bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
INCREMENTAL LEARNING OF PRODUCTION RULES FROM EXAMPLES UNDER UNCERTAINTY: A ROUGH SET APPROACH
Authors: CHAN CHIEN-CHUNG 
Published: November 2004

This paper introduces an algorithm, LEM3, for incremental learning of production rules from examples. Based on the concept of rough sets introduced by Pawlak, LEM3 is capable of learning rules from consistent as well as inconsistent examples. In LEM3, rules are generated by using the rule-generating procedure implemented in a nonincremental learning program LEM2. Consequently, the rules learned by LEM3 do not use redundant attribute-value pairs. One major feature of LEM3 is the incorporation of a separate global data structure for storing information learned from new examples. The global data structure is updated on an example by example basis, and it provides all the essential information for the incremental updating of lower and upper approximations of a concept and the generating of rules. This separation of learned knowledge from rule-generating procedures provides a more modular design of learning systems.
ERROR BOUNDED VARIABLE DISTANCE OFFSET OPERATOR FOR FREE FORM CURVES AND SURFACES
Authors: ELBER GERSHON , COHEN ELAINE 
Published: November 2004

Most offset approximation algorithms for freeform curves and surfaces may be classified into two main groups. The first approximates the curve using simple primitives such as piecewise arcs and lines and then calculates the (exact) offset operator to this approximation. The second offsets the control polygon/mesh and then attempts to estimate the error of the approximated offset over a region. Most of the current offset algorithms estimate the error using a finite set of samples taken from the region and therefore can not guarantee the offset approximation is within a given tolerance over the whole curve or surface. This paper presents new methods to globally bound the error of the approximated offset of freeform curves and surfaces and then automatically derive new approximations with improved accuracy. These tools can also be used to develop a global error bound for a variable distance offset operation and to detect and trim out loops in the offset.
ABSTRACTING AND ENFORCING WEB SERVICE PROTOCOLS
Authors: BENATALLAH BOUALEM , CASATI FABIO , SKOGSRUD HALVARD , TOUMANI FAROUK 
Published: November 2004

Web services are emerging as a promising technology for the automation of inter-organizational interactions. As technology matures and the foundations of Web services become more solid, users will start to demand tools that facilitate the service development lifecycle. It is only when such tools become available that novel technologies become applied and enter the mainstream, since the complexity, cost and time necessary to deploy and manage solutions is dramatically reduced.In this paper, we present a framework and a tool that support the model-driven development of Web services. The idea consists in identifying key Web services abstractions, in addition to those of basic Web services standards, that enable the description of service policies and properties that are useful in practice. In this paper, we focus on service protocols, and specifically on conversation and trust negotiation protocols. These protocols are modeled by means of graphical tools and high-level languages so that they are easy to specify, understand, and evolve. The tools also support the automatic generation of service implementation skeletons based on these abstractions, manage the entire service lifecycle, and provide run-time support to verify that the interaction among clients and services occur in compliance with the specified policies.
Endovenous management of varicose veins
Authors: Soumian S , Davies A H 
Published: November 2004

Objective: Chronic venous disease has made a considerable socio-economical impact in the developed world due to its high prevalence and cost of management. Venous hypertension gives rise to significant signs and symptoms that are indications for treatment. Though the mainstay of treatment currently is surgery, it may not be the ideal choice in some cases considering the heterogeneous spectrum of venous disease. Recent alternative endovenous treatments have shown a lot of promise in successfully treating this condition. The aim of this review was to assess the long-term effectiveness of these treatments. Methods: A Medline-based review of literature was carried out. Results: Foam sclerotherapy seems to be a very promising treatment for venous disease, as short-term results have shown good results in terms of outcomes, low morbidity and cost. New endovenous techniques such as radiofrequency and laser ablation are attractive considering the absence of groin scar and subsequent neovascularization, as well as very little bruising and discomfort. Conclusions: There is no clear evidence yet regarding the long-term effectiveness of these relatively new endovenous techniques.
Endoluminal treatment of lower limb varicose veins by endovenous laser and radiofrequency techniques
Authors: Perrin M 
Published: November 2004

Objective: New endovenous treatment techniques for varicose veins – endovenous laser (EVLT) and radiofrequency (RF) – have been the subject of numerous publications during recent years. The aim of this study was to analyse the articles published in English and French and to compare the two procedures with classical surgery. Methods: While RF uses only one type of device, manufactured and distributed by a sole company, EVLT uses different types of lasers, manufactured and marketed by several companies. Therefore, RF benefits from a unique and well-defined protocol of practice, in contrast with EVLT which presents multiple variants. Results: The short-term postoperative clinical status was studied in two controlled randomized trials comparing RF therapy with classical surgery, including one study that used a quality of life questionnaire. The results, including return to normal activity and convalescence duration assessment, were more favourable after RF therapy. In terms of thromboembolic complications investigated by systematic ultrasound duplex examination, the two procedures presented an approximately equal success rate of 0.5%. Other postoperative complications were transient: RF was associated with sensory nerve complications like paresthesia, while pain was more pronounced after EVLT. Results were difficult to analyse in terms of varicose vein treatment. In terms of signs and symptoms, detailed results were available at the three-year follow up for RF therapy. The improvement was very significant compared with the preoperative status and roughly equivalent to that previously reported for classical surgery. Clinical results after EVLT are less documented. Haemodynamic results by duplex ultrasound examination are well documented for RF but less detailed for EVLT. In a single-centre study, vein obliteration after EVLT was 93.4% at the two-year follow up and 88% after RF in a multicentre study at the three-year follow up. Correlation between clinical and haemodynamic results was established for RF at the two-year follow up and showed a strong link between the clinical results and absence of reflux. Finally, cost estimation of the two techniques showed that the EVLT fibre is cheaper than the RF catheter, the situation being inverse for the generators. The global cost of the RF procedure (including convalescence) was compared with classical surgery in a study. The findings favour RF for active patients. Conclusions: In the absence of long-term controlled results comparing classical surgery and sclerotherapy with endoluminal surgery, the latter method was proved to be less aggressive postoperatively and effective at mid-term.
A p‐version, first order shear deformation, finite element for geometrically non‐linear vibration of curved beams
Authors: Ribeiro Pedro 
Published: November 2004

AbstractA p‐version, hierarchical finite element for curved, moderately thick, elastic and isotropic beams is introduced. The convergence properties of the element are analysed and some results are compared with results published elsewhere or calculated using a commercial finite element package. It is verified that, with the proposed element, shear locking does not affect the computation of the natural frequencies and that low dimensional, accurate models are obtainable. Geometrically non‐linear vibrations due to finite deformations, which occur for harmonic excitations with frequencies close to the first three natural frequencies of vibration, are investigated using Newmark's method. The influence of the thickness, longitudinal inertia and curvature radius on the dynamic behaviour of curved beams are studied. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
RECURSIVE SAMPLING OF PLANAR GRAPHS AND FRACTAL PROPERTIES OF A TWO-DIMENSIONAL QUANTUM GRAVITY
Authors: AGISHTEIN MICHAEL E. , MIGDAL ALEXANDER A. 
Published: November 2004

We describe a new approach to the Monte-Carlo simulations of two-dimensional gravity. Standard dynamical triangulation technique was combined with results of direct enumeration of the cubic graphs. As a result we were able to build large (128K vertices) statistically independent random graphs directly. The quantitative correspondence between our results and those obtained by standard methods has been observed. The algorithm proved to be so efficient that we were able to conduct all the simulations, which usually require the most powerful computers, on an Iris workstation. An opportunity to generate large random graphs allowed us to observe that the internal geometry of random surfaces is more complicated than simple fractals. External geometry also proved to be rather peculiar.
GENESIS OF THE LOGNORMAL MULTIPLICITY DISTRIBUTION IN THE e+e− COLLISIONS AND OTHER STOCHASTIC PROCESSES
Authors: SZWED R. , WROCHNA G. , WRÓBLEWSKI A. K. 
Published: November 2004

It has been observed that the e+e− multiplicity distributions exhibit the following properties: the dispersions are linear functions of the mean and the distributions obey the KNO-G scaling with the scaling function of the lognormal shape. In this paper the scale invariant branching is assumed as a mechanism within which all these properties could be derived. It is shown that the lognormal shape of the scaling function can be obtained within proposed mechanism by using the generalization of the Central Limit Theorem. The dependence of the average multiplicity on energy is also derived within the postulated framework. It is also shown that many other phenomena encountered in nature have the similar statistical properties.
THREE-DIMENSIONAL QUANTUM GRAVITY AS DYNAMICAL TRIANGULATION
Authors: AGISHTEIN M. E. , MIGDAL A. A. 
Published: November 2004

The dynamical triangulation model of 3-dimensional Quantum Gravity is defined and studied. We propose two different algorithms for numerical simulations, leading to consistent results. One is the 3-dimensional generalization of the bonds flip, another is more sophisticated algorithm, based on Schwinger–Dyson equations. We found such care necessary, because our results appear to be quite unexpected. We simulated up to 60000 tetrahedra and observed none of the feared pathologies like factorial growth of the partition function with volume, or collapse to the branched polymer phase. The volume of the Universe grows exponentially when the bare cosmological constant λ approaches the critical value λ c from above, but the closed Universe exists and has peculiar continuum limit. The Universe compressibility diverges as (λ − λ c )−2 and the bare Newton constant linearly approaches negative critical value as λ goes to λ c , provided the average curvature is kept at zero. The fractal properties turned out to be the same, as in two dimensions, namely the effective Hausdorff dimension grows logarithmically with the size of the test geodesic sphere.
TRIPLE GAUGE BOSON PRODUCTION IN e+e- COLLISIONS
Authors: NOUS M. H. , El-KISHEN M. , ALGELANI A. M. 
Published: November 2004

The production cross-sections for a triple gauge boson has been investigated in both the standard model and the minimal supersymmetric standard model, via e+e-→W+W-Z0. All events that contain the Higgs-boson seem to have no influence in this process. At [Formula: see text], this process could be detected with a reasonable cross-section, the production mechanism in this case will be e+e-→Z0→W+W-→W+W-Z0.
INFLATION IN KALUZA-KLEIN COSMOLOGY II: FRIEDMANN MODELS
Authors: BLEYER ULRICH , SCHMIDT HANS-JÜRGEN 
Published: November 2004

The conformal relation between scale-invariant fourth-order gravity and Kaluza-Klein models as derived in the preceding paper (I) is applied to Friedmann cosmological models. Especially, the result that power-law inflation is an attractor solution can be carried over, but the conformal transformation brings power-law inflation to de Sitter-like exponential inflation, or power-law inflation a ≈ t. The results depend essentially on the dimension of the internal space.
SURFACE CRITICAL BEHAVIOUR OF SOME TWO-DIMENSIONAL LATTICE MODELS
Authors: STELLA A.L. , VANDERZANDE C. 
Published: November 2004

A review is given of recent work on the ordinary surface critical behaviour of systems in two dimensions. Several models of interest in statistical mechanics are considered: Potts model, percolation, Ising clusters, ZN-model, O(n) model and polymers. Numerical results for surface exponents, obtained by suitable finite size scaling extrapolations, are discussed in the light of recent advances based on the conformal invariance approach. Surface exponents are often seen as important tests of conformal invariance predictions. In other cases these exponents provide important information for a location of the problem within the classification schemes offered by the conformal approach, and a determination of its universality class. A relevant example of the first aspect is the study of the q-state Potts model with q near 4, for which an analytical study of logarithmic scaling corrections is needed to achieve a successful test. The latter point of view applies, e.g., to the more controversial cases of polymers at the theta point and critical Ising clusters. Emphasis is put on the importance of an integrated study of both bulk and surface properties. Relevant issues, like the possible existence of analytical expressions for the indices in particular model families, or of general relationships between bulk and surface exponents, are critically discussed. The new problem of critical behaviour at fractal boundaries is also considered for random (RW) and self-avoiding walks (SAW). From the numerical analysis of this problem remarkable universalities of the surface exponents seem to emerge, which, in the case of SAW’s, are still far from being understood.
ON ISSUES IN SOFTWARE ENGINEERING AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Authors: RAMAMOORTHY C. V. , MIGUEL LUIS , SHIM YOUNG-CHUL 
Published: November 2004

Software engineering (SE) needs to make substantial breakthroughs in many different areas to allow order of magnitude improvements in software development times, software quality, and system cost. Artificial intelligence (AI) is uniquely positioned to help the SE research community in many of these areas, and we examine issues in AI for SE research. Given the fuzzy definition of AI, we provide a list of AI techniques to identify how much AI there is in specific AI for SE research. We recommend using the divide and conquer approach for SE automation and provide criteria for dividing the SE problems. We provide a vision of the future CASE environment, a knowledge and database management system at the center in a client-server architecture, and argue that it constitutes an ideal test-bed for research in AI for SE. We recommend an AI for SE research approach that includes dividing the problem up, using protocol analysis, implementing on a realistic CASE environment, and evaluating in industrial settings. We give criteria to evaluate applications of AI to SE including generality, scalability, and combinability. We conclude that AI will help SE to make slow and steady progress, but that it constitutes no silver bullet.
ON THE CHOICE OF THE BEST TEST FOR ATTRIBUTE DEPENDENCY IN PROGRAMS FOR LEARNING FROM EXAMPLES
Authors: GRZYMALA-BUSSE JERZY W. , MITHAL SACHIN 
Published: November 2004

The paper discusses a problem associated with learning from examples. Learning programs under consideration, LEM and LERS, were designed to automate knowledge acquisition for expert systems. Hence, both programs induce rules in the minimal discriminant form, i.e., rules based on minimal sets of relevant attributes, called coverings. The problem addressed in the paper is the selection of the best algorithm for determining coverings. Four different methods, based on indiscernibility relation, partition, characteristic set and lower boundary are compared. Both theoretical analysis and experimental results of multiple running of many sets of examples, with variable number of examples and with variable number of attributes are taken into account. As a result the partition method is determined to be the most efficient way to compute coverings.
MODELS FOR THE IRREDUCIBLE REPRESENTATION OF A HEISENBERG GROUP
Authors: DIGERNES TROND , VARADARAJAN V. S. 
Published: November 2004

In its most general formulation a quantum kinematical system is described by a Heisenberg group; the "configuration space" in this case corresponds to a maximal isotropic subgroup. We study irreducible models for Heisenberg groups based on compact maximal isotropic subgroups. It is shown that if the Heisenberg group is 2-regular, but the subgroup is not, the "vacuum sector" of the irreducible representation exhibits a fermionic structure. This will be the case, for instance, in a quantum mechanical model based on the 2-adic numbers with a suitably chosen isotropic subgroup. The formulation in terms of Heisenberg groups allows a uniform treatment of p-adic quantum systems for all primes p, and includes the possibility of treating adelic systems.
Repeated self‐wounding: Women's recollection of pathways to cutting and of the value of different interventions
Authors: Huband Nick , Tantam Digby 
Published: November 2004

Background. More information is needed on the processes that result in self‐wounding and how these are modulated by the selection and delivery of interventions available to those working in non‐specialist settings.Methods. Ten women participated in a semi‐structured interview where they recalled their experiences of cutting and the helpfulness of specific interventions. Transcripts of these self‐reports were analysed using grounded theory methods.Results. Having a long‐term relationship with a key worker and being encouraged to express feelings were viewed as the most helpful strategies, whereas relaxation was often reported as making self‐injury worse. The helpfulness of a given intervention was reduced when delivered by someone perceived as underconcerned, overprotective or incompetent. Two pathways to self‐wounding were identified: cutting may result when there is a steady increase of tension until a threshold is reached (the ‘spring’ path), or as a result of the ‘switching on’ of the impulse (the ‘switch’ path). Dissociation during cutting and a craving for cutting were more often associated with switching to the impulse. Different management strategies are called for when the switch path has developed, which appears particularly the case for individuals who have been repeatedly self‐wounding over a substantial period of time.
Helping alliance and ward atmosphere in psychiatric in‐patient care
Authors: Johansson Håkan , Eklund Mona 
Published: November 2004

Objective: The study investigated how patients in a psychiatric in‐patient ward perceived the therapeutic relationship and the ward atmosphere, the interrelationships between these phenomena, and whether demographic and clinical factors had an influence on the helping alliance.Design: This was an explorative study in a natural setting. A correlational and multiple regression design were adopted.Method: All discharged patients (N = 61) during a limited period completed questionnaires regarding the ward atmosphere and the helping alliance, were rated on psychosocial functioning, and diagnosed according to the ICD‐10.Results: Several ward‐atmosphere factors correlated with the helping alliance. A multivariate analysis suggested that support, programme clarity, and spontaneity were important ingredients and that support was the most important contributor. Patients with a high level of psychosocial functioning established a better helping alliance and patients with personality disorders tended to develop a weaker helping alliance.Conclusion: The findings emphasize that a holding environment is important in establishing a good helping alliance, which is consistent with results from the psychotherapy area. Since helping alliance is known to have a most important influence on therapy outcome, one conclusion must be that the staff, in their endeavour to strengthen the supportive element of the ward atmosphere, may improve the therapeutic outcome as well.
Thermodynamic Study of the Second‐Stage Dissociation of N, N‐Bis‐(2‐Hydroxyethyl)Glycine (Bicine) in Water at Different Ionic Strength and Different Solvent Mixtures
Authors: Taha Mohamed 
Published: November 2004

AbstractThe second stage dissociation constant pK2 of N, N‐bis‐(2‐ hydroxyethyl)glycine (bicine) has been determined in aqueous solution at different ionic strengths and different temperatures, using pH‐metric technique. The thermodynamic quantities (ΔG°, ΔH°, and ΔS°) have been studied and discussed. Evaluation of the effect of organic solvent of the medium on the dissociation processes have also been reported and discussed. The organic solvents used were methanol, dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), and dioxane. The pK2 for the ionization in water +10, +20, +30, +40, and +50 wt % dioxane has been determined at five different temperatures from 15 to 35 °C at intervals of 5 °C. The thermodynamic quantities were calculated. The implications of the results with regard to specific solute‐solvent interactions (particularly stabilization of zwitterionic species) are also discussed.
High‐Content Screening and Profiling of Drug Activity in an Automated Centrosome‐Duplication Assay
Authors: Perlman Zachary E. , Mitchison Timothy J. , Mayer Thomas U. 
Published: November 2004

AbstractMaintenance of centrosome number is essential for cell‐cycle progression and genomic stability, but investigation of this regulation has been limited by assay difficulty. We present a fully automated image‐based centrosome‐duplication assay that is accurate and robust enough for both careful cell‐biology studies and high‐throughput screening, and employ this assay in a series of chemical‐genetic studies. We observe that a simple cytometric profiling strategy, which is based on organelle size, groups compounds with similar mechanisms of action; this suggests a simple strategy for excluding compounds that undesirably target such activities as protein synthesis and microtubule dynamics. Screening a library of compounds of known activity, we found unexpected effects on centrosome duplication by a number of drugs, most notably isoform‐specific protein kinase C inhibitors and retinoic acid receptor agonists. From a 16 320‐member library of uncharacterized small molecules, we identified five potent centrosome‐duplication inhibitors that do not target microtubule dynamics or protein synthesis. The analysis methodology reported here is directly relevant to studies of centrosome regulation in a variety of systems and is adaptable to a wide range of other biological problems.