Title
Topic
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‘On Hardness Assumptions Needed for “Extreme High-End” PRGs and Fast Derandomization’
“The hardness vs.~randomness paradigm aims to explicitly construct pseudorandom generators G:{0,1}r→{0,1}m that fool circuits of size m, assuming the existence of explicit hard functions. … We study whether extreme high-end PRGs can be constructed from the following scaled version of the assumption which we call “the extreme high-end hardness assumption”, and in which β=1−o(1) and B=1+o(1). We give a partial negative answer, showing that certain approaches cannot yield a black-box proof.” Find the paper and full list of authors at ArXiv.
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‘Leveraging Generative AI for Clinical Evidence Summarization Needs to Achieve Trustworthiness’
“Evidence-based medicine aims to improve the quality of healthcare by empowering medical decisions and practices with the best available evidence. The rapid growth of medical evidence, which can be obtained from various sources, poses a challenge in collecting, appraising, and synthesizing the evidential information. Recent advancements in generative AI, exemplified by large language models, hold promise in facilitating the arduous task. However, developing accountable, fair and inclusive models remains a complicated undertaking. In this perspective, we discuss the trustworthiness of generative AI in the context of automated summarization of medical evidence.” Find the paper and authors list at ArXiv.
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Developing new arrays for cystic fibrosis treatment
“Chemical engineering professor Ming Su and assistant research professor Sidi Bencherif were awarded a patent for ‘Coordinately-ordered single cells with individual identities for high-throughput assay.'”
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Rethinking innovation for the betterment of the planet
Professor Ruth Aguilera, writing with Sophie Bacq, argues that “we’re making our planet unlivable,” and as more and more planetary “limits for viability” are breached, businesses must shift the ways in which they think about innovation. “Stakeholder theory,” they write, “governs business practices in relation to the multiple or diverse constituencies touched by an organization and its activities.” Rather than focusing on a profit-only model, “Organizations that embrace a broader definition of value and rethink the way different value is apportioned and shared among diverse groups of stakeholders stand to gain in the long run.”
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‘Stochastic Biological System-of-Systems Modeling for iPSC Culture’
“Large-scale manufacturing of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) is essential for cell therapies and regenerative medicines. Yet, iPSCs form large cell aggregates in suspension bioreactors, resulting in insufficient nutrient supply and extra metabolic waste build-up for the cells located at the core. Since subtle changes in micro-environment can lead to a heterogeneous cell population, a novel Biological System-of-Systems (Bio-SoS) framework is proposed to model cell-to-cell interactions, spatial and metabolic heterogeneity and cell response to micro-environmental variation.” Find the paper and full list of authors at ArXiv.
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‘Reusing Just-in-Time Compiled Code’
“Most code is executed more than once. If not entire programs then libraries remain unchanged from one run to the next. Just-in-time compilers expend considerable effort gathering insights about code they compiled many times, and often end up generating the same binary over and over again. We explore how to reuse compiled code across runs of different programs to reduce warm-up costs of dynamic languages. We propose to use speculative contextual dispatch to select versions of functions from an off-line curated code repository.” Find the paper full list of authors in the Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages.
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Associate professor of finance John Bai argues, in a new paper, says that remote work provides many of the solutions required to maintain business continuity during extreme weather events, becoming all the more common “in a warming world.”
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‘RecA Levels Modulate Biofilm Development in Acinetobacter Baumannii’
“Infections caused by Acinetobacter baumannii, a Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen, are difficult to eradicate due to the bacterium’s propensity to quickly gain antibiotic resistances and form biofilms, a protective bacterial multicellular community. The A. baumannii DNA damage response (DDR) mediates the antibiotic resistance acquisition and regulates RecA in an atypical fashion; both RecALow and RecAHigh cell types are formed in response to DNA damage. The findings of this study demonstrate that the levels of RecA can influence formation and dispersal of biofilms.” Find the paper and full list of authors at Molecular Microbiology.
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‘Virtual AIVantage: Leveraging Large Language Models for Enhanced VR Interview Preparation Among Underrepresented Professionals’
“Technical interviews, a cornerstone of the hiring process for computer science (CS) jobs, often prove to be particularly stressful for individuals from underrepresented backgrounds in CS circles, including women and people of color. The heightened stress and pressure can negatively affect these individuals’ sense of belonging in CS. This paper introduces Virtual AIVantage, an innovative tool designed to address this issue by leveraging virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionize technical interview preparation for underrepresented individuals in CS.” Find the paper and authors list in the Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia.
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‘Snake Robot With Tactile Perception Navigates on Large-Scale Challenging Terrain’
“Along with the advancement of robot skin technology, there has been notable progress in the development of snake robots featuring body-surface tactile perception. In this study, we proposed a locomotion control framework for snake robots that integrates tactile perception to augment their adaptability to various terrains. Our approach embraces a hierarchical reinforcement learning (HRL) architecture, wherein the high-level orchestrates global navigation strategies while the low-level uses curriculum learning for local navigation maneuvers.” Find the paper and full list of authors at ArXiv.
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‘No Root Store Left Behind’
“When a root certificate authority (CA) in the Web PKI misbehaves, primary root-store operators such as Mozilla and Google respond by distrusting that CA. However, full distrust is often too broad, so root stores often implement partial distrust of roots, such as only accepting a root for a subset of domains. … We propose augmenting root stores with per-certificate programs called General Certificate Constraints (GCCs) that precisely control the trust of root certificates.” Find the paper and full list of authors in the Proceedings of the 22nd ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks.
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Ilya Vidrin asks, ‘What do we mean when we talk about meaning?’
Ilya Vidrin, assistant professor of creative practice research in the department of theatre, wants to know how humans make meaning in the world — and in their bodies. His work focuses on the ethics of human, physical interactions; a new Knight Foundation grant will support the creation of a Meaning Initiative, which will study how we all find meaning in our lives and through the arts.
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Fu elected to European Academy of Sciences and Arts
“Electrical and computer engineering and Khoury College of Computer Sciences professor Yun Raymond Fu was elected as a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in the Technical and Environmental Sciences class. The Academy’s mission is to stimulate cross-disciplinary collaboration between reputable scientists of all disciplines, leading artists, and practitioners of governance. New members are received formally at the annual Festive Session of the Academy, which takes place on April 5-6.”
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‘Network-Based Restoration Strategies Maximize Ecosystem Recovery’
“Redressing global patterns of biodiversity loss requires quantitative frameworks that can predict ecosystem collapse and inform restoration strategies. By applying a network-based dynamical approach to synthetic and real-world mutualistic ecosystems, we show that biodiversity recovery following collapse is maximized when extirpated species are reintroduced based solely on their total number of connections in the original interaction network. … These results suggest that it is possible to design nearly optimal restoration strategies that maximize biodiversity recovery for data-poor ecosystems.” Find the paper and full list of authors at Communications Biology.
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‘The Energy Landscape of the Ribosome’
“The ribosome is a prototypical assembly that can be used to establish general principles and techniques for the study of biological molecular machines. Motivated by the fact that the dynamics of every biomolecule is governed by an underlying energy landscape, there has been great interest to understand and quantify ribosome energetics. In the present review, we will focus on theoretical and computational strategies for probing the interactions that shape the energy landscape of the ribosome, with an emphasis on more recent studies of the elongation cycle.” Find the paper and full list of authors at Biopolymers.
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Fu and Sridhar named National Academy of Inventors Fellows
Among 162 other academic inventors, Northeastern University boasts two new additions to the National Academy of Inventors: Yun Raymond Fu, Distinguished Professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Srinivas Sridhar, Distinguished University Professor of physics.
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A programming language for knitters — at the industrial scale
Assistant professor of computer science Megan Hofmann has developed KnitScript, a programming language for industrial knitting machines that makes “designing knitted structures” more akin to 3D printing, paving the way for truly on-demand clothing and “fabric that changes shape.”
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‘Speculative Histories, Just Futures: From Counterfactual Artifacts to Counterfactual Actions’
“This article engages with history as a speculative space for the purpose of critically engaging with discourses around the politics of technology in [human-computer interaction]. Drawing on approaches within critical design and based on evidence from two different projects, we develop an approach, counterfactual actions, that moves beyond the creation of artifacts and towards more situated, embodied and performative engagements. … We argue that a focus on counterfactual actions supports a more relational approach to understanding the politics of socio-technical systems and infrastructures.” Find the paper and full list of authors at ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction.
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‘Identification of Novel Anti-Amoebic Pharmacophores From Kinase Inhibitor Chemotypes’
“Acanthamoeba species, Naegleria fowleri and Balamuthia mandrillaris are opportunistic pathogens that cause a range of brain, skin, eye and disseminated diseases in humans and animals. These pathogenic free-living amoebae (pFLA) are commonly misdiagnosed and have sub-optimal treatment regimens which contribute to the extremely high mortality rates (>90%) when they infect the central nervous system. To address the unmet medical need for effective therapeutics, we screened kinase inhibitor chemotypes against three pFLA using phenotypic drug assays involving CellTiter-Glo 2.0.” Find the paper and full list of authors at Frontiers in Microbiology.
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‘Reading Vision in Adults With Early and Intermediate Age-Related Macular Degeneration Under Mesopic and Photopic Conditions’
“Reading is involved in various daily activities that operate under a wide range of luminance levels. Rod- and cone-mediated mesopic visual function is known to be impaired even in early/intermediate age-related macular degeneration (AMD). It remains unclear whether and to what extent mesopic reading is impaired in early/intermediate AMD. Here, we assessed differences in reading vision between photopic and mesopic conditions in early/intermediate AMD and compared their performance to those in older adults with normal macular health.” Find the paper and full list of authors at Translational Vision Science & Technology.
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‘Data-Driven MRI Analysis Reveals Fitness-Related Functional Change in … Cognition Following an Exercise Intervention’
“Previous research has indicated that cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is structurally and functionally neuroprotective in older adults. However, questions remain regarding the mechanistic role of CRF on cognitive and brain health. The purposes of this study were to investigate if higher pre-intervention CRF was associated with greater change in functional brain connectivity during an exercise intervention and to determine if the magnitude of change in connectivity was related to better post-intervention cognitive performance. … Results revealed a positive correlation between pre-intervention CRF and changes in functional connectivity in the precentral gyrus.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Psychophysiology.
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‘Large Floods on the Lower Ohio River Inferred From Slackwater Deposits’
“Slackwater deposits representing past flood events provide a robust means to extend systematic gage records further back in time, place historic floods in a longer-term context, and reduce uncertainties in flood hazard analysis. The identification and application of slackwater deposits in riverine paleoflood hydrology has traditionally been limited to arid bedrock-controlled environments and periglacial environments. In this study, we utilize methods developed in humid alluvial settings and apply them to slackwater deposits, one of the first studies to do so.” Find the paper and full list of authors at Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment.
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‘The Skills Your Employees Need to Work Effectively With AI’
“Right now, the corporate world is in the throes of a generative AI hype cycle,” writes Nada Sanders, Distinguished Professor of supply chain management, with John D. Wood, attorney and author. “But how do [leaders] actually integrate AI with their workforce to achieve good business outcomes?” they ask. Sanders and Wood argue that the skills a workforce needs during this AI boom comes down to two categories: interpersonal skills and domain expertise.
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With NSF grant, Caracoglia will test life-size buildings against simulated tornados
“Civil and environmental engineering professor Luca Caracoglia is part of a team of researchers across nine universities who have been given a four-year, $14 million grant by the NSF to design a facility that can test tornado effects on real-life scale building models.”