Identity Matching Research Articles

Privacy-Aware Framework for Matching Online Social Identities in Multiple Social Networking Services

With various emerging Social Networking Services (SNS), it is possible for users to join multiple SNS for social relationships with other users and to collect a large amount of information (e.g., statuses on Facebook and tweets on Twitter). However, these users have been facing difficulties in managing all the data collected from the multiple SNS. It is important to match social identities from the multiple SNS. In this study, we propose a privacy-aware framework for a social identity matching (SIM) method across these multiple SNS. It means that the proposed approach can protect user privacy, because only the public information (e.g., username and the social relationships of the users) is employed to find the best matches between social identities. As a result, we have shown by evaluation that the F-measure of the proposed SIM method is about 60%.

ABO-Identical Blood Group Matching Has No Survival Benefit for AB Heart Transplant Recipients

Although identical blood group matching is preferred, it is uncertain if this results in improved survival and, if so, how large the survival benefits are. Earlier studies have yielded conflicting results and are mostly based on single-center cohorts with few long-term results. Recipients with blood group AB are of particular interest regarding nonidentical blood group matching because they may receive organs from all blood groups. We wanted to test the hypothesis that ABO-identical matching results in superior survival in recipients with blood group AB. We used data from the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation registry to match a cohort of heart donors with transplant recipients with blood group AB. Cox regression analysis was used to assess the influence of blood group on outcome after heart transplantation. All-cause cumulative mortality during the study period was the primary end point. The study material consisted of 3,589 adult patients with blood group AB who had received heart transplants, representing 18,085 patient-years. No significant difference in survival after identical, as opposed to compatible, ABO matching was found for recipients with blood group AB. In subgroup analysis, we found improved survival for younger recipients (< 55 years) with blood group AB who underwent transplantation with organs from donor blood group O rather than AB (p= 0.02). We found no survival benefit for recipients with blood group AB transplanted with ABO-identical organs. In the subgroup of recipients younger than 55 years of age, our study suggests improved survival for recipients with blood group AB transplanted with an organ from a donor with blood group O.

Developing a Search Algorithm and a Visualization Tool for SNOMED CT

With electronic health records rising in popularity among hospitals and physicians, the SNOMED CT medical terminology has served as a valuable standard for those looking to exchange a variety of information linked to clinical knowledge bases, information retrieval, and data aggregation. However, SNOMED CT is distributed as a flat file database by the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organization and visualization of data can be a problem. This study describes an algorithm that allows a user to easily search SNOMED CT for identical or partial matches utilizing indexing and wildcard matching through a graphical user interface developed in the cross-platform programming language Java. In addition to this, the algorithm displays corresponding relationships and other relevant information pertaining to the search term. The outcome of this study can serve as a useful visualization tool for those looking to delve into the increasingly standardized world of electronic health records as well as a tool for healthcare providers who may be seeking specific clinical information contained in the SNOMED CT database.

Mitochondria, Chloroplasts in Animal and Plant Cells: Significance of Conformational Matching.

Many commonalities between chloroplasts and mitochondria exist, thereby suggesting a common origin via a bacterial ancestor capable of enhanced ATP-dependent energy production functionally linked to cellular respiration and photosynthesis. Accordingly, the molecular evolution/retention of the catalytic Qo quinol oxidation site of cytochrome b complexes as the tetrapeptide PEWY sequence functionally underlies the common retention of a chemiosmotic proton gradient mechanism for ATP synthesis in cellular respiration and photosynthesis. Furthermore, the dual regulatory targeting of mitochondrial and chloroplast gene expression by mitochondrial transcription termination factor (MTERF) proteins to promote optimal energy production and oxygen consumption further advances these evolutionary contentions. As a functional consequence of enhanced oxygen utilization and production, significant levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) may be generated within mitochondria and chloroplasts, which may effectively compromise cellular energy production following prolonged stress/inflammationary conditions. Interestingly, both types of organelles have been identified in selected animal cells, most notably specialized digestive cells lining the gut of several species of Sacoglossan sea slugs. Termed kleptoplasty or kleptoplastic endosymbiosis, functional chloroplasts from algal food sources are internalized and stored within digestive cells to provide the host with dual energy sources derived from mitochondrial and photosynthetic processes. Recently, the observation of internalized algae within embryonic tissues of the spotted salamander strongly suggest that developmental processes within a vertebrate organism may require photosynthetic endosymbiosis as an internal regulator. The dual presence of mitochondria and functional chloroplasts within specialized animal cells indicates a high degree of biochemical identity, stereoselectivity, and conformational matching that are the likely keys to their functional presence and essential endosymbiotic activities for over 2.5 billion years.

Cloned foal derived from in vivo matured horse oocytes aspirated by the short disposable needle system.

Transvaginal ultrasound-guided follicle aspiration is one method of obtaining recipient oocytes for equine somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). This study was conducted: (1) to evaluate the possibility of oocyte aspiration from pre-ovulatory follicles using a short disposable needle system (14-G) by comparing the oocyte recovery rate with that of a long double lumen needle (12-G); (2) to investigate the developmental competence of recovered oocytes after SCNT and embryo transfer. The recovery rates with the short disposable needle vs. the long needle were not significantly different (47.5% and 35.0%, respectively). Twenty-six SCNT embryos were transferred to 13 mares, and one mare delivered a live offspring at Day 342. There was a perfect identity match between the cloned foal and the cell donor after analysis of microsatellite DNA, and the mitochondrial DNA of the cloned foal was identical with that of the oocyte donor. These results demonstrated that the short disposable needle system can be used to recover oocytes to use as cytoplasts for SCNT, in the production of cloned foals and for other applications in equine embryology

Verifying Online User Identity using Stylometric Analysis for Short Messages

Stylometry consists of the analysis of linguistic styles and writing characteristics of the authors for identification, characterization, or verification purposes. In this paper, we investigate authorship verification for the purpose of user authentication process. In this setting, authentication consists of comparing sample writing of an individual against the model or profile associated with the identity claimed by that individual at login time (i.e. 1-to-1 identity matching). In addition, the authentication process must be done in a short period of time, which means analyzing short messages. Although a significant amount of literature has been produced showing high accuracy rates for long documents, it is still challenging to identify accurately authors of short unstructured documents, in particular when dealing with large authors populations. In this paper, we pose some steps toward achieving that goal by proposing a supervised learning technique combined with n-grams analysis for authorship verification for short texts. We introduce a new n-gram metric and study several sizes of n-grams using a relatively large dataset. The experimental evaluation shows increased effectiveness of our approach compared to the existing approaches published in the literature.

Accurate mapping of RNA-Seq data.

The mapping of RNA-Seq data on genome is not the same as DNA-Seq data, because the junction reads span two exons and have no identical matches at reference genome. In this chapter, we describe a junction read aligner SpliceMap that is based on an algorithm of "half-read seeding" and "seeding extension." Four analysis steps are integrated in SpliceMap (half-read mapping, seeding selection, seeding extension and junction search, and paired-end filtering), and all toning parameters of these steps can be editable in a single configuration file. Thus, SpliceMap can be executed by a single command. While we describe the analysis steps of SpliceMap, we illustrate how to choose the parameters according to the research interest and RNA-Seq data quality by an example of human brain RNA-Seq data.

Rare case of transfusion-transmitted hepatitis E from the blood of a donor infected with the hepatitis E virus genotype 3 indigenous to Japan: Viral dynamics from onset to recovery.

The transfusion transmission of hepatitis E can occur even in non-endemic areas in the world as autochthonous hepatitis E has been increasingly reported in developed countries where the hepatitis E virus (HEV) is not prevalent. We investigated the post-transfusion transmission of hepatitis E in a patient by molecularly confirming its presence, and characterized the viral kinetics of HEV in this case. A Japanese man underwent re-thoracotomy for hemostasis followed by platelet transfusion. After the transfusion, the blood donor was found to be HEV positive. The donated blood was re-examined and was found to contain HEV. Throughout the prospective follow up of the patient, we analyzed the viral kinetics, chronological anti-HEV antibody level changes and disease progression during the entire course of HEV infection from transfusion until the end of viremia. Sequence analysis of the strains isolated from both the donor and the patient who contracted acute hepatitis E showed an identical match for 326 nucleotides in open reading frame 1. Two strains belonged to HEV genotype 3 indigenous to Japan. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first detailed report on the entire natural course of hepatitis E from viral transmission, then clearance, to replication preceding liver injury caused by HEV genotype 3, which is responsible for autochthonous infection in developed countries. The findings provide valuable insights into the mechanism of the transfusion transmission of HEV and subsequent viral dynamics.

A Molecular Mechanism of Ice Nucleation on Model AgI Surfaces

Heterogeneous ice nucleation at solid surfaces is important in many physical systems including the Earth's atmosphere. AgI is one of the best ice nucleating agents known; however, why AgI is such an effective ice nucleus is unclear. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we show that a good lattice match between ice and a AgI surface is insufficient to predict the ice nucleation ability of the surface. Seven faces modeled to represent surfaces of both β-AgI and γ-AgI, each having a good lattice match with hexagonal and/or cubic ice, are considered, but ice nucleation is observed for only three. Our model simulations clearly show that the detailed atomistic structure of the surface is of crucial importance for ice nucleation. For example, when AgI is cleaved along certain crystal planes two faces result, one with silver ions and the other with iodide ions exposed as the outermost layer. Both faces have identical lattice matches with ice, but in our simulations ice nucleation occurred only at silver exposed surfaces. Moreover, although hexagonal ice is often the only polymorph of ice considered in discussions of heterogeneous ice nucleation, cubic ice was frequently observed in our simulations. We demonstrate that one possible mechanism of ice nucleation by AgI consists of particular AgI surfaces imposing a structure in the adjacent water layer that closely resembles a layer that exists in bulk ice (hexagonal or cubic). Ice nucleates at these surfaces and grows almost layer-by-layer into the bulk.

EMPARELHAMENTO POR IDENTIDADE EM ABELHAS DO GÊNERO MELIPONA (M. QUADRIFASCIATA E M. RUFIVENTRIS)

Poucos estudos com abelhas empregaram o procedimento de emparelhamento com o modelo (matching-to-sample, ou MTS), tipicamente empregado com outros animais no ensino de relações entre estímulos. Na literatura sobre aprendizagem discriminativa em abelhas, encontram-se vários estudos com operárias da espécie Apis mellifera, porém existem poucos estudos desse tipo com abelhas de outras espécies. O objetivo deste estudo foi estabelecer relações de identidade em um procedimento de MTS, usando-se como sujeitos duas espécies de abelhas do gênero Melipona. Foi usado um labirinto em “Y”, de tal modo que o estímulo modelo era apresentado na sua entrada e dois estímulos de comparação eram dispostos nas suas saídas. Eram treinadas as relações de identidade entre estímulos visuais azul-azul e amarelo-amarelo. Quatro dentre cinco abelhas da espécie Melipona quadrifasciata e quatro dentre seis abelhas da espécie Melipona rufiventris aprenderam a tarefa. Os resultados estendem a generalidade do responder por identidade em não-humanos. Palavras-chave: Emparelhamento com o modelo, emparelhamento por identidade, abelhas, Melipona quadrifasciata, Melipona rufiventris.

Neural correlates of short-term memory in primate auditory cortex.

Behaviorally-relevant sounds such as conspecific vocalizations are often available for only a brief amount of time; thus, goal-directed behavior frequently depends on auditory short-term memory (STM). Despite its ecological significance, the neural processes underlying auditory STM remain poorly understood. To investigate the role of the auditory cortex in STM, single- and multi-unit activity was recorded from the primary auditory cortex (A1) of two monkeys performing an auditory STM task using simple and complex sounds. Each trial consisted of a sample and test stimulus separated by a 5-s retention interval. A brief wait period followed the test stimulus, after which subjects pressed a button if the sounds were identical (match trials) or withheld button presses if they were different (non-match trials). A number of units exhibited significant changes in firing rate for portions of the retention interval, although these changes were rarely sustained. Instead, they were most frequently observed during the early and late portions of the retention interval, with inhibition being observed more frequently than excitation. At the population level, responses elicited on match trials were briefly suppressed early in the sound period relative to non-match trials. However, during the latter portion of the sound, firing rates increased significantly for match trials and remained elevated throughout the wait period. Related patterns of activity were observed in prior experiments from our lab in the dorsal temporal pole (dTP) and prefrontal cortex (PFC) of the same animals. The data suggest that early match suppression occurs in both A1 and the dTP, whereas later match enhancement occurs first in the PFC, followed by A1 and later in dTP. Because match enhancement occurs first in the PFC, we speculate that enhancement observed in A1 and dTP may reflect top–down feedback. Overall, our findings suggest that A1 forms part of the larger neural system recruited during auditory STM.

Rapid Teaching of Arbitrary Matching in Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities.

This research extended to arbitrary matching-to-sample procedures a method that was successful in rapidly establishing identity matching in children with and without intellectual disabilities (Mackay et al., 2002). The method involves increasing the number of identical comparison stimuli in a choice array in order to create a homogenous background that makes the target more salient, thus likely to prompt selection. The number of comparison stimuli then is faded systematically contingent on accurate responding. This method unites cognitive research on visual search and behavior analytic research on conditional stimulus control. Two experiments examined use of the method to teach arbitrary relations between visual stimuli (numerals and colors and their printed names) and between visual and auditory stimuli (e.g., numerals and colors and their dictated names). Results demonstrated the generality of the method to symbolic matching. This finding is important for conceptual reasons and for its relevance to special education.

Transitive and anti-transitive emergent relations in pigeons: Support for a theory of stimulus-class formation

Stimulus class formation is inferred when conditional discrimination training yields new (emergent) conditional relations between the training stimuli. The present experiments demonstrated two such relations in pigeons after successive matching-to-sample training. Experiment 1 showed that transitivity (AC matching) emerged after training on AB and BC arbitrary matching plus BB identity matching: pigeons responded relatively more to the comparisons on AC test trials in which both the A samples and C comparisons were elements of reinforced arbitrary baseline relations involving the same nominal B stimulus. Experiment 2 showed the opposite effect (“anti-transitivity”) after training on the same arbitrary relations but with BB oddity instead: pigeons responded relatively more to the comparisons on AC test trials in which the A sample was an element of a reinforced baseline relation and the C comparison was an element of a non-reinforced baseline relation, or vice versa. Experiment 2 also showed that AB and BC training alone generally does not yield an emergent effect. These findings extend the range of emergent phenomena observed in non-human animals and are consistent with predictions from Urcuioli's (2008) theory of pigeons’ stimulus class formation.This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Tribute to Tom Zentall.

Isolation and Characterization of Metal and Antibiotic Resistant Psychrotrophic Bacteria from Refrigerated Spoiled Food

The aim of this study was to isolate and characterize psychrotrophic bacteria resistant to antibiotic and metals from cold samples of refrigerated spoiled food and ice. Two isolates named H and F were successfully isolated from samples incubated at 10°C and 4°C, respectively. Both isolates were able to grow at 4°C, 10°C, 20°C and 30°C and exhibited multidrug resistance to antibiotics (chloramphenicol, ampicillin, tetracycline and kanamycin). Bacteria H and F were then further tested for their resistance to metal ions such as Cd2+, Zn2+, Cr 6+ and As 3+ at concentrations ranging from 0-10 mM. The results of the test revealed that the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for isolate H was determined at 2 mM for all the metal ions. By comparison, isolate F was highly resistant to Cr6+, Cd2+ andZn2+ with MIC of 10 mM for these cations, while MIC for As3+ was 4 mM. The results of comparing 16S rRNA gens demonstrated that isolate F has 98% identity match with Bacillus sp. This strain could be used as a model microbial strain to understand the mechanisms of metal resistance and as a source of psychrotrophic enzymes with potential application for bioremediation of heavy metals in cold environments.

Performance by Older Adults on Identity and Arbitrary Matching-to-Sample Tasks

Conditional discrimination procedures have been widely used in the study of complex human behavior such as language and remembering. Examples of these procedures include identity and arbitrary matching-to-sample (MTS) tasks. Although identity matching is described as a prerequisite to arbitrary matching, it has been suggested that beginning with identity MTS tasks may interfere with responding on subsequent arbitrary MTS, as the participant continues to look for similarities rather than responding in accordance with the experimenter-defined contingencies. The purpose of the present experiment was twofold: (1) to study whether exposure on identity MTS would influence arbitrary MTS performance and (2) to determine whether using 0-s delay would provide different results than simultaneous matching in healthy older adults. Thirty-two participants (ages 70–86 years) were divided randomly into four experimental conditions: (a) identity-arbitrary simultaneous MTS; (b) arbitrary-identity simultaneous MTS; (c) identity-arbitrary 0-s DMTS; and (d) arbitrary-identity 0-s DMTS. The results showed that exposure to identity MTS did not hinder responding on subsequent arbitrary MTS. On the contrary, the arbitrary-identity MTS with simultaneous presentation of the stimuli resulted in the highest number of training trials to criterion during training and the highest number of withdrawals from the experiment, whereas identity MTS before arbitrary MTS led to results similar to those when 0-s delay was used. These results are important for future application of conditional discrimination procedures with older adults.

DISCRIMINATION LEARNING IN ADULTS WITH NEUROCOGNITIVE DISORDERS

Alzheimer's disease is the most commonly known neurocognitive disorder characterized by deterioration in areas such as memory, attention, and activities of daily living. From a behavioral perspective, memory and attentional deficits may be described as deterioration of stimulus control. This paper provides a case study of discrimination behavior in a patient with neurocognitive disorder. The purpose of the current study was twofold: (i) to study the effect of using presumed familiar pictures in arbitrary matching‐to‐sample tasks and (ii) to study variables that affect stimulus control in a patient diagnosed with vascular dementia. There were 12 conditional discrimination experimental conditions with various types of stimuli, from familiar pictures to identity matching. The results showed that the participant's responses were not in accord with experimenter‐defined stimulus classes when using familiar pictures. However, intact stimulus control by sample stimulus was established following systematic procedural changes in the conditional discrimination tasks. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

The role of probe trial distractors in the production/removal of the spatial negative priming effect

When a current (probe trial) target arises at a location formerly occupied by a distractor event (prime trial; ignored-repetition trial), its reaction time is slower than when it occurs at a previously empty location (control trial), revealing a spatial negative priming (SNP) effect. Here, we examined the influence of prime- and probe trial distractor identity similarity on the retrieval of the stored representations of prime trial processing (i.e., indexed by SNP production), in a context where the prevention of the SNP phenomenon had been motivated (via low probability of probe distractor presence—.25). Two results were important. One, the SNP effect was evident when the prime–probe distractor identities fully matched, but not when they partially or totally mismatched, showing a retrieval role for the probe distractor. Two, target-repeat trial latency facilitation showed the same pattern, indicating that representations of prime target and distractor processing are retrieved together, indicative of an episodic storage format. Since target identity remained fixed, the role of a matching probe distractor identity in SNP production was to presumably complete the triggering requirement (i.e., full event identity matching) for accessing the episodically stored representations.

A PRIMER EXTENSION DENATURING HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY METHOD FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF THREE ABCC2 GENETIC POLYMORPHISMS

Background. A number of single nucleotide polymorphisms have been described in the ABCC2 gene that alters drug disposition. The aim of the study was to develop a primer extension denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (PE-dHPLC) assay to determine three common variants of the ABCC2 gene in the promoter region (−24C > T), exon 10 (1249 G > A), and exon 28 (3972C > T). Methods. Polymerase chain reactions (PCRs) were used to isolate the area of interest in the ABCC2 gene. A comparison of the PCR product was performed between sequencing and dHPLC. Results. A 100%identity match was achieved between groups and allowed for a quick and accurate method to determine three single nucleotide polymorphisms in a single extension reaction. This assay is the first of its type to determine three ABCC2 variants by dHPLC.

The activation of visual memory for facial identity is task-dependent: Evidence from human electrophysiology

The question whether the recognition of individual faces is mandatory or task-dependent is still controversial. We employed the N250r component of the event-related potential as a marker of the activation of representations of facial identity in visual memory, in order to find out whether identity-related information from faces is encoded and maintained even when facial identity is task-irrelevant. Pairs of faces appeared in rapid succession, and the N250r was measured in response to repetitions of the same individual face, as compared to presentations of two different faces. In Experiment 1, an N250r was present in an identity matching task where identity information was relevant, but not when participants had to detect infrequent targets (inverted faces), and facial identity was task-irrelevant. This was the case not only for unfamiliar faces, but also for famous faces, suggesting that even famous face recognition is not as automatic as is often assumed. In Experiment 2, an N250r was triggered by repetitions of non-famous faces in a task where participants had to match the view of each face pair, and facial identity had to be ignored. This shows that when facial features have to be maintained in visual memory for a subsequent comparison, identity-related information is retained as well, even when it is irrelevant. Our results suggest that individual face recognition is neither fully mandatory nor completely task-dependent. Facial identity is encoded and maintained in tasks that involve visual memory for individual faces, regardless of the to-be-remembered feature. In tasks without this memory component, irrelevant visual identity information can be completely ignored.

Thematic matching as remedial teaching for symbolic matching for individuals with autism spectrum disorder

Matching-to-sample (MTS) is often used to teach symbolic relationships between spoken or printed words and their referents to children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. However, many children have difficulty learning symbolic matching, even though they may demonstrate generalized identity matching. The current study investigated whether training on symbolic MTS tasks in which the stimuli are physically dissimilar but members of familiar categories (i.e., thematic matching) can remediate an individual's difficulty learning symbolic MTS tasks involving non-representative stimuli. Three adolescent males diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder were first trained on symbolic MTS tasks with unfamiliar, non-representative form stimuli. Thematic matching was introduced after the participants failed to learn 0, 2 or 4 symbolic MTS tasks and before additional symbolic MTS tasks were introduced. After exposure to thematic matching, accuracy on symbolic MTS tasks with novel stimuli increased to above chance for all participants. For two participants, high accuracy (>90%) was achieved on a majority of these sessions. Thus, thematic matching may be an effective intervention for students with limited verbal repertoires and who have difficulty learning symbolic MTS tasks. Possible explanations for the facilitative effect of thematic matching are considered and warrant further investigation.