Two-way recommendation methods for social networks

In this work, we present the challenges associated with the two-way recommendation methods in social networks and the solutions. We discuss them from the perspective of community-type social networks such as online dating networks.

Predicting flow and transport in highly heterogeneous alluvial aquifers

Successful prediction of groundwater flow and solute transport through highly heterogeneous aquifers has remained elusive due to the limitations of methods to characterize hydraulic conductivity (K) and generate realistic stochastic fields from such data. As a result, many studies have suggested that the classical advective-dispersive equation (ADE) cannot reproduce such transport behavior. Here we demonstrate that when high-resolution K data are used with a fractal stochastic method that produces K fields with adequate connectivity, the classical ADE can accurately predict solute transport at the macrodispersion experiment site in Mississippi. This development provides great promise to accurately predict contaminant plume migration, design more effective remediation schemes, and reduce environmental risks. Key Points Non-Gaussian transport behavior at the MADE site is unraveledADE can reproduce tracer transport in heterogeneous aquifers with no calibrationNew fractal method generates heterogeneous K fields with adequate connectivity

Ecological and Behavioral Methods for the Study of Bats [2nd. Ed.]

"First published in 1988, Ecological and Behavioral Methods for the Study of Bats is widely acknowledged as the primary reference for both amateur and professional bat researchers. Bats are the second most diverse group of mammals on the earth. They live on every continent except Antarctica, ranging from deserts to tropical forests to mountains, and their activities have a profound effect on the ecosystems in which they live. Despite their ubiquity and importance, bats are challenging to study. This volume provides researchers, conservationists, and consultants with the ecological background and specific information essential for studying bats in the wild and in captivity. Chapters detail many of the newest and most commonly used field and laboratory techniques needed to advance the study of bats, describe how these methods are applied to the study of the ecology and behavior of bats, and offer advice on how to interpret the results of research. The book includes forty-three chapters, fourteen of which are new to the second edition, with information on molecular ecology and evolution, bioacoustics, chemical communication, flight dynamics, population models, and methods for assessing postnatal growth and development. Fully illustrated and featuring contributions from the world’s leading experts in bat biology, this reference contains everything bat researchers and natural resource managers need to know for the study and conservation of this wide-ranging, ecologically vital, and diverse taxon."--Publisher website

Materials, methods and systems for purification and/or seperation

Materials, methods and systems are provided for the purifn., filtration and​/or sepn. of certain mols. such as certain size biomols. Certain embodiments relate to supports contg. at least one polymethacrylate polymer engineered to have certain pore diams. and other properties, and which can be functionally adapted to for certain purifications, filtrations and​/or sepns. Biomols. are selected from a group consisting of: polynucleotide mols., oligonucleotide mols. including antisense oligonucleotide mols. such as antisense RNA and other oligonucleotide mols. that are inhibitory of gene function such as small interfering RNA (siRNA)​, polypeptides including proteinaceous infective agents such as prions, for example, the infectious agent for CJD, and infectious agents such as viruses and phage.

Using personal construct theory and narrative methods to facilitate reflexive constructions of teaching physical education

This paper reports on two lengthy studies in Physical education teacher education (PETE) conducted independently but which are epistemologically and methodologically linked. The paper describes how personal construct theory (PCT) and its associated methods provided a means for PETE students to reflexively construct their ideas about teaching physical education over an extended period. Data are drawn from each study in the form of a story of a single participant to indicate how this came about. Furthermore we suggest that PCT might be both a useful research strategy and an effective approach to facilitate professional development in a teacher education setting.

Finite volume methods for simulating anomalous transport

In this thesis a new approach for solving a certain class of anomalous diffusion equations was developed. The theory and algorithms arising from this work will pave the way for more efficient and more accurate solutions of these equations, with applications to science, health and industry. The method of finite volumes was applied to discretise the spatial derivatives, and this was shown to outperform existing methods in several key respects. The stability and convergence of the new method were rigorously established.

Sealing the leak on classical NTRU signatures

Initial attempts to obtain lattice based signatures were closely related to reducing a vector modulo the fundamental parallelepiped of a secret basis (like GGH [9], or NTRUSign [12]). This approach leaked some information on the secret, namely the shape of the parallelepiped, which has been exploited on practical attacks [24]. NTRUSign was an extremely efficient scheme, and thus there has been a noticeable interest on developing countermeasures to the attacks, but with little success [6]. In [8] Gentry, Peikert and Vaikuntanathan proposed a randomized version of Babai’s nearest plane algorithm such that the distribution of a reduced vector modulo a secret parallelepiped only depended on the size of the base used. Using this algorithm and generating large, close to uniform, public keys they managed to get provably secure GGH-like lattice-based signatures. Recently, Stehlé and Steinfeld obtained a provably secure scheme very close to NTRUSign [26] (from a theoretical point of view). In this paper we present an alternative approach to seal the leak of NTRUSign. Instead of modifying the lattices and algorithms used, we do a classic leaky NTRUSign signature and hide it with gaussian noise using techniques present in Lyubashevky’s signatures. Our main contributions are thus a set of strong NTRUSign parameters, obtained by taking into account latest known attacks against the scheme, a statistical way to hide the leaky NTRU signature so that this particular instantiation of CVP-based signature scheme becomes zero-knowledge and secure against forgeries, based on the worst-case hardness of the O~(N1.5)-Shortest Independent Vector Problem over NTRU lattices. Finally, we give a set of concrete parameters to gauge the efficiency of the obtained signature scheme.

Locally weighted learning methods for non-rigid robot control

This thesis develops a novel approach to robot control that learns to account for a robot's dynamic complexities while executing various control tasks using inspiration from biological sensorimotor control and machine learning. A robot that can learn its own control system can account for complex situations and adapt to changes in control conditions to maximise its performance and reliability in the real world. This research has developed two novel learning methods, with the aim of solving issues with learning control of non-rigid robots that incorporate additional dynamic complexities. The new learning control system was evaluated on a real three degree-of-freedom elastic joint robot arm with a number of experiments: initially validating the learning method and testing its ability to generalise to new tasks, then evaluating the system during a learning control task requiring continuous online model adaptation.

A survey: Error control methods used in bio-cryptography

Integration of biometrics is considered as an attractive solution for the issues associated with password based human authentication as well as for secure storage and release of cryptographic keys which is one of the critical issues associated with modern cryptography. However, the widespread popularity of bio-cryptographic solutions are somewhat restricted by the fuzziness associated with biometric measurements. Therefore, error control mechanisms must be adopted to make sure that fuzziness of biometric inputs can be sufficiently countered. In this paper, we have outlined such existing techniques used in bio-cryptography while explaining how they are deployed in different types of solutions. Finally, we have elaborated on the important facts to be considered when choosing appropriate error correction mechanisms for a particular biometric based solution.