Trading privacy with incentives in mobile commerce: A game theoretic approach

In mobile commerce, companies provide location based services to mobile users, who report their locations with a certain level of granularity to maintain a degree of anonymity. This level of granularity depends on their perceived risk as well as the incentives they receive in the form of monetary benefits or improved mobile services. This paper formulates a quantitative model in which information theoretic metrics such as entropy, quantify the anonymity level of mobile users. The individual perceived risks of users and the benefits they obtain are defined as functions of their chosen location information granularity. The interaction between the mobile commerce company and its users is investigated using mechanism design techniques as a privacy game. The user best responses and optimal strategies for the company are derived under budgetary constraints on incentives, which are provided to users in order to convince them to share their private information at the desired level of granularity. Information limitations in the system are analyzed to capture more realistic scenarios where the companies do not have access to user utility functions. Iterative distributed algorithm and regression learning methods are investigated to design mechanisms that overcome these limitations. The results obtained are demonstrated with a numerical example and simulations based on real GPS data.     

Geometry based pre-processor for parallel fluid dynamic simulations using a hierarchical basis

The pre-processing stage of finite element analysis of the Navier–Stokes equations is becoming increasingly important as the desire for more general boundary conditions, as well as applications to parallel computers increases. The set up of general boundary conditions and communication structures for parallel computations should be accomplished during the pre-processing phase of the analysis, if possible, to ensure efficient computations for large scale problems in computational fluid dynamics. This paper introduces a general methodology for geometry based boundary condition application and pre-computing of parallel communication tasks. A. K. Karanam was supported by NSF Grant No. 9985340. C. H. Whiting was supported by a grant from NASA LaRC.     

Welfare of calves - 2. Increase in vertebral artery blood flow following exsanguination by neck sticking and evaluation of chest sticking as an alternative slaughter method

The role of the vertebral arteries in delaying loss of sensibility following neck sticking in slaughter calves was investigated. Vertebral artery blood flow was measured using probes before, during and after electrical stunning and slaughter. Systemic blood pressure, electrocorticogram, visually evoked responses and the occurrence of carotid occlusions were also recorded. When carotid occlusion occurred, the time to onset of brain failure was delayed based on the development of an isoelectric state. In addition, when carotid occlusion occurred the mean arterial blood pressure was sustained for longer following slaughter, and concurrently vertebral artery blood flow could be maintained at about 30% of its initial level for up to 3 min. In some animals vertebral artery flow increased substantially following sticking. When chest sticking was used no occlusion of vessels occurred, mean arterial blood pressure fell promptly (within 8 s) and the onset of an isoelectric state did not extend beyond one minute. In addition, visually evoked responses were not present after 5 s following chest sticking.     

A Hybrid Clustering Approach Based Q-Leach in TDMA to Optimize QOS-Parameters

An Orthogonal frequency part multiplexing suffers from a considerable challenge due to a high peak to average power ratio (PAPR). Hence, an effective method such as partial transmits sequence (PTS) can avert this defiance by limit the design of PAPR. Therefore, an improving PAPR reduction performance via a novel approach is proposed by detaching each subblock into two parts furthermore exchanges the first sample with the final selection in each portion of the subblock to generate a new partitioning scheme. Several typical traditional segmentation schemes are used to analyze and apply the presented algorithm, such as adjacent, interleaving, and pseudo-random schemes. Besides, two scenarios are adopted based on simulation software in which the number of subcarriers is set to 128 and 256. Based on the results, a superior PAPR reduction performance is achieved based on the improved segmentation schemes regarding traditional strategies in both systems. Moreover, the enhanced adjusted PTS scheme poses a low computational complexity compared with that of the conventional schemes.

     

Manifold Learning Using Linear Local Tangent Space Alignment (LLTSA) Algorithm for Noise Removal in Wavelet Filtered Vibration Signal

A denoising procedure is proposed to remove both out-band and in-band noise for extraction of weak bursts in signal obtained from defective bearing. Energy of continuous wavelet scalogram is computed and the band having higher energy is selected to remove the out-band noise. Signals of selected band are brought together to form a high-dimensional waveform feature space. Further, low dimensional waveform manifold is formed using linear local tangent space alignment (LLTSA) algorithm to remove in-band noise. A criterion, entitled as frequency factor is also proposed to determine the optimum neighbour size of LLTSA. The two complicated conditions are chosen to demonstrate the effectiveness of the technique in the extraction of bursts in the noisy situations. A significant improvement in the signal to noise ratio is observed when in-band noise is removed using manifold learning by LLTSA algorithm. The experimental result reveals the success of the proposed denoising procedure in extraction of defect features, even in the case of noisy condition.     

Indium selenide microrod films: chemical bath deposition from acidic bath

Films of indium selenide was deposited onto glass and indium tin oxide coated glass substrates in acidic medium using chemical bath deposition at room temperature. Indium sulphate and sodium selenosulphate were used as precursors of In³⁺ and Se^2?, respectively. The structural, surface morphological and optical properties of the deposited films were studied. Diffractograms in structural study revealed the deposited material is In₂Se₃ films. Controlled bath conditions resulted in the evolution of the In₂Se₃ microrod-like morphology. The optical band gap of the film was found to be 1.7 eV.     

Differences in Epstein-Barr virus expression between primary and secondary cutaneous angiocentric lymphomas. French Study Group of Cutaneous Lymphomas

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this investigation was to report on the radiographic interpretation of the hard palate and nasal fossa floor in panoramic radiographs by studying different skulls, x-ray machines, and head positions in relationship to the Frankfort plane before and after ostectomy. STUDY DESIGN: Twenty dry human skulls were radiographed with three different panoramic x-ray machines in three different positions. Three of the skulls were submitted to different ostectomies. RESULTS: Multiple images of the hard palate and nasal fossa floor were present in 96.12% of the radiographs. Single images (3.88%) occurred only in the "chin up" position. CONCLUSIONS: The lower image represents the nasal fossa floor, especially its lateral and anterior limits. The upper images are double real images mainly formed by the junction of the nasal septum with the nasal fossa floor and possibly by posterior parts of the hard palate and nasal fossa floor. All images overlap in the "chin up" position becoming a single image. The most common shape of the anatomic landmark was wide angle "W" (58.33%). Other shapes present in positions "chin up" and "chin down" indicate patient positioning errors. The x-ray machines did not influence the results.     

Congenital fibrosis of the extraocular muscles type 2, an inherited exotropic strabismus fixus, maps to distal 11q13

The extraocular fibrosis syndromes are congenital ocular-motility disorders that arise from dysfunction of the oculomotor, trochlear, and abducens nerves and/or the muscles that they innervate. Each is marked by a specific form of restrictive paralytic ophthalmoplegia with or without ptosis. Individuals with the classic form of congenital fibrosis of the extraocular muscles (CFEOM1) are born with bilateral ptosis and a restrictive infraductive external ophthalmoplegia. We previously demonstrated that CFEOM1 is caused by an autosomal dominant locus on chromosome 12 and results from a developmental absence of the superior division of the oculomotor nerve. We now have mapped a variant of CFEOM, exotropic strabismus fixus ("CFEOM2"). Affected individuals are born with bilateral ptosis and restrictive ophthalmoplegia with the globes "frozen" in extreme abduction. This autosomal recessive disorder is present in members of three consanguineous Saudi Arabian families. Genetic analysis of 70 individuals (20 affected individuals) reveals linkage to markers on chromosome 11q13, with a combined LOD score of 12.3 at the single nonrecombinant marker, D11S1314. The 2.5-cM CFEOM2 critical region is flanked by D11S4196/D11S4162 and D11S4184/1369. Two of the three families share a common disease-associated haplotype, suggesting a founder effect for CFEOM2. We hypothesize that CFEOM2 results from an analogous developmental defect to CFEOM1, one that affects both the superior and inferior divisions of the oculomotor nerve and their corresponding alpha motoneurons and extraocular muscles.