bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Simultaneous Kindling of the Bilateral Hippocampi: An Advanced Model for Epilepsy Research
Authors: Kogure Shinichi , Kitayama Masaomi , Matsuda Yoshiki
Published: August 2005

Summary: Purpose: To examine whether simultaneous kindling of bilateral hippocampi [bilateral kindling (BK)] could accelerate the achievement of seizures by the breakdown of kindling antagonism or decelerate the achievement of seizures by its enhancement.

Methods: The hippocampi of 17 adult rabbits were simultaneously kindled bilaterally according to Goddard's method.

Results: All animals developed stage 5 convulsions after a mean of 28 stimulations. Six animals showed spontaneous seizure discharges. Afterdischarge duration increased abruptly during the early period of kindling, but thereafter it gradually progressed. Chronological analyses of interictal discharges (HDs) demonstrated that simple as well as complex types of IIDs increased their frequencies during BK.

Conclusions: Compared with unilaterally kindled animals, the BK procedure significantly increased the percentage of animals that successfully kindled (100% vs. 59%; p < 0.01), whereas it significantly decelerated the kindling progression (28 days vs. 19 days; p < 0.02). We conclude that the BK procedure represents potentiation of both excitatory and inhibitory mechanisms. Although the reason why such an antagonistic relationship between them breaks down is still unknown, the BK provides an advanced animal model to study the pathogenic mechanisms of kindling and to screen anticonvulsants.
Predictive Value of MRI‐Identified Mesial Temporal Sclerosis for Surgical Outcome in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy: An Intent‐to‐Treat Analysis
Authors: Gilliam F. , Faught E. , Martin R. , Bowling S. , Bilir E. , Thomas J. , Morawetz R. , Kuzniecky R.
Published: August 2005

Summary: Purpose: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) accurately identifies mesial temporal selerosis (MTS), but prediction of successful surgical outcome ranges from 62% to 96% in published studies. Prior investigations only used patients who had received anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL), potentially overestimating the predictive value of MRI‐identified MTS (MRI‐MTS).

Methods: The authors performed an intent‐to‐treat analysis of 90 consecutive patients assessed for possible ATL, including 13 who did not undergo ATL because of inconclusive intracranial ictal EEG. Four (31%) of these 13 patients had unilateral mesial temporal abnormalities on their MRIs.

Results: The positive predictive value of MRI‐MTS for seizure cessation decreased from 0.69 to 0.63 after adjustment for these additional false positive results. Four previous studies had revealed a positive predictive value of 0.75 (0.72 after similar adjustment).

Conclusions: The authors conclude that the predictive value of MRI‐MTS for outcome from ATL may be overestimated by small retrospective studies of highly selected postoperative patients.
Prolactin Levels in Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy
Authors: Opeskin K. , Clarke Iain , Berkovic Samuel F.
Published: August 2005

Summary: Purpose: To assess serum prolactin levels in sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) and control groups to test the hypothesis that if seizures occur routinely as a terminal event in SUDEP, then raised prolactin levels may be an indicator of terminal seizure.

Methods: Blood was taken for measurement of prolactin levels from subjects with SUDEP and three control groups. The control groups were those with epilepsy dying from causes other than epilepsy (e.g., ischemic heart disease or injuries), physiologically stressed individuals without epilepsy (they were admitted to the hospital after an acute illness and died after several hours to 3 days), and nonepileptic rapid deaths (these people collapsed suddenly and died at the scene). In the SUDEP group, evidence for terminal seizure was considered to be at least one of the following: body found half on, half off the bed, or urinary incontinence at the scene, or bitten lips or tongue at autopsy.

Results: There was evidence for terminal seizure at the scene or at autopsy in four of the 10 SUDEP cases. Serum prolactin levels were not significantly increased in the SUDEP group compared with the controls. None of the SUDEP subjects, including those with clinical evidence of a terminal seizure, had high prolactin levels characteristic of those observed after seizures in living subjects.

Conclusions: Prolactin levels are not raised in SUDEP, even if there is evidence of terminal seizure. As prolactin takes 15–20 min to peak after a seizure in life, there may be insufficient time for a prolactin increase to occur in SUDEP. Thus prolactin levels cannot be used to determine if a deceased individual with epilepsy had a seizure or to answer the broad question whether SUDEP is always associated with a terminal seizure.
Gorham's disease of the mandible mimicking periodontal disease on radiograph
Authors: Mignogna Michele Davide , Fedele Stefano , Lo Russo Lucio , Lanza Alessandro , Marenzi Gaetano , Sammartino Gilberto
Published: August 2005

Background: Gorham's disease is a rare disorder characterized by spontaneous and progressive osteolysis of one or more skeletal bones. The radiographic findings associated with Gorham's disease are particularly dramatic, as in some cases a complete resorption of the involved bone can occur, leading to the definition of phantom bone, vanishing bone, or disappearing bone disease.

Material and methods: A 24‐year‐old female patient with a previous diagnosis of periodontal disease and progressive mandibular alveolar bone loss was referred to our Oral Medicine section. The initial radiographic picture showed infrabony defects and horizontal bone loss.

Results: After further extensive local and systemic evaluation, including histopathological, laboratory and imagine techniques investigations, the patient was diagnosed to be affected by Gorham's diease. Meanwhile the progression of the osteolytic process had caused the loosening of all the left mandibular teeth and a pathologic fracture. Appropriate medical therapy was successful in stabilizating the resorptive process, with no evidence of further progressive disease.

Conclusions: When Gorham's disease involves the mandible, the role of the periodontologist is extremely important in diagnosing promptly the disorder and preventing the functional and aesthetic consequences of advanced and extensive bone loss. Gorham's disease should be included among the pathologic entities mimicking periodontal disease on radiograph, such as inflammatory disease (e.g. osteomyelitis), endocrine disease (e.g. hyperparathyroidism), intra‐osseous malignancies or metastases, lymphoma, histiocytosis X, mainly eosinophilic granuloma, infective process (e.g. tuberculosis and actinomycosis), odontogenic tumours.
Interleukin‐6 gene polymorphism in renal transplant patients with and without gingival overgrowth
Authors: Drozdzik M. , Kurzawski M. , Drozdzik A. , Kotrych K. , Banach J. , Pawlik A.
Published: August 2005

Objective: To determine whether there is an association between genotypes of interleukin‐6 (IL‐6) and gingival overgrowth in kidney transplant patients.

Methods: Sixty‐three unrelated kidney transplant patients suffering from gingival overgrowth as well 125 control transplant patients without overgrowth were enrolled into the study. Gingival overgrowth was assessed by two independent periodontal specialists at 6 months after transplantation. During the post‐transplant period, all patients were given medication, which included cyclosporin A, diltiazem or verapamil, prednisone, and azathioprine. IL‐6 polymorphism was determined using the polymerase chain reaction‐restriction fragment length polymorphism assay.

Results: In kidney transplant patients suffering from gingival overgrowth mean score of gingival overgrowth was 1.41±0.64, whereas in control subjects it was 0.0. Patients with gingival overgrowth induced by immunosuppressive medication were characterized by genotypes similar to the controls distribution of IL‐6. There were no significant differences of analyzed genotypes' distribution, i.e. −174G/G, −174G/C and −174C/C between patients with gingival overgrowth 33.3%, 39.7%, 27.0% and without gingival overgrowth 30.4%, 49.6% and 20.0%, respectively. The risk of gingival overgrowth was the highest among patients carrying −174C/C genotype (OR 1.48), but did not differ markedly from the other genotypes, i.e. −174G/G (OR 1.15) and −74G/C (OR 0.67). Similar to genotypes, the distribution of alleles was similar in patients with gingival overgrowth and healthy gingiva. The −174G allele was found in 53.2% and 46.8% of subjects whereas −174C allele was revealed in 46.8% and 44.8% of patients with and without gingival overgrowth, respectively. The evaluated risk of gingival overgrowth in patients with −174G allele was 1.09 versus those with healthy gingiva. The medication regimen administered in both groups of the study was comparable.

Conclusion: No association between the IL‐6 gene polymorphism and gingival overgrowth was revealed in kidney transplant patients administered cyclosporin A as a principal immunosuppressive agent.
REHYDRATION OF FREEZE‐DRIED STRAWBERRIES AT VARYING TEMPERATURES
Authors: MEDA LAETITIA , RATTI CRISTINA
Published: August 2005

Strawberries (var. Seascape), cut in halves or 5‐mm slices, were freeze‐dried at a heating plate temperature of 55C for 28 h. Freeze‐dried products were then rehydrated at 0, 20, 40 and 80C in distilled water. The progression of the rehydration coefficient (RC) was followed as a function of time (up to 25 min). Less than 2 min were necessary to fully rehydrate the slices and less than 5 min for half strawberries. The results showed that halved and sliced freeze‐dried strawberries had higher RCs when rehydrated at a temperature near 0C. A simple diffusive‐type equation was used to represent water uptake during rehydration. Effective diffusion coefficients were modeled as a function of temperature using an Arrhenius‐type relationship.
Perspectives in Design: The Deacon’s Masterpiece and the Hundred-Year Aircraft, Spacecraft, and Other Complex Engineering Systems
Authors: Saleh Joseph H.
Published: August 2005

In 1858, Oliver Wendell Holmes published a famous poem entitled “The Deacon’s Masterpiece or the Wonderful One-Hoss Shay.” The distinctive feature of the carriage is that all its structural components degrade in such a way that they last a hundred years to a day, then fail concurrently. Underlying Holmes’s poem is a nontrivial design question that is discussed in this paper. To first order, the question can be formulated as follows: How should a system design lifetime be specified, given its underlying components’ durability? Or, conversely, how should the components in a system be sized given the system’s intended duration of operation? A “translation” is undertaken of Holmes’s work into engineering parlance, both his sound engineering judgment and his misconception about engineering design. Then, beyond the Holmes’ example of durability through structural integrity, this paper makes the case for flexibility as an essential attribute for complex engineering design that can bring about its durability. It is hoped that this paper is read as an invitation to academics in engineering disciplines and practitioners to contribute principles and methodologies for embedding flexibility in the design of complex engineering systems.
Synthesis of the Base Curves For N-Lobed Elliptical Gears
Authors: Figliolini Giorgio , Angeles Jorge
Published: August 2005

Motivated by the need to synthesize the tooth profiles of noncircular gears, we approach the synthesis of the tooth profile of circular spur gears using their pitch circle, rather than their base circle. We do this by means of envelope theory. The proposed formulation gives the involute tooth profile and its well-known base circle for any pitch radius and profile angle of the rack cutter, which coincides with the pressure angle for circular gears. Then, the foregoing approach applies to the synthesis of the base curves of noncircular gears with involute tooth profiles and of their rack. We do this by resorting to basic differential geometry using the Euler–Savary Theorem, rather than to envelope theory. In particular, the formulation of both base curves for the right and left involute tooth profiles is obtained, for the first time, for N-lobed elliptical gears and their rack through the formulation of the pitch curves and their evolutes. The proposed formulation is illustrated with numerical results.
Cognate Space Identification for Forced Response Structural Redesign
Authors: Blouin Vincent Y. , Bernitsas Michael M.
Published: August 2005

Large admissible perturbations (LEAP) is a general methodology, which solves redesign problems of complex structures with, among others, forced response amplitude constraints. In previous work, two LEAP algorithms, namely the incremental method (IM) and the direct method (DM), were developed. A powerful feature of LEAP is the general perturbation equations derived in terms of normal modes, the selection of which is a determinant factor for a successful redesign. The normal modes of a structure may be categorized as stretching, bending, torsional, and mixed modes and grouped into cognate spaces. In the context of redesign by LEAP, the physical interpretation of a mode-to-response cognate space lies in the fact that a mode from one space barely affects change in a mode from another space. Perturbation equations require computation of many perturbation terms corresponding to individual modes. Identifying modes with negligible contribution to the change in forced response amplitude eliminates a priori computation of numerous perturbation terms. Two methods of determining mode-to-response cognate spaces, one for IM and one for DM, are presented and compared. Trade-off between computational time and accuracy is assessed in order to provide practical guidelines to the designer. The developed LEAP redesign algorithms are applied to the redesign of a simple cantilever beam and a complex offshore tower.
Transcriptional Control by A-Factor ofstrR, the Pathway-Specific Transcriptional Activator for Streptomycin Biosynthesis inStreptomyces griseus
Authors: Tomono Ayami , Tsai Yisan , Yamazaki Haruka , Ohnishi Yasuo , Horinouchi Sueharu
Published: August 2005

A-factor (2-isocapryloyl-3R-hydroxymethyl-γ-butyrolactone) triggers streptomycin production by inducing the transcription ofstrR, encoding the pathway-specific transcriptional activator, through signal transduction in the A-factor regulatory cascade inStreptomyces griseus. AdpA, one of the key transcriptional activators in the cascade, bound two upstream activation sites, approximately at nucleotide positions −270 and −50 with respect to the transcriptional start point ofstrR, as determined by gel mobility shift assays and DNase I footprinting. Transcriptional analysis of thestrRpromoter with mutated AdpA-binding sites showed that both sites were required for full transcriptional activation ofstrRby AdpA. Potassium permanganate footprinting showed that AdpA assisted RNA polymerase in forming an open complex at an appropriate position for transcriptional initiation ofstrR. Nine transcriptional units within the streptomycin biosynthesis gene cluster, including thestrR-aphDoperon, depended on StrR, indicating that StrR is the pathway-specific transcriptional activator for the whole gene cluster. Consistent with this, expression ofstrRunder the control of a constitutively expressed promoter in anadpAnull mutant caused the host to produce streptomycin.
Sifting Through the Software Sandbox: SCM Meets QA
Authors: White William W.
Published: August 2005

Thanks to modern SCM (software configuration management) systems, when developers work on a codeline they leave behind a trail of clues that can reveal what parts of the code have been modified, when, how, and by whom. From the perspective of QA (quality assurance) and test engineers, is this all just “data,” or is there useful information that can improve the test coverage and overall quality of a product?
A Passage to India
Authors: Kobayashi-Hillary Mark
Published: August 2005

Most American IT employees take a dim view of offshore outsourcing. It’s considered unpatriotic and it drains valuable intellectual capital and jobs from the United States to destinations such as India or China. Online discussion forums on sites such as isyourjobgoingoffshore.com are headlined with titles such as “How will you cope?” and “Is your career in danger?” A cover story in BusinessWeek magazine a couple of years ago summed up the angst most people suffer when faced with offshoring: “Is your job next?”
Pyro
Authors: Blank Douglas , Kumar Deepak , Meeden Lisa , Yanco Holly
Published: August 2005

In this article we describe a programming framework called Pyro, which provides a set of abstractions that allows students to write platform-independent robot programs. This project is unique because of its focus on the pedagogical implications of teaching mobile robotics via a top-down approach. We describe the background of the project, its novel abstractions, its library of objects, and the many learning modules that have been created from which curricula for different types of courses can be drawn. Finally, we explore Pyro from the students' perspective in a case study.
Java distributed components for numerical visualization in VisAD
Authors: Hibbard William , Rueden Curtis , Emmerson Steve , Rink Tom , Glowacki David , Whittaker Tom , Murray Don , Fulker David , Anderson John
Published: August 2005

Combining a flexible data model and distributed objects, they support the sharing of data, visualizations, and user interfaces among multiple data sources, computers, and scientific disciplines.
Examples of commercial applications of ubiquitous computing
Authors: Gershman Anatole , Fano Andrew
Published: August 2005

Emerging tools will simply transform business practices---and customer expectations---in the near future.
Merger mania
Authors: Robinson Teri
Published: August 2005

When my husband and I married, we sorted through CDs and albums lovingly collected since childhood and divested ourselves of any doubles. The end result? A vast music collection that exceeded our individual means without additional investment and which generated a bit of a windfall as we sold off the items that were redundant.Despite the potential gains, though, the merger didn't go off without a hitch. We grappled with the weighty issues---like whose copy of Dylan's
Biograph
or Modern English's
After the Snow
we would keep (extremely important if the union doesn't work out); whether CDs trumped vinyl; and whose maintenance standards should be adopted (I try to put CDs back in their jewel cases, my husband would use them for coasters if I let him).
An embedded domain-specific language for type-safe server-side web scripting
Authors: Thiemann Peter
Published: August 2005

WASH/CGI is an embedded domain-specific language for server-side Web scripting. Due to its reliance on the strongly typed, purely functional programming language Haskell as a host language, it is highly flexible and---at the same time---it provides extensive guarantees due to its pervasive use of type information.WASH/CGI can be structured into a number of sublanguages addressing different aspects of the application. The
document sublanguage
provides tools for the generation of parameterized XHTML documents and forms. Its typing guarantees that almost all generated documents are valid XHTML documents. The
session sublanguage
provides a session abstraction with a transparent notion of session state and allows the composition of documents and Web forms to entire interactive scripts. Both are integrated with the
widget sublanguage
which describes the communication (parameter passing) between client and server. It imposes a simple type discipline on the parameters that guarantees that forms posted by the client are always understood by the server. That is, the server never asks for data not submitted by the client and the data submitted by the client has the type requested by the server. In addition, parameters are received in their typed internal representation, not as strings. Finally, the
persistence sublanguage
deals with managing shared state on the server side as well as individual state on the client side. It presents shared state as an abstract data type, where the script can control whether it wants to observe mutations due to concurrently executing scripts. It guarantees that states from different interaction threads cannot be confused.
Randomized instruction set emulation
Authors: Barrantes Elena Gabriela , Ackley David H. , Forrest Stephanie , Stefanović Darko
Published: August 2005

Injecting binary code into a running program is a common form of attack. Most defenses employ a “guard the doors” approach, blocking known mechanisms of code injection.
Randomized instruction set emulation
(RISE) is a complementary method of defense, one that performs a hidden randomization of an application's machine code. If foreign binary code is injected into a program running under RISE, it will not be executable because it will not know the proper randomization. The paper describes and analyzes RISE, describing a proof-of-concept implementation built on the open-source Valgrind IA32-to-IA32 translator. The prototype effectively disrupts binary code injection attacks, without requiring recompilation, linking, or access to application source code. Under RISE, injected code (attacks) essentially executes random code sequences. Empirical studies and a theoretical model are reported which treat the effects of executing random code on two different architectures (IA32 and PowerPC). The paper discusses possible extensions and applications of the RISE technique in other contexts.
Symbolic bounds analysis of pointers, array indices, and accessed memory regions
Authors: Rugina Radu , Rinard Martin C.
Published: August 2005

This article presents a novel framework for the symbolic bounds analysis of pointers, array indices, and accessed memory regions. Our framework formulates each analysis problem as a system of inequality constraints between symbolic bound polynomials. It then reduces the constraint system to a linear program. The solution to the linear program provides symbolic lower and upper bounds for the values of pointer and array index variables and for the regions of memory that each statement and procedure accesses. This approach eliminates fundamental problems associated with applying standard fixed-point approaches to symbolic analysis problems. Experimental results from our implemented compiler show that the analysis can solve several important problems, including static race detection, automatic parallelization, static detection of array bounds violations, elimination of array bounds checks, and reduction of the number of bits used to store computed values.
Lower bounds for linear degeneracy testing
Authors: Ailon Nir , Chazelle Bernard
Published: August 2005

In the late nineties, Erickson proved a remarkable lower bound on the decision tree complexity of one of the central problems of computational geometry: given
n
numbers, do any
r
of them add up to 0? His lower bound of Ω(
n

⌈
r
/2⌉

), for any fixed
r
, is optimal if the polynomials at the nodes are linear and at most
r
-variate. We generalize his bound to
s
-variate polynomials for
s
>
r
. Erickson's bound decays quickly as
r
grows and never reaches above pseudo-polynomial: we provide an exponential improvement. Our arguments are based on three ideas: (i) a geometrization of Erickson's proof technique; (ii) the use of error-correcting codes; and (iii) a tensor product construction for permutation matrices.
I Am an Abstraction Layer
Authors: Grossman Edward
Published: August 2005

I’m not going to “sully” Queue’s special report on databases by attempting to talk about them myself. Doing so would be like a sportscaster giving color-commentary to a Dalai Lama sermon: embarrassing. And while I won’t go so far as to call this issue of Queue spiritual, read Jim Gray’s “A Call to Arms” and you’ll see what I mean.
A Conversation with Pat Selinger
Authors: Hamilton James
Published: August 2005

Take Pat Selinger of IBM and James Hamilton of Microsoft and put them in a conversation together, and you may hear everything you wanted to know about database technology and weren’t afraid to ask. Selinger, IBM Fellow and vice president of area strategy, information, and interaction for IBM Research, drives the strategy for IBM’s research work spanning the range from classic database systems through text, speech, and multimodal interactions. Since graduating from Harvard with a Ph.D. in applied mathematics, she has spent almost 30 years at IBM, hopscotching between research and development of IBM’s database products.
Review: Explorer’s Guide to the Semantic Web
Authors: Enguix Carlos F.
Published: August 2005

Review: Explorer’s Guide to the Semantic Web
An alternative time management mechanism for distributed simulations
Authors: Cai Wentong , Turner Stephen J. , Lee Bu-Sung , Zhou Junlan
Published: August 2005

Over the past few years, there has been a keen interest in the management of time in distributed simulation environments. Previous emphasis in time management (TM) services has been based on time stamp ordering, which is both computation and bandwidth intensive. This article discusses an alternative approach to time management based on causal ordering. Traditional causal ordering protocols incur a large amount of communication overhead, which is generally of the order of
N
2
for a distributed system of
N
processes. A new causal ordering protocol proposed by the authors, the Modified Schiper-Eggli-Sandoz (MSES) protocol, is presented in this article. This new protocol minimizes the control information overhead of causal ordering by using the direct dependency tracking technique. The MSES protocol works well in both unicast and multicast environments, without relying on information about the underlying network topology and communication pattern among the processes of the distributed system. The MSES protocol has been successfully implemented as a middleware on top of DMSO RTI. Experiments have been conducted to benchmark the performance of the new time management mechanism with respect to the existing TM mechanisms available in DMSO RTI. The simulation scenarios of the experiments vary with different degrees of inter-federate dependency and federate event granularities. The ordering limitations of the causality based TM mechanism are addressed in this article and the trade-off of the degree of event ordering and execution speed of simulations is discussed.
Designing sticky knowledge networks
Authors: Bush Ashley A. , Tiwana Amrit
Published: August 2005

Much of any organization's experience and expertise remains underused and underexploited simply because it resides not in databases, repositories, or manuals but in the minds of its employees. Attempting to harness such distributed expertise, organizations have begun implementing collaborative knowledge networks---peer-to-peer digital networks connecting individuals with relevant expertise to their peers who need it [10, 11]. Unfortunately, however, successful knowledge networks represent the occasional island dotting a sea of failures. While many organizations are eager adopters of knowledge network systems, individual users frequently abandon them, leaving a trail of million- dollar paperweights. To be self-sustaining, knowledge networks must be sticky, though stickiness is an elusive design objective.
Progressive skyline computation in database systems
Authors: Papadias Dimitris , Tao Yufei , Fu Greg , Seeger Bernhard
Published: August 2005

The skyline of a
d
-dimensional dataset contains the points that are not dominated by any other point on all dimensions. Skyline computation has recently received considerable attention in the database community, especially for progressive methods that can quickly return the initial results without reading the entire database. All the existing algorithms, however, have some serious shortcomings which limit their applicability in practice. In this article we develop branch-and-bound skyline (BBS), an algorithm based on nearest-neighbor search, which is I/O optimal, that is, it performs a single access only to those nodes that may contain skyline points. BBS is simple to implement and supports all types of progressive processing (e.g., user preferences, arbitrary dimensionality, etc). Furthermore, we propose several interesting variations of skyline computation, and show how BBS can be applied for their efficient processing.
Data exchange: getting to the core
Authors: Fagin Ronald , Kolaitis Phokion G. , Popa Lucian
Published: August 2005

Data exchange is the problem of taking data structured under a source schema and creating an instance of a target schema that reflects the source data as accurately as possible. Given a source instance, there may be many solutions to the data exchange problem, that is, many target instances that satisfy the constraints of the data exchange problem. In an earlier article, we identified a special class of solutions that we call
universal
. A universal solution has homomorphisms into every possible solution, and hence is a “most general possible” solution. Nonetheless, given a source instance, there may be many universal solutions. This naturally raises the question of whether there is a “best” universal solution, and hence a best solution for data exchange. We answer this question by considering the well-known notion of the
core
of a structure, a notion that was first studied in graph theory, and has also played a role in conjunctive-query processing. The core of a structure is the smallest substructure that is also a homomorphic image of the structure. All universal solutions have the same core (up to isomorphism); we show that this core is also a universal solution, and hence the smallest universal solution. The uniqueness of the core of a universal solution together with its minimality make the core an ideal solution for data exchange. We investigate the computational complexity of producing the core. Well-known results by Chandra and Merlin imply that, unless P = NP, there is no polynomial-time algorithm that, given a structure as input, returns the core of that structure as output. In contrast, in the context of data exchange, we identify natural and fairly broad conditions under which there are polynomial-time algorithms for computing the core of a universal solution. We also analyze the computational complexity of the following decision problem that underlies the computation of cores: given two graphs
G
and
H
, is
H
the core of
G
? Earlier results imply that this problem is both NP-hard and coNP-hard. Here, we pinpoint its exact complexity by establishing that it is a DP-complete problem. Finally, we show that the core is the best among all universal solutions for answering existential queries, and we propose an alternative semantics for answering queries in data exchange settings.
Do you
Queue
?
Authors: Patterson David A.
Published: August 2005

Created for computing professionals,
Queue
is an innovative, successful magazine available free to ACM members. If you are a professional and don't subscribe, what are you waiting for?
Updating computer science education
Authors: Cohen Jacques
Published: August 2005

Prepare tomorrow's practitioners to tap the growing volume of Web-available data and complex programs they cannot possibly redevelop from scratch.
Rapid prototyping in consumer product design
Authors: Wright Paul K.
Published: August 2005

Why are only certain consumer products the hot gifts to give and to get each holiday season? Last year the digital camera and the iPod portable music player (and its MP3 clones) were perhaps the leading contenders. One part of the answer is they are deliberately designed to deliver a high-quality consumer experience. Or as my colleague in Japan, Noriaki Kano of the University of Tokyo, has said about the best products, they "surprise and delight" the first wave of consumers to use them. The next part of the economic cycle is that the products are praised in design magazines and by word-of-mouth; before long they are must-have items for perhaps millions worldwide.
Kode Vicious vs. Mothra
Authors: Neville-Neil George
Published: August 2005

Dear KV, My co-workers keep doing really bad things in the code, such as writing C++ code with macros that have gotos that jump out of them, and using assert in lower-level functions as an error-handling facility. I keep trying to get them to stop doing these things, but the standard response I get is, “Yeah, it’s not pretty, but it works.” How can I get them to start asking, “Is there a better way to do this?” They listen to my arguments but don’t seem convinced. In some cases they even insist they are following good practices.
Calendar
Authors: Grossman Edward
Published: August 2005

NSDI (Networked Systems Design and Implementation), May 2-4, 2005, Boston, Massachusetts
An improved exponential-time algorithm for
k
-SAT
Authors: Paturi Ramamohan , Pudlák Pavel , Saks Michael E. , Zane Francis
Published: August 2005

We propose and analyze a simple new randomized algorithm, called ResolveSat, for finding satisfying assignments of Boolean formulas in conjunctive normal form. The algorithm consists of two stages: a preprocessing stage in which resolution is applied to enlarge the set of clauses of the formula, followed by a search stage that uses a simple randomized greedy procedure to look for a satisfying assignment. Currently, this is the fastest known probabilistic algorithm for
k
-CNF satisfiability for
k
≥ 4 (with a running time of
O
(2

0.5625
n

) for 4-CNF). In addition, it is the fastest known probabilistic algorithm for
k
-CNF,
k
≥ 3, that have at most one satisfying assignment (unique
k
-SAT) (with a running time
O
(2

(2 ln 2 − 1)
n
+
o
(
n
)

) =
O
(2

0.386 …
n

) in the case of 3-CNF). The analysis of the algorithm also gives an upper bound on the number of the codewords of a code defined by a
k
-CNF. This is applied to prove a lower bounds on depth 3 circuits accepting codes with nonconstant distance. In particular we prove a lower bound Ω(2
1.282…√>i/i<
) for an explicitly given Boolean function of
n
variables. This is the first such lower bound that is asymptotically bigger than 2

√>i/i< +
o
(√>i/i<)

.
On Feeling Secure in an Unsafe World
Authors: Harr Randy
Published: August 2005

Security has always been a loaded word—all the more so since 9/11. Webster’s defines it as “freedom from fear, anxiety, danger, and doubt.” Within Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs, meanwhile, we can find it just above our most basic physiological needs, such as food, water, and shelter. So it seems, no matter how you slice it, security comes down to some fundamental sense of well-being or safety. As we all know, that’s no small feat in a world that is not particularly safe.
The KaffeOS Java runtime system
Authors: Back Godmar , Hsieh Wilson C.
Published: August 2005

Single-language runtime systems, in the form of Java virtual machines, are widely deployed platforms for executing untrusted mobile code. These runtimes provide some of the features that operating systems provide: interapplication memory protection and basic system services. They do not, however, provide the ability to isolate applications from each other. Neither do they provide the ability to limit the resource consumption of applications. Consequently, the performance of current systems degrades severely in the presence of malicious or buggy code that exhibits ill-behaved resource usage. We show that Java runtime systems can be extended to support
processes
, and that processes can provide robust and efficient support for untrusted applications.We have designed and built KaffeOS, a Java runtime system that provides support for processes. KaffeOS isolates processes and manages the physical resources available to them: CPU and memory. Unlike existing Java virtual machines, KaffeOS can safely terminate processes without adversely affecting the integrity of the system, and it can fully reclaim a terminated process's resources. Finally, KaffeOS requires no changes to the Java language. The novel aspects of the KaffeOS architecture include the application of a user/kernel boundary as a structuring principle for runtime systems, the employment of garbage collection techniques for resource management and isolation, and a model for direct sharing of objects between untrusted applications. The difficulty in designing KaffeOS lay in balancing the goals of isolation and resource management against the goal of allowing direct sharing of objects.For the SpecJVM benchmarks, the overhead that our KaffeOS prototype incurs ranges from 0% to 25%, when compared to the open-source JVM on which it is based. We consider this overhead acceptable for the safety that KaffeOS provides. In addition, our KaffeOS prototype can scale to run more applications than running multiple JVMs. Finally, in the presence of malicious or buggy code that engages in a denial-of-service attack, KaffeOS can contain the attack, remove resources from the attacked applications, and continue to provide robust service to other clients.
Cost and precision tradeoffs of dynamic data slicing algorithms
Authors: Zhang Xiangyu , Gupta Rajiv , Zhang Youtao
Published: August 2005

Dynamic slicing algorithms are used to narrow the attention of the user or an algorithm to a relevant subset of executed program statements. Although dynamic slicing was first introduced to aid in user level debugging, increasingly applications aimed at improving software quality, reliability, security, and performance are finding opportunities to make automated use of dynamic slicing. In this paper we present the design and evaluation of three
precise
dynamic data slicing algorithms called the full preprocessing (FP), no preprocessing (NP) and limited preprocessing (LP) algorithms. The algorithms differ in the relative timing of constructing the
dynamic data dependence graph
and its traversal for computing requested dynamic data slices. Our experiments show that the LP algorithm is a fast and practical precise data slicing algorithm. In fact we show that while precise data slices can be orders of magnitude smaller than imprecise dynamic data slices, for small number of data slicing requests, the LP algorithm is faster than an imprecise dynamic data slicing algorithm proposed by Agrawal and Horgan.
Investigating factors affecting the adoption of anti-spyware systems
Authors: Lee Younghwa , Kozar Kenneth A.
Published: August 2005

Spyware is the latest epidemic security threat for Internet users. There are various types of spyware programs (see Table 1) creating serious problems such as copying and sending personal information, consuming CPU power, reducing available bandwidth, annoying users with endless pop-ups, and monitoring users' computer usage. As spyware makes the Internet a riskier place and undermines confidence in online activities, Internet users stop purchasing at online stores---a consequence that clearly disrupts e-business.
A framework for spyware assessment
Authors: Warkentin Merrill , Luo Xin , Templeton Gary F.
Published: August 2005

One of the most challenging problems confronting the IT community is responding to the threat of spyware. Recent research, legislative actions, and policy changes have been hastened to counter spyware's threat to the privacy and productivity of both individuals and organizations [2, 10--12].
Spyware
Authors: Poston Robin , Stafford Thomas F. , Hennington Amy
Published: August 2005

There are indications of late that the use of anti-spyware software is on the rise, with more than 100 million Internet users downloading Lavasoft's free anti-spyware software [2]. Some big-name companies are also beginning to address the spyware issue, including Microsoft, which currently has a beta version of its own anti-spyware available to Microsoft Windows users for download. However, a Gartner survey finds only 10% of respondents were taking sufficiently aggressive steps to minimize spyware infestations [5] and a Forrester survey found that even though 55% of consumers knew what spyware was, only 40% were running anti-spyware programs routinely [7].
Co-twin dependence, social interactions, and academic achievement: A population-based study
Authors: Penninkilampi-Kerola Varpu , Moilanen Irma , Kaprio Jaakko
Published: August 2005

Relatively few studies have concentrated on the qualities or implications of the relationships between twins and their co-twins. We examined dependence between twin siblings and its impact on their social contacts, leisure-time activities and educational attainment in adolescence in a population-based sample of 5268 Finnish adolescent twins (FinnTwin16 study). We found that co-twin dependence varies significantly by zygosity and gender. Mothers also reported zygosity and gender differences in dependence that were similar to the twins’ self-reports of dependence. Dependence was associated with social contacts, leisure-time activities and educational attainment, as well as with mothers’ educational level and fathers’ socio-economic status. These differences in twin relationships might be associated with different psychosocial measures and should be taken into account in studies of twins’ behavioral traits.
Sustainable waste management in the Indian mining industry
Authors: Deshpande V. P. , Shekdar A. V.
Published: August 2005

One of the important sectors that contribute to the national economy is the mining sector. During the mining of minerals and ores, waste materials in the form of overburden are generated. As these are not useful to the mine owners, they may be inappropriately disposed of into the environment, posing serious threat to the environment in the form of land degradation, water and air pollution. The present paper discusses the existing status of waste generation, its characteristics and the disposal methods being adopted in India. Impacts associated with waste disposal practices together with preventive measures for waste disposal are also discussed. Finally, strategies for improvements in existing waste management and for incorporating the same in the overall development plan for the mines are suggested.
Improving the quality of life in low-income neighbourhoods occupied by tenants
Authors: Bernardini Silvia de los Ríos
Published: August 2005

This paper begins by describing conditions for tenants renting accommodation in the centre of Lima. The paper then focuses on the activities of one NGO, CIDAP, which has been working with tenants to ensure equitable development within urban renewal and has been promoting alternative and participatory planning to secure decent housing for all.
Waste management in Madras revisited
Authors: Anand P. B.
Published: August 2005

This paper examines how households in Madras (official name – Chennai) view garbage problems, what their preferences are for improved services and the extent to which they would pay for them. It includes a comparison between areas served and not served by Civic Exnora units where neighbourhoods organize their own primary collection; such units now provide services for close to half a million people. The findings are drawn from focus group discussions, household interviews from across a range of income levels and spatial locations (within Madras City, within the nine towns around the city and other settlements within the metropolitan area) and in-depth interviews with those who manage the Civic Exnora units. The findings highlight how people are willing to cooperate and pay substantial sums for waste collection – but not for other waste management costs (such as transport and final disposal). They also show how the financial viability of neighbourhood collection schemes such as the Civic Exnora units depends on having transfer stations close by, to which the collected wastes can be taken.
Tiles, taps and earthquake-proofing: lessons for disaster management in Turkey
Authors: Özerdem Alpaslan
Published: August 2005

This paper explores the lessons learned from the disaster management experience in Turkey in response to the Marmara earthquake in August 1999. It discusses why this earthquake produced such a large impact, including the shortcomings in the measures meant to ensure that buildings were more earthquake proof. It suggests why, unlike with previous earthquakes, the public reaction to the shortcomings in disaster preparedness for this earthquake may promote important changes within Turkish society. Finally, it outlines possible responses to these shortcomings, including a greater role for house buyers in ensuring that what they purchase is adequately built and the role of international support in increasing the effectiveness of Turkey’s disaster response institutions.
Development of a National Evaluation System to Evaluate CDC-Funded Health Department HIV Prevention Programs
Authors: Chen Huey-Tsyh
Published: August 2005

This article discusses the recent experience of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in developing a national evaluation system for monitoring and evaluating health department HIV prevention programs that are funded by CDC. The foundation for such a system is evaluation guidance that establishes standardized data elements for a variety of evaluation activities. The article discusses barriers to developing such a system, strategies used to deal with those barriers, the contributions made by stakeholders to the development of the system, the end product, strategies and activities used to meet the capacity building, and technical assistance needs of stakeholders. Lessons learned from this experience should be useful to any organization intending to develop a large evaluation system.
Commentary: Begin with a Good Program Theory: The Case of the Missing Guiding Principle
Authors: Sengupta Saumitra
Published: August 2005

The politics of “bean counting” often trump the methods of counting. As a result, program fate is sometimes decided independent of the count’s results. In The Potpourri case, our evaluator friend faces the question: What if the count’s results are actually going to be used to make program decisions? Should I weave the best possible scenario I can with the available data? Of course, positive results that appear inflated can call into question the evaluator’s competence and, consequently, do more harm than good to the program. Faced with these concerns, our evaluator opens the leaflet on the Guiding Principles for Evaluators and visits the Western Michigan University web site to review the Joint Committee Standards. Does she find clear answers? Or does she find ambiguity and pangs of conscience? Is she able to identify herself as a principled evaluation professional? Or is the path too muddled to tell? In the first section of this commentary, I examine aspects of the Principles and Standards that, in my view, are related to the case, and offer my position on these issues. In the second section, I describe what I would do differently if I had the luxury of starting the case from scratch. In this context, it is important to remember that “the principles are supposed to begin a dialogue, not end it.” (House, 1995, p. 31) It is in this spirit that I state opinions that may only marginally relate to the specifics of The Potpourri, but allow us to address general ethical concerns in a way that prevents them from evolving into genuine ethical dilemmas.