A grid density based framework for classifying streaming data in the presence of concept drift

Mining data streams is the process of extracting information from non-stopping, rapidly flowing data records to provide knowledge that is reliable and timely. Streaming data algorithms need to be one pass and operate under strict limitations of memory and response time. In addition, the classification of streaming data requires learning in an environment where the data characteristics might change constantly. Many of the classification algorithms presented in literature assume a 100 % labeling rate, which is impractical and expensive when data records are rapidly flowing in. In this paper, a new incremental grid density based learning framework, the GC3 framework, is proposed to perform classification of streaming data with concept drift and limited labeling. The proposed framework uses grid density clustering to detect changes in the input data space. It maintains an evolving ensemble of classifiers to learn and adapt to the model changes over time. The framework also uses a uniform grid density sampling mechanism to obtain a uniform subset of samples for better classification performance with a lower labeling rate. The entire framework is designed to be one-pass, incremental and work with limited memory to perform any-time classification on demand. Experimental comparison with state of the art concept drift handling systems demonstrate the GC3 frameworks ability to provide high classification performance, using fewer models in the ensemble and with only 4-6 % of the samples labeled. The results show that the GC3 framework is effective and attractive for use in real world data stream classification applications.     

Clinical Advances in Molecular Biomarkers for Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy

Cancer diagnosis is currently undergoing a paradigm shift with the incorporation of molecular biomarkers as part of routine diagnostic panel. The molecular alteration ranges from those involving the DNA, RNA, microRNAs (miRNAs) and proteins. The miRNAs are recently discovered small non-coding endogenous single-stranded RNAs that critically regulates the development, invasion and metastasis of cancers. They are altered in cancers and have the potential to serve as diagnostic markers for cancer. Moreover, deregulating their activity offers novel cancer therapeutic approaches. The availability of high throughput techniques for the identification of altered cellular molecules allowed their use in cancer diagnosis. Their application to a variety of body specimens from blood to tissues has been helpful for appreciating their use in the clinical context. The development of innovative antibodies for immunohistochemical detection of proteins also assists in diagnosis and risk stratification. Overall, the novel cancer diagnostic tools have extended their application as prognostic risk factors and can be used as targets for personalized medicine.     

Tunable Visible Emission of Ag-Doped CdZnS Alloy Quantum Dots

Highly luminescent Ag-ion-doped Cd_1−xZn_xS (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) alloy nanocrystals were successfully synthesized by a novel wet chemical precipitation method. Influence of dopant concentration and the Zn/Cd stoichiometric variations in doped alloy nanocrystals have been investigated. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) to investigate the size and structure of the as prepared nanocrystals. A shift in LO phonon modes from micro-Raman investigations and the elemental analysis from the energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX) confirms the stoichiometry of the final product. The average crystallite size was found increasing from 1.0 to 1.4 nm with gradual increase in Ag doping. It was observed that photoluminescence (PL) intensity corresponding to Ag impurity (570 nm), relative to the other two bands 480 and 520 nm that originates due to native defects, enhanced and showed slight red shift with increasing silver doping. In addition, decrease in the band gap energy of the doped nanocrystals indicates that the introduction of dopant ion in the host material influence the particle size of the nanocrystals. The composition dependent bandgap engineering in CdZnS:Ag was achieved to attain the deliberate color tunability and demonstrated successfully, which are potentially important for white light generation.     

Amalgamation of ROAD-TGM and progressive PCA using performance booster method for detail persevering image denoising

Multimedia Tools and Applications - This paper presents a two-stage sequential method for noisy grayscale and color images. At first proposed method enhances the accuracy of the noise detection...     

Structured analysis of the ISI Atomic Pair Actions dataset using workflows

Understanding pair-wise activities is an essential step towards studying complex group and crowd behaviors in video. However, such research is often hampered by a lack of datasets that concentrate specifically on Atomic Pair Actions; [Here, we distinguish between the atomic motion of individual objects and the atomic motion of pairs of objects. The term action in Atomic Pair Action means an atomic interaction movement of two objects in video; a pair activity, then, is composed of multiple actions by a pair or multiple pairs of interacting objects ( and ). Please see Section 1 for details.] in addition, the general dearth in computer vision of a standardized, structured approach for reproducing and analyzing the efficacy of different models limits the ability to compare different approaches. In this paper, we introduce the ISI Atomic Pair Actions dataset, a set of 90 videos that concentrate on the Atomic Pair Actions of objects in video, namely converging, diverging, and moving in parallel. We further incorporate a structured, end-to-end analysis methodology, based on workflows, to easily and automatically allow for standardized testing of state-of-the-art models, as well as inter-operability of varied codebases and incorporation of novel models. We demonstrate the efficacy of our structured framework by testing several models on the new dataset. In addition, we make the full dataset (the videos, along with their associated tracks and ground truth, and the exported workflows) publicly available to the research community for free use and extension at <http://research.sethi.org/ricky/datasets/>.     

Systematic review and quality assessment of economic evaluation studies of injury prevention

Objective

To review and assess the quality of economic evaluation studies on injury prevention measures.

Design

Systematic review.

Data sources

Electronic databases searched included Medline (Pubmed), EMBASE, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and Safetylit.

Inclusion criteria

Empirical studies published in English in international peer-reviewed journals in the period 1998–2009. The subject of the study was economic evaluation of prevention of unintentional injury. Cost-effectiveness (CEA), cost-benefit (CBA) and cost utility (CUA) analyses were included.

Methods

Methodological details, study designs, and analysis and interpretation of results of the included articles were reviewed and extracted into summary tables. Study quality was judged using the criteria recommended by the Panel on cost-effectiveness in health and medicine and the British Medical Journal (BMJ) checklist for economic evaluations.

Results

Forty-eight studies met the inclusion criteria of our review. Interventions assessed most frequently were hip protectors and exercise programs for the elderly. A wide variety of methodological approaches was found, including differences in type of economic evaluation, perspective, time horizon, study design, cost categories, effect outcomes, and adjustments for timing and uncertainty used. The majority of studies performed a cost-effectiveness analysis from a societal perspective with a time horizon of one to five years, in which the effect was expressed in terms of injuries prevented and only direct health care costs were included. Most studies deviated from one or more of the Panel recommendations or BMJ guidelines; e.g. not adopting the societal perspective, not including all relevant costs, no incremental analysis.

Conclusions

This review has shown that approaches to economic evaluation of injury prevention vary widely and most studies do not fulfill methodological rigour. Improving quality and harmonization of economic evaluation studies in the field of injury prevention is needed. One way of achieving this would be to establish international guidelines on economic evaluation for injury prevention interventions, based on established economic evaluation checklists, to assist researchers in the design and reporting of economic evaluations.     

The role of strategic attention deployment in development of self-regulation: Predicting preschoolers' delay of gratification from mother–toddler interactions.

Toddlers' use of effective attention deployment strategies to cope with separation from the mother and with maternal behavior predicted the use of effective delay-of-gratification strategies at age 5, even though the contexts, measures, and manifest behaviors were different. Toddlers who used distraction strategies during a brief separation from the mother were able, at age 5, to delay immediate gratification longer for more valued rewards. Toddlers who explored at a distance from a controlling mother when she tried to engage the child also delayed longer and used more effective delay strategies at age 5, compared with toddlers who did not distance themselves. Toddlers whose mothers were not controlling showed the opposite pattern: Those who did not distance themselves from the mother's bids had longer preschool delay times and more effective strategies. Strategic attention deployment was shown to be an enduring self-regulatory skill visible in early development across domains, measures, and over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)