1,484 research outputs found
Ck-Log, A Calculus for Knowledge Processing in Logic
No full textThis paper introduces the principal concepts in the organization and operation of the logic based knowledge processing system, called CK-LOG (A Calculus for Knowledge in Logics). CK-LOG uses the frame based system MDS (the Meta Description System) for knowledge representation and for modeling world states. It uses an inference engine based on Natural Deduction for stating and solving problems. As a knowledge processing system CK-LOG has several capabilities, which are new to the technology of knowledge representation systems: CK-LOG has special facilities to represent and reason about actions and their time dependencies. Actions that occur in a world state may create or destroy objects in the world or modify their properties, or prevent or support other actions. The effects of actions are described in CK-LOG using modal operators like CREATE, DESTROY, PREVENT, SUPPORT, KEEP, etc. These operator expressions are also used to represent and reason about possible worlds that the actions might lead to. Most significantly, CK-LOG is a logic-based knowledge processing system, just as PROLOG is logic based programming system. CK-LOG uses a three valued logical system with truth values T (true),? (Unknown) and F (false) to build partial models of world states, and the two valued logic's system of T and F in its theorem proving System. The use of the three valued logical system in its models of world states enables CK-LOG to do problem solving in the context of incomplete information about world states. The theorem proving system of CK-LOG uses a variant of the calculus of sequents first proposed by Kanger (which itself is a variant of Gentzen's system). The two variations in CK-LOG are, (i). the use of a new algorithm called the mating algorithm for testing proof terminations, and (ii) the use of specialized inference rules for reasoning about modal expressions using the possible world semantics.. The mating algorithm gives the theorem proving system of CK-LOG several new capabilities: to identify information that is pertinent to a given problem and retrieve it from its knowledge base, to update its models of possible worlds during the problem solving process based on the findings of the theorem proving system, to use these models of world states to test proof terminations, and to generate hypotheses during the problem solving process that are based on unknown information. These various features of CK-LOG are described here. The paper concludes with a discussion of the logic of frames as used in CK-LOG and establishes a condition called locality condition as a sufficient condition for creating knowledge representations with requisite completeness.Technical report DCS-TR-15
Highly parallel and energy-efficient exhaustive minimum distance search engine using hybrid digital/analog circuit techniques
No full textA minimum distance search engine (MDSE) is presented as a hardware. accelerator for various exhaustive pattern-matching systems. This chip executes highly parallel computations of L-1-norms between an input query and stored multiple reference records, and searches for the minimum distance among them in a highly parallel fashion. Our architectural-level estimation shows that this MDSE can reduce energy dissipation by orders of magnitude as the number of records increases, compared with the conventional systems. We have designed a prototype 4-bit 8-word MDSE composed of merged memory logic (MML) and digital/analog-mixed winner-take-all circuit (DAM-WTAC) by using hybrid digital/analog circuit techniques. It was fabricated with a 0.6-mum single-poly triple-metal CMOS technology. Experimental results show that our chip works properly at 3 V/10 MM and has approximately four times larger throughput as well as four times higher energy efficiency, compared with the existing 8-bit microcontrollers.The author would like to thank MICROS, IDEC and Samsung Electronics
Company for their support. They would also like to thank the
reviewers for their valuable comments and Dr. K. Kim, Samsung Electronics
Company, for useful discussion
Gender-differences in the associations between circulating creatine kinase, blood pressure, body mass and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in asymptomatic asians.
No full textCreatine kinase (CK) is a pivotal regulatory enzyme in energy metabolism linked to both blood pressure and cardio-metabolic components. However, data is lacking in a large population of asymptomatic Asians.Cardio-metabolic assessment including anthropometric measures and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) were evaluated by abdominal echo in 4,562 consecutive subjects who underwent an annual health survey. Serum CK levels were related to blood pressure components [systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and pulse pressure (PP)], anthropometric measures, and excessive adiposity in liver as indicated by NAFLD. Circulating CK levels ranged from 4 to 1842 IU/L (mean [SE]: 108.7 [1.1] IU/L) in the study population which consisted of 2522 males (mean age: 48.7 ± 11.2) and 2040 females (mean age: 49.4±11.5). In general, male subjects presented with higher circulating CK levels than females (mean ± SE: 127.3 ± 1.5 vs. 85.5 ± 1.3 IU/L, respectively, p < .001). Gender-differences in circulating CK levels were also observed with increasing age, which showed a more pronounced positive relationship with age in female subjects (gender interaction: p < .05). Furthermore, an elevated circulating CK level was independently associated with higher blood pressure, waist circumference and fat mass (FM), greater body mass index (BMI), increased lower estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and presence of NAFLD in multivariate analysis (all p < .05), with CK elevation more pronounced with greater BMI and FM in males compared with females (sex interaction: p < .05).In a large asymptomatic Asian population, circulating CK levels were increased with more advanced age, higher blood pressure, and greater body mass with gender differences. Our findings may be useful in interpreting elevated CK from subjects free of ongoing myocardial damage
Wave energy resource assessment
No full textThe use of satellite altimeter data for spatial mapping of the wave resource is examined.A new algorithm for estimating wave period from altimeter data is developed andvalidated, which enables estimates of wave energy converter (WEC) power to bederived. Maps of the long-term mean WEC power from altimeter data are of a higherspatial resolution than is available from global wave model data. They can be used foridentifying promising wave energy locations along particular stretches of coastline,before a detailed study using nearshore models is undertaken.The accuracy of estimates of WEC power from wave model data is considered. Withoutcalibration estimates of the mean WEC power from model data can be biased of theorder of 10-20%. The calibration of wave model data is complicated by non-lineardependence of model parameters on multiple factors, and seasonal and interannualchanges in biases. After calibration the accuracy in the estimate of the historic powerproduction at a site is of the order of 5%, but the changing biases make it difficult tospecify the accuracy more precisely.The accuracy of predictions of the future energy yield from a WEC is limited by theaccuracy of the historic data and the variability in the resource. The variability in 5, 10and 20 year mean power levels is studied for an area in the north of Scotland, andshown to be greater than if annual power anomalies were uncorrelated noise. Thesensitivity of WEC power production to climate change is also examined, and it isshown that the change in wave climate over the life time of a wave farm is likely to besmall in comparison to the natural level of variability. It is shown that despite theuncertainty related to variability in the wave climate, improvements in the accuracy ofhistoric data will improve the accuracy of predictions of future WEC yield.The topic of extreme wave analysis is also considered. A comparison of estimators forthe generalised Pareto distribution (GPD) is presented. It is recommended that theLikelihood-Moment estimator should be used in preference to other estimators for theGPD. The use of seasonal models for extremes is also considered. In contrast toassertions made in previous studies, it is demonstrated that non-seasonal models have alower bias and variance than models which analyse the data in separate seasons
Variability study of Si nanowire FETs with different junction gradients
No full textRandom dopant fluctuation effects of gate-all-around Si nanowire field-effect transistors (FETs) are investigated in terms of different diameters and junction gradients. The nanowire FETs with smaller diameters or shorter junction gradients increase relative variations of the drain currents and the mismatch of the drain currents between source-drain and drain-source bias change in the saturation regime. Smaller diameters decreased current drivability critically compared to standard deviations of the drain currents, thus inducing greater relative variations of the drain currents. Shorter junction gradients form high potential barriers in the source-side lightly-doped extension regions at on-state, which determines the magnitude of the drain currents and fluctuates the drain currents greatly under thermionic-emission mechanism. On the other hand, longer junction gradients affect lateral field to fluctuate the drain currents greatly. These physical phenomena coincide with correlations of the variations between drain currents and electrical parameters such as threshold voltages and parasitic resistances. The nanowire FETs with relatively-larger diameters and longer junction gradients without degrading short channel characteristics are suggested to minimize the relative variations and the mismatch of the drain currents. (C) 2016 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).1163Ysciescopu
Phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (PCA) produced by Paraburkholderia phenazinium CK-PC1 aids postgermination growth of Xyris complanata seedlings with germination induced by Penicillium rolfsii Y-1
No full textSymbiosis of Penicillium rolfsii Y-1 is essential for the seed germination of Hawaii yellow-eyed grass (Xyris complanata). However, the local soil where the plants grow naturally often suppresses the radicle growth of the seedlings. This radicle growth was drastically restored by coinoculation of Paraburkholderia phenazinium isolate CK-PC1, which is a rhizobacterium of X. complanata. It was found that the isolate CK-PC1 produced phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (PCA, 1) as a major metabolite. The biological effects of PCA (1) were investigated using the seeds of X. complanata and Mung bean (Vigna radiata) and it was uncovered that the symbiosis of the isolate CK-PC1was essential for the postgermination growth of X. complanata and the metabolite PCA (1) might partially contribute to promote the growth of the plants
Inside the Matrix: CTI Frameworks as Partial Abstractions of Complex Threats
No full textThe Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) field has evolved rapidly and most of its reporting is now fairly stan-dardized. Where the Cyber Kill Chain was its sole reference framework 5 years ago, today ATT&CK is the de facto standard for reporting adversary tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs). CTI frameworks are effectively abstraction layers of malicious behavior and thus effective CTI dissemination hinges on their ability to accurately represent this behavior. We argue that this is an area with significant opportunity for improvement. The aforementioned models are attacker- and intrusion-centric, while much of the CTI reporting currently is artifact- and malware-centric. In other words, most analysis is performed using artifacts of adversary tools, while in-the-wild evidence of adversary techniques and procedures is limited or lacking. Applying an intrusion model to artifact-based analysis leads to information loss, affecting and potentially misleading CTI-based decision-making. Intelligence analysis naturally builds on imperfect information, but CTI frameworks should be oriented more towards this key premise. In this conceptual work we compare the intrusion-centric ATT&CK with Malware Behavior Catalog (MBC), which is malware-centric. We compare how their application affects reporting of analysis outcomes. For this we reverse a piece of APT malware, replicating how many CTI reports are produced. We find that compared to ATT&CK, the abstraction offered by MBC enhances the information density of our reporting. While currently in most industry malware reports ATT&CK is applied, our analysis shows that on these occasions using MBC, potentially in tandem with ATT&CK, improves reporting. With the daily amount of new malware samples only increasing, accurate behavior labeling is key to the success of CTI sharing and dissemination.Accepted author manuscriptCyber Securit
Are language production problems apparent in adults who no longer meet diagnostic criteria for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder?
No full textIn this study, we examined sentence production in a sample of adults (N = 21) who had had attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as children, but as adults no longer met DSM-IV diagnostic criteria (APA, 2000). This “remitted” group was assessed on a sentence production task. On each trial, participants saw two objects and a verb. Their task was to construct a sentence using the objects as arguments of the verb. Results showed more ungrammatical and disfluent utterances with one particular type of verb (i.e., participle). In a second set of analyses, we compared the remitted group to both control participants and a “persistent” group, who had ADHD as children and as adults. Results showed that remitters were more likely to produce ungrammatical utterances and to make repair disfluencies compared to controls, and they patterned more similarly to ADHD participants. Conclusions focus on language output in remitted ADHD, and the role of executive functions in language production
Psychometric Evaluation of the Good Death Index from Patients with Terminal Cancer’s Perspectives: A Mixed-Methods Study
No full textShih-Hsuan Pi,1– 3 In-Fun Li,4,5 Pei-Yi Li,6 Yuen-Liang Lai,7 Chun-Kai Fang6– 9 1Department of Medical Research, Tamsui Branch, MacKay Memorial Hospital, New Taipei, Taiwan; 2General Education Center, MacKay Junior College of Medicine, Nursing, and Management, New, Taipei, Taiwan; 3Department of Crime Prevention, Central Police University, Taoyuan, 33304, Taiwan; 4Center of Long-Term Care, Tamsui Branch, MacKay Memorial Hospital, New Taipei, Taiwan; 5Department of Nursing, MacKay Medical College, New, Taipei, Taiwan; 6Department of Thanatology and Health Counseling, National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences, Taipei, Taiwan; 7Hospice and Palliative Care Center, Tamsui Branch, MacKay Memorial Hospital, New Taipei, Taiwan; 8Department of Death Care Service, MacKay Junior College of Medicine, Nursing, and Management, New Taipei, Taiwan; 9Department of Psychiatry, MacKay Memorial Hospital, New Taipei, TaiwanCorrespondence: Chun-Kai Fang, Hospice and Palliative Care Center, MacKay Memorial Hospital Tamsui Branch, New Taipei, Taiwan, Email [email protected]: Patients with terminal illness often experience significant physical and mental suffering. This distress affects the patients themselves, as they endure the pain of their condition and their family members, who are affected by the patient’s situation and medical decisions. Furthermore, exploring the patients’ and their families’ concepts of a “good death” is crucial for reflecting on the value of life and for planning treatment or care models (such as advance care planning). Therefore, understanding the issues is essential in improving palliative care and the overall quality of life.Aim: This study aimed to develop a clinical assessment tool for the self-assessment of patients with terminal cancer to determine whether they are approaching a good death.Methods: Our good death concept was developed through in-depth interviews with terminal cancer patients and qualitative analysis by experts in a research program. Three themes were analyzed: “living in dying (L)”, “experiencing the existential self (E)”, and “dying in living (D).” Therefore, the principal and co-principal investigators designed the primary LED Good Death Index (LED-GDI) based on three major themes and 15 subtopics of the LED Good Death concept.Results: A total of 144 participants completed the LED-GDI assessment. Cronbach’s alpha for the LED-GDI was 0.854. We found that the LED-GDI allowed patients to assess whether they were approaching a good death.Conclusion: The philosophical concept of LED-GDI is particularly in line with Confucian culture in East Asia and emphasizes the importance of living well before death. Therefore, the most critical goal of clinical end-of-life care is to determine whether patients with terminal illness can achieve a good death and live until the last moment.Keywords: attitude to death, existentialism, good death index, end-of-life car
Observation of the Λ0b → Λ+cK+K-π- decay
No full textThe Lambda(0)(b) -> Lambda+cK+K-pi(-) decay is observed for the first time using a data sample of proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of root s = 7 and 8 TeV collected by the LHCb detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3fb(-1). The ratio of branching fractions between the Lambda(0)(b) -> Lambda K-+(c)+ K-pi(-) and the Lambda(0)(b) -> Lambda D-+(c)s(-) decays is measured to be B(Lambda(0)(b) -> Lambda+cK+K-pi(-))/B(Lambda(0)(b) -> Lambda D-+(c)s(-)) = (9.26 +/- 0.29 +/- 0.46 +/- 0.26) x 10(-2), where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic and the third is due to the knowledge of the D-s(-) -> K+K-pi(-) branching fraction. No structure on the invariant mass distribution of the Lambda K-+(c)+ system is found, consistent with no open-charm pentaquark signature. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
- …
