Digital Intuition: Applying Common Sense Using Dimensionality Reduction

Understanding the world we live in requires access to a large amount of background knowledge: the commonsense knowledge that most people have and most computer systems don't. Many of the limitations of artificial intelligence today relate to the problem of acquiring and understanding common sense. The Open Mind Common Sense project began to collect common sense from volunteers on the Internet starting in 2000. The collected information is converted to a semantic network called ConceptNet. Reducing the dimensionality of ConceptNet's graph structure gives a matrix representation called AnalogySpace, which reveals large-scale patterns in the data, smoothes over noise, and predicts new knowledge. Extending this work, we have created a method that uses singular value decomposition to aid in the integration of systems or representations. This technique, called blending, can be harnessed to find and exploit correlations between different resources, enabling commonsense reasoning over a broader domain.     

Conception of a CATV-based MAN

The objective of this paper is to propose an architecture for aCAble TeleVision (CATV) network, capable of supporting two-way transmission. This evolution is necessary for the survival of the CATV industry in an era of deregulation and of the development of the B-ISDN by the telecommunications companies. A communication transactional service is then considered and performance analysis is done under realistic assumptions.     

Anticipating Cutoff Diameters in Deterministic Lateral Displacement (DLD) Microfluidic Devices for an Optimized Particle Separation

Deterministic lateral displacement (DLD) devices enable to separate nanometer to micrometer‐sized particles around a cutoff diameter, during their transport through a microfluidic channel with slanted rows of pillars. In order to design appropriate DLD geometries for specific separation sizes, robust models are required to anticipate the value of the cutoff diameter. So far, the proposed models result in a single cutoff diameter for a given DLD geometry. This paper shows that the cutoff diameter actually varies along the DLD channel, especially in narrow pillar arrays. Experimental and numerical results reveal that the variation of the cutoff diameter is induced by boundary effects at the channel side walls, called the wall effect. The wall effect generates unexpected particle trajectories that may compromise the separation efficiency. In order to anticipate the wall effect when designing DLD devices, a predictive model is proposed in this work and has been validated experimentally. In addition to the usual geometrical parameters, a new parameter, the number of pillars in the channel cross dimension, is considered in this model to investigate its influence on the particle trajectories.     

Thin and thick YBCO films grown by MOCVD processes. Study of the angular magnetic field dependence of current transport properties

Thin and thick YBCO Films have been grown by Aerosol Assisted as well as by thermal MOCVD. The Aerosol Assisted MOCVD technique allows the growth of YBCO films from a single liquid source at deposition rates of up to 10m/h.Transport measurements (I-V) on etched microbridges using a single pulse technique have been performed. The angular magnetic field dependence J_c() of the critical current density from T_c down to 50 K has been measured. Transport properties are reported and discussed with respect to the microstructural features as determined by X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy.     

Maskless writing of microfluidics: Rapid prototyping of 3D microfluidics using scratch on a polymer substrate

We present a new rapid prototyping method designed for simple fabrication of 3D microfluidics using a maskless direct writing technique on polymer substrates. The entire process is enabled by a commercial cutter plotter with 10 μm resolution precision and high speed. A CAD design of top and bottom microstructures is directly written on a polymer substrate using a cutter plotter after setting up the suitable force. The smallest channel width of 20 μm was obtained with the minimum force and 100 μm from the maximum. Also the written depth increased linearly with force from 30 to 130 μm. Several 3D microfluidic devices are demonstrated using a maskless writing technique. The entire fabrication process from CAD layout to a final 3D device can be completed in 30 min outside the clean room facilities.     

Biomarkers in pediatrics: children as biomarker orphans

Biomarkers have enormous potential to improve patient care by establishing tests of diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment effects. Successfully translating a biomarker from discovery to clinical application demands high-quality discovery research and high-quality clinical studies for biomarker validation; however, there are additional challenges that face biomarker research in pediatrics. There are also additional characteristics of pediatric medicine that make biomarker research especially needed. This review focuses on the fundamentals of biomarkers, the additional considerations needed for applying biomarker research to children, and recommendations for advancing pediatric biomarker research.     

TreePlus: interactive exploration of networks with enhanced tree layouts

Despite extensive research, it is still difficult to produce effective interactive layouts for large graphs. Dense layout and occlusion make food Webs, ontologies and social networks difficult to understand and interact with. We propose a new interactive visual analytics component called TreePlus that is based on a tree-style layout. TreePlus reveals the missing graph structure with visualization and interaction while maintaining good readability. To support exploration of the local structure of the graph and gathering of information from the extensive reading of labels, we use a guiding metaphor of "plant a seed and watch it grow." It allows users to start with a node and expand the graph as needed, which complements the classic overview techniques that can be effective at (but often limited to) revealing clusters. We describe our design goals, describe the interface and report on a controlled user study with 28 participants comparing TreePlus with a traditional graph interface for six tasks. In general, the advantage of TreePlus over the traditional interface increased as the density of the displayed data increased. Participants also reported higher levels of confidence in their answers with TreePlus and most of them preferred TreePlus     

Experimental Investigation of Nonconventional Confinement for Concrete Using FRP

The present study investigates experimentally the behavior of concrete confined with fiber reinforced polymers (FRP) in the form of jackets which are applied according to a number of nonconventional techniques. First, the effectiveness of various jacketing configurations combined with anchors as a measure of increasing the strength and deformability of L-shaped columns is investigated. It is concluded that easy to install and low-cost anchors made of resin impregnated fibers properly placed at the reentrant corner of L-shaped columns enable excellent mobilization of confining stresses supplied by the FRP jackets. Next, a number of alternative confinement methods are investigated on concrete cylinders, aimed at quantifying the effectiveness of (1) unbonded jacketing, (2) spirally applied strips attached only at their ends, and (3) jacketing directly on concrete with mortar plastering. Although the study may be regarded as preliminary, it provides useful experimental support to a number of techniques which have the potential to open new horizons in the field of externally applied FRP for enhancing concrete confinement.