Drug Onset Cues, Conditioned Withdrawal, and Drug Relapse: Comment on McDonald and Siegel (2004).

Previous research has shown that under certain conditions environmental cues associated with morphine administration induce drug-opposite conditioned effects that mimic symptoms of opiate withdrawal. R. V. McDonald and S. Siegel (see record 2004-10475-001) extend these observations by demonstrating that acute exposure to a low dose of morphine induces symptoms of opiate withdrawal in rats previously exposed to a high dose of morphine. They hypothesized that early drug onset cues, repeatedly paired with later, larger drug effects, mediate the paradoxical effect of the low drug dose on behavior. They also hypothesized that conditioned withdrawal symptoms induced by the early drug onset cues may mediate the "priming" effect of drugs on relapse and craving. The authors of this comment discuss the degree to which the literature supports this hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Linear-time snapshot implementations in unbalanced systems

Anatomic snapshot memory object in shared memory systems enables a set of processes, calledscanners, to obtain a consistent picture of the shared memory while other processes, calledupdaters, keep updating memory locations concurrently. In this paper we present two conversion methods of snapshot implementations. Using the first conversion method we obtain a new snapshot implementation in which the scan operation has linear time complexity and the time complexity of the update operation becomes the sum of the time complexities of the original implementation. Applying the second conversion method yields similar results, where in this case the time complexity of the update protocol becomes linear. Although our conversion methods use unbounded space, their space complexity can be bounded using known techniques. One of the most intriguing open problems in distributed wait-free computing is the existence of a linear-time implementation of this object. Using our conversion methods and known constructions we obtain the following results:

?Consider a system ofn processes, each an updater and a scanner. We present an implementation in which the time complexity of either the update or the scan operation is linear, while the time complexity of the second operation isO(n logn).

?We present an implementation with linear time complexity when the number of either updaters or scanners isO(n/logn), wheren is the total number of processes.

?We present an implementation with amortized linear time complexity when one of the protocols (either upate or scan) is executed significantly more often than the other protocol.

     

Personalization and privacy: a survey of privacy risks and remedies in personalization-based systems

Personalization technologies offer powerful tools for enhancing the user experience in a wide variety of systems, but at the same time raise new privacy concerns. For example, systems that personalize advertisements according to the physical location of the user or according to the user??s friends?? search history, introduce new privacy risks that may discourage wide adoption of personalization technologies. This article analyzes the privacy risks associated with several current and prominent personalization trends, namely social-based personalization, behavioral profiling, and location-based personalization. We survey user attitudes towards privacy and personalization, as well as technologies that can help reduce privacy risks. We conclude with a discussion that frames risks and technical solutions in the intersection between personalization and privacy, as well as areas for further investigation. This frameworks can help designers and researchers to contextualize privacy challenges of solutions when designing personalization systems.     

Sleeved co-clustering of lagged data

The paper focuses on mining clusters that are characterized by a lagged relationship between the data objects. We call such clusters lagged co-clusters. A lagged co-cluster of a matrix is a submatrix determined by a subset of rows and their corresponding lag over a subset of columns. Extracting such subsets may reveal an underlying governing regulatory mechanism. Such a regulatory mechanism is quite common in real-life settings. It appears in a variety of fields: meteorology, seismic activity, stock market behavior, neuronal brain activity, river flow, and navigation, but a limited list of examples. Mining such lagged co-clusters not only helps in understanding the relationship between objects in the domain, but assists in forecasting their future behavior. For most interesting variants of this problem, finding an optimal lagged co-cluster is NP-complete problem. We present a polynomial-time Monte-Carlo algorithm for mining lagged co-clusters. We prove that, with fixed probability, the algorithm mines a lagged co-cluster which encompasses the optimal lagged co-cluster by a maximum 2 ratio columns overhead and completely no rows overhead. Moreover, the algorithm handles noise, anti-correlations, missing values, and overlapping patterns. The algorithm is extensively evaluated using both artificial and real-world test environments. The first enable the evaluation of specific, isolated properties of the algorithm. The latter (river flow and topographic data) enable the evaluation of the algorithm to efficiently mine relevant and coherent lagged co-clusters in environments that are temporal, i.e., time reading data and non-temporal.     

Scale and scope of environmental planning transformations: The Israeli case

This paper explores the scale and scope of transformations in the environmental planning field, and the factors that may advance or impede their widespread adoption. A conceptual model is offered which examines scope (defined as type, breadth and structure of the transformation), and the scale of its impact (categorized as stakeholder, organizational, institutional or societal) and applies it to the analysis of several cases in Israel where environmental transformations, affecting the way in which planning is conducted, have been adopted. Conclusions include identification of conditions for facilitating and advancing transformations, including knowledge of innovative alternatives, initiative, willingness to adopt new practices, and identification of policy windows that emerge during conflict, reform, or crisis. The fostering of relations between environmental non-government organizations and planning systems and leadership roles are also significant in catalyzing environmental transformation.     

DSP的独特价值及陷阱

本文涵盖了关于DSP的各种问题，包括DSP如何定义、为何需要DSP、如何实现DSP功能等，并介绍了一些认知上的陷阱。     

Optical generation of fuzzy-based rules

In the last third of the 20th century, fuzzy logic has risen from a mathematical concept to an applicable approach in soft computing. Today, fuzzy logic is used in control systems for various applications, such as washing machines, train-brake systems, automobile automatic gear, and so forth. The approach of optical implementation of fuzzy inferencing was given by the authors in previous papers, giving an extra emphasis to applications with two dominant inputs. In this paper the authors introduce a real-time optical rule generator for the dual-input fuzzy-inference engine. The paper briefly goes over the dual-input optical implementation of fuzzy-logic inferencing. Then, the concept of constructing a set of rules from given data is discussed. Next, the authors show ways to implement this procedure optically. The discussion is accompanied by an example that illustrates the transformation from raw data into fuzzy set rules.     

Harnessing the need for immediate gratification: Cognitive reconstrual modulates the reward value of temptations.

Many of us succumb to temptations, despite knowing that we will later regret doing so. How can such behavior be avoided? In three studies, the authors tested the hypothesis that reconstruing temptation as a test of a valued internal quality ("willpower") would decrease the tendency to succumb by reducing the appeal of the temptation. In Study 1, participants who construed a challenging handgrip task as a test of willpower resisted the temptation to terminate the painful task longer than participants who did not. In Study 2, participants performed a handgrip task twice. Only participants who changed their construal of the task into a test of willpower improved their performance. In Study 3, participants took a timed math test while being tempted by comedy clips. Participants who reconstrued the situation as willpower test compared with participants who did not, (a) enjoyed the videos less, and (b) were better able to resist the tempting videos. These studies demonstrate that cognitive reconstrual can be used to modify reward contingencies, so that succumbing to temptation becomes less appealing, and resisting temptation becomes more appealing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Synthesis and characterization of new poly(ethylene glycol)bisphosphonate vinylic monomer and non-fluorescent and NIR-fluorescent bisphosphonate micrometer-sized particles

Bisphosphonates (BPs) are non-hydrolysable pyrophosphate analogs with high affinity to hydroxyapatite (HAP, the main inorganic ingredient in bones) and are mainly used for bone diseases treatments.A new stable PEG-BP monomer and particles have been prepared for enhanced long term bone-targeted imaging and therapy applications. The new formed BP particles possess dual functionalities: chelation to the bone mineral, HAP, through the BP groups and covalent attachment of a dye or drug through primary amine groups.The BP particles showed no cytotoxic effect on human osteosarcoma cell lines and minor toxicity on mouse macrophage cells, indicating that these BP particles are good candidates for in vivo testing. The BP monomer and particles exhibited inhibition of HAP formation and dissolution, similar to a commercial Alendronate. Near IR (NIR) fluorescent BP particles were obtained by conjugation of Cy7-NHS ester to the primary amine groups of the BP particles.