Initial failures in distributed computations

We investigate the possibility of solving problems in completely asynchronous message passing systems where a number of processes may fail prior to execution. By using game-theoretical notions, necessary and sufficient conditions are provided for solving problems is such a model with an without a termination requirement. An upper bound on the message complexity for solving any problem in the model is given, as well as a simple design concept for constructing a solution to any solvable problem.Supported in part by the Guttwirth Fellowship, by the National Science Foundation under grant CCR-8405478, and by the Hebrew Technical Institute scholarship.Supported in part by Technion V.P.R. fund—C. Wellner Research fund.     

On the classification of equine force traces

Evidence indicating that comparison of a particular animal trace with a population average is an insufficient test of the health of a limb is presented. The methodology involves representing each of three recorded force components (vertical, lateral, and transverse) as a Fourier-Legendre series; the coefficients in the series represent the trace. A history for the horse is built by accumulating the coefficients (along with pertinent experimental data such as date, sex, weight, height, and in the case of race horses the date of last race) over a long duration. Then, on each subsequent recording, the trace is first compared with the animal's history to identify the occurrence of injury or pathology. If the limb is found to be normal, the trace is added to the history. Otherwise, it is recommended that the animal be further examined by a veterinarian. Preliminary results indicate that an animal trace needs to be compared with a history of traces for the same animal to identify alterations in the locomotive behavior of the limb.     

New device and method for flux-proportional sampling of mobile solutes in soil and groundwater

The importance of monitoring the transport of organic contaminants in soil and groundwater, and the pros and cons of existing sampling methods, are outlined. A new, alternative sampling method is proposed, using a passive sampler that functions as a water-permeable, semi-infinite sink for passing solutes of interest. Tracers integrated in the device store information on the volume of water passing through the sampler during the installation period. The conceptual basis of the sampling method is described. This device enables flux-proportional monitoring of the concentrations of mobile contaminants in the soil and groundwater. 14C-labeled phenanthrene (PHEN) and glyphosate (GLY) are used as case study compounds in laboratory experiments. The sorption capacities and uptake kinetics of 13 adsorbents are screened and compared, as well as the dissolution kinetics of three tracer salts: calcium citrate, calcium fluoride (CaF2), and calcium hydrogen phosphate (CaHPO4). The application of the passive sampler is then demonstrated in long-term laboratory experiments, using large soil columns under steady-state hydraulic conditions. The accumulated flux of PHEN was sampled with an accuracy of 3.6%-17.8%, using graphitized carbon, hexagonal mesoporous silica, and cross-linked polymers as adsorbents. The accumulated flux of GLY was sampled with an accuracy of 12.4%, using gamma-alumina as an adsorbent. The advantages and limitations of this new environmental monitoring method are discussed.     

Leveraging semantic resources in diversified query expansion

A search query, being a very concise grounding of user intent, could potentially have many possible interpretations. Search engines hedge their bets by diversifying top results to cover multiple such possibilities so that the user is likely to be satisfied, whatever be her intended interpretation. Diversified Query Expansion is the problem of diversifying query expansion suggestions, so that the user can specialize the query to better suit her intent, even before perusing search results. In this paper, we consider the usage of semantic resources and tools to arrive at improved methods for diversified query expansion. In particular, we develop two methods, those that leverage Wikipedia and pre-learnt distributional word embeddings respectively. Both the approaches operate on a common three-phase framework; that of first taking a set of informative terms from the search results of the initial query, then building a graph, following by using a diversity-conscious node ranking to prioritize candidate terms for diversified query expansion. Our methods differ in the second phase, with the first method Select-Link-Rank (SLR) linking terms with Wikipedia entities to accomplish graph construction; on the other hand, our second method, Select-Embed-Rank (SER), constructs the graph using similarities between distributional word embeddings. Through an empirical analysis and user study, we show that SLR ourperforms state-of-the-art diversified query expansion methods, thus establishing that Wikipedia is an effective resource to aid diversified query expansion. Our empirical analysis also illustrates that SER outperforms the baselines convincingly, asserting that it is the best available method for those cases where SLR is not applicable; these include narrow-focus search systems where a relevant knowledge base is unavailable. Our SLR method is also seen to outperform a state-of-the-art method in the task of diversified entity ranking.     

<Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">Resling</Emphasis>: a scalable and generic framework to mine top-<Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis> representative subgraph patterns

Many datasets include missing values in their attributes. Data mining techniques are not applicable in the presence of missing values. So an important step in preprocessing of a data mining task is missing value management. One of the most important categories in missing value management techniques is missing value imputation. This paper presents a new imputation technique. The proposed imputation technique is based on statistical measurements. The suggested imputation technique employs an ensemble of the estimators built to estimate the missing values based on positive and negative correlated observed attributes separately. Each estimator guesses a value for a missed value based on the average and variance of that feature. The average and variance of the feature are estimated from the non-missed values of that feature. The final consensus value for a missed value is the weighted aggregation of the values estimated by different estimators. The chief weight is attribute correlation, and the slight weight is dependent to kernel function such as kurtosis, skewness, number of involved samples and composition of them. The missing values are deliberately produced randomly at different levels. The experimentations indicate that the suggested technique has a good accuracy in comparison with the classical methods.     

Effects of thin-film structural parameters on laser desorption/ionization from porous alumina

Nanoporous aluminum oxide layers, grown by anodization of aluminum thin films on glass and then sputter-coated with gold, were used to study the effects of the thin-film structural parameters on laser desorption/ionization (LDI) mass spectrometry (MS) of peptides. Variation of MS signal intensity was examined as a function of alumina pore depth, pore width, and gold layer thickness. Peptide molecular ion intensity was optimal with porous alumina formed from aluminum films of approximately 600-nm thickness; thinner or thicker films gave significantly lower signals. Signals decreased when pore sizes were increased beyond the as-formed width of approximately 100 nm. The MS signal also varied with the thickness of the sputtered gold layer with an optimum thickness being approximately 90 nm. The results of these studies provide values for empirical optimization of LDI MS performance as well as potential clues to the LDI mechanism.     

Using CFD to investigate ventilation characteristics of vaults as wind-inducing devices in buildings

This paper investigates the potential of the vaulted roofs for improving wind-induced natural ventilation, using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) three-dimensional modelling. This has been carried out in a parametric study considering different climatic and geometrical parameters. Using Fluent 5.5 program, natural ventilation performance has been modelled and assessed according to the value of airflow rate, and the quality of internal airflow distribution. It has been concluded that utilisation of vaulted roofs for natural ventilation increases inflow rate of the building, and re-distribute internal airflow currents by attracting some of the air to leave through roof openings instead of walls openings. This has improved ventilation conditions in the upstream and central zones of the building, but not in the downstream zone. Natural ventilation performance of two equivalent domed and vaulted roofs has also been compared. Results showed that there are many similarities between domed and vaulted roofs in terms of their natural ventilation performance. The advantage of any roof shape in air suction is highly dependant on wind direction.     

Thermally induced logarithmic stress singularities in a composite wedge and other anomalies

Wedge paradoxes, which were first studied by Sternberg and Koiter (Sternberg E, Koiter WT. The wedge under a concentrated couple: a paradox in the two-dimensional theory of elasticity. ASME Journal of Applied Mechanics 1958;4:575–81), occur due to multiple roots in the Williams (Williams ML. Stress singularities resulting from various boundary conditions in angular corners of plates in extension. ASME Journal of Applied Mechanics 1952;19:526–28) eigenfunction expansion. The consequence of such a paradox is a change in behavior of the stresses from , to the ‘non-separable’ form,

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. The focus of this study is the problem of thermally induced logarithmic stress singularities in a composite wedge associated with ω=0. Both double and triple root examples are presented which lead to and behavior in the stresses, respectively. This behavior is primarily associated with incompressible materials for the clamped–clamped single material case, and for the full range of Poisson’s ratio for the clamped-free case. The study also includes non-separable eigenfunctions that occur when complex conjugate roots transition to double real roots. Perhaps the most interesting result is that for the clamped–clamped wedge with Poisson’s ratio equal to 1/2, the hydrostatic stress has a logarithmic singularity proportional to the thermal strain for all wedge angles. This result can be extended to conclude that for a confined, incompressible or nearly incompressible material with a relatively sharp corner, and subject to some expansion or contraction phenomena, high hydrostatic stresses can result.     

A new computer program for the prediction and analysis of human thermal comfort

This paper describes a new computer program, which was written for the prediction and analysis of human thermal comfort. The program incorporates six thermal comfort indices; three original and three modified versions of the original. The original indices are; Fanger's Comfort Equation, Sharma's Tropical Summer Index and Madsen's Equivalent temperature. Results produced by the program are presented in terms of the same PMV scale (Predicted Mean Vote). The six indices are, however, classified as three for summer and three for winter.     

Isolation and characterization of heat resistant enterotoxigenic Staphylococcus aureus from a food poisoning outbreak in Indian subcontinent

Outbreaks of staphylococcal food poisoning (SFP) are very common across the world; however, there is hardly any report of SFP from the Indian subcontinent. An outbreak occurred in the state of Madhya Pradesh (India) after the consumption of a snack called "Bhalla" made up of potato balls fried in vegetable oil. More than 100 children and adults who ate the snack suffered from the typical symptoms of SFP and required hospitalization. Food and clinical samples were found to contain a large number of enterotoxigenic Staphylococcus aureus. All enterotoxigenic isolates produced a combination of SEB and SED enterotoxins and were sensitive to oxacillin and vancomycin. Isolates were characterized by molecular biology tools, viz., SDS-PAGE, amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis (ARDRA), randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and nucleotide sequencing of seb, sed, and 16S rDNA genes. Results of these studies suggested that the isolates, irrespective of their isolation from food or clinical samples, were clonal in origin. Further, seb gene sequence of isolates showed nucleotide variations at multiple sites when compared with other sequences available in the database. Representative isolates, one each from food and clinical samples, were found to be highly heat resistant (D(60) approximately 15-16 min). Isolates obtained in the current outbreak need to be further studied to find out the impact on food safety guidelines with respect to thermal processing.