On the properties of von Neumann kernels for link analysis

We study the effectiveness of Kandola et al.’s von Neumann kernels as a link analysis measure. We show that von Neumann kernels subsume Kleinberg’s HITS importance at the limit of their parameter range. Because they reduce to co-citation relatedness at the other end of the parameter, von Neumann kernels give us a spectrum of link analysis measures between the two established measures of importance and relatedness. Hence the relative merit of a vertex can be evaluated in terms of varying trade-offs between the global importance and the local relatedness within a single parametric framework. As a generalization of HITS, von Neumann kernels inherit the problem of topic drift. When a graph consists of multiple communities each representing a different topic, HITS is known to rank vertices in the most dominant community higher regardless of the query term. This problem persists in von Neumann kernels; when the parameter is biased towards the direction of global importance, they tend to rank vertices in the dominant community uniformly higher irrespective of the community of the seed vertex relative to which the ranking is computed. To alleviate topic drift, we propose to use of a PLSI-based technique in combination with von Neumann kernels. Experimental results on a citation network of scientific papers demonstrate the characteristics and effectiveness of von Neumann kernels. This work was carried out while T. Ito was a Ph.D. student at Nara Institute of Science and Technology.     

A proposal of port scan detection method based on Packet-In Messages in OpenFlow networks and its evaluation

By quickly detecting a port scan and blocking the culprit host from the network, it is possible to minimize the spread of the damage by infected hosts and malicious users. In the past, various Software-Defined Networking (SDN)-based methods have been proposed, whose main advantage is the lower overhead compared to traditional methods that collect and analyze all captured traffic. On the other hand, due to the polling process used in these methods, it is necessary to set a short interval (e.g., few seconds) to keep the attacks' detection as short as possible. However, when the attack frequency is very low compared to normal traffic, there is an unnecessary overhead. In this paper, we propose a port scan detection method that considers the characteristics of Packet-In messages sent from the OpenFlow (OF) switch to the controller. This allows a prompt detection and with less overhead than conventional polling methods. The evaluation was conducted using both simulated and real traffic data. Results confirm that the proposed method can detect port scans with lower overhead than existing methods.     

Annulated dinuclear palladium(II) phthalocyanine complex as an effective photo-oxidation catalyst for near-infrared region light

An annulated dinuclear palladium(II) phthalocyanine complex (1) was synthesized and characterized. It was found that 1 worked as a photo-catalyst for the decomposition of 1,3-diphenylisobenzofuran (DPBF) in aerated toluene under the irradiation of the light in the near-infrared (NIR) region (λ > 780 nm).     

Clinicopathological Significance of Loss of ARID1A Immunoreactivity in Ovarian Clear Cell Carcinoma

Recent genome-wide analysis has demonstrated that somatic mutations in ARID1A (BAF250) are the most common molecular genetic changes in ovarian clear cell carcinoma (OCCC). ARID1A mutations, which occur in approximately half of OCCC cases, lead to deletion of the encoded protein and inactivation of the putative tumor suppressor. In this study, we determined the significance of loss of ARID1A immunoreactivity with respect to several clinicopathological features in a total of 149 OCCCs. First, we demonstrated that ARID1A immunohistochemistry showed concordance with the mutational status in 91% of cases with 100% sensitivity and 66% specificity. Specifically, among 12 OCCC cases for which ARIDA mutational status was known, ARIDIA immunoreactivity was undetectable in all 9 cases harboring ARID1A mutations and was undetectable in one of 3 cases with wild-type ARID1A. With respect to the entire cohort, ARID1A immunoreactivity was undetectable in 88 (59%) of 149 OCCCs. There was no significant difference between ARID1A negative and positive cases in terms of histopathologic features, age, clinical stage, or overall survival. In conclusion, this study provides further evidence that mutations in ARID1A resulted in loss of ARID1A protein expression in OCCC, although no significant differences between ARID1A positive and negative cases were observed with respect to any clinicopathological features examined.     

Preparation for Size-Controlled MOR Zeolite Nanocrystal Using Water/Surfactant/Organic Solvent

Recently, the synthesis of nanometer-sized zeolite crystals has attracted considerable attention from many researchers. In this study, the preparation of Mordenite (MOR zeolite) nanocrystals via hydrothermal synthesis in water/surfactant/organic solvent was carried out. Polyoxyethylene-(15)-oleylether (O-15, non-ionic surfactant) and cyclohexane were employed as a surfactant and organic solvent, respectively. Interestingly, it was found that the crystal sizes and morphology of MOR zeolites depended on the surfactant concentration regardless of the same concentrations of Si and Al sources and template in the water solution. The MOR zeolite nanocrystals with average sizes of approximately 80 nm could be obtained. Moreover, the column-like morphology of MOR zeolite was also observed at a high surfactant concentration (0.75 mol/L). Accordingly, the crystal size and morphology of MOR zeolite can be controlled by the surfactant concentration. This result appears to be due to the difference in the nucleation and growth rates of MOR in the solution.     

Microbial communities in the garbage composting with rice hull as an amendment revealed by culture-dependent and -independent approaches

The diversity and succession of microbial communities during the garbage composting with rice hull as an amendment were studied by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and clone library analysis of PCR-amplified 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) with universal primers. Based on temperature changes, the composting process could be divided into thermophilic, cooling-down, and maturing stages. The DGGE profiles and clone library analysis revealed that the microbial community drastically changed during the composting process from the thermophilic to the maturing stages. The dominant bacterial group changed from the phylum Firmicutes in the thermophilic stage to the phylum Bacteroidetes in the maturing stage. This change in microbial communities may be significant for the composting process. The diversity of cultivated bacteria isolated from samples taken at various stages of the composting process was low. A total of 87 isolates were classified as belonging to only four different groups. These groups were also detected in the DGGE profiles and by the clone library analysis. Our study indicated that a combination of culture-dependent and -independent approaches could be very useful for monitoring both bacterial diversity and the succession of communities during the composting process. This study would be beneficial for assessing the ecological consequences of disposal of organic waste.     

A Single-Chip Ultra-Wideband Receiver With Silicon Integrated Antennas for Inter-Chip Wireless Interconnection

A single-chip ultra-wideband (UWB) receiver was developed using 0.18 mum CMOS technology, and inter-chip wireless data communication by integrated antennas was confirmed. Timing pulse and data pulse with on-off keying were alternately sent from a transmitting antenna. Double Gaussian monocycle pulse (GMP) template generators performed detections of timing and data pulses. A single GMP template, whose probability distribution of the pulse repetition cycle is given by Gaussian, showed a random jitter of 4.87 ps. Dual-Dirac model could explain the probability distribution of the cycle of double GMP template. Obtained random jitter and deterministic jitter were 4.6 ps and 14.4 ps, respectively. The receiver successfully recovered 200 Mbps data at the distance of 0.5 mm.     

Thermal boundary condition effects on forced convection heat transfer

We propose a numerical solution of an adjoint problem of forced convection heat transfer to evaluate the mean heat transfer characteristics under arbitrary thermal boundary conditions. Using the numerical solution of the adjoint problem under the Dirichlet condition, which can be computed by slightly modifying a conventional heat transfer code, we obtain an influence function of local surface temperature on total heat transfer. As a result, the total heat transfer for arbitrary surface temperature distributions can be calculated by the influence function. Similarly, using the numerical solution of the adjoint problem under the Neumann condition, we can also obtain an influence function of the local heat flux on the mean surface temperature. The influence functions for a circular cylinder and for an in-line square rod array are presented to illustrate the capability of this method. © 1999 Scripta Technica, Heat Trans Asian Res, 28(3): 227–238, 1999     

On the thermal field of a wall plume (The response to artificial disturbances)

Experimental investigations were carried out on the characteristics of the thermal field of a wall plume ascending from a horizontal line heat source embedded on the low part of a vertical wall surface. For the stability analysis of the present wall plume field, a vibrating copper wire was set horizontally near the line heat source in the field and the wall plume field was disturbed by the vibrating wire. Some two-dimensional sinusoidal thermal disturbances were introduced into the wall plume field and the growth or diminution of the amplitude of temperature fluctuations by the artificial disturbance were measured in the wall plume field with a thermal probe. The response characteristics of the wall plume field to the disturbance frequency were also examined. As a result, it was ascertained that the frequency response of a wall plume field could be predicted by linear stability analysis. © 1999 Scripta Technica, Heat Trans Asian Res, 28(7): 559–572, 1999