Position paper on realizing smart products: challenges for Semantic Web technologies

In the rapidly developing space of novel technologies that combine sensing and semantic technologies, research on smart products has the potential of establishing a research field in itself. In this paper, we synthesize existing work in this area in order to define and characterize smart products. We then reflect on a set of challenges that semantic technologies are likely to face in this domain. Finally, in order to initiate discussion in the workshop, we sketch an initial comparison of smart products and semantic sensor networks from the perspective of knowledge technologies

Uniformly bounded components of normality

Suppose that $f(z)$ is a transcendental entire function and that the Fatou set $F(f)\neq\emptyset$. Set $$B_1(f):=\sup_{U}\frac{\sup_{z\in U}\log(|z|+3)}{\inf_{w\in U}\log(|w|+3)}$$ and $$B_2(f):=\sup_{U}\frac{\sup_{z\in U}\log\log(|z|+30)}{\inf_{w\in U}\log(|w|+3)},$$ where the supremum $\sup_{U}$ is taken over all components of $F(f)$. If $B_1(f)<\infty$ or $B_2(f)<\infty$, then we say $F(f)$ is strongly uniformly bounded or uniformly bounded respectively. In this article, we will show that, under some conditions, $F(f)$ is (strongly) uniformly bounded.Comment: 17 pages, a revised version, to appear in Mathematical Proceedings Cambridge Philosophical Societ

Structural Insights From HIV-Antibody Co-Evolution And Related Immunization Studies

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is a rapidly evolving pathogen and causes the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in humans. There are ~30-35 million people infected with HIV around the world, and ~25 million have died since the first reported cases in 1981. Additionally, each year 2-3 million people become newly infected and more than one million die of AIDS. An HIV-1 vaccine would help halt an AIDS pandemic, and efforts to develop a vaccine have focused on targeting the HIV-1 envelope, Env, found on the surface of the virus. A number of chronically infected individuals have been shown to produce antibodies, called broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs), that target many strains of HIV-1 by binding to Env, thus suggesting promise for HIV-1 vaccine development. BnAbs to take years to develop and have a number of traits that inhibit their production; thus, a number of researchers are trying to understand the pathways that result in bnAb production so that they can be elicited more rapidly by vaccination. This review discusses results and implications from two HIV-1 infected individuals studied longitudinally who produced bnAbs against two different sites on HIV-1 Env, and immunization studies that use Envs deriving from those individuals

Concert recording 2018-04-15b

[Track 1]. 3rd suite for unaccompanied cello. I. Prelude [Track 2]. IV. Sarabande [Track 3]. VI. Gigue / J.S. Bach -- [Track 4]. Après un rêve / Garbriel Fauré arranged by Julian Lloyd-Webber -- [Track 5]. Fratres / Arvo Pärt -- [Track 6]. Disco-toccata / Guillame Connesson -- [Track 7]. Appalachia waltz for unaccompanied cello / Mark O\u27Connor

Re-expression of IGF-II is important for beta cell regeneration in adult mice

Background The key factors which support re-expansion of beta cell numbers after injury are largely unknown. Insulin-like growth factor II (IGF-II) plays a critical role in supporting cell division and differentiation during ontogeny but its role in the adult is not known. In this study we investigated the effect of IGF-II on beta cell regeneration. Methodology/Principal Findings We employed an in vivo model of ‘switchable’ c-Myc-induced beta cell ablation, pIns-c-MycERTAM, in which 90% of beta cells are lost following 11 days of c-Myc (Myc) activation in vivo. Importantly, such ablation is normally followed by beta cell regeneration once Myc is deactivated, enabling functional studies of beta cell regeneration in vivo. IGF-II was shown to be re-expressed in the adult pancreas of pIns-c-MycERTAM/IGF-II+/+ (MIG) mice, following beta cell injury. As expected in the presence of IGF-II beta cell mass and numbers recover rapidly after ablation. In contrast, in pIns-c-MycERTAM/IGF-II+/− (MIGKO) mice, which express no IGF-II, recovery of beta cell mass and numbers were delayed and impaired. Despite failure of beta cell number increase, MIGKO mice recovered from hyperglycaemia, although this was delayed. Conclusions/Significance Our results demonstrate that beta cell regeneration in adult mice depends on re-expression of IGF-II, and supports the utility of using such ablation-recovery models for identifying other potential factors critical for underpinning successful beta cell regeneration in vivo. The potential therapeutic benefits of manipulating the IGF-II signaling systems merit further exploration

3D Anisotropic Hybrid Network: Transferring Convolutional Features from 2D Images to 3D Anisotropic Volumes

While deep convolutional neural networks (CNN) have been successfully applied for 2D image analysis, it is still challenging to apply them to 3D anisotropic volumes, especially when the within-slice resolution is much higher than the between-slice resolution and when the amount of 3D volumes is relatively small. On one hand, direct learning of CNN with 3D convolution kernels suffers from the lack of data and likely ends up with poor generalization; insufficient GPU memory limits the model size or representational power. On the other hand, applying 2D CNN with generalizable features to 2D slices ignores between-slice information. Coupling 2D network with LSTM to further handle the between-slice information is not optimal due to the difficulty in LSTM learning. To overcome the above challenges, we propose a 3D Anisotropic Hybrid Network (AH-Net) that transfers convolutional features learned from 2D images to 3D anisotropic volumes. Such a transfer inherits the desired strong generalization capability for within-slice information while naturally exploiting between-slice information for more effective modelling. The focal loss is further utilized for more effective end-to-end learning. We experiment with the proposed 3D AH-Net on two different medical image analysis tasks, namely lesion detection from a Digital Breast Tomosynthesis volume, and liver and liver tumor segmentation from a Computed Tomography volume and obtain the state-of-the-art results

Fatigue-free unipolar strain behavior in CaZrO3 and MnO 2 co-modified (K,Na)NbO3-based lead-free piezoceramics

The unipolar fatigue behavior of CaZrO3 and MnO2 co-modified (K,Na,Li)(Nb,Ta)O3 lead-free piezoceramics was investigated systematically. The well-known charge agglomeration model is shown to explain the overall changes observed during unipolar fatigue, such as the development of bias field as well as the anisotropy in bipolar strain hysteresis and field-dependent dielectric permittivity. In addition, it is found that the unipolar strain exhibits only small degradation within 3% at the field amplitude of 2 kV/mm up to 107 cycles. This exceptionally good fatigue resistance is identified due to the presence of additional process, assigned as a "softening" effect that competes against the usual fatigue effect.open4