RefWorks Usage Patterns: Exploring the First Four Semesters of Use by Faculty,Graduate Students,and Undergraduates

This study explores citation management usage patterns of undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty. We analyze the temporal use of RefWorks with an eye toward informing reference services and instruction initiatives. The frequency and intensity of use allow us to glean an understanding of user groups on campus. While our findings for undergraduates and faculty conform to general assumptions, graduate students emerge as a group more similar to faculty than anticipated. Graduate students’ use of RefWorks is characterized by steady logins and large amounts of references; thus, suggesting that personalized instruction might benefit graduate students more than scheduled workshops.     

Implicitly Weighted Methods in Robust Image Analysis

This paper is devoted to highly robust statistical methods with applications to image analysis. The methods of the paper exploit the idea of implicit weighting, which is inspired by the highly robust least weighted squares regression estimator. We use a correlation coefficient based on implicit weighting of individual pixels as a highly robust similarity measure between two images. The reweighted least weighted squares estimator is considered as an alternative regression estimator with a clear interpretation. We apply implicit weighting to dimension reduction by means of robust principal component analysis. Highly robust methods are exploited in tasks of face localization and face detection in a database of 2D images. In this context we investigate a method for outlier detection and a filter for image denoising based on implicit weighting.     

The Role of the Prefrontal Cortex in the Maintenance of Verbal Working Memory: An Event-Related fMRI Analysis.

Neuroimaging studies have been inconclusive in characterizing the role of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) for maintaining increasingly larger amounts of information in working memory (WM). To address this question, the authors collected event-related functional MRI data while participants performed an item-recognition task in which the number of to-be-remembered letters was parametrically modulated. During maintenance of information in WM, the dorsolateral and the ventrolateral PFC exhibited linearly increasing activation in response to increasing WM load. Prefrontal regions could not be distinguished from one another on the basis of load sensitivity, but the dorsolateral PFC had stronger functional connectivity with the parietal and motor cortex than the ventrolateral PFC. These results suggest an increasingly important role for the PFC in actively maintaining information as the amount of that information increases. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multipose Binding in Molecular Docking

Molecular docking has been extensively applied in virtual screening of small molecule libraries for lead identification and optimization. A necessary prerequisite for successful differentiation between active and non-active ligands is the accurate prediction of their binding affinities in the complex by use of docking scoring functions. However, many studies have shown rather poor correlations between docking scores and experimental binding affinities. Our work aimed to improve this correlation by implementing a multipose binding concept in the docking scoring scheme. Multipose binding, i.e., the property of certain protein-ligand complexes to exhibit different ligand binding modes, has been shown to occur in nature for a variety of molecules. We conducted a high-throughput docking study and implemented multipose binding in the scoring procedure by considering multiple docking solutions in binding affinity prediction. In general, improvement of the agreement between docking scores and experimental data was observed, and this was most pronounced in complexes with large and flexible ligands and high binding affinities. Further developments of the selection criteria for docking solutions for each individual complex are still necessary for a general utilization of the multipose binding concept for accurate binding affinity prediction by molecular docking.     

Duality in fuzzy linear programming: a survey

The concepts of both duality and fuzzy uncertainty in linear programming have been theoretically analyzed and comprehensively and practically applied in an abundance of cases. Consequently, their joint application is highly appealing for both scholars and practitioners. However, the literature contributions on duality in fuzzy linear programming (FLP) are neither complete nor consistent. For example, there are no consistent concepts of weak duality and strong duality. The contributions of this survey are (1) to provide the first comprehensive overview of literature results on duality in FLP, (2) to analyze these results in terms of research gaps in FLP duality theory, and (3) to show avenues for further research. We systematically analyze duality in fuzzy linear programming along potential fuzzifications of linear programs (fuzzy classes) and along fuzzy order operators. Our results show that research on FLP duality is fragmented along both dimensions; more specifically, duality approaches and related results vary in terms of homogeneity, completeness, consistency with crisp duality, and complexity. Fuzzy linear programming is still far away from a unifying theory as we know it from crisp linear programming. We suggest further research directions, including the suggestion of comprehensive duality theories for specific fuzzy classes while dispensing with restrictive mathematical assumptions, the development of consistent duality theories for specific fuzzy order operators, and the proposition of a unifying fuzzy duality theory.     

Creep-rupture strength prediction of an epoxy composite under tension

It is known that the durability of materials is related to the conditions under which they are exploited, including the loading that they undergo. The material “durability-constant load” relation is known as Creep-Rupture Strength (CRS). It takes a long time to determine CRS experimentally, and it proves to be expensive. In this paper we check a method for predicting CRS under tension that employs data from short term tests. The results for loading under tension are compared with results for the same material subjected to bending. An erratum to this article can be found at