Evasive Targets: Deciphering Polysemy in Mediated Humor

While polysemy has been discussed in communication studies for decades, a fundamental question has evaded systematic analysis: Which textual features make mediated texts open to multiple interpretations? Focusing on humor, we addressed this question by using a somewhat unusual point of departure–a failed intercoder reliability test. We analyzed 130 humorous forwards, of which 55 elicited disagreement between coders regarding the target of mockery and 75 were uncontroversial. Our comparative analysis yielded six textual attributes that augment polysemy in mediated humor: narrative‐valence discrepancies, unstereotypical stereotyping, debatable personality traits, self‐deprecating humor, intertextuality, and centrifugal multimodality. We demonstrate the utility of the proposed typology by analyzing public controversies stirred by humorous communication, and discuss its applicability to the study of audiences and nonhumorous genres.     

Detecting Organization-Targeted Socialbots by Monitoring Social Network Profiles

Networks and Spatial Economics - Advanced attackers use online social networks in order to extract useful information about targeted organizations, including the names of the organization’s...     

High Performance Core/Shell Ni/Ni(OH)2 Electrospun Nanofiber Anodes for Decoupled Water Splitting

Decoupled water splitting is a promising new path for renewable hydrogen production, offering many potential advantages such as stable operation under partial-load conditions, high-pressure hydrogen production, overall system robustness, and higher safety levels. Here, the performance of electrospun core/shell nickel/nickel hydroxide anodes is demonstrated in an electrochemical-thermally activated chemical decoupled water splitting process. The high surface area of the hierarchical porous electrode structure improves the utilization efficiency, charge capacity, and current density of the redox anode while maintaining high process efficiency. The anodes reach average current densities as high as 113 mA cm⁻² at a working potential of 1.48 V_RHE and 64 mA cm⁻² at 1.43 V_RHE, with a Faradaic efficiency of nearly 100% and no H₂/O₂ intermixing in a membrane-free cell.     

Surgical approach to benign cecal ulcer

Benign cecal ulcer is a rare lesion, usually diagnosed during operation for suspected acute appendicitis or peritonitis of unknown origin. In the past, right hemicolectomy was recommended as the treatment of choice because of the difficulty in differentiating malignant lesions from benign cecal ulcers. However, in recent reports a more conservative approach has been suggested, consisting of selective colectomy followed by frozen section biopsy. This approach is aimed at preventing unnecessary excision of the colon and conserving the ileocecal valve. We present a 47-year-old woman operated for right lower quadrant peritonitis, believed to be due to acute appendicitis. On exploration, a biopsy-proven benign cecal ulcer was found and resected.     

Posterolateral approach. An alternative strategy in laparoscopic splenectomy

Laparoscopic splenectomy (LS) is effective and technically feasible for treating various hematological diseases, especially idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). An anterior approach to the vascular pedicle is usually described. However, in this approach to the splenic hilum, the dissection of the splenic artery is often difficult. A total of 13 patients with ITP underwent elective laparoscopic splenectomy. We utilized a laparoscopic posterolateral approach involving dissection of the suspensory ligaments at the lower pole, then dissection and division of the posterolateral attachments, followed by the dissection and ligation of all splenic branches near the splenic parenchyma. This procedure was completed in 11 of our 13 patients and converted to open surgery in the other two patients. Mean operative time was 3 h; mean postoperative stay was 3 days. No blood transfusion was required, and no complications were noted in the postoperative period. The posterolateral approach provides better visualization and control of branches of the splenic vein and artery in the splenic hilum. It also permits visualization and control of surgical hemorrhage through the operating ports.     

ConfDTree： A Statistical Method for Improving Decision Trees

Decision trees have three main disadvantages： reduced performance when the training set is small; rigid decision criteria; and the fact that a single ＂uncharacteristic＂ attribute might ＂derail＂ the classification process. In this paper we present ConfDTree （Confidence-Based Decision Tree） -- a post-processing method that enables decision trees to better classify outlier instances. This method, which can be applied to any decision tree algorithm, uses easy-to-implement statistical methods （confidence intervals and two-proportion tests） in order to identify hard-to-classify instances and to propose alternative routes. The experimental study indicates that the proposed post-processing method consistently and significantly improves the predictive performance of decision trees, particularly for small, imbalanced or multi-class datasets in which an average improvement of 5%-9% in the AUC performance is reported.     

Can project monitoring and control be fully automated?

An extended research programme has examined over the past two decades how productivity in construction projects can be improved through the development of models for project monitoring and control, which process automatically collected data on the actual project performance. Tests that were conducted with these models demonstrate that this approach can help overcome some of the limitations of existing manual methods. However, they also indicate that certain manually obtained data are still required in addition to the automatically collected data. A framework for semi-automated project monitoring and control is proposed, in which both manually and automatically collected data can be incorporated. This framework integrates the monitoring of projects with their control by taking into account the impact on productivity of existing deviations from the planned performance, and of the controlling actions that are proposed to deal with these deviations.     

“Andromaly”: a behavioral malware detection framework for android devices

This article presents Andromaly—a framework for detecting malware on Android mobile devices. The proposed framework realizes a Host-based Malware Detection System that continuously monitors various features and events obtained from the mobile device and then applies Machine Learning anomaly detectors to classify the collected data as normal (benign) or abnormal (malicious). Since no malicious applications are yet available for Android, we developed four malicious applications, and evaluated Andromaly’s ability to detect new malware based on samples of known malware. We evaluated several combinations of anomaly detection algorithms, feature selection method and the number of top features in order to find the combination that yields the best performance in detecting new malware on Android. Empirical results suggest that the proposed framework is effective in detecting malware on mobile devices in general and on Android in particular.     

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy as a tool for probing specific biochemical components in bacteria

Treatment of bacteria with silver yields intense and highly specific surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) spectra from various cellular chemical components located in the vicinity of the silver colloids. In particular, we demonstrate an extreme sensitivity to flavin components associated with the cell envelope and to their state of oxidation. Different spectra, possibly associated with DNA, carboxylates, and perhaps phosphates, are obtained from the soluble interior fraction of the cell.