56,846 research outputs found
Compressing networks with super nodes
Community detection is a commonly used technique for identifying groups in a
network based on similarities in connectivity patterns. To facilitate community
detection in large networks, we recast the network to be partitioned into a
smaller network of 'super nodes', each super node comprising one or more nodes
in the original network. To define the seeds of our super nodes, we apply the
'CoreHD' ranking from dismantling and decycling. We test our approach through
the analysis of two common methods for community detection: modularity
maximization with the Louvain algorithm and maximum likelihood optimization for
fitting a stochastic block model. Our results highlight that applying community
detection to the compressed network of super nodes is significantly faster
while successfully producing partitions that are more aligned with the local
network connectivity, more stable across multiple (stochastic) runs within and
between community detection algorithms, and overlap well with the results
obtained using the full network
Active User Authentication for Smartphones: A Challenge Data Set and Benchmark Results
In this paper, automated user verification techniques for smartphones are
investigated. A unique non-commercial dataset, the University of Maryland
Active Authentication Dataset 02 (UMDAA-02) for multi-modal user authentication
research is introduced. This paper focuses on three sensors - front camera,
touch sensor and location service while providing a general description for
other modalities. Benchmark results for face detection, face verification,
touch-based user identification and location-based next-place prediction are
presented, which indicate that more robust methods fine-tuned to the mobile
platform are needed to achieve satisfactory verification accuracy. The dataset
will be made available to the research community for promoting additional
research.Comment: 8 pages, 12 figures, 6 tables. Best poster award at BTAS 201
The WFPC2 Archival Parallels Project
We describe the methods and procedures developed to obtain a near-automatic
combination of WFPC2 images obtained as part of the WFPC2 Archival Pure
Parallels program. Several techniques have been developed or refined to ensure
proper alignment, registration, and combination of overlapping images that can
be obtained at different times and with different orientations. We quantify the
success rate and the accuracy of the registration of images of different types,
and we develop techniques suitable to equalize the sky background without
unduly affecting extended emission. About 600 combined images of the 1,500
eventually planned have already been publicly released through the STScI
Archive. The images released to date are especially suited to study star
formation in the Magellanic Clouds, the stellar population in the halo of
nearby galaxies, and the properties of star-forming galaxies at .Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, to appear in the PAS
Genetic diversity, infection prevalence, and possible transmission routes of Bartonella spp. in vampire bats
Bartonella spp. are globally distributed bacteria that cause endocarditis in humans and domestic animals. Recent work has suggested bats as zoonotic reservoirs of some human Bartonella infections; however, the ecological and spatiotemporal patterns of infection in bats remain largely unknown. Here we studied the genetic diversity, prevalence of infection across seasons and years, individual risk factors, and possible transmission routes of Bartonella in populations of common vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus) in Peru and Belize, for which high infection prevalence has previously been reported. Phylogenetic analysis of the gltA gene for a subset of PCR-positive blood samples revealed sequences that were related to Bartonella described from vampire bats from Mexico, other Neotropical bat species, and streblid bat flies. Sequences associated with vampire bats clustered significantly by country but commonly spanned Central and South America, implying limited spatial structure. Stable and nonzero Bartonella prevalence between years supported endemic transmission in all sites. The odds of Bartonella infection for individual bats was unrelated to the intensity of bat flies ectoparasitism, but nearly all infected bats were infested, which precluded conclusive assessment of support for vector-borne transmission. While metagenomic sequencing found no strong evidence of Bartonella DNA in pooled bat saliva and fecal samples, we detected PCR positivity in individual saliva and feces, suggesting the potential for bacterial transmission through both direct contact (i.e., biting) and environmental (i.e., fecal) exposures. Further investigating the relative contributions of direct contact, environmental, and vector-borne transmission for bat Bartonella is an important next step to predict infection dynamics within bats and the risks of human and livestock exposures
- …