A performance and energy optimization mechanism for cooperation-oriented multiple server clusters To ease the management of data centers, system administrators prefer dedicating one cluster system to serve a certain type of application workload and keeping clusters isolated from one another. However, this approach often results in vulnerable quality of service (QoS), low resource utilization, and incurs high energy costs. In this study, we build a mathematical model to characterize the service process of multi-cluster systems, and compare the isolated versus cooperating usage of multi-cluster alliance based on a thorough analysis of the model. Our study shows that the cooperating approach significantly prevails over the isolated approach for both QoS and energy savings. Consequently, we design a cooperating alliance forming algorithm to automate the cooperation process, and propose a new job scheduling algorithm and resource allocation policies to achieve an efficient and fair cooperation in the cluster alliance. We conduct simulations, and the results prove the accuracy of the model, and show that the proposed algorithm and policies significantly improve both performance and energy savings.

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


Characteristic Generators and Dualization for Tail-Biting Trellises This paper focuses on dualizing tail-biting trellises, particularly KV trellises. These trellises are based on characteristic generators, as introduced by Koetter-Vardy (2003), and may be regarded as a natural generalization of minimal conventional trellises, even though they are not necessarily minimal. Two dualization techniques will be investigated: the local dualization, introduced by Forney (2001) for general normal graphs, and a linear-algebra-based dualization tailored to the specific class of tail-biting Bahl-Cocke-Jelinek-Raviv (BCJR) trellises, introduced by Nori-Shankar (2006). It turns out that, in general, the BCJR dual is a subtrellis of the local dual, while for KV trellises these two coincide. Furthermore, making use of both the BCJR construction and the local dualization, it will be shown that for each complete set of characteristic generators of a code there exists a complete set of characteristic generators of the dual code such that their resulting KV trellises are dual to each other if paired suitably. This proves a stronger version of a conjecture formulated by Koetter-Vardy.

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

characteristic generators
dualization
kv trellises

linear block codes
tail-biting bcjr trellises
tail-biting trellises


Coherence and localization in AC-driven quantum dots We investigate the effects of an AC field on the dynamics of interacting electrons in quantum dots (QDs). We first consider a double QD containing two electrons. By mapping the system to an effective lattice model and employing Floquet theory we analyze the dynamics of the two-electron wavefunctions in the singlet space. This system presents a richer phenomenology than the case of a single electron in a double QD, displaying two distinct regimes of behaviour depending on whether the applied field strength or the inter-electron Coulomb repulsion is dominant. We then study the dynamics of two electrons in a 2D square QD in the limit of very low density, where the Coulomb interaction causes the electrons to become highly localized, forming a Wigner molecule. Using the same techniques we investigate how the AC field drives the dynamics of the Wigner states, and show how the parameters of the effective model may be measured in experiment.

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


Representing organizational memory for computer-aided utilization Organizational memory (OM) is the means by which knowledge from the past is brought to bear on present activities. For effective use of OM, it must be represented in a machine-understandable form, so that man, machine, and OM can work in concert to perform business activities such as problem solving, decision making, workflow management, and organizational learning. To this end, we have developed a knowledge representation scheme that uses a trio of logic, ontology, and computation as knowledge representation constructs, Topic Maps in XML syntax (XTM) and related software tools as the representation technology, and three distinct but closely related ontologies (information, enterprise, and domain ontology) as the operationalized knowledge objects. Based on this knowledge representation scheme, we propose an OM architecture along with a feasible and practical methodology for representing OM to facilitate computer-aided utilization. The methodology has been applied to a laboratory experiment for a provider of knowledge-intensive services dubbed 'Taiwan's Dun & Bradstreet.' A field interview indicates that top management endorses the OM architecture and developers confirm the feasibility of the methodology.

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

organizational memory
knowledge representation
topic maps
ontology


Tweens' characterization of digital technologies The tweens are a transitional age group undergoing deep physical and psychological transformations. Based on a thirteen-focus group research design involving 103 students, and applying a tweens-centered approach, the characteristics of SMS, IM, Internet, digital photos, electronic games, and email were analyzed. Categories such as moral issues, psychological and social consequences, problems/drawbacks, general benefits, and technical attributes synthesized the main characteristics attached to each form of digital technology. Their relative relevance was not gender dependent. Furthermore, tweens exhibited both metacognitive knowledge and personal epistemological observations associated with most of the digital technologies. (C) 2012 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

media in education
self-evaluation
gender studies
interactive learning environments


Combined scheduling and capacity planning of electricity-based ammonia production to integrate renewable energies Scheduling and capacity planning of an innovative, flexible ammonia process. Physical and chemical characteristics require non-linear modeling. We use convex non-linear programming to combine scheduling and capacity planning. We demonstrate the working principle using hourly market electricity prices.

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

or in energy
non-linear programming
heuristics
hydrogen storage


An adaptive prediction-regret driven strategy for one-shot bilateral bargaining software agents Presents an adaptive negotiation strategy for bilateral one-shot price bargaining. This strategy extends the heuristic method by the regret principle in psychology. It outperforms existing adaptive strategy and the strategies that model opponents.

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

bargaining strategy
prediction
experimental analysis


Integer-based accurate conversion between RGB and HSV color spaces ? Conversion algorithm between 24-bit RGB and integer HSV is proposed. The algorithm is as accurate as the classical real-valued one. Performance measurement results show a speed gain of about two times. The resulting HSV color can be packed into 48 bits. Floating-point variables and Lookup tables are not used.

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

integer algorithm
color space conversion


impact of wind-induced fading on the capacity of point-to-multipoint fixed wireless access systems The tendency for wind blowing through foliage and related environmental disturbances to cause fading events on nonline-of-sight fixed and stationary wireless channels has been well studied in recent years. However, the implications of such fading for the performance of point-to-multipoint wireless communications systems has apparently not been considered previously. Here, we present preliminary measurement data from a suburban macrocell environment which shows that: (1)fixed wireless links tend to exhibit highly variable behaviour over time with periods of calm interleaved with well-defined fading events lasting tens of minutes to hours; (2)some links are more fragile than others and exhibit a greater range of fading behaviour; and (3)fading events on different links within the same cell tend to be correlated with each other. While advanced signal schemes such as MIMO technology can often mitigate such fading, many practical systems continue to employ conventional technology and are susceptible. We show how such fading could degrade the capacity of such systems and the throughput and delay experienced by users.

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

wind-induced fading
fixed broadband wireless access
system capacity
ieee 802.16


Semi-analytical solutions of a contaminant transport equation with nonlinear sorption in 1D A new method to determine semi-analytical solutions of one-dimensional contaminant transport problem with nonlinear sorption is described. This method is based on operator splitting approach where the convective transport is solved exactly and the diffusive transport by finite volume method. The exact solutions for all sorption isotherms of Freundlich and Langmuir type are presented for the case of piecewise constant initial profile and zero diffusion. Very precise numerical results for transport with small diffusion can be obtained even for larger time steps (e.g., when the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) condition failed).

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

contaminant transport
finite volume method
nonlinear sorption


Evolutionary stratified training set selection for extracting classification rules with trade off precision-interpretability ? The generation of predictive models is a frequent task in data mining with the objective of generating highly precise and interpretable models. The data reduction is an interesting preprocessing approach that can allow us to obtain predictive models with these characteristics in large size data sets. In this paper, we analyze the rule classification model based on decision trees using a training selected set via evolutionary stratified instance selection. This method faces the scaling problem that appears in the evaluation of large size data sets, and the trade off interpretability-precision of the generated models.

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 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

training set selection
rule classification
decision trees

interpretability
precision
evolutionary algorithms


Exposure fusion based on sparse representation using approximate K-SVD In this paper, we propose a novel exposure fusion scheme using the sparse representation theory, which can explore the sparseness of the source images. First, we present a novel way to get the chrominance information of the scene, and the saturation of the fused image can be adjusted using one user-controlled parameter. Second, we conduct the sparse representation on overlapping patches of luminance images obtained by sliding window technique, which use dictionary obtained by K-SVD with typical indoor and outdoor multiple exposure sequences. In addition, we introduce an efficient implementation of K-SVD (called approximate K-SVD) which can reduce complexity as well as memory requirements. Third, the coefficients are combined with a novel frequency of atoms usage fusion rule strategy. Finally, the fused image is reconstructed from the combined sparse coefficients and the used dictionary. Experiments show that the proposed method can give comparative results compared to state-of-art exposure fusion methods.

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

high dynamic range imaging
omp
approximate k-svd


Simplicial principal component analysis for density functions in Bayes spaces Probability density functions are frequently used to characterize the distributional properties of large-scale database systems. As functional compositions, densities primarily carry relative information. As such, standard methods of functional data analysis (FDA) are not appropriate for their statistical processing. The specific features of density functions are accounted for in Bayes spaces, which result from the generalization to the infinite dimensional setting of the Aitchison geometry for compositional data. The aim is to build up a concise methodology for functional principal component analysis of densities. A simplicial functional principal component analysis (SFPCA) is proposed, based on the geometry of the Bayes space B2 B 2 of functional compositions. SFPCA is performed by exploiting the centred log-ratio transform, an isometric isomorphism between B2 B 2 and L2 L 2 which enables one to resort to standard FDA tools. The advantages of the proposed approach with respect to existing techniques are demonstrated using simulated data and a real-world example of population pyramids in Upper Austria.

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 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 I I I O O O O B I 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

compositional data
bayes spaces
functional principal component analysis


A new scheme for extraction of affine invariant descriptor and affine motion estimation based on independent component analysis ? This paper proposes a new scheme based on independent component analysis (ICA) for object recognition with affine transformation and for affine motion estimation between video frames. For different affine shapes of a recognized object, an invariant descriptor can be extracted by ICA, and it can solve some object recognition problems. This method also can be used to estimate the affine motion between two frames, which is important in high compression rate coding such as MPEG4 or MPEG7 standard. Simulation results show that the proposed method has a better performance than other traditional methods in pattern recognition and affine motion estimation.

O O O 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 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 B I I

affine invariant descriptor
affine motion estimation

independent component analysis (ica)
negentropy
kurtosis


The H l -index: improvement of H-index based on quality of citing papers This paper proposes h l -index as an improvement of the h-index, a popular measurement for the research quality of academic researchers. Although the h-index integrates the number of publications and the academic impact of each publication to evaluate the productivity of a researcher, it assumes that all papers that cite an academic article contribute equally to the academic impact of this article. This assumption, of course, could not be true in most times. The citation from a well-cited paper certainly brings more attention to the article than the citation from a paper that people do not pay attention to. It therefore becomes important to integrate the impact of papers that cite a researchers work into the evaluation of the productivity of the researcher. Constructing a citation network among academic papers, this paper therefore proposes h l -index that integrating the h-index with the concept of lobby index, a measures that has been used to evaluate the impact of a node in a complex network based on the impact of other nodes that the focal node has direct link with. This paper also explores the characteristics of the proposed h l -index by comparing it with citations, h-index and its variant g-index.

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


Optimal cuts and partitions in tree metrics in polynomial time A novel polynomial time dynamic programming algorithm for optimal partitions in the shortest path metric induced by a tree. A resolution of the exact complexity status of the optimal partition problems in one-dimensional geometric metric settings. A discussion of an extension of our method to the class of metrics induced by the bounded treewidth graphs.

O O O O O 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 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

computational complexity
optimal cut
optimal bisection
tree metric


A comparison study of user behavior on Facebook and Gmail We analyzed similarity and difference between users email and SNS (Social Network Sites) behavior. We retrieved data directly from 1327 participants Facebook and Gmail accounts. Users with more Facebook friends tend to email to more people through Gmail. Producing more content on Facebook does not necessarily affect the production of email on Gmail. Users write content more emotionally and expressively on Facebook than on Gmail.

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

social network sites
email
comparison study


Asymptotic behavior and blow up of solutions for semilinear parabolic equations at critical energy level In this paper we study the initial boundary value problem of semilinear parabolic equations with semilinear term f(u). By using the family of potential wells method we prove that it f(u) satisfies some conditions, J(u(0)) 0, then the solution decays to zero exponentially as t -> infinity. On the other hand, if J(u(0)) <= d, I(u(0)) <0, then the solution blows up in finite time. (C) 2009 IMACS. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

semilinear parabolic equations
initial boundary value
potential wells
asymptotic behavior
blow up


Inductive Defense for Sceptical Semantics of Extended Argumentation An abstract argumentation framework may have many extensions. Which extension should be adopted as the semantics depends on the sceptical attitudes of the reasoners. Different degrees of scepticism lead to different semantics ranging from the grounded extension as the most sceptical semantics to preferred extensions as the least sceptical semantics. Extending abstract argumentation to allow attacks to be attacked, subjects attacks to argumentation and hence gives rise to a new dimension of scepticism for characterizing how sceptically attacks are accepted. In this article, we present a semantics based on the notion of inductive (grounded) defense of attacks which is sceptical towards the acceptance of attacks but credulous towards the acceptance of arguments. We show that the semantics preserves fundamental properties of abstract argumentation including the monotonicity of the characteristic function. We further show that any extension of the semantics proposed by Gabbay; Baroni, Cerutti, Giacomin and Guida; and Modgil contains a sceptical part being an extension of our semantics, and a credulous part resulted from its credulousness towards the acceptance of attacks. We then introduce a stratified form of extended argumentation which still allows an unbounded number of levels of attacks against attacks while assuring that all proposed semantics coincide. In this article, we also develop a sound and complete dialectical proof procedure for the presented semantics following a model of dispute that alternates between argumentation to accept arguments and to accept attacks.

B I 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 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

inductive defense
extended argumentation


A simple and robust Simulated Annealing algorithm for scheduling workover rigs on onshore oil fields Onshore oil wells are dependent of maintenance services such as cleaning, reinstatement and stimulation. These services can be performed by a limited number of workover rigs. Usually, wells need maintenance services and a scheduling of the workover rigs must be defined. This scheduling must consider some factors such as the well production, the type of service to he performed and time windows for the service. There is a production loss associated to wells waiting for maintenance services, so it is important to attend them as soon as possible. Thus, the workover rig scheduling problem consists of finding the best schedule for the limited number of workover rigs, minimizing the production loss associated with the wells waiting for maintenance service. We present a simple and robust Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm for solving this problem. Computational results on real problems obtained in Brazil are reported and SA presents better solutions than all those approaches reported in the literature. Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

O O O 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 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 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


Fuzzy nonparametric regression based on local linear smoothing technique In a great deal of literature on fuzzy regression analysis, most of research has focused on some predefined parametric forms of fuzzy regression relationships, especially on the fuzzy linear regression models. In many practical situations, it may be unrealistic to predetermine a fuzzy parametric regression relationship. In this paper, a fuzzy nonparametric model with crisp input and LR fuzzy output is considered and, based on the distance measure for fuzzy numbers suggested by Diamond [P. Diamond, Fuzzy least squares, Information Sciences 46 (1988) 141157], the local linear smoothing technique in statistics with the cross-validation procedure for selecting the optimal value of the smoothing parameter is fuzzified to fit this model. Some simulation experiments are conducted to examine the performance of the proposed method and three real-world datasets are analyzed to illustrate the application of the proposed method. The results demonstrate that the proposed method works quite well not only in producing satisfactory estimate of the fuzzy regression function, but also in reducing the boundary effect significantly.

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

fuzzy nonparametric regression
local linear smoothing
smoothing parameter


BIOLOGICAL SIGNAL ANALYSIS BY INDEPENDENT COMPONENT ANALYSIS USING COMPLEX WAVELET TRANSFORM Independent component analysis (ICA) is a useful method for blind source separation of two or more signals. We have previously proposed a new method combining ICA with the complex discrete wavelet transform (CDWT), in which voice and noise signals were separated using a new method. At that time, we used a simulated signal. In this study, we analyze measured biological signals by using a new method, and discuss its effectiveness. As an experiment, we try to separate an electromyogram (EMG) signal from an electrocardiogram (ECG) signal.

O O O O B I I O O B I 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 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 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

independent component analysis
wavelet transform
biological signals


Protein Expression in the Livers and Urinary Bladders of Hamsters Exposed to Sodium Arsenite Hamsters were exposed to sodium arsenite (173 mg As/L) in drinking water for 6 days and control hamsters were given tap water. Equal amounts of protein from the urinary bladder or liver extracts of control and arsenic-treated hamsters were labeled with Cy3 and Cy5 dyes, respectively. The labeled proteins were mixed and separated in the two-dimensional differential in gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE). After DIGE and analysis by the DeCyder software, several protein spots were found to be overexpressed and several were underexpressed. Analysis of the DIGE gel images detected 75 protein spots in the livers and 52 protein spots in the urinary bladders of hamsters that were expressed (1.2-fold). Of the detected protein spots, 34 spots were overexpressed (1.48 0.05) and 41 spots were underexpressed (1.52 0.06) in the liver. In the urinary bladder, 36 protein spots were overexpressed (1.52 0.06) and 16 protein spots were underexpressed (1.39 0.05). Three proteins (one was overexpressed and two were underexpressed) of each tissue (liver or bladder) were identified by mass spectrometry. DIGE in combination with mass spectrometry is a powerful tool that may be of help in understanding the molecular mechanisms of cancer progression due to inorganic arsenic.

B I 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 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 B I 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 B 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 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

arsenite
liver
bladder
differential in gel electrophoresis
protein expression


The impact of Technology-Enabled Active Learning (TEAL) implementation on student learning and teachers' teaching in a high school context Technology-Enabled Active Learning (TEAL) is a pedagogical innovation established in a technology-enhanced multimedia studio, emphasizing constructivist-oriented teaching and learning. In Taiwan, an increasing number of schools are adopting the TEAL notion to deliver courses. This study examines the impact of TEAL on both student performance and teachers' teaching of physics in the context of one of the high schools. A quasi-experimental research approach was used to conduct the study. Data sources include pre-/post-tests, interviews, class observations, and the researcher's journals. The findings reveal that the benefits that the participants gained from exposure to the innovative instruction appear in various aspects in addition to the students' test results. Having higher interest in attending physics classes and being more active in participating in extracurricular science activities on the part of the students, and being more enthusiastic about and confident in helping students strengthen their physics concepts on the part of the teacher, are among the non-test score gains. The students' achievements and positive responses to the teacher's instruction seem to have motivated his dedication and confidence. It is also found that teachers' teaching beliefs and desire to change greatly affected their classroom practices and technology integration. To more effectively implement instructional innovations in a school, suggestions are provided. (C) 2012 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 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

constructivist-oriented pedagogy
improving classroom teaching
technology-enhanced instruction


Fair scheduling of dynamic task systems on multiprocessors In dynamic real-time task systems, tasks that are subject to deadlines are allowed to join and leave the system. In previous work, Stoica et al. and Baruah et al. presented conditions under which such joins and leaves may occur in fair-scheduled uniprocessor systems without causing missed deadlines. In this paper, we extend their work by considering fair-scheduled multiprocessors. We show that their conditions are sufficient on M processors, under any deadline-based Pfair scheduling algorithm, if the utilization of every subset of M - 1 tasks is at most one. Further, for the general case in which task utilizations are not restricted in this way, we derive sufficient join/leave conditions for the PD2 Pfair algorithm. We also show that, in general, these conditions cannot be improved upon without causing missed deadlines. (c) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

pfairness
multiprocessor
real-time scheduling


Impact of introducing CuSiN self-aligned barriers in advanced copper interconnects Self-aligned barriers have been widely investigated in the replacement of standard PECVD dielectric liners to decrease coupling capacitance. As an alternative to CVD or electroless approaches, a two step process based on the modification of the Cu surface is proposed. This technique consists first in enriching Cu surface with Si atoms followed by a nitridation step to complete the so called CuSiN self-aligned barrier. In this paper, the silicidation mechanism is described and the crucial role of the nitridation step is demonstrated in terms of barrier stability under electrical stress. CuSiN efficiency against Cu diffusion and oxidation is also evidenced. Compared to a standard SiCN barrier, CuSiN self-aligned barriers revealed a gain of at least 3 decades in time-dependent dielectric breakdown lifetime and up to 7% decrease in intra-level coupling capacitance.

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

silicidation
nitridation
cusin
copper interconnects


MPC as control strategy for pasta drying processes This study focuses on the drying process of pasta in a convectional air drying oven. A model predictive control algorithm is designed, based on a dynamic model describing the mass transfer between pasta and the surrounding air. The multiple input single output control algorithm minimizes a cost function over a prediction horizon which represents the deviation of the process from a desired reference track, thereby incorporating the working limitations of the oven. The performance of the controller and the influence of the prediction horizon are examined in this paper, showing minimal deviation between process and reference track. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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 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

nonlinear distributed parameter system
first principle model
moisture content


new challenges in teaching database security Traditional Database Security has focused primarily on creating user accounts and managing user privileges to database objects. The wide spread use of databases over the web, heterogeneous client-server architectures, application servers, and networks creates an urgent need to widen this focus. This paper will provide an overview of the new and old database security challenges. Section one provides an overview of the Database Security concerns. It emphasizes Database Applications as the greatest concern and describes the SQL Slammer Worm, an example of not patching the Database Management System (DBMS) The second section explains in detail three Database topics: SQL injection [1], Multilevel Security [2] and Data Warehouse/Data Mining/Statistical security. The reason for focusing on these topics is because they are new Database Security issues (at least not taught in traditional database courses) and they are not topics that student will learn in any other course. The last topic provides guidelines for when to teach each Database Security topic and concludes by emphasizing the need for developing a Database Security Plan. Emphasis on a Database Security Plan resulted from interviewing Database Administrators and Security Specialists.

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


active learning to maximize accuracy vs. effort in interactive information retrieval We consider an interactive information retrieval task in which the user is interested in finding several to many relevant documents with minimal effort. Given an initial document ranking, user interaction with the system produces relevance feedback (RF) which the system then uses to revise the ranking. This interactive process repeats until the user terminates the search. To maximize accuracy relative to user effort, we propose an active learning strategy. At each iteration, the document whose relevance is maximally uncertain to the system is slotted high into the ranking in order to obtain user feedback for it. Simulated feedback on the Robust04 TREC collection shows our active learning approach dominates several standard RF baselines relative to the amount of feedback provided by the user. Evaluation on Robust04 under noisy feedback and on LETOR collections further demonstrate the effectiveness of active learning, as well as value of negative feedback in this task scenario.

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 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 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 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


adaptive sampling based on fuzzy inference Monte Carlo is the only choice for a physically correct method to do global illumination in the field of realistic image rendering. Adaptive sampling is an appealing means to reduce noise, which is resulted from the general Monte Carlo global illumination algorithms. In this paper, we take advantage of fuzzy rule-based reasoning to achieve different refinement thresholds for different pixels in the synthesized image. The developed technique can do adaptive sampling elaborately and effectively. Extensive implementation results indicate that our novel method can achieve significantly better than classic ones. To our knowledge, this is the first application of the fuzzy inference to global illumination.

O O O O O O B I 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 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 B I


Selection of an appropriate time integration scheme for the discrete element method (DEM) With increasing computer power simulation methods addressing discrete problems in a broad range of scientific fields become more and more available. The discrete element method is one of these discontinuous approaches used for modeling granular assemblies. Within this method the, dynamics of a system of particles is modeled by tracking the motion of individual particles and their interaction with their adjacencies overtime. For the interaction of particles. force models need to be specified. The resulting equations of motion are of coupled ordinary differential configuration, which are usually solved by explicit numerical schemes. In large-scale systems like avalanches. planetary rings, hoppers or chemical reactors vast numbers of particles need to be addressed. Therefore, integration schemes need to be accurate on the one hand, but also numerically efficient on the other hand. This numerical efficiency is characterized by the method's demand for memory and CPU-time. In this paper a number of mostly explicit numerical integration schemes are reviewed and applied to the benchmark problem of a particle impacting a fixed wall as investigated experimentally by Gorham and Kharaz [Gorham. D. A., & Kharaz. A. H. (2000). The measurement of particle rebound characteristics. Powder Technology. 112(3), 193-202]. The accurate modeling which includes the correct integration of he equations of motion is essential. In discrete simulation methods the accuracy of properties on the single particle level directly influence the global properties of the granular assembly like velocity distributions, porosities or flow rates. whereas their correct knowledge is often of key interest in engineering applications. The impact experiment is modeled with simple force displacement approaches which allow an analytical solution of the problem. Aspects discussed are the dependency of the step size on the accuracy of certain collision properties and the related computing time. The effect of a fixed time step is analyzed. Guidelines for the efficient selection of an integration scheme considering the additional computational cost by contact detection and force calculation are presented. (c) 2007 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 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 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 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

granular dynamics
discrete clement method
linear force model


PAC learning with nasty noise We introduce a new model for learning in the presence of noise, which we call the Nasty Noise model. This model generalizes previously considered models of learning with noise. The learning process in this model, which is a variant of the PAC model, proceeds as follows: Suppose that the learning algorithm during its execution asks for m examples. The examples that the algorithm gets are generated by a nasty adversary that works according to the following steps. First, the adversary chooses m examples (independently) according to a fixed (but unknown to the learning algorithm) distribution D as in the PAC-model. Then the powerful adversary, upon seeing the specific m examples that were chosen (and using his knowledge of the target function, the distribution D and the learning algorithm), is allowed to remove a fraction of the examples at its choice, and replace these examples by the same number of arbitrary examples of its choice; the m modified examples are then given to the learning algorithm. The only restriction on the adversary is that the number of examples that the adversary is allowed to modify should be distributed according to a binomial distribution with parameters eta (the noise rate) and m. On the negative side, we prove that no algorithm can achieve accuracy of epsilon 2eta. This algorithm may not be efficient; however, we also show that a fairly wide family of concept classes can be efficiently learned in the presence of nasty noise. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

B I 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 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 O O O O O 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

pac learning
learning with noise
nasty noise


Reliable broadcasting in wormhole-routed hypercube-connected networks using local safety information This paper presents a method to cope with reliable broadcasting in faulty hypercubes using local safety information. A new definition, broadcast subcube, is introduced, with which various techniques are proposed to improve performance of the broadcast algorithm. Local safety information is well used in the fault-tolerant broadcast algorithm by considering only safety of the broadcast subcube. Am unsafe hypercube can be split into a set of maximal safe subcubes. If these maximal safe subcubes meet certain requirements (listed in this paper), then broadcasting can still be done successfully and, in some cases, optimal broadcast is still possible. The sufficient condition for optimal broadcast of a message is presented in an unsafe hypercube. Extensive simulation results show that the proposed method outperforms previous methods, in all cases.

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

broadcast subcube
hypercube
local safety

fault-tolerant broadcasting
maximal safe subcube


Ethics, genomics, and information retrieval The union of genomics and computational information retrieval raises a number of ethical issues, including data sharing, database accuracy, group and subgroup stigma, and privacy and confidentiality. These issues are introduced and assigned a preliminary analysis which, it is hoped, may be of use in more sustained efforts to identify issues, solutions and potential guidelines, to stimulate education, and to strike the most appropriate balance between the rights of individuals and the needs of researchers and society. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.

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

database accuracy
data sharing
ethics
genomics
information retrieval
stigma


The effect of shoe sole tread groove depth on the friction coefficient with different tread groove widths, floors and contaminants Slipping and falling are common phenomena in both workplaces and our daily activities. The risks associated with slipping and falling are related to the materials of footwear/floor, contamination condition, and geometric design of the sole. Shoe soles of various tread design are very common. Tread pattern of the shoe affects friction especially under liquid-contaminated conditions. Verification of the effects of tread groove depth is significant in assisting designers in designing proper footwear for workers exposed to slippery floor conditions. In this study, we measured the friction coefficients using the Neolite footwear pads on the terrazzo, steel, and vinyl floors under three liquid-contaminated conditions. A Brungraber Mark II slipmeter was used. The footwear pads had tread grooves with a width of either 3 or 9mm. The depth of the tread grooves ranged from 1 to 5mm. The results showed that tread groove depth affected the friction coefficients significantly. Higher friction values were recorded for footwear pads with deeper tread grooves on wet and waterdetergent-contaminated floors. The averaged coefficient of friction (COF) gain per tread groove depth increase in millimeter under these two surface conditions ranged from 0.018 to 0.108, depending on the tread groove width, floor, and contaminant.

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

slipping and falling
friction coefficient
brungraber mark ii slipmeter


An inter-FPGA communication bus with error detection and dynamic clock phase adjustment Nowadays, systems involving multiple FPGAs are used for various scientific applications. Such systems require a data bus dedicated to the communication between FPGAs, which could be done through a LVDS type. Another important factor is that the routing that interconnects the LVDS pins on the platform should be precisely developed to avoid instabilities in communication. Unfortunately, many platforms available in the market do not observe such restrictions, limiting the throughput of the bus.

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


Geometric structure analysis of document images: A knowledge-based approach Geometric structure analysis is a prerequisite to create electronic documents from logical components extracted from document images. This paper presents a knowledge-based method for sophisticated geometric structure analysis of technical journal pages. The proposed knowledge base encodes geometric characteristics that are not only common in technical journals but also publication-specific in the farm of rules. The method takes the hybrid of top-down and bottom-up techniques and consists of two phases: region segmentation and identification. Generally, the result of the segmentation process does not have a one-to-one matching with composite layout components. Therefore, the proposed method identifies nontext objects, such as images drawings, and tables, as well as text objects, such as text lines and equations, by splitting or grouping segmented regions into composite layout components. Experimental results with 372 images scanned from the IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence show that the proposed method has performed geometric structure analysis successfully on more than 99 percent of the test images, resulting in impressive performance compared with previous works.

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

geometric structure analysis
region segmentation

document image analysis
region identification
knowledge-based approach


quantitative analysis of simulated erosion for different soils Levee overtopping can lead to failure and cause catastrophic damage, as was the case during Hurricane Katrina. We present a computer simulation of erosion to study the development of the rills and gullies that form along an earthen embankment during overtopping. We have coupled 3D Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics with an erodibility model to produce our simulation. Through comparison between simulations and between simulation and analogous laboratory experiments, we provide quantitative and qualitative results, evaluating the accuracy of our simulation.

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

physical modeling
hydraulic erosion simulation


how to search linear approximation for large non-surjective s-box Linear cryptanalysis is a general form of cryptanalysis based on identifying the linear approximations of a cipher. It is one of the two most widely used attacks on block ciphers. In order to resist the differential cryptanalysis, the S-box with large output bit number is applied in block cipher, for example CAST-128 and CAST-256 use the 8 32 S-boxes. In addition, the S-boxes are often constructed based on bent functions to resist the linear cryptanalysis and the S-boxes are non-surjective mapping. Therefore, for the large non-surjective S-box, to identify the best linear approximation with zero input mask and nonzero output mask is difficult due to the unaccepted computation time. In this paper, we will give an efficient computing method to find such best linear approximations for the non-surjective large S-boxes using parallel computation in practical time. This computing method can help to estimate the resistant property for some kind of linear cryptanalysis of block ciphers with this kind of S-box.

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

linear cryptanalysis
parallel computation
differential cryptanalysis


Numerical study of turbulent flow over two-dimensional surface-mounted ribs in a channel This study accurately predicts the cases of turbulent flow around a surface-mounted two-dimensional rib with varying lengths. The numerical method employs a differencing scheme for integrating the elliptic Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations and the continuity equation. A two-equation k-epsilon turbulence model is employed to simulate the turbulent transport quantities and close the solving problem. The near-wall regions of the separated sides of the rib are resolved by a near-wall model of a two-layer approach instead of the.wall function approximation. Computations for flow over a surface-mounted rectangular rib are conducted for the variations in the rib lengths. Results indicate that upstream of the obstacle, the length of the recirculating region remains unchanged with varying rib lengths; while the downstream length of the recirculating region is a strong function of rib length and changes nearly linearly for the varying lengths of B/H = 0.1 to B/H = 4.0. Reattachment on top of the rib, owing to its increasing length, affects the downstream boundary layer development. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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


Collocated Social Practices Surrounding Photo Usage in Archaeology Archaeology is a domain of work where photographs play a relevant role: here they are used in different phases of the archaeological work for many purposes, some of which are common to other domains or to home usage (e.g., archiving). We focus our attention on one of the initial phases of the archaeological process, namely excavation, since the related activities use photographs in a very particular way and under the constraints of a very demanding physical setting. Moreover, in this phase the use of digitized photographs is recent, and in their adoption they are interestingly combined with photographs printed on paper. This paper presents the results of a study performed at an archaeological site in the south of Italy: it reports the observed collocated collaborative practices surrounding photographs and discusses these practices to identify some functionalities of a supportive technology.

B O O O O O O B B 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 B 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 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


Key potential-oriented criticality analysis for complex military organization based on FINC-E model The complex social organizations, which can self-organize into the region at the edge of chaos, neither too ordered nor too random, now have become an interdisciplinary research topic. As a kind of special social organization, the complex military organization usually has its key entities and relations, which should be well protected in case of attacks. In order to do the criticality analysis for the military organization, finding the key entities or relations which can disrupt the functions of the organization, two problems should be seriously considered. First, the military organization should be well modeled, which can work well in the specialized military context; secondly it is critical to define and identify the key entities or relations, which should incorporate the topological centrality and weighted nodes or edges.

O 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 B I I 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

complex military organization
criticality analysis


A NEW METHOD TO CALCULATE THE INCONCLUSIVE COEFFICIENTS IN THE QUANTUM STATE DISCRIMINATION The problem of determining the state of a quantum system is a central task in any quantum information processing. However, there are limitations imposed by quantum mechanics on the possibilities to determine the state of a quantum system. For example, nonorthogonal states cannot be discriminated perfectly. In this paper, we propose a new method to calculate the inconclusive coefficients based on the solution of a quadratic system, replacing the determination of the roots of a polynomial of degree 8, used in an algorithm to quantum state discrimination previously defined in the literature. The new method simplifies the calculation of the inconclusive coefficients and can be extended very easily to any dimension. The method was written in Matlab and successfully applied to problems with different dimensions.

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 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

extended hilbert space
semidefinite programming
quadratic systems


Relative survival analysis in R Relative survival techniques are used to compare the survival experience in a study cohort with the one expected should they follow the background population mortality rates. The techniques are especially useful when the cause-specific death information is not accurate or not available since they provide a measure of excess mortality in a group of patients with a certain disease. There are several approaches to modeling relative survival, but there is no widely used statistical package that would incorporate the relevant techniques. The existing software was mostly written by the authors of different methods, in different computer languages and with different requirements for the data input, which makes it almost impossible for a user to choose between available models. We describe our R package relsurv that provides functions for easy and flexible fitting of several relative survival regression models.

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 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 B I B O


A Novel Sequential Tree Algorithm Based on Scoreboard for MPI Broadcast Communication The message passing interface (MPI) broadcast communication commonly causes a severe performance bottleneck in multicore system that uses distributed memory. Thus, in this paper, we propose a novel algorithm and hardware structure for the MPI broadcast communication to reduce the bottleneck situation. The transmission order is set based on the state of each processing node that comprises the multicore system, so the novel algorithm minimizes the performance degradation caused by conflict. The proposed scoreboard MPI unit is evaluated by modeling it with SystemC and implemented using VerilogHDL. The size of the proposed scoreboard MPI unit occupies less than 1.03% of the whole chip, and it yields a highly improved performance up to 75.48% as its maximum with 16 processing nodes. Hence, with respect to low-cost design and scalability, this scoreboard MPI unit is particularly useful towards increasing overall performance of the embedded MPSoC.

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

mpi
broadcast communication
multicore
distributed memory
mpsoc


a linear programming system for use on time sharing A linear programming system, NYLPS, designed for batch processing has been adapted for use under time sharing. The new system is called ECLIPS. The system is both conversational, in that it prompts the user for information, and interactive in that the user may interrupt an optimization, change data and continue optimizing without losing the current basis. These features are discussed along with the programming techniques used to accomplish them.

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

time sharing applications
interactive systems
mathematical programming
interactive applications
linear programming code
linear programming language


A study on the effects of routing symbol design on process model comprehension Process modeling grammars are used to create models of business processes. In this paper, we discuss how different routing symbol designs affect an individual's ability to comprehend process models. We conduct an experiment with 154 students to ascertain which visual design principles influence process model comprehension. Our findings suggest that design principles related to perceptual discriminability and pop out improve comprehension accuracy. Furthermore, semantic transparency and aesthetic design of symbols lower the perceived difficulty of comprehension. Our results inform important principles about notational design of process modeling grammars and the effective use of process modeling in practice.

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

process modeling
notational design
comprehension


Effect of Dietary Restriction on Learning and Memory Impairment and Histologic Alterations of Brain Stem in Senescence-Accelerated Mouse (SAM) P8 Strain Abstract:?The age-associated spontaneous spongy degeneration in the brain stem of senescence-accelerated mouse (SAM) P8 strain has been suggested to be closely associated with the ability to learn and memorize. In this study, we investigated the effects of dietary restriction (DR) initiated from weaning on learning and memory and histologic changes of the brain stem in P8 and control R1 mice. Although no effect of DR was observed in the retention of the passive-avoidance response in both the P8 and R1 mice, the acquisition of the task was significantly improved by DR in P8 mice. On the other hand, the total area and number of vacuoles in the brain stem was significantly higher in ad libitum-fed (AD)-P8 mice than in AD-R1 mice. However, no significant effect was observed on the vacuole formation in the brain stem of P8 mice by DR. These observations suggest that the improvement of the acquisition of the task by DR in P8 mice is possibly due to changes in neuronal function rather than histologic alteration in brain stem.

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

dietary restriction
learning
memory
spongy degeneration


Artificial Color Natural color is a neurally generated spectral discriminant attributed to the perceived object based on signals detected in 24 overlapping spectral bands and on a priori information and assumptions. Artificial Color has the same properties. It has a built-in speed and sensitivity advantage over hyperspectral imaging. The design, training, display, and use of Artificial Color systems are discussed.

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

artificial color
spectral discrimination


A reversible data hiding scheme for VQ indices using locally adaptive coding Data hiding is designed to solve the problem of secure information exchange through public networks such as Internet. In this paper, we present an improved reversible data hiding scheme that can recover original VQ indices after data extraction. As with Chang et al.s scheme, our proposed scheme also depends on the locally adaptive coding scheme. However, experimental results confirm that the hiding capacity of our proposed scheme is around 1.36 bpi in most digital images, which is typically higher than that of Chang et al.s [17]. Moreover, the average compression rate that can be achieved with our proposed scheme is 0.49 bpp, which outperforms both Lin and Changs scheme (0.50bpp), Tsai (0.50 bpp), Chang et al.s scheme (0.53 bpp), and Yang and Lins scheme (0.53 bpp).

O O B I O O O O O B I 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 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 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

data hiding
locally adaptive coding
hiding capacity

image compression
reversible data hiding
high embedding rate
steganography
vq compression


scheduling web requests in broadcast environments On-demand broadcast has been supported in the Internet to enhance system scalability. Unfortunately, most of existing on-demand scheduling algorithms did not consider the time constraints associated with web requests. This paper proposes a novel scheduling algorithm, called Slack Inverse Number of requests (SIN), that takes into account the urgency and productivity of serving pending requests. Trace-driven experiments demonstrate that SIN significantly out performs existing algorithms over a wide range of workloads.

O B 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 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

time constraints
web
scheduling algorithms


Screen-parallel determination of intersection curves ? It is sometimes desirable to highlight intersection curves in order to make the shapes of penetrating surfaces more visible. Highlighting the intersection is especially helpful when the surfaces become transparent, because transparency makes the intersections less evident. This paper discusses a technique for locating intersections in screen space using only the information locally available to a pixel. The technique is designed to exploit parallelism at the pixel level and has been implemented on the Pixel-Planes 5 graphics supercomputer.

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

intersection curve
data-parallel
parallel rendering


Algebraic fractional-step schemes with spectral methods for the incompressible NavierStokes equations ? The numerical investigation of a recent family of algebraic fractional-step methods for the solution of the incompressible time-dependent NavierStokes equations is presented. These methods are improved versions of the Yosida method proposed in [A. Quarteroni, F. Saleri, A. Veneziani, Factorization methods for the numerical approximation of NavierStokes equations Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Engrg. 188(13) (2000) 505526; A. Quarteroni, F. Saleri, A. Veneziani, J. Math. Pures Appl. (9), 78(5) (1999) 473503] and one of them (the Yosida4 method) is proposed in this paper for the first time. They rely on an approximate LU block factorization of the matrix obtained after the discretization in time and space of the NavierStokes system, yielding a splitting in the velocity and pressure computation. In this paper, we analyze the numerical performances of these schemes when the space discretization is carried out with a spectral element method, with the aim of investigating the impact of the splitting on the global accuracy of the computation.

O O O 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 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 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


a general hci framework of sonification applications This paper proposes a general HCI framework of sonification applications. It is used to explain and understand sonification applications and how it might be interpreted by the users. The framework emphasizes on two models namely Sonification Application Model (SA Model) and User Interpretation Construction Model (UIC Model).

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

usability inspection material
human computer interaction (hci)
perception
usability
usability inspection


Peyer's Patch Dendritic Cells Capturing Oral Antigen Interact with Antigen-Specific T Cells and Induce Gut-Homing CD4+CD25+ Regulatory T Cells in Peyer's Patches Antigen-specific naive T cells accumulated in Peyer's patches only after the feeding of antigen. DCs that captured oral antigen interacted with these T cells in the IFR of PP. Some of these T cells acquired a similar phenotype to CD4+ CD25+ regulatory T cells and CCR9+ gut-homing T cells.

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

peyer's patch
dendritic cell
chemokine receptor
regulatory t cell


Basic observables for a calculus for global computing We develop the semantic theory of a foundational language for modelling applications over global computers whose interconnection structure can be explicitly manipulated. Together with process distribution, process mobility and remote asynchronous communication through distributed data repositories, the language has primitives for explicitly modelling inter-node connections and for dynamically activating and deactivating them. Forthe proposed language, we define natural notions of extensional observations and study their closure under operational reductions and/or language contexts to obtain barbed congruence and may testing equivalence. We then focus on barbed congruence and provide an alternative characterisation in terms of a labelled bisimulation. To test practical usability of the semantic theory, we model a system of communicating mobile devices and use the introduced proof techniques to verify one of its key properties. (C) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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 B I 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

basic observables
bisimulation
may testing

process calculi
distribution and mobility
explicit connections


Orthogonal double covers of Cayley graphs Let X X and G G be graphs, such that G G is isomorphic to a subgraph of X X . An orthogonal double cover (ODC) of X X by G G is a collection B={P(x):x?V(X)} B = { P ( x ) : x ? V ( X ) } of subgraphs of X X , all isomorphic with G G , such that (i) every edge of X X occurs in exactly two members of B B and (ii) P(x) P ( x ) and P(y) P ( y ) share an edge if and only if x x and y y are adjacent in X X . The main question is: given the pair (X,G) ( X , G ) , is there an ODC of X X by G G ? An obvious necessary condition is that X X is regular. A technique to construct ODCs for Cayley graphs is introduced. It is shown that for all (X,G) ( X , G ) where X X is a 3-regular Cayley graph on an abelian group there is an ODC, a few well known exceptions apart.

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


Generalized Nash equilibria for SaaS/PaaS Clouds ? The Cloud service provisioning problem is modeled as a generalized Nash game. We show that a potential function for the game exists. We propose solution methods based on the best response dynamics. Equilibria efficiency is evaluated with respect to the social optimum. Results show that our algorithms can manage at run-time very large scale systems.

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

game theory
cloud computing
generalized nash equilibrium problem


a demo for affinity based content delivery architectures Streaming video data over best effort networks is a challenging task concerning the quality of the received content. The quality decreases with the number of frames that are corrupted, lost or received after the playback time. The main reasons for lost, delayed or corrupted frames are overloaded streaming servers and crowded network paths. In order to deal with overloaded streaming servers and crowded network paths, we present the prototype of an innovative architecture called Proxy-to-Proxy (X2X). The three main components in the architecture are proxies (provided by end users), videos (replicated from original servers) and end-clients (requesting shared content). The behavior of the three components is defined by the so-called affinity model which consists of three levels. The first level covers the content replication from original to surrogate servers (also called proxies), the second level covers the collaboration between the proxies, and the third level covers the delivery from the proxies to the end-clients. Proxies, videos and end-clients have a certain affinity to each other. Only by changing the input parameters to the affinity functions, the overlay network behaves either like a classical 1) Content Delivery Network, 2) a Peer-to-Peer System or 3) a Proxy-to-Proxy overlay network --- which is a combination and generalization of the two former ones.

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

multimedia adaptation
content delivery networks
peer-to-peer systems


Applications of the generalized law of Benford to informetric data In a previous work (Egghe, 2011), the first author showed that Benford's law (describing the logarithmic distribution of the numbers 1, 2, , 9 as first digits of data in decimal form) is related to the classical law of Zipf with exponent 1. The work of Campanario and Coslado (2011), however, shows that Benford's law does not always fit practical data in a statistical sense. In this article, we use a generalization of Benford's law related to the general law of Zipf with exponent ??>?0. Using data from Campanario and Coslado, we apply nonlinear least squares to determine the optimal ? and show that this generalized law of Benford fits the data better than the classical law of Benford.

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


Asymptotic stability of nonlinear fractional neutral singular systems In this paper, fractional calculus has been introduced into neutral singular systems. The (asymptotical) stability and (generalized) Mittag-Leffler stability of nonlinear fractional neutral singular systems with Caputo and Riemann-Liouville derivatives are studied, respectively. Several sufficient conditions guaranteeing stability of such systems are established by using the Lyapunov direct method.

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


Using support vector machines to enhance the performance of elastic graph matching for frontal face authentication A novel method for enhancing the performance of elastic graph matching in frontal face authentication is proposed. The starting point is to weigh the local similarity values at the nodes of an elastic graph according to their discriminatory power. Powerful and well-established optimization techniques are used to derive the weights of the linear combination. More specifically, we propose a novel approach that reformulates Fisher's discriminant ratio to a quadratic optimization problem subject to a set of inequality constraints by combining statistical pattern recognition and Support Vector Machines. Both linear and nonlinear Support Vector Machines are then constructed to yield the optimal separating hyperplanes and the optimal polynomial decision surfaces, respectively. The method has been applied to frontal face authentication on the M2VTS database. Experimental results indicate that the performance of morphological elastic graph matching is highly improved by using the proposed weighting technique.

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

face authentication
elastic graph matching
support vector machines

fisher's discriminant ratio
constrained least-squares optimization


A DDS synthesizer with digital time domain interpolator A DDS type circuit structure for producing numerically programmable square wave clock signal is presented. The high speed D/A converter needed in conventional DDS systems is replaced by an N tap delay line time domain interpolator that effectively increases the sampling rate by a factor of N. Thus the circuit can be used up to full clock rate without image filtering. A prototype IC with clock frequency of 30 MHz, 5 bit interpolator and SFDR of -40 dBc up to 10 MHz and -33 dBc up to 15 MHz has been designed and tested.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 digital synthesis
time-to-digital converter
spectral purity


Quantum complementarity and logical indeterminacy Whenever a mathematical proposition to be proved requires more information than it is contained in an axiomatic system, it can neither be proved nor disproved, i.e. it is undecidable, or logically undetermined, within this axiomatic system. I will show that certain mathematical propositions on a d-valent function of a binary argument can be encoded in d-dimensional quantum states of mutually unbiased basis (MUB) sets, and truth values of the propositions can be tested in MUB measurements. I will then show that a proposition is undecidable within the system of axioms encoded in the state, if and only if the measurement associated with the proposition gives completely random outcomes.

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

quantum complementarity
logical indeterminacy


a three-phases byzantine fault tolerance mechanism for hla-based simulation A large scale HLA-based simulation (federation) is composed of a large number of simulation components (federates), which may be developed by different participants and executed at different locations. Byzantine failures, caused by malicious attacks and software/hardware bugs, might happen to federates and propagate in the federation execution. In this paper, a three-phases (i.e., failure detection, failure location, and failure recovery) Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) mechanism is proposed based on the decoupled federate architecture. By combining the replication, check pointing and message logging techniques, some redundant executions of federate replicas are avoided. The BFT mechanism is implemented using both Barrier and No-Barrier federate replication structures. Protocols are also developed to remove the epidemic effect caused by Byzantine failures. As the experiment results show, the BFT mechanism using No-Barrier replication outperforms that using Barrier replication significantly in the case that federate replicas have different runtime performance.

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

message logging
federate replication
byzantine fault tolerance
decoupled federate architecture


An integrated simulation for the whole forming process of the picture tube panel An integrated model for the whole forming operation of the picture tube panel is developed in this paper, which couples the behaviors of glass and mold. The molten glass is modeled by an incompressible Newtonian liquid undergoing flow. And a three-dimensional finite element method is used to perform the simulation of the fluid and heat flow. A local one-dimensional transient analysis in the thickness direction is adopted for the part cooling stage after pressing, which employs the finite-difference method. The mold heat transfer is established by boundary conditions analysis and its numerical implementation is a three-dimensional boundary element method. The glass and mold simulations are coupled by matching the temperature and heat flux on the glass-mold interface. For residual stresses analysis, a thermo-rheologically simple viscoelastic material model is introduced to consider the stresses relaxation effect and to describe the mechanical behavior according to the temperature change. The shrinkage of formed parts induced by the residual stresses is calculated based on the theory of shells, represented as an assembly of flat elements formed by combining the constant strain and the discrete Kirchhoff triangular elements. A thermoelastic model is presented to predict the deformation of the mold blocks during pressing, which is based on the steady mold temperature field and thermoelastic boundary element method.

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


FE-CIDIM: fast ensemble of CIDIM classifiers An active research area in machine learning is the construction of multiple classifier systems to increase learning accuracy of simple classifiers. In this article, we present E-CIDIM, a multiple classifier system designed to improve the performance of CIDIM, and FE-CIDIM, an algorithm developed to speed up E-CIDIM. CIDIM is an algorithm that induces small and accurate decision trees. E-CIDIM keeps a maximum number of trees and induces new trees that may substitute the old trees in the ensemble. The substitution process finishes when none of the new trees improves the accuracy of any of the trees in the ensemble after a preconfigured number of attempts. FE-CIDIM has been developed to speed up the convergence of E-CIDIM using a more restrictive substitution method. We will show that the accuracy obtained thanks to a unique instance of CIDIM can be improved utilizing these new multiple classifier systems.

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

machine learning
multiple classifier systems
cidim


The IELR(1) algorithm for generating minimal LR(1) parser tables for non-LR(1) grammars with conflict resolution There has been a recent effort in the literature to reconsider grammar-dependent software development from an engineering point of view. As part of that effort, we examine a deficiency in the state of the art of practical LR parser table generation. Specifically, LALR sometimes generates parser tables that do not accept the full language that the grammar developer expects, but canonical LR is too inefficient to be practical particularly during grammar development. In response, many researchers have attempted to develop minimal LR parser table generation algorithms. In this paper, we demonstrate that a well known algorithm described by David Pager and implemented in Menhir, the most robust minimal LR(1) implementation we have discovered, does not always achieve the full power of canonical LR(1) when the given grammar is non-LR(1) coupled with a specification for resolving conflicts. We also detail an original minimal LR(1) algorithm, IELR(1) (Inadequacy Elimination LR(1)), which we have implemented as an extension of GNU Bison and which does not exhibit this deficiency. Using our implementation, we demonstrate the relevance of this deficiency for several real-world parser specifications, and we demonstrate the feasibility of IELR(1). Finally, we demonstrate that, if canonical LR(1) were employed instead, grammar development would be severely impeded regardless of the power of the computer hardware. (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 O 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 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 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


Explicit solution of certain nonlinear difference equations by using power polynomials The paper presents new results related to explicit solutions of certain nonlinear difference equations which appear very often in studies of two linear simultaneous partial differential equations with damping terms. It is shown that the determination of the ratios of solutions corresponding to transversal and longitudinal signals can be based on particular forms of power polynomials in indeterminate y = y(s) depending on the equations' coefficients and the complex frequency s. Some basic properties of the power polynomials axe investigated, and links between them are established. Problems involving equalities and limits are also solved. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

O O O O B I I O O B I 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 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

nonlinear difference equations
power polynomials


Virtual Reality in a shipbuilding environment A natural consequence of the extended use of CAD systems for the design and production of any kind of vessel is its use in Virtual Reality environments. Virtual Reality is extended in every industry, in every sector, at any level. This paper describes different efficient uses of Virtual Reality in the shipbuilding industry, taking in consideration all the agents involved. A solution of Virtual Reality needs to be composed of the following components: a system display, helmet, a motion tracking system, computer, infrastructure and the software.

B I 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 I 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 B 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 B

technology
ship design
computer aided design


Domain optimization of a multi-element airfoil using automatic differentiation Automatic differentiation is used to study the dependence of drag and lift of a four-element airfoil with respect to the position of some flaps in Euler and turbulent NavierStokes flow. Aim is the optimization of a cost functional based on drag and lift with respect to the position of the flaps as design parameters. The position is defined by the angle of rotation of the flaps around fixed points. A smooth local grid transformation is presented which retains the neighborhood relations of the original unstructured mesh. The two-dimensional (2D) compressible NavierStokes/Euler solver NSC2KE from INRIA and a NAG quasi-Netwon optimization routine serve for the solution of the state equations and the optimization, respectively. The gradient information is supplied by the automatic differentiation tool Adifor by Argonne National Laboratory.

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

domain optimization
automatic differentiation

sensitivity analysis
euler equations
turbulent navierstokes equations


Soft computing-based expert systems to predict energy consumption and stability margin in turning gaits of six-legged robots Turning gaits are the most general and very important ones for omni-directional walking of a six-legged robot. Soft computing-based expert systems have been developed in the present work to predict specific energy consumption and stability margin of turning gait of a six-legged robot. Besides back-propagation neural network, three approaches based on adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system have been developed and their performances are compared with each other. Genetic algorithm-tuned multiple adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference systems are found to perform better than other approaches. This could be due to a more exhaustive search conducted by the genetic algorithm in place of back-propagation algorithm and the use of two separate adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference systems for two different outputs.

O O B I 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 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

adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system


The phrase-based vector space model for automatic retrieval of free-text medical documents ? To develop a document indexing scheme that improves the retrieval effectiveness for free-text medical documents. The phrase-based vector space model (VSM) uses multi-word phrases as indexing terms. Each phrase consists of a concept in the unified medical language system (UMLS) and its corresponding component word stems. The similarity between concepts are defined by their relations in a hypernym hierarchy derived from UMLS. After defining the similarity between two phrases by their stem overlaps and the similarity between the concepts they represent, we define the similarity between two documents as the cosine of the angle between their corresponding phrase vectors. This paper reports the development and the validation of the phrase-based VSM. We compare the retrieval effectiveness of different vector space models using two standard test collections, OHSUMED and Medlars. OHSUMED contains 105 queries and 14,430 documents, and Medlars contains 30 queries and 1033 documents. Each document in the test collections is judged by human experts to be either relevant or non-relevant to each query. The retrieval effectiveness is measured by precision and recall. The phrase-based VSM is significantly more effective than the current gold standardthe stem-based VSM. Such significant retrieval effectiveness improvements are observed in both the exhaustive search and cluster-based document retrievals. The phrase-based VSM is a better indexing scheme than the stem-based VSM. Medical document retrieval using the phrase-based VSM is significantly more effective than that using the stem-based VSM.

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 I 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 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

vector space model
unified medical language system

information storage and retrieval/methods


Weights modulo p(e) of linear codes over rings In this paper we look at linear codes over the Galois ring GR(p(l),m) with the homogeneous weight and we prove that the number of codewords with homogeneous weights in a particular residue class modulo p(e) are divisible by high powers of p. We also state a result for a more generalized weight on linear codes over Galois rings. We obtain similar results for the Lee weights of linear codes over F-2m + uF(2m) and we prove that the results we obtain are best possible. The results that we obtain are an improvement to Wilson's results in [Wilson RM (2003) In: Proceedings of international workshop on Cambridge linear algebra and graph coloring].

O 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 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 B I O O O O 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

linear codes
galois rings
homogeneous weights
lee weights


A theoretical model for template-free synthesis of long DNA sequence This theoretical scheme is intended to formulate a potential method for high fidelity synthesis of Nucleic Acid molecules towards a few thousand bases using an enzyme system. Terminal Deoxyribonucleotidyl Transferase, which adds a nucleotide to the 3?OH end of a Nucleic Acid molecule, may be used in combination with a controlled method for nucleotide addition and degradation, to synthesize a predefined Nucleic Acid sequence. A pH control system is suggested to regulate the sequential activity switching of different enzymes in the synthetic scheme. Current practice of synthetic biology is cumbersome, expensive and often error prone owing to the dependence on the ligation of short oligonucleotides to fabricate functional genetic parts. The projected scheme is likely to render synthetic genomics appreciably convenient and economic by providing longer DNA molecules to start with.

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

long dna synthesis
enzyme system modelling
synthetic gene
ph regulated synthesis
genetic parts fabrication


Subject and class specific frequency bands selection for multiclass motor imagery classification EEG-based discrimination among motor imagery states has been widely studied for brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) due to the great potential for real-life applications. However, in terms of designing a motor imagery-based BCI system, a lot of research in the literature either uses a frequency band of interest selected manually based on the visual analysis of EEG data or is set to a general broad band, causing performance degradation in classification. In this article, we propose a novel method of selecting subject and class specific frequency bands based on the analysis of a channel-frequency matrix, which we call a channel-frequency map. We operate the classification process for each frequency band individually, i.e., spatial filtering, feature extraction, and classification, and determine a class label for an input EEG by considering the outputs from multiple classifiers together at the end. From our experiments on a public dataset of BCI Competition IV (2008) II-a that includes four motor imagery tasks from nine subjects, the proposed algorithm outperformed the common spatial pattern (CSP) algorithm in a broad band and a filter bank CSP algorithm on average in terms of cross-validation and session-to-session transfer rate. Furthermore, a considerable increase of classification accuracy has been achieved for certain subjects. We also would like to note that the proposed data-driven frequency bands selection method is applicable to other kinds of single-trial EEG classifications that are based on modulations of brain rhythms, by no means limited to motor imagery-based BCI applications. 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 21, 123130, 2011

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

frequency bands selection
motor imagery classification

brain-computer interface
erd/ers
electroencephalography