Public-Coin Parallel Zero-Knowledge for NP

We show that, assuming the existence of collision-resistant hash functions, every language in NP has a constant-round public-coin zero-knowledge argument that remains secure under unbounded parallel composition (a.k.a. parallel zero knowledge.) Our protocol is a variant of Barak’s zero-knowledge argument (FOCS 2001), and has a non-black-box simulator. This result stands in sharp contrast with the recent result by Pass, Tseng and Wikstrom (Crypto 2010) showing that only languages in BPP have public-coin parallel zero-knowledge arguments with black-box simulators.     

A colon video analysis framework for polyp detection

This paper presents an automated video analysis framework for the detection of colonic polyps in optical colonoscopy. Our proposed framework departs from previous methods in that we include spatial frame-based analysis and temporal video analysis using time-course image sequences. We also provide a video quality assessment scheme including two measures of frame quality. We extract colon-specific anatomical features from different image regions using a windowing approach for intraframe spatial analysis. Anatomical features are described using an eigentissue model. We apply a conditional random field to model interframe dependences in tissue types and handle variations in imaging conditions and modalities. We validate our method by comparing our polyp detection results to colonoscopy reports from physicians. Our method displays promising preliminary results and shows strong invariance when applied to both white light and narrow-band video. Our proposed video analysis system can provide objective diagnostic support to physicians by locating polyps during colon cancer screening exams. Furthermore, our system can be used as a cost-effective video annotation solution for the large backlog of existing colonoscopy videos.     

Effects of different preparation procedures during tooth whitening on enamel bonding

The objective of this study was to assess effects of some clinically related preparation procedures during tooth whitening on enamel bonding properties. Sixty-two extracted human teeth were cleaned and divided into four groups. Forty-two of the teeth were left with their natural surface intact while 20 teeth were polished to form a flat surface. Half of the tooth served as the experimental side and received one of the two whitening products: Opalescence (10% carbamide peroxide) and Crest Whitestrips (6.5% hydrogen peroxide), for 2 weeks. Post-bleaching intervals included: 1 day, 1 week, and 2 weeks. On these days, tooth (10 mm × 1.5 mm × 1.5 mm) sections were evaluated using Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and tensile bond strength tests. T-test, ANOVA test, and mixed model regression analysis were used to assess the differences. No significant difference existed between natural surface and polished surface teeth for all groups at both Day One and Week Two (P > 0.05). On Day One, both treated groups had significant lower bond strength than the control group (P = 0.002). After 2 weeks, no significant difference existed between any group (P = 0.381). SEM indicated that resin–enamel interfaces in bleached enamel exhibited more defects in granular formations when compared to the control. Raman results indicated a lower degree of polymerization (DP) of adhesive at the interface for treated teeth surfaces. In summary, pre-bleaching surface treatments such as polish or non-polish, had no effect on bond strength. Bleaching significantly decreased bond strength initially, but after 2 weeks, bleaching had no significant effect on bond strength. Storage time had significant effect on Opalescence treated enamel, but not on control and Whitestrip treated enamel. The decrease of bond strength may be related to interfacial defects and low DP due to oxygen release after bleaching.     

Computational Homology,Connectedness, and Structure-Property Relations

The effective properties of composite materials are often strongly related to the connectivity of the material components. Many structure metrics, and related homogenization theories, do not effectively account for this connectivity. In this paper, relationships between the topology, represented via homology theory, and the effective elastic response of composite plates is investigated. The study is presented in the context of popular structure metrics such as percolation theory and correlation functions.     

An incremental nested partition method for data clustering

Clustering methods are a powerful tool for discovering patterns in a given data set through an organization of data into subsets of objects that share common features. Motivated by the independent use of some different partitions criteria and the theoretical and empirical analysis of some of its properties, in this paper, we introduce an incremental nested partition method which combines these partitions criteria for finding the inner structure of static and dynamic datasets. For this, we proved that there are relationships of nesting between partitions obtained, respectively, from these partition criteria, and besides that the sensitivity when a new object arrives to the dataset is rigorously studied. Our algorithm exploits all of these mathematical properties for obtaining the hierarchy of clusterings. Moreover, we realize a theoretical and experimental comparative study of our method with classical hierarchical clustering methods such as single-link and complete-link and other more recently introduced methods. The experimental results over databases of UCI repository and the AFP and TDT2 news collections show the usefulness and capability of our method to reveal different levels of information hidden in datasets.     

Cost-aware query planning for similarity search

Similarity search aims to find all objects similar to a query object. Typically, some base similarity measures for the different properties of the objects are defined, and light-weight similarity indexes for these measures are built. A query plan specifies which similarity indexes to use with which similarity thresholds and how to combine the results. Previous work creates only a single, static query plan to be used by all queries. In contrast, our approach creates a new plan for each query.     

从链接密度遍历序列中挖掘网络社团的层次结构

提出一种称为TRAVEL的网络聚类算法.它能够产生包含所有可能密度聚类的网络链接遍历序列,并从中自动发现网络的全局优化聚类.然后,遍历序列被转挟为连续子区间堆结构.在此基础上,提出一种聚类算法HCLU,可以无须用户干预地从连续子区间堆中自动发现网络的层次聚类边界.在真实网络以及计算机生成的仿真网络数据集上的实验结果表明...     

Novel interaction techniques for neurosurgical planning and stereotactic navigation

Neurosurgical planning and image guided neurosurgery require the visualization of multimodal data obtained from various functional and structural image modalities, such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Computed Tomography (CT), functional MRI, Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and so on. In the case of epilepsy neurosurgery for example, these images are used to identify brain regions to guide intracranial electrode implantation and resection. Generally, such data is visualized using 2D slices and in some cases using a 3D volume rendering along with the functional imaging results. Visualizing the activation region effectively by still preserving sufficient surrounding brain regions for context is exceedingly important to neurologists and surgeons. We present novel interaction techniques for visualization of multimodal data to facilitate improved exploration and planning for neurosurgery. We extended the line widget from VTK to allow surgeons to control the shape of the region of the brain that they can visually crop away during exploration and surgery. We allow simple spherical, cubical, ellipsoidal and cylindrical (probe aligned cuts) for exploration purposes. In addition we integrate the cropping tool with the image-guided navigation system used for epilepsy neurosurgery. We are currently investigating the use of these new tools in surgical planning and based on further feedback from our neurosurgeons we will integrate them into the setup used for image-guided neurosurgery.     

Dynameomics: mass annotation of protein dynamics and unfolding in water by high-throughput atomistic molecular dynamics simulations

The goal of Dynameomics is to perform atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of representative proteins from all known folds in explicit water in their native state and along their thermal unfolding pathways. Here we present 188-fold representatives and their native state simulations and analyses. These 188 targets represent 67% of all the structures in the Protein Data Bank. The behavior of several specific targets is highlighted to illustrate general properties in the full dataset and to demonstrate the role of MD in understanding protein function and stability. As an example of what can be learned from mining the Dynameomics database, we identified a protein fold with heightened localized dynamics. In one member of this fold family, the motion affects the exposure of its phosphorylation site and acts as an entropy sink to offset another portion of the protein that is relatively immobile in order to present a consistent interface for protein docking. In another member of this family, a polymorphism in the highly mobile region leads to a host of disease phenotypes. We have constructed a web site to provide access to a novel hybrid relational/multidimensional database (described in the succeeding two papers) to view and interrogate simulations of the top 30 targets: http://www.dynameomics.org. The Dynameomics database, currently the largest collection of protein simulations and protein structures in the world, should also be useful for determining the rules governing protein folding and kinetic stability, which should aid in deciphering genomic information and for protein engineering and design.