Query: GHT: a geographic hash table for data-centric storage

Relevant passages:
Directed diffusion: a scalable and robust communication paradigm for sensor networks <=SEP=> Advances in processor, memory and radio technology will enable small and cheap nodes capable of sensing, communication and computation. Networks of such nodes can coordinate to perform distributed sensing of environmental phenomena. In this paper, we explore the directed diffusion paradigm for such coordination. Directed diffusion is datacentric in that all communication is for named data. All nodes in a directed diffusion-based network are application-aware. This enables diffusion to achieve energy savings by selecting empirically good paths and by caching and processing data in-network. We explore and evaluate the use of directed diffusion for a simple remote-surveillance sensor network.

Dynamic source routing in ad hoc wireless networks <=SEP=> An ad hoc network is a collection of wireless mobile hosts forming a temporary network without the aid of any established infrastructure or centralized administration. In such an environment, it may be necessary for one mobile host to enlist the aid of other hosts in forwarding a packet to its destination, due to the limited range of each mobile host’s wireless transmissions. This paper presents a protocol for routing in ad hoc networks that uses dynamic source routing. The protocol adapts quickly to routing changes when host movement is frequent, yet requires little or no overhead during periods in which hosts move less frequently. Based on results from a packet-level simulation of mobile hosts operating in an ad hoc network, the protocol performs well over a variety of environmental conditions such as host density and movement rates. For all but the highest rates of host movement simulated, the overhead of the protocol is quite low, falling to just 1% of total data packets transmitted for moderate movement rates in a network of 24 mobile hosts. In all cases, the difference in length between the routes used and the optimal route lengths is negligible, and in most cases, route lengths are on average within a factor of 1.01 of optimal.

The Cricket location-support system <=SEP=> This paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of Cricket, a location-support system for in-building, mobile, location-dependent applications. It allows applications running on mobile and static nodes to learn their physical location by using listeners that hear and analyze information from beacons spread throughout the building. Cricket is the result of several design goals, including user privacy, decentralized administration, network heterogeneity, and low cost. Rather than explicitly tracking user location, Cricket helps devices learn where they are and lets them decide whom to advertise this information to; it does not rely on any centralized management or control and there is no explicit coordination between beacons; it provides information to devices regardless of their type of network connectivity; and each Cricket device is made from off-the-shelf components and costs less than U.S. $10. We describe the randomized algorithm used by beacons to transmit information, the use of concurrent radio and ultrasonic signals to infer distance, the listener inference algorithms to overcome multipath and interference, and practical beacon configuration and positioning techniques that improve accuracy. Our experience with Cricket shows that several location-dependent applications such as in-building active maps and device control can be developed with little effort or manual configuration.

RADAR: An In-Building RF-Based User Location and Tracking System <=SEP=> The proliferation of mobile computing devices and local-area wireless networks has fostered a growing interest in location-aware systems and services. In this paper we present RADAR, a radio-frequency (RF) based system for locating and tracking users inside buildings. RADAR operates by recording and processing signal strength information at multiple base stations positioned to provide overlapping coverage in the area of interest. It combines empirical measurements with signal propagation modeling to determine user location and thereby enable locationaware services and applications. We present experimental results that demonstrate the ability of RADAR to estimate user location with a high degree of accuracy.

The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis <=SEP=> The paper discussed is by Alan Turing. It was published in 1952 and presents an idea of how periodic patterns could be formed in nature. Looking on periodic structures – like the stripes on tigers, the dots on leopards or the whirly leaves on woodruff – it is hard to imagine those patterns are formated by pure chance. On the other hand, thinking of the unbelievable multitude of possible realizations, the patterns can not all be exactly encoded in the genes. The paper “The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis” proposes a possible mechanism due to an interaction of two “morphogenes” which react and diffuse through the tissue. Fulfilling some constrains regarding the diffusibilities and the behaviour of the reactions, this mechanism – called Turing mechanism – can lead to a pattern of concentrations defining the structure we see.

Power to the people? The evolving recognition of human aspects of security <=SEP=> It is perhaps unsurprising to find much of the focus in IT and computer security being drawn towards the technical aspects of the discipline. However, it is increasingly recognised that technology alone cannot deliver a complete solution, and there is also a tangible need to address human aspects. At the core, people must understand the threats they face and be able to use the protection available to them, and although this has not been entirely ignored, it has not received the level of attention that it merits either. Indeed, security surveys commonly reveal that the more directly user-facing aspects such as policy, training and education are prone to receiving significantly less attention than technical controls such as firewalls, antivirus and intrusion detection. The underlying reason for such disparity is that the human aspects are in many ways a more challenging problem to approach, not least because they cannot be easily targeted with a product-based solution. There is also a direct overlap into the technical area, with issues such as the usability and acceptability of technology solutions having a direct impact upon the actual protection that they are able to deliver. This paper explores these themes, highlighting the need for human aspects to form part of a holistic security strategy alongside the necessary technologies. Taking the specific examples of security awareness and two user-facing technical controls (user authentication and antivirus), the discussion examines how things have evolved to the present day and considers how they need to be positioned for the future. a 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Modeling Label Ambiguity for Neural List-Wise Learning to Rank <=SEP=> List-wise learning to rank methods are considered to be the stateof-the-art. One of the major problems with these methods is that the ambiguous nature of relevance labels in learning to rank data is ignored. Ambiguity of relevance labels refers to the phenomenon that multiple documents may be assigned the same relevance label for a given query, so that no preference order should be learned for those documents. In this paper we propose a novel sampling technique for computing a list-wise loss that can take into account this ambiguity. We show the e ectiveness of the proposed method by training a 3-layer deep neural network. We compare our new loss function to two strong baselines: ListNet and ListMLE. We show that our method generalizes better and signi cantly outperforms other methods on the validation and test sets. CCS CONCEPTS •Computingmethodologies→Neural networks; •Information systems →Learning to rank;

The incredible queen of green: Nutritive value and therapeutic potential of Moringa oleifera Lam. <=SEP=> Moringa oleifera Lam. (synonym: Moringa pterygosperma Gaertn.) (M. oleifera) known in 82 countries by 210 different names is well known by the name of the miracle tree. It is one of the extensively cultivated and highly valued members of Moringaceae, a monogeneric family, comprising of thirteen perennial angiosperm shrubs and trees[1-3]. Moringa tree is endemic to the Himalayan foothills of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and India, and is cultivated throughout tropics. It is recognized by a mixture of vernacular names, among of them, drumstick tree, horseradish tree, ben oil tree and malunggay are the most commonly reported in the history of this plant[4]. In Pakistan, Sohanjna is the vernacular name of M. oleifera[5,6]. It yields low quality timber, as it is a softwood tree, but it is belived for centuries that this plant possesses a number of industrial, traditional and medicinal benefits[7]. Fertilizer (seed cake), green manure (leaves), blue dye (wood), fencing (living trees), domestic cleaning agent (crushed leaves), alley cropping, animal feed (leaves and seed cake), medicine (all plant parts), foliar nutrient (juice expressed from the leaves), gum (tree trunks), biogas (leaves), biopesticide, ornamental plantings, water purifier (powdered seeds), honey (flower nectar) are different uses of this plant reported in literature[2,6,8-20]. M. oleifera is a good source of aminoacids and contains a number of important minerals, β-carotene, various phenolics and vitamins[21,22]. M. oleifera is also an important vegetable food article of trade, particularly in Pakistan, Hawaii, Philippines, Africa and India which has a huge deliberation as the natural nutrition[1,23]. In South Asia, various plant parts, including leaves, bark, root, gum, flowers, pods, seeds and seed oil are used for the variety of infectious and inflammatory disorders along with hepatorenal, gastrointestinal, hematological and cardiovascular diseases[22,24-26]. Various therapeutic potentials are also credited to different parts of ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Pricing Services Subject to Congestion: Charge Per-Use Fees or Sell Subscriptions? <=SEP=> Should a firm charge on a per-use basis or sell subscriptions when its service experiences congestion? Queueing-based models of pricing primarily focus on charging a fee per use for the service, in part because per-use pricing enables the firm to regulate congestion—raising the per-use price naturally reduces how frequently customers use a service. The firm has less control over usage with subscription pricing (by definition, with subscription pricing customers are not charged proportional to their actual usage), and this is a disadvantage when customers dislike congestion. However, we show that subscription pricing is more effective at earning revenue. Consequently, the firm may be better off with subscription pricing, even, surprisingly, when congestion is intuitively most problematic for the firm: e.g., as congestion becomes more disliked by consumers. We show that the absolute advantage of subscription pricing relative to per-use pricing can be substantial, whereas the potential advantage of per-use pricing is generally modest. Subscription pricing becomes relatively more attractive if consumers become more heterogeneous in their service rates (e.g., some know they are “heavy” users and others know they are “light” users) as long as capacity is fixed, the potential utilization is high, and the two segments have substantially different usage rates. Otherwise, heterogeneity in usage rates makes subscription pricing less attractive relative to per-use pricing. We conclude that subscription pricing can be effective even if congestion is relevant for the overall quality of a service. Keywords service operations, operations strategy, pricing and revenue management, game theory, queueing theory Disciplines Business | Business Administration, Management, and Operations | Business Analytics | Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods | Marketing | Operations and Supply Chain Management | Sales and Merchandising This technical report is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/marketing_papers/320 Pricing Services Subject to Congestion: Charge Per-Use Fees or Sell Subscriptions? Gérard P. Cachon Pnina Feldman Operations and Information Management, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA Operations and Information Technology Management, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA cachon@wharton.upenn.edu feldman@haas.berkeley.edu June 17, 2008; revised July 14, 2009; May 21, 2010; August 10, 2010 Should a rm charge on a per-use basis or sell subscriptions when its service experiences congestion? Queueing-based models of pricing primarily focus on charging a fee per use for the service, in part because per-use pricing enables the rm to regulate congestion raising the per-use price naturally reduces how frequently customers use a service. The rm has less control over usage with subscription pricing (by denition, with subscription pricing customers are not charged proportional to their actual usage), and this is a disadvantage when customers dislike congestion. However, we show that subscription pricing is more e¤ective at earning revenue. Consequently, the rm may be better o¤ with subscription pricing, even, surprisingly, when congestion is intuitively most problematic for the rm: e.g., as congestion becomes more disliked by consumers. We show that the absolute advantage of subscription pricing relative to per-use pricing can be substantial whereas the potential advantage of per-use pricing is generally modest. Subscription pricing becomes relatively more attractive if consumers become more heterogeneous in their service rates (e.g., some know they are heavyusers and others know they are lightusers) as long as capacity is xed, the potential utilization is high and the two segments have substantially di¤erent usage rates. Otherwise, heterogeneity in usage rates makes subscription pricing less attractive relative to per-use. We conclude that subscription pricing can be e¤ective even if congestion is relevant for the overall quality of a service. How should a rm price its service when congestion is an unavoidable reality? Customers dislike congestion, so a rm has an incentive to ensure it provides reasonably fast service. At the same time, the rm needs to earn an economic prot, so the rms pricing scheme must generate a su¢ cient amount of revenue. Furthermore, these issues are closely linked: the chosen pricing scheme inuences how frequently customers use a service, which dictates the level of congestion; congestion correlates with the customersperceived value for the service, and that determines the amount of revenue the rm can generate. A natural option is to charge customers a per-use fee or toll: customers pay a per-transaction fee each time they withdraw money from the ATM; beauty shops and hair salons price on a peruse basis; and car maintenance companies, such as Pep Boys Auto, charge each time a service is

Structured Perceptron with Inexact Search <=SEP=> Structured learning with inexact inference is a fundamental problem. We propose variants of the structured perceptron algorithm under a general “violation-fixing” framework that guarantees convergence. This framework subsumes previous remedies including “early update” as special cases, and also explains why standard perceptron may fail with inexact search. We also propose new update methods within this framework which learn better models with dramatically reduced training times on state-of-the-art part-of-speech tagging and incremental parsing systems.

Bayesian models for Large-scale Hierarchical Classification <=SEP=> A challenging problem in hierarchical classification is to leverage the hierarchical relations among classes for improving classification performance. An even greater challenge is to do so in a manner that is computationally feasible for large scale problems. This paper proposes a set of Bayesian methods to model hierarchical dependencies among class labels using multivariate logistic regression. Specifically, the parent-child relationships are modeled by placing a hierarchical prior over the children nodes centered around the parameters of their parents; thereby encouraging classes nearby in the hierarchy to share similar model parameters. We present variational algorithms for tractable posterior inference in these models, and provide a parallel implementation that can comfortably handle largescale problems with hundreds of thousands of dimensions and tens of thousands of classes. We run a comparative evaluation on multiple large-scale benchmark datasets that highlights the scalability of our approach and shows improved performance over the other state-of-the-art hierarchical methods.

A critical survey of state-of-the-art image inpainting quality assessment metrics <=SEP=> 7 Image inpainting is the process of restoring missing pixels in digital images in a plausible way. Research in image inpainting has received considerable attention in di erent areas, including restoration of old and damaged documents, removal of undesirable objects, computational photography, retouching applications, etc. The challenge is that the recovery processes themselves introduce noticeable artifacts within and around the restored image regions. As an alternative to subjective evaluation by humans, a number of approaches have been introduced to quantify inpainting processes objectively. Unfortunately, existing objective metrics have their own strengths and weaknesses as they use di erent criteria. This paper provides a thorough insight into existing metrics related to image inpainting quality assessment, developed during the last few years. The paper provides, under a new framework, a comprehensive description of existing metrics, their strengths, their weaknesses, and a detailed performance analysis on real images from public image inpainting database. The paper also outlines future research directions and applications of inpainting and inpainting-related quality assessment measures.

Programming your network at run-time for big data applications <=SEP=> Recent advances of software defined networking and optical switching technology make it possible to program the network stack all the way from physical topology to flow level traffic control. In this paper, we leverage the combination of SDN controller with optical switching to explore the tight integration of application and network control. We particularly study the run-time network configuration for big data applications to jointly optimize application performance and network utilization. We use Hadoop as an example to discuss the integrated network control architecture, job scheduling, topology and routing configuration mechanisms for Hadoop jobs. Our analysis suggests that such an integrated control has great potential to improve application performance with relatively small configuration overhead. We believe our study shows early promise of achieving the long-term goal of tight network and application integration using SDN.

A Fundamental Storage-Communication Tradeoff in Distributed Computing with Straggling Nodes <=SEP=> The optimal storage-computation tradeoff is characterized for a MapReduce-like distributed computing system with straggling nodes, where only a part of the nodes can be utilized to compute the desired output functions. The result holds for arbitrary output functions and thus generalizes previous results that restricted to linear functions. Specifically, in this work, we propose a new information-theoretical converse and a new matching coded computing scheme, that we call coded computing for straggling systems (CCS).

Language, cognition, and short-term memory in individuals with Down syndrome. <=SEP=> The developmentally emerging phenotype of language and cognition in individuals with Down syndrome is summarized on the basis of the project's prior work. Identified are a) the emerging divergence of expressive and receptive language, b) the emerging divergence of lexical and syntactic knowledge in each process, and c) the emerging divergence within cognitive skills of auditory short-term memory and visuospatial short-term memory from other visuospatial skills. Expressive syntax and auditory short-term memory are identified as areas of particular difficulty. Evidence for the continued acquisition of language skills in adolescence is presented. The role of the two components of working memory, auditory and visual, in language development is investigated in studies of narrative and longitudinal change in language skills. Predictors of individual differences during six years of language development are evaluated through hierarchical linear modelling. Chronological age, visuospatial short-term memory, and auditory-short term memory are identified as key predictors of performance at study entry, but not individual change over time, for expressive syntax. The same predictors account for variation in comprehension skill at study outset; and change over the six years can be predicted by chronological age and the change in visuospatial short-term memory skills.

The MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Sciences: Sign Languages <=SEP=> Sign languages (alternatively, signed languages) are human languages whose forms consist of sequences of movements and configurations of the hands and arms, face, and upper torso. Typically, sign languages are perceived through the visual mode. Sign languages thus contrast, of course, with spoken languages, whose forms consist of sounds produced by sequences of movements and configurations of the mouth and vocal tract. More informally, then, sign languages are visual-gestural languages, whereas spoken languages are auditory-vocal languages.

Optimal Multi-taxi Dispatch for Mobile Taxi-Hailing Systems <=SEP=> Traditional taxi-hailing systems through wireless networks in metropolitan areas allow taxis to compete for passengers chaotically and accidentally, which generally result in inefficiencies, long waiting time and low satisfaction of taxi-hailing passengers. In this paper, we propose a new Mobile Taxi-hailing System (called MTS) based on optimal multi-taxi dispatch, which can be used by taxi service companies (TSCs). Different from the competition modes used in traditional taxi-hailing systems, MTS assigns vacant taxis to taxi-hailing passengers proactively. For the taxi dispatch problem in MTS, we define a system utility function, which involves the total net profits of taxis and waiting time of passengers. Moreover, in the utility function, we take into consideration the various classes of taxis with different resource configurations, and the cost associated with taxis' empty travel distances. Our goal is to maximize the system utility function, restricted by the individual net profits of taxis and the passengers' requirements for specified classes of taxis. To solve this problem, we design an optimal algorithm based on the idea of Kuhn-Munkres (called KMBA), and prove the correctness and optimality of the proposed algorithm. Additionally, we demonstrate the significant performances of our algorithm through extensive simulations.

Learning Multilingual Word Representations using a Bag-of-Words Autoencoder <=SEP=> Recent work on learning multilingual word representations usually relies on the use of word-level alignements (e.g. infered with the help of GIZA++) between translated sentences, in order to align the word embeddings in different languages. In this workshop paper, we investigate an autoencoder model for learning multilingual word representations that does without such word-level alignements. The autoencoder is trained to reconstruct the bag-of-word representation of given sentence from an encoded representation extracted from its translation. We evaluate our approach on a multilingual document classification task, where labeled data is available only for one language (e.g. English) while classification must be performed in a different language (e.g. French). In our experiments, we observe that our method compares favorably with a previously proposed method that exploits word-level alignments to learn word representations.

Digital receivers and transmitters using polyphase filter banks for wireless communications <=SEP=> This paper provides a tutorial overview of multichannel wireless digital receivers and the relationships between channel bandwidth, channel separation, and channel sample rate. The overview makes liberal use of figures to support the underlying mathematics. A multichannel digital receiver simultaneously down-convert a set of frequency-division-multiplexed (FDM) channels residing in a single sampled data signal stream. In a similar way, a multichannel digital transmitter simultaneously up-converts a number of baseband signals to assemble a set of FDM channels in a single sampled data signal stream. The polyphase filter bank has become the architecture of choice to efficiently accomplish these tasks. This architecture uses three interacting processes to assemble or to disassemble the channelized signal set. In a receiver, these processes are an input commutator to effect spectral folding or aliasing due to a reduction in sample rate, a polyphase -path filter to time align the partitioned and resampled time series in each path, and a discrete Fourier transform to phase align and separate the multiple baseband aliases. In a transmitter, these same processes operate in a related manner to alias baseband signals to high order Nyquist zones while increasing the sample rate with the output commutator. This paper presents a sequence of simple modifications to sampled data structures based on analog prototype systems to obtain the basic polyphase structure. We further discuss ways to incorporate small modifications in the operation of the polyphase system to accommodate secondary performance requirements. MATLAB simulations of a 10-, 40-, and 50-channel resampling receiver are included in the electronic version of this paper. An animated version of the ten-channel resampling receiver illustrates the time and frequency response of the filter bank when driven by a slowly varying linear FM sweep.

A PASSIVE MILLIMETER-WAVE IMAGER USED FOR CONCEALED WEAPON DETECTION <=SEP=> An 8mm-band passive millimeter-wave imager BHU-2D has been developed by Beihang University. This imager is designed for detecting concealed weapons on human body. The imager adopts two-dimensional synthetic aperture interferometric radiometer (SAIR) technique which avoids the radiation risk to human body. Compared with scanning technique, SAIR technique could obtain images of a larger field of view (FOV) while achieving high imaging rate, which are necessary for security monitoring. In this paper, the imaging principle of SAIR is stated firstly. Secondly, background cancellation method designed for BHU-2D is interpreted. The technique is used to reduce the complexity as well as the dimensional requirements of the receiving elements. Thirdly, system configuration is illustrated in detail. Then external point source calibration method is introduced and discussed specifically for security check applications. Finally, imaging experiments on a person with concealed weapon are conducted by which the design and image calibration algorithms are verified. To conclude, experimental results prove that BHU-2D could be employed in security check applications.

Circularly polarized array antenna with corporate-feed network and series-feed elements <=SEP=> In this paper, corporate-feed circularly polarized microstrip array antennas are studied. The antenna element is a series-feed slot-coupled structure. Series feeding causes sequential rotation effect at the element level. Antenna elements are then used to form the subarray by applying sequential rotation to their feeding. Arrays having 4, 16, and 64 elements were made. The maximum achieved gains are 15.3, 21, and 25.4 dBic, respectively. All arrays have less than 15 dB return loss and 3 dB axial ratio from 10 to 13 GHz. The patterns are all quite symmetrical.

Syntax-Aware Multi-Sense Word Embeddings for Deep Compositional Models of Meaning <=SEP=> Deep compositional models of meaning acting on distributional representations of words in order to produce vectors of larger text constituents are evolving to a popular area of NLP research. We detail a compositional distributional framework based on a rich form of word embeddings that aims at facilitating the interactions between words in the context of a sentence. Embeddings and composition layers are jointly learned against a generic objective that enhances the vectors with syntactic information from the surrounding context. Furthermore, each word is associated with a number of senses, the most plausible of which is selected dynamically during the composition process. We evaluate the produced vectors qualitatively and quantitatively with positive results. At the sentence level, the effectiveness of the framework is demonstrated on the MSRPar task, for which we report results within the state-of-the-art range.

Empirical analysis of programming language adoption <=SEP=> Some programming languages become widely popular while others fail to grow beyond their niche or disappear altogether. This paper uses survey methodology to identify the factors that lead to language adoption. We analyze large datasets, including over 200,000 SourceForge projects, 590,000 projects tracked by Ohloh, and multiple surveys of 1,000-13,000 programmers.
 We report several prominent findings. First, language adoption follows a power law; a small number of languages account for most language use, but the programming market supports many languages with niche user bases. Second, intrinsic features have only secondary importance in adoption. Open source libraries, existing code, and experience strongly influence developers when selecting a language for a project. Language features such as performance, reliability, and simple semantics do not. Third, developers will steadily learn and forget languages. The overall number of languages developers are familiar with is independent of age. Finally, when considering intrinsic aspects of languages, developers prioritize expressivity over correctness. They perceive static types as primarily helping with the latter, hence partly explaining the popularity of dynamic languages.

Symbolic Music Genre Transfer with CycleGAN <=SEP=> Deep generative models such as Variational Autoencoders (VAEs) and Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have recently been applied to style and domain transfer for images, and in the case of VAEs, music. GAN-based models employing several generators and some form of cycle consistency loss have been among the most successful for image domain transfer. In this paper we apply such a model to symbolic music and show the feasibility of our approach for music genre transfer. Evaluations using separate genre classifiers show that the style transfer works well. In order to improve the fidelity of the transformed music, we add additional discriminators that cause the generators to keep the structure of the original music mostly intact, while still achieving strong genre transfer. Visual and audible results further show the potential of our approach. To the best of our knowledge, this paper represents the first application of GANs to symbolic music domain transfer.

An effective way of word-level language identification for code-mixed facebook comments using word-embedding via character-embedding <=SEP=> Individuals utilize online networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to express their interests, opinions or reviews. The users used English language as their medium for communication in earlier days. Despite the fact that content can be written in Unicode characters now, people find it easier to communicate by mixing two or more languages together or lean toward writing their native language in Roman script. These types of data are called code-mixed text. While processing such social-media data, recognizing the language of the text is an important task. In this work, we have developed a system for word-level language identification on code-mixed social media text. The work is accomplished for Tamil-English and Malayalam-English code-mixed Facebook comments. The methodology used for the system is a novel approach which is implemented based on features obtained from character-based embedding technique with the context information and uses a machine learning based classifier, Support Vector Machine for training and testing. An accuracy of 93% was obtained for Malayalam-English and 95% for Tamil-English code-mixed text.

Estimation of Symptom Severity During Chemotherapy From Passively Sensed Data: Exploratory Study <=SEP=> BACKGROUND
Physical and psychological symptoms are common during chemotherapy in cancer patients, and real-time monitoring of these symptoms can improve patient outcomes. Sensors embedded in mobile phones and wearable activity trackers could be potentially useful in monitoring symptoms passively, with minimal patient burden.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to explore whether passively sensed mobile phone and Fitbit data could be used to estimate daily symptom burden during chemotherapy.


METHODS
A total of 14 patients undergoing chemotherapy for gastrointestinal cancer participated in the 4-week study. Participants carried an Android phone and wore a Fitbit device for the duration of the study and also completed daily severity ratings of 12 common symptoms. Symptom severity ratings were summed to create a total symptom burden score for each day, and ratings were centered on individual patient means and categorized into low, average, and high symptom burden days. Day-level features were extracted from raw mobile phone sensor and Fitbit data and included features reflecting mobility and activity, sleep, phone usage (eg, duration of interaction with phone and apps), and communication (eg, number of incoming and outgoing calls and messages). We used a rotation random forests classifier with cross-validation and resampling with replacement to evaluate population and individual model performance and correlation-based feature subset selection to select nonredundant features with the best predictive ability.


RESULTS
Across 295 days of data with both symptom and sensor data, a number of mobile phone and Fitbit features were correlated with patient-reported symptom burden scores. We achieved an accuracy of 88.1% for our population model. The subset of features with the best accuracy included sedentary behavior as the most frequent activity, fewer minutes in light physical activity, less variable and average acceleration of the phone, and longer screen-on time and interactions with apps on the phone. Mobile phone features had better predictive ability than Fitbit features. Accuracy of individual models ranged from 78.1% to 100% (mean 88.4%), and subsets of relevant features varied across participants.


CONCLUSIONS
Passive sensor data, including mobile phone accelerometer and usage and Fitbit-assessed activity and sleep, were related to daily symptom burden during chemotherapy. These findings highlight opportunities for long-term monitoring of cancer patients during chemotherapy with minimal patient burden as well as real-time adaptive interventions aimed at early management of worsening or severe symptoms.

Evaluating and exploring the MYO ARMBAND <=SEP=> Electromyography (EMG) is a technique that studies the electrical activity of the muscle. EMG is the basic component of Myo armband. The MYO ARMBAND is a device which can be used by humans to interact with computers. The myo armband involves the interaction of devices in VE (virtual environment). Working and characteristics of Myo are studied and analyzed. This paper surveys the work on visual analysis of gestures by using Myo armband and the input from keyboard and mouse. We have also performed two tests where participants are allowed to play a game, first by using keyboard and other by using MYO. Discussion and conclusion are also written at the end of this paper.

Multimedia learning in computer science: The effect of fifferent modes of instruction on student understanding <=SEP=> In a series of three experimental studies, we investigate the understanding achieved by learners when studying a complex domain in computer science, that is, the subject of memory management concepts in operating systems. We use three different media combinations to explain the subject of memory management concepts - Animation and text, animation and voice and a combination of animation, voice and text. The students who had no prior knowledge on the subject where given a test on recall and transfer knowledge after viewing the treatments. This paper reports the results of the experiment which may provide useful guidance for instructional designers specifically in the area of computer science.

Fast Hydraulic and Thermal Erosion on the GPU Balázs Jákó <=SEP=> Computer games, TV series, movies, simulators, and many other computer graphics applications use external scenes where a realistic looking terrain is a vital part of the viewing experience. Creating such terrains is a challenging task. In this paper we propose a method that generates realistic virtual terrains by simulation of hydraulic and thermal erosion on a predefined height field terrain. The model is designed to be executed interactively on parallel architectures like graphics processors.

Channel estimation in millimeter wave MIMO systems with one-bit quantization <=SEP=> We develop channel estimation agorithms for millimeter wave (mmWave) multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems with one-bit analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). Since the mmWave MIMO channel is sparse due to the propagation characteristics, the estimation problem is formulated as a one-bit compressed sensing problem. We propose a modified EM algorithm that exploits sparsity and has better performance than the conventional EM algorithm. We also present a second solution using the generalized approximate message passing (GAMP) algorithm to solve this optimization problem. The simulation results show that GAMP can reduce mean squared error in the important low and medium SNR regions.