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Khoury theory researchers receive pair of best paper awards
“Former postdoctoral research associate Wei-Kai Lin, PhD. student Ethan Mook, and professor (and NTT research senior scientist) Daniel Wichs won the Best Paper Award at the ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing. The team’s research focused on maintaining user privacy in search engines through fully homomorphic encryption and discussed how the theory could be applied in practice. Meanwhile, professor Soheil Behnezhad won Best Paper at the ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, one of three flagship conferences in algorithms and theory. His research revolved around dynamic graph algorithms, optimizing processes for changing conditions and large datasets.”
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‘Lensing in the Blue. II. Estimating the Sensitivity of Stratospheric Balloons to Weak Gravitational Lensing’
“The Superpressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) is a diffraction-limited, wide-field, 0.5 m, near-infrared to near-ultraviolet observatory designed to exploit the stratosphere’s space-like conditions. SuperBIT’s 2023 science flight will deliver deep, blue imaging of galaxy clusters for gravitational lensing analysis. … We validate our pipeline and forecast SuperBIT survey properties with simulated galaxy cluster observations in SuperBIT’s near-UV and blue bandpasses. We predict imaging depth, galaxy number (source) density and redshift distribution for observations in SuperBIT’s three bluest filters; the effect of lensing sample selections is also considered.” Find the paper and full list of authors at The Astronomical Journal.
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‘Functional Annotation of Haloacid Dehalogenase Superfamily Structural Genomics Proteins’
“Haloacid dehalogenases (HAD) are members of a large superfamily that includes many Structural Genomics proteins with poorly characterized functionality. This superfamily consists of multiple types of enzymes that can act as sugar phosphatases, haloacid dehalogenases, phosphonoacetaldehyde hydrolases, ATPases or phosphate monoesterases. Here we report on predicted functional annotations and experimental testing by direct biochemical assay for Structural Genomics proteins from the HAD superfamily.” Find the paper and full list of authors at The Biochemical Journal.
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‘Targeting Default Mode Network Connectivity With Real-Time fMRI Neurofeedback: A Pilot Study Among Adolescents With Affective Disorder History’
“Adolescents experience high rates of major depressive disorder (MDD), however, gold standard treatments are only effective for ∼50% of youth. There is a critical need to develop novel interventions that target neural mechanisms believed to potentiate depressive symptoms.” Find the paper and full list of authors at Biological Psychiatry.
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‘Large Depth Differences Between Target and Flankers Can Increase Crowding: Evidence From a Multi-Depth Plane Display’
“Crowding occurs when the presence of nearby features causes highly visible objects to become unrecognizable. Although crowding has implications for many everyday tasks and the tremendous amounts of research reflect its importance, surprisingly little is known about how depth affects crowding. Most available studies show that stereoscopic disparity reduces crowding, indicating that crowding may be relatively unimportant in three-dimensional environments. … Using a novel multi-depth plane display, this study investigated how large, real differences in target-flanker depth, representative of those experienced between many objects in the real world, affect crowding.” Find the paper and full list of authors at eLife…
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Northeastern professor Samina Karim receives prestigious award for career-defining paper — written 23 years ago
Samina Karim has received a best paper prize for a study published during her Ph.D. qualifying exams — 23 years ago — about how companies reconfigure in the wake of acquisitions. Co-written with her Ph.D. adviser Will Mitchell, who passed away in 2021, the experience has been “bittersweet,” Karim says.
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‘”Always Nice and Confident, Sometimes Wrong”: Developer’s Experiences Engaging Generative AI Chatbots Versus Human-Powered Q&A Platforms’
“Software engineers have historically relied on human-powered Q&A platforms, like Stack Overflow (SO), as coding aids. With the rise of generative AI, developers have adopted AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT, in their software development process. Recognizing the potential parallels between human-powered Q&A platforms and AI-powered question-based chatbots, we investigate and compare how developers integrate this assistance into their real-world coding experiences by conducting thematic analysis of Reddit posts. Through a comparative study of SO and ChatGPT, we identified each platform’s strengths, use cases, and barriers.” Find the paper and full list of authors at ArXiv.
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‘Semantic Encapsulation Using Linking Types’
“Interoperability pervades nearly all mainstream language implementations, as most systems leverage subcomponents written in different languages. And yet, such linking can expose a language to foreign behaviors that are internally inexpressible, which poses a serious threat to safety invariants and programmer reasoning. … In this paper, we outline an approach that encapsulates foreign code in a sound way — i.e., without disturbing the invariants promised by types of the core language.” Find the paper and full list of authors in the Proceedings of the 8th ACM SIGPLAN International Workshop on Type-Driven Development.
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Why can’t scientists reproduce each other’s experiments? This researcher is developing infrastructure that ensures they can
Assistant professor of computer science Jonathan Bell is part of a multi-university team of researchers developing “a community infrastructure” to help scientists write software that will be more reproducible, ensuring accuracy within experiments and increasing confidence in scientific results across the board.
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Is air pollution putting you at risk of dementia? This researcher wants to find out
Clinical professor and associate dean Trenton Honda is part of a multi-university study comparing incidence of metal airborne pollutants in the “olfactory bulb” with other areas of the brain to identify potential risk factors for Alzheimer’s and other dementias.
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Patent awarded for subharmonic sensor technology
“Electrical and computer engineering associate professor Cristian Casella, professor Matteo Rinaldi and postdoctoral research associate Hussein Hussein were awarded a patent for ‘Subharmonic Tags for Remote Continuous and Threshold Sensing.'”
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‘Unicorn, Hare or Tortoise? Using Machine Learning To Predict Working Memory Training Performance’
“People differ considerably in the extent to which they benefit from working memory (WM) training. … In the current study, 568 undergraduates completed one of several N-back intervention variants over the course of two weeks. … We applied machine-learning algorithms to train a binary tree model to predict individuals’ training patterns relying on several individual difference variables that have been identified as relevant in previous literature. … We found that our classification model showed good predictive power in distinguishing between high performers and relatively lower performers.” Find the paper and full list of authors at the Journal of Cognition.
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Designing chips for AI-enabled spectrum perception
“Electrical and computer engineering assistant professor Francesco Restuccia — in collaboration with Arjuna Madanayake from Florida International University, Vishal Saxena from the University of Delaware and Jia Di from the University of Arkansas — was awarded a $2,000,000 NSF grant for ‘FuSe: Deep Learning and Signal Processing Using Silicon Photonics and Digital CMOS Circuits for Ultra-Wideband Spectrum Perception.'”
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Spinout company Fourier LLC to revolutionize thermal management
“After pioneering thermoforming technical ceramic matrix composites last year, mechanical and industrial engineering associate professor Randall Erb and mechanical engineering alum Jason Hoffman-Bice, PhD’22, have created a spinout company called Fourier LLC to commercialize their groundbreaking innovation in thermal management.”
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Hajjar begins service as president of Structural Engineering Institute
“Jerome F. Hajjar, PhD, PE, F.ASCE, F.SEI, CDM Smith Professor and chair of the department of civil and environmental engineering at Northeastern University, and member of the National Academy of Engineering, becomes the president of the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) in October 2023. With over 30,000 members, SEI, one of nine Institutes within the American Society of Civil Engineers, is a premier professional organization for structural engineers nationally and internationally.”
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Reshaping spectrum sharing above 100 GHz
“Electrical and computer engineering professors Josep Jornet (PI), Tommaso Melodia, principal research scientists Michele Polese, Michael Marcus and associate research scientist Vitaly Petrov, in collaboration with Steven Reising from Colorado State University, were awarded a $750,000 NSF grant for ‘DASS: Dynamically Adjustable Spectrum Sharing between Ground Communication Networks and Earth Exploration Satellite Systems Above 100 GHz.'”
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‘Assessing the Potential for the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) Mission for Constituent Flux Estimations’
“The recently launched Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite will simultaneously measure river surface water widths, elevations, and slopes. These novel observations combined with assumptions for unobserved bathymetry and roughness enable the derivation of river discharge. … SWOT has an irregular flyover frequency, ranging from roughly 1 to 10 times per 21 days. Here, we present how best to use SWOT data when it becomes live, including consideration of how best to accommodate or utilize the irregular flyover frequency of SWOT as it intersects with river reaches.” Find the paper and full list of authors at Frontiers in Earth Science.
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‘Hierarchical Structure Formation by Crystal Growth-Front Instabilities During Ice Templating’
“Directional solidification of aqueous solutions and slurries in a temperature gradient is widely used to produce cellular materials through a phase separation of solutes or suspended particles between growing ice lamellae. While this process has analogies to the directional solidification of metallurgical alloys, it forms very different hierarchical structures. … We show that the flat side of lamellae forms because of slow faceted ice-crystal growth along the c-axis, while weakly anisotropic fast growth in other directions, including the basal plane, is responsible for the unilateral features.” Find the paper and full list of authors at PNAS.
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Detecting arc faults in photovoltaic systems
“Electrical and computer engineering professor Bradley Lehman was awarded a patent for ‘Arc Fault Detection Based on Photovoltaic Operating Characteristics and Extraction of Pink Noise Behavior.'”
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‘Electric Shock Causes a Fleeing-Like Persistent Behavioral Response in the Nematode Caenorhabditis Elegans’
“Behavioral persistency reflects internal brain states, which are the foundations of multiple brain functions. However, experimental paradigms enabling genetic analyses of behavioral persistency and its associated brain functions have been limited. Here, we report novel persistent behavioral responses caused by electric stimuli in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. When the animals on bacterial food are stimulated by alternating current, their movement speed suddenly increases 2- to 3-fold, persisting for more than 1 minute even after a 5-second stimulation.” Find the paper and full list of authors at Genetics.
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Advancing all-solid-state lithium metal batteries
“Mechanical and industrial engineering associate professor Hongli Zhu received a $770,000 grant from the Department of Energy Office of Science for ‘Uncovering the Mechano-Electro-Chemo Mechanism of Fresh Li in Sulfide Based All Solid-State Batteries Through Operando Studies.'”
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As president-elect of neuroscience society, Northeastern professor advocates for access to the scholarly community
Assistant professor of psychology Ajay Satpute was recently made president-elect of the Social and Affective Neuroscience Society. Over the course of his three-year appointment to society leadership, Satpute will pursue initiatives that increase access to the academic community for undergraduate, international and diverse scholars.
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‘Considerations for Electrochemical Phosphorus Precipitation: A Figures of Merit Approach’
“Electrochemical phosphorus precipitation (EPP) from wastewater is a promising emerging technology for recovering valuable nutrients. While there are significant advantages of EPP compared to traditional phosphorus recovery, large gaps in reported performance exist between EPP methods and between EPP and industrial methods. Herein we discuss Figures of Merit (FOM) to normalize and report EPP performance at low-to-intermediate technology readiness levels (TRLs).” Find the paper and full list of authors in The Electrochemical Society Interface.
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Grant supporting improvements of statistical inferences of complex systems
“Electrical and computer engineering assistant professor Mahdi Imani was awarded a $385,000 NSF grant for ‘Statistical ‘Inference through Data-Collection and Expert-Knowledge Incorporation.'”
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Patent awarded for novel contaminated water treatment
“Senior Associate Dean for Research and Global University Campus Akram Alshawabkeh was awarded a patent for a ‘Robust Flow-Through Platform for Organic Contaminants Removal.'”
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‘Hospice Satisfaction Among Patients, Family and Caregivers: A Systematic Review of the Literature’
“Hospice care is an underused form of intervention at the end of life. … Methods: A PRISMA-guided review of the research on hospice care satisfaction and its correlates among patients, families and other caregivers. Included in the review is research published over the time period 2000-2023 identifying a hospice care satisfaction finding. … Key findings were: (a) higher levels of hospice care satisfaction among patients, families and other caregivers; and (b) correlates of hospice care satisfaction falling into the categories of communication, comfort and support.” Find the paper and full list of authors in the American Journal of Hospice and…