Intelligent query processing in P2P networks: semantic issues and routing algorithms

P2P networks have become a commonly used way of disseminating content on the Internet. In this context, constructing efficient and distributed P2P routing algorithms for complex environments that include a huge number of distributed nodes with different computing and network capabilities is a major challenge. In the last years, query routing algorithms have evolved by taking into account different features (provenance, nodes' history, topic similarity, etc.). Such features are usually stored in auxiliary data structures (tables, matrices, etc.), which provide an extra knowledge engineering layer on top of the network, resulting in an added semantic value for specifying algorithms for efficient query routing. This article examines the main existing algorithms for query routing in unstructured P2P networks in which semantic aspects play a major role. A general comparative analysis is included, associated with a taxonomy of P2P networks based on their degree of decentralization and the different approaches adopted to exploit the available semantic aspects.Fil: Nicolini, Ana Lucía. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación; ArgentinaFil: Lorenzetti, Carlos Martin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación; ArgentinaFil: Maguitman, Ana Gabriela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación; ArgentinaFil: Chesñevar, Carlos Iván. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación; Argentin

Reproducibility in the absence of selective reporting: An illustration from large‐scale brain asymmetry research

The problem of poor reproducibility of scientific findings has received much attention over recent years, in a variety of fields including psychology and neuroscience. The problem has been partly attributed to publication bias and unwanted practices such as p‐hacking. Low statistical power in individual studies is also understood to be an important factor. In a recent multisite collaborative study, we mapped brain anatomical left–right asymmetries for regional measures of surface area and cortical thickness, in 99 MRI datasets from around the world, for a total of over 17,000 participants. In the present study, we revisited these hemispheric effects from the perspective of reproducibility. Within each dataset, we considered that an effect had been reproduced when it matched the meta‐analytic effect from the 98 other datasets, in terms of effect direction and significance threshold. In this sense, the results within each dataset were viewed as coming from separate studies in an “ideal publishing environment,” that is, free from selective reporting and p hacking. We found an average reproducibility rate of 63.2% (SD = 22.9%, min = 22.2%, max = 97.0%). As expected, reproducibility was higher for larger effects and in larger datasets. Reproducibility was not obviously related to the age of participants, scanner field strength, FreeSurfer software version, cortical regional measurement reliability, or regional size. These findings constitute an empirical illustration of reproducibility in the absence of publication bias or p hacking, when assessing realistic biological effects in heterogeneous neuroscience data, and given typically‐used sample sizes

A semi-supervised incremental algorithm to automatically formulate topical queries

The quality of the material collected by a context-based Web search systems is highly dependant on the vocabulary used to generate the search queries. This paper proposes to apply a semi-supervised algorithm to incrementally learn terms that can help bridge the terminology gap existing between the user's information needs and the relevant documents' vocabulary. The learning strategy uses an incrementally-retrieved, topic-dependent selection of Web documents for term-weight reinforcement reflecting the aptness of the terms in describing and discriminating the topic of the user context. The new algorithm learns new descriptors by searching for terms that tend to occur often in relevant documents, and learns good discriminators by identifying terms that tend to occur only in the context of the given topic. The enriched vocabulary allows the formulation of search queries that are more effective than those queries generated directly using terms from the initial topic description. An evaluation on a large collection of topics using a standard and two ad-hoc performance evaluation metrics suggests that the proposed technique is superior to a baseline and other existing query reformulation techniques.Fil: Lorenzetti, Carlos Martin. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencia e Ingeniería de la Computación. Laboratorio de Investigación y Desarrollo en Inteligencia Artificial; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca; ArgentinaFil: Maguitman, Ana Gabriela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencia e Ingeniería de la Computación. Laboratorio de Investigación y Desarrollo en Inteligencia Artificial; Argentin

Evolving disjunctive and conjunctive topical queries based on multi-objective optimization criteria

In this work we propose techniques based on single - and multi-objective evolutionary algorithms to automatically evolve a population of topical queries. The developed techniques can be applied in the implementation of a topical search system. We report on the results of different strategies that attempt to evolve conjunctive and disjunctive queries. Our analysis reveals the limitations of the single-objective approach and highlights the advantages of applying multi-objective evolutionary algorithms for the problem at hand. In addition, we observe that disjunctive queries have the potential to achieve better retrieval performance than conjunctive queries. Finally, we show that the multi-objective evolutionary approach results in better performance than a baseline and other state-of-the-art techniques for query refinement.Fil: Cecchini, Rocío Luján. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Laboratorio de Investigación y Desarrollo en Computación Científica; ArgentinaFil: Lorenzetti, Carlos Martin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencia e Ingeniería de la Computación. Laboratorio de Investigación y Desarrollo en Inteligencia Artificial; ArgentinaFil: Maguitman, Ana Gabriela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencia e Ingeniería de la Computación. Laboratorio de Investigación y Desarrollo en Inteligencia Artificial; Argentin

Topic relevance and diversity in information retrieval from large datasets: A multi-objective evolutionary algorithm approach

Enabling effective information search is an increasing problem, as technology enhances the ability to publish information rapidly, and large quantities of information are instantly available for retrieval. In this scenario, topical search is the process of searching for material that is relevant to a given topic. Multi-objective Evolutionary Algorithms have demonstrated great potential for addressing the topical search problem in very large datasets. In an evolutionary approach to topical search, a population of queries is automatically generated from a given topic, and the population of queries then evolves towards successively better candidate queries. Despite the promise of this approach, previous studies have revealed a common genotypic phenomenon: throughout evolution, the population tends to converge to almost identical sets of terms. This situation reduces the solution set to a few queries and leads to the exploration of a very limited region of the search space, which constitutes a limitation when users require different options from a topical search tool. This paper proposes and evaluates strategies to favor diversity in evolutionary topical search. These strategies rely on novel fitness functions, different parameterization for the crossover and mutation rates, and the use of multiple populations to favor diversity preservation. Experimental results conducted using these strategies in combination with the NSGA-II algorithm on a dataset consisting of more than 350,000 labeled web pages indicate that the proposed strategies show great promise for searching very large datasets, by helping to achieve query and search result diversity without giving up precision.Fil: Cecchini, Rocío Luján. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación; ArgentinaFil: Lorenzetti, Carlos Martin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación; ArgentinaFil: Maguitman, Ana Gabriela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación; ArgentinaFil: Ponzoni, Ignacio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación; Argentin

Use of universal 3D-Printed smartphone spectrophotometer to develop a time-based analysis for hypochlorite

A fully-functional smartphone-based spectrophotometer was designed and built using 3D printing. The major advantage of this approach is its capacity to be interfaced with a variety of smartphones, allowing the use of the smartphone's camera and display, and regardless of the relative position of the camera. The analytical performance of the device was analyzed using a model dye (crystal violet), leading to a proportional response for concentrations in the 0.06–15.0 mg L−1 range, with a variability of 1.0% (intra-day) and 2.6% (inter-day). To demonstrate the functionality of the device, the degradation process of the dye by sodium hypochlorite was studied. The results obtained were applied to develop a paper-based test for NaClO in sanitation solutions, in which the time required to bleach the dye was used to estimate the concentration of the solution. This device represents a simple and inexpensive tool for everyday laboratory use and could address important analytical challenges in low-income communities and features a versatile arrangement, that is compatible with a wide variety of smartphones and software platforms.Fil: Vidal, Ezequiel Martin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Química del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Química. Instituto de Química del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Lorenzetti, Anabela Silvana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Química del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Química. Instituto de Química del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Garcia, Carlos D.. Clemson University; Estados UnidosFil: Domini, Claudia Elizabeth. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Química del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Química. Instituto de Química del Sur; Argentin

Mining for topics to suggest knowledge model extensions

Electronic concept maps, interlinked with other concept maps and multimedia resources, can provide rich knowledge models to capture and share human knowledge. This article presents and evaluates methods to support experts as they extend existing knowledge models, by suggesting new context-relevant topics mined from Web search engines. The task of generating topics to support knowledge model extension raises two research questions: first, how to extract topic descriptors and discriminators from concept maps; and second, how to use these topic descriptors and discriminators to identify candidate topics on the Web with the right balance of novelty and relevance. To address these questions, this article first develops the theoretical framework required for a "topic suggester" to aid information search in the context of a knowledge model under construction. It then presents and evaluates algorithms based on this framework and applied in EXTENDER, an implemented tool for topic suggestion. EXTENDER has been developed and tested within CmapTools, a widely used system for supporting knowledge modeling using concept maps. However, the generality of the algorithms makes them applicable to a broad class of knowledge modeling systems, and to Web search in general.Fil: Lorenzetti, Carlos Martin. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca; ArgentinaFil: Maguitman, Ana Gabriela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación; ArgentinaFil: Leake, David. Indiana University; Estados UnidosFil: Menczer, Filippo. Indiana University; Estados UnidosFil: Reichherzer, Thomas. University of West Florida; Estados Unido

On-Site Preparation of Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents Using Solar Energy

Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents (NADES) are currently one of the greenest solvents for both academic and industrial purposes. Despite their advantages with respect to traditional solvents, their synthesis typically requires access to power, limiting their applicability to address problems in remote locations. Addressing this shortcoming, this report describes the possibility to use a 3D-printed solar concentrator for the on-site preparation of NADES, approach that not only provides a simple way to adjust synthetic conditions but also represents the greenest method for their synthesis reported to date. To highlight the advantages of the approach, the preparation of twelve representative NADES was performed and benchmarked against one of the most traditional methods, involving heating and stirring. According to our results, most of the NADES tested could be prepared on-site in <40 min and with minimal hardware requirements. Additionally, the NADES prepared were used for the extraction of chlorophyll from Vitis vinifera leaves, prior to its quantification using a smartphone and a 3D printed fluorometer. The greenness of the proposed method (calculated using the AGREE software) rendered a score of 0.86, the best reported to date.Fil: Elia Dazat, Ricardo Ariel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Vidal, Ezequiel Martin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Química del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Química. Instituto de Química del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Lorenzetti, Anabela Silvana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Garcia, Carlos D.. CLEMSON UNIVERSITY (CLEMSON UNIVERSITY);Fil: Domini, Claudia Elizabeth. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Química del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Química. Instituto de Química del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Silva, María Fernanda. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Gomez, Federico Jose Vicente. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza; Argentin