Real-time anomaly detection systems for Denial-of-Service attacks by weighted k-nearest-neighbor classifiers This study proposed a method which can detect large-scale attacks, such as DoS attacks, in real-time by weighted KNN classifiers. The key factor for designing an anomaly-based NIDS is to select significant features for making decisions. Not only is excellent detection performance required, but real-time processing is also demanded for most NIDSs. A good feature selection policy, which can choose significant and as few as possible features, plays a key role for any successful NIDS. The study proposed a genetic algorithm combined with KNN (k-nearest-neighbor) for feature selection and weighting. All initial 35 features in the training phase were weighted, and the top ones were selected to implement NIDSs for testing. Many DoS attacks were applied to evaluate the systems. For known attacks, an overall accuracy rate as high as 97.42% was obtained, while only the top 19 features were considered. For unknown attacks, an overall accuracy rate of 78% was obtained using the top 28 features.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

genetic algorithm
dos attacks
feature selection

nids (network intrusion detection system)


Proactive AP Selection Method Considering the Radio Interference Environment In the near future, wireless local area networks (WLANs) will overlap to provide continuous coverage over wide area. In such ubiquitous WLANs, a mobile node (MN) moving freely between multiple access points (APs) requires not only permanent access to the Internet but also continuous communication quality during handover. In order to satisfy these requirements, an MN needs to (1) select an AP with better performance and (2) execute a handover seamlessly. To satisfy requirement (2), we proposed a seamless handover method in a previous study, Moreover, in order to achieve (1), the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) is usually employed to measure wireless link quality in a WLAN System. However, in a real environment, especially if APs are densely situated, it is difficult to always select an AP with better performance based on only the RSSI. This is because the RSSI alone cannot detect the degradation of communication quality due to radio interference. Moreover, it is important that AP selection is completed only on an MN, because we can assume that, in ubiquitous WLANs, various organizations or operators will manage APs. Hence, we cannot modify the AN for AP selection. To overcome these difficulties, in the present paper, we propose and implement a proactive AP selection method considering wireless link condition based on the number of frame retransmissions in addition to the RSSI. In the evaluation. we show that the proposed AP selection method can appropriately select an AP with good wireless link quality, i.e., high RSSI and low radio interference.

O B I O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O B I

ap selection
radio interference
rssi
wlan


Towards optimal software engineering: learning from agile practice In essence, optimal software engineering means creating the right product, through the right process, to the overall satisfaction of everyone involved. Adopting the agile approach to software development appears to have helped many companies make substantial progress towards that goal. The purpose of this paper is to clarify that contribution from comparative survey information gathered in 2010 and 2012. The surveys were undertaken in software development companies across Northern Ireland. The paper describes the design of the surveys and discusses optimality in relation to the results obtained. Both surveys aimed to achieve comprehensive coverage of a single region rather than rely on a voluntary sample. The main outcome from the work is a collection of insights into the nature and advantages of agile development, suggesting how further progress towards optimality might be achieved.

O O B I O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

agile software development
software process improvement
industry surveys


Opinion-Based Entity Ranking using learning to rank In this paper we address Opinion Based Entity Rank (OpER) task. OpER ranks entities based on how well opinion of entities match with users queries. We have outlined an extensive list of ranking features that can be used to capture the notion of query keyword relevance with individual opinions. Our experiments indicate that these ranking features have significantly high effectiveness for OpER task than standard retrieval models. For further improving the effectiveness, we combine these ranking feature using genetic programming (GP) and learning to rank approach.

O B I O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O B I I O

entity ranking
learning to rank
genetic programming


Detecting method applicable to individual features for drivers' drowsiness It is inevitable for driver assist and warning systems to consider the drivers' state of consciousness. Drowsiness is one of the important factors in estimating the drivers' state of consciousness. A Method to extract the driver's initial stage of drowsiness was developed by means of the eyelid's opening relevant to each various characteristic of objects with motion pictures processing in the actual driving environment. The result was that an increase of the long eyelid closure time was the key factor in estimating the initial stage of drivers' drowsiness while driving. And the state of drowsiness could be presumed by checking the frequencies of long eyelid closure time per unit period.

O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O

eyelid closure time
motion picture processing


Finding all essential terms of a characteristic maxpolynomial ? Let us denote a?b=max(a,b) and a?b=a+b for and extend this pair of operations to matrices and vectors in the same way as in linear algebra. We present an algorithm for finding all essential terms of the max-algebraic characteristic polynomial of an nn matrix over with m finite elements. In the cases when all terms are essential, this algorithm also solves the following problem: Given an nn matrix A and k?{1,,n}, find a kk principal submatrix of A whose assignment problem value is maximum.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O


Web-based tool for expert elicitation of the variogram The variogram is the keystone of geostatistics. Estimation of the variogram is deficient and difficult when there are no or too few observations available due to budget constraints or physical and temporal obstacles. In such cases, expert knowledge can be an important source of information. Expert knowledge can also fulfil the increasing demand for an a priori variogram in Bayesian geostatistics and spatial sampling optimization. Formal expert elicitation provides a sound scientific basis to reliably and consistently extract knowledge from experts. In this study, we aimed at applying existing statistical expert elicitation techniques to extract the variogram of a regionalized variable that is assumed to have either a multivariate normal or lognormal spatial probability distribution from expert knowledge. To achieve this, we developed an elicitation protocol and implemented it as a web-based tool to facilitate the elicitation of beliefs from multiple experts. Our protocol has two main rounds: elicitation of the marginal probability distribution and elicitation of the variogram. The web-based tool has three main components: a web interface for expert elicitation and feedback; a component for statistical computation and mathematical pooling of multiple experts knowledge; and a database management component. Results from a test case study show that the protocol is adequate and that the online elicitation tool functions satisfactorily. The web-based tool is free to use and supports scientists to conveniently elicit the variogram of spatial random variables from experts. The source code is available from the journal FTP site under the GNU General Public License.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

spatial variability
subjective prior information


SAP and partners: IS-H (TM) and IS-H*MED (TM) Objectives: The Styrian Hospital Oganizatiom with 21 hospitals including the Graz University Hospital; and the Heidelberg University Hospital implemented a new. HIS based on SAP/R3(TM), ISH(TM), ISH*MED(TM) with the objective to have an integrated system to support patient administration and management, patient care, clinical documentation; research etc. Methods: Heidelberg University, Hospital chose a step by step, method for the introduction of the system; beginning with patient administration (ISH) and proceeding with clinical functions (ISH*MED). In Styria, the full functionality was implemented - as part of the selection process - in one peripheral hospital and in the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) Department of the Graz University Hospital,, including. special documents to support the processes in the I highly specialized ENTunits. Results and Conclusions: The standard modules are performant, stable and basically well accepted. Particularly in Graz, it has been shown that the requirements of highly specialized departments for work I flow management, documentation and integration of subsystems and data from different sources can be;fulfilled by special documents and programs although at the expense of additional workload particularly in the initial phases of such a project.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

hospital information systems
electronic patient record


Orientation and Related Buoyancy Effects in Low-velocity Flow Boiling This work is an extension of experimental results reported previously, which might provide design guidance for approximating certain aspects of the flow boiling process in microgravity but taking place in Earth gravity. In that research the buoyancy effects on the bubble dynamics were minimized by the imposition of a liquid velocity parallel to a flat heater surface in the inverted horizontal position, or nearly horizontal (within 5), thus holding the heated liquid and vapor formed close to the heater surface. For the fluid used, liquid velocities in the range U= 510 cm/s were judged to be critical for changes in the behavior of the flow boiling process. Using the hydraulic diameter of the rectangular duct used, with the heater surface embedded in one side, this velocity range gives rise to flow Reynolds numbers on the order of 44008800. It was subsequently judged to be of interest to extend the range of orientation of the flat heater surface relative to gravity to the full circular range of 0360, in increments of 45, and the results of this work are presented here. A solid massive copper heater with a gold-plated boiling heat transfer surface 19 38 mm in size, previously used for critical heat flux measurements with boiling, provided a near-uniform surface temperature. Only steady measurements of heat flux and surface temperature were possible with the copper heater. R-113 was the fluid used; the velocity was varied over the interval of 428 cm/s; bulk liquid subcooling was varied over 511C; and heat flux varied over 010 w/cm2.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

orientation of flat heater surfaces varied 0360


Fast prototyping of network protocols through ns-3 simulation model reuse ? In the networking research and development field, one recurring problem faced is the duplication of effort to write first simulation and then implementation code. We posit an alternative development process that takes advantage of the built in network emulation features of Network Simulator 3 (ns-3) and allows developers to share most code between simulation and implementation of a protocol. Tests show that ns-3 can handle a data plane processing large packets, but has difficulties with small packets. When using ns-3 for implementing the control plane of a protocol, we found that ns-3 can even outperform a dedicated implementation.

O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B


Joint consideration of energy-efficiency and coverage-preservation in microsensor networks This paper presents an energy-efficient and coverage-preserving communication protocol which distributes a uniform energy load to the sensors in a wireless microsensor network. This protocol, called Distance-based Segmentation (DBS), is a cluster-based protocol that divides the entire network into equal-area segments and applies different clustering policies to each segment to (1) reduce total energy dissipation and (2) balance the energy load among the sensors. Therefore, it prolongs the lifetime of the network and improves the sensing coverage. Moreover, the proposed routing protocol does not need any centralized support from a certain node which is at odds with aiming to establish a scalable communication protocol. Results from extensive simulations on two different network configurations show that by lowering the number of wasteful transmissions in the network, the DBS can achieve as much as a 20% reduction in total dissipated energy as compared with current cluster-based protocols. In addition, this protocol is able to distribute energy load more evenly among the sensors in the network. Hence, it yields up to a 66% increase in the useful network lifetime. According to the simulation results, the sensing coverage degradation of the DBS is considerably slower than that of the other cluster-based protocols. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

coverage-preservation
energy-efficiency
data aggregation


Some historical remarks on Block's "Aunt Bubbles" argument The aim of this paper is to present a certain kind of argumentation against the idea of the Turing test (we call it CCSC-Complete Conversation System Claim) and to discuss the issue of its first formulation. Ned Block, with his idea of "Aunt Bubbles" argument, is thought of as a founding father of CCSC, but we present the results of our bibliographical researches which clearly show that the first formulation of CCSC should be ascribed to Polish writer and philosopher Stanislaw Lem.

O O O O O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I

aunt bubbles argument
ned block
stanislaw lem
turing test


the problem of private information in large software organizations Coordination of project stakeholders is critical to timely and consistent software delivery. In this short paper we present the problem of private information as a guiding framework or lens through which to interpret coordination dynamics within software organizations. We provide evidence of this problem in the form of specific challenges, collected via interviews from a diverse set of extended (i.e., non-development) stakeholders in a globally distributed software development organization.

O O O B I O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

software process
extended stakeholders
information management


ON THE INTEGRAL-REPRESENTATION OF FUZZY POSSIBILITY MEASURES The integral representations of fuzzy possibility measures using the Shilkret and Sugeno integrals are discussed. In the case of the Shilkret integral, it is shown that each fuzzy possibility measure p has a Pi-a.e. unique integral representation by a Markov kernel K, where Pi, is a possibility measure induced by p. For the Sugeno integral, conditions ensuring the uniqueness of Radon-Nikodym-like derivatives of max-measures are given. As a corollary we obtain the conditions for the uniqueness of the Sugeno integral representation of fuzzy possibility measures using extended Pi-Markov kernels. For non-extended Markov kernels, the Sugeno integral representation of a fuzzy possibility measure p is Pi-a.e. unique if and only if the induced possibility measure Pi is trivial. The sigma-decomposability of possibility measures is discussed.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O B I I O O O O O B I O O B I O O O O O B I O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O B I I O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O

fuzzy possibility measure
integral representation
markov kernel
possibility measure
shilkret integral
sugeno integral


A Programmable System for Artistic Volumetric Lighting We present a method for generating art-directable volumetric effects, ranging from physically-accurate to non-physical results. Our system mimics the way experienced artists think about volumetric effects by using an intuitive lighting primitive, and decoupling the modeling and shading of this primitive. To accomplish this, we generalize the physically-based photon beams method to allow arbitrarily programmable simulation and shading phases. This provides an intuitive design space for artists to rapidly explore a wide range of physically-based as well as plausible, but exaggerated, volumetric effects. We integrate our approach into a real-world production pipeline and couple our volumetric effects to surface shading.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

lighting design
artist control
participating media


Multiple instances and symbolic variables in executable sequence charts We extend live sequence charts (LSCs), a highly expressive variant of sequence diagrams, and provide the extension with an executable semantics. The extension involves support for instances that can bind to multiple objects and symbolic variables that can bind to arbitrary values. The result is a powerful executable language for expressing behavioral requirements on the level of inter-object interaction. The extension is implemented in full in our play-engine tool, with which one can execute the requirements directly without the need to build or synthesize an intra-object system model. It seems that in addition to many advantages in testing and requirements engineering, for some kinds of systems this could lead to the requirements actually serving as the final implementation.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O


A framework for the initialization of student models in Web-based intelligent tutoring systems Initializing a student model for individualized tutoring in educational applications is a difficult task, since very little is known about a new student. On the other hand, fast and efficient initialization of the student model is necessary. Otherwise the tutoring system may lose its credibility in the first interactions with the student. In this paper we describe a framework for the initialization of student models in Web-based educational applications. The framework is called ISM. The basic idea of ISM is to set initial values for all aspects of student models using an innovative combination of stereotypes and the distance weighted k-nearest neighbor algorithm. In particular, a student is first assigned to a stereotype category concerning her/ his knowledge level of the domain being taught. Then, the model of the new student is initialized by applying the distance weighted k-nearest neighbor algorithm among the students that belong to the same stereotype category with the new student. ISM has been applied in a language learning system, which has been used as a test-bed. The quality of the student models created using ISM has been evaluated in an experiment involving classroom students and their teachers. The results from this experiment showed that the initialization of student models was improved using the ISM framework.

O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O

machine learning for user modeling
student modeling
web-based intelligent tutoring systems


A hardware-based memory acquisition procedure for digital investigations The acquisition of volatile memory from a compromised computer is difficult to perform reliably because the acquisition procedure should not rely on untrusted code, such as the operating system or applications executing on top of it. In this paper, we present a procedure for acquiring volatile memory using a hardware expansion card that can copy memory to an external storage device. The card is installed into a PCI bus slot before an incident occurs and is disabled until a physical switch on the back of the system is pressed. The card cannot easily be detected by an attacker and the acquisition procedure does not rely on untrusted resources. We present general requirements for memory acquisition tools, our acquisition procedure, and the initial results of our hardware implementation of the procedure.

O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

computer forensics
digital evidence
incident response
volatile data acquisition


controlling sensors and actuators collectively using the cocos-framework Cocos (COordinated COmmunicating Sensors) 1 is a lean middleware platform for wireless sensor and actuator networks. The major programming abstractions of Cocos are distributed sensor spaces, which enable the collective controlling of sensors or actuators on remote nodes. Thus, Cocosbrings high-level data-parallel programming conceptssuch as global reductions into the world of small networked systems. In this paper we discuss the design rationale of Cocos as well as its in-network processing and aggregation capabilities.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

wireless sensor networks
overlay networks
collective operations


Flow rank based probabilistic fair scheduling for wireless ad hoc networks Fair scheduling is an ideal candidate for fair bandwidth sharing and thereby achieving fairness among the contending flows in a network. It is particularly challenging for ad hoc networks due to infrastructure free operation and location dependent contentions. As there is no entity to serve coordination among nodes, we need a mechanism to overcome inherent unreliability of the network to provide reduced collision and thereby higher throughput and adequate fair allocation of the shared medium among different contending flows. This paper proposes a flow rank based probabilistic fair scheduling technique. The main focus is to reduce the collision probability among the contending flows while maintaining the prioritized medium access for those flows, which ensures a weighted medium access control mechanism based on probabilistic round robin scheduling. Each flow maintains a flow-table upon which the rank is calculated and backoff value is assigned according to the rank of the flow, i.e., lower backoff interval to lower ranked flow. However, flow-table instability due to joining of a new flow, partially backlogged flow, hidden terminal and partially overlapped region exhibits a challenging problem that needs to be mitigated for our mechanism to work properly. We take appropriate measures to make the flow-table stabilized under such scenarios. Results show that our mechanism achieves better throughput and fairness compared to IEEE 802.11 MAC and existing ones.

O O O O O O O O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O


Goals and goal orientation in decision support systems for ecosystem management We explore a goal-oriented as opposed to a problem-oriented approach to DSS development for ecosystem management. Ecosystem management ordinarily is guided by a set of goals that may conflict in various ways. Problems are perceived obstacles to realizing goals. Identifying and resolving conflicts between goals, testing current or projected situations for goal satisfaction, and problem identification all require a robust model of the goal structure for the intended domain. The lowest level of this goal structure must be represented as desirable future conditions consisting of proposed values for observable indicators. A model of the causal, legal, and other institutional relations between these desirable future conditions is also needed. Two projects based on a goal-oriented approach to DSS development are described. The first project has produced an initial prototype that incorporates goals for forest management in rules representing three tiers: management unit goals, stand-level goals, and desirable future conditions. The second, at an initial knowledge acquisition stage, is an attempt to develop a participatory decision-making methodology for socially and environmentally sensitive economic development in Central America.

B O O O O B I I O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I B I O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O B I O O O O O O O B O B O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

decision support systems
goals
ecosystem management
forest management
knowledge acquisition


Optimal beta(k)-stable interval in VPRS-based group decision-making: A further application This study extends the extant research on use of variable precision rough set (VPRS) for group decision-making (GDM), where the optimal beta(k)-stable interval is derived for the best group consensus. Firstly, we introduce the basic concepts a VPRS model encompasses, and the approach of VPRS-based GDM. Next, using a mathematical programming approach, we derive the optimal beta(k)-stable interval for DMk. Then. an application in petroleum project investment risk management, including risk-based project selection and risk ranking, is investigated. The results suggest that beta(k)-stable intervals have significant impacts on risk management. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O

group consensus
variable precision rough set
risk management

beta(k)-stable interval
petroleum investment


Knowledge-intensive collaborative decision support for design processes: A hybrid decision support model and agent This paper proposes a hybrid decision support model within a multi-agent framework to facilitate integration and collaboration for design decisions. The hybrid decision model integrates the compromise decision support problem technique (cDSP) and the fuzzy synthetic decision model (FSD) to quantitatively incorporate qualitative design knowledge and preferences of designers for multiple, conflicting attributes stored in a knowledge repository so that a better understanding of the consequences of design decisions can be achieved from a more comprehensive perspective. The focus of this work is on the provision of a hybrid decision model and framework for improved cooperative design decision support. The novelty of the work is in combination of different models or methods, algorithms for making collaborative design decisions in both objective and Subjective natures, in particular the fuzzy negotiation mechanism using the hybrid decision model. The developed hybrid decision model and framework are generic and flexible enough to be used in a variety of decision problems. Finally, the proposed hybrid decision model and framework are illustrated with applications in collaborative concept evaluation and selection in product family design for mass customization. Published by Elsevier B.V.

O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B B I O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O B B I O O B B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

decision-based design
autonomous decision agent
multi-agent framework


Measuring Privacy and Utility in Privacy-Preserving Visualization In previous work, we proposed a technique for preserving the privacy of quasi-identifiers in sensitive data when visualized using parallel coordinates. This paper builds on that work by introducing a number of metrics that can be used to assess both the level of privacy and the amount of utility that can be gained from the resulting visualizations. We also generalize our approach beyond parallel coordinates to scatter plots and other visualization techniques. Privacy preservation generally entails a trade-off between privacy and utility: the more the data are protected, the less useful the visualization. Using a visually-oriented approach, we can provide a higher amount of utility than directly applying data anonymization techniques used in data mining. To demonstrate this, we use the visual uncertainty framework for systematically defining metrics based on cluster artifacts and information theoretic principles. In a case study, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our technique as compared to standard data-based clustering in the context of privacy-preserving visualization.

O B O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O B O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B

privacy
metrics
visual uncertainty
visualization


On holomorphic solutions for nonlinear singular fractional differential equations The paper concerns with a nonlinear singular fractional differential equation:

fractional differential equation
nonlinear

fractional calculus
holomorphic solution
unit disk
riemannliouville operators


Architectural layer recovery for software system understanding and evolution This paper presents an approach to identify software layers for the understanding and evolution of software systems implemented with any object-oriented programming language. The approach first identifies relations between the classes of a software system and then uses a link analysis algorithm (i.e. the Kleinberg algorithm) to group them into layers. Additionally to assess the approach and the underlying techniques, the paper also presents a prototype of a supporting tool and the results from a case study. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

software understanding
architecture recovery
static analysis


Extraction of curvilinear features from noisy point patterns using principal curves A frequently encountered task in many recognition problems is the detection of multiple curvilinear features hidden in noisy spatial point patterns. This paper investigates the use of principal curves to fulfill this task. First a stochastic model is adopted for modeling the real curvilinear features, the background noise, and the relationships amongst them. In particular the real features are modeled by principal curves. Then the minimum description length principle is applied to determine simultaneously the number and the smoothness of such principal curves that are required to represent the real features. This is achieved via the use of autoregressive representation for principal curves. Practical performance of the proposed approach is demonstrated via numerical experiments.

O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I I O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O B I I I O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O

minimum description length principle
principal curves
spatial point patterns

autoregressive modeling
clustering
curvilinear feature extraction


A novel miniaturized feedback LC oscillator for UMTS-type applications crystalline polymer in 3D stacked liquid technology This article presents the design and implementation of a feedback LC oscillator in a novel multilayer laminate-type process technology that uses multiple layers of liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) substrate. The 1.8-GHz oscillator is designed using high-quality-factor (Q) lumped-element passives that are embedded in the LCP substrate. The oscillator was fabricated on a large area, high Q integrated process technology employing six metal layers with an overall height (thickness) of 0.7 mm. The microstrip-type oscillator utilizes silicon bipolar device technology and measures a phase noise of -117 dBc/Hz at 100-KHz offset. Including the output buffer, the fully packaged oscillator occupies an area of 5.3 X 4.8 mm(2) and, under steady state, the oscillator consumes 10 mW from a 2.7-V power supply. (C) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

voltage-controlled oscillator (vco)
liquid crystalline polymer (lcp)
colpitt's oscillator
3g
system-on-package (sop)


DESIGN OF A TESTCHIP FOR LOW COST IC TESTING With the continuous increase of the integration densities and complexities, the problem of testing integrated circuits has become much more acute and needs an economic solution with reliable performance. This paper presents the design of a TESTCHIP implementing a multiple polynomial, multiple seed based mixed-mode test technique. Fault simulation experiments on benchmark circuits show that the TESTCHIP is capable of detecting 100% of the faults using a much lower number of test vectors than in the approaches attempted by the other researchers. It also offers lower data storage requirements than that of conventional ATE. The TESTCHIP is capable of testing combinational circuits as well as sequential circuits with scan-path facilities.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O


Ferromagnetic materials excited by a distorted periodic field source The aim of the authors is to discuss the magnetic behaviour of the ferromagnetic materials used in industrial applications, when the cited harmonic distortion of the excitation is working. To show the characterisation of the hysteresis loops performed by these materials, various experimental tests have been executed measuring the hysteresis loops presented by a toroidal nucleus made of mumetal (e.g. that used for differential relay sensor).

B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O


Dividend Problem with Parisian Delay for a Spectrally Negative Lvy Risk Process In this paper, we consider dividend problem for an insurance company whose risk evolves as a spectrally negative Lvy process (in the absence of dividend payments) when a Parisian delay is applied. An objective function is given by the cumulative discounted dividends received until the moment of ruin, when a so-called barrier strategy is applied. Additionally, we consider two possibilities of a delay. Inthe first scenario, ruin happens when the surplus process stays below zero longer than a fixed amount of time. In the second case, there is a time lag between the decision of paying dividends and its implementation.

O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O


An elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm enhanced with a neural network applied to the multi-objective optimization of a polysiloxane synthesis process This paper presents an original software implementation of the elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) applied and adapted to the multi-objective optimization of a polysiloxane synthesis process. An optimized feed-forward neural network, modeling the variation in time of the main parameters of the process, was used to calculate the vectorial objective function of NSGA-II, as an enhancement to the multi-objective optimization procedure. An original technique was utilized in order to find the most appropriate parameters for maximizing the performance of NSGA-II. The algorithm provided the optimum reaction conditions (reaction temperature, reaction time, amount of catalyst, and amount of co-catalyst), which maximize the reaction conversion and minimize the difference between the obtained viscometric molecular weight and the desired molecular weight. The algorithm has proven to be able to find the entire non-dominated Pareto front and to quickly evolve optimal solutions as an acceptable compromise between objectives competing with each other. The use of the neural network makes it also suitable to the multi-objective optimization of processes for which the amount of knowledge is limited.

O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O


Electron-topological, energetic and pi-electron delocalization analysis of ketoenamine-enolimine tautomeric equilibrium The ketoenamine-enolimine tautometic equilibrium has been studied by the analysis of aromaticity and electron-topological parameters. The influence of substituents on the energy of the transition state and of the tautomeric forms has been investigated for different positions of chelate chain. The quantum theory of atoms in molecules method (QTAIM) has been applied to study changes in the electron-topological parameters of the molecule with respect to the tautomeric equilibrium in intramolecular hydrogen bond. Dependencies of the HOMA aromaticity index and electron density at the critical points defining aromaticity and electronic state of the chelate chain on the transition state (TS), OH and HN tautomeric forms have been obtained.

O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O B I I O O O B B O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

aromaticity
intramolecular hydrogen bond
qtaim
tautomeric equilibrium
homa


Algorithms for Data Migration The data migration problem is the problem of computing a plan for moving data objects stored on devices in a network from one configuration to another. Load balancing or changing usage patterns might necessitate such a rearrangement of data. In this paper, we consider the case where the objects are fixed-size and the network is complete. Our results are both theoretical and empirical. Our main theoretical results are (1) a polynomial time algorithm for finding a near-optimal migration plan in the presence of space constraints when a certain number of additional nodes is available as temporary storage, and (2) a 3/2-approximation algorithm for the case where data must be migrated directly to its destination. We also run extensive experiments on several algorithms for various data migration problems and show that empirically, many algorithms perform better in practice than their theoretical bounds suggest. We conclude that many of the algorithms we present are both practical and effective for data migration.

O O B I O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I

edge coloring
load-balancing
approximation algorithms


New Constructions of Frequency-Hopping Sequences from Power-Residue Sequences In this letter, we give a generalized construct ion for sets of frequency-hopping sequences (FHSs) based on power-residue sequences. Our construction encompasses a known optimal construction and can generate new optimal sets of FHSs which simultaneously achieve the Peng-Fan bound and the Lempel-Greenberger bound.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

direct sequence spread spectrum
frequency-hopping sequences
power-residue sequence
cyclotomic class


A digit-serial multiplier for finite field GF(2(m)) In this paper, an efficient digit-serial systolic array is proposed for multiplication in finite field GF(2(m)) using the standard basis representation. From the least significant bit first multiplication algorithm, we obtain a new dependence graph and design an efficient digit-serial systolic multiplier. If input data come in continuously, the proposed array can produce multiplication results at a rate of one every [m/L] clock cycles, where L is the selected digit size. Analysis shows that the computational delay time of the proposed architecture is significantly less than the previously proposed digit-serial systolic multiplier. Furthermore, since the new architecture has the features of regularity, modularity, and unidirectional data How, it is well suited to VLSI implementation.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O

digit-serial architecture
finite field multiplication


anatomy of an introductory computer science course An introductory computer science course is frequently the most difficult course in the curriculum to teach. Computer science educators must stay abreast of rapidly changing trends, text books, technology and teaching techniques. This paper provides an overview and perspective of introductory computer science courses, surveys some trends, and presents new alternative approaches regarding organization, foundations and material. It is based on the premise that the introductory course should create strong foundations upon which students can build, and that the curriculum should teach students to build software systems which people use and maintain, not just toy computer programs. The paper presents personal views and insights, motivates underlying concepts, and provides many useful suggestions which have been successfully employed in such introductory courses.

O O O O B I O O O B I O O O O O O O O O B O O B I O O O O O O O O B O O O B O O B O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O B O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O B B O O B O O O O O O O O B O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

computer science
organization
software
views
use
systems
text
teaching
material
paper
curriculum

education program technologies survey personality maintainability computation concept student


Anonymous Password-Authenticated Key Exchange: New Construction and Its Extensions An anonymous password-authenticated key exchange (anonymous PAKE) protocol is designed to provide both password-only authentication and user anonymity against a semi-honest server, who follows the protocol honestly. Very recently, Yang and Zhang [25] have proposed a new anonymous PAKE (NAPAKE) protocol that is claimed efficient compared to the previous constructions. In this paper, we propose a very-efficient anonymous PAKE (called, VEAP) protocol that provides the most efficiency among their kinds in terms of computation and communication costs. The VEAP protocol guarantees semantic security of session keys in the random oracle model under the chosen target CDH problem., and unconditional user anonymity against a semi-honest server. If the pre-computation is allowed, both the user and the server are required to compute only one modular exponentiation, respectively. Surprisingly, this is the same computation cost of the well-known Diffie-Hellman protocol that does not provide authentication at all. In addition, we extend the VEAP protocol in two ways: the first is designed to reduce the communication costs of the VEAP protocol and the second shows that stripping off anonymity parts from the VEAP protocol results in a new, PAKE protocol.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O

authenticated key exchange
passwords
on-line/off-line dictionary attacks
password-authenticated key exchange
provable security


A New Data Processing Inequality and Its Applications in Distributed Source and Channel Coding In the distributed coding of correlated sources, the problem of characterizing the joint probability distribution of a pair of random variables satisfying an n-letter Markov chain arises. The exact solution of this problem is intractable. In this paper, we seek a single-letter necessary condition for this n-letter Markov chain. To this end, we propose a new data processing inequality on a new measure of correlation through a spectral method. Based on this new data processing inequality, we provide a single-letter necessary condition for the required joint probability distribution. We apply our results to two specific examples involving the distributed coding of correlated sources: multiple-access channel with correlated sources and multiterminal rate-distortion region, and propose new necessary conditions for these two problems.

O O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O

correlated sources
data processing inequality

multiterminal rate-distortion region
multiple-access channel


Obligations of trust for privacy and confidentiality in distributed transactions Purpose - This paper aims to describe a bilateral symmetric approach to authorization, privacy protection and obligation enforcement in distributed transactions. The authors introduce the concept of the obligation Of trust (OoT) protocol as a privacy assurance and authorization mechanism that is built upon the XACML standard. The OoT allows two communicating pal-ties to dynamically exchange their privacy and authorization requirements and capabilities, which the authors term a notification of obligation (NoB), as well as their commitments to fulfilling each other's requirements, which the authors term signed acceptance of obligations (SAO). The authors seek to describe some applicability of these concepts and to show how they can be integrated into distributed authorization systems for stricter privacy and confidentiality control. Design/methodology/approach - Existing access control and privacy protection systems are typically unilateral and provider-centric, in that the enterprise service provider assigns the access rights, makes the access control decisions, and determines the privacy policy. There is no negotiation between the client and the service provider about which access control or privacy policy to use. The authors adopt a symmetric, more user-centric approach to privacy protection and authorization, which treats the client and service provider as peers, in which both can stipulate their requirements and capabilities, and hence negotiate terms which are equally acceptable to both parties. Findings - The authors demonstrate how the obligation of trust protocol can be used in a number of different scenarios to improve upon the mechanisms that are currently available today. Practical implications - This approach will serve to increase trust in distributed transactions since each communicating party receives a difficult to repudiate digitally signed acceptance of obligations, in a standard language (XACML), which can be automatically enforced by their respective computing machinery. Originality/value - The paper adds to current research in trust negotiation, privacy protection and authorization by combining all three together into one set of standardized protocols. Furthermore, by providing hard to repudiate signed acceptance of obligations messages, this strengthens the legal case of the injured party should a dispute arise.

O O B O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

distributed parameter control systems
data security


The GV-LEx corpus of tales in French A corpus of French tales is presented. Its two parts, a text corpus and a speech corpus, were designed for studying the relationships between the textual structures of tales and speech prosody, with the targeted application of an expressive text-to-speech synthesis system embedded in a humanoid robot. The 89-tale text corpus, and the 12-tale speech corpus were annotated using a common tale description framework. Lexical level annotations include extended definitions of enumerations, time, place and person named entities, as well as part of speech tags. Supra-lexical level annotations include the segmentation of tales into a sequence of episodes, the localization and attribution of direct quotations, together with tale protagonists co-references. Annotation distributions and inter-annotator agreement were analyzed. The largest coverage and strongest agreement were observed for person named entities, characters direct quotations, and their associated coreference chains. Speech corpus annotations were extended to allow the analysis of the relations between tale linguistic information and prosodic properties observed in associated speech. Word and phoneme boundaries were inferred through semi-automatic procedures, resulting in linguistic annotations aligned with the speech signal. Intonation stylization models were used to ease the visual and statistical analysis of tales prosody. Additional meta-information is provided with the speech corpus, allowing describing tale characters according to their gender, age, size, valence and kind. The corpora described in this article are publicly available through the European Language Resources Association catalog.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

direct quotations
prosody
intonation stylization

fairy tale corpus
annotation scheme
inter-annotator agreement
text-to-speech
expressivity


Linear wireless sensor networks: Classification and applications Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) constitute a rapidly growing technology, taking advantage of advances in electronic miniaturization that consume less energy for both processing and communication. The cost of these devices is also constantly decreasing, making it possible to use a large number of sensor devices in a wide array of commercial, environmental, military, and health care fields. Many of these applications involve placing the sensors in a linear form, making a special class of these networks which we define as a Linear Sensor Network (LSN). In this paper, the concept of LSNs is expanded, along with a set of applications for which this type of network is appropriate. In addition, motivation for designing specialized protocol is provided that explores linearity of the network to increase the communication efficiency, reliability, fault tolerance, energy savings and network lifetime. Furthermore, classification of LSNs from both topological and hierarchical points of views, is presented and various characteristics, research challenges and underlying opportunities are discussed. Simulation experiments are also presented to compare the performance and reliability of LSNs. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

ad hoc and sensor networks
applications of linear sensor networks
networking frameworks
routing


An Analysis of Visual Adaptation and Contrast Perception for Tone Mapping Tone Mapping is the problem of compressing the range of a High-Dynamic Range image so that it can be displayed in a Low-Dynamic Range screen, without losing or introducing novel details: The final image should produce in the observer a sensation as close as possible to the perception produced by the real-world scene. We propose a tone mapping operator with two stages. The first stage is a global method that implements visual adaptation, based on experiments on human perception, in particular we point out the importance of cone saturation. The second stage performs local contrast enhancement, based on a variational model inspired by color vision phenomenology. We evaluate this method with a metric validated by psychophysical experiments and, in terms of this metric, our method compares very well with the state of the art.

O O O O O O O O O B I B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

high-dynamic range images
naka-rushton equation
weber-fechner contrast


Managing critical success strategies for an enterprise resource planning project A model for evaluating critical success strategies of an ERP project with three-level objectives. Three optimization models for setting the optimal management priority for implementing CSSs. Objectives-oriented management of CSSs by integrating individual departments preferences. A management matrix as a strategic map for effective management of CSSs. An empirical study with managerial insights and implications.

O B I I O O B I I I O O O O B I I O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

enterprise resource planning project
critical success strategies
optimization

objective hierarchy
multiattribute decision making
prioritization


Transfinite surface interpolation over irregular n-sided domains Transfinite surface interpolation is a classic topic of computer-aided geometric design (CAGD), and many non-quadrilateral schemes are known. Surfaces defined solely by means of their boundary curves and cross-tangent functions are needed, for example, in three-dimensional curve network-based design, and to fill complex irregular holes such as in vertex blending. This paper deals with interpolating so-called tangential ribbons. Former schemes are enhanced and extended in order to minimize shape artifacts and to provide a more natural patch interior. The proposed representation is based on irregular convex domains that correspond to the lengths and orientations of the boundary curves. The mapping of the individual ribbons within the n-sided domain is calculated by focused parameterization methods that ensure a balanced orientation related to the center of the domain and avoid parametric shearing. Distance-based blending functions ensure that modifying or inserting a small edge will have only a local effect over the n-sided patch. Constructions to create one-sided or two-sided patches are also presented. Examples and open research topics conclude the paper. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

B I I O O O O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

transfinite surface interpolation
blending functions

curves and surfaces
computer-aided design
n-sided patches


MONITORING THE TOPOLOGY OF GROWING DYNAMICAL NETWORKS In this paper, topology monitoring of growing networks is studied. When some new nodes are added into a network, the topology of the network is changed, which needs to be monitored in many applications. Some auxiliary systems (network monitors) are designed to achieve this goal. Both linear feedback control and adaptive strategy are applied to designing such network monitors. Based on the Lyapunov function method via constructing a potential or energy function decreasing along any solution of the system, and the LaSalle's invariance principle, which is a generalization of the Lyapunov function method, some sufficient conditions for achieving topology monitoring are obtained. Illustrative examples are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the new method.

O O B O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O


A unified view on clustering binary data Clustering is the problem of identifying the distribution of patterns and intrinsic correlations in large data sets by partitioning the data points into similarity classes. This paper studies the problem of clustering binary data. Binary data have been occupying a special place in the domain of data analysis. A unified view of binary data clustering is presented by examining the connections among various clustering criteria. Experimental studies are conducted to empirically verify the relationships.

O B I O B B I B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B B I B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O B I B O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O


Simulation of nasal flow by lattice Boltzmann methods The lattice Boltzmann method is used to calculate the incompressible, viscous flow of air through a model of a nasal cavity, used in experiments. Computations are performed for steady flows at the inspiration and expiration phase of nose breathing. Computed pressure distributions and friction coefficients compare well with Navier-Stokes solutions from a finite-volume method on structured, curvilinear grids. The comparison with conventional Navier-Stokes solvers shows several advantages of the lattice Boltzmann method in particular for bio-medical flow problems. These are the fast grid generation, the simple, granular algorithm, suited for efficient parallelization and the high flexibility for implementing complex boundary conditions and additional transport equations. Lattice Boltzmann methods are therefore efficient candidates for fast flow predictions in the frame of computer-aided rhino-surgery. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

O O O O O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

nasal cavity
lattice boltzmann methods
parallelization
pressure distributions

nasal flow simulation
computer-aided rhino-surgery
cartesian-like grids
grid refinement
comparisons with finite-volume method
pressure losses


Passivity Analysis of Delayed Neural Networks with Discontinuous Activations In this paper, we investigate the passivity problem of delayed neural networks, where the activation functions are discontinuous. Based on differential inclusion theory, sufficient conditions for this problem are obtained by means of generalized Lyapunov approach. The theoretical results can be checked by solving some linear matrix inequalities. The results extend previous researches on the passivity of delayed neural networks.

B O O O B I O O O O O O O O O B O O O B I O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O B I

passivity
differential inclusion
neural networks


Estimating means when sampling gives probabilities as well as values or "Looking a gift horse in the mouth" Consider the random sampling of a discrete population. The observations, as they are collected one by one, are enhanced in that the probability mass associated with each observation is also observed. The goal is to estimate the population mean. Without this extra information about probability mass, the best general purpose estimator is the arithmetic average of the observations, XBAR. The issue is whether or not the extra information can be used to improve on XBAR. This paper examines the issues and offers four new estimators, each with its own strengths and liabilities. Some comparative performances of the four with XBAR are made. The motivating application is a Monte Carlo simulation that proceeds in two stages. The first stage independently samples n characteristics to obtain a "configuration" of some kind, together with a configuration probability p obtained, if desired, as a product of n individual probabilities. A relatively expensive calculation then determines an output X as a function of the configuration. A random sample of X could simply be averaged to estimate the mean output, but there are possibly more efficient estimators on account of the known configuration probabilities.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O


Tracking in 3D: Image variability decomposition for recovering object pose and illumination As an object moves through space, it changes its orientation relative to the viewing camera and relative to light sources which illuminate it. As a consequence, the images of the object produced by the viewing camera may change dramatically. Thus, to successfully track a moving object, image changes due to varying pose and illumination must be accounted for. In this paper, we develop a method for object tracking that can not only accommodate large changes in object pose and illumination, but can recover these parameters as well. To do this, we separately model the image variation of the object. produced by changes in pose and illumination. To track the object through each image in the sequences, we then locally search the models to find the best match, recovering the object's orientation and illumination in the process. Throughout, we present experimental results, achieved in real-time, demonstrating the effectiveness of our methods.

B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

pose estimation
illumination modelling
image sequence analysis


self-stabilizing byzantine agreement Byzantine agreement algorithms typically assume implicit initial state consistency and synchronization among the correct nodes and then operate in coordinated rounds of information exchange to reach agreement based on the input values. The implicit initial assumptions enable correct nodes to infer about the progression of the algorithm at other nodes from their local state. This paper considers a more severe fault model than permanent Byzantine failures, one in which the system can in addition be subject to severe transient failures that can temporarily throw the system out of its assumption boundaries. When the system eventually returns to behave according to the presumed assumptions it may be in an arbitrary state in which any synchronization among the nodes might be lost, and each node may be at an arbitrary state. We present a self-stabilizing Byzantine agreement algorithm that reaches agreement among the correct nodes in optimal time, by using only the assumption of bounded message transmission delay. In the process of solving the problem, two additional important and challenging building blocks were developed: a unique self-stabilizing protocol for assigning consistent relative times to protocol initialization and a Reliable Broadcast primitive that progresses at the speed of actual message delivery time.

O B I B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O

byzantine agreement
reliable broadcast
transient failures

self-stabilization
byzantine faults
pulse synchronization


Approximating minimum-power edge-covers and 2,3 2 , 3 -connectivity ? Given a graph with edge costs, the power of a node is the maximum cost of an edge leaving it, and the power of a graph is the sum of the powers of its nodes. Motivated by applications in wireless networks, we consider several fundamental undirected network design problems under the power minimization criteria. The Minimum-Power Edge-Cover (MPEC) problem is: given a graph G=(V,E) G = ( V , E ) with edge costs {c(e):e?E} { c ( e ) : e ? E } and a subset S?V S ? V of nodes, find a minimum-power subgraph H H of G G containing an edge incident to every node in S S . We give a 3/2-approximation algorithm for MPEC, improving over the 2-approximation by [M.T. Hajiaghayi, G. Kortsarz, V.S. Mirrokni, Z. Nutov, Power optimization for connectivity problems, Mathematical Programming 110 (1) (2007) 195208]. For the Min-Powerk k -Connected Subgraph ( MP k CS ) problem we obtain the following results. For k=2 k = 2 and k=3 k = 3 , we improve the previously best known ratios of 4 [G. Calinescu, P.J. Wan, Range assignment for biconnectivity and k k -edge connectivity in wireless ad hoc networks, Mobile Networks and Applications 11 (2) (2006) 121128] and 7 [M.T. Hajiaghayi, G. Kortsarz, V.S. Mirrokni, Z. Nutov, Power optimization for connectivity problems, Mathematical Programming 110 (1) (2007) 195208] to 3 2 3 and 5 2 3 , respectively. Finally, we give a 4rmax 4 r max -approximation algorithm for the Minimum-Power Steiner Network (MPSN) problem: find a minimum-power subgraph that contains r(u,v) r ( u , v ) pairwise edge-disjoint paths for every pair u,v u , v of nodes.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

approximation algorithms
minimum power
edge-cover
node-connectivity


Classification of lightning stroke on transmission line using multi-resolution analysis and machine learning Classification of lightning stroke with and without fault is presented. Multi-resolution analysis and machine learning are used. The most important parameters of lightning are considered. Comparative evaluation using five mother wavelets is presented. Multi-resolution analysis is recommended.

O O B I O O O O O O O B I O O B I O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

multi-resolution analysis
decomposition level
flashover
back-flashover


A comparison between the Grbner bases approach and hidden projection properties in factorial designs Screening designs are useful for situations where a large number of factors (q) ( q ) are examined but only few (k) ( k ) of these are expected to be important. PlackettBurman designs have traditionally been studied for this purpose. Since these designs are only main effects plans and since the number of runs are greater than the number of active factors (main effects), there are plenty of degrees of freedom unused for identifying and estimating interactions of factors. Computational Algebraic Geometry can be used to solve identifiability problems in design of experiments in Statistics. The theory of Grbner bases allows one to identify the whole set of estimable effects (main or interactions) of the factors of the design. On the other hand, the hidden projection property approach, that deals with the same identification problem, provides a measure of how efficient the identification of effects is. The advantages and disadvantages of both methods are discussed with application to a certain two level (fractional) factorial designs that arise from PlackettBurman designs.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O


Dynamic Synthesis for Relaxed Memory Models Modern architectures implement relaxed memory models which may reorder memory operations or execute them non-atomically. Special instructions called memory fences are provided, allowing control of this behavior. To implement a concurrent algorithm for a modern architecture, the programmer is forced to manually reason about subtle relaxed behaviors and figure out ways to control these behaviors by adding fences to the program. Not only is this process time consuming and error-prone, but it has to be repeated every time the implementation is ported to a different architecture. In this paper, we present the first scalable framework for handling real-world concurrent algorithms running on relaxed architectures. Given a concurrent C program, a safety specification, and a description of the memory model, our framework tests the program on the memory model to expose violations of the specification, and synthesizes a set of necessary ordering constraints that prevent these violations. The ordering constraints are then realized as additional fences in the program. We implemented our approach in a tool called DFENCE based on LLVM and used it to infer fences in a number of concurrent algorithms. Using DFENCE, we perform the first in-depth study of the interaction between fences in real-world concurrent C programs, correctness criteria such as sequential consistency and linearizability, and memory models such as TSO and PSO, yielding many interesting observations. We believe that this is the first tool that can handle programs at the scale and complexity of a lock-free memory allocator.

O B O B I I O O O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

synthesis
relaxed memory models
algorithms

concurrency
weak memory models
verification


Library design using BCUT chemistry-space descriptors and multiple four-point pharmacophore fingerprints: simultaneous optimization and structure-based diversity1 New applications of fingerprints of multiple potential 4-point three-dimensional (3D) pharmacophores in combinatorial library design and virtual screening are presented. Preliminary results demonstrating the feasibility of a simulated annealing process for combinatorial reagent selection that concurrently optimizes product diversity in BCUT chemistry space and in terms of unique 4-point pharmacophores are discussed, and the advantage of using a customized chemistry-space derived for the library design is demonstrated. In addition, an extension to the multiple pharmacophore method for structure-based design that uses the shape of the target site as an additional constraint is presented. This development enables the docking process to be quantified in terms of the number and identities of the pharmacophoric hypotheses that can be matched by a compound or a library of compounds. The design of an example combinatorial library based on the Ugi condensation reaction and a serine protease active site is described.

B I O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

pharmacophore fingerprints
library design

bcut descriptors
structure-based diversity
simulated annealing optimization
protein-site fingerprints
chem-x
dir


Initial-interval driven biasing of nodal concentration along a fixed curve Element size transitioning in the construction of spatial meshes for finite element models is often controlled by biasing the concentration of nodes, towards one end or the other, along each of a set of curves in the model. A simple, common and efficient scheme to implement such nodal concentration biasing along a given curve is to require that the nodal spacings ?i be (sequence) terms bi?0 of a geometric series. Current practice takes the parameter value b, or its equivalent, as an independent input, so that the initial nodal spacing ?0 must be a computed output. This is the most straightforward approach, but the lack of direct control over the value ?0 is a significant shortcoming. In an element size transitioning scenario, ?0 is often a parameter for which the model builder/analyst has independent quantitative information. It may represent the a priori known thickness of a thin bond or weld, for example. A more rational choice for these cases, proposed by this paper, is a scheme for which ?0 is an independent input parameter instead of b. The parameter b is computed by a convergence-guaranteed algorithm for which the existence of b as a single-valued function of its input is proven.

O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

finite elements
mesh transitioning
node filling


Truthful Mechanisms for Selfish Routing and Two-Parameter Agents We prove a general monotonicity result about Nash flows in directed networks, which generalizes earlier results and can be used for the design of truthful mechanisms in the setting where each edge of the network is controlled by a different selfish agent, who incurs costs when her edge is used. Moreover, we consider a general mechanism design setting with two-parameter agents, which generalizes the well-known setting of one-parameter agents in two directions by allowing nonlinear cost functions and a fixed cost component as part of each agent's private data. We give complete characterizations of the sets of output functions that can be turned into truthful mechanisms for two-parameter agents in the case that an agent always incurs her fixed costs and in the case that she only incurs her fixed costs when she is assigned a positive amount of work. Moreover, we give explicit formulas for the payment functions in both cases and show that the truthful payments are uniquely determined by the output function up to a constant as in the one-parameter setting.

O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O


The design of RFID access control protocol using the strategy of indefinite-index and challenge-response This paper proposes a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) access control scheme, which includes not only an authentication mechanism, but also an access right authorization mechanism designed for a low-cost RFID system. The scheme guarantees mutual authentication and location privacy and also resists the man-in-the-middle attack, the spoofed reader attack, and the spoofed tag attack. Our scheme is more suitable for meeting future RFID system demands. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

O O O B B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B B I O O O O O O B O O O O O O B O O O O O B O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O

rfid
access control
authentication
authorization


Synthesis of Sm3+ and Dy3+ doped LaBWO6 for evaluation as potential materials in luminescent display applications Sm3+ and Dy3+ doped LaBWO6 could emit intense orange and white light, respectively. Concentration dependence of Sm3+ and Dy3+ luminescence was investigated in detail. Critical distance and mechanism of the energy transfer were experimentally ascertained.

O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O


Theory of integer-valued data envelopment analysis Conventional data envelopment analysis (DEA) models assume real-valued inputs and outputs. In many occasions, some inputs and/or outputs can only take integer values. In some cases, rounding the DEA solution to the nearest whole number can lead to misleading efficiency assessments and performance targets. This paper develops the axiomatic foundation for DEA in the case of integer-valued data, introducing new axioms of natural disposability and natural divisibility. We derive a DEA production possibility set that satisfies the minimum extrapolation principle under our refined set of axioms. We also present a mixed integer linear programming formula for computing efficiency scores. An empirical application to Iranian university departments illustrates the approach.

O O O B I I O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I I I O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O

data envelopment analysis
efficiency
mixed integer linear programming


Modeling and simulation of cardiac tissue using hybrid I/O automata We propose a new biological framework based on the Lynch et al. theory of Hybrid I/O Automata (HIOAs) for modeling and simulating excitable tissue. Within this framework, we view an excitable tissue as a composition of two main kinds of component: a diffusion medium and a collection of cells, both modeled as an HIOA. This approach yields a notion of decomposition that allows us to describe a tissue as the parallel composition of several interacting tissues, a property that could be exploited to parallelize, and hence improve, the efficiency of the simulation process. We also demonstrate the feasibility of our HIOA-based framework to capture and mimic different kinds of wave-propagation behavior in 2D isotropic cardiac tissue, including normal wave propagation along the tissue: the creation of spiral waves: the break-up of spiral waves into more complex patterns such as fibrillation; and the recovery of the tissue to the rest via electrical defibrillation. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

computational systems biology
hybrid automata
formal analysis


Linear-Time Algorithms for Tree Root Problems Let T be a tree on a set V of nodes. The p-th power T p of T is the graph on V such that any two nodes u and w of V are adjacent in T p if and only if the distance of u and w in T is at mostp. Given an n-node m-edge graph G and a positive integerp, the p-th tree root problem asks for a tree T, if any, such that G=T p . Given an n-node m-edge graphG, the tree root problem asks for a positive integer p and a treeT, if any, such that G=T p . Kearney and Corneil gave the best previously known algorithms for both problems. Their algorithm for the former (respectively, latter) problem runs in O(n 3) (respectively, O(n 4)) time. In this paper, we give O(n+m)-time algorithms for both problems.

O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

graph power
graph root
tree power
chordal graph
maximal clique
minimal node separator


Three-Dimensional Proxies for Hand-Drawn Characters Drawing shapes by hand and manipulating computer-generated objects are the two dominant forms of animation. Though each medium has its own advantages, the techniques developed for one medium are not easily leveraged in the other medium because hand animation is two-dimensional, and inferring the third dimension is mathematically ambiguous. A second challenge is that the character is a consistent three-dimensional (3D) object in computer animation while hand animators introduce geometric inconsistencies in the two-dimensional (2D) shapes to better convey a character's emotional state and personality. In this work, we identify 3D proxies to connect hand-drawn animation and 3D computer animation. We present an integrated approach to generate three levels of 3D proxies: single-points, polygonal shapes, and a full joint hierarchy. We demonstrate how this approach enables one medium to take advantage of techniques developed for the other; for example, 3D physical simulation is used to create clothes for a hand-animated character, and a traditionally trained animator is able to influence the performance of a 3D character while drawing with paper and pencil.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O


An efficient single-pass trace compression technique utilizing instruction streams Trace-driven simulations have been widely used in computer architecture for quantitative evaluations of new ideas and design prototypes. Efficient trace compression and fast decompression are crucial for contemporary workloads, as representative benchmarks grow in size and number. This article presents Stream-Based Compression (SBC), a novel technique for single-pass compression of address traces. The SBC technique compresses both instruction and data addresses by associating them with a particular instruction stream, that is, a block of consecutively executing instructions. The compressed instruction trace is a trace of instruction stream identifiers. The compressed data address trace encompasses the data address stride and the number of repetitions for each memory-referencing instruction in a stream, ordered by the corresponding stream appearances in the trace. SBC reduces the size of SPEC CPU2000 Dinero instruction and data address traces from 18 to 309 times, outperforming the best trace compression techniques presented in the open literature. SBC can be successfully combined with general-purpose compression techniques. The combined SBC-gzip compression ratio is from 80 to 35,595, and the SBC-bzip2 compression ratio is from 75 to 191,257. Moreover, SBC outperforms other trace compression techniques when both decompression time and compression time are considered. This article also shows how the SBC algorithm can be modified for hardware implementation with very modest resources and only a minor loss in compression ratio.

O O O B I O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O


Fat neural network for recognition of position-normalised objects The design of a recognition system for natural objects is difficult, mainly because such objects are subject to a strong variability that cannot be easily modelled: planktonic species possess such highly variable forms. Existing plankton recognition systems usually comprise feature extraction processing upstream of a classifier. Drawbacks of such an approach are that the design of relevant feature extraction processes may be very difficult, especially if classes are numerous and if intra-class variability is high, so that the system becomes specific to the problem for which features have been tuned. The opposite course that we take is based on a structured multi-layer neural network with no shared weights, which generates its own features during training. Such a large parameterisedfatnetwork exhibits good generalisation capabilities for pattern recognition problems dealing with position-normalised objects, even with as many as one thousand weights as training examples. The advantage of such large networks, in terms of generalisation efficiency, adaptability and classification time, is demonstrated by applying the network to three plankton recognition and face recognition problems. Its ability to perform good generalisation with few training examples, but many weights, is an open theoretical problem.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

pattern recognition
plankton
face recognition


adaptive data rate control for throughput improvement and energy efficiency in low rate wpan Energy Efficiency is one of the key issues in Low Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks (LR-WPANs). So far, many research papers have been published on the subject of energy efficiency. However, the throughput in LR-WPAN hasn't been extensively investigated. Therefore, in this paper, we focus on improving the throughput and energy efficiency. LR-WPAN is designed for short range wireless communication based on low power consumption and low cost. In this type of network, the communication capacity may be limited by the low HW specifications such as the small memory size (e.g. network interface buffer) and low processing capacity. In this study, we focus on the former limitation. In this situation, congestion occurs at the Cluster Head (CH) or coordinator owing to its small memory size, which may lead to packet dropping and a reduction of the overall performance. Therefore, we approached this problem from the viewpoint of improving the throughput. Network Devices should consider the congestion situation at the sensor nodes and adopt adaptive data rate control to avoid this situation. The improvement in the throughput and energy efficiency afforded by the adaptive data rate control scheme that is proposed in this paper is confirmed by the network simulation results.

O B I O O B O O B O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O B O B O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O


Color-based image retrieval using spatial-chromatic histograms The paper describes a new indexing methodology for image databases integrating color and spatial information for content-based image retrieval. This methodology, called Spatial-Chromatic Histogram (SCH), synthesizing in few values information about the location of pixels having the same color and their arrangement within the image, can be more satisfactory than standard techniques when the user would like to retrieve from the database the images that actually resemble the query image selected in their color distribution characteristics. Experimental trials on a database of about 3000 images are reported and compared with more standard techniques, like Color Coherence Vectors, on the basis of human perceptual judgments.

O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

image indexing
color quantization
query processing
spatial-chromatic histogram


Sparse ensembles using weighted combination methods based on linear programming An ensemble of multiple classifiers is widely considered to be an effective technique for improving accuracy and stability of a single classifier. This paper proposes a framework of sparse ensembles and deals with new linear weighted combination methods for sparse ensembles. Sparse ensemble is to sparsely combine the outputs of multiple classifiers by using a sparse weight vector. When the continuous outputs of multiple classifiers are provided in our methods, the problem of solving sparse weight vector can be formulated as linear programming problems in which the hinge loss or/and the 1-norm regularization are exploited. Both the hinge loss and the 1-norm regularization are techniques inducing sparsity used in machine learning. We only ensemble classifiers with nonzero weight coefficients. In these LP-based methods, the ensemble training error is minimized while the weight vector of ensemble learning is controlled, which can be thought as implementing the structure risk minimization rule and naturally explains good performance of these methods. The promising experimental results over UCI data sets and the radar high-resolution range profile data are presented.

B I O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O B I I O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

linear weighted combination
linear programming
sparse ensembles