries. We show that applications developed using Smten require significantly fewer lines of code and less developer effort to achieve results comparable to standard SMT-based tools.
Natural proofs for asynchronous programs using almost-synchronous reductions
Authors: Desai Ankush , Garg Pranav , Madhusudan P.
Published: January 2015

We consider the problem of provably verifying that an asynchronous message-passing system satisfies its local assertions. We present a novel reduction scheme for asynchronous event-driven programs that finds
almost-synchronous invariants
- invariants consisting of global states where message buffers are close to empty. The reduction finds almost-synchronous invariants and simultaneously argues that they cover all local states. We show that asynchronous programs often have almost-synchronous invariants and that we can exploit this to build natural proofs that they are correct. We implement our reduction strategy, which is sound and complete, and show that it is more effective in proving programs correct as well as more efficient in finding bugs in several programs, compared to current search strategies which almost always diverge. The high point of our experiments is that our technique can prove the Windows Phone USB Driver written in P [9]correct for the responsiveness property, which was hitherto not provable using state-of-the-art model-checkers.
Rate types for stream programs
Authors: Bartenstein Thomas W. , Liu Yu David
Published: January 2015

We introduce RATE TYPES, a novel type system to reason about and optimize data-intensive programs. Built around stream languages, RATE TYPES performs static quantitative reasoning about
stream rates
-- the frequency of data items in a stream being consumed, processed, and produced. Despite the fact that streams are fundamentally dynamic, we find two essential concepts of stream rate control --
throughput ratio
and
natural rate
-- are intimately related to the program structure itself and can be effectively reasoned about by a type system. RATE TYPES is proven to correspond with a time-aware and parallelism-aware operational semantics. The strong correspondence result tolerates arbitrary schedules, and does not require any synchronization between stream filters.We further implement RATE TYPES, demonstrating its effectiveness in predicting stream data rates in real-world stream programs.
Using web corpus statistics for program analysis
Authors: Hsiao Chun-Hung , Cafarella Michael , Narayanasamy Satish
Published: January 2015

Several program analysis tools - such as plagiarism detection and bug finding - rely on knowing a piece of code's relative semantic importance. For example, a plagiarism detector should not bother reporting two programs that have an identical simple loop counter test, but should report programs that share more distinctive code. Traditional program analysis techniques (
e.g.
, finding data and control dependencies) are useful, but do not say how surprising or common a line of code is. Natural language processing researchers have encountered a similar problem and addressed it using an
n
-gram model of text frequency, derived from statistics computed over text corpora.

We propose and compute an
n
-gram model for programming languages, computed over a corpus of 2.8 million JavaScript programs we downloaded from the Web. In contrast to previous techniques, we describe a code
n
-gram as a subgraph of the program dependence graph that contains all nodes and edges reachable in n steps from the statement. We can count
n
-grams in a program and count the frequency of
n
-grams in the corpus, enabling us to compute
tf-idf
-style measures that capture the differing importance of different lines of code. We demonstrate the power of this approach by implementing a plagiarism detector with accuracy that beats previous techniques, and a bug-finding tool that discovered over a dozen previously unknown bugs in a collection of real deployed programs.
Chisel
Authors: Misailovic Sasa , Carbin Michael , Achour Sara , Qi Zichao , Rinard Martin C.
Published: January 2015

The accuracy of an approximate computation is the distance between the result that the computation produces and the corresponding fully accurate result. The reliability of the computation is the probability that it will produce an acceptably accurate result. Emerging approximate hardware platforms provide approximate operations that, in return for reduced energy consumption and/or increased performance, exhibit reduced reliability and/or accuracy.

We present Chisel, a system for reliability- and accuracy-aware optimization of approximate computational kernels that run on approximate hardware platforms. Given a combined reliability and/or accuracy specification, Chisel automatically selects approximate kernel operations to synthesize an approximate computation that minimizes energy consumption while satisfying its reliability and accuracy specification.

We evaluate Chisel on five applications from the image processing, scientific computing, and financial analysis domains. The experimental results show that our implemented optimization algorithm enables Chisel to optimize our set of benchmark kernels to obtain energy savings from 8.7% to 19.8% compared to the fully reliable kernel implementations while preserving important reliability guarantees.
Distributed REScala
Authors: Drechsler Joscha , Salvaneschi Guido , Mogk Ragnar , Mezini Mira
Published: January 2015

Reactive programming improves the design of reactive applications by relocating the logic for managing dependencies between dependent values away from the application logic to the language implementation. Many distributed applications are reactive. Yet, existing change propagation algorithms are not suitable in a distributed setting.

We propose Distributed REScala, a reactive language with a change propagation algorithm that works without centralized knowledge about the topology of the dependency structure among reactive values and avoids unnecessary propagation of changes, while retaining safety guarantees (
glitch freedom
). Distributed REScala enables distributed reactive programming, bringing the benefits of reactive programming to distributed applications. We demonstrate the enabled design improvements by a case study. We also empirically evaluate the performance of our algorithm in comparison to other algorithms in a simulated distributed setting.
Staged parser combinators for efficient data processing
Authors: Jonnalagedda Manohar , Coppey Thierry , Stucki Sandro , Rompf Tiark , Odersky Martin
Published: January 2015

Parsers are ubiquitous in computing, and many applications depend on their performance for decoding data efficiently. Parser combinators are an intuitive tool for writing parsers: tight integration with the host language enables grammar specifications to be interleaved with processing of parse results. Unfortunately, parser combinators are typically slow due to the high overhead of the host language abstraction mechanisms that enable composition.

We present a technique for eliminating such overhead. We use staging, a form of runtime code generation, to dissociate input parsing from parser composition, and eliminate intermediate data structures and computations associated with parser composition at staging time. A key challenge is to maintain support for input dependent grammars, which have no clear stage distinction.

Our approach applies to top-down recursive-descent parsers as well as bottom-up non-deterministic parsers with key applications in dynamic programming on sequences, where we auto-generate code for parallel hardware. We achieve performance comparable to specialized, hand-written parsers.
Acoustic Remote Sensing
Authors: Dowling David R. , Sabra Karim G.
Published: January 2015

Acoustic waves carry information about their source and collect information about their environment as they propagate. This article reviews how these information-carrying and -collecting features of acoustic waves that travel through fluids can be exploited for remote sensing. In nearly all cases, modern acoustic remote sensing involves array-recorded sounds and array signal processing to recover multidimensional results. The application realm for acoustic remote sensing spans an impressive range of signal frequencies (10−2to 107Hz) and distances (10−2to 107m) and involves biomedical ultrasound imaging, nondestructive evaluation, oil and gas exploration, military systems, and Nuclear Test Ban Treaty monitoring. In the past two decades, approaches have been developed to robustly localize remote sources; remove noise and multipath distortion from recorded signals; and determine the acoustic characteristics of the environment through which the sound waves have traveled, even when the recorded sounds originate from uncooperative sources or are merely ambient noise.
The Role of the Gulf Stream in European Climate
Authors: Palter Jaime B.
Published: January 2015

The Gulf Stream carries the warm, poleward return flow of the wind-driven North Atlantic subtropical gyre and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. This northward flow drives a significant meridional heat transport. Various lines of evidence suggest that Gulf Stream heat transport profoundly influences the climate of the entire Northern Hemisphere and, thus, Europe's climate on timescales of decades and longer. The Gulf Stream's influence is mediated through feedback processes between the ocean, atmosphere, and cryosphere. This review synthesizes paleoclimate archives, model simulations, and the instrumental record, which collectively suggest that decadal and longer-scale variability of the Gulf Stream's heat transport manifests in changes in European temperature, precipitation, and storminess. Given that anthropogenic climate change is projected to weaken the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, associated changes in European climate are expected. However, large uncertainty in the magnitude of the anticipated weakening undermines the predictability of the future climate in Europe.
Information Processing as a Paradigm for Decision Making
Authors: Oppenheimer Daniel M. , Kelso Evan
Published: January 2015

For decades, the dominant paradigm for studying decision making—the expected utility framework—has been burdened by an increasing number of empirical findings that question its validity as a model of human cognition and behavior. However, as Kuhn (1962) argued in his seminal discussion of paradigm shifts, an old paradigm cannot be abandoned until a new paradigm emerges to replace it. In this article, we argue that the recent shift in researcher attention toward basic cognitive processes that give rise to decision phenomena constitutes the beginning of that replacement paradigm. Models grounded in basic perceptual, attentional, memory, and aggregation processes have begun to proliferate. The development of this new approach closely aligns with Kuhn's notion of paradigm shift, suggesting that this is a particularly generative and revolutionary time to be studying decision science.
HumanClostridium difficileinfection: altered mucus production and composition
Authors: Engevik Melinda A. , Yacyshyn Mary Beth , Engevik Kristen A. , Wang Jiang , Darien Benjamin , Hassett Daniel J. , Yacyshyn Bruce R. , Worrell Roger T.
Published: January 2015

The majority of antibiotic-induced diarrhea is caused by Clostridium difficile ( C. difficile). Hospitalizations for C. difficile infection (CDI) have tripled in the last decade, emphasizing the need to better understand how the organism colonizes the intestine and maintain infection. The mucus provides an interface for bacterial-host interactions and changes in intestinal mucus have been linked host health. To assess mucus production and composition in healthy and CDI patients, the main mucins MUC1 and MUC2 and mucus oligosaccharides were examined. Compared with healthy subjects, CDI patients demonstrated decreased MUC2 with no changes in surface MUC1. Although MUC1 did not change at the level of the epithelia, MUC1 was the primary constituent of secreted mucus in CDI patients. CDI mucus also exhibited decreased N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc), increased N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), and increased terminal galactose residues. Increased galactose in CDI specimens is of particular interest since terminal galactose sugars are known as C. difficile toxin A receptor in animals. In vitro, C. difficile is capable of metabolizing fucose, mannose, galactose, GlcNAc, and GalNAc for growth under healthy stool conditions (low Na+concentration, pH 6.0). Injection of C. difficile into human intestinal organoids (HIOs) demonstrated that C. difficile alone is sufficient to reduce MUC2 production but is not capable of altering host mucus oligosaccharide composition. We also demonstrate that C. difficile binds preferentially to mucus extracted from CDI patients compared with healthy subjects. Our results provide insight into a mechanism of C. difficile colonization and may provide novel target(s) for the development of alternative therapeutic agents.
SOD1 overexpression prevents acute hyperglycemia-induced cerebral myogenic dysfunction: relevance to contralateral hemisphere and stroke outcomes
Authors: Coucha Maha , Li Weiguo , Hafez Sherif , Abdelsaid Mohammed , Johnson Maribeth H. , Fagan Susan C. , Ergul Adviye
Published: January 2015

Admission hyperglycemia (HG) amplifies vascular injury and neurological deficits in acute ischemic stroke, but the mechanisms remain controversial. We recently reported that ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury impairs the myogenic response in both hemispheres via increased nitration. However, whether HG amplifies contralateral myogenic dysfunction and whether loss of tone in the contralateral hemisphere contributes to stroke outcomes remain to be determined. Our hypothesis was that contralateral myogenic dysfunction worsens stroke outcomes after acute hyperglycemic stroke in an oxidative stress-dependent manner. Male wild-type or SOD1 transgenic rats were injected with saline or 40% glucose solution 10 min before surgery and then subjected to 30 min of ischemia/45 min or 24 h of reperfusion. In another set of animals ( n = 5), SOD1 was overexpressed only in the contralateral hemisphere by stereotaxic adenovirus injection 2–3 wk before I/R. Myogenic tone and neurovascular outcomes were determined. HG exacerbated myogenic dysfunction in contralateral side only, which was associated with infarct size expansion, increased edema, and more pronounced neurological deficit. Global and selective SOD1 overexpression restored myogenic reactivity in ipsilateral and contralateral sides, respectively, and enhanced neurovascular outcomes. In conclusion, our results show that SOD1 overexpression nullified the detrimental effects of HG on myogenic tone and stroke outcomes and that the contralateral hemisphere may be a novel target for the management of acute hyperglycemic stroke.
The effect of sensory feedback on crayfish posture and locomotion: II. Neuromechanical simulation of closing the loop
Authors: Bacqué-Cazenave Julien , Chung Bryce , Cofer David W. , Cattaert Daniel , Edwards Donald H.
Published: January 2015

Neuromechanical simulation was used to determine whether proposed thoracic circuit mechanisms for the control of leg elevation and depression in crayfish could account for the responses of an experimental hybrid neuromechanical preparation when the proprioceptive feedback loop was open and closed. The hybrid neuromechanical preparation consisted of a computational model of the fifth crayfish leg driven in real time by the experimentally recorded activity of the levator and depressor (Lev/Dep) nerves of an in vitro preparation of the crayfish thoracic nerve cord. Up and down movements of the model leg evoked by motor nerve activity released and stretched the model coxobasal chordotonal organ (CBCO); variations in the CBCO length were used to drive identical variations in the length of the live CBCO in the in vitro preparation. CBCO afferent responses provided proprioceptive feedback to affect the thoracic motor output. Experiments performed with this hybrid neuromechanical preparation were simulated with a neuromechanical model in which a computational circuit model represented the relevant thoracic circuitry. Model simulations were able to reproduce the hybrid neuromechanical experimental results to show that proposed circuit mechanisms with sensory feedback could account for resistance reflexes displayed in the quiescent state and for reflex reversal and spontaneous Lev/Dep bursting seen in the active state.
Experience-dependent plasticity of neurovascularization
Authors: Kole Koen
Published: January 2015

Experience powerfully shapes structural and functional organization of neurons during development and in adulthood. Recent experiments in the mouse primary somatosensory cortex now suggest that experience is also a critical factor in shaping neurovasculature and promoting angiogenesis. These results support the universality of brain plasticity and show that all structural cellular components in the brain, from neuron and glia to epithelia, are shaped by experience.
Validation of Serum Biomarkers Derived from Proteomic Analysis for the Early Screening of Preeclampsia
Authors: Kolialexi Aggeliki , Gourgiotis Dimitrios , Daskalakis George , Marmarinos Antonis , Lykoudi Alexandra , Mavreli Danai , Mavrou Ariadni , Papantoniou Nikolas
Published: January 2015

Aim.To examine the potential value of previously identified biomarkers using proteomics in early screening for preeclampsia (PE).Methods.24 blood samples from women who subsequently developed PE and 48 from uncomplicated pregnancies were obtained at 11–13 weeks and analysed after delivery. Cystatin-C, sVCAM-1, and Pappalysin-1 were quantified by ELISA. Maternal characteristics and medical history were recorded.Results.Median values of Cystatin-C, sVCAM-1, and Pappalysin-1 in the PE group as compared to controls were 909.1 gEq/mL versus 480.0 gEq/mL,P=.000, 832.0 gEq/mL versus 738.8 gEq/mL,P=.024, and 234.4 gEq/mL versus 74.9 gEq/mL,P=.064, respectively. Areas under the receiver-operating characteristic curves (AUC, standard error (SE)) for predicting PE were Cystatin-C: 0.90 (SE 0.04), VCAM-1: 0.66 (SE 0.074), and Pappalysin-1: 0.63 (SE 0.083). To discriminate between cases at risk for PE and normal controls, cut-off values of 546.8 gEq/mL for Cystatin-C, 1059.5 gEq/mL for sVCAM-1, and 220.8 gEq/mL for Pappalysin-1 were chosen, providing sensitivity of 91%, 41%, and 54% and specificity of 85%, 100%, and 95%, respectively.Conclusions.sVCAM-1 and Pappalysin-1 do not improve early screening for PE. Cystatin-C, however, seems to be associated with subsequent PE development, but larger studies are necessary to validate these findings.
Two-Weight Extrapolation on Lorentz Spaces
Authors: Li Wenming , Zhang Tingting , Xue Limei
Published: January 2015

We give several two-weight extrapolation theorems on Lorentz spaces which extend the results of Cruz-Uribe and Pérez (2000) and some applications for the singular integral operators, the potential type operators, and commutators.
Gender Differences in Cerebral Regional Homogeneity of Adult Healthy Volunteers: A Resting-State fMRI Study
Authors: Xu Chunsheng , Li Chuanfu , Wu Hongli , Wu Yuanyuan , Hu Sheng , Zhu Yifang , Zhang Wei , Wang Linying , Zhu Senhua , Liu Junping , Zhang Qingping , Yang Jun , Zhang Xiaochu
Published: January 2015

Objective.We sought to use the regional homogeneity (ReHo) approach as an index in the resting-state functional MRI to investigate the gender differences of spontaneous brain activity within cerebral cortex and resting-state networks (RSNs) in young adult healthy volunteers.Methods.One hundred and twelve healthy volunteers (56 males, 56 females) participated in the resting-state fMRI scan. The ReHo mappings in the cerebral cortex and twelve RSNs of the male and female groups were compared.Results.We found statistically significant gender differences in the primary visual network (PVN) (P<0.004, with Bonferroni correction) and left attention network (LAtN), default mode network (DMN), sensorimotor network (SMN), executive network (EN), and dorsal medial prefrontal network (DMPFC) as well (P<0.05, uncorrected). The male group showed higher ReHo in the left precuneus, while the female group showed higher ReHo in the right middle cingulate gyrus, fusiform gyrus, left inferior parietal lobule, precentral gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, and postcentral gyrus.Conclusions.Our results suggested that men and women had regional specific differences during the resting-state. The findings may improve our understanding of the gender differences in behavior and cognition from the perspective of resting-state brain function.
Intractable Persistent Direction-Changing Geotropic Nystagmus Improved by Lateral Semicircular Canal Plugging
Authors: Seo Toru , Saito Kazuya , Doi Katsumi
Published: January 2015

Antigravitational deviation of the cupula of the lateral semicircular canal, which is also called light cupula, evokes persistent direction-changing geotropic nystagmus with a neutral point. No intractable cases of this condition have been reported. In our case, a 67-year-old man complained of positional vertigo 3 months after developing idiopathic sudden hearing loss in the right ear with vertigo. He showed a persistent direction-changing geotropic nystagmus with a leftward beating nystagmus in the supine position. The nystagmus resolved when his head was turned approximately 30° to the right. He was diagnosed with light cupula of the right lateral semicircular canal and was subsequently treated with an antivertiginous agent. However, his symptoms and positional nystagmus did not improve, so the right lateral semicircular canal was plugged by surgery. One month after surgery, his positional vertigo and nystagmus were completely resolved. We speculated that the cause of the patient’s intractable light cupula was an enlarged cupula caused by his idiopathic sudden hearing loss.
Influence of Different Doses of Levofloxacin on Antioxidant Defense Systems and Markers of Renal and Hepatic Dysfunctions in Rats
Authors: Olayinka Ebenezer Tunde , Ore Ayokanmi , Ola Olaniyi Solomon
Published: January 2015

Levofloxacin (LFX) is a broad spectrum fluoroquinolone antibiotic used in the treatment of infections such as pneumonia, chronic bronchitis, and sinusitis. The present study assessed the likely toxic effect of LFX on hepatic and renal tissues in rats. Twenty male Wistar rats were randomly divided into four treatment groups: A: control, B: 5 mg/kg bw LFX (half therapeutic dose), C: 10 mg/kg bw LFX (therapeutic dose), and D: 20 mg/kg bw LFX (double therapeutic dose). After seven days of administration, result indicated significant(P<0.05)increase in plasma ALT, AST, and ALP activities in the treated groups compared to control. Also, there was a significant increase in plasma creatinine, urea, and total bilirubin in the treated groups relative to control. Plasma total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, and triglycerides also increased significantly in the treated groups relative to control. Also, hepatic MDA level increased significantly in all the treated groups. However, hepatic SOD, catalase, and GST activities were significantly reduced in the LFX-treated animals. Moreover, GSH and ascorbic acid levels were significantly decreased in the LFX-treated groups relative to control. In conclusion, three doses of levofloxacin depleted antioxidant defense system and induced oxidative stress and hepatic and renal dysfunctions in rats.
Guaranteed Stability of Sparse Recovery in Distributed Compressive Sensing MIMO Radar
Authors: Tao Yu , Zhang Gong , Zhang Jindong
Published: January 2015

Low SNR condition has been a big challenge in the face of distributed compressive sensing MIMO radar (DCS-MIMO radar) and noise in measurements would decrease performance of radar system. In this paper, we first devise the scheme of DCS-MIMO radar including the joint sparse basis and the joint measurement matrix. Joint orthogonal matching pursuit (JOMP) algorithm is proposed to recover sparse targets scene. We then derive a recovery stability guarantee by employing the average coherence of the sensing matrix, further reducing the least amount of measurements which are necessary for stable recovery of the sparse scene in the presence of noise. Numerical results show that this scheme of DCS-MIMO radar could estimate targets’ parameters accurately and demonstrate that the proposed stability guarantee could further reduce the amount of data to be transferred and processed. We also show the phase transitions diagram of the DCS-MIMO radar system in simulations, pointing out the problem to be further solved in our future work.
Gender Differences in Individuals at High‐Risk of Psychosis: A Comprehensive Literature Review
Authors: Barajas Ana , Ochoa Susana , Obiols Jordi E. , Lalucat-Jo Lluís
Published: January 2015

Introduction. To date, few studies have focused on the characterization of clinical phenomenology regarding gender in population at high‐risk of psychosis. This paper is an attempt to summarize the findings found in the scientific literature regarding gender differences in high‐risk populations, taking into account parameters studied in populations with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, such as incidence, clinical expression, duration of untreated illness (DUI), social functioning, and cognitive impairment prior to full‐blown psychosis development. Method. Studies were systematically searched in PubMed. Studies using gender variable as a control variable were excluded. 12 studies met inclusion criteria. Results. Most of the studies found a differential pattern between women and men as regards clinical, social, and cognitive variables in the prodromal phase, with worse performance in men except in cognitive functioning (more severe negative symptoms, worse social functioning, and longer DUI in men). Similar conversion rates over time were found between men and women. Conclusions. Many of the studies analyzed suggest that differences between men and women in the expression of psychosis extend across a continuum, from the subclinical forms of illness to the debut of psychosis. However, the small number of studies and their significant methodological and clinical limitations do not allow for firm conclusions.