Collaboratively Assessing Information Quality on the Web

The Web has become a large repository of information with varying qualities. Many users often consume information without knowing its quality. Although automatic methods can be used to obtain measurements of certain aspects of quality, they are not reliable and cannot measure all aspects of quality. Users can detect errors and reliably assess aspects of quality that cannot be measured by automatic methods. However, there is a lack of technology support for users to record and share their feedback. This research aims to develop technologies to allow users to collaboratively assess information quality on the Web. The solution combines the capabilities of machines and humans to obtain comprehensive, reliable, and scalable measurements of information quality. In this paper, the crucial user interaction component of the solution is presented. It uses a browser plug-in to allow users to rate and annotate any Web page and share ratings and annotations with other users

Global Software Development Project

Global software development has become a common reality with the advent of off-shore development and the need to be close to markets. This type of development has posed some challenges faced by software development personals. In this research, we report a software development project that involves the collaboration of students from USA and China

Water Vapor Density Retrieval Studies Using Commercial Millimeter-Wave Links at 38 GHz and E-Band

We study the performance of water vapor monitoring using commercial millimeter-wave backhaul links from the fifth-generation cellular networks and smart cities. A 38 GHz link and an E-band link located in Gothenburg, Sweden, are used for analysis. One end of these two backhaul links is installed at the same site. The water vapor density (WVD) over a one-month period from 13 June 2017 to 13 July 2017 is calculated based on the data from these microwave links with different frequencies. The meteorological data used for analysis is from a weather station installed at the site where the microwave links are installed, as well as from a nearby weather station operated by Swedish Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (SMHI). A pre-processing step is applied to the raw link attenuation measurement for improving the estimation accuracy. We retrieved water vapor density value from two millimeter-wave links, and it is in good agreement with the water vapor density calculated by weather stations. The source of interference, such as misalignment, humidity source below the link, location, and altitude of weather stations, can contribute to estimation errors and needs to be carefully considered when using microwave link to retrieve water vapor density

Efficient Synthesis and Stereochemical Revision of Coibamide A

Coibamide A is a highly potent antiproliferative cyclodepsipeptide originally isolated from a Panamanian marine cyanobacterium. Herein we report an efficient solid-phase strategy for assembly of highly <i>N</i>-methylated cyclodepsipeptides, which is invaluable in generating coibamide A derivatives for structure–activity relationship studies. As a consequence of our synthetic studies, two stereochemical assignments of coibamide A were revised and the total synthesis of this natural compound was achieved for the first time

Selective depletion of radiolabeled HER2-specific antibody for contrast improvement during PET

The prolonged in vivo persistence of antibodies results in high background and poor contrast during their use as molecular imaging agents for positron emission tomography (PET). We have recently described a class of engineered Fc fusion proteins that selectively deplete antigen-specific antibodies without affecting the levels of antibodies of other specificities. Here, we demonstrate that these Fc fusions (called Seldegs, for selective degradation) can be used to clear circulating, radiolabeled HER2-specific antibody during diagnostic imaging of HER2-positive tumors in mice. The analyses show that Seldegs have considerable promise for the reduction of whole-body exposure to radiolabel and improvement of contrast during PET.</p

Fully Automated Synthesis of DNA-Binding Py-Im Polyamides Using a Triphosgene Coupling Strategy

The fully automated solid-phase synthetic strategy of hairpin pyrrole–imidazole polyamides is described. A key advance is the development of methodology for the application of triphosgene as a coupling agent in the automated synthesis of hairpin polyamides without racemization. This automated methodology is compatible with all the typical building blocks, enabling the facile synthesis of polyamide libraries in good yield (9–15%) and crude purity