How secure are networked office devices? - Condon,E.; Cummins,E.; Afoulki,Z.; Michel Cukier (2011)
Many office devices have a history of being networked (such as printers) and others without the same past are increasingly becoming networked (such as photocopiers). The modern networked versions of previously non-networked devices have much in common with traditional networked servers in terms of features and functions. While an organization may have policies and procedures for securing traditional network servers, securing networked office devices providing similar services can easily be overlooked. In this paper we present an evaluation of privacy and security risks found when examining over 1,800 networked office devices connected to a large university network. We use the STRIDE threat model to categorize threats and vulnerabilities and then we group the devices according to assessed risk from the perspective of the university. We found that while steps had been taken to secure some devices, many were using default or unsecured configurations.
Keywords: computer network security; data privacy; networked office device security; privacy risk assessment; Risk management; security risk assessment; STRIDE threat model; university network

IA*: An adjacency-based representation for non-manifold simplicial shapes in arbitrary dimensions - Canino,David; De Floriani, Leila; Weiss,Kenneth (Computers & Graphics, 2011)
We propose a compact, dimension-independent data structure for manifold, non-manifold and non-regular simplicial complexes, that we call the Generalized Indexed Data Structure with Adjacencies (IA⁎ data structure). It encodes only top simplices, i.e. the ones that are not on the boundary of any other simplex, plus a suitable subset of the adjacency relations. We describe the IA⁎ data structure in arbitrary dimensions, and compare the storage requirements of its 2D and 3D instances with both dimension-specific and dimension-independent representations. We show that the IA⁎ data structure is more cost effective than other dimension-independent representations and is even slightly more compact than the existing dimension-specific ones. We present efficient algorithms for navigating a simplicial complex described as an IA⁎ data structure. This shows that the IA⁎ data structure allows retrieving all topological relations of a given simplex by considering only its local neighborhood and thus it is a more efficient alternative to incidence-based representations when information does not need to be encoded for boundary simplices.
Keywords: Non-manifold data structures; simplicial complexes; Topological data structures

Illumination robust dictionary-based face recognition - Patel, Vishal M.; Tao Wu; Biswas,S.; Phillips,P.J.; Chellapa, Rama (2011 18th IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), 2011)
In this paper, we present a face recognition method based on simultaneous sparse approximations under varying illumination. Our method consists of two main stages. In the first stage, a dictionary is learned for each face class based on given training examples which minimizes the representation error with a sparseness constraint. In the second stage, a test image is projected onto the span of the atoms in each learned dictionary. The resulting residual vectors are then used for classification. Furthermore, to handle changes in lighting conditions, we use a relighting approach based on a non-stationary stochastic filter to generate multiple images of the same person with different lighting. As a result, our algorithm has the ability to recognize human faces with good accuracy even when only a single or a very few images are provided for training. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated on publicly available databases and it is shown that this method is efficient and can perform significantly better than many competitive face recognition algorithms.
Keywords: albedo; approximation theory; classification; competitive face recognition algorithms; Databases; Dictionaries; Face; face recognition; face recognition method; filtering theory; human face recognition; illumination robust dictionary-based face recognition; illumination variation; image representation; learned dictionary; learning (artificial intelligence); lighting; lighting conditions; multiple images; nonstationary stochastic filter; publicly available databases; relighting; relighting approach; representation error; residual vectors; Robustness; simultaneous sparse approximations; simultaneous sparse signal representation; sparseness constraint; Training; varying illumination; vectors

Image and Video-Based Biometrics - Patel, Vishal M.; Pillai,Jaishanker K.; Chellapa, Rama (Visual Analysis of HumansVisual Analysis of Humans, 2011)
Biometrics deals with the problem of identifying individuals based on physiological or behavioral characteristics. Since many physical characteristics, such as face, iris, etc., and behavioral characteristics, such as voice, expression, etc., are unique to an individual, biometric analysis offers a reliable and natural solution to the problem of identity verification. In this chapter, we discuss image and video-based biometrics involving face, iris and gait. In particular, we discuss several recent approaches to physiological biometrics based on Sparse Representations and Compressed Sensing. Some of the most compelling challenges and issues that confront research in biometrics are also addressed.

Implicit Authentication through Learning User Behavior - Elaine Shi; Niu, Yuan; Jakobsson, Markus; Chow, Richard (Information Security, 2011)
Users are increasingly dependent on mobile devices. However, current authentication methods like password entry are significantly more frustrating and difficult to perform on these devices, leading users to create and reuse shorter passwords and pins, or no authentication at all. We present implicit authentication - authenticating users based on behavior patterns. We describe our model for performing implicit authentication and assess our techniques using more than two weeks of collected data from over 50 subjects.
Keywords: Computer science

The Importance of Chitin in the Marine Environment - Souza,C. P.; Almeida,B. C.; Rita R Colwell; Rivera,I. N. G. (Marine Biotechnology, 2011)
Chitin is the most abundant renewable polymer in the oceans and is an important source of carbon and nitrogen for marine organisms. The process of chitin degradation is a key step in the cycling of nutrients in the oceans and chitinolytic bacteria play a significant role in this process. These bacteria are autochthonous to both marine and freshwater ecosystems and produce chitinases that degrade chitin, an insoluble polysaccharide, to a biologically useful form. In this brief review, a description of the structure of chitin and diversity of chitinolytic bacteria in the oceans is provided, in the context of the significance of chitin degradation for marine life.

Improved Identification and Visualization of Emergency Department Patient Visits - Hettinger,AZ; Rackoff,A.; Wongsuphasawat,K.; Cheng,H.; Fairbanks,RJ; Plaisant, Catherine; Smith,M. S (Annals of Emergency Medicine, 2011)

Increased gene sampling provides stronger support for higher-level groups within gracillariid leaf mining moths and relatives (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae) - Kawahara,A. Y; Ohshima,I; Kawakita,A; Regier,J. C; Mitter,C; Cummings, Michael P.; Davis,DR; Wagner,DL; De Prinis,J; Lopez-Vaamonde,C (BMC Evol Biol, 2011)

Increased gene sampling yields robust support for higher‐level clades within Bombycoidea (Lepidoptera) - Zwick,Andreas; Regier,Jerome C; Mitter,Charles; Cummings, Michael P. (Systematic Entomology, 2011)
This study has as its primary aim the robust resolution of higher-level relationships within the lepidopteran superfamily Bombycoidea. Our study builds on an earlier analysis of five genes (∼6.6 kbp) sequenced for 50 taxa from Bombycoidea and its sister group Lasiocampidae, plus representatives of other macrolepidoteran superfamilies. The earlier study failed to yield strong support for the monophyly of and basal splits within Bombycoidea, among others. Therefore, in an effort to increase support specifically for higher-level nodes, we generated 11.7 kbp of additional data from 20 genes for 24 of 50 bombycoid and lasiocampid taxa. The data from the genes are all derived from protein-coding nuclear genes previously used to resolve other lepidopteran relationships. With these additional data, all but a few higher-level nodes are strongly supported. Given our decision to minimize project costs by augmenting genes for only 24 of the 50 taxa, we explored whether the resulting pattern of missing data in the combined-gene matrix introduced a nonphylogenetic bias, a possibility reported by others. This was achieved by comparing node support values (i.e. nonparametric bootstrap values) based on likelihood and parsimony analyses of three datasets that differ in their number of taxa and level of missing data: 50 taxa/5 genes (dataset A), 50 taxa/25 genes (dataset B) and 24 taxa/25 genes (dataset C). Whereas datasets B and C provided similar results for common nodes, both frequently yielded higher node support relative to dataset A, arguing that: (i) more data yield increased node support and (ii) partial gene augmentation does not introduce an obvious nonphylogenetic bias. A comparison of single-gene bootstrap analyses identified four nodes for which one or two of the 25 genes provided modest to strong support for a grouping not recovered by the combined-gene result. As a summary proposal, two of these four groupings (one each within Bombycoidea and Lasiocampidae) were deemed sufficiently problematic to regard them as unresolved trichotomies. Since the alternative groupings were always highly localized on the tree, we did not judge a combined-gene analysis to present a problem outside those regions. Based on our robustly resolved results, we have revised the classification of Bombycoidea: the family Bombycidae is restricted to its nominate subfamily, and its tribe Epiini is elevated to subfamily rank (Epiinae stat.rev.), whereas the bombycid subfamily Phiditiinae is reinstated as a separate family (Phiditiidae stat.rev.). The bombycid subfamilies Oberthueriinae Kuznetzov & Stekolnikov, 1985, syn.nov. and Prismostictinae Forbes, 1955, syn.nov., and the family Mirinidae Kozlov, 1985, syn.nov. are established as subjective junior synonyms of Endromidae Boisduval, 1828. The family Anthelidae (Lasiocampoidea) is reincluded in the superfamily Bombycoidea.

Instrumenting home networks - Calvert,Kenneth L.; Edwards,W. Keith; Feamster, Nick; Grinter,Rebecca E.; Deng,Ye; Zhou,Xuzi (SIGCOMM Comput. Commun. Rev., 2011)
In managing and troubleshooting home networks, one of the challenges is in knowing what is actually happening. Availability of a record of events that occurred on the home network before trouble appeared would go a long way toward addressing that challenge. In this position/work-in-progress paper, we consider requirements for a general-purpose logging facility for home networks. Such a facility, if properly designed, would potentially have other uses. We describe several such uses and discuss requirements to be considered in the design of a logging platform that would be widely supported and accepted. We also report on our initial deployment of such a facility.
Keywords: home network management; home network troubleshooting

Interaction of Vibrio cholerae non-O1/non-O139 with Copepods, Cladocerans and Competing Bacteria in the Large Alkaline Lake Neusiedler See, Austria - Kirschner,A. K. T.; Schauer,S.; Steinberger,B.; Wilhartitz,I.; Grim,C. J.; Huq,A.; Rita R Colwell; Herzig,A.; Sommer,R. (Microbial ecology, 2011)
Vibrio cholerae is a human pathogen and natural inhabitant of aquatic environments. Serogroups O1/O139 have been associated with epidemic cholera, while non-O1/non-O139 serogroups usually cause human disease other than classical cholera. V. cholerae non-O1/non-O139 from the Neusiedler See, a large Central European lake, have caused ear and wound infections, including one case of fatal septicaemia. Recent investigations demonstrated rapid planktonic growth of V. cholerae non-O1/non-O139 and correlation with zooplankton biomass. The aim of this study was to elucidate the interaction of autochthonous V. cholerae with two dominant crustacean zooplankton species in the lake and investigate the influence of the natural bacterial community on this interaction. An existing data set was evaluated for statistical relationships between zooplankton species and V. cholerae and co-culture experiments were performed in the laboratory. A new fluorescence in situ hybridisation protocol was applied for quantification of V. cholerae non-O1/non-O139 cells, which significantly reduced analysis time. The experiments clearly demonstrated a significant relationship of autochthonous V. cholerae non-O1/non-O139 with cladocerans by promoting growth of V. cholerae non-O1/non-O139 in the water and on the surfaces of the cladocerans. In contrast, copepods had a negative effect on the growth of V. cholerae non-O1/non-O139 via competing bacteria from their surfaces. Thus, beside other known factors, biofilm formation by V. cholerae on crustacean zooplankton appears to be zooplankton taxon specific and may be controlled by the natural bacterial community.

An iterative algorithm for homology computation on simplicial shapes - Boltcheva,Dobrina; Canino,David; Merino Aceituno,Sara; Léon,Jean-Claude; De Floriani, Leila; Hétroy,Franck (Computer-Aided Design, 2011)
We propose a new iterative algorithm for computing the homology of arbitrary shapes discretized through simplicial complexes. We demonstrate how the simplicial homology of a shape can be effectively expressed in terms of the homology of its sub-components. The proposed algorithm retrieves the complete homological information of an input shape including the Betti numbers, the torsion coefficients and the representative homology generators.To the best of our knowledge, this is the first algorithm based on the constructive Mayer–Vietoris sequence, which relates the homology of a topological space to the homologies of its sub-spaces, i.e. the sub-components of the input shape and their intersections. We demonstrate the validity of our approach through a specific shape decomposition, based only on topological properties, which minimizes the size of the intersections between the sub-components and increases the efficiency of the algorithm.
Keywords: Computational topology; Generators; Mayer–Vietoris sequence; shape decomposition; simplicial complexes; Z -homology

Vibrio Cholerae O1 Detection in Estuarine and Coastal Zooplankton - Martinelli Filho,José E.; Lopes,Rubens M.; Rivera,Irma N. G.; Rita R Colwell (Journal of Plankton Research, 2011)
Vibrio cholerae is an autochthonous marine bacterium, and its association with diverse planktonic crustaceans has been extensively investigated; however, the presence of V. cholerae on individuals of most phyla of planktonic animals is still incompletely understood. The objective of this study was to analyze the distribution of V. cholerae serogroup O1 associated with specific zooplankton taxa in an estuary and the adjacent continental shelf of the southeastern Brazilian coast. The occurrence of the bacterium was assessed in zooplankton samples, specifically on the most abundant taxa, using direct fluorescence assay (DFA) and direct viable count–direct fluorescence assay (DVC–DFA) methods. Vibrio cholerae O1 was detected in 88% of samples collected from the Santos-Bertioga estuary and in 67% of samples from the shelf. The salinity of the estuarine water ranged from 21.8 to 34.6, significantly lower than the shelf water which was 32.1–36.1. Salinity was the only environmental variable measured that displayed a significant correlation with the presence of V. cholerae (P< 0.05). Vibrio cholerae O1 was detected in chaetognaths, pluteus larvae of echinoderms and planktonic fish eggs (Engraulidae), all new sites for this bacterium.
Keywords: DFA; estuary; plankton; Southwest Atlantic

Language Models for Semantic Extraction and Filtering in Video Action Recognition - Tzoukermann,Evelyne; Neumann, Jan; Kosecka,Jana; Fermüller, Cornelia; Perera,Ian; Ferraro,Frank; Sapp,Ben; Chaudhry,Rizwan; Singh,Gautam (Workshops at the Twenty-Fifth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2011)
The paper addresses the following issues: (a) how to represent semantic information from natural language so that a vision model can utilize it? (b) how to extract the salient textual information relevant to vision? For a given domain, we present a new model of semantic extraction that takes into account word relatedness as well as word disambiguation in order to apply to a vision model. We automatically process the text transcripts and perform syntactic analysis to extract dependency relations. We then perform semantic extraction on the output to filter semantic entities related to actions. The resulting data are used to populate a matrix of co-occurrences utilized by the vision processing modules. Results show that explicitly modeling the co-occurrence of actions and tools significantly improved performance.

A large-scale benchmark dataset for event recognition in surveillance video - Oh,Sangmin; Hoogs, A.; Perera,A.; Cuntoor, N.; Chen,Chia-Chih; Lee,Jong Taek; Mukherjee,S.; Aggarwal, JK; Lee,Hyungtae; Davis, Larry S.; Swears,E.; Wang,Xioyang; et al. (Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2011 IEEE Conference on, 2011)
We introduce a new large-scale video dataset designed to assess the performance of diverse visual event recognition algorithms with a focus on continuous visual event recognition (CVER) in outdoor areas with wide coverage. Previous datasets for action recognition are unrealistic for real-world surveillance because they consist of short clips showing one action by one individual [15, 8]. Datasets have been developed for movies [11] and sports [12], but, these actions and scene conditions do not apply effectively to surveillance videos. Our dataset consists of many outdoor scenes with actions occurring naturally by non-actors in continuously captured videos of the real world. The dataset includes large numbers of instances for 23 event types distributed throughout 29 hours of video. This data is accompanied by detailed annotations which include both moving object tracks and event examples, which will provide solid basis for large-scale evaluation. Additionally, we propose different types of evaluation modes for visual recognition tasks and evaluation metrics along with our preliminary experimental results. We believe that this dataset will stimulate diverse aspects of computer vision research and help us to advance the CVER tasks in the years ahead.
Keywords: algorithm; evaluation; CVER; databases; databases; video; dataset; moving; event; metrics; large-scale; object; recognition; recognition; diverse; recognition; video; scenes; surveillance; surveillance; visual; tasks; computer; tracks; outdoor; video; video; computer; vision; continuous; vision; image; visual

The Life Game: Cognitive Strategies for Repeated Stochastic Games - Cheng,Kan-Leung; Zuckerman,I.; Nau, Dana S.; Golbeck,J. (2011)
Standard models in bio-evolutionary game theory involve repetitions of a single stage game (e.g., the Prisoner's Dilemma or the Stag Hunt); but it is clear that repeatedly playing the same stage game is not an accurate model of most individuals' lives. Rather, individuals' interactions with others correspond to many different kinds of stage games. In this work, we concentrate on discovering behavioral strategies that are successful for the life game, in which the stage game is chosen stochastically at each iteration. We present a cognitive agent model based on Social Value Orientation (SVO) theory. We provide extensive evaluations of our model's performance, both against standard agents from the game theory literature and against a large set of life-game agents written by students in two different countries. Our empirical results suggest that for life-game strategies to be successful in environments with such agents, it is important (i) to be unforgiving with respect to trust behavior and (ii) to use adaptive, fine-grained opponent models of the other agents.
Keywords: adaptive model; behavioral strategy; bioevolutionary game theory; cognitive agent model; fine-grained opponent model; game theory; iteration; iterative methods; life game; prisoner's dilemma; repeated stochastic games; social value orientation theory; stag hunt; stage game; Stochastic processes; trust behavior

A Longitudinal Study of Pressure Sensing to Infer Real-World Water Usage Events in the Home - Jon Froehlich; Larson,Eric; Saba,Elliot; Campbell,Tim; Atlas,Les; Fogarty,James; Patel,Shwetak (Pervasive ComputingPervasive Computing, 2011)
We present the first longitudinal study of pressure sensing to infer real-world water usage events in the home (e.g., dishwasher, upstairs bathroom sink, downstairs toilet). In order to study the pressure-based approach out in the wild , we deployed a ground truth sensor network for five weeks in three homes and two apartments that directly monitored valve-level water usage by fixtures and appliances . We use this data to, first, demonstrate the practical challenges in constructing water usage activity inference algorithms and, second, to inform the design of a new probabilistic-based classification approach. Inspired by algorithms in speech recognition, our novel Bayesian approach incorporates template matching, a language model, grammar, and prior probabilities. We show that with a single pressure sensor, our probabilistic algorithm can classify real-world water usage at the fixture level with 90% accuracy and at the fixturecategory level with 96% accuracy. With two pressure sensors, these accuracies increase to 94% and 98%. Finally, we show how our new approach can be trained with fewer examples than a strict template-matching approach alone.

A Longitudinal Study of Pressure Sensing to Infer Real-World Water Usage Events in the Home - Jon Froehlich; Larson,Eric; Saba,Elliot; Campbell,Tim; Atlas,Les; Fogarty,James; Patel,Shwetak (Pervasive Computing, 2011)
We present the first longitudinal study of pressure sensing to infer real-world water usage events in the home (e.g., dishwasher, upstairs bathroom sink, downstairs toilet). In order to study the pressure-based approach out in the wild , we deployed a ground truth sensor network for five weeks in three homes and two apartments that directly monitored valve-level water usage by fixtures and appliances . We use this data to, first, demonstrate the practical challenges in constructing water usage activity inference algorithms and, second, to inform the design of a new probabilistic-based classification approach. Inspired by algorithms in speech recognition, our novel Bayesian approach incorporates template matching, a language model, grammar, and prior probabilities. We show that with a single pressure sensor, our probabilistic algorithm can classify real-world water usage at the fixture level with 90% accuracy and at the fixturecategory level with 96% accuracy. With two pressure sensors, these accuracies increase to 94% and 98%. Finally, we show how our new approach can be trained with fewer examples than a strict template-matching approach alone.

Long-term effects of ocean warming on the prokaryotic community: evidence from the vibrios - Vezzulli,Luigi; Brettar,Ingrid; Pezzati,Elisabetta; Reid,Philip C.; Rita R Colwell; Höfle,Manfred G.; Pruzzo,Carla (The ISME Journal, 2011)
The long-term effects of ocean warming on prokaryotic communities are unknown because of lack of historical data. We overcame this gap by applying a retrospective molecular analysis to the bacterial community on formalin-fixed samples from the historical Continuous Plankton Recorder archive, which is one of the longest and most geographically extensive collections of marine biological samples in the world. We showed that during the last half century, ubiquitous marine bacteria of the Vibrio genus, including Vibrio cholerae, increased in dominance within the plankton-associated bacterial community of the North Sea, where an unprecedented increase in bathing infections related to these bacteria was recently reported. Among environmental variables, increased sea surface temperature explained 45% of the variance in Vibrio data, supporting the view that ocean warming is favouring the spread of vibrios and may be the cause of the globally increasing trend in their associated diseases.
Keywords: ecophysiology; ecosystems; environmental biotechnology; geomicrobiology; ISME J; microbe interactions; microbial communities; microbial ecology; microbial engineering; microbial epidemiology; microbial genomics; microorganisms

A Low-Overhead Asynchronous Interconnection Network for GALS Chip Multiprocessors - Horak,M.N.; Nowick,S.M.; Carlberg,M.; Vishkin, Uzi (Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, IEEE Transactions on, 2011)
A new asynchronous interconnection network is introduced for globally-asynchronous locally-synchronous (GALS) chip multiprocessors. The network eliminates the need for global clock distribution, and can interface multiple synchronous timing domains operating at unrelated clock rates. In particular, two new highly-concurrent asynchronous components are introduced which provide simple routing and arbitration/merge functions. Post-layout simulations in identical commercial 90 nm technology indicate that comparable recent synchronous router nodes have 5.6-10.7 more energy per packet and 2.8-6.4 greater area than the new asynchronous nodes. Under random traffic, the network provides significantly lower latency and identical throughput over the entire operating range of the 800 MHz network and through mid-range traffic rates for the 1.36 GHz network, but with degradation at higher traffic rates. Preliminary evaluations are also presented for a mixed-timing (GALS) network in a shared-memory parallel architecture, running both random traffic and parallel benchmark kernels, as well as directions for further improvement.
Keywords: 1.36; 800; 90; architecture; size; architectures; shared; asynchronous; benchmark; chip; chips; multiprocessor; distribution; distribution; frequency; GALS; GHz; frequency; interconnection; kernel; post-layout; layout; clock; locally-synchronous; memory; MHz; globally-asynchronous; multiple; multiprocessor; clock; multiprocessor; interface; network; mixed-timing; network; network; networks; microprocessor; networks; network; nm; circuit; Parallel; routing; network-on-chip; parallel; routing; parallel; simulation; random; synchronous; systems; timing; low-overhead; traffic; shared-memory

Machine Translation Evaluation and Optimization - Dorr, Bonnie J; Olive,Joseph; McCary,John; Christianson,Caitlin (Handbook of Natural Language Processing and Machine TranslationHandbook of Natural Language Processing and Machine Translation, 2011)
The evaluation of machine translation (MT) systems is a vital field of research, both for determining the effectiveness of existing MT systems and for optimizing the performance of MT systems. This part describes a range of different evaluation approaches used in the GALE community and introduces evaluation protocols and methodologies used in the program. We discuss the development and use of automatic, human, task-based and semi-automatic (human-in-the-loop) methods of evaluating machine translation, focusing on the use of a human-mediated translation error rate HTER as the evaluation standard used in GALE. We discuss the workflow associated with the use of this measure, including post editing, quality control, and scoring. We document the evaluation tasks, data, protocols, and results of recent GALE MT Evaluations. In addition, we present a range of different approaches for optimizing MT systems on the basis of different measures. We outline the requirements and specific problems when using different optimization approaches and describe how the characteristics of different MT metrics affect the optimization. Finally, we describe novel recent and ongoing work on the development of fully automatic MT evaluation metrics that have the potential to substantially improve the effectiveness of evaluation and optimization of MT systems.

Making infrastructure visible: a case study of home networking - Marshini Chetty (2011)
In this dissertation, I examine how making infrastructure visible affects users' engagement with that infrastructure, through the case study of home networking. I present empirical evidence of the visibility issues that home networks present to users and how these results informed the design of a prototype called Kermit to visualize aspects of the home network. Through my implementation and evaluation of Kermit, I derive implications for making infrastructure visible in ways that enable end-users to manage and understand the systems they use everyday. I conclude with suggestions for future work for making home networks, and infrastructure more generally, more visible.
Keywords: Home computer networks; home networking; Human computer interaction; Human-computer interaction; infrastructure; Inspectability; Local area networks (Computer networks); visibility

MDMap: A system for data-driven layout and exploration of molecular dynamics simulations - Patro,R.; Ip, Cheuk Yiu; Bista,S.; Cho,S.S.; Thirumalai,D.; Varshney, Amitabh (Biological Data Visualization (BioVis), 2011 IEEE Symposium on, 2011)
Contemporary molecular dynamics simulations result in a glut of simulation data, making analysis and discovery a difficult and burdensome task. We present MDMap, a system designed to summarize long-running molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We represent a molecular dynamics simulation as a state transition graph over a set of intermediate (stable and semi-stable) states. The transitions amongst the states together with their frequencies represent the flow of a biomolecule through the trajectory space. MDMap automatically determines potential intermediate conformations and the transitions amongst them by analyzing the conformational space explored by the MD simulation. MDMap is an automated system to visualize MD simulations as state-transition diagrams, and can replace the current tedious manual layouts of biomolecular folding landscapes with an automated tool. The layout of the representative states and the corresponding transitions among them is presented to the user as a visual synopsis of the long-running MD simulation. We compare and contrast multiple presentations of the state transition diagrams, such as conformational embedding, and spectral, hierarchical, and force-directed graph layouts. We believe this system could provide a road-map for the visualization of other stochastic time-varying simulations in a variety of different domains.
Keywords: computing; digital; driven; DYNAMICS; exploration; data; folding; graph; stochastic; landscapes; data; layout; molecular; MDMap; biomolecular; method; stochastic; processes; simulation; graph; simulations; state; simulations; trajectory; space; biology; theory; molecular; time-varying; transition

Metagenomic 16S rDNA Targeted PCR-DGGE in Determining Bacterial Diversity in Aquatic Ecosystem - Hasan,Nur A.; Chowdhury,W Bari; Rahim,Niaz; Sultana,Marzia; Shabnam,S Antara; Mai,Volker; Ali,Afsar; Morris,Glen J; Sack,R. Bradley; Huq,Anwar; Rita R Colwell; Endtz,Hubert Ph; et al. (Bangladesh Journal of Microbiology, 2011)
Bacterial numbers in surface water samples, collected randomly from six different water bodies, were estimated by acridine orange direct counting (AODC) and conventional culture-based heterotrophic plate counting (HPC). Bacterial genomic DNA was prepared from water samples by employing methods used for stool samples, including the population dynamics, were determined by primer extension of the 16S rDNA (V6/V8 region) using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), followed by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), a metagenomic tool that is capable of separating unrelated DNAs based on the differences in their sequences and GC contents. The bacterial numbers in water samples ranged from 103 – 106 CFU/ mL for HPC and 104 – 107 cells/ mL for AODC, showing that a great majority of bacteria prevail as uncultivable which do not respond to culture methods that are used widely for tracking bacterial pathogens. The acridine orange-stained bacteria varied in sizes and shapes, and appeared either as planktonic (solitary) cells or as clusters of biofilms, showing the presence of diverse community under the epifluorescence microscope. The DGGE of the ca. 457 bp amplicons, as confirmed by agarose gel electrophoresis, produced bands that ranged in intensities and numbers from 18 to 31, with each band possibly indicating the presence of one or more closely related bacterial species. The enrichment of pathogenic bacteria in the aquatic ecosystem is known to precede the seasonal diarrhoeal outbreaks; therefore, bacterial community dynamics determined by Metagenomic 16S PCR-DGGE during pre-epidemic enrichment appears promising in predicting the upcoming diarrheal outbreaks.

Method and system for markerless motion capture using multiple cameras - Sundaresan,Aravind; Chellapa, Rama (2011)
Completely automated end-to-end method and system for markerless motion capture performs segmentation of articulating objects in Laplacian Eigenspace and is applicable to handling of the poses of some complexity. 3D voxel representation of acquired images are mapped to a higher dimensional space (k), where k depends on the number of articulated chains of the subject body, so as to extract the 1-D representations of the articulating chains. A bottom-up approach is suggested in order to build a parametric (spline-based) representation of a general articulated body in the high dimensional space followed by a top-down probabilistic approach that registers the segments to an average human body model. The parameters of the model are further optimized using the segmented and registered voxels.

New models and algorithms for throughput maximization in broadcast scheduling - Chekuri,C.; Gal,A.; Im,S.; Khuller, Samir; Li,J.; McCutchen,R.; Moseley,B.; Raschid, Louiqa (Approximation and Online Algorithms, 2011)

Nouveau-ROUGE: A Novelty Metric for Update Summarization - Conroy,John M.; Schlesinger,Judith D.; O'Leary, Dianne P. (Computational Linguistics, 2011)
An update summary should provide a fluent summarization of new information on a time-evolving topic, assuming that the reader has already reviewed older documents or summaries. In 2007 and 2008, an annual summarization evaluation included an update summarization task. Several participating systems produced update summaries indistinguishable from human-generated summaries when measured using ROUGE. However, no machine system performed near human-level performance in manual evaluations such as pyramid and overall responsiveness scoring.

NSF/IEEE-TCPP curriculum initiative on parallel and distributed computing: core topics for undergraduates - Prasad,S. K.; Chtchelkanova,A.; Das,S.; Dehne,F.; Gouda,M.; Gupta,A.; JaJa, Joseph F.; Kant,K.; La Salle,A.; LeBlanc,R.; others (Proceedings of the 42nd ACM technical symposium on Computer science education, 2011)

Oblivious RAM with O((logN)^3) Worst-Case Cost - Elaine Shi; Chan, T.; Stefanov, Emil; Li, Mingfei (Advances in Cryptology – ASIACRYPT 2011, 2011)
Oblivious RAM is a useful primitive that allows a client to hide its data access patterns from an untrusted server in storage outsourcing applications. Until recently, most prior works on Oblivious RAM aim to optimize its amortized cost, while suffering from linear or even higher worst-case cost. Such poor worst-case behavior renders these schemes impractical in realistic settings, since a data access request can occasionally be blocked waiting for an unreasonably large number of operations to complete. This paper proposes novel Oblivious RAM constructions that achieves poly-logarithmic worst-case cost, while consuming constant client-side storage. To achieve the desired worst-case asymptotic performance, we propose a novel technique in which we organize the O-RAM storage into a binary tree over data buckets, while moving data blocks obliviously along tree edges.
Keywords: Computer science

Occurrence of Vibrio cholerae in Municipal and Natural Waters and Incidence of Cholera in Azerbaijan - Gurbanov, Shair; Akhmadov, Rashid; Shamkhalova, Gulnara; Akhmadova, Sevinj; Haley, Bradd J.; Rita R Colwell; Huq, Anwar (EcoHealth, 2011)
Cholera, a waterborne disease caused by Vibrio cholerae, is an autochthonous member of the aquatic environment and predominantly reported from developing countries. Technical reports and proceedings were reviewed to determine the relationship between occurrence of V. cholerae in natural waters, including sources of municipal water, and cases of cholera in Azerbaijan. Water samples collected from different environmental sources from 1970 to 1998 were tested for V. cholerae and 0.73% (864/117,893) were positive. The results showed that in April of each year, when the air temperature rose by approximately 5°C, V. cholerae could be isolated. With each increase in air temperature, 6–8 weeks after, impact on cases of cholera was recorded. The incidence of cholera peaked when the air temperature reached >25°C during the month of September. It is concluded that a distinct seasonality in cholera incidence exists in Azerbaijan, with increased occurrence during warmer months.

P2C2: Programmable pixel compressive camera for high speed imaging - Reddy, D.; Veeraraghavan,A.; Chellapa, Rama (2011 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2011)
We describe an imaging architecture for compressive video sensing termed programmable pixel compressive camera (P2C2). P2C2 allows us to capture fast phenomena at frame rates higher than the camera sensor. In P2C2, each pixel has an independent shutter that is modulated at a rate higher than the camera frame-rate. The observed intensity at a pixel is an integration of the incoming light modulated by its specific shutter. We propose a reconstruction algorithm that uses the data from P2C2 along with additional priors about videos to perform temporal super-resolution. We model the spatial redundancy of videos using sparse representations and the temporal redundancy using brightness constancy constraints inferred via optical flow. We show that by modeling such spatio-temporal redundancies in a video volume, one can faithfully recover the underlying high-speed video frames from the observed low speed coded video. The imaging architecture and the reconstruction algorithm allows us to achieve temporal super-resolution without loss in spatial resolution. We implement a prototype of P2C2 using an LCOS modulator and recover several videos at 200 fps using a 25 fps camera.
Keywords: Brightness; brightness constancy constraint; camera sensor; CAMERAS; compressive video sensing; high speed imaging; high-speed video frames; Image sequences; imaging; imaging architecture; independent shutter; Liquid crystal on silicon; low speed coded video; Modulation; optical flow; P2C2; programmable pixel compressive camera; reconstruction algorithm; sparse representation; Spatial resolution; spatio-temporal redundancies; temporal redundancy; temporal super-resolution; video coding

Piecing together the segmentation jigsaw using context - Chen,Xi; Jain, A.; Gupta,A.; Davis, Larry S. (Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2011 IEEE Conference on, 2011)
We present an approach to jointly solve the segmentation and recognition problem using a multiple segmentation framework. We formulate the problem as segment selection from a pool of segments, assigning each selected segment a class label. Previous multiple segmentation approaches used local appearance matching to select segments in a greedy manner. In contrast, our approach formulates a cost function based on contextual information in conjunction with appearance matching. This relaxed cost function formulation is minimized using an efficient quadratic programming solver and an approximate solution is obtained by discretizing the relaxed solution. Our approach improves labeling performance compared to other segmentation based recognition approaches.
Keywords: algorithms; image; approximation; formulation; greedy; function; information; cost; manner; image; programming; approximation; recognition; image; segmentation; segmentation; jigsaw; segmentation; quadratic; solution; contextual; theory; greedy

Playing to Program: Towards an Intelligent Programming Tutor for RUR-PLE - desJardins, Marie; Ciavolino,Amy; Deloatch,Robert; Feasley,Eliana (Second AAAI Symposium on Educational Advances in Artificial Intelligence, 2011)
Intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) provide students with a one-on-one tutor, allowing them to work at their own pace, and helping them to focus on their weaker areas. The RUR1–Python Learning Environment (RUR-PLE), a game-like virtual environment to help students learn to program, provides an interface for students to write their own Python code and visualize the code execution (Roberge 2005). RUR-PLE provides a fixed sequence of learning lessons for students to explore. We are extending RUR-PLE to develop the Playing to Program (PtP) ITS, which consists of three components: (1) a Bayesian student model that tracks student competence, (2) a diagnosis module that provides tailored feedback to students, and (3) a problem selection module that guides the student’s learning process. In this paper, we summarize RUR-PLE and the PtP design, and describe an ongoing user study to evaluate the predictive accuracy of our student modeling approach.

Privacy settings from contextual attributes: A case study using Google Buzz - Mashima, D.; Elaine Shi; Chow, R.; Sarkar, P.; Li,C.; Song,D. (2011)
Social networks provide users with privacy settings to control what information is shared with connections and other users. In this paper, we analyze factors influencing changes in privacy-related settings in the Google Buzz social network. Specifically, we show statistics on contextual data related to privacy settings that are derived from crawled datasets and analyze the characteristics of users who changed their privacy settings. We also investigate potential neighboring effects among such users.
Keywords: contextual attributes; data privacy; Google Buzz; privacy settings; social networking (online); social networks; Statistics

Privacy-preserving aggregation of time-series data - Elaine Shi; Chan, T.; Rieffel, E.; Chow, R.; Song,D. (2011)
We consider how an untrusted data aggregator canlearn desired statistics over multiple participants’ data, without compromising each individual’s privacy. We propose a construction that allows a group of partici- pants to periodically upload encrypted values to a data aggregator, such that the aggregator is able to compute the sum of all participants’ values in every time period, but is unable to learn anything else. We achieve strong privacy guarantees using two main techniques. First, we show how to utilize applied cryptographic techniques to allow the aggregator to decrypt the sum from multiple ciphertexts encrypted under different user keys. Second, we describe a distributed data randomization procedure that guarantees the differential privacy of the outcome statistic, even when a subset of participants might be compromised.

Private and Continual Release of Statistics - Chan, T.-H. Hubert; Elaine Shi; Song, Dawn (ACM Transactions on Information and System Security (TISSEC), 2011)
We ask the question: how can Web sites and data aggregators continually release updated statistics, and meanwhile preserve each individual user’s privacy? Suppose we are given a stream of 0’s and 1’s. We propose a differentially private continual counter that outputs at every time step the approximate number of 1’s seen thus far. Our counter construction has error that is only poly-log in the number of time steps. We can extend the basic counter construction to allow Web sites to continually give top-k and hot items suggestions while preserving users’ privacy.
Keywords: continual mechanism; Differential privacy; streaming algorithm

Recent advances and future challenges in automated manufacturing planning - Bourne,D.; Corney,J.; Gupta,S.K. (Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering, 2011)

Recent advances in age and height estimation from still images and video - Chellapa, Rama; Turaga,P. (2011 IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face & Gesture Recognition and Workshops (FG 2011), 2011)
Soft-biometrics such as gender, age, race, etc have been found to be useful characterizations that enable fast pre-filtering and organization of data for biometric applications. In this paper, we focus on two useful soft-biometrics - age and height. We discuss their utility and the factors involved in their estimation from images and videos. In this context, we highlight the role that geometric constraints such as multiview-geometry, and shape-space geometry play. Then, we present methods based on these geometric constraints for age and height-estimation. These methods provide a principled means by fusing image-formation models, multi-view geometric constraints, and robust statistical methods for inference.
Keywords: age estimation; biometrics (access control); Calibration; Estimation; Geometry; height estimation; HUMANS; image fusion; image-formation model fusion; Legged locomotion; multiview-geometry; Robustness; SHAPE; shape-space geometry; soft-biometrics; statistical analysis; statistical methods; video signal processing

Remote identification of faces: Problems, prospects, and progress - Chellapa, Rama; Ni,Jie; Patel, Vishal M. (Pattern Recognition Letters, 2011)
Face recognition in unconstrained acquisition conditions is one of the most challenging problems that has been actively researched in recent years. It is well known that many state-of-the-art still face recognition algorithms perform well, when constrained (frontal, well illuminated, high-resolution, sharp, and full) face images are acquired. However, their performance degrades significantly when the test images contain variations that are not present in the training images. In this paper, we highlight some of the key issues in remote face recognition. We define the remote face recognition as one where faces are several tens of meters (10–250 m) from the cameras. We then describe a remote face database which has been acquired in an unconstrained outdoor maritime environment. Recognition performance of a subset of existing still image-based face recognition algorithms is evaluated on the remote face data set. Further, we define the remote re-identification problem as matching a subject at one location with candidate sets acquired at a different location and over time in remote conditions. We provide preliminary experimental results on remote re-identification. It is demonstrated that in addition to applying a good classification algorithm, finding features that are robust to variations mentioned above and developing statistical models which can account for these variations are very important for remote face recognition.
Keywords: Blur; illumination; low-resolution; pose variation; Re-identification; Remote face recognition

Role of Zooplankton Diversity in Vibrio Cholerae Population Dynamics and in the Incidence of Cholera in the Bangladesh Sundarbans - De Magny,Guillaume Constantin; Mozumder,Pronob K.; Grim,Christopher J.; Hasan,Nur A.; Naser,M. Niamul; Alam,Munirul; Sack,R. Bradley; Huq,Anwar; Rita R Colwell (Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2011)
Vibrio cholerae, a bacterium autochthonous to the aquatic environment, is the causative agent of cholera, a severe watery, life-threatening diarrheal disease occurring predominantly in developing countries. V. cholerae, including both serogroups O1 and O139, is found in association with crustacean zooplankton, mainly copepods, and notably in ponds, rivers, and estuarine systems globally. The incidence of cholera and occurrence of pathogenic V. cholerae strains with zooplankton were studied in two areas of Bangladesh: Bakerganj and Mathbaria. Chitinous zooplankton communities of several bodies of water were analyzed in order to understand the interaction of the zooplankton population composition with the population dynamics of pathogenic V. cholerae and incidence of cholera. Two dominant zooplankton groups were found to be consistently associated with detection of V. cholerae and/or occurrence of cholera cases, namely, rotifers and cladocerans, in addition to copepods. Local differences indicate there are subtle ecological factors that can influence interactions between V. cholerae, its plankton hosts, and the incidence of cholera.

Seven guiding scenarios for information visualization evaluation - Lam,H.; Bertini,E.; Isenberg,P.; Plaisant, Catherine; Carpendale,S. (Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary, 2011)
We take a new, scenario based look at evaluation in information visualization. Our seven scenarios, evaluatingvisual data analysis and reasoning, evaluating user performance, evaluating user experience, evaluating environments and work practices, evaluating communication through visualization, automated evaluation of visualizations, and evaluating collaborative data analysis were derived through an extensive literature review of over 800 visualization publications. These scenarios are described through their goals, the types of questions they embody and illustrated through example studies. Through this broad survey and the distillation of these scenarios we make two contributions. One, we encapsulate the current practices in the information visualization research community and, two, we provide a different approach to reaching decisions about what might be the most effective evaluation of a given information visualization. For example, if the research goals or evaluative questions are known they can be used to map to specific scenarios, where practical existing examples can be considered for effective evaluation approaches.

Shape Codebook based Handwritten and Machine Printed Text Zone Extraction - Kumar,Jayant; Prasad,Rohit; Cao,Huiagu; Abd-Almageed, Wael; David Doermann; Natarajan,Prem (Document Recognition and Retrieval, 2011)
We present a novel method for extracting handwritten and printed text zones from noisy document images with mixed content. We use Triple-Adjacent-Segment (TAS) based features which encode local shape characteristics of text in a consistent manner. We first construct two different codebooks of the shape features extracted from a set of handwritten and printed text documents. In the next step, we compute the normalized histogram of codewords for each segmented zone and use it to train Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier. Due to a codebook based approach, our method is robust to the background noise present in the image. The TAS features used are invariant to translation, scale and rotation of text. In our experimental results, we show that a pixel-weighted zone classification accuracy of 98% can be achieved for noisy Arabic documents. Further, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our method for document page classification and show that a high precision can be achieved for machine printed documents. The proposed method is robust to the size of zones, which may contain text content at word, line or paragraph level.

Silhouette-based gesture and action recognition via modeling trajectories on Riemannian shape manifolds - Abdelkader,Mohamed F.; Abd-Almageed, Wael; Srivastava,Anuj; Chellapa, Rama (Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 2011)
This paper addresses the problem of recognizing human gestures from videos using models that are built from the Riemannian geometry of shape spaces. We represent a human gesture as a temporal sequence of human poses, each characterized by a contour of the associated human silhouette. The shape of a contour is viewed as a point on the shape space of closed curves and, hence, each gesture is characterized and modeled as a trajectory on this shape space. We propose two approaches for modeling these trajectories. In the first template-based approach, we use dynamic time warping (DTW) to align the different trajectories using elastic geodesic distances on the shape space. The gesture templates are then calculated by averaging the aligned trajectories. In the second approach, we use a graphical model approach similar to an exemplar-based hidden Markov model, where we cluster the gesture shapes on the shape space, and build non-parametric statistical models to capture the variations within each cluster. We model each gesture as a Markov model of transitions between these clusters. To evaluate the proposed approaches, an extensive set of experiments was performed using two different data sets representing gesture and action recognition applications. The proposed approaches not only are successfully able to represent the shape and dynamics of the different classes for recognition, but are also robust against some errors resulting from segmentation and background subtraction.
Keywords: Action recognition; Gesture recognition; Riemannian manifolds; Shape space; Silhouette-based approaches

Simplifying morphological representations of 2D and 3D scalar fields - Čomić,Lidija; De Floriani, Leila; Iuricich,Federico (Proceedings of the 19th ACM SIGSPATIAL International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems, 2011)
We describe a dual graph-based representation for the ascending and descending Morse complexes of a scalar field, and a compact and dimension-independent data structure based on it, which assumes a discrete representation of the field as a simplicial mesh. We present atomic dimension-independent simplification operators on the graph-based representation. Based on such operators, we have developed a simplification algorithm, which allows generalization of the ascending and descending Morse complexes at different levels of resolution. We show here the results of our implementation, discussing the computation times and the size of the resulting simplified graphs, also in comparison with the size of the original full-resolution graph.
Keywords: morphological representations; Morse complexes; multi-dimensional data sets; simplification

Smale-like decomposition and forman theory for discrete scalar fields - Čomić,L.; Mesmoudi,M.; De Floriani, Leila (Discrete Geometry for Computer Imagery, 2011)
Forman theory, which is a discrete alternative for cell complexes to the well-known Morse theory, is currently finding several applications in areas where the data to be handled are discrete, such as image processing and computer graphics. Here, we show that a discrete scalar field f, defined on the vertices of a triangulated multidimensional domain Σ, and its gradient vector field Grad f through the Smale-like decomposition of f [6], are both the restriction of a Forman function F and its gradient field Grad F that extends f over all the simplexes of Σ. We present an algorithm that gives an explicit construction of such an extension. Hence, the scalar field f inherits the properties of Forman gradient vector fields and functions from field Grad F and function F.

Smart task-driven video collection - Lim,Ser-Nam; Mittal,Anurag; Davis, Larry S. (2011)
A multi-camera system that collects images and videos of moving objects in dynamic and crowded scenes, subject to task constraints is disclosed. The system constructs “task visibility intervals” comprising information about what can be sensed in future time intervals. Methods for constructing these intervals applying prediction of future object motion and including consideration of factors such as object occlusion and camera control parameters are also disclosed. Using a plane-sweep algorithm, these atomic intervals can be combined in a method to form multi-task intervals, during which a single camera can collect videos suitable for multiple tasks simultaneously. Methods for fast camera scheduling that yield solutions within a small constant factor of an optimal solution are also disclosed.

Sparse dictionary-based representation and recognition of action attributes - Qiang Qiu; Zhuolin Jiang; Chellapa, Rama (2011 IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV), 2011)
We present an approach for dictionary learning of action attributes via information maximization. We unify the class distribution and appearance information into an objective function for learning a sparse dictionary of action attributes. The objective function maximizes the mutual information between what has been learned and what remains to be learned in terms of appearance information and class distribution for each dictionary item. We propose a Gaussian Process (GP) model for sparse representation to optimize the dictionary objective function. The sparse coding property allows a kernel with a compact support in GP to realize a very efficient dictionary learning process. Hence we can describe an action video by a set of compact and discriminative action attributes. More importantly, we can recognize modeled action categories in a sparse feature space, which can be generalized to unseen and unmodeled action categories. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in action recognition applications.
Keywords: action attributes; appearance information; class distribution; Dictionaries; dictionary learning process; Encoding; Entropy; Gaussian process model; Gaussian processes; Histograms; HUMANS; Image coding; image representation; information maximization; learning (artificial intelligence); modeled action categories; Mutual information; Object recognition; probabilistic logic; sparse coding property; sparse dictionary-based recognition; sparse dictionary-based representation; sparse feature space; unmodeled action categories

Sparsity-motivated automatic target recognition - Patel, Vishal M.; Nasrabadi,Nasser M.; Chellapa, Rama (Applied OpticsAppl. Opt., 2011)
We present an automatic target recognition algorithm using the recently developed theory of sparse representations and compressive sensing. We show how sparsity can be helpful for efficient utilization of data for target recognition. We verify the efficacy of the proposed algorithm in terms of the recognition rate and confusion matrices on the well known Comanche (Boeing–Sikorsky, USA) forward-looking IR data set consisting of ten different military targets at different orientations.
Keywords: IMAGE PROCESSING; Image recognition, algorithms and filters; pattern recognition; Vision - patterns and recognition

Special Issue on Video Analysis on Resource-Limited Systems - Chellapa, Rama; Cavallaro, A.; Wu,Y.; Shan, C.; Fu, Y.; Pulli, K. (IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, 2011)
The 17 papers in this special issue focus on resource-limited systems.
Keywords: computational complexity; Image Enhancement; Special issues and sections; Video compression

Speeding Up Network Layout and Centrality Measures for Social Computing Goals - Sharma,Puneet; Khurana,Udayan; Shneiderman, Ben; Scharrenbroich,Max; Locke,John (Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling and PredictionSocial Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling and Prediction, 2011)
This paper presents strategies for speeding up calculation of graph metrics and layout by exploiting the parallel architecture of modern day Graphics Processing Units (GPU), specifically Compute Unified Device Architecture ( CUDA ) by Nvidia . Graph centrality metrics like Eigenvector , Betweenness , Page Rank and layout algorithms like Fruchterman − Rheingold are essential components of Social Network Analysis ( SNA ). With the growth in adoption of SNA in different domains and increasing availability of huge networked datasets for analysis, social network analysts require faster tools that are also scalable. Our results, using NodeXL, show up to 802 times speedup for a Fruchterman-Rheingold graph layout and up to 17,972 times speedup for Eigenvector centrality metric calculations on a 240 core CUDA-capable GPU.

Statistical Computations on Grassmann and Stiefel Manifolds for Image and Video-Based Recognition - Turaga,P.; Veeraraghavan,A.; Srivastava, A.; Chellapa, Rama (IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 2011)
In this paper, we examine image and video-based recognition applications where the underlying models have a special structure-the linear subspace structure. We discuss how commonly used parametric models for videos and image sets can be described using the unified framework of Grassmann and Stiefel manifolds. We first show that the parameters of linear dynamic models are finite-dimensional linear subspaces of appropriate dimensions. Unordered image sets as samples from a finite-dimensional linear subspace naturally fall under this framework. We show that an inference over subspaces can be naturally cast as an inference problem on the Grassmann manifold. To perform recognition using subspace-based models, we need tools from the Riemannian geometry of the Grassmann manifold. This involves a study of the geometric properties of the space, appropriate definitions of Riemannian metrics, and definition of geodesics. Further, we derive statistical modeling of inter and intraclass variations that respect the geometry of the space. We apply techniques such as intrinsic and extrinsic statistics to enable maximum-likelihood classification. We also provide algorithms for unsupervised clustering derived from the geometry of the manifold. Finally, we demonstrate the improved performance of these methods in a wide variety of vision applications such as activity recognition, video-based face recognition, object recognition from image sets, and activity-based video clustering.
Keywords: activity based video clustering; activity recognition; computational geometry; Computational modeling; Data models; face recognition; feature representation; finite dimensional linear subspaces; geometric properties; Geometry; Grassmann Manifolds; Grassmann.; HUMANS; Image and video models; image recognition; linear dynamic models; linear subspace structure; Manifolds; maximum likelihood classification; maximum likelihood estimation; Object recognition; Riemannian geometry; Riemannian metrics; SHAPE; statistical computations; statistical models; Stiefel; Stiefel Manifolds; unsupervised clustering; video based face recognition; video based recognition; video signal processing

Synthesis-based recognition of low resolution faces - Shekhar, S.; Patel, Vishal M.; Chellapa, Rama (2011 International Joint Conference on Biometrics (IJCB), 2011)
Recognition of low resolution face images is a challenging problem in many practical face recognition systems. Methods have been proposed in the face recognition literature for the problem when the probe is of low resolution, and a high resolution gallery is available for recognition. These methods modify the probe image such that the resultant image provides better discrimination. We formulate the problem differently by leveraging the information available in the high resolution gallery image and propose a generative approach for classifying the probe image. An important feature of our algorithm is that it can handle resolution changes along with illumination variations. The effective- ness of the proposed method is demonstrated using standard datasets and a challenging outdoor face dataset. It is shown that our method is efficient and can perform significantly better than many competitive low resolution face recognition algorithms.
Keywords: Dictionaries; Face; face images; face recognition; face recognition literature; face recognition systems; illumination variations; image resolution; low resolution faces; Organizations; PROBES; support vector machines; synthesis based recognition

Temperature regulation of virulence factors in the pathogen Vibrio coralliilyticus - Kimes,Nikole E.; Grim,Christopher J.; Johnson,Wesley R.; Hasan,Nur A.; Tall,Ben D.; Kothary,Mahendra H.; Kiss,Hajnalka; Munk,A. Christine; Tapia,Roxanne; Green,Lance; Detter,Chris; Bruce,David C.; et al. (The ISME Journal, 2011)
Sea surface temperatures (SST) are rising because of global climate change. As a result, pathogenic Vibrio species that infect humans and marine organisms during warmer summer months are of growing concern. Coral reefs, in particular, are already experiencing unprecedented degradation worldwide due in part to infectious disease outbreaks and bleaching episodes that are exacerbated by increasing SST. For example, Vibrio coralliilyticus, a globally distributed bacterium associated with multiple coral diseases, infects corals at temperatures above 27 °C. The mechanisms underlying this temperature-dependent pathogenicity, however, are unknown. In this study, we identify potential virulence mechanisms using whole genome sequencing of V. coralliilyticus ATCC (American Type Culture Collection) BAA-450. Furthermore, we demonstrate direct temperature regulation of numerous virulence factors using proteomic analysis and bioassays. Virulence factors involved in motility, host degradation, secretion, antimicrobial resistance and transcriptional regulation are upregulated at the higher virulent temperature of 27 °C, concurrent with phenotypic changes in motility, antibiotic resistance, hemolysis, cytotoxicity and bioluminescence. These results provide evidence that temperature regulates multiple virulence mechanisms in V. coralliilyticus, independent of abundance. The ecological and biological significance of this temperature-dependent virulence response is reinforced by climate change models that predict tropical SST to consistently exceed 27 °C during the spring, summer and fall seasons. We propose V. coralliilyticus as a model Gram-negative bacterium to study temperature-dependent pathogenicity in Vibrio-related diseases.
Keywords: ecophysiology; ecosystems; environmental biotechnology; geomicrobiology; ISME J; microbe interactions; microbial communities; microbial ecology; microbial engineering; microbial epidemiology; microbial genomics; microorganisms

Temporal Visualization of Social Network Dynamics: Prototypes for Nation of Neighbors - Ahn,Jae-wook; Taieb-Maimon,Meirav; Sopan,Awalin; Plaisant, Catherine; Shneiderman, Ben (Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling and PredictionSocial Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling and Prediction, 2011)
Information visualization is a powerful tool for analyzing the dynamic nature of social communities. Using Nation of Neighbors community network as a testbed, we propose five principles of implementing temporal visualizations for social networks and present two research prototypes: NodeXL and TempoVis. Three different states are defined in order to visualize the temporal changes of social networks. We designed the prototypes to show the benefits of the proposed ideas by letting users interactively explore temporal changes of social networks.

Toolchain for Programming, Simulating and Studying the XMT Many-Core Architecture - Keceli,F.; Tzannes,A.; Caragea,G.C.; Barua,R.; Vishkin, Uzi (Parallel and Distributed Processing Workshops and Phd Forum (IPDPSW), 2011 IEEE International Symposium on, 2011)
The Explicit Multi-Threading (XMT) is a general-purpose many-core computing platform, with the vision of a 1000-core chip that is easy to program but does not compromise on performance. This paper presents a publicly available tool chain for XMT, complete with a highly configurable cycle-accurate simulator and an optimizing compiler. The XMT tool chain has matured and has been validated to a point where its description merits publication. In particular, research and experimentation enabled by the tool chain played a central role in supporting the ease-of-programming and performance aspects of the XMT architecture. The compiler and the simulator are also important milestones for an efficient programmer's workflow from PRAM algorithms to programs that run on the shared memory XMT hardware. This workflow is a key component in accomplishing the dual goal of ease-of-programming and performance. The applicability of our tool chain extends beyond specific XMT choices. It can be used to explore the much greater design space of shared memory many-cores by system researchers or by programmers. As the tool chain can practically run on any computer, it provides a supportive environment for teaching parallel algorithmic thinking with a programming component. Unobstructed by techniques such as decomposition-first and programming for locality, this environment may be useful in deferring the teaching of these techniques, when desired, to more advanced or platform-specific courses.
Keywords: algorithm; XMT; architecture; XMT; architectures; shared; chain; cycle-accurate; compiler; programmer; compilers; parallel; component; shared; computing; optimizing; hardware; shared; many-core; many-core; concurrency; memory; multithreading; general-purpose; PRAM; simulator; ease-of-programming; explicit; systems; theory; multi-threading; optimising; tool; workflow; programming; XMT

Towards view-invariant expression analysis using analytic shape manifolds - Taheri, S.; Turaga,P.; Chellapa, Rama (2011 IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face & Gesture Recognition and Workshops (FG 2011), 2011)
Facial expression analysis is one of the important components for effective human-computer interaction. However, to develop robust and generalizable models for expression analysis one needs to break the dependence of the models on the choice of the coordinate frame of the camera i.e. expression models should generalize across facial poses. To perform this systematically, one needs to understand the space of observed images subject to projective transformations. However, since the projective shape-space is cumbersome to work with, we address this problem by deriving models for expressions on the affine shape-space as an approximation to the projective shape-space by using a Riemannian interpretation of deformations that facial expressions cause on different parts of the face. We use landmark configurations to represent facial deformations and exploit the fact that the affine shape-space can be studied using the Grassmann manifold. This representation enables us to perform various expression analysis and recognition algorithms without the need for the normalization as a preprocessing step. We extend some of the available approaches for expression analysis to the Grassmann manifold and experimentally show promising results, paving the way for a more general theory of view-invariant expression analysis.
Keywords: Databases; Deformable models; Face; face recognition; facial expression analysis; Geometry; Gold; Human-computer interaction; Manifolds; projective transformation; Riemannian interpretation; SHAPE; view invariant expression analysis

Tracking and Identification via Object Reflectance Using a Hyperspectral Video Camera - Nguyen,Hien Van; Banerjee,Amit; Burlina,Philippe; Broadwater,Joshua; Chellapa, Rama (Machine Vision Beyond Visible SpectrumMachine Vision Beyond Visible Spectrum, 2011)
Recent advances in electronics and sensor design have enabled the development of a hyperspectral video camera that can capture hyperspectral datacubes at near video rates. The sensor offers the potential for novel and robust methods for surveillance by combining methods from computer vision and hyperspectral image analysis. Here, we focus on the problem of tracking objects through challenging conditions, such as rapid illumination and pose changes, occlusions, and in the presence of confusers. A new framework that incorporates radiative transfer theory to estimate object reflectance and particle filters to simultaneously track and identify an object based on its reflectance spectra is proposed. By exploiting high-resolution spectral features in the visible and near-infrared regimes, the framework is able to track objects that appear featureless to the human eye. For example, we demonstrate that near-IR spectra of human skin can also be used to distinguish different people in a video sequence. These capabilities are illustrated using experiments conducted on real hyperspectral video data.

Trainable 3D recognition using stereo matching - Castillo,C. D; Jacobs, David W. (Computer Vision Workshops (ICCV Workshops), 2011 IEEE International Conference on, 2011)
Stereo matching has been used for face recognition in the presence of pose variation. In this approach, stereo matching is used to compare two 2-D images based on correspondences that reflect the effects of viewpoint variation and allow for occlusion. We show how to use stereo matching to derive image descriptors that can be used to train a classifier. This improves face recognition performance, producing the best published results on the CMU PIE dataset. We also demonstrate that classification based on stereo matching can be used for general object classification in the presence of pose variation. In preliminary experiments we show promising results on the 3D object class dataset, a standard, challenging 3D classification data set.
Keywords: 2D; 3D; class; classification; classification; image; data; dataset; CMU; dataset; face; descriptor; occlusion; pose; estimation; solid; image; image; 3D; matching; pose; matching; trainable; modelling; stereo; object; PIE; processing; recognition; face; recognition; image; set; 3D; variation; stereo

Tutorial-Graph Analytics — Lessons Learned and Challenges Ahead - Wong,P.C.; Chen,C.; Görg,C.; Shneiderman, Ben; Stasko,J.; Thomas,J. (IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 2011)

Variable remapping of images from very different sources - Wei Zhang; Yanlin Guo; Meth, R.; Sokoloff, H.; Pope, A.; Strat, T.; Chellapa, Rama (2011 18th IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), 2011)
We present a system which registers image sequences acquired by very different sources, so that multiple views could be transformed to the same coordinates system. This enables the functionality of automatic object identification and confirmation across views and platforms. The capability of the system comes from three ingredients: 1) image context enlargement through temporal integration; 2) robust motion estimation using the G-RANSAC framework with a relaxed correspondence criteria; 3) constrained motion estimation within the G-RANSAC framework. The proposed system has worked successfully on thousands of frames from multiple collections with significant variations in scale and resolution.
Keywords: automatic object identification; Buildings; CAMERAS; Conferences; constrained motion estimation; coordinates system; Estimation; G-RANSAC framework; image context enlargement; Image Enhancement; image registration; image sequence registration; Image sequences; Motion estimation; Robustness; temporal integration; variable image remapping

Vectorization and mapping of software defined radio applications on heterogeneous multi-processor platforms - Zaki, G.F.; Plishker,W.; Bhattacharyya, Shuvra S.; Clancy, C.; Kuykendall, J. (2011 IEEE Workshop on Signal Processing Systems (SiPS), 2011)
A variety of multiprocessor architectures have proliferated even for off-the-shelf computing platforms. To improve performance and productivity for common heterogeneous systems, we have developed a workflow to generate efficient solutions. By starting with a formal description of an application and the mapping problem we are able to generate a range of designs that efficiently trade-of latency and throughput. In this approach, efficient utilization of SIMD cores is achieved by applying extensive block processing in conjunction with efficient mapping and scheduling. We demonstrate our approach through an integration into the GNU Radio environment for software defined radio system design.
Keywords: Benchmark testing; block processing; Design methodology; formal description; GNU radio environment; Graphic Processor Unit; Graphics processing unit; heterogeneous multiprocessor platform; mapping problem; Multicore processing; Multiprocessing systems; multiprocessor architecture; multiprocessor scheduling; operating systems (computers); PARALLEL PROCESSING; Processor scheduling; Schedules; SIMD core; Software Defined Radio; software defined radio system design; software radio; telecommunication computing; Throughput; vectorization; workflow

Visual Analysis of Temporal Trends in Social Networks Using Edge Color Coding and Metric Timelines - Khurana,U.; Nguyen,Viet-An; Hsueh-Chien Cheng; Ahn,Jae-wook; Chen,Xi; Shneiderman, Ben (Privacy, Security, Risk and Trust (PASSAT), 2011 IEEE Third International Conference on and 2011 IEEE Third International Confernece on Social Computing (SocialCom), 2011)
We present Net EvViz, a visualization tool for analysis and exploration of a dynamic social network. There are plenty of visual social network analysis tools but few provide features for visualization of dynamically changing networks featuring the addition or deletion of nodes or edges. Our tool extends the code base of the Node XL template for Microsoft Excel, a popular network visualization tool. The key features of this work are (1) The ability of the user to specify and edit temporal annotations to the network components in an Excel sheet, (2) See the dynamics of the network with multiple graph metrics plotted over the time span of the graph, called the Timeline, and (3) Temporal exploration of the network layout using an edge coloring scheme and a dynamic Time slider. The objectives of the new features presented in this paper are to let the data analysts, computer scientists and others to observe the dynamics or evolution in a network interactively. We presented Net EvViz to five users of Node XL and received positive responses.
Keywords: Color; computer scientists; data analysts; data visualisation; Data visualization; dynamic social network; dynamic timeslider; edge color coding; excel sheet; Image coding; image colour analysis; Layout; measurement; metric timelines; Microsoft excel; multiple graph metrics; Net EvViz; network components; network layout; network visualization tool; NodeXL template; social networking (online); temporal trends; Twitter; Visualization

Warming Oceans, Phytoplankton, and River Discharge: Implications for Cholera Outbreaks - Jutla,Antarpreet S.; Akanda,Ali S.; Griffiths,Jeffrey K.; Rita R Colwell; Islam,Shafiqul (The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2011)
Phytoplankton abundance is inversely related to sea surface temperature (SST). However, a positive relationship is observed between SST and phytoplankton abundance in coastal waters of Bay of Bengal. This has led to an assertion that in a warming climate, rise in SST may increase phytoplankton blooms and, therefore, cholera outbreaks. Here, we explain why a positive SST-phytoplankton relationship exists in the Bay of Bengal and the implications of such a relationship on cholera dynamics. We found clear evidence of two independent physical drivers for phytoplankton abundance. The first one is the widely accepted phytoplankton blooming produced by the upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich deep ocean waters. The second, which explains the Bay of Bengal findings, is coastal phytoplankton blooming during high river discharges with terrestrial nutrients. Causal mechanisms should be understood when associating SST with phytoplankton and subsequent cholera outbreaks in regions where freshwater discharge are a predominant mechanism for phytoplankton production.

Why is My Internet Slow?: Making Network Speeds Visible - Marshini Chetty; Haslem, David; Baird, Andrew; Ofoha, Ugochi; Sumner, Bethany; Grinter, Rebecca (SIGCHI '11, 2011)
With widespread broadband adoption, more households report experiencing sub-optimal speeds. Not only are slow speeds frustrating, they may indicate consumers are not receiving the services they are paying for from their internet service providers. Yet, determining the speed and source of slow-downs is difficult because few tools exist for broadband management. We report on results of a field trial with 10 households using a visual network probe designed to address these problems. We describe the results of the study and provide design implications for future tools. More importantly, we argue that tools like this can educate and empower consumers by making broadband speeds and sources of slow-downs more visible.
Keywords: broadband speed; broadband tools; home networks

Wide-baseline stereo for face recognition with large pose variation - Castillo,C. D; Jacobs, David W. (Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2011 IEEE Conference on, 2011)
2-D face recognition in the presence of large pose variations presents a significant challenge. When comparing a frontal image of a face to a near profile image, one must cope with large occlusions, non-linear correspondences, and significant changes in appearance due to viewpoint. Stereo matching has been used to handle these problems, but performance of this approach degrades with large pose changes. We show that some of this difficulty is due to the effect that foreshortening of slanted surfaces has on window-based matching methods, which are needed to provide robustness to lighting change. We address this problem by designing a new, dynamic programming stereo algorithm that accounts for surface slant. We show that on the CMU PIE dataset this method results in significant improvements in recognition performance.
Keywords: 2D; algorithm; frontal; dataset; dynamic; estimation; stereo; Face; image; image; near; image; pose; MATCHING; matching; pose; matching; surface; method; dynamic; performance; stereo; PIE; processing; profile; Programming; programming; face; recognition; CMU; recognition; image; slant; wide-baseline; stereo; stereo; window-based; variation; recognition

Windowed Spectral Regularization of Inverse Problems - Chung,Julianne M.; Easley,Glenn R; O'Leary, Dianne P. (SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing, 2011)

Adaptive Threshold Estimation via Extreme Value Theory - Broadwater, J.B.; Chellapa, Rama (Signal Processing, IEEE Transactions on, 2010)
Determining a detection threshold to automatically maintain a low false alarm rate is a challenging problem. In a number of different applications, the underlying parametric assumptions of most automatic target detection algorithms are invalid. Therefore, thresholds derived using these incorrect distribution assumptions do not produce desirable results when applied to real sensor data. Monte Carlo methods for threshold determination work well but tend to perform poorly when targets are present. In order to mitigate these effects, we propose an algorithm using extreme value theory through the use of the generalized Pareto distribution (GPD) and a Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistical test. Unlike previous work based on GPD estimates, this algorithm incorporates a way to adaptively maintain low false alarm rates in the presence of targets. Both synthetic and real-world detection results demonstrate the usefulness of this algorithm.
Keywords: detection; detection; Pareto; distribution; adaptive; distribution; signal; estimation; extreme; estimation; signal; Kolmogorov-Smirnov; Pareto; statistical; test; adaptive; theory; generalized; threshold; value

Advances in Video-Based Human Activity Analysis: Challenges and Approaches - Turaga,Pavan; Chellapa, Rama; Veeraraghavan,Ashok (Advances in ComputersAdvances in Computers, 2010)
Videos play an ever increasing role in our everyday lives with applications ranging from news, entertainment, scientific research, security, and surveillance. Coupled with the fact that cameras and storage media are becoming less expensive, it has resulted in people producing more video content than ever before. Analysis of human activities in video is important for several important applications. Interpretation and identification of human activities requires approaches that address the following questions (a) what are the appropriate atomic primitives for human activities, (b) how to combine primitives to produce complex activities, (c) what are the required invariances for inference algorithms, and (d) how to build computational models for each of these. In this chapter, we provide a broad overview and discussion of these issues. We shall review state-of-the-art computer vision algorithms that address these issues and then provide a unified perspective from which specific algorithms can be derived. We will then present supporting experimental results.

Aligning Spatio-Temporal Signals on a Special Manifold - Ruonan Li; Chellapa, Rama (Computer Vision – ECCV 2010Computer Vision – ECCV 2010, 2010)
We investigate the spatio-temporal alignment of videos or features/signals extracted from them. Specifically, we formally define an alignment manifold and formulate the alignment problem as an optimization procedure on this non-linear space by exploiting its intrinsic geometry. We focus our attention on semantically meaningful videos or signals, e.g., those describing or capturing human motion or activities, and propose a new formalism for temporal alignment accounting for executing rate variations among realizations of the same video event. By construction, we address this static and deterministic alignment task in a dynamic and stochastic manner: we regard the search for optimal alignment parameters as a recursive state estimation problem for a particular dynamic system evolving on the alignment manifold. Consequently, a Sequential Importance Sampling iteration on the alignment manifold is designed for effective and efficient alignment. We demonstrate the performance on several types of input data that arise in vision problems.

Applications of a Simple Characterization of Human Gait in Surveillance - Yang Ran; Qinfen Zheng; Chellapa, Rama; Strat, T.M. (Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part B: Cybernetics, IEEE Transactions on, 2010)
Applications of a simple spatiotemporal characterization of human gait in the surveillance domain are presented. The approach is based on decomposing a video sequence into x-t slices, which generate periodic patterns referred to as double helical signatures (DHSs). The features of DHS are given as follows: 1) they naturally encode the appearance and kinematics of human motion and reveal geometric symmetries and 2) they are effective and efficient for recovering gait parameters and detecting simple events. We present an iterative local curve embedding algorithm to extract the DHS from video sequences. Two applications are then considered. First, the DHS is used for simultaneous segmentation and labeling of body parts in cluttered scenes. Experimental results showed that the algorithm is robust to size, viewing angles, camera motion, and severe occlusion. Then, the DHS is used to classify load-carrying conditions. By examining various symmetries in DHS, activities such as carrying, holding, and walking with objects that are attached to legs are detected. Our approach possesses several advantages: a compact representation that can be computed in real time is used; furthermore, it does not depend on silhouettes or landmark tracking, which are sensitive to errors in background subtraction stage.
Keywords: algorithms; Artificial intelligence; Automated; Photography; Reproducibility of Results; Sensitivity and Specificity; Video Recording; Biometry; Computer-Assisted; Pattern Recognition; double helical signatures; Gait; gait analysis; human gait; human motion kinematics; HUMANS; Image Enhancement; Image Interpretation; Image motion analysis; iterative local curve embedding algorithm; Object detection; simple spatiotemporal characterization; video sequence; Video surveillance

Approximation Algorithms for Non-Uniform Buy-at-Bulk Network Design - Chekuri,C.; Hajiaghayi, Mohammad T.; Kortsarz,G.; Salavatipour,M. R (SIAM Journal on Computing, 2010)

Articulation-Invariant Representation of Non-planar Shapes - Gopalan,Raghuraman; Turaga,Pavan; Chellapa, Rama (Computer Vision – ECCV 2010Computer Vision – ECCV 2010, 2010)
Given a set of points corresponding to a 2D projection of a non-planar shape, we would like to obtain a representation invariant to articulations (under no self-occlusions). It is a challenging problem since we need to account for the changes in 2D shape due to 3D articulations, viewpoint variations, as well as the varying effects of imaging process on different regions of the shape due to its non-planarity. By modeling an articulating shape as a combination of approximate convex parts connected by non-convex junctions, we propose to preserve distances between a pair of points by (i) estimating the parts of the shape through approximate convex decomposition, by introducing a robust measure of convexity and (ii) performing part-wise affine normalization by assuming a weak perspective camera model, and then relating the points using the inner distance which is insensitive to planar articulations. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our representation on a dataset with non-planar articulations, and on standard shape retrieval datasets like MPEG-7.

Authentication in the clouds: a framework and its application to mobile users - Chow, Richard; Jakobsson, Markus; Masuoka, Ryusuke; Molina,Jesus; Niu, Yuan; Elaine Shi; Song,Zhexuan (ACM, 2010)
Cloud computing is a natural fit for mobile security. Typical handsets have input constraints and practical computational and power limitations, which must be respected by mobile security technologies in order to be effective. We describe how cloud computing can address these issues. Our approach is based on a flexible framework for supporting authentication decisions we call TrustCube (to manage the authentication infrastructure) and on a behavioral authentication approach referred to as implicit authentication (to translate user behavior into authentication scores). The combination results in a new authentication paradigm for users of mobile technologies, one where an appropriate balance between usability and trust can be managed through flexible policies and dynamic tuning.
Keywords: Authentication; Cloud computing; Mobile computing

Automatic target recognition based on simultaneous sparse representation - Patel, Vishal M.; Nasrabadi,N.M.; Chellapa, Rama (Image Processing (ICIP), 2010 17th IEEE International Conference on, 2010)
In this paper, an automatic target recognition algorithm is presented based on a framework for learning dictionaries for simultaneous sparse signal representation and feature extraction. The dictionary learning algorithm is based on class supervised simultaneous orthogonal matching pursuit while a matching pursuit-based similarity measure is used for classification. We show how the proposed framework can be helpful for efficient utilization of data, with the possibility of developing real-time, robust target classification. We verify the efficacy of the proposed algorithm using confusion matrices on the well known Comanche forward-looking infrared data set consisting of ten different military targets at different orientations.
Keywords: (artificial; algorithm; feature; based; classification; iterative; classification; learning; Comanche; data; dictionary; matching; extraction; image; forward-looking; infrared; intelligence); military; learning; MATCHING; matrix; dictionary; measure; military; methods; learning; orthogonal; pursuit; pursuit; confusion; recognition; class; recognition; target; representation; feature; representation; sparse; set; automatic; signal; similarity; simultaneous; sparse; supervised; systems; object; target; target; simultaneous; tracking

Broader incorporation of bioinformatics in education: opportunities and challenges - Cummings, Michael P.; Temple,GG (Brief Bioinform, 2010)
The major opportunities for broader incorporation of bioinformatics in education can be placed into three general categories: general applicability of bioinformatics in life science and related curricula; inherent fit of bioinformatics for promoting student learning in most biology programs; and the general experience and associated comfort students have with computers and technology. Conversely, the major challenges for broader incorporation of bioinformatics in education can be placed into three general categories: required infrastructure and logistics; instructor knowledge of bioinformatics and continuing education; and the breadth of bioinformatics, and the diversity of students and educational objectives. Broader incorporation of bioinformatics at all education levels requires overcoming the challenges to using transformative computer- requiring learning activities, assisting faculty in collecting assessment data on mastery of student learning outcomes, as well as creating more faculty development opportunities that span diverse skill levels, with an emphasis placed on providing resource materials that are kept up-to-date as the field and tools change.

Comment-Gait-Based Human Recognition by Classification of Cyclostationary Processes on Nonlinear Shape Manifolds - Chellapa, Rama; Veeraraghavan,A. (Journal of the American Statistical Association, 2010)

Comparative genomic analysis reveals evidence of two novel Vibrio species closely related to V. cholerae - Bradd,H.; Christopher,G.; Nur,H.; Seon-Young,C.; Jongsik,C.; Thomas,B.; David,B.; Jean,C.; Chris,D. J.; Cliff,H.; Rita R Colwell (BMC Microbiology, 2010)
In recent years genome sequencing has been used to characterize new bacterial species, a method of analysis available as a result of improved methodology and reduced cost. Included in a constantly expanding list of Vibrio species are several that have been reclassified as novel members of the Vibrionaceae. The description of two putative new Vibrio species, Vibrio sp. RC341 and Vibrio sp. RC586 for which we propose the names V. metecus and V. parilis, respectively, previously characterized as non-toxigenic environmental variants of V. cholerae is presented in this study. Results Based on results of whole-genome average nucleotide identity (ANI), average amino acid identity (AAI), rpoB similarity, MLSA, and phylogenetic analysis, the new species are concluded to be phylogenetically closely related to V. cholerae and V. mimicus. Vibrio sp. RC341 and Vibrio sp. RC586 demonstrate features characteristic of V. cholerae and V. mimicus, respectively, on differential and selective media, but their genomes show a 12 to 15% divergence (88 to 85% ANI and 92 to 91% AAI) compared to the sequences of V. cholerae and V. mimicus genomes (ANI <95% and AAI <96% indicative of separate species). Vibrio sp. RC341 and Vibrio sp. RC586 share 2104 ORFs (59%) and 2058 ORFs (56%) with the published core genome of V. cholerae and 2956 (82%) and 3048 ORFs (84%) with V. mimicus MB-451, respectively. The novel species share 2926 ORFs with each other (81% Vibrio sp. RC341 and 81% Vibrio sp. RC586). Virulence-associated factors and genomic islands of V. cholerae and V. mimicus, including VSP-I and II, were found in these environmental Vibrio spp. Conclusions Results of this analysis demonstrate these two environmental vibrios, previously characterized as variant V. cholerae strains, are new species which have evolved from ancestral lineages of the V. cholerae and V. mimicus clade. The presence of conserved integration loci for genomic islands as well as evidence of horizontal gene transfer between these two new species, V. cholerae, and V. mimicus suggests genomic islands and virulence factors are transferred between these species.

Comparative Genomics of Clinical and Environmental Vibrio Mimicus - Hasan,Nur A.; Grim,Christopher J.; Haley,Bradd J.; Jongsik Chun; Alam,Munirul; Taviani,Elisa; Mozammel Hoq; Munk,A. Christine; Rita R Colwell (Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesPNAS, 2010)
Whether Vibrio mimicus is a variant of Vibrio cholerae or a separate species has been the subject of taxonomic controversy. A genomic analysis was undertaken to resolve the issue. The genomes of V. mimicus MB451, a clinical isolate, and VM223, an environmental isolate, comprise ca. 4,347,971 and 4,313,453 bp and encode 3,802 and 3,290 ORFs, respectively. As in other vibrios, chromosome I (C-I) predominantly contains genes necessary for growth and viability, whereas chromosome II (C-II) bears genes for adaptation to environmental change. C-I harbors many virulence genes, including some not previously reported in V. mimicus, such as mannose-sensitive hemagglutinin (MSHA), and enterotoxigenic hemolysin (HlyA); C-II encodes a variant of Vibrio pathogenicity island 2 (VPI-2), and Vibrio seventh pandemic island II (VSP-II) cluster of genes. Extensive genomic rearrangement in C-II indicates it is a hot spot for evolution and genesis of speciation for the genus Vibrio. The number of virulence regions discovered in this study (VSP-II, MSHA, HlyA, type IV pilin, PilE, and integron integrase, IntI4) with no notable difference in potential virulence genes between clinical and environmental strains suggests these genes also may play a role in the environment and that pathogenic strains may arise in the environment. Significant genome synteny with prototypic pre-seventh pandemic strains of V. cholerae was observed, and the results of phylogenetic analysis support the hypothesis that, in the course of evolution, V. mimicus and V. cholerae diverged from a common ancestor with a prototypic sixth pandemic genomic backbone.

Compressed Synthetic Aperture Radar - Patel, Vishal M.; Easley,G. R; Healy,D. M; Chellapa, Rama (IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing, 2010)
In this paper, we introduce a new synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging modality which can provide a high-resolution map of the spatial distribution of targets and terrain using a significantly reduced number of needed transmitted and/or received electromagnetic waveforms. This new imaging scheme, requires no new hardware components and allows the aperture to be compressed. It also presents many new applications and advantages which include strong resistance to countermesasures and interception, imaging much wider swaths and reduced on-board storage requirements.
Keywords: Compressed sensing; compressed sensing (CS); compressive sensing; electromagnetic waveforms; image resolution; radar imaging; SAR imaging modality; synthetic aperture radar; Synthetic aperture radar (SAR); targets spatial distribution

Compressive Acquisition of Dynamic Scenes - Sankaranarayanan,Aswin; Turaga,Pavan; Baraniuk,Richard; Chellapa, Rama (Computer Vision – ECCV 2010Computer Vision – ECCV 2010, 2010)
Compressive sensing (CS) is a new approach for the acquisition and recovery of sparse signals and images that enables sampling rates significantly below the classical Nyquist rate. Despite significant progress in the theory and methods of CS, little headway has been made in compressive video acquisition and recovery. Video CS is complicated by the ephemeral nature of dynamic events, which makes direct extensions of standard CS imaging architectures and signal models infeasible. In this paper, we develop a new framework for video CS for dynamic textured scenes that models the evolution of the scene as a linear dynamical system (LDS). This reduces the video recovery problem to first estimating the model parameters of the LDS from compressive measurements, from which the image frames are then reconstructed. We exploit the low-dimensional dynamic parameters (the state sequence) and high-dimensional static parameters (the observation matrix) of the LDS to devise a novel compressive measurement strategy that measures only the dynamic part of the scene at each instant and accumulates measurements over time to estimate the static parameters. This enables us to considerably lower the compressive measurement rate considerably. We validate our approach with a range of experiments including classification experiments that highlight the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

COMPRESSIVE SENSING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR BEARING ESTIMATION OF SPARSE SOURCES IN THE ANGLE DOMAIN - Cevher,Volkan; Gurbuz,Ali Cafer; McClellan,James H.; Chellapa, Rama (2010)
Compressive Sensing (CS) is an emerging area which uses a relatively small number of non-traditional samples in the form of randomized projections to reconstruct sparse or com-pressible signals. Direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation is performed with an array of sensors using CS. Using random projections of the sensor data, along with a full waveform recording on one reference sensor, a sparse angle space scenario can be reconstructed, giving the number of sources and their DOA's. Signal processing algorithms are also developed and described herein for randomly deployable wireless sensor arrays that are severely constrained in communication bandwidth. There is a focus on the acoustic bearing estimation problem and it is shown that when the target bearings are modeled as a sparse vector in the angle space, functions of the low dimensional random projections of the microphone signals can be used to determine multiple source bearings as a solution of an 1]-norm minimization problem.

Compressive Video Acquisition, Fusion and Processing - Baraniuk,Richard G.; Chellapa, Rama; Wakin,Michael (2010)
Modern developments in sensor technology, signal processing, and wireless communications have enabled the conception and deployment of large-scale networked sensing systems spanning numerous collection platforms and varied modalities. These systems have the potential to make intelligent decisions by integrating information from massive amounts of sensor data. Before such benefits can be achieved, significant advances must be made in methods for communicating, fusing, and processing this evergrowing volume of diverse data. In this one-year research project, we aimed to expose the fundamental issues and pave the way for further careful study of compressive approaches to video acquisition, fusion, and processing. In doing so, we developed a theoretical definition of video temporal bandwidth and applied the theory to compressive sampling and reconstruction. We created a new framework for compressive video sensing based on linear dynamical systems, lowering the compressive measurement rate. Finally, we applied our own joint manifold model to a variety of relevant image processing problems, demonstrating the model's effectiveness and ability to overcome noise and occlusion obstacles. We also showed how joint manifold models can discover an object's trajectory, an important step towards video fusion.
Keywords: *DATA FUSION; *DETECTORS; *SIGNAL PROCESSING; *VIDEO SIGNALS; ACQUISITION; COLLECTION; COMMUNICATION AND RADIO SYSTEMS; COMPRESSIVE PROPERTIES; COMPRESSIVE SAMPLING; compressive sensing; COMPRESSIVE VIDEO; decision making; DEPLOYMENT; DETECTION; DYNAMICS; IMAGE PROCESSING; Linear systems; Linearity; MANIFOLDS(ENGINES); measurement; MISCELLANEOUS DETECTION AND DETECTORS; MODELS; sampling; THEORY; TRAJECTORIES

Computational Approaches for Genome Assembly Validation - Choi,J.H.; Tang,H.; Kim,S.; Pop, Mihai (Biological Data Mining, 2010)

Context-Aware Query Recommendations - Ntoulas,Alexandros; Hwang,Heasoo; Getoor, Lise; Paparizos,Stelios; Lauw,Hady Wirawan (2010)
Described is a search-related technology in which context information regarding a user's prior search actions is used in making query recommendations for a current user action, such as a query or click. To determine whether each set or subset of context information is relevant to the user action, data obtained from a query log is evaluated. More particularly, a query transition (query-query) graph and a query click (query-URL) graph are extracted from the query log; vectors are computed for the current action and each context/sub-context and evaluated against vectors in the graphs to determine current action-to-context similarity. Also described is using similar context to provide the query recommendations, using parameters to control the similarity strictness, and/or whether more recent context information is more relevant than less recent context information, and using context information to distinguish between user sessions.

Conversion of viable but nonculturable Vibrio cholerae to the culturable state by co‐culture with eukaryotic cells - Senoh,Mitsutoshi; Ghosh‐Banerjee,Jayeeta; Ramamurthy,Thandavarayan; Hamabata,Takashi; Kurakawa,Takashi; Takeda,Makoto; Rita R Colwell; Nair,G. Balakrish; Takeda,Yoshifumi (Microbiology and Immunology, 2010)
VBNC Vibrio cholerae O139 VC-280 obtained by incubation in 1% solution of artificial sea water IO at 4°C for 74 days converted to the culturable state when co-cultured with CHO cells. Other eukaryotic cell lines, including HT-29, Caco-2, T84, HeLa, and Intestine 407, also supported conversion of VBNC cells to the culturable state. Conversion of VBNC V. cholerae O1 N16961 and V. cholerae O139 VC-280/pG13 to the culturable state, under the same conditions, was also confirmed. When VBNC V. cholerae O139 VC-280 was incubated in 1% IO at 4°C for up to 91 days, the number of cells converted by co-culture with CHO cells declined with each additional day of incubation and after 91 days conversion was not observed.
Keywords: conversion to culturability; co‐culture; eukaryotic cell; viable but nonculturable (VBNC) Vibrio cholerae

Decoupling policy from configuration in campus and enterprise networks - Feamster, Nick; Nayak,A.; Kim,Hyojoon; Clark,R.; Mundada,Y.; Ramachandran,A.; bin Tariq,M. (Local and Metropolitan Area Networks (LANMAN), 2010 17th IEEE Workshop on, 2010)
This paper surveys our ongoing work on the use of software-defined networking to simplify two acute policy problems in campus and enterprise network operations: access control and information flow control. We describe how the current coupling of high-level policy with low-level configuration makes these problems challenging today. We describe the specific policy problems faced by campus and enterprise network operators; illustrate our approach, which leverages recent trends in separating the network's #x201C;control plane #x201D; from the data plane; and show how this approach can be applied to simplify these two enterprise network management tasks. We also describe our ongoing deployment efforts to build a campus network testbed where trial designs can be deployed and evaluated. We close with a summary of current and future research challenges for solving challenges within enterprise networks within the context of this new paradigm.
Keywords: Access control; Business communication; campus network; decoupling policy; enterprise network management tasks; enterprise network operator; information flow control; software defined network; software radio; telecommunication network management; telecommunication security

Deliberate Interactions: Characterizing Technology Use in Nairobi, Kenya - Wyche, Susan P.; Smyth, Thomas N.; Marshini Chetty; Aoki, Paul M.; Grinter, Rebecca E. (SIGCHI '10, 2010)
We present results from a qualitative study examining how professionals living and working in Nairobi, Kenya regularly use ICT in their everyday lives. There are two contributions of this work for the HCI community. First, we provide empirical evidence demonstrating constraints our participants encountered when using technology in an infrastructure-poor setting. These constraints are limited bandwidth, high costs, differing perceptions of responsiveness, and threats to physical and virtual security. Second, we use our findings to critically evaluate the "access, anytime and anywhere" construct shaping the design of future technologies. We present an alternative vision called deliberate interactions--a planned and purposeful interaction style that involves offline preparation and discuss ways ICT can support this online usage behavior.
Keywords: everyday technology; hci4d; Kenya; urban computing

Design and implementation of real-time signal processing applications on heterogeneous multiprocessor arrays - Wu, Hsiang-Huang; Chung-Ching Shen; Bhattacharyya, Shuvra S.; Compton, K.; Schulte, M.; Wolf, M.; Zhang, Tong (2010 Conference Record of the Forty Fourth Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems and Computers (ASILOMAR), 2010)
Processing structures based on arrays of computational elements form an important class of architectures, which includes field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), systolic arrays, and various forms of multicore processors. A wide variety of design methods and tools have been targeted to regular processing arrays involving homogeneous processing elements. In this paper, we introduce the concept of field programmable X arrays (FPXAs) as an abstract model for design and implementation of heterogeneous multiprocessor arrays for signal processing systems. FPXAs are abstract structures that can be targeted for implementation on application-specific integrated circuits, FPGAs, or other kinds of reconfigurable processors. FPXAs can also be mapped onto multicore processors for flexible emulation. We discuss the use of dataflow models as an integrated application representation and intermediate representation for efficient specification and mapping of signal processing systems on FPXAs. We demonstrate our proposed models and techniques with a case study involving the embedding of an application-specific FPXA system on an off-the-shelf FPGA device.
Keywords: application specific integrated circuits; application-specific integrated circuits; computational elements; Computer architecture; decoding; Field programmable gate arrays; field programmable X arrays; FPGA; FPXA; Integrated circuit modeling; Logic Design; microprocessor chips; multicore processors; multiprocessor arrays; real-time signal processing; reconfigurable architectures; reconfigurable processors; Routing; Signal processing; Signal processing systems; systolic arrays; Viterbi algorithm

Discovery of novel Vibrio cholerae VSP‐II genomic islands using comparative genomic analysis - Taviani,Elisa; Grim,Christopher J.; Choi,Jinna; Jongsik Chun; Haley,Bradd; Hasan,Nur A.; Huq,Anwar; Rita R Colwell (FEMS Microbiology Letters, 2010)
This report describes Vibrio seventh pandemic island II (VSP-II) and three novel variants revealed by comparative genomics of 23 Vibrio cholerae strains and their presence among a large and diverse collection of V. cholerae isolates. Three VSP-II variants were reported previously and our results demonstrate the presence of three novel VSP-II in clinical and environmental V. cholerae marked by major deletions and genetic rearrangements. A new VSP-II cluster was found in the seventh pandemic V. cholerae O1 El Tor strain CIRS101, which is dominant (95%) among the recent (2004–2007) seven pandemic V. cholerae O1 El Tor isolates from two endemic sites, but was not found in older strains from the same region. Two other variants were found in V. cholerae TMA21 and RC385, two environmental strains from coastal Brazil and the Chesapeake Bay, respectively, the latter being prevalent among environmental V. cholerae non-O1/non-O139 and Vibrio mimicus. The results of this study indicate that the VSP-II island has undergone significant rearrangement through a complex evolutionary pathway in V. cholerae. Interestingly, one of the new VSP-II revealed the presence of ‘old’ and ‘new’V. cholerae O1 El Tor pandemic clones circulating in some of the areas where cholera is endemic.
Keywords: Vibrio cholerae; Vibrio mimicus; VPS‐II

Diversity and distribution of cholix toxin, a novel ADP‐ribosylating factor from Vibrio cholerae - Purdy,Alexandra E.; Balch,Deborah; Lizárraga‐Partida,Marcial Leonardo; Islam,Mohammad Sirajul; Martinez‐Urtaza,Jaime; Huq,Anwar; Rita R Colwell; Bartlett,Douglas H. (Environmental Microbiology Reports, 2010)
Non-toxigenic non-O1, non-O139 Vibrio cholerae strains isolated from both environmental and clinical settings carry a suite of virulence factors aside from cholera toxin. Among V. cholerae strains isolated from coastal waters of southern California, this includes cholix toxin, an ADP-ribosylating factor that is capable of halting protein synthesis in eukaryotic cells. The prevalence of the gene encoding cholix toxin, chxA, was assessed among a collection of 155 diverse V. cholerae strains originating from both clinical and environmental settings in Bangladesh and Mexico and other countries around the globe. The chxA gene was present in 47% of 83 non-O1, non-O139 strains and 16% of 72 O1/O139 strains screened as part of this study. A total of 86 chxA gene sequences were obtained, and phylogenetic analysis revealed that they fall into two distinct clades. These two clades were also observed in the phylogenies of several housekeeping genes, suggesting that the divergence observed in chxA extends to other regions of the V. cholerae genome, and most likely has arisen from vertical descent rather than horizontal transfer. Our results clearly indicate that ChxA is a major toxin of V. cholerae with a worldwide distribution that is preferentially associated with non-pandemic strains.

Dynamically checking ownership policies in concurrent c/c++ programs - Martin,Jean-Phillipe; Hicks, Michael W.; Costa,Manuel; Akritidis,Periklis; Castro,Miguel (Proceedings of the 37th annual ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT symposium on Principles of programming languages, 2010)
Concurrent programming errors arise when threads share data incorrectly. Programmers often avoid these errors by using synchronization to enforce a simple ownership policy: data is either owned exclusively by a thread that can read or write the data, or it is read owned by a set of threads that can read but not write the data. Unfortunately, incorrect synchronization often fails to enforce these policies and memory errors in languages like C and C++ can violate these policies even when synchronization is correct. In this paper, we present a dynamic analysis for checking ownership policies in concurrent C and C++ programs despite memory errors. The analysis can be used to find errors in commodity multi-threaded programs and to prevent attacks that exploit these errors. We require programmers to write ownership assertions that describe the sharing policies used by different parts of the program. These policies may change over time, as may the policies' means of enforcement, whether it be locks, barriers, thread joins, etc. Our compiler inserts checks in the program that signal an error if these policies are violated at runtime. We evaluated our tool on several benchmark programs. The run-time overhead was reasonable: between 0 and 49% with an average of 26%. We also found the tool easy to use: the total number of ownership assertions is small, and the asserted specification and implementation can be debugged together by running the instrumented program and addressing the errors that arise. Our approach enjoys a pleasing modular soundness property: if a thread executes a sequence of statements on variables it owns, the statements are serializable within a valid execution, and thus their effects can be reasoned about in isolation from other threads in the program.
Keywords: concurrency; Debugging; Dynamic analysis; Security; Testing; tools

Effect on Human Cells of Environmental Vibrio Parahaemolyticus Strains Carrying Type III Secretion System 2 - Caburlotto,Greta; Lleò,Maria M.; Hilton,Tamara; Huq,Anwar; Rita R Colwell; Kaper,James B. (Infection and ImmunityInfect. Immun., 2010)
Vibrio parahaemolyticus is an inhabitant of estuarine and marine environments that causes seafood-borne gastroenteritis worldwide. Recently, a type 3 secretion system (T3SS2) able to secrete and translocate virulence factors into the eukaryotic cell has been identified in a pathogenicity island (VP-PAI) located on the smaller chromosome. These virulence-related genes have previously been detected only in clinical strains. Classical virulence genes for this species (tdh, trh) are rarely detected in environmental strains, which are usually considered to lack virulence potential. However, during screening of a collection of environmental V. parahaemolyticus isolates obtained in the North Adriatic Sea in Italy, a number of marine strains carrying virulence-related genes, including genes involved in the T3SS2, were detected. In this study, we investigated the pathogenic potential of these marine V. parahaemolyticus strains by studying their adherence ability, their cytotoxicity, their effect on zonula occludin protein 1 (ZO-1) of the tight junctions, and their effect on transepithelial resistance (TER) in infected Caco-2 cells. By performing a reverse transcription-PCR, we also tested the expression of the T3SS2 genes vopT and vopB2, encoding an effector and a translocon protein, respectively. Our results indicate that, similarly to clinical strains, marine V. parahaemolyticus strains carrying vopT and vopB2 and that other genes included in the VP-PAI are capable of adhering to human cells and of causing cytoskeletal disruption and loss of membrane integrity in infected cells. On the basis of data presented here, environmental V. parahaemolyticus strains should be included in coastal water surveillance plans, as they may represent a risk for human health.

An Efficient and Robust Algorithm for Shape Indexing and Retrieval - Biswas,S.; Aggarwal,G.; Chellapa, Rama (Multimedia, IEEE Transactions on, 2010)
Many shape matching methods are either fast but too simplistic to give the desired performance or promising as far as performance is concerned but computationally demanding. In this paper, we present a very simple and efficient approach that not only performs almost as good as many state-of-the-art techniques but also scales up to large databases. In the proposed approach, each shape is indexed based on a variety of simple and easily computable features which are invariant to articulations, rigid transformations, etc. The features characterize pairwise geometric relationships between interest points on the shape. The fact that each shape is represented using a number of distributed features instead of a single global feature that captures the shape in its entirety provides robustness to the approach. Shapes in the database are ordered according to their similarity with the query shape and similar shapes are retrieved using an efficient scheme which does not involve costly operations like shape-wise alignment or establishing correspondences. Depending on the application, the approach can be used directly for matching or as a first step for obtaining a short list of candidate shapes for more rigorous matching. We show that the features proposed to perform shape indexing can be used to perform the rigorous matching as well, to further improve the retrieval performance.
Keywords: activity; algorithm; shape; classification; human; databases; robust; estimation; large; indexing; shape; MATCHING; matching; image; methods; shape; pose; recognition; retrieval; image; retrieval; indexing; shape

Emergence of cooperative societies in evolutionary games - Cheng,Kan-Leung; Zuckerman,Inon; Kuter,Ugur; Nau, Dana S. (ACM, 2010)
We utilize evolutionary game theory to study the evolution of cooperative societies and the behaviors of individual agents (i.e., players) in it. We present a novel player model based upon empirical evidence from the social and behavioral sciences, stating that: (1) an individual's behavior may often be motivated not only by self-interest but also by the consequences for the others, and (2) individuals vary in their interpersonal social tendencies, which reflect stable personal orientations that influence their choices. Alongside the formal player model we provide an analysis that considers possible interactions between different types of individuals. We present series of evolutionary simulations that ratify previous findings on evolution of cooperation, and provide new insights on the evolutionary process of cooperative behavior in a society as well as on the emergence of cooperative societies. Our main experimental result demonstrate that in contrast to previous common knowledge, increasing the value of mutual Reward or increasing mutual Punishment in the Prisoner's dilemma game do not result in the same type of cooperative society: while increasing R does result in a more cooperative society, increasing P does not.
Keywords: evolutionary game theory; social orientations

Environmental reservoirs of Vibrio cholerae and their role in cholera - Vezzulli,Luigi; Pruzzo,Carla; Huq,Anwar; Rita R Colwell (Environmental Microbiology Reports, 2010)
In the aquatic environment, Vibrio cholerae has been reported to be associated with a variety of living organisms, including animals with an exoskeleton of chitin, aquatic plants, protozoa, bivalves, waterbirds, as well as abiotic substrates (e.g. sediments). Most of these are well-known or putative environmental reservoirs for the bacterium, defined as places where the pathogen lives over time, with the potential to be released and to cause human infection. Environmental reservoirs also serve as V. cholerae disseminators and vectors. They can be responsible for the start of an epidemic, may be critical to cholera endemicity, and affect the evolution of pathogen virulence. To date, in addition to the generally recognized role of zooplankton as the largest environmental reservoir for V. cholerae, other environmental reservoirs play some role in cholera epidemiology by favouring persistence of the pathogen during inter-epidemic periods. Little is known about the ecological factors affecting V. cholerae survival in association with aquatic substrates. Studies aimed at these aspects, i.e. understanding how environmental reservoirs interact, are affected by climate, and contribute to disease epidemiology, will be useful for understanding global implications of V. cholerae and the disease cholera.

Evaluating Call-By-Need on the Control Stack - Chang, Stephen; David Van Horn; Felleisen, Matthias (arXiv:1009.3174 [cs], 2010)
Ariola and Felleisen's call-by-need λ-calculus replaces a variable occurrence with its value at the last possible moment. To support this gradual notion of substitution, function applications-once established-are never discharged. In this paper we show how to translate this notion of reduction into an abstract machine that resolves variable references via the control stack. In particular, the machine uses the static address of a variable occurrence to extract its current value from the dynamic control stack.
Comment: Symposium on Trends in Functional Programming (TFP 2010), Norman, Oklahoma, May 2010
Keywords: Computer Science - Programming Languages; D.3.1

Evaluation of state-of-the-art algorithms for remote face recognition - Ni,Jie; Chellapa, Rama (Image Processing (ICIP), 2010 17th IEEE International Conference on, 2010)
In this paper, we describe a remote face database which has been acquired in an unconstrained outdoor environment. The face images in this database suffer from variations due to blur, poor illumination, pose, and occlusion. It is well known that many state-of-the-art still image-based face recognition algorithms work well, when constrained (frontal, well illuminated, high-resolution, sharp, and complete) face images are presented. In this paper, we evaluate the effectiveness of a subset of existing still image-based face recognition algorithms for the remote face data set. We demonstrate that in addition to applying a good classification algorithm, consistent detection of faces with fewer false alarms and finding features that are robust to variations mentioned above are very important for remote face recognition. Also setting up a comprehensive metric to evaluate the quality of face images is necessary in order to reject images that are of low quality.
Keywords: alarm; feature; algorithm; still; classification; image; classification; visual; database; remote; databases; extraction; hidden; extraction; image; Face; feature; image-based; image; false; quality; occlusion; remote; recognition; face; recognition; feature; recognition; state-of-the-art; removal; image

Evaluation of the Interaction of Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 5 with Activator p25 and with p25-Derived Inhibitor CIP - Cardone, Antonio; Albers,R.W.; Sriram,R.D.; Pant,H.C. (Journal of Computational Biology, 2010)

Evolution of state-dependent risk preferences - Roos,Patrick; Carr,J. Ryan; Nau, Dana S. (ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology (TIST), 2010)
Researchers have invested much effort in constructing models of the state-dependent (sometimes risk-averse and sometimes risk-prone) nature of human decision making. An important open question is how state-dependent risk behavior can arise and remain prominent in populations. We believe that one part of the answer is the interplay between risk-taking and sequentiality of choices in populations subject to evolutionary population dynamics. To support this hypothesis, we provide simulation and analytical results for evolutionary lottery games, including results on evolutionary stability. We consider a parameterized class of imitation dynamics in which the parameter 0 ≤ α ≤ 1 yields the replicator dynamic with α = 1 and the imitate-the-better dynamic with α = 0. Our results demonstrate that for every population dynamic in this class except for the replicator dynamic, the interplay between risk-taking and sequentiality of choices allows state-dependent risk behavior to have an evolutionary advantage over expected-value maximization.
Keywords: decision theory; Evolutionary games; Population Dynamics; risk

Evolutionary framework for Lepidoptera model systems - Roe,A.; Weller,S.; Baixeras,J.; Brown,J. W; Cummings, Michael P.; Davis,DR; Horak,M; Kawahara,A. Y; Mitter,C; Parr,C.S.; Regier,J. C; Rubinoff,D; et al. (Genetics and Molecular Biology of LepidopteraGenetics and Molecular Biology of Lepidoptera, 2010)
“Model systems” are specific organisms upon which detailed studies have been conducted examining a fundamental biological question. If the studies are robust, their results can be extrapolated among an array of organisms that possess features in common with the subject organism. The true power of model systems lies in the ability to extrapolate these details across larger groups of organisms. In order to generalize these results, comparative studies are essential and require that model systems be placed into their evolutionary or phylogenetic context. This chapter examines model systems in the insect order Lepidoptera from the perspective of several different superfamilies. Historically, many species of Lepidoptera have been essential in the development of invaluable model systems in the fields of development biology, genetics, molecular biology, physiology, co-evolution, population dynamics, and ecology.

Face Recognition by Computers and Humans - Chellapa, Rama; Sinha, P.; Phillips,P.J. (Computer, 2010)
This article talks about how the study of how humans perceive faces can be used to help design practical systems for face recognition. Besides applications related to identification and verification-such as access control, law enforcement, ID and licensing, and surveillance-face recognition has also proven useful in applications such as human-computer interaction, virtual reality, database retrieval, multimedia, and computer entertainment. Continuing research into face recognition will provide scientists and engineers with many vital projects, in areas such as homeland security, human-computer interaction, and numerous consumer applications. The areas we are considering pursuing are recognition from unconstrained video sequences, incorporating familiarity into algorithms, modeling effects of aging, and developing biologically plausible models for human face recognition ability.
Keywords: access; Computer; control; aging; computer; control; face; entertainment; database; interaction; national; interaction; unconstrained; reality; access; recognition; homeland; recognition; human; retrieval; face; security; security; human; sequences; virtual; video

Fast directional chamfer matching - Ming-Yu Liu; Tuzel, O.; Veeraraghavan,A.; Chellapa, Rama (Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2010 IEEE Conference on, 2010)
We study the object localization problem in images given a single hand-drawn example or a gallery of shapes as the object model. Although many shape matching algorithms have been proposed for the problem over the decades, chamfer matching remains to be the preferred method when speed and robustness are considered. In this paper, we significantly improve the accuracy of chamfer matching while reducing the computational time from linear to sublinear (shown empirically). Specifically, we incorporate edge orientation information in the matching algorithm such that the resulting cost function is piecewise smooth and the cost variation is tightly bounded. Moreover, we present a sublinear time algorithm for exact computation of the directional chamfer matching score using techniques from 3D distance transforms and directional integral images. In addition, the smooth cost function allows to bound the cost distribution of large neighborhoods and skip the bad hypotheses within. Experiments show that the proposed approach improves the speed of the original chamfer matching upto an order of 45 #x00D7;, and it is much faster than many state of art techniques while the accuracy is comparable.
Keywords: 3D; algorithm; edge; algorithms; single; chamfer; cost; detection; image; directional; distance; distribution; cost; example; smooth; function; sublinear; hand-drawn; images; edge; information; fast; integral; localization; MATCHING; matching; gallery; matching; transforms; model; piecewise; of; orientation; problem; object; score; directional; shapes; object; smooth; shape; TIME; time; cost; transforms; computational; variation; directional

Finishing genomes with limited resources: lessons from an ensemble of microbial genomes - Nagarajan,Niranjan; Cook,Christopher; Di Bonaventura,Maria Pia; Ge,Hong; Richards,Allen; Bishop-Lilly,Kimberly A; DeSalle,Robert; Read,Timothy D.; Pop, Mihai (BMC Genomics, 2010)
While new sequencing technologies have ushered in an era where microbial genomes can be easily sequenced, the goal of routinely producing high-quality draft and finished genomes in a cost-effective fashion has still remained elusive. Due to shorter read lengths and limitations in library construction protocols, shotgun sequencing and assembly based on these technologies often results in fragmented assemblies. Correspondingly, while draft assemblies can be obtained in days, finishing can take many months and hence the time and effort can only be justified for high-priority genomes and in large sequencing centers. In this work, we revisit this issue in light of our own experience in producing finished and nearly-finished genomes for a range of microbial species in a small-lab setting. These genomes were finished with surprisingly little investments in terms of time, computational effort and lab work, suggesting that the increased access to sequencing might also eventually lead to a greater proportion of finished genomes from small labs and genomics cores.

A framework for theoretical analysis of content fingerprinting - Varna,A.L.; Chuang,W.H.; Wu,M. (Proc. of SPIE Media Forensics and Security, 2010)
The popularity of video sharing platforms such as Youtube has prompted the need for the development of efficienttechniques for multimedia identification. Content fingerprinting is a promising solution for this problem, whereby a short “fingerprint” that captures robust and unique characteristics of a signal is computed from each multimedia document. This fingerprint is then compared with a database to identify the multimedia. Several fingerprinting techniques have been proposed in the literature and have been evaluated using experiments. To complement these experimental evaluations and gain a deeper understanding, this paper proposes a framework for theoretical modeling and analysis of content fingerprinting schemes. Analysis of some key modules for fingerprint encoding and matching are also presented under this framework.

GasSense: Appliance-Level, Single-Point Sensing of Gas Activity in the Home - Cohn,Gabe; Gupta,Sidhant; Jon Froehlich; Larson,Eric; Patel,Shwetak (Pervasive Computing, 2010)
This paper presents GasSense, a low-cost, single-point sensing solution for automatically identifying gas use down to its source (e.g., water heater, furnace, fireplace). This work adds a complementary sensing solution to the growing body of work in infrastructure-mediated sensing. GasSense analyzes the acoustic response of a home’s government mandated gas regulator, which provides the unique capability of sensing both the individual appliance at which gas is currently being consumed as well as an estimate of the amount of gas flow. Our approach provides a number of appealing features including the ability to be easily and safely installed without the need of a professional. We deployed our solution in nine different homes and initial results show that GasSense has an average accuracy of 95.2% in identifying individual appliance usage.

General-purpose vs. gpu: Comparison of many-cores on irregular workloads - Caragea,G.C.; Keceli,F.; Tzannes,A.; Vishkin, Uzi (Proceedings of the Second Usenix Workshop on Hot Topics in Parallelism, 2010)
XMT1 is a general-purpose many-core parallel architec-ture. The foremost design objective for XMT was to meet the highest standards for ease of parallel programming. GPUs, on the other hand, have acquired a strong reputa- tion on performance, sometimes at the expense of ease- of-programming. The current paper presents a perfor- mance comparison on diverse workloads between XMT and an NVIDIA CUDA-enabled GPU. Configured with roughly the same amount of chip resources as the GPU, XMT achieves an average speedup of 6.05x on irregu- lar applications, while incurring an average slowdown of 2.07x on regular ones. Namely, XMT comes ahead for significant applications without having to pay a (possibly worthwhile) price for easier programming. This surpris- ing result suggests a yet untapped opportunity: A high- performance easy-to-program general-purpose 1000-core computer.

Genome Sequence of Hybrid Vibrio Cholerae O1 MJ-1236, B-33, and CIRS101 and Comparative Genomics with V. Cholerae - Grim,Christopher J.; Hasan,Nur A.; Taviani,Elisa; Haley,Bradd; Jongsik Chun; Brettin,Thomas S.; Bruce,David C.; Detter,J. Chris; Han,Cliff S.; Chertkov,Olga; Challacombe,Jean; Huq,Anwar; et al. (Journal of BacteriologyJ. Bacteriol., 2010)
The genomes of Vibrio cholerae O1 Matlab variant MJ-1236, Mozambique O1 El Tor variant B33, and altered O1 El Tor CIRS101 were sequenced. All three strains were found to belong to the phylocore group 1 clade of V. cholerae, which includes the 7th-pandemic O1 El Tor and serogroup O139 isolates, despite displaying certain characteristics of the classical biotype. All three strains were found to harbor a hybrid variant of CTXΦ and an integrative conjugative element (ICE), leading to their establishment as successful clinical clones and the displacement of prototypical O1 El Tor. The absence of strain- and group-specific genomic islands, some of which appear to be prophages and phage-like elements, seems to be the most likely factor in the recent establishment of dominance of V. cholerae CIRS101 over the other two hybrid strains.

Genomic characterization of the Yersinia genus - Chen, P.E.; Cook, C.; Stewart, A.C.; Nagarajan,N.; Sommer, D.D.; Pop, Mihai; Thomason, B.; Thomason, M.P.K.; Lentz, S.; Nolan, N.; others (Genome biology, 2010)

Group motion segmentation using a Spatio-Temporal Driving Force Model - Ruonan Li; Chellapa, Rama (Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2010 IEEE Conference on, 2010)
We consider the `group motion segmentation' problem and provide a solution for it. The group motion segmentation problem aims at analyzing motion trajectories of multiple objects in video and finding among them the ones involved in a `group motion pattern'. This problem is motivated by and serves as the basis for the `multi-object activity recognition' problem, which is currently an active research topic in event analysis and activity recognition. Specifically, we learn a Spatio-Temporal Driving Force Model to characterize a group motion pattern and design an approach for segmenting the group motion. We illustrate the approach using videos of American football plays, where we identify the offensive players, who follow an offensive motion pattern, from motions of all players in the field. Experiments using GaTech Football Play Dataset validate the effectiveness of the segmentation algorithm.
Keywords: activity; American; analysis; image; dataset; group; driving; football; force; model; image; MOTION; pattern; group; play; plays; GaTech; problem; spatiotemporal; recognition; recognition; image; segmentation; segmentation; motion; trajectories; multiobject

GUI testing using computer vision - Chang,Tsung-Hsiang; Tom Yeh; Miller,Robert C. (Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Human factors in computing systems, 2010)
Testing a GUI's visual behavior typically requires human testers to interact with the GUI and to observe whether the expected results of interaction are presented. This paper presents a new approach to GUI testing using computer vision for testers to automate their tasks. Testers can write a visual test script that uses images to specify which GUI components to interact with and what visual feedback to be observed. Testers can also generate visual test scripts by demonstration. By recording both input events and screen images, it is possible to extract the images of components interacted with and the visual feedback seen by the demonstrator, and generate a visual test script automatically. We show that a variety of GUI behavior can be tested using this approach. Also, we show how this approach can facilitate good testing practices such as unit testing, regression testing, and test-driven development.
Keywords: gui automation; GUI testing; test by demonstration

Identification of Pathogenic Vibrio Species by Multilocus PCR-Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry and Its Application to Aquatic Environments of the Former Soviet Republic of Georgia - Whitehouse,Chris A.; Baldwin,Carson; Sampath,Rangarajan; Blyn,Lawrence B.; Melton,Rachael; Li,Feng; Hall,Thomas A.; Harpin,Vanessa; Matthews,Heather; Tediashvili,Marina; Jaiani,Ekaterina; Kokashvili,Tamar; et al. (Applied and Environmental MicrobiologyAppl. Environ. Microbiol., 2010)
The Ibis T5000 is a novel diagnostic platform that couples PCR and mass spectrometry. In this study, we developed an assay that can identify all known pathogenic Vibrio species and field-tested it using natural water samples from both freshwater lakes and the Georgian coastal zone of the Black Sea. Of the 278 total water samples screened, 9 different Vibrio species were detected, 114 (41%) samples were positive for V. cholerae, and 5 (0.8%) samples were positive for the cholera toxin A gene (ctxA). All ctxA-positive samples were from two freshwater lakes, and no ctxA-positive samples from any of the Black Sea sites were detected.

Identifying Modifiers in Web Queries Over Structured Data - Paparizos,Stelios; Joshi,Amrula Sadanand; Getoor, Lise; Ntoulas,Alexandros (2010)
Described is using modifiers in online search queries for queries that map to a database table. A modifier (e.g., an adjective or a preposition) specifies the intended meaning of a target, in which the target maps to a column in that table. The modifier thus corresponds to one or more functions that determine which rows of data in the column match the query, e.g., “cameras under $400” maps to a camera (or product) table, and “under” is the modifier that represents a function (less than) that is used to evaluate a “price” target/data column. Also described are different classes of modifiers, and generating the dictionaries for a domain (corresponding to a table) via query log mining.

Image classification of vascular smooth muscle cells - Grasso,Michael A.; Mokashi,Ronil; Dalvi,Darshana; Cardone, Antonio; Dima,Alden A.; Bhadriraju,Kiran; Plant,Anne L.; Brady,Mary; Yesha,Yaacov; Yesha,Yelena (Proceedings of the 1st ACM International Health Informatics Symposium, 2010)
Keywords: cell biology; digital image processing; machine learning

Intensity normalization improves color calling in SOLiD sequencing - Wu,Hao; Irizarry,Rafael A; Corrada Bravo, Hector (Nat MethNat Meth, 2010)

Investigating multi-label classification for human values - Ishita,E.; Oard, Douglas; Fleischmann,K.R.; Cheng,A.S.; Templeton,T.C. (Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2010)

Large-scale matrix factorization with missing data under additional constraints - Mitra, K.; Sheorey,S.; Chellapa, Rama (Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, 2010)
Matrix factorization in the presence of missing data is at the core of many com-puter vision problems such as structure from motion (SfM), non-rigid SfM and photometric stereo. We formulate the problem of matrix factorization with miss- ing data as a low-rank semidefinite program (LRSDP) with the advantage that: 1) an efficient quasi-Newton implementation of the LRSDP enables us to solve large-scale factorization problems, and 2) additional constraints such as ortho- normality, required in orthographic SfM, can be directly incorporated in the new formulation. Our empirical evaluations suggest that, under the conditions of ma- trix completion theory, the proposed algorithm finds the optimal solution, and also requires fewer observations compared to the current state-of-the-art algorithms. We further demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in solving the affine SfM problem, non-rigid SfM and photometric stereo problems.

Lazy binary-splitting: a run-time adaptive work-stealing scheduler - Tzannes,Alexandros; Caragea,George C.; Barua,Rajeev; Vishkin, Uzi (Proceedings of the 15th ACM SIGPLAN Symposium on Principles and Practice of Parallel Programming, 2010)
We present Lazy Binary Splitting (LBS), a user-level scheduler of nested parallelism for shared-memory multiprocessors that builds on existing Eager Binary Splitting work-stealing (EBS) implemented in Intel's Threading Building Blocks (TBB), but improves performance and ease-of-programming. In its simplest form (SP), EBS requires manual tuning by repeatedly running the application under carefully controlled conditions to determine a stop-splitting-threshold (sst)for every do-all loop in the code. This threshold limits the parallelism and prevents excessive overheads for fine-grain parallelism. Besides being tedious, this tuning also over-fits the code to some particular dataset, platform and calling context of the do-all loop, resulting in poor performance portability for the code. LBS overcomes both the performance portability and ease-of-programming pitfalls of a manually fixed threshold by adapting dynamically to run-time conditions without requiring tuning. We compare LBS to Auto-Partitioner (AP), the latest default scheduler of TBB, which does not require manual tuning either but lacks context portability, and outperform it by 38.9% using TBB's default AP configuration, and by 16.2% after we tuned AP to our experimental platform. We also compare LBS to SP by manually finding SP's sst using a training dataset and then running both on a different execution dataset. LBS outperforms SP by 19.5% on average. while allowing for improved performance portability without requiring tedious manual tuning. LBS also outperforms SP with sst=1, its default value when undefined, by 56.7%, and serializing work-stealing (SWS), another work-stealer by 54.7%. Finally, compared to serializing inner parallelism (SI) which has been used by OpenMP, LBS is 54.2% faster.
Keywords: Dynamic scheduling; load balancing; nested parallelism; thread scheduling; work stealing

A Learning Approach Towards Detection and Tracking of Lane Markings - Gopalan,R.; Hong, T.; Shneier, M.; Chellapa, Rama (IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 2010)
Road scene analysis is a challenging problem that has applications in autonomous navigation of vehicles. An integral component of this system is the robust detection and tracking of lane markings. It is a hard problem primarily due to large appearance variations in lane markings caused by factors such as occlusion (traffic on the road), shadows (from objects like trees), and changing lighting conditions of the scene (transition from day to night). In this paper, we address these issues through a learning-based approach using visual inputs from a camera mounted in front of a vehicle. We propose the following: 1) a pixel-hierarchy feature descriptor to model the contextual information shared by lane markings with the surrounding road region; 2) a robust boosting algorithm to select relevant contextual features for detecting lane markings; and 3) particle filters to track the lane markings, without knowledge of vehicle speed, by assuming the lane markings to be static through the video sequence and then learning the possible road scene variations from the statistics of tracked model parameters. We investigate the effectiveness of our algorithm on challenging daylight and night-time road video sequences.
Keywords: Boosting; Context; Context modeling; Feature extraction; lane marking detection; outlier robustness; Roads; tracking and learning; Training; Vehicles

Mining Public Transport Usage for Personalised Intelligent Transport Systems - Lathia,N.; Jon Froehlich; Capra,L. (2010 IEEE 10th International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM), 2010)
Traveller information, route planning, and service updates have become essential components of public transport systems: they help people navigate built environments by providing access to information regarding delays and service disruptions. However, one aspect that these systems lack is a way of tailoring the information they offer in order to provide personalised trip time estimates and relevant notifications to each traveller. Mining each user's travel history, collected by automated ticketing systems, has the potential to address this gap. In this work, we analyse one such dataset of travel history on the London underground. We then propose and evaluate methods to (a) predict personalised trip times for the system users and (b) rank stations based on future mobility patterns, in order to identify the subset of stations that are of greatest interest to the user and thus provide useful travel updates.
Keywords: automated ticketing systems; data mining; Intelligent Transport Systems; London underground; mobility patterns; personalised intelligent transport systems; personalised trip times; Personalization; public administration; public information systems; public transport systems; rapid transit systems; route planning; service disruptions; service updates; traffic information systems; travel history; traveller information

Mixing type checking and symbolic execution - Khoo,Y.P.; Chang,B.Y.E.; Foster, Jeffrey S. (ACM SIGPLAN Notices, 2010)

Moving vistas: Exploiting motion for describing scenes - Shroff, N.; Turaga,P.; Chellapa, Rama (2010 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2010)
Scene recognition in an unconstrained setting is an open and challenging problem with wide applications. In this paper, we study the role of scene dynamics for improved representation of scenes. We subsequently propose dynamic attributes which can be augmented with spatial attributes of a scene for semantically meaningful categorization of dynamic scenes. We further explore accurate and generalizable computational models for characterizing the dynamics of unconstrained scenes. The large intra-class variation due to unconstrained settings and the complex underlying physics present challenging problems in modeling scene dynamics. Motivated by these factors, we propose using the theory of chaotic systems to capture dynamics. Due to the lack of a suitable dataset, we compiled a dataset of `in-the-wild' dynamic scenes. Experimental results show that the proposed framework leads to the best classification rate among other well-known dynamic modeling techniques. We also show how these dynamic features provide a means to describe dynamic scenes with motion-attributes, which then leads to meaningful organization of the video data.
Keywords: Application software; Automation; Chaos; chaotic system; Computational modeling; Computer vision; dynamic scene categorization; Educational institutions; HUMANS; image recognition; in the wild dynamic scene; Layout; motion attribute; natural scenes; Physics; probability; scene recognition; Snow; video data

Multiscale directional filtering of noisy InSAR phase images - Patel, Vishal M.; Easley,Glenn R; Chellapa, Rama (Proceedings of SPIE, 2010)
In this work, we present a new approach for the problem of interferometric phase noise reduction in synthetic aperture radar interferometry based on the shearlet representation. Shearlets provide a multidirectional and multiscale decomposition that have advantages when dealing with noisy phase fringes over standard filtering methods. Using a shearlet decomposition of a noisy phase image, we can adaptively estimate a phase representation in a multiscale and anisotropic fashion. Such denoised phase interferograms can be used to provide much better digital elevation maps (DEM). Experiments show that this method performs significantly better than many competitive methods.

Nearest-neighbor search algorithms on non-Euclidean manifolds for computer vision applications - Turaga,Pavan; Chellapa, Rama (Proceedings of the Seventh Indian Conference on Computer Vision, Graphics and Image Processing, 2010)
Nearest-neighbor searching is a crucial component in many computer vision applications such as face recognition, object recognition, texture classification, and activity recognition. When large databases are involved in these applications, it is also important to perform these searches in a fast manner. Depending on the problem at hand, nearest neighbor strategies need to be devised over feature and model spaces which in many cases are not Euclidean in nature. Thus, metrics that are tuned to the geometry of this space are required which are also known as geodesics. In this paper, we address the problem of fast nearest neighbor searching in non-Euclidean spaces, where in addition to dealing with the large size of the dataset, the significant computational load involves geodesic computations. We study the applicability of the various classes of nearest neighbor algorithms toward this end. Exact nearest neighbor methods that rely solely on the existence of a metric can be extended, albeit with a huge computational cost. We derive an approximate method of searching via approximate embeddings using the logarithmic map. We study the error incurred in such an embedding and show that it performs well in real experiments.
Keywords: Grassmann manifold; hashing; manifold; nearest-neighbor; region covariance; shapes

Nfsight: netflow-based network awareness tool - Berthier,R.; Michel Cukier; Hiltunen,M.; Kormann,D.; Vesonder,G.; Sheleheda,D. (2010)
Network awareness is highly critical for network and se-curity administrators. It enables informed planning and management of network resources, as well as detection and a comprehensive understanding of malicious activ- ity. It requires a set of tools to efficiently collect, process, and represent network data. While many such tools al- ready exist, there is no flexible and practical solution for visualizing network activity at various granularities, and quickly gaining insights about the status of network as- sets. To address this issue, we developed Nfsight, a Net- Flow processing and visualization application designed to offer a comprehensive network awareness solution. Nfsight constructs bidirectional flows out of the unidi- rectional NetFlow flows and leverages these bidirectional flows to provide client/server identification and intrusion detection capabilities. We present in this paper the in- ternal architecture of Nfsight, the evaluation of the ser- vice, and intrusion detection algorithms. We illustrate the contributions of Nfsight through several case studies conducted by security administrators on a large univer- sity network.

Object Classification Using Taxonomies - Tsaparas,Panayiotis; Papadimitriou,Panagiotis; Fuxman,Ariel D.; Getoor, Lise; Agrawal,Rakesh (2010)
As provided herein objects from a source catalog, such as a provider's catalog, can be added to a target catalog, such as an enterprise master catalog, in a scalable manner utilizing catalog taxonomies. A baseline classifier determines probabilities for source objects to target catalog classes. Source objects can be assigned to those classes with probabilities that meet a desired threshold and meet a desired rate. A classification cost for target classes can be determined for respective unassigned source objects, which can comprise determining an assignment cost and separation cost for the source objects for respective desired target classes. The separation and assignment costs can be combined to determine the classification cost, and the unassigned source objects can be assigned to those classes having a desired classification cost.

Object Dependent Manifold Priors for Image Deconvolution - Ni,Jie; Turaga,Pavan; M.Patel,Vishal; Chellapa, Rama (Digital Image Processing and Analysis, 2010)
In this paper we propose a manifold based deconvolution algorithm by estimating a manifold from a set of natural images that exploits the availability of the sample class data for regularizing the deblurring problem.
Keywords: Deconvolution; IMAGE PROCESSING; Inverse problems

Occurrence of the Vibrio cholerae seventh pandemic VSP-I island and a new variant - Grim,Christopher J.; Choi,Jinna; Jongsik Chun; Jeon,Yoon-Seong; Taviani,Elisa; Hasan,Nur A.; Haley,Bradd; Huq,Anwar; Rita R Colwell (OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology, 2010)

One experience collecting sensitive mobile data - Niu, Y.; Elaine Shi; Chow, R.; Golle, P.; Jakobsson, M. (2010)
We report on our efforts to collect behavioral data basedon activities recorded by phones. We recruited Android de- vice owners and offered entry into a raffle for participants. Our application was distributed from the Android Market, and its placement there unexpectedly helped us find par- ticipants from casual users browsing for free applications. We collected data from 267 total participants who gave us varying amounts of data.

Online Empirical Evaluation of Tracking Algorithms - Wu,Hao; Sankaranarayanan,A. C; Chellapa, Rama (IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 2010)
Evaluation of tracking algorithms in the absence of ground truth is a challenging problem. There exist a variety of approaches for this problem, ranging from formal model validation techniques to heuristics that look for mismatches between track properties and the observed data. However, few of these methods scale up to the task of visual tracking, where the models are usually nonlinear and complex and typically lie in a high-dimensional space. Further, scenarios that cause track failures and/or poor tracking performance are also quite diverse for the visual tracking problem. In this paper, we propose an online performance evaluation strategy for tracking systems based on particle filters using a time-reversed Markov chain. The key intuition of our proposed methodology relies on the time-reversible nature of physical motion exhibited by most objects, which in turn should be possessed by a good tracker. In the presence of tracking failures due to occlusion, low SNR, or modeling errors, this reversible nature of the tracker is violated. We use this property for detection of track failures. To evaluate the performance of the tracker at time instant t, we use the posterior of the tracking algorithm to initialize a time-reversed Markov chain. We compute the posterior density of track parameters at the starting time t = 0 by filtering back in time to the initial time instant. The distance between the posterior density of the time-reversed chain (at t = 0) and the prior density used to initialize the tracking algorithm forms the decision statistic for evaluation. It is observed that when the data are generated by the underlying models, the decision statistic takes a low value. We provide a thorough experimental analysis of the evaluation methodology. Specifically, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach for tackling common challenges such as occlusion, pose, and illumination changes and provide the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves. Finally, we also s how the applicability of the core ideas of the paper to other tracking algorithms such as the Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi (KLT) feature tracker and the mean-shift tracker.
Keywords: Back; Biomedical imaging; Computer vision; Filtering; formal model validation techniques; formal verification; ground truth; Kanade Lucas Tomasi feature tracker; Karhunen-Loeve transforms; lighting; Markov processes; mean shift tracker; model validation.; online empirical evaluation; particle filtering (numerical methods); Particle filters; Particle tracking; performance evaluation; receiver operating characteristic curves; Robustness; SNR; Statistics; Surveillance; time reversed Markov chain; tracking; tracking algorithms; visual tracking

Overlap-based cell tracker - Chalfoun, J; Cardone, Antonio; Dima, A.A.; Allen, D.P.; Halter, M.W. (The Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2010)
order to facilitate the extraction of quantitative data from live cell image sets, automated image analysis methods are needed. This paper presents an introduction to the general principle of an overlap cell tracking software developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This cell tracker has the ability to track cells across a set of time lapse images acquired at high rates based on the amount of overlap between cellular regions in consecutive frames. It is designed to be highly flexible, requires little user parameterization, and has a fast execution time.

PADS: A Probabilistic Activity Detection Framework for Video Data - Albanese, M.; Chellapa, Rama; Cuntoor, N.; Moscato, V.; Picariello, A.; V.S. Subrahmanian; Udrea,O. (Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, IEEE Transactions on, 2010)
There is now a growing need to identify various kinds of activities that occur in videos. In this paper, we first present a logical language called Probabilistic Activity Description Language (PADL) in which users can specify activities of interest. We then develop a probabilistic framework which assigns to any subvideo of a given video sequence a probability that the subvideo contains the given activity, and we finally develop two fast algorithms to detect activities within this framework. OffPad finds all minimal segments of a video that contain a given activity with a probability exceeding a given threshold. In contrast, the OnPad algorithm examines a video during playout (rather than afterwards as OffPad does) and computes the probability that a given activity is occurring (even if the activity is only partially complete). Our prototype Probabilistic Activity Detection System (PADS) implements the framework and the two algorithms, building on top of existing image processing algorithms. We have conducted detailed experiments and compared our approach to four different approaches presented in the literature. We show that-for complex activity definitions-our approach outperforms all the other approaches.
Keywords: Automated; Programming Languages; Video Recording; Computer-Assisted; Models; PADL; PADS; image processing algorithms; offPad algorithm; onPad algorithm; probabilistic activity description language; probabilistic activity detection framework; video data; video sequence; image sequences; object detection; probability; video surveillance; Algorit; Statistical; Movement; Pattern Recognition

Performance impact of ordinal ranking on content fingerprinting - Chuang,W.H.; Varna,A.L.; Wu,M. (IEEE Int. Conf. on Image Processing, 2010)
Content fingerprinting provides a compact representation ofmultimedia objects for copy identification. This paper ana- lyzes the impact of the ordinal-ranking based feature encod- ing on the performance of content fingerprinting. Expressions are derived for the identification performance of a fingerprint- ing system with and without ordinal ranking. The analysis in- dicates that when the number of features is moderately large, ordinal ranking can improve the robustness of the fingerprint- ing system to large distortions of the features and significantly increase the probability of detection. These results enhance understandings of ordinal ranking and provide design guide- lines for choosing different system parameters to achieve a desired identification accuracy.

Perturbing the Ubiquitin Pathway Reveals How Mitosis Is Hijacked to Denucleate and Regulate Cell Proliferation and Differentiation In Vivo - Caceres,Andrea; Shang,Fu; Wawrousek,Eric; Liu,Qing; Avidan,Orna; Cvekl,Ales; Yang,Ying; Haririnia,Aydin; Storaska,Andrew; Fushman, David; Kuszak,Jer; Dudek,Edward; et al. (PLoS ONEPLoS ONE, 2010)
BackgroundThe eye lens presents a unique opportunity to explore roles for specific molecules in cell proliferation, differentiation and development because cells remain in place throughout life and, like red blood cells and keratinocytes, they go through the most extreme differentiation, including removal of nuclei and cessation of protein synthesis. Ubiquitination controls many critical cellular processes, most of which require specific lysines on ubiquitin (Ub). Of the 7 lysines (K) least is known about effects of modification of K6. Methodology and Principal Findings We replaced K6 with tryptophan (W) because K6 is the most readily modified K and W is the most structurally similar residue to biotin. The backbone of K6W-Ub is indistinguishable from that of Wt-Ub. K6W-Ub is effectively conjugated and deconjugated but the conjugates are not degraded via the ubiquitin proteasome pathways (UPP). Expression of K6W-ubiquitin in the lens and lens cells results in accumulation of intracellular aggregates and also slows cell proliferation and the differentiation program, including expression of lens specific proteins, differentiation of epithelial cells into fibers, achieving proper fiber cell morphology, and removal of nuclei. The latter is critical for transparency, but the mechanism by which cell nuclei are removed has remained an age old enigma. This was also solved by expressing K6W-Ub. p27kip, a UPP substrate accumulates in lenses which express K6W-Ub. This precludes phosphorylation of nuclear lamin by the mitotic kinase, a prerequisite for disassembly of the nuclear membrane. Thus the nucleus remains intact and DNAseIIβ neither gains entry to the nucleus nor degrades the DNA. These results could not be obtained using chemical proteasome inhibitors that cannot be directed to specific tissues. Conclusions and Significance K6W-Ub provides a novel, genetic means to study functions of the UPP because it can be targeted to specific cells and tissues. A fully functional UPP is required to execute most stages of lens differentiation, specifically removal of cell nuclei. In the absence of a functional UPP, small aggregate prone, cataractous lenses are formed.

Pose estimation in heavy clutter using a multi-flash camera - Ming-Yu Liu; Tuzel, O.; Veeraraghavan,A.; Chellapa, Rama; Agrawal,A.; Okuda, H. (Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2010 IEEE International Conference on, 2010)
We propose a novel solution to object detection, localization and pose estimation with applications in robot vision. The proposed method is especially applicable when the objects of interest may not be richly textured and are immersed in heavy clutter. We show that a multi-flash camera (MFC) provides accurate separation of depth edges and texture edges in such scenes. Then, we reformulate the problem, as one of finding matches between the depth edges obtained in one or more MFC images to the rendered depth edges that are computed offline using 3D CAD model of the objects. In order to facilitate accurate matching of these binary depth edge maps, we introduce a novel cost function that respects both the position and the local orientation of each edge pixel. This cost function is significantly superior to traditional Chamfer cost and leads to accurate matching even in heavily cluttered scenes where traditional methods are unreliable. We present a sub-linear time algorithm to compute the cost function using techniques from 3D distance transforms and integral images. Finally, we also propose a multi-view based pose-refinement algorithm to improve the estimated pose. We implemented the algorithm on an industrial robot arm and obtained location and angular estimation accuracy of the order of 1 mm and 2 #x00B0; respectively for a variety of parts with minimal texture.
Keywords: 3D; algorithm; object; based; camera; multiview; depth; detection; object; detection; pose; distance; edge; edges; cameras; image; edges; integral; estimation; binary; estimation; multiflash; estimation; robot; function; depth; images; location; localization; pose; maps; matching; cost; matching; image; pose-refinement; texture; object; transforms; angular; vision; texture; vision; transforms

Pose-robust albedo estimation from a single image - Biswas,S.; Chellapa, Rama (Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2010 IEEE Conference on, 2010)
We present a stochastic filtering approach to perform albedo estimation from a single non-frontal face image. Albedo estimation has far reaching applications in various computer vision tasks like illumination-insensitive matching, shape recovery, etc. We extend the formulation proposed in that assumes face in known pose and present an algorithm that can perform albedo estimation from a single image even when pose information is inaccurate. 3D pose of the input face image is obtained as a byproduct of the algorithm. The proposed approach utilizes class-specific statistics of faces to iteratively improve albedo and pose estimates. Illustrations and experimental results are provided to show the effectiveness of the approach. We highlight the usefulness of the method for the task of matching faces across variations in pose and illumination. The facial pose estimates obtained are also compared against ground truth.
Keywords: 3D; albedo; estimation; estimation; shape; Face; filtering; face; image; single; image; stochastic; information; pose-robust; matching; pose; nonfrontal; pose; class-specific; recognition; filtering; recovery; single; statistics; computer; theory; pose; vision; illumination-insensitive

The pre‐seventh pandemic Vibrio cholerae BX 330286 El Tor genome: evidence for the environment as a genome reservoir - Haley,Bradd J.; Grim,Christopher J.; Hasan,Nur A.; Taviani,Elisa; Jongsik Chun; Brettin,Thomas S.; Bruce,David C.; Challacombe,Jean F.; Detter,J. Chris; Han,Cliff S.; Huq,Anwar; Nair,G. Balakrish; et al. (Environmental Microbiology Reports, 2010)
Vibrio cholerae O1 El Tor BX 330286 was isolated from a water sample in Australia in 1986, 9 years after an indigenous outbreak of cholera occurred in that region. This environmental strain encodes virulence factors highly similar to those of clinical strains, suggesting an ability to cause disease in humans. We demonstrate its high similarity in gene content and genome-wide nucleotide sequence to clinical V. cholerae strains, notably to pre-seventh pandemic O1 El Tor strains isolated in 1910 (V. cholerae NCTC 8457) and 1937 (V. cholerae MAK 757), as well as seventh pandemic strains isolated after 1960 globally. Here we demonstrate that this strain represents a transitory clone with shared characteristics between pre-seventh and seventh pandemic strains of V. cholerae. Interestingly, this strain was isolated 25 years after the beginning of the seventh pandemic, suggesting the environment as a genome reservoir in areas where cholera does not occur in sporadic, endemic or epidemic form.

Recognizing offensive strategies from football videos - Ruonan Li; Chellapa, Rama (Image Processing (ICIP), 2010 17th IEEE International Conference on, 2010)
We address the problem of recognizing offensive play strategies from American football play videos. Specifically, we propose a probabilistic model which describes the generative process of an observed football play and takes into account practical issues in real football videos, such as difficulty in identifying offensive players, view changes, and tracking errors. In particular, we exploit the geometric properties of nonlinear spaces of involved variables and design statistical models on these manifolds. Then recognition is performed via 'analysis-by-synthesis' technique. Experiments on a newly established dataset of American football videos demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.
Keywords: American; analysis; video; changes; image; errors; variables; football; identification; tracking; models; geometric; models; view; play; players; processing; properties; nonlinear; recognition; offensive; recognition; statistical; signal; spaces; offensive; statistical; strategies; technique; design; videos; analysis-by-synthesis

Repairing GUI Test Suites Using a Genetic Algorithm - Huang,Si; Cohen,M. B; Memon, Atif M. (Software Testing, Verification and Validation (ICST), 2010 Third International Conference on, 2010)
Recent advances in automated functional testing of Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) rely on deriving graph models that approximate all possible sequences of events that may be executed on the GUI, and then use the graphs to generate test cases (event sequences) that achieve a specified coverage goal. However, because these models are only approximations of the actual event flows, the generated test cases may suffer from problems of infeasibility, i.e., some events may not be available for execution causing the test case to terminate prematurely. In this paper we develop a method to automatically repair GUI test suites, generating new test cases that are feasible. We use a genetic algorithm to evolve new test cases that increase our test suite's coverage while avoiding infeasible sequences. We experiment with this algorithm on a set of synthetic programs containing different types of constraints and for test sequences of varying lengths. Our results suggest that we can generate new test cases to cover most of the feasible coverage and that the genetic algorithm outperforms a random algorithm trying to achieve the same goal in almost all cases.
Keywords: automated functional testing; genetic algorithm; Genetic algorithms; graph model; graphical user interface; Graphical user interfaces; GUI test suite; program testing; random algorithm; synthetic program; test case

Resource-Aware Compiler Prefetching for Many-Cores - Caragea,G.C.; Tzannes,A.; Keceli,F.; Barua,R.; Vishkin, Uzi (Parallel and Distributed Computing (ISPDC), 2010 Ninth International Symposium on, 2010)
Super-scalar, out-of-order processors that can have tens of read and write requests in the execution window place significant demands on Memory Level Parallelism (MLP). Multi-and many-cores with shared parallel caches further increase MLP demand. Current cache hierarchies however have been unable to keep up with this trend, with modern designs allowing only 4-16 concurrent cache misses. This disconnect is exacerbated by recent highly parallel architectures (e.g. GPUs) where power and area per-core budget favor lighter cores with less resources. Support for hardware and software prefetch increase MLP pressure since these techniques overlap multiple memory requests with existing computation. In this paper, we propose and evaluate a novel Resource-Aware Prefetching (RAP) compiler algorithm that is aware of the number of simultaneous prefetches supported, and optimized for the same. We show that in situations where not enough resources are available to issue prefetch instructions for all references in a loop, it is more beneficial to decrease the prefetch distance and prefetch for as many references as possible, rather than use a fixed prefetched distance and skip prefetching for some references, as in current approaches. We implemented our algorithm in a GCC-derived compiler and evaluated its performance using an emerging fine-grained many-core architecture. Our results show that the RAP algorithm outperforms a well-known loop prefetching algorithm by up to 40.15% and the state-of-the art GCC implementation by up to 34.79%. Moreover, we compare the RAP algorithm with a simple hardware prefetching mechanism, and show improvements of up to 24.61%.
Keywords: algorithm; memory; architecture; hardware-software; architectures; parallel; architectures; resource; aware; caches; super-scalar; compiler; compiler; Multicore; compilers; parallel; GCC-derived; level; management; many-core; memories; storage; out-of-order; Parallel; parallelism; parallel; prefetch; loop; prefetching; prefetching; shared; processor; fine-grained; processors; multiprocessing; systems; optimising

Robust Height Estimation of Moving Objects From Uncalibrated Videos - Jie Shao; Zhou,S. K; Chellapa, Rama (IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, 2010)
This paper presents an approach for video metrology. From videos acquired by an uncalibrated stationary camera, we first recover the vanishing line and the vertical point of the scene based upon tracking moving objects that primarily lie on a ground plane. Using geometric properties of moving objects, a probabilistic model is constructed for simultaneously grouping trajectories and estimating vanishing points. Then we apply a single view mensuration algorithm to each of the frames to obtain height measurements. We finally fuse the multiframe measurements using the least median of squares (LMedS) as a robust cost function and the Robbins-Monro stochastic approximation (RMSA) technique. This method enables less human supervision, more flexibility and improved robustness. From the uncertainty analysis, we conclude that the method with auto-calibration is robust in practice. Results are shown based upon realistic tracking data from a variety of scenes.
Keywords: algorithms; Biometry; Calibration; EM algorithm; geometric properties; Geometry; Image Enhancement; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; Imaging, Three-Dimensional; least median of squares; least squares approximations; MOTION; motion information; multiframe measurements; Pattern Recognition, Automated; Reproducibility of results; Robbins-Monro stochastic approximation; robust height estimation; Sensitivity and Specificity; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; stochastic approximation; Subtraction Technique; tracking data; uncalibrated stationary camera; uncalibrated videos; uncertainty analysis; vanishing point; video metrology; Video Recording; video signal processing

Robust regression using sparse learning for high dimensional parameter estimation problems - Mitra, K.; Veeraraghavan,A.; Chellapa, Rama (Acoustics Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), 2010 IEEE International Conference on, 2010)
Algorithms such as Least Median of Squares (LMedS) and Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC) have been very successful for low-dimensional robust regression problems. However, the combinatorial nature of these algorithms makes them practically unusable for high-dimensional applications. In this paper, we introduce algorithms that have cubic time complexity in the dimension of the problem, which make them computationally efficient for high-dimensional problems. We formulate the robust regression problem by projecting the dependent variable onto the null space of the independent variables which receives significant contributions only from the outliers. We then identify the outliers using sparse representation/learning based algorithms. Under certain conditions, that follow from the theory of sparse representation, these polynomial algorithms can accurately solve the robust regression problem which is, in general, a combinatorial problem. We present experimental results that demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed algorithms. We also analyze the intrinsic parameter space of robust regression and identify an efficient and accurate class of algorithms for different operating conditions. An application to facial age estimation is presented.
Keywords: algorithm; random; analysis; combinatorial; complexity; least; complexity; parameter; consensus; robust; Estimation; estimation; polynomials; regression; learning; sparse; median; of; problem; cubic; problem; polynomial; problem; sparse; regression; representation; computational; sample; squares; parameter; TIME

Robust RVM regression using sparse outlier model - Mitra, K.; Veeraraghavan,A.; Chellapa, Rama (Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2010 IEEE Conference on, 2010)
Kernel regression techniques such as Relevance Vector Machine (RVM) regression, Support Vector Regression and Gaussian processes are widely used for solving many computer vision problems such as age, head pose, 3D human pose and lighting estimation. However, the presence of outliers in the training dataset makes the estimates from these regression techniques unreliable. In this paper, we propose robust versions of the RVM regression that can handle outliers in the training dataset. We decompose the noise term in the RVM formulation into a (sparse) outlier noise term and a Gaussian noise term. We then estimate the outlier noise along with the model parameters. We present two approaches for solving this estimation problem: (1) a Bayesian approach, which essentially follows the RVM framework and (2) an optimization approach based on Basis Pursuit Denoising. In the Bayesian approach, the robust RVM problem essentially becomes a bigger RVM problem with the advantage that it can be solved efficiently by a fast algorithm. Empirical evaluations, and real experiments on image de-noising and age estimation demonstrate the better performance of the robust RVM algorithms over that of the RVM reg ression.
Keywords: 3D; analysis; approach; Gaussian; denoising; computer; denoising; lighting; denoising; regression; estimation; relevance; human; machine; robust; model; Gaussian; noise; basis; noise; computer; outlier; pose; Bayesian; pursuit; regression; sparse; RVM; vector; vision; image

The role of geometry in age estimation - Turaga,P.; Biswas,S.; Chellapa, Rama (2010 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), 2010)
Understanding and modeling of aging in human faces is an important problem in many real-world applications such as biometrics, authentication, and synthesis. In this paper, we consider the role of geometric attributes of faces, as described by a set of landmark points on the face, in age perception. Towards this end, we show that the space of landmarks can be interpreted as a Grassmann manifold. Then the problem of age estimation is posed as a problem of function estimation on the manifold. The warping of an average face to a given face is quantified as a velocity vector that transforms the average to a given face along a smooth geodesic in unit-time. This deformation is then shown to contain important information about the age of the face. We show in experiments that exploiting geometric cues in a principled manner provides comparable performance to several systems that utilize both geometric and textural cues. We show results on age estimation using the standard FG-Net dataset and a passport dataset which illustrate the effectiveness of the approach.
Keywords: age estimation; Aging; Biometrics; computational geometry; Face; Face Geometry; Facial animation; Feature extraction; function estimation problem; geometric face attributes; Geometry; Grassmann manifold; human face modeling; human face understanding; HUMANS; Mouth; regression; Regression analysis; SHAPE; Solid modeling; solid modelling; velocity vector

Sectored Random Projections for Cancelable Iris Biometrics - Pillai,J.K.; Patel, Vishal M.; Chellapa, Rama; Ratha,N. K (2010 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), 2010)
Privacy and security are essential requirements in practical biometric systems. In order to prevent the theft of biometric patterns, it is desired to modify them through revocable and non invertible transformations called Cancelable Biometrics. In this paper, we propose an efficient algorithm for generating a Cancelable Iris Biometric based on Sectored Random Projections. Our algorithm can generate a new pattern if the existing one is stolen, retain the original recognition performance and prevent extraction of useful information from the transformed patterns. Our method also addresses some of the drawbacks of existing techniques and is robust to degradations due to eyelids and eyelashes.
Keywords: biometric pattern; Biometrics; Cancelable Biometrics; cancelable iris biometrics; data mining; data privacy; Degradation; Eyelashes; Eyelids; Iris; iris recognition; pattern recognition; privacy; random processes; Random Projections; Robustness; sectored random projection; Secure Biometrics; Security; security of data

Secure and robust iris recognition using random projections and sparse representations - Pillai, J.; Patel, Vishal M.; Chellapa, Rama; Ratha, N. (Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, IEEE Transactions on, 2010)

Selective excitation of LI2 by chirped laser pulses with all possible interstate radiative couplings - Chatterjee, Souvik; Bhattacharyya, Shuvra S. (The Journal of Chemical Physics, 2010)
We have numerically explored the feasibility and the mechanism of population transfer to the excited E 1Σg electronic state of Li2 from the v = 0 level of the ground electronic state X 1Σg using the A 1Σu state as an intermediate. In this system, the use of transform limited pulses with a frequency difference greater than the maximum Rabi frequency does not produce population transfer when all possible radiative couplings are taken into account. We have employed two synchronous pulses far detuned from the allowed transition frequencies, mainly with the lower frequency pulse positively chirped, and both pulses coupling the successive pair of states, X-A and A-E. The adiabaticity of the process has been investigated by a generalized Floquet calculation in the basis of 12 field dressed molecular states, and the results have been compared with those obtained from the full solution of time dependent Schrödinger equation. The conventional representation of the process in terms of three (or four) adiabatic potentials is not valid. It has been found that for cases of almost complete population transfer in full calculations with the conservation of the vibrational quantum number, adiabatic passage is attained with the 12 state Floquet model but not with the six state model. The agreement between the full calculations and the 12 state Floquet calculations is generally good when the transfer is adiabatic. Another characteristic feature of this work is the gaining of control over the vibrational state preparation in the final electronic state by careful tuning of the laser parameters as well as the chirp rate sign. This causes time dependent changes in the adiabatic potentials and nonadiabatic transfers can be made to occur between them.

Semantic Video Content Analysis - Albanese,Massimiliano; Turaga,Pavan; Chellapa, Rama; Pugliese,Andrea; Subrahmanian,V. (Video Search and MiningVideo Search and Mining, 2010)
In recent years, there has been significant interest in the area of automatically recognizing activities occurring in a camera’s field of view and detecting abnormalities. The practical applications of such a system could include airport tarmac monitoring, or monitoring of activities in secure installations, to name a few. The difficulty of the problem is compounded by several factors: detection of primitive actions in spite of changes in illumination, occlusions and noise; complexmultiagent interaction;mapping of higher-level activities to lower-level primitive actions; variations in which the same semantic activity can be performed. In this chapter, we develop a theory of semantic activity analysis that addresses each of these issues in an integrated manner. Specifically, we discuss ontological representations of knowledge of a domain, integration of domain knowledge and statistical models for achieving semantic mappings, definition of logical languages to describe activities, and design of frameworks which integrate all the above aspects in a coherent way, thus laying the foundations of effective Semantic Video Content Analysis systems.

Semi non-intrusive training for cell-phone camera model linkage - Chuang,Wei-Hong; M. Wu (Information Forensics and Security (WIFS), 2010 IEEE International Workshop on, 2010)
This paper presents a study of cell-phone camera model linkage that matches digital images against potential makes / models of cell-phone camera sources using camera color interpolation features. The matching performance is examined and the dependency on the content of training image collection is evaluated via variance analysis. Training content dependency can be dealt with under the framework of component forensics, where cell-phone camera model linkage is seen as a combination of semi non-intrusive training and completely non-intrusive testing. Such a viewpoint suggests explicitly the goodness criterion of testing accuracy for training data selection. It also motivates other possible alternative training procedures based on different criteria, such as the training complexity, for which preliminary but promising experiment designs and results have been obtained.
Keywords: accuracy; training; analysis; cameras; cellular; analysis; image; camera; Color; colour; complexity; training; content; dependency; variance; feature; cell; forensics; digital; forensics; image; image; Interpolation; linkage; component; matching; interpolation; matching; semi; model; nonintrusive; phone; radio; computer; training; testing

Serodiversity and ecological distribution of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in the Venetian Lagoon, Northeast Italy - Caburlotto,Greta; Haley,Bradd J.; Lleò,Maria M.; Huq,Anwar; Rita R Colwell (Environmental Microbiology Reports, 2010)
Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a natural inhabitant of estuarine and marine environments constituting part of the autochthonous microflora. This species is associated with human gastroenteritis caused by ingestion of contaminated water and undercooked seafood. During the past several years, the number of V. parahaemolyticus gastroenteritis cases have increased worldwide, causing over half of all food-poisoning outbreaks of bacterial origin. Vibrio populations in water are known to be influenced by environmental factors. Notably, it has been shown that in different parts of the world the distribution of V. parahaemolyticus in the marine environment is related to the water temperature. In this study, we identified environmental determinants affecting distribution of V. parahaemolyticus in the Venetian Lagoon, in the Italian North Adriatic Sea. Data obtained revealed that sea surface temperature constitutes the key factor influencing occurrence of V. parahaemolyticus, but salinity and chlorophyll concentration are also important. Serotyping of a collection of V. parahaemolyticus environmental isolates revealed high serodiversity, with serotypes O3:KUT and O1:KUT, belonging to the ‘pandemic group’, occurring with higher frequency. From our results, we conclude that there is no correlation between serotype and specific geographic site or season of the year. However, certain serotypes were isolated in the Lagoon during the entire 18 months of the study, strongly suggesting persistence in this environment.

Signal Processing on Platforms with Multiple Cores: Part 2-Applications and Design [From the Guest Editors] - Chen,Y.; Chakrabarti,C.; Bhattacharyya, Shuvra S.; Bougard, B. (IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, 2010)
Platforms with multiple cores are now prevalent everywhere from desktops and graphics processors to laptops and embedded systems. By adding more parallel computational resources while managing power consumption, multicore platforms offer better programmability, performance, and power efficiency. Signal processing systems of tomorrow will be and must be implemented on platforms with multiple cores. Writing efficient parallel applications that utilize the computing capability of many processing cores require some effort. Signal processing algorithm designers must understand the nuances of a multicore computing engine; only then can the tremendous computing power that such platforms provide be harnessed efficiently. To give a thorough perspective of the area, we have organized two special issues on this topic.
Keywords: Concurrent computing; Embedded system; Energy management; Graphics; Multicore processing; Portable computers; Resource management; Signal design; Signal processing; Signal processing algorithms

Sparse representations and Random Projections for robust and cancelable biometrics - Patel, Vishal M.; Chellapa, Rama; Tistarelli,M. (Control Automation Robotics Vision (ICARCV), 2010 11th International Conference on, 2010)
In recent years, the theories of Sparse Representation (SR) and Compressed Sensing (CS) have emerged as powerful tools for efficiently processing data in non-traditional ways. An area of promise for these theories is biome #x0301;trie identification. In this paper, we review the role of sparse representation and CS for efficient biome #x0301;trie identification. Algorithms to perform identification from face and iris data are reviewed. By applying Random Projections it is possible to purposively hide the biome #x0301;trie data within a template. This procedure can be effectively employed for securing and protecting personal biome #x0301;trie data against theft. Some of the most compelling challenges and issues that confront research in biometrics using sparse representations and CS are also addressed.
Keywords: Biometric identification; Cancelable Biometrics; Compressed sensing; face data; face recognition; iris data; iris recognition; personal biometric data; Random Projections; robust biometrics; sparse representations

Sparsity inspired automatic target recognition - Patel, Vishal M.; Nasrabadi,Nasser M.; Chellapa, Rama (Proceedings of SPIE, 2010)
In this paper, we develop a framework for using only the needed data for automatic target recognition (ATR) algorithms using the recently developed theory of sparse representations and compressive sensing (CS). We show how sparsity can be helpful for efficient utilization of data, with the possibility of developing real-time, robust target classification. We verify the efficacy of the proposed algorithm in terms of the recognition rate on the well known Comanche forward-looking infrared (FLIR) data set consisting of ten different military targets at different orientations.

Sparsity Motivated Automated Target Recognition - Chellapa, Rama (2010)
Sparsity-based methods have recently been suggested for tasks such as face and iris recognition. In this project, we evaluated the effectiveness of such methods for automatic target recognition in infrared images. We show how sparsity can be helpful for efficient utilization of data for target recognition. We evaluated the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in terms of recognition rate and confusion matrices on the well known Comanche forward-looking infrared (FLIR) data set consisting of ten different military targets at different orientations. This work was done in collaboration with Dr. Nasser Nasrabadi, Chief Scientist, SEDD, Army research laboratory. This work will be presented at the International Conference on Image Processing being held in Hong Kong in September 2010. A journal paper reporting our work is under preparation.
Keywords: *ALGORITHMS; *INFRARED IMAGES; *TARGET RECOGNITION; ARMY RESEARCH; efficiency; FORWARD LOOKING INFRARED SYSTEMS; IMAGE PROCESSING; NUMERICAL MATHEMATICS; OPTICS; PE611102; TARGET DETECTION; TARGET DIRECTION, RANGE AND POSITION FINDING

Sparsity-Inspired Recognition of Targets in Infrared Images - Chellapa, Rama (2010)
Sparsity-based methods have recently been suggested for tasks such as face and iris recognition. In this project, we evaluated the effectiveness of such methods for automatic target recognition in infrared images. We show how sparsity can be helpful for efficient utilization of data for target recognition. We evaluated the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in terms of recognition rate and confusion matrices on the well known Comanche forward-looking infrared (FLIR) data set consisting of ten different military targets at different orientations. This work was done in collaboration with Dr. Nasser Nasrabadi, Chief Scientist, SEDD, Army research laboratory. This work will be presented at the International Conference on Image Processing being held in Hong Kong in September 2010. A journal paper reporting our work is under preparation.
Keywords: *FORWARD LOOKING INFRARED SYSTEMS; *IMAGE PROCESSING; *TARGET RECOGNITION; algorithms; ARMY RESEARCH; ATR(AUTOMATIC TARGET RECOGNITION); AUTOMATIC; CNN(CONVENTIONAL NEURAL NETWORKS); CS(COMPRESSIVE SENSING); DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS; FLIR(FORWARD LOOKING INFRARED); INFRARED DETECTION AND DETECTORS; INFRARED IMAGES; LDA(LINEAR DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS); MILITARY OPERATIONS; MNN(MODULAR NEURAL NETWORKS); neural nets; PCA(PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS); PE611102; SPARSITY; TARGET DIRECTION, RANGE AND POSITION FINDING

Special Section on Distributed Camera Networks: Sensing, Processing, Communication, and Implementation - Chellapa, Rama; Heinzelman, W.; Konrad, J.; Schonfeld, D.; Wolf, M. (Image Processing, IEEE Transactions on, 2010)
The eight papers in this special section span across theoretical and practical considerations of various aspects of distributed camera networks, including adaptive sensing, distributed processing, efficient communications, and versatile implementations.

The state of visual analytics: Views on what visual analytics is and where it is going - May,R.; Hanrahan,P.; Keim,D. A; Shneiderman, Ben; Card,S. (2010 IEEE Symposium on Visual Analytics Science and Technology (VAST), 2010)
In the 2005 publication "Illuminating the Path" visual analytics was defined as "the science of analytical reasoning facilitated by interactive visual interfaces." A lot of work has been done in visual analytics over the intervening five years. While visual analytics started in the United States with a focus on security, it is now a worldwide research agenda with a broad range of application domains. This is evidenced by efforts like the European VisMaster program and the upcoming Visual Analytics and Knowledge Discovery (VAKD) workshop, just to name two.There are still questions concerning where and how visual analytics fits in the large body of research and applications represented by the VisWeek community. This panel will present distinct viewpoints on what visual analytics is and its role in understanding complex information in a complex world. The goal of this panel is to engender discussion from the audience on the emergence and continued advancement of visual analytics and its role relative to fields of related research. Four distinguished panelists will provide their perspective on visual analytics focusing on what it is, what it should be, and thoughts about a development path between these two states. The purpose of the presentations is not to give a critical review of the literature but rather to give a review on the field and to provide a contextual perspective based on the panelists' years of experience and accumulated knowledge.
Keywords: analytical reasoning; Data analysis; data mining; data visualisation; European VisMaster program; interactive visual interfaces; knowledge discovery; United States; visual analytics; VisWeek community

Statistical Analysis on Manifolds and Its Applications to Video Analysis - Turaga,Pavan; Veeraraghavan,Ashok; Srivastava,Anuj; Chellapa, Rama (Video Search and MiningVideo Search and Mining, 2010)
The analysis and interpretation of video data is an important component of modern vision applications such as biometrics, surveillance, motionsynthesis and web-based user interfaces. A common requirement among these very different applications is the ability to learn statistical models of appearance and motion from a collection of videos, and then use them for recognizing actions or persons in a new video. These applications in video analysis require statistical inference methods to be devised on non-Euclidean spaces or more formally on manifolds. This chapter outlines a broad survey of applications in video analysis that involve manifolds. We develop the required mathematical tools needed to perform statistical inference on manifolds and show their effectiveness in real video-understanding applications.

Statistical Methods and Models for Video-Based Tracking, Modeling, and Recognition - Chellapa, Rama; Sankaranarayanan,Aswin C.; Veeraraghavan,Ashok (Now Publishers Inc, 2010)
Computer vision systems attempt to understand a scene and its components from mostly visual information. The geometry exhibited by the real world, the influence of material properties on scattering of incident light, and the process of imaging introduce constraints and properties that are key to solving some of these tasks. In the presence of noisy observations and other uncertainties, the algorithms make use of statistical methods for robust inference. Statistical Methods and Models for Video-based Tracking, Modeling, and Recognition highlights the role of geometric constraints in statistical estimation methods, and how the interplay of geometry and statistics leads to the choice and design of algorithms. In particular, it illustrates the role of imaging, illumination, and motion constraints in classical vision problems such as tracking, structure from motion, metrology, activity analysis and recognition, and appropriate statistical methods used in each of these problems.
Keywords: Computers / Computer Vision & Pattern Recognition; Computers / Image Processing; Technology & Engineering / Electronics / General; Technology & Engineering / General

Structural and dynamic determinants of ligand binding and regulation of cyclin-dependent kinase 5 by pathological activator p25 and inhibitory peptide CIP. - Cardone, Antonio; Hassan, S A; Albers,R.W.; Sriram,R.D.; Pant,H.C. (Journal of molecular biology, 2010)
The crystal structure of the cdk5/p25 complex has provided information on possible molecular mechanisms of the ligand binding, specificity, and regulation of the kinase. Comparative molecular dynamics simulations are reported here for physiological conditions. This study provides new insight on the mechanisms that modulate such processes, which may be exploited to control pathological activation by p25. The structural changes observed in the kinase are stabilized by a network of interactions involving highly conserved residues within the cyclin-dependent kinase (cdk) family. Collective motions of the proteins (cdk5, p25, and CIP) and their complexes are identified by principal component analysis, revealing two conformational states of the activation loop upon p25 complexation, which are absent in the uncomplexed kinase and not apparent from the crystal. Simulations of the uncomplexed inhibitor CIP show structural rearrangements and increased flexibility of the interfacial loop containing the critical residue E240, which becomes fully hydrated and available for interactions with one of several positively charged residues in the kinase. These changes provide a rationale for the observed high affinity and enhanced inhibitory action of CIP when compared to either p25 or the physiological activators of cdk5.
Keywords: Crystallography, X-Ray; Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 5; Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor Proteins; HUMANS; Ligands; molecular dynamics simulation; Nerve Tissue Proteins; Principal component analysis; Protein Binding; Protein Conformation

Symbolic security analysis of ruby-on-rails web applications - Chaudhuri,A.; Foster, Jeffrey S. (Proceedings of the 17th ACM conference on Computer and communications security, 2010)

System and method for analysis of an opinion expressed in documents with regard to a particular topic - V.S. Subrahmanian; Picariello,Antonio; Dorr, Bonnie J; Reforgiato,Diego Recupero; Cesarano,Carmine; Sagoff,Amelia (2010)
System and method for analysis of an opinion expressed in documents on a particular topic computes opinion strength on a continuous numeric scale, or qualitatively. A variety of opinion scoring techniques are plugged in to score opinion expressing words and sentences in documents. These scores are aggregated to measure the opinion intensity of documents. Multilingual opinion analysis is supported by capability to concurrently identify and visualize the opinion intensity expressed in documents in multiple languages. A multi-dimensional representation of the measured opinion intensity is generated which is agreeable with multi-lingual domain.

Tracking via object reflectance using a hyperspectral video camera - Nguyen,Hien Van; Banerjee, A.; Chellapa, Rama (2010 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops (CVPRW), 2010)
Recent advances in electronics and sensor design have enabled the development of a hyperspectral video camera that can capture hyperspectral datacubes at near video rates. The sensor offers the potential for novel and robust methods for surveillance by combining methods from computer vision and hyperspectral image analysis. Here, we focus on the problem of tracking objects through challenging conditions, such as rapid illumination and pose changes, occlusions, and in the presence of confusers. A new framework that incorporates radiative transfer theory to estimate object reflectance and the mean shift algorithm to simultaneously track the object based on its reflectance spectra is proposed. The combination of spectral detection and motion prediction enables the tracker to be robust against abrupt motions, and facilitate fast convergence of the mean shift tracker. In addition, the system achieves good computational efficiency by using random projection to reduce spectral dimension. The tracker has been evaluated on real hyperspectral video data.
Keywords: Computer vision; electronic design; hyperspectral datacubes; hyperspectral image analysis; Hyperspectral imaging; Hyperspectral sensors; hyperspectral video camera; Image motion analysis; Image sensors; lighting; Motion estimation; motion prediction; Object detection; object reflectance tracking; random projection; Reflectivity; robust methods; Robustness; sensor design; spectral detection; Surveillance; tracking; Video surveillance

Using a Social Orientation Model for the Evolution of Cooperative Societies - Cheng,K. L.; Zuckerman,I.; Kuter,U.; Nau, Dana S. (2010)
We utilize evolutionary game theory to studythe evolution of cooperative societies and the behaviors of individual agents (i.e., players) in such societies. We present a novel player model based upon empirical evidence from the social and behavioral sciences stating that: (1) an individual’s behavior may often be motivated not only by self-interest but also by the consequences for others, and (2) individuals vary in their interpersonal social tendencies, which reflect stable personal orientations that influence their choices. Alongside the formal player model we provide an analysis that considers possible interactions between different types of individuals and identifies five general steady-state behavioral patterns. We present evolutionary simulations that ratify previous findings on evolution of cooperation, and provide new insights on the evolutionary process of cooperative behavior in a society as well as on the emergence of cooperative societies. Our main experimental result demonstrates that in contrast to previous common knowledge, increasing mutual reward or mutual punishment in the Prisoner’s dilemma game does not result in the same type of cooperative society: while increasing reward does increase the society’s cooperativeness level, increasing mutual punishment does not.

Validating the systematic position of ıt Plationus Segers, Murugan & Dumont, 1993 (Rotifera: Brachionidae) using sequences of the large subunit of the nuclear ribosomal DNA and of cytochrome C oxidase - Reyna-Fabian,ME; Laclette,J. P; Cummings, Michael P.; García-Varela,M (Hydrobiologia, 2010)
Members of the family Brachionidae are free-living organisms that range in size from 170 to 250 microns. They comprise part of the zooplankton in freshwater and marine systems worldwide. Morphologically, members of the family are characterized by a single piece loricated body without furrows, grooves, sulci or dorsal head shields, and a malleate trophi. Differences in these structures have been traditionally used to recognize 217 species that are classified into seven genera. However, the validity of the species, Plationus patulus, P. patulus macracanthus P. polyacanthus, and P. felicitas have been confused because they were alternatively assigned in Brachionus or Platyias, when considering only morphological and ecological characters. Based on scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of the trophi, these taxa were assigned in a new genus, Plationus. In this study, we examined the systematic position of P. patulus and P. patulus macracanthus using DNA sequences of two genes: the cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) and domains D2 and D3 of the large subunit of the nuclear ribosomal RNA (LSU). In addition, the cox1 and LSU sequences representing five genera of Brachionidae (Anuraeopsis, Brachionus, Keratella, Plationus, and Platyias) plus four species of three families from the order Ploima were used as the outgroup. The maximum likelihood (ML) analyses were conducted for each individual gene as well as for the combined (cox1 + LSU) data set. The ML tree from the combined data set yielded the family Brachionidae as a monophyletic group with weak bootstrap support (< 50%). Five main clades in this tree had high (> 85%) bootstrap support. The first clade was composed of three populations of P. patulus + P. patulus macracanthus. The second clade was composed of a single species of Platyias. The third clade was composed of six species of Brachionus. The fourth clade included a single species of the genus Anuraeopsis, and the fifth clade was composed of three species of the genus Keratella. The genetic divergence between Plationus and Platyias ranged from 18.4 to 19.2% for cox1, and from 4.5 to 4.9% for LSU, and between Brachionus and Plationus, it ranged from 16.9 to 23.1% (cox1), and from 7.3 to 9.1% (LSU). Morphological evidence, the amount of genetic divergence, the systematic position of Plationus within the family Brachionidae, and the position of Plationus as a sister group of Brachionus and Platyias support the validity of Plationus patulus and P. patulus macracanthus into the genus Plationus.
Keywords: Cox1; likelihood; LSU; maximum; Phylogeny; Plationus

Values of Stakeholders in the Net Neutrality Debate: Applying Content Analysis to Telecommunications Policy - Cheng,An-Shou; Fleischmann,Kenneth R.; Wang,Ping; Ishita,Emi; Oard, Douglas (Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2010)
Net neutrality is an important telecommunications policy debate. This debate is closely tied to technological innovation, economic development, and information access. Values help shape stakeholders' positions on this debate. This paper examines the role of values in shaping the Net neutrality debate through a content analysis of public hearings on Net neutrality. The paper presents a quantitative analysis that reveals the top values implicated in the Net neutrality debate and statistically significant differences among individuals on opposite sides of the Net neutrality debate. A qualitative analysis reveals insights into the connection between specific values and positions on the Net neutrality debate. The paper concludes that values, technology, and policy are interconnected, and that it is useful to understand the values of the various stakeholders within policy debates.

Video Metrology Using a Single Camera - Guo,Feng; Chellapa, Rama (Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, IEEE Transactions on, 2010)
This paper presents a video metrology approach using an uncalibrated single camera that is either stationary or in planar motion. Although theoretically simple, measuring the length of even a line segment in a given video is often a difficult problem. Most existing techniques for this task are extensions of single image-based techniques and do not achieve the desired accuracy especially in noisy environments. In contrast, the proposed algorithm moves line segments on the reference plane to share a common endpoint using the vanishing line information followed by fitting multiple concentric circles on the image plane. A fully automated real-time system based on this algorithm has been developed to measure vehicle wheelbases using an uncalibrated stationary camera. The system estimates the vanishing line using invariant lengths on the reference plane from multiple frames rather than the given parallel lines, which may not exist in videos. It is further extended to a camera undergoing a planar motion by automatically selecting frames with similar vanishing lines from the video. Experimental results show that the measurement results are accurate enough to classify moving vehicles based on their size.
Keywords: camera; vanishing; circles; uncalibrated; concentric; image-based; information; vehicle; line; measurement; video; metrology; cameras; image; processing; segment; multiple; segmentation; video; signal; single; techniques; line; wheelbase

Video Précis: Highlighting Diverse Aspects of Videos - Shroff, N.; Turaga,P.; Chellapa, Rama (IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, 2010)
Summarizing long unconstrained videos is gaining importance in surveillance, web-based video browsing, and video-archival applications. Summarizing a video requires one to identify key aspects that contain the essence of the video. In this paper, we propose an approach that optimizes two criteria that a video summary should embody. The first criterion, “coverage,” requires that the summary be able to represent the original video well. The second criterion, “diversity,” requires that the elements of the summary be as distinct from each other as possible. Given a user-specified summary length, we propose a cost function to measure the quality of a summary. The problem of generating a précis is then reduced to a combinatorial optimization problem of minimizing the proposed cost function. We propose an efficient method to solve the optimization problem. We demonstrate through experiments (on KTH data, unconstrained skating video, a surveillance video, and a YouTube home video) that optimizing the proposed criterion results in meaningful video summaries over a wide range of scenarios. Summaries thus generated are then evaluated using both quantitative measures and user studies.
Keywords: $K$-means; CAMERAS; combinatorial mathematics; combinatorial optimization; Cost function; data compression; Exemplar selection; Image segmentation; Internet; Iron; Length measurement; multimedia systems; Ncut; optimisation; Optimization methods; original video; Permission; shot segmentation; Surveillance; user specified summary length; video précis; Video sharing; video signal processing; Video summarization

WATTR: a method for self-powered wireless sensing of water activity in the home - Campbell,Tim; Larson,Eric; Cohn,Gabe; Jon Froehlich; Alcaide,Ramses; Patel,Shwetak N. (Proceedings of the 12th ACM international conference on Ubiquitous computing, 2010)
Keywords: power harvesting; sensing; water conservation

Who's Hogging the Bandwidth: The Consequences of Revealing the Invisible in the Home - Marshini Chetty; Banks, Richard; Harper, Richard; Regan, Tim; Sellen, Abigail; Gkantsidis, Christos; Karagiannis, Thomas; Key, Peter (SIGCHI '10, 2010)
As more technologies enter the home, householders are burdened with the task of digital housekeeping-managing and sharing digital resources like bandwidth. In response to this, we created and evaluated a domestic tool for bandwidth management called Home Watcher. Our field trial showed that when resource contention amongst different household members is made visible, people's understanding of bandwidth changes and household politics are revealed. In this paper, we describe the consequences of showing real time resource usage in a home, and how this varies depending on the social make up of the household.
Keywords: bandwidth monitoring; home broadband; home networks

3D Face Recognition: Technology and Applications - Tistarelli,M.; Li, S.Z.; Chellapa, Rama; Akarun, L. (Handbook of Remote Biometrics, 2009)

Advanced Technologies for Touchless Fingerprint Recognition - Tistarelli,M.; Li, S.Z.; Chellapa, Rama (Handbook of Remote Biometrics, 2009)

Advancing User-Centered Evaluation of Visual Analytic Environments Through Contests - Costello,Loura; Grinstein,Georges; Plaisant, Catherine; Scholtz,Jean (Information VisualizationInformation Visualization, 2009)
In this paper, the authors describe the Visual Analytics Science and Technology (VAST) Symposium contests run in 2006 and 2007 and the VAST 2008 and 2009 challenges. These contests were designed to provide researchers with a better understanding of the tasks and data that face potential end users. Access to these end users is limited because of time constraints and the classified nature of the tasks and data. In that respect, the contests serve as an intermediary, with the metrics and feedback serving as measures of utility to the end users. The authors summarize the lessons learned and the future directions for VAST Challenges.
Keywords: metrics; synthetic data; user-centered evaluation; visual analytics

Age progression in human faces: A survey - Ramanathan,N.; Chellapa, Rama; Biswas,S. (Journal of Visual Languages and Computing, 2009)
Facial aging, a new dimension that has recently beenadded to the problem of face recognition, poses interesting theo- retical and practical challenges to the research community. The problem which originally generated interest in the psychophysics and human perception community, has recently found enhanced interest in the computer vision community. How do humans perceive age ? What constitutes an age-invariant signature that can be derived from faces ? How compactly can the facial growth event be described ? How does facial aging impact recognition performance ? In this paper, we give a thorough analysis on the problem of facial aging and further provide a complete account of the many interesting studies that have been performed on this topic from different fields. We offer a comparative analysis of various approaches that have been proposed for problems such as age estimation, appearance prediction, face verification etc. and offer insights into future research on this topic.

Algorithms for distributional and adversarial pipelined filter ordering problems - Condon,Anne; Deshpande, Amol; Hellerstein,Lisa; Wu,Ning (ACM Trans. Algorithms, 2009)
Pipelined filter ordering is a central problem in database query optimization. The problem is to determine the optimal order in which to apply a given set of commutative filters (predicates) to a set of elements (the tuples of a relation), so as to find, as efficiently as possible, the tuples that satisfy all of the filters. Optimization of pipelined filter ordering has recently received renewed attention in the context of environments such as the Web, continuous high-speed data streams, and sensor networks. Pipelined filter ordering problems are also studied in areas such as fault detection and machine learning under names such as learning with attribute costs, minimum-sum set cover, and satisficing search. We present algorithms for two natural extensions of the classical pipelined filter ordering problem: (1) a distributional-type problem where the filters run in parallel and the goal is to maximize throughput, and (2) an adversarial-type problem where the goal is to minimize the expected value of multiplicative regret. We present two related algorithms for solving (1), both running in time O(n2), which improve on the O(n3 log n) algorithm of Kodialam. We use techniques from our algorithms for (1) to obtain an algorithm for (2).
Keywords: flow algorithms; Pipelined filter ordering; Query optimization; selection ordering

Analysis of clonally related environmental Vibrio cholerae O1 El Tor isolated before 1992 from Varanasi, India reveals origin of SXT‐ICEs belonging to O139 and O1 serogroups - Mohapatra,Saswat S.; Mantri,Chinmay K.; Mohapatra,Harapriya; Rita R Colwell; Singh,Durg V. (Environmental Microbiology Reports, 2009)
In this study, we report the presence of SXT in environmental Vibrio cholerae O1 El Tor strains isolated before 1992 from Varanasi, India. All isolates, except one, were resistant to Tm, and/or Sul, Sm, Fr, Na and Am. None contained plasmids. PCR and DNA sequencing revealed the presence of SXT containing dfrA1 and/or sulII, strAB in six isolates and dfr18, sulII and strAB in five isolates. Three clinical V. cholerae O1 isolated during 1992 contained the antibiotic resistance gene cassette aadA1 in the class 1 integron. Conjugation experiments, followed by PCR analysis of transconjugants, provided evidence of the transferable nature of SXT and associated antibiotic resistance genes, and its integration into the prfC site. Results of phylogenetic analysis of the intSXT gene of clonally similar V. cholerae showed a clear difference between dfr18+ and dfrA1+V. cholerae O1 isolates. This is the first report of the occurrence of SXT harbouring sulII, strAB, dfr18 and/or dfrA1 genes in environmental V. cholerae O1 isolated prior to 1992 from Varanasi, India, and suggests emergence of SXT+ antibiotic-resistant V. cholerae O139 and O1 from an environmental V. cholerae progenitor by acquisition of SXT and antibiotic-resistant gene clusters.

Analyzing (social media) networks with NodeXL - Smith,Marc A.; Shneiderman, Ben; Milic-Frayling,Natasa; Mendes Rodrigues,Eduarda; Barash,Vladimir; Dunne,Cody; Capone,Tony; Perer,Adam; Gleave,Eric (Proceedings of the fourth international conference on Communities and technologies, 2009)
We present NodeXL, an extendible toolkit for network overview, discovery and exploration implemented as an add-in to the Microsoft Excel 2007 spreadsheet software. We demonstrate NodeXL data analysis and visualization features with a social media data sample drawn from an enterprise intranet social network. A sequence of NodeXL operations from data import to computation of network statistics and refinement of network visualization through sorting, filtering, and clustering functions is described. These operations reveal sociologically relevant differences in the patterns of interconnection among employee participants in the social media space. The tool and method can be broadly applied.
Keywords: excel; network analysis; social media; social network; spreadsheet; Visualization

Analyzing the process of installing rogue software - Berthier,R.; Arjona,J.; Michel Cukier (2009)
This practical experience report presents the results of an experiment aimed at understanding the sequence of malicious actions following a remote compromise. The type of rogue software installed during attacks was used to classify and understand sequences of malicious actions. For this experiment, we used four Linux target computers running SSH with simple passwords. During the eight-month data collection period, we recorded a total of 1,171 attack sessions. In these sessions, attackers typed a total of 20,335 commands that we categorized into 24 specific actions. These actions were analyzed based on the type of rogue software installed by attackers.
Keywords: Linux; Linux target computers; malicious actions; rogue software installation; security of data

Appearance Modeling Using a Geometric Transform - Li,Jian; Zhou,S. K; Chellapa, Rama (Image Processing, IEEE Transactions on, 2009)
A general transform, called the geometric transform (GeT), that models the appearance inside a closed contour is proposed. The proposed GeT is a functional of an image intensity function and a region indicator function derived from a closed contour. It can be designed to combine the shape and appearance information at different resolutions and to generate models invariant to deformation, articulation, or occlusion. By choosing appropriate functionals and region indicator functions, the GeT unifies Radon transform, trace transform, and a class of image warpings. By varying the region indicator and the types of features used for appearance modeling, five novel types of GeTs are introduced and applied to fingerprinting the appearance inside a contour. They include the GeTs based on a level set, shape matching, feature curves, and the GeT invariant to occlusion, and a multiresolution GeT (MRGeT). Applications of GeT to pedestrian identity recognition, human body part segmentation, and image synthesis are illustrated. The proposed approach produces promising results when applied to fingerprinting the appearance of a human and body parts despite the presence of nonrigid deformations and articulated motion.
Keywords: body; contour; feature; curve; fingerprinting; geometric; function; image; function; shape; geometry; image; identity; indicator; INTENSITY; matching; trace; method; pedestrian; modeling; closed; part; Radon; recognition; region; resolution; image; segmentation; segmentation; image; set; synthesis; image; transform; appearance; transform; human; transform; Radon; transforms; computational; warping; level

An architectural level design methodology for smart camera applications - Saha,S.; Kianzad,V.; Schlessman,J.; Aggarwal,G.; Bhattacharyya, Shuvra S.; Chellapa, Rama; Wolf,W. (International Journal of Embedded Systems, 2009)
Today's embedded computing applications are characterised by increased functionality, and hence increased design complexity and processing requirements. The resulting design spaces are vast and designers are typically able to evaluate only small subsets of solutions due to lack of efficient design tools. In this paper, we propose an architectural level design methodology that provides a means for a comprehensive design space exploration for smart camera applications and enable designers to select higher quality solutions and provides substantial savings on the overall cost of the system. We present efficient, accurate and intuitive models for performance estimation and validate them with experiments.

An assessment of systems and software engineering scholars and institutions (2002–2006) - Wong,W. Eric; Tse,T.H.; Glass,Robert L.; Basili, Victor R.; Chen,T.Y. (Journal of Systems and Software, 2009)
This paper summarizes a survey of publications in the field of systems and software engineering from 2002 to 2006. The survey is an ongoing, annual event that identifies the top 15 scholars and institutions over a 5-year period. The rankings are calculated based on the number of papers published in TSE, TOSEM, JSS, SPE, EMSE, IST, and Software. The top-ranked institution is Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Korea, and the top-ranked scholar is Magne Jørgensen of Simula Research Laboratory, Norway.
Keywords: Research publications; Systems and software engineering; Top institutions; Top scholars

Automatic classification of human values: Applying computational thinking to information ethics - Fleischmann,K.R.; Oard, Douglas; Cheng,A.S.; Wang,P.; Ishita,E. (Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2009)

Avid interactions underlie the Lys63-linked polyubiquitin binding specificities observed for UBA domains - Sims,Joshua J.; Haririnia,Aydin; Dickinson,Bryan C.; Fushman, David; Cohen,Robert E. (Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 2009)
Ubiquitin (denoted Ub) receptor proteins as a group must contain a diverse set of binding specificities to distinguish the many forms of polyubiquitin (polyUb) signals. Previous studies suggested that the large class of ubiquitin-associated (UBA) domains contains members with intrinsic specificity for Lys63-linked polyUb or Lys48-linked polyUb, thus explaining how UBA-containing proteins can mediate diverse signaling events. Here we show that previously observed Lys63-polyUb selectivity in UBA domains is the result of an artifact in which the dimeric fusion partner, glutathione S-transferase (GST), positions two UBAs for higher affinity, avid interactions with Lys63-polyUb, but not with Lys48-polyUb. Freed from GST, these UBAs are either nonselective or prefer Lys48-polyUb. Accordingly, NMR experiments reveal no Lys63-polyUb–specific binding epitopes for these UBAs. We reexamine previous conclusions based on GST-UBAs and present an alternative model for how UBAs achieve a diverse range of linkage specificities.
Keywords: apoptosis; basic cellular processes; Biochemistry; biophysics; cell biology; cell cycle; cell surface proteins; cell-cell interactions; checkpoints; chromatin; chromatin remodeling; chromatin structure; content; DNA recombination; DNA repair; DNA replication; Gene expression; Genetics; intracellular signaling; journal; macromolecules; mechanism; membrane processes; molecular; molecular basis of disease; molecular biology; molecular interactions; multi-component complexes; nature publishing group; nature structural molecular biology; nucleic acids; protein degradation; protein folding; protein processing; Proteins; regulation of transcription; regulation of translation; RNA; RNA processing; RNAi; signal transduction; single molecule studies; structure and function of proteins; transcription; translation

Better vocabularies for assistive communication aids: connecting terms using semantic networks and untrained annotators - Nikolova,Sonya; Jordan Boyd-Graber; Fellbaum,Christiane; Cook,Perry (Proceedings of the 11th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility, 2009)
The difficulties of navigating vocabulary in an assistive communication device are exacerbated for individuals with lexical access disorders like those due to aphasia. We present the design and implementation of a vocabulary network based on WordNet, a resource that attempts to model human semantic memory, that enables users to find words easily. To correct for the sparsity of links among words, we augment WordNet with additional connections derived from human judgments of semantic similarity collected in an online experiment. We evaluate the resulting system, the visual vocabulary for aphasia (ViVA), and describe its potential to adapt to a user's profile and enable faster search and improved navigation.
Keywords: adaptive tools; aphasia; assistive communication; semantic networks; visual vocabularies

Biological agent detection technologies - Jakupciak,John P.; Rita R Colwell (Molecular Ecology Resources, 2009)
The challenge for first responders, physicians in the emergency room, public health personnel, as well as for food manufacturers, distributors and retailers is accurate and reliable identification of pathogenic agents and their corresponding diseases. This is the weakest point in biological agent detection capability today.There is intense research for new molecular detection technologies that could be used for very accurate detection of pathogens that would be a concern to first responders. These include the need for sensors for multiple applications as varied as understanding the ecology of pathogenic micro-organisms, forensics, environmental sampling for detect-to-treat applications, biological sensors for ‘detect to warn’ in infrastructure protection, responses to reports of ‘suspicious powders’, and customs and borders enforcement, to cite a few examples. The benefits of accurate detection include saving millions of dollars annually by reducing disruption of the workforce and the national economy and improving delivery of correct countermeasures to those who are most in need of the information to provide protective and/or response measures.
Keywords: barcoding; biological agent; DETECTION; identification; sequencing

Brief announcement: performance potential of an easy-to-program PRAM-on-chip prototype versus state-of-the-art processor - Caragea,G.C.; Saybasili,A. B; Wen,X.; Vishkin, Uzi (Proceedings of the twenty-first annual symposium on Parallelism in algorithms and architectures, 2009)

Call for Papers: Special Issue of the Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing: Cloud Computing - Chockler,Gregory; Dekel,Eliezer; JaJa, Joseph F.; Jimmy Lin (J. Parallel Distrib. Comput., 2009)

CLASSY 2009: Summarization and Metrics - Conroy,John M.; Schlesinger,Judith D.; O'Leary, Dianne P. (TAC 2009 Workshop ProceedingsTAC 2009 Workshop Proceedings, 2009)

Common effect of antipsychotics on the biosynthesis and regulation of fatty acids and cholesterol supports a key role of lipid homeostasis in schizophrenia - Polymeropoulos,Mihael H.; Licamele,Louis; Volpi,Simona; Mack,Kendra; Mitkus,Shruti N.; Carstea,Eugene D.; Getoor, Lise; Thompson,Andrew; Lavedan,Christian (Schizophrenia Research, 2009)
For decades, the dopamine hypothesis has gained the most attention in an attempt to explain the origin and the symptoms of schizophrenia. While this hypothesis offers an explanation for the relationship between psychotic symptoms and dopamine kinetics, it does not provide a direct explanation of the etiology of schizophrenia which remains poorly understood. Consequently, current antipsychotics that target neurotransmitter receptors, have limited and inconsistent efficacy. To gain insights into the mechanism of action of these drugs, we studied the expression profile of 12,490 human genes in a cell line treated with 18 antipsychotics, and compared it to that of a library of 448 other compounds used in a variety of disorders. Analysis reveals a common effect of antipsychotics on the biosynthesis and regulation of fatty acids and cholesterol, which is discussed in the context of a lipid hypothesis where alterations in lipid homeostasis might underlie the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. This finding may help research aimed at the development of novel treatments for this devastating disease.
Keywords: Antipsychotic action; Gene expression; Lipid homeostasis; Pathogenesis

Comparative genomics reveals mechanism for short-term and long-term clonal transitions in pandemic Vibrio cholerae - Chun,J.; Grim,C. J.; Hasan,N. A.; Lee,J. H.; Choi,S. Y.; Haley,B. J.; Taviani,E.; Jeon,Y. S.; Kim,D.W.; Lee,J. H.; Rita R Colwell (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2009)
Vibrio cholerae, the causative agent of cholera, is a bacterium autochthonous to the aquatic environment, and a serious public health threat. V. cholerae serogroup O1 is responsible for the previous two cholera pandemics, in which classical and El Tor biotypes were dominant in the sixth and the current seventh pandemics, respectively. Cholera researchers continually face newly emerging and reemerging pathogenic clones carrying diverse combinations of phenotypic and genotypic properties, which significantly hampered control of the disease. To elucidate evolutionary mechanisms governing genetic diversity of pandemic V. cholerae, we compared the genome sequences of 23 V. cholerae strains isolated from a variety of sources over the past 98 years. The genome-based phylogeny revealed 12 distinct V. cholerae lineages, of which one comprises both O1 classical and El Tor biotypes. All seventh pandemic clones share nearly identical gene content. Using analogy to influenza virology, we define the transition from sixth to seventh pandemic strains as a “shift” between pathogenic clones belonging to the same O1 serogroup, but from significantly different phyletic lineages. In contrast, transition among clones during the present pandemic period is characterized as a “drift” between clones, differentiated mainly by varying composition of laterally transferred genomic islands, resulting in emergence of variants, exemplified by V. cholerae O139 and V. cholerae O1 El Tor hybrid clones. Based on the comparative genomics it is concluded that V. cholerae undergoes extensive genetic recombination via lateral gene transfer, and, therefore, genome assortment, not serogroup, should be used to define pathogenic V. cholerae clones.

Compressed sensing for Synthetic Aperture Radar imaging - Patel, Vishal M.; Easley,G. R; Healy,D. M; Chellapa, Rama (2009 16th IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), 2009)
In this paper, we introduce a new Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging modality that provides a high resolution map of the spatial distribution of targets and terrain based on a significant reduction in the number of transmitted and/or received electromagnetic waveforms. This new imaging scheme, which requires no new hardware components, allows the aperture to be compressed and presents many important applications and advantages among which include resolving ambiguities, strong resistance to countermeasures and interception, and reduced on-board storage constraints.
Keywords: Compressed sensing; High-resolution imaging; Image coding; image resolution; Optical imaging; Radar antennas; radar imaging; Radar polarimetry; Reflectivity; SAR; spatial distribution; synthetic aperture radar; synthetic aperture radar imaging

Computational methods for modeling facial aging: A survey - Ramanathan,Narayanan; Chellapa, Rama; Biswas,Soma (Journal of Visual Languages & Computing, 2009)
Facial aging, a new dimension that has recently been added to the problem of face recognition, poses interesting theoretical and practical challenges to the research community. The problem which originally generated interest in the psychophysics and human perception community has recently found enhanced interest in the computer vision community. How do humans perceive age? What constitutes an age-invariant signature that can be derived from faces? How compactly can the facial growth event be described? How does facial aging impact recognition performance? In this paper, we give a thorough analysis on the problem of facial aging and further provide a complete account of the many interesting studies that have been performed on this topic from different fields. We offer a comparative analysis of various approaches that have been proposed for problems such as age estimation, appearance prediction, face verification, etc. and offer insights into future research on this topic.
Keywords: age estimation; Age progression; Craniofacial growth; face recognition

Computer Help at Home: Methods and Motivations for Informal Technical Support - Poole, Erika Shehan; Marshini Chetty; Morgan, Tom; Grinter, Rebecca E.; Edwards, W. Keith (SIGCHI '09, 2009)
Prior research suggests that people may ask their family and friends for computer help. But what influences whether and how a "helper" will provide help? To answer this question, we conducted a qualitative investigation of people who participated in computer support activities with family and friends in the past year. We describe how factors including maintenance of one's personal identity as a computer expert and accountability to one's social network determine who receives help and the quality of help provided. We also discuss the complex, fractured relationship between the numerous stakeholders involved in the upkeep of home computing infrastructures. Based on our findings, we provide implications for the design of systems to support informal help-giving in residential settings.
Keywords: help-giving; help-seeking; Home computing; identity management; social networks

Connections between the lines: augmenting social networks with text - Chang,Jonathan; Jordan Boyd-Graber; Blei,David M. (Proceedings of the 15th ACM SIGKDD international conference on Knowledge discovery and data mining, 2009)
Network data is ubiquitous, encoding collections of relationships between entities such as people, places, genes, or corporations. While many resources for networks of interesting entities are emerging, most of these can only annotate connections in a limited fashion. Although relationships between entities are rich, it is impractical to manually devise complete characterizations of these relationships for every pair of entities on large, real-world corpora. In this paper we present a novel probabilistic topic model to analyze text corpora and infer descriptions of its entities and of relationships between those entities. We develop variational methods for performing approximate inference on our model and demonstrate that our model can be practically deployed on large corpora such as Wikipedia. We show qualitatively and quantitatively that our model can construct and annotate graphs of relationships and make useful predictions.
Keywords: Graphical models; social network learning; statistical topic models

Contemporary domestic infrastructures and technology design - Marshini Chetty (SIGCHI EA '09, 2009)
In this proposal, I describe my examination of two contemporary domestic infrastructures. Specifically, I am investigating whether we need to surface more information about these systems to make them intelligible to end-users. I describe my empirical research to date and the design of two technology probes which I will use to learn more how home infrastructure affects domestic technology design.
Keywords: Home; home networks; infrastructure; resource delivery systems

Controlling data in the cloud: outsourcing computation without outsourcing control - Chow, Richard; Golle, Philippe; Jakobsson, Markus; Elaine Shi; Staddon, Jessica; Masuoka, Ryusuke; Molina,Jesus (ACM, 2009)
Cloud computing is clearly one of today's most enticing technology areas due, at least in part, to its cost-efficiency and flexibility. However, despite the surge in activity and interest, there are significant, persistent concerns about cloud computing that are impeding momentum and will eventually compromise the vision of cloud computing as a new IT procurement model. In this paper, we characterize the problems and their impact on adoption. In addition, and equally importantly, we describe how the combination of existing research thrusts has the potential to alleviate many of the concerns impeding adoption. In particular, we argue that with continued research advances in trusted computing and computation-supporting encryption, life in the cloud can be advantageous from a business intelligence standpoint over the isolated alternative that is more common today.
Keywords: Cloud computing; privacy; Security

Cross-tier, label-based security enforcement for web applications - Corcoran,Brian J.; Swamy,Nikhil; Hicks, Michael W. (Proceedings of the 35th SIGMOD international conference on Management of data, 2009)
This paper presents SELinks, a programming language focused on building secure multi-tier web applications. SELinks provides a uniform programming model, in the style of LINQ and Ruby on Rails, with language syntax for accessing objects residing either in the database or at the server. Object-level security policies are expressed as fully-customizable, first-class labels which may themselves be subject to security policies. Access to labeled data is mediated via trusted, user-provided policy enforcement functions. SELinks has two novel features that ensure security policies are enforced correctly and efficiently. First, SELinks implements a type system called Fable that allows a protected object's type to refer to its protecting label. The type system can check that labeled data is never accessed directly by the program without first consulting the appropriate policy enforcement function. Second, SELinks compiles policy enforcement code to database-resident user-defined functions that can be called directly during query processing. Database-side checking avoids transferring data to the server needlessly, while still allowing policies to be expressed in a customizable and portable manner. Our experience with two sizable web applications, a modelhealth-care database and a secure wiki with fine-grained security policies, indicates that cross-tier policy enforcement in SELinks is flexible, relatively easy to use, and, when compared to a single-tier approach, improves throughput by nearly an order of magnitude. SELinks is freely available.
Keywords: compilers; database programming; security enforcement; type systems; web applications

The design of ViVA: a mixed-initiative visual vocabulary for aphasia - Nikolova,Sonya; Jordan Boyd-Graber; Cook,Perry R. (Proceedings of the 27th international conference extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, 2009)
In this paper, we present the design of ViVA, a visual vocabulary for aphasia. Aphasia is an acquired language disorder that causes variability of impairments affecting individual's ability to speak, comprehend, read and write. Existing communication aids lack flexibility and adequate customization functionality failing to address this variability and to satisfy individual user needs. We tackle these shortcomings by incorporating adaptive and adaptable capabilities in ViVA which is designed to assist communication for users suffering from aphasia. The visual vocabulary for aphasia implements a novel approach that organizes the words in the vocabulary according to user preferences, word usage and certain semantic measures, thus continuously tailoring the tool to the user's profile.
Keywords: adaptive and adaptable interfaces; assistive communication tools; multi-modal interfaces

Detecting humans carrying objects - Yang Ran; Qinfen Zheng; Chellapa, Rama (SPIE Newsroom, 2009)
Decomposing an image sequence into slices that generate twisted patterns sufficiently characterizes human gait and a particular class of activities.

Detection of toxigenic Vibrio cholerae O1 in freshwater lakes of the former Soviet Republic of Georgia - Grim,Christopher J.; Jaiani,Ekaterina; Whitehouse,Chris A.; Janelidze,Nino; Kokashvili,Tamuna; Tediashvili,Marina; Rita R Colwell; Huq,Anwar (Environmental Microbiology Reports, 2009)
Three freshwater lakes, Lisi Lake, Kumisi Lake and Tbilisi Sea, near Tbilisi, Georgia, were studied from January 2006 to December 2007 to determine the presence of Vibrio cholerae employing both bacteriological culture method and direct detection methods, namely PCR and direct fluorescent antibody (DFA). For PCR, DNA extracted from water samples was tested for presence of V. cholerae and genes coding for selected virulence factors. Vibrio cholerae non-O1/non-O139 was routinely isolated by culture from all three lakes; whereas V. cholerae O1 and O139 were not. Water samples collected during the summer months from Lisi Lake and Kumisi Lake were positive for both V. cholerae and V. cholerae ctxA, tcpA, zot, ompU and toxR by PCR. Water samples collected during the same period from both Lisi and Kumisi Lake were also positive for V. cholerae serogroup O1 by DFA. All of the samples were negative for V. cholerae serotype O139. The results of this study provide evidence for an environmental presence of toxigenic V. cholerae O1, which may represent a potential source of illness as these lakes serve as recreational water in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Determination of relationships among non-toxigenic Vibrio cholerae O1 biotype El Tor strains from housekeeping gene sequences and ribotype patterns - Mohapatra,Saswat S.; Ramachandran,Dhanya; Mantri,Chinmay K.; Rita R Colwell; Singh,Durg V. (Research in Microbiology, 2009)
Sequencing of three housekeeping genes, mdh, dnaE and recA, and ribotyping for seven non-toxigenic Vibrio cholerae O1 strains isolated from different geographic sources indicate a phylogenetic relationship among the strains. Results of MLST and ribotyping indicate a clear difference between three toxigenic strains (N16961, O395, and 569B) and three non-toxigenic strains from India (GS1, GS2, and GW87) and one Guam strain (X392), the latter of which were similar in both MLST and ribotyping, while two other non-toxigenic strains from the USA and India (2740-80 and OR69) appeared to be more closely related to toxigenic strains than to non-toxigenic strains, although this was not supported by ribotyping. These results provide clues to the emergence of toxigenic strains from a non-toxigenic progenitor by acquisition of virulence gene clusters. Results of split decomposition analysis suggest that widespread recombination occurs among the three housekeeping genes and that recombination plays an important role in the emergence of toxigenic strains of V. cholerae O1.
Keywords: Housekeeping genes; Ribotyping; sequencing; Vibrio cholerae