Peer-to-peer bichromatic reverse nearest neighbours in mobile ad-hoc networks

The increasing use of mobile communications has raised many issues of decision support and resource allocation. A crucial problem is how to solve queries of Reverse Nearest Neighbour (RNN). An RNN query returns all objects that consider the query object as their nearest neighbour. Existing methods mostly rely on a centralised base station. However, mobile P2P systems offer many benefits, including self-organisation, fault-tolerance and load-balancing. In this study, we propose and evaluate 3 distinct P2P algorithms focusing on bichromatic RNN queries, in which mobile query peers and static objects of interest are of two different categories, based on a time-out mechanism and a boundary polygon around the mobile query peers. The Brute-Force Search Algorithm provides a naive approach to exploit shared information among peers whereas two other Boundary Search Algorithms filter a number of peers involved in query processing. The algorithms are evaluated in the MiXiM simulation framework with both real and synthetic datasets. The results show the practical feasibility of the P2P approach for solving bichromatic RNN queries for mobile networks.     

Improved oxidative stability of sunflower oil in the presence of an oxygen-scavenging film

The oxidative stability of sunflower oil (SFO) was measured during storage at 23 and 37°C in the presence of a novel oxygen-scavenging film that contained polyfuryloxirane (PFO). Commercially refined and deodorized SFO was stored in a lighted room in sealed transparent packages containing either PFO film or an antioxidant, 0.02% butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). Oxidative stability was evaluated by determination of peroxide values and gas-chromatographic measurement of headspace hexanal. SFO stored in the presence of the oxygen-scavenging film was more stable than oil stored without the film, or than film stored with 0.02% BHT. The PFO film scavenges oxygen through energy-transfer sensitization of singlet oxygen. The film is doped with eosin and the naturally-occurring dye, curcumin, which absorb over a wide range of visible wavelengths. Curcumin transfers its absorbed energy to eosin, which sensitizes the production of singlet oxygen. The singlet oxygen is scavenged by PFO. The use of two dyes increases the efficiency of the sensitization process, reducing the illumination time and intensity required for effective oxygen scavenging.     

Mood sensing from social media texts and its applications

We present a large-scale mood analysis in social media texts. We organise the paper in three parts: (1) addressing the problem of feature selection and classification of mood in blogosphere, (2) we extract global mood patterns at different level of aggregation from a large-scale data set of approximately 18 millions documents (3) and finally, we extract mood trajectory for an egocentric user and study how it can be used to detect subtle emotion signals in a user-centric manner, supporting discovery of hyper-groups of communities based on sentiment information. For mood classification, two feature sets proposed in psychology are used, showing that these features are efficient, do not require a training phase and yield classification results comparable to state of the art, supervised feature selection schemes; on mood patterns, empirical results for mood organisation in the blogosphere are provided, analogous to the structure of human emotion proposed independently in the psychology literature; and on community structure discovery, sentiment-based approach can yield useful insights into community formation.     

Closed motifs for streaming time series classification

A streaming time series is a continuous and unbounded group of chronological observations that are found in many scientific and business applications. Motifs that are frequent subsequences are highly representative for the time series and play an important role in time series mining. Discovering motifs in time series has received much attention during recent years, and several algorithms have been proposed to solve this problem. However, these algorithms can only find motifs with a predefined length, which greatly affects their performance and practicality. Recent algorithms can discover motifs with different lengths, but require multiple scanning of the time series and are thus not applicable to streaming time series. In addition, it is difficult to determine the optimal length of interesting motifs; a suboptimal choice results in missing the key motifs or having too many redundant motifs. To overcome this challenge, we introduce the notion of a \(closed\) motif; a motif is \(closed\) if there is no motif with a longer length having the same number of occurrences. We propose a novel algorithm \(closedMotif\) to discover closed motifs in a single scan for streaming time series. We also use the nearest neighbor classifier with the most distinctive closed motifs to validate their potential in time series classification. Extensive experiments show that our approach can efficiently discover motifs with different lengths. In addition, our closed-motif-based classifier is shown to be more accurate than \(Logical\text{- }Shapelet\) , a state-of-the-art time series classifier. Finally, we demonstrate the scalability of \(closedMotif\) on several large datasets in diverse domains like video surveillance, sensor networks, and biometrics.     

Personalized identification of abdominal wall hernia meshes on computed tomography

An abdominal wall hernia is a protrusion of the intestine through an opening or area of weakness in the abdominal wall. Correct pre-operative identification of abdominal wall hernia meshes could help surgeons adjust the surgical plan to meet the expected difficulty and morbidity of operating through or removing the previous mesh. First, we present herein for the first time the application of image analysis for automated identification of hernia meshes. Second, we discuss the novel development of a new entropy-based image texture feature using geostatistics and indicator kriging. Third, we seek to enhance the hernia mesh identification by combining the new texture feature with the gray-level co-occurrence matrix feature of the image. The two features can characterize complementary information of anatomic details of the abdominal hernia wall and its mesh on computed tomography. Experimental results have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed study. The new computational tool has potential for personalized mesh identification which can assist surgeons in the diagnosis and repair of complex abdominal wall hernias.     

MET𝔸P: revisiting Privacy-Preserving Data Publishing using secure devices

The goal of Privacy-Preserving Data Publishing (PPDP) is to generate a sanitized (i.e. harmless) view of sensitive personal data (e.g. a health survey), to be released to some agencies or simply the public. However, traditional PPDP practices all make the assumption that the process is run on a trusted central server. In this article, we argue that the trust assumption on the central server is far too strong. We propose Met _??P, a generic fully distributed protocol, to execute various forms of PPDP algorithms on an asymmetric architecture composed of low power secure devices and a powerful but untrusted infrastructure. We show that this protocol is both correct and secure against honest-but-curious or malicious adversaries. Finally, we provide an experimental validation showing that this protocol can support PPDP processes scaling up to nation-wide surveys.     

Effect of nitrogen,phosphorus and soil and crop residues management practices on maize (Zea mays L.) yield in ultisol of eastern Cameroon

The shortening of fallow period in several areas in tropical Africa has reduced soil fertility and exposed soils to erosion and run-off. Fertilizer application and crop conservation practices are needeed to sustain high crop yield and to conserve the natural resource base for upland crop production in the continent. Field trials were carried out to evaluate the effect of fertilizer application and soil and crop residues management practices on yield of maize (Zea mays L.) planted on a Plinthudult soil at Bertoua, Eastern Cameroon. Maize yields increased significantly with nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer application. Under the rainfall pattern prevailing in the area, the amount of nitrogen required for maximum yield was higher in the second season. On the other hand, the amount of phosphorus required for maximum yield appeared to decrease with time. The burning of crop residues and weeds prior to planting together with no-till practive gave higher yield of maize than other soil and crop residues management practices.     

Analysis of the packing stage of a viscoelastic melt

The packing stage starts at the end of mold filling. During this stage, additional material is forced into the mold to compensate for the shrinkage during subse-quent cooling. Underpacking results in molded parts with dimensional variation. Overpacking causes flash at the parting lines, stick during ejection, and excess residual stresses resulting in warpage. The packing stage is thus extremely important in the determination of the final quality of the product. Despite its importance, analysis of the packing stage has been relatively ignored, particularly the viscoelastic effect. In this work, the analysis of the isothermal packing stage is presented for a Maxwell fluid. A set of governing equations is derived for a two-dimensional mold and solved using the Galerkin finite element method. In addition to the distribution of velocity and pressure, the model predicts the stresses in the planar direction, which could be used for subsequent calculation of the residual stresses.     

Modification of oxidizing activity of Thiobacillus ferroxidans by some particulate solids

Different particulate solids such as glass powder, various types of activated carbon and bentonite suspended in Thiobacillus ferrooxidans cultures produce very different effects on the oxidizing activity of the microorganism. The atmospheric oxygen uptake by Thiobacillus ferrooxidans in Warburg respirometer flasks containing 9K medium with ferrous sulfate as energy source and suspended bentonite is 2.8 times that in the absence of solids. The dissolution rate of pure pyrite in 250 cm³ shake flasks containing 9K medium and bentonite is considerably enhanced over that where the only solid phase is pyrite. Conversely, the oxidizing ability of the microorganism seems to be inhibited by all the activated carbons tested. The effect of ground glass seems to be related to its particle size distribution. Implications for the bioleaching of sulfide ores and coal pyrite are discussed in the light of current knowledge on the adsorption of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans cells on solid surfaces.     

Hepatic Δ9 and Δ6 desaturase activities during the recovery period following carbon tetrachloride poisoningdesaturase activities during the recovery period following carbon tetrachloride poisoning

The liver microsomal Δ⁹ and Δ⁶ desaturase activities have been studied in rats with carbon tetrachloride-induced hepatitis. Immediately after poisoning, significant decreases were observed for both types of desaturase activity. However, recovery kinetics were slower for the Δ⁶ desaturase than for the Δ⁹ desaturase. The activities of NADH-ferricyanide and NADH-cytochrome C reductases, proteins involved in the electron transfers associated with microsomal desaturation, were also measured. There was a fall in both activities after poisoning, but this decrease was less than that of the desaturase activities.