A Method of Evaluating Trust and Reputation for Online Transaction

The widespread use of the Internet and evaluater-based technologies has transformed the way business is conducted. Traditional offline businesses have increasingly become online, and there are new kinds of businesses that solely exist online. Unlike offline business environments, interpersonal trust is generally lacking in online business settings. Trading partners might feel insecure about the exchange of products and services over the net as they have limited information about each other's reliability or about the product quality. Considering that enough trust needs to be created to get the online buyer and seller to take actions, trust is a precious asset in online transactions. In order to address the issue of evaluating trust and reputation in online transaction environments, this paper makes use of a social network that graphically represents interpersonal relationships. This paper proposes computational models that systematically evaluate the quantitative level of trust and reputation based on the social network. A method that combines the evaluated trust and reputation levels is also proposed to increase the reliability of online transactions

The Method of Trust and Reputation Systems Based on Link Prediction and Clustering

Part 2: Short PapersInternational audienceOnline environments offer a major advantage that data can be accessed freely. At the same time however, they present us with an issue of trust: how much any data from online sites can be trusted. Trust and Reputation Systems (TRS), developed to address this issue of trust on network, quantify reliability in terms of semantics and derive a trust-network from a targeted online data. The performance of TRS is often hindered despite the promises because the number of links formed in the ideal scenario frequently is not reached, suffering from the problems of cold-start and sparsity. In this paper, we propose a method in which Link Prediction(LP) and Clustering are applied to TRS so that these two problems are adequately addressed. We evaluate our proposed method with a recommendation system we constructed. Our experiment results show that our method positively contributes to the performance of a recommendation system and help control the problems of cold-start and sparsity in TRS

CAPNet: An Enhanced Load Balancing Clustering Algorithm for Prolonging Network Lifetime in WSNs

A wireless sensor network consisting of resources, size, and cost-limited sensors is used in many military and civil applications. This paper proposes an energy-efficient clustering algorithm that extends the lifetime of sensor networks. The proposed clustering algorithm is an extended hierarchical clustering protocol that minimizes the overall amount of consumed energy in the network. The proposed approach dynamically updates clusters and distributes the load on the heavily loaded cluster heads among different nodes. It also balances the remaining energy on nodes in the network, which leads to prolonged network lifetime. The performance is evaluated in terms of network lifetime, average energy consumption, and standard deviation of residual energy

Intrathecal RGS4 inhibitor, CCG50014, reduces nociceptive responses and enhances opioid-mediated analgesic effects in the mouse formalin test

BACKGROUND: The regulator of G-protein signaling protein type 4 (RGS4) accelerates the guanosine triphosphatase activity of Gαi and Gαo, resulting in the inactivation of G-protein–coupled receptor signaling. An opioid receptor (OR), a Gαi-coupled receptor, plays an important role in pain modulation in the central nervous system. In this study, we examined whether (1) spinal RGS4 affected nociceptive responses in the formalin pain test, (2) this RGS4-mediated effect was involved in OR activation, and (3) the μ-OR agonist–induced antinociceptive effect was modified by RGS4 modulation. METHODS: Formalin (1%, 20 μL) was injected subcutaneously into the right hindpaws of male 129S4/SvJae×C57BL/6J (RGS4+/+ or RGS4−/−) mice, and the licking responses were counted for 40 minutes. The time periods (seconds) spent licking the injected paw during 0 to 10 minutes (early phase) and 10 to 40 minutes (late phase) were measured as indicators of acute nociception and inflammatory pain response, respectively. An RGS4 inhibitor, CCG50014, and/ or a μ-OR agonist, [D-Ala2, N-MePhe4, Gly-ol]-enkephalin (DAMGO), were intrathecally injected 5 minutes before the formalin injection. A nonselective OR antagonist, naloxone, was intraperitoneally injected 30 minutes before the CCG50014 injection. RESULTS: Mice that received the formalin injection exhibited typical biphasic nociceptive behaviors. The nociceptive responses in RGS4-knockout mice were significantly decreased during the late phase but not during the early phase. Similarly, intrathecally administered CCG50014 (10, 30, or 100 nmol) attenuated the nociceptive responses during the late phase in a dose-dependent manner. The antinociceptive effect of the RGS4 inhibitor was totally blocked by naloxone (5 mg/kg). In contrast, intrathecal injection of DAMGO achieved a dose-dependent reduction of the nociceptive responses at the early and late phases. This analgesic effect of DAMGO was significantly enhanced by the genetic depletion of RGS4 or by coadministration of CCG50014 (10 nmol). CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrated that spinal RGS4 inhibited the endogenous or exogenous OR-mediated antinociceptive effect in the formalin pain test. Thus, the inhibition of RGS4 activity can enhance OR agonist–induced analgesia. The enhancement of OR agonist– induced analgesia by coadministration of the RGS4 inhibitor suggests a new therapeutic strategy for the management of inflammatory pain. (Anesth Analg 2015;120:671–7) © 2015 International Anesthesia Research Society101

Schottky Barrier Lowering Induced by Ultrathin Aluminum Oxynitride Interlayer in Metal/SiC Junctions

It is known that the electrical characteristics of SiC Schottky diode depend strongly on the interface energy barrier (Schottky barrier) and lower Schottky barriers bring essential advantages of improving the power efficiency and obtaining the fast switching. In this work, the Schottky barrier of metal/SiC junction is reported experimentally to be reduced significantly with an ultra-thin (down to ~1.0 nm) aluminum oxynitride (AlON) interlayer inserted at the junction interface. It was also found that the contact resistance of junction decreased with the AlON interlayer. The barrier height was lowered by up to 0.8 eV and the reduction was similar for three types of metal with different work function (Pt: 5.65 eV, Ni: 5.01 eV, Cu: 4.33 eV). The adjustment of Schottky barrier with an interlayer is generally considered due to the potential change driven by fixed changes in the interlayer or Fermi-level depinning associated with the suppression of metal-induced gap states. In our case, the Fermi-level pinning factor remained almost unchanged (Fig. 1), implying that the surface states of SiC is NOT the main factor of the observed Schottky barrier reduction. It seems most likely that the Schottky barrier reduction arises from the fixed positive charges in the AlON thin film

The Rho-associated kinase inhibitor fasudil can replace Y-27632 for use in human pluripotent stem cell research.

Poor survival of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) following freezing, thawing, or passaging hinders the maintenance and differentiation of stem cells. Rho-associated kinases (ROCKs) play a crucial role in hPSC survival. To date, a typical ROCK inhibitor, Y-27632, has been the primary agent used in hPSC research. Here, we report that another ROCK inhibitor, fasudil, can be used as an alternative and is cheaper than Y-27632. It increased hPSC growth following thawing and passaging, like Y-27632, and did not affect pluripotency, differentiation ability, and chromosome integrity. Furthermore, fasudil promoted retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) differentiation and the survival of neural crest cells (NCCs) during differentiation. It was also useful for single-cell passaging of hPSCs and during aggregation. These findings suggest that fasudil can replace Y-27632 for use in stem research