bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The predictive value of production expectations in manufacturing industry
Authors: Madsen Jakob Brøchner 
Published: July 2007

AbstractSurveys of the production expectations in the manufacturing industry are collected monthly or quarterly in many OECD countries. The producers are asked about expected production over the next three or four months. This paper tests the predictive performance of production expectations in the manufacturing industry of eight OECD countries. Evidence indicates that: (1) survey expectations of production have a predictive value with respect to production; (2) in most cases the forecast horizon is more significant at 3 or 4 months compared to 2 or 5 months; (3) inflow of orders, order books, stocks of finished goods, etc. contain information to predict production for most countries which are not embodied in survey production expectations.
Economic forecasting at high‐frequency intervals
Authors: Klein L. R. , Park J. Y. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractForecasting on the basis of the daily flow of monthly or more frequent statistical reports on the economy can enhance the predictive accuracy of quarterly structural models. The high degree of serial correlation in economic data can be used advantageously in quarterly forecasting for a horizon as long as 6 months—perhaps somewhat longer. The model used for high‐frequency (weekly) forecasting of the US economy has a national accounting structure and tries to follow the choice of indicators that are used in preparing early estimates of national income and product accounts (NIPA). Estimates are separately generated for the income side and the product side of NIPA. At the level of GDP and closely related aggregates a third prediction is also generated from estimates of the principal components of major monthly indicators. A simple average of three estimates of GDP, together with detail on NIPA components and scores of monthly indicators has been produced every weekend, summarizing the business week's flow of information. This procedure is followed not only for producing a steady stream of high‐frequency forecasts but also for providing adjustment factors that can be used for model recalibration, without judgemental input. The tracking of the US economy is illustrated for the period starting before the invasion of Kuwait until the end of the Gulf War.
The forecasting attributes of trend‐ and difference‐stationary representations for macroeconomic time series
Authors: Dejong David N. , Whiteman Charles H. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractWe analyse the forecasting attributes of trenc and diffence‐stationary representations of the U.S. macroeconomic time series sudied by Nelson and Plosser (1982). Predictive densities based on models estimated for these series (which terminate in 1970) are compared with subsequent realizations compiled by Schotman and van Dijk (1991) which terminate in (1988). Predictive densities obtained using the, extended series are also derived to assess the impact of the subsequent realization on long‐range forecasts. Of particular interest are comparisons of the average intervals of predictive densities corresponding to the competing specifications In general, we find that coverage intervals based on diference‐stationary specifications are far wider than those based or. trend‐stationary specifications for the real series, and slightly wider for the nominal series. This additional width is often a virtue in forecasting nuninal series over the 1971‐1988 period, as the inflation experienced durnig this time was unprecedented in the 1900s. However, the evolution of the real series has been relatively stable in the 1900s, hence the uncertainty associated with difference‐stationary specifications generally seems excessive for these data.
International interdependence of business cycles in the manufacturing industry: The use of leading indicators for forecasting and analysis
Authors: Berk J. M. , Bikker J. A. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThis article introduces new leading indicators for fifteen industrialized countries which enable the business cycle in manufacturing to be forecast fairly reliably between 4 and 6 months ahead. These indicators are based on an improved variant of the NBER method, yielding a composite leading indicator characterized by less erratic movements and clear turning points. The indicators are used to explore the international interdependence of business cycles and to examine the degree to which this interdependence is affected by growing economic integration, as in the EC. For each of the countries studied, the various foreign economies affecting the local business climate are identified. Since the business cycles of some countries clearly lead those of others, this international interdependence can be used to further improve the predictive power of the leading indicators in the lagging countries.
Prediction of final data with use of preliminary and/or revised data
Authors: Mariano Roberto S. , Tanizaki Hisashi 
Published: July 2007

AbstractIn the case of US national accounts the data are revised for the first few years and every decade, which implies that we do not really have the final data. In this paper we aim to predict the final data, using the preliminary data and/or the revised data. The following predictors are introduced and derived from a context of the non‐linear filtering or smoothing problem, which are: (1) prediction of the final data of time t given the preliminary data up to time t‐ 1, (2) prediction of the final data of time t given the preliminary data up to time t, (3) prediction of the final data of time t given the preliminary data up to time T, (4) prediction of the final data of time t given the revised data up to time t ‐1 and the preliminary data up to time t‐ 1, and (5) prediction of the final data of time t given the revised data up to time t‐1 and the preliminary data up to time t. It is shown that (5) is the best predictor but not too different from (3). The prediction problem is illustrated using US per capita consumption data.
Permanent time‐stamp ordering mechanism
Authors: Kobayashi Shinya , Nakanishi Hikaru , Tezuka Yoshikazu , Furukawa Makoto 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThis paper proposes a permanent time‐stamp ordering mechanism as a concurrency control mechanism in the distributed database, where transactions are served in the order of their arrivals. In the proposed mechanism, the read time stamp and the write time stamp are recorded on each data item; and when a conflict arises between transaction services, the transaction with a larger time stamp is aborted. This paper describes the algorithm for the permanent time‐stamp ordering mechanism and confirms the validity of the algorithm.
An object extraction method for image synthesis
Authors: Inoue Seiki 
Published: July 2007

AbstractIn image synthesis, extraction methods to extract meaningful regions (simple meanings) such as people or flowers from ordinary natural images are important. Although the chroma‐key method is widely used to extract these meaningful regions, it requires a blue background, a special photographic environment, and cannot be applied to natural images. Video‐matte, which extracts objects assisted by the user, has been developed and put to practical use as a method applicable to natural images. In this method, however, the region's boundary must be accurately specified in units of picture elements (pixels) and demands a great deal of effort and skill.In this paper, we propose a new method that simplifies the task of specifying the region in video‐matte. The user only has to specify the object to be extracted, which is easily done; then the actual region extraction is performed automatically by image processing techniques. In addition, a new thinning method for obtaining precise boundaries is also proposed. This method has many practical features: applicability to any natural image, simple specification of the boundary, a one‐pixel wide boundary with no branches or breaks, and no parameters.
An optimal parallel algorithm for finding shortest paths inside simple polygons
Authors: Chen Wei , Nakano Koji , Masuzawa Toshimitsu , Tsujino Yoshihiro , Tokura Nobuki 
Published: July 2007

AbstractGiven a triangulation of a simple n‐gon P and two points a and b inside P, a parallel algorithm is presented for determining the path between a and b with the shortest Euclidean distance inside P. The algorithm has time complexity O(log n) on CREW PRAM with n/log n processors and thus is optimal in the sense that the time‐processor product agrees with Ω(n)—the lower bound of time complexity of the sequential algorithms.
Use of fourier transform and color image processing to extract design elements of yarn‐dyed fabric
Authors: Ohta Ken‐Ichi , Sakaue Katuhiko , Kosako Hideo , Takaoka Akira 
Published: July 2007

AbstractIn order to weave fabric based on a yarn‐dyed fabric sample, the information on the thread arrangement of the fabric must be obtained. In this paper, we will discuss a method for automatically extracting the design elements of yarn‐dyed fabric that correspond to thread placement information with the objective of automating a part of the fabric design process of yarn‐dyed fabrics. In yarn‐dyed fabrics, the pattern on the fabric's surface is formed by the placement of different colored warp and weft threads. Consequently, the features of the warp and weft threads are always continuous in the warp and weft directions. As a result, we show that the bandpass image obtained by filtering the fabric's surface in the spatial frequency domain with a rectangular filter restricted to the warp direction or weft direction extracts information related to the thread placement in that direction. In addition, a simple clustering preprocessing method that detects the brightness is proposed. Then it is verified that the design elements of yarn‐dyed fabric can be extracted based on clustering where the color difference in the bandpass image is the distance. When extracting yarn‐dyed fabric elements, these methods are not concerned with individual regions of the pattern on the fabric's surface or features of each thread but are only concerned with the placement of the colored threads that define the design elements of the yarn‐dyed fabric. They are also provided with an efficiency not available in earlier methods.
Dynamic control of utterance initiative in telephone operator dialogues
Authors: Toji Ryutaro , Yoshida Takashi 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThis paper proposes a new dialogue model that controls utterance initiatives dynamically according to the dialogue context. It classifies utterance intentions into two categories: active and passive. Based on this model, the authors have developed a telephone operator system that can understand utterance intentions by word‐spotting, respond suitably, induce utterances, and anticipate subsequent utterances. The system was developed through simulations using text data of real dialogues between a human telephone operator and callers. The system could understand the intentions of callers' utterances (97 percent) and generate the same reply as a human operator (96 percent).
Image degradation and stroboscopic images caused by rotary motion of the object in X‐ray computed tomography
Authors: Sakamoto Takashi , Sato Shunsuke 
Published: July 2007

AbstractIn an X‐ray computed tomography (CT), time to scan an object must be allowed to obtain its projection data. If the object is not steady during the scanning, its reconstructed image would contain errors called “motion artifacts.” Recently, two kinds of motion artifact, “blurred image” and “stroboscopic image,” have been found in clinical experience, and their theoretical analyses have been demanded. Assuming that an object is a rigid body, its motion can be divided into rotary and parallel motions.This paper analyzes the degradation of reconstructed images and artifacts due to the rotary motion of a rigid object. The degradation of a CT image caused by rotation of an arbitrarily shaped rigid object is formulated by using a point‐spread function. The characteristics of blurred images of a rigid object due to its rotation in a CT and the shape of blurred images also are analyzed. The cause of stroboscopic images is explained by using line sources. The theories have been confirmed by computer simulation.
A perfect separation of discrete sample points by four‐layered perceptron with localized representation
Authors: Oohori Takahumi , Nagao Naoyuki , Watanabe Kazuhisa 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThe distributed representation‐type three‐layered perceptron with backpropagation has such problems as the local minimum, long learning time, and ambiguity in internal representation. As a method to cope with those problems, this paper proposes the four‐layered perceptron, together with the learning algorithm, where a hidden layer is added, so that each discrete sample point can perfectly be represented by the corresponding output of the upper hidden layer.First, the learning algorithm of the perceptron is applied successively to the sample points, and the learning is executed so that the input sample points are separated perfectly by the piecewise sets of hyperplanes. In this mechanism, the output matrix of the lower bidder layer output is nonsingular. Consequently, the following four‐layered perceptron can be constructed, where the output matrix of the upper hidden layer is an identity matrix, and any discrete value can be produced as the output from the output layer by adjusting the network coefficients. Computational experiments are made for the realization of the three‐valued logic function, which is a learning problem on the two‐dimensional plane, as well as the pattern recognition problem by the representative sample points. As a result, it is shown that the learning converges in less than 1/100 computation time, compared to the three‐layered perceptron with the backpropagation.
A method of describing fingerprint structure and identification algorithm using geometric characteristics
Authors: Yamada Michio , Kodata Akihisa , Tominaga Hideyoshi 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThis paper proposes a method of describing the structure of fingerprint images. The proposed description method considers reconstruction of the topological feature of fingerprints, and describes a fingerprint image as locations of ridges in a connected component. The topological structure of a fingerprint image is described by three features: the local relation between connected components; the local relation of ridges in a connected component; and the feature of the ridge shape.By using ridge‐shape characteristics which are independent of locational coordinates, numbers are given to ridges and minutiae, and graph features of the connected relation and adjacency relation are described by numbered ridges and minutiae. Therefore, even if fingerprints are rotated or parallel transferred, the same descriptive information of the structure can be obtained. Also, the proposed matching process is based on paired ridge lengths and therefore, unlike traditional methods, locational matching using the reference of registered/inputted fingerprints becomes unnecessary. The effectiveness of the two proposed algorithms is confirmed by simulation.
Formulation of the modified akaike information criterion (AIC) for a one‐dimensional multipulse model and its application to image coding
Authors: Koda Hiromu , Tanaka Hatsukazu 
Published: July 2007

AbstractIn recent years, attention has been given to coding based on the structurally extracted component and the three dimensional object model. However, it has a problem in that the content of the processing and the required model are fairly complex compared to the conventional waveform coding.From such a viewpoint, the authors considered the one‐dimensionalmultipulse model, which was proposed as an analysis/synthesis technique for speech, and have been investigating the method using the model which can easily extract the structure of the image and provide the coding.In this paper, the multipulse model is regarded as a stochastic model. A method is proposed, where the number of pulses required to represent the features of the image is determined automatically using Akaike's information criterion and a similar criterion (called modified AIC).As the first step, the modified AIC for the multipulse model is derived, and the sequential computation procedure is shown. Then the relation between the penalty coefficient of the modified AIC and the optimal number of pulses is described, and a method is shown based on that result where the traditional information criterion is utilized selectively based on the constraint for the compression ratio of the number of pulses.Finally, the modified AIC for the multipulse model is applied to the hierarchical coding from the two‐tone image to the gray‐level image, and the usefulness is demonstrated. It is expected that the proposed method will be applied to the image coding, image feature extraction and speech feature extraction.
Simultaneous recovering motion and shape of 3D moving objects
Authors: Kamada Hiroshi , Shiohara Morito , Hao Yingli 
Published: July 2007

AbstractWe propose a new algorithm to simultaneously recover the motion and 3D shape of moving objects from feature points of the moving objects in an orthographic projection. Given the assumption that the moving object is a rigid body, the newly proposed algorithm uses times series correspondence of feature point coordinates in the orthographic projections and is based on the correspondence of 4 feature points at 3 points in time where the existence of a solution has been demonstrated. The merit of this algorithm is that it is a linear algorithm for recovery that uses only observed data, has the condition of unique recovery solution in principle, and can be applied in a unified manner in the case of a unique solution. In this method, after the possibility of recovery is determined by calculating the rank of the matrix, the recovery solution can quickly be found in a unified manner through a linear computation including matrix inversion computations. This theory solves the usual problems in the linear recovery theory in the recovery of moving objects from the point correspondence in orthographic projections and is segmented in theory. We verified the validity of this algorithm using simulation data generated by a computer, and after obtaining corresponding points, verified that real‐time processing with an average recovery time of 4.6 ms is possible even for a personal computer CPU processing. In addition, the effectiveness of this algorithm was confirmed by using the real image of a moving object.
Adaptive exposure image input system for obtaining high‐quality color information
Authors: Moriwaki Kousuke 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThe color image processing based on the color information is not concerned with the accuracy of the color information in the original image. The color representation transformation and the processing algorithm assume that the accuracy of the input image is sufficiently high.This paper considers the input of the RGB color image, and discusses the image input system, emphasizing the accuracy of the color information. Here, each pixel is inputted with sufficient intensity without saturation, independently of the brightness of the object, by the multistep exposure control. The obtained image is called the adaptive exposure color image since each pixel is inputted with an adequate exposure. This paper discusses also the exposure control using the variable electronic shutter function of the CCD camera, the pixel selection/storage algorithm for the time‐series images with different exposure times, and the reduction of the input time by reducing the number of exposures.By an input experiment, it is verified that a stable input of the color image is realized for the scene with a high contrast, containing multiple colors and shadows. The region segmentation based on the chromatic component is considered, and it is shown that the adaptive exposure color image realizes satisfactory colors over the whole image compared to the ordinary color image. Thus the method is shown to be useful in improving the accuracy from the viewpoint of color discrimination and other applications.
Control of artificial respiration by adaptive pole‐placement method
Authors: Takahara Kenji , Wakamatsu Hidetoshi 
Published: July 2007

AbstractMost organic functions are described by complex dynamics of unknown and/or ambiguous subsystems characterized by their nonlinearity, chronic change and individual difference. Nevertheless, a respiratory regulation system among these subsystems is described by a bilinear mathematical model whose state variables are alveolar and average mixed venous CO2‐concentrations, and whose inputs are the ventilation rate of alveolus and metabolic rate converted into CO2‐volume. However, its nonlinear dynamic characteristics depend on time‐varying parameters, in particular, on the blood flow rate which varies on a large scale incidental to metabolic rate change.In this paper, an automatic control system of artificial respiration is discussed on the basis of the adaptive pole‐placement method using a linear mathematical model where the ventilation rate and alveolar CO2‐concentration are regarded as a controlling input and a controlled output, respectively. The feature of the proposed method is that desirable characteristics given beforehand by medical doctors can be realized automatically even with regard to individual difference and chronic change of characteristics seen distinctively in an organism.Here, to confirm the robustness of the proposed control system, a simulation experiment is given with some metabolic rate change as an input change regarding its contribution to the output as an effect of disturbance from an environment. Then the proposed method is applied to clinical experiments using a respirator controlled by outside signals. This respirator has been developed to meet the aim of the present study, resulting in good performance of dynamic characteristics of alveolar CO2‐concentration on healthy subjects.
A method of handling virtual objects that incorporates the sense of touch
Authors: Ishii Ikuo , Karasawa Tatsuaki , Makino Hideo 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThis study aims at the application of the virtual reality technique to model construction and simulation in industrial design and the arts. This paper discusses several problems in the interactive direct manipulation of the virtual object from the viewpoint of real space.The first point is to realize the representation system which can represent the motion parallax without experiencing the response delay. For this purpose, the reduction of the measurement time for the positions of both eyes is investigated, and the problem is solved by developing the both‐eye position measurement method using position‐sensitive devices (PSD).The second point is to realize the accurate and direct specification method of manipulation from the real space. The direct specification using the hand or the stylus in the real space makes it difficult to realize an accurate manipulation since the error between the real space and the virtual space coordinates is sensed visually in a direct way. For this problem, a stylus for virtual object manipulation was developed. It has a special structure wherein the grip is in the real space and the pointer is in the virtual space.By this elaboration, the visual error in the position relation between the pointer and the object to be handled can be eliminated. Then the real‐time processing is investigated for the decision of contact between the stylus pointer and the virtual object to be manipulated, as well as for the generation of the tactile sensation.The real‐time processing is realized by utilizing the feature of the virtual pointer stylus and the drawing mechanism.